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TIL windshield wipers were originally invented by Mary Anderson in 1903. They were originally intended to be used for trolley cars, but she could not get any companies to use them. Cadillac began using the invention on cars in 1922 but she did not profit from the invention as the patent had expired.

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Z8l0D TIL that in 1987 during the development of "Smooth Criminal" Dr. Eric Chevlen recorded Michael Jackson's heartbeat and digitally processed it through a Synclavier, which would become the heartbeat you hear at the beginning of the song.
NXy6b TIL that the political terms "left-wing" and "right-wing" originated during the French Revolution. From the front of the Assembly, the aristocracy sat on the right side (or right wing) of the room, and the commoners sat on the left side (or left wing) of the room.
oB04o TIL The ghost town of Picher, Oklahoma was evacuated in 2009. The town was the center of a massive lead and zinc mining complex; the Army Corps of Engineers declared in 2006 that 86% of the town's structures were so undermined that they were in imminent danger of collapse.
b6JO4 TIL When Jane Elizabeth Manning James, an early black Mormon (LDS Church) member, died in 1908, then Church President Joseph Smith spoke at her funeral, where he declared that she would receive all her temple blessings in the eternities and become a "white and beautiful person."
4XM76 TIL about Samuel J. Seymour, a five-year-old boy who witnessed the Lincoln assassination. At 96 Seymour was a guest on the TV show I've Got a Secret. He didn't realize the president had been shot, but he felt bad for Booth, thinking Booth had fallen out of the box, when he jumped down to escape.