I blew the top of a 555 once! I still remember peering into the whole in the top where I could still see bits of the die left. Most of it was gone! I never work

I blew the top of a 555 once! I still remember peering into the whole in the top where I could still see bits of the die left. Most of it was gone! I never worked out what happened and my teacher couldn't shed any light on it either. Fortunately the ejected packaging didn't hit me in the eye!