To Uncle John, the idea of running 26.2 all at once is quite absurd in and of itself. But there are some marathons out there that are truly running away from normal as fast as they can. The Great Wall Marathon Seeing the Great Wall of China is on many people’s “bucket list” of the […]
From Uncle John’s “dustbin of history” files, here’s the story of Garrett Morgan, a man who nearly a century ago invented a lot of stuff that’s still used today. The son of former slaves, Morgan was born in Kentucky but moved to Ohio while a teenager in the 1890s. He found work as a handyman, […]
Every year, the city of Boston gets its official municipal Christmas tree from the Canadian coastal city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Why? Because Boston helped when Halifax needed it the most. On Dec. 6, 1917, the Mont-Blanc, a cargo ship out of France was heading out from a stop in Halifax en route to Bordeaux, […]
In the days when smoking was a bigger part of American culture, matches were everywhere. Hotels and restaurants gave matchbooks away; people carried them in their pockets and purses. Well, you’ll never believe where the stuff in the match head came from. Blue Genie Ever heard of alchemy? It was a medieval “science” and philosophy, […]
It’s December, which means the holiday season, which means Bing Crosby on the radio, festive decorations in store windows, and jokes about fruitcake, the Christmas treat that’s simultaneously ubiquitous and that nobody seems to like. Here’s a slice of trivia about the much-maligned yuletide treat. The standard fruitcake, as it is today: a hard-as-a-rock, bread-like […]
Hobos were American migratory workers from a century ago. Some experts think the word hobo comes from “hoe boys,” what farmers in the 1880s called their seasonal migrant workers. It may also be shorthand for the phrase “homeward bound,” used to describe destitute Civil War veterans who took years to work their way home. If […]
Fact: Astronauts are the coolest. Proof: They’re trained pilots…and they’ve been to space. Amazing! Sadly, we’ve lost one of the first astronauts (he was one of the “Mercury 7”) and a true American hero in John Glenn. Astronaut Glenn Glenn is best known as the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, and fifth person […]
Since 1997, millions have tuned in weekly to the PBS series Antiques Roadshow to see what treasures lie hidden in America’s attics, pawn shops, and yard sales. Here are some of the most valuable items the show has ever discovered. A Navajo Blanket A man walked into a 2001 Antiques Roadshow taping in Tucson, Arizona, […]
December 8th is “Take it in the Ear Day,” one of those weird, silly “holidays” that float around the Internet. We don’t really know what this one is supposed to mean…so here are just some interesting facts about the ear and hearing. Your ear isn’t really your ear. Well, not totally. Medically speaking, your ear, […]
Three Things Named for Caesar Some namesakes of the Roman general Julius Caesar (100–44 B.C.)—or GAIVS IVLIVS CÆSAR, as it was spelled in his day. July Before Caesar, the Roman calendar year was too short and no longer synced with the seasons, so the Roman leader implemented the Julian calendar: For the first time, every […]
In 2016, Fox debuted a show called Pitch, a drama about the first female Major League Baseball player. It’s really not so far-fetched.
Uncle John knows pretty much everything—and if he doesn’t, he heads his massive research library, or puts one of his many associates on the case. So go ahead: In the comments below, ask Uncle John anything. (And if we answer your question sometime, we’ll send you a free book!) Why do poodles get their haircut […]
Two of the most famous curses in sports history are no more: The Boston Red Sox finally won a World Series in 2004, and the Chicago Cubs followed suit in 2016. That got us thinking: Are there any similar curses in pro football? The Curse of Bobby Layne Through the end of the 2015-16 NFL […]
What happens when a few brave warriors refuse to quit, even when the cause seems lost? Victory…or doom. SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT One of history’s greatest last stands took place in the 16th century when Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sought to expand his Ottoman Empire eastward into Europe. In 1552, after more than 30 years […]
What, like there aren’t enough holidays in December already? December 1: Eat a Red Apple Day This holiday was likely a marketing invention of some fruit packing company specializing in red apples. It’s the day to keep the doctor away by grabbing a crunchy—and red—apple like a Fuji or Red Delicious. Probably the worst thing […]
You probably remember the Cabbage Patch Kids frenzy of ’83, or the Tickle Me Elmo craze of ’96. But do you recall these other hot toys of yesteryear? 1934 A doll made in the likeness of extremely popular child star Shirley Temple was one of the first designed in the image of a celebrity, and […]
From the birth of cinema in the 1890s until the late 1940s, the standard film stock was made of a nitrate base, which is highly combustible. Plus, it disintegrates quickly if it’s not stored in a special low-oxygen, low-humidity, climate-controlled vault. Result: Hundreds of films are gone forever, including these: THE FAIRYLOGUE AND RADIO-PLAYS (1908). […]
Keep digging for answers, because these historical finds make zero sense. Cocaine in Ancient Egypt? How could Egyptian mummies—ranging from 800 to 3,000 years old—have traces of cocaine and tobacco in their hair, skin, and bones? Cocaine and tobacco come from plants that grew only in the still-undiscovered New World and weren’t accessible to Egyptians. […]
