› added 8 months ago

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TIL after CIA agents John Downey and Richard Fecteau were captured in China, premier Zhou Enlai offered to release them if the US acknowledged them as agents. US secretary of state Dulles not only refused but also forbade others from cooperating, resulting in them being imprisoned for 20 years.

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j6wRM TIL That geckos harness the quantum energy of the vacuum of space to help them climb walls.
VBW6B TIL that before the Civil War there were 8,000 different kinds of money in circulation in the US - the same banknote had different value depending on location
ZwOB TIL A Stanford psych study showed that unnecessarily using big words actually makes you sound dumber
X0PXj TIL about George Catlin, a 19th century US lawyer who left his profession and traveled the West, living with over 50 indigenous tribes, learning about their cultures, and painting beautiful portraits of them.
pYx5e TIL that Martha Washington's portrait on the 1896 US one-dollar bill is the most recent time that a woman has been featured on US paper money