History
The United States pioneered a unique form of government—semi-autonomous states joined together under a central federal government. Plenty of other places around the world have since tried to emulate the idea, establishing their own “United States.” The United States of Belgium Between about 1500 and the early 1800s, Belgium was variously under the control of […]
Plenty of weird concepts make it to the Broadway stage, and maybe win some Tony Awards. Some musicals never make it to the Great White Way, because they were performed at corporate meetings and conferences in the 1960s to rile up salesmen to sell more of the company’s wares. The Bathrooms Are Coming! (American Standard, […]
In 1948 the Cleveland Indians won the World Series…and that’s the last time the city of Cleveland enjoyed a major sports championship, the longest drought in American sports.(It ends if the Cleveland Cavaliers win the 2015 NBA Finals.) Here’s a look at what life was like 67 years ago, when Cleveland ruled the sports world.
Remember when you could take the whole family to the movies for $20? Here are some other things that were cheaper in 1980.
After graduating with an agriculture degree from the University of Michigan in 1854, Julius Sterling Morton moved to a small settlement called Nebraska City in what would a few months later be called the Nebraska Territory. Morton faced a problem shared by many settlers in the territory: It was a treeless plain. That meant no trees for building materials, to burn for fuel, or to use as shade for crops. But Morton was one of the New World’s first “tree huggers,” stating, “We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.”
Napoleon Bonaparte served as the emperor of France twice and conquered a good chunk of Europe. When it came to rabbits, though, “Le Petit Caporal” was no match for ‘em.
Quick facts about the least-popular denomination of U.S. currency.
Republican senator Ted Cruz this week announced his candidacy for president—the first major declared candidate in the 2016 election. Here’s a look back at the early candidates in previous presidential election.
It makes very little sense why a very expensive, very shiny piece of jewelry, a bracelet studded and glimmering with diamonds would be named after tennis.
Disneyland and Disney World are home to more than just actors in stuffy costumes and thousands of exhausted families—there are “grim grinning ghosts” around, too.
For 14 years, the very strange (and stinky) Museum of Old Art and New Art in Tasmania has been freaking out visitors and locals.
As winter winds down, here are things you should know about the place where the season never quite ends.
Some people display their affection with a greeting card or a box of chocolates but these folks went to some pretty insane lengths to show how much they adored their sweeties.
Actually, they’re from the moon. And Neil Armstrong smuggled back these items that were recently discovered.
The Tower of Pisa isn’t the only building in the world that’s having a hard time keeping everything straight.
Some call London’s Battersea Power Station an eyesore but it’s been featured in tons of stuff, including several famous album covers. Here’s a quick rundown on its history…
It was recently announced that author Harper Lee would release a follow-up for To Kill a Mockingbird…55 years after the book’s release. Here are a few more long-delayed sequels.
Museums can be boring, but not when their employees really mess up.
King Tutankhamun’s burial mask is one of the most iconic artifacts in history. Its estimated value? Priceless. Alas, this wasn’t enough to stop five curators at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum from trying to fix it with a tube of cheap epoxy in January 2015. When the mask’s beard was knocked off by two employees replacing a ligh tbulb, their colleagues tried to glue it back on before the museum opened for the day. Worse yet, they later attempted to remove the dried epoxy with a spatula. The damages to 3,300-year-old artifact may be irreversible.
