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TIL that the X-100, the car JFK was killed while riding in, was not retired after his assassination. The X-100 was cleaned up and rebuilt with additional safety features, and wasn't taken out of service until 1977. Johnson, Ford, Nixon, and Carter all rode in the car too.

xbQb TIL in 1941 Harry Truman said “if Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don’t want to see Hitler victorious in any circumstances.”
Ovn7 TIL that the direction a ceiling fan spins matters: counterclockwise should be used in the summer to push air from the ceiling down to create a draft and clockwise should be used in the winter to push air up and to the walls to avoid a draft underneath the fan.
BRdk TIL in Chios, Greece each year a ‘fireworks war’ is held by two nearby towns, where the objective is to hit each others town bell.
nejZb TIL Australian doctor Barry Marshall was mocked by physicians of his time when he hypothesized that the bacterial species H. pylori can cause stomach ulcers. To prove his hypothesis, he drank cultured H. pylori and developed stomach ulcers as a result. He later received the Nobel Prize in 2005.
XEa1P TIL American mechanic Walter Hunt is regarded as the inventor of the safety pin that bears resemblance to those used today. The safety pin included a clasp that covered the point and kept it from opening, and a circular twist at the bend to act as a spring and hold it in place.