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75

TIL Cicadas live underground for 17 years before coming out to mate

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oRPK8 TIL that after the American Revolution, British Sir Guy Carleton argued with George Washington who wanted Carleton to return American slaves that Carleton felt obliged to free. Carleton freed the slaves and promised that Britain would compensate the slave owners, but Britain never did.
0wyev TIL that the first alphabet in the world was semitic, and that all subsequent alphabets have either descended from this first Semitic alphabet, or have been inspired by one of its descendants.
N7PBM TIL that elephants are scared of bees even though a bee sting does not penetrate their hide
VBr6Z TIL in the 1980s, the networked ICON computer was commissioned by the Ontario, Canada Ministry of Education. Nicknamed the "bionic beaver", it ran on a Unix-like OS and featured a trackball. Subject to political debate for wasting money with a niche ecosystem, it was orphaned by 1994 and destroyed.
Brw5L TIL That the Apollo Missions (11 to 16), astronauts had trouble getting life insurance as no one would insure someone being in the high risk environment of Space, so they autographed some postal covers before they left Earth. On the chance they didn't come back, those items would be sold for money.