› added 12 years ago

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TIL the Western African gorilla’s scientific name is Gorilla gorilla, including a lowland subspecies named Gorilla gorilla gorilla

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16g47 TIL that the US Navy once retrieved a Soviet supersonic missile that had smashed into millions of pieces, none larger than 6 inches, from the sea floor and managed to reverse-engineer it.
DQgAJ TIL that in the late 1800s, religious activist and U.S. Postal Inspector Anthony Comstock destroyed more than 30,000 pounds of books, and influenced Congress to ban the sale of "obscene" books. The resulting law was so broadly applied that some medical textbooks became illegal.
pY0N4 TIL that the only place in the world where Japanese is an official language is Angaur, an island in Palau. Japan doesn’t have the de jure official language.
1GEX TIL that Ed Zahn accidentally aged a block of cheddar cheese for 40 years.
yyGM TIL on September 11, 1857, a wagon train heading through Utah toward California was attacked by a Mormon Militia. The militia had disguised themselves as Indians, but once it was suspected that their cover was blown, the Mormons feigned a truce and slaughtered 120 men, women, and children.