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TIL that in the early '80s the CIA helped facilitate the widespread sale of cocaine in poor L.A. neighborhoods to help finance the covert war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The journalist who revealed this later killed himself after a smear campaign.

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doVQ TIL when Florence Henderson arrived to do her Brady Bunch screen test, there was no one on staff to do her make-up. She went over to the adjoining studio where Star Trek was filmed and ended up in a make-up chair surrounded by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and “six or eight space monsters”.
4XGxR TIL about Pan-Pan, an alternative distress signal to Mayday. It is used when the situation is urgent, but does not pose an imminent risk to life. Using Pan-Pan informs potential rescuers that there is a problem, but rescue isn't immediately required.
Brwxr TIL The historical Buddha is not known to have been obese. The "chubby Buddha" or "laughing Buddha" is a 10th-century Chinese folk hero by the name of Budai.
mxnmo TIL nobody under the age of 32 has ever experienced a cooler-than-average month
epmEJ TIL the Rockefeller Center tree is donated to Habitat for Humanity every year since 2007 to help build a home