› added 9 years ago

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TIL Volvo invented the modern seatbelt in 1959. To save lives, they decided to make it an “open patent,” allowing other manufacturers to use the same design. Every car produced today uses this mechanism, considered one of the major safety inventions of the 20th century, saving over 1M lives.

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KOLmG TIL the Olympic tradition of running the torch from Olympia to the host city first started at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
16JPX TIL about Robert Williams - His death, although an industrial accident, is considered to be the first known instance of a human to be killed by a robot.
nEX7 TIL: Women were excluded from the White House Correspondents Dinner until 1962, when JFK threatened to boycott unless they were allowed in.
JY4LV TIL Frances Clayton (nee’ Clalin) disguised herself as a man to fight Union side in the Civil War in April 1862. She went by the name Jack Williams. Her husband died fighting next to her in December 1862
R59BQ TIL there exist transport aircraft without ailerons for sake of short take off and landing capabilities. Instead, the entire trailing edge is lined with flaps and maneuvering is achieved using spoilers on top of the wing. One such example is the Mitsubishi MU-2