Friends since Dec. 31, 1969? Facebook memory glitch leads to confusion, amusement

Facebook users were greeted with an unusual glitch Thursday morning that asserted many people had been "friends" for exactly 46 years, even though some of them hadn't been born yet, and none of them were on Facebook in 1969.

The seemingly harmless error can be seen as part of the Facebook Memories feature, which shows users what they were doing on Facebook on each day in previous years. (If you've never used it, add Facebook's "On This Day" app).

One of the actions it keeps track of is the beginning of Facebook friendships. Normally, these friendship-iversaries are only a handful of years, as Facebook was launched in 2004.

Why might this be happening? There are several theories, but many are suggesting that it has to do with a common Unix bug, Tech Insider explains. Date errors in a database, such as the start of Facebook friendships that weren't recorded properly, default to, you guessed it, Jan. 1, 1970 GMT, which adjusted for timezone changes, might explain the Dec. 31, 1969 date people are seeing today.

As of Thursday morning, Facebook had not publicly commented or fixed the glitch.

Here's what it looked like on Facebook's site, with a circle added to highlight the hiccup.