› added 7 years ago

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TIL Bed Bugs almost went extinct. Before governments started banning it, DDT insecticide was the best bed bug killer available. It drove their numbers down to near extinction. Over time, populations of Bed Bugs began developing DDT resistance. Even if we started using DDT again, they're now immune.

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yVVpJ TIL Napoleon made Bavaria a kingdom, adopted his wife's non-noble niece, gave her a title and dowry, and got her engaged to a powerful prince, just so he could get his step-son to marry another powerful princess, who had been previously engaged to the prince
l7vE5 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.
grEnD TIL about The Linked Headstones of Het Oude Kerkhof. A husband and wife who could not be buried next to one another because he was Protestant and she was Catholic find a way to be symbolically with each other through a linked hands on their headstones.
BXeW TIL: The ‘Mad Men’ Writers Are Working on a Show About NASA in the '60s
WkyaL TIL in 1935, a con man was arrested for selling his victims a "currency copier", purportedly capable of reproducing $100 bills. The day before his trial, he fashioned sheets into a rope and slipped out the window, pretending to be a window washer as he shimmied down the building.