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TIL the world's oldest living clam, "Ming the clam", was accidentally killed when scientists tried to figure out how old it was. Upon inspection they found it was 507 years old, 100 years older than previously speculated.

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b9dvZ TIL of the ABC Islands bear, a unique subspecies of grizzly bear found on Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof islands in Southeast Alaska (known as the ABC islands) Isolated from the mainland these bears look similar to grizzlies but have a unique DNA structure that relates them brown and polar bears
K1Qa TIL on 9/11 the Boston Air Traffic Center bypassed the “hijacking protocol” and called directly NORAD’s North Eastern Air Defense Sector (NEADS). NEADS and First Air Force decided to “get permission later” and scramble jets. Boston Center was NEADS’ only source of information throughout the attack.
7rPx TIL Joe Strummer (frontman of The Clash) was pressured by his manager to go into hiding in France as a publicity stunt because their Scottish leg of the tour was selling slowly. Joe Strummer obliged but instead he “dicked around” in France and ran the Paris Marathon in April 1982.
kVMd TIL that the “real” Christopher Robin, of whom the “Winnie the Pooh” stories were inspired by, actually hated the books, and resented his father for writing them.
JWZk TIL middle names became a necessity during the middle ages because there were too many people with the same name and populations had risen exponentially, “The great cities on the planet earth were only a fraction of their size hundreds of years ago.”