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TIL Australian PM Gough Whitlam was removed by a British-American coup for abolishing royal patronage, moving Australia towards the Non-Aligned Movement, supporting “zones of peace”, opposing nuclear weapons testing, and threatening to close a CIA espionage base in Australia

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rNw5y TIL Maple syrup heist is the most valuable heist in Canada in history, involving C$18.7M of syrup
GYdkg TIL the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer story idea was initially rejected, as in the 1930s red noses were associated with alcoholism and drunkards. The author asked an illustrator friend to draw "cute reindeer," and these drawings convinced management to support the idea.
0gWj TIL The Dutch swear with diseases. Instead of calling a person a ‘cunt,’ one may wish a horrible or deadly disease on you (i.e. cancer, TB, smallpox, etc.)
1admV TIL that in the early 1970s, the US and China engaged in "ping-pong diplomacy," in which players from each country would compete with each other at table tennis. This form of diplomacy was a key way of defusing Sino-American tensions, and led to Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972.
yQPE8 TIL that Aaron Burr went broke speculatively buying parcels of land in upstate New York. He did this while living on twenty-six acres in what would become some of downtown NYC's most prime real estate.