› added 5 years ago

116

TIL the oldest known living terrestrial animal in the world is a tortoise named Jonathon, aged 187. He is two years away from reaching the age of the all-time verified record holder for the world's oldest tortoise, according to Guinness World Records.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

wn76 TIL Buzz Aldrin punched a guy for accusing him of hoaxing the moon landing.
W7JLo TIL that Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in Space, was so inspired by Nichelle Nichols' portrayal of Lieutenant Uhura on Stark Trek that she began every shift of her 1992 Shuttle mission by radioing "Hailing Frequencies Open" as a tribute to the actress and her character.
MRdK TIL Dogs’ brains have gotten larger and they’ve have gotten smarter relative to cats largely because dogs are more social.
PJdw TIL the primitive immune system of a horseshoe crab makes them useful to humans. Every drug certified by the FDA must be tested using an extract from their blood cells. Their blood is worth ~$15,000 a quart. A horseshoe crab can be bled, returned to the ocean, and after time, can give blood again.
1aD7d TIL there is a restaurant in tiny Union CT that gives books away to every person that dines there.