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TIL The platypus was once considered to be a myth like Bigfoot or The Yeti

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yQKPl TIL When Male honey bees mate, their penises explode and they die. During the queen's nuptial flight, she'll mate with about a dozen partners and leave a trail of their dead, penisless corpses in her wake.
7pQx TIL: The premise for The Office (US TV series) documentary was how they handled the suicide of a co-worker mentioned in S2E8, which is also why Ryan the Temp was hired
4XevR TIL Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was challenged to a duel against James Laird. Clemens' marksmanship was so dreadful that his friend, Steve Gillis, shot off the head of a small bird before Laird arrived and told him that Clemens had shot it down. Thus, Laird retreated in fear and canceled the match.
EgVg7 TIL the second Rashidun caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, a senior companion and father-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, was assassinated by a Persian slave in 644 who stabbed him with a double-bladed dagger, apparently due to Umar's refusal to lift a daily tax imposed on the slave by his slave master.
RMOj TIL that Benjamin Franklin had an illegitimate son, who had an illegitimate son, who had an illegitimate son.