Boston Marriages: Two Healthy Unmarried Women Cohabiting Legally
Victorian Era | February 14, 2020
With so many Elizabeths and Darcys running around over the years, you’ve likely heard that "it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in...
Giri Choco: On Valentine's Day, Japanese Women 'Traditionally' Give Chocolate To Male Coworkers
Recent History | February 13, 2020
Women buy boxes of chocolates as gifts before Valentine's Day at a Tokyo department store. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP via Getty I...
Mary Shelley Kept Her Husband's Heart After His Death And Other Stories You Maybe Don't Know
People | February 12, 2020
One of the earliest masters of horror, Mary Shelley wasn't just dabbling in the dark when she wrote one of the most important an...
Saint Valentine: The Patron Saint Of Bees, Fainting, And The Actual Plague
People | February 11, 2020
Valentine ministered to persecuted Christians in the third century. Colored engraving, Italy, 1886. (Photo by Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images). ...
Vinegar Valentines: 19th Century's Insulting, Anonymous Card-Sending Trend
Artifacts | February 10, 2020
If you're lucky enough to have a special someone in your life, there's nothing better than giving or receiving a Valentine. Who doesn't like to kn...
Delphine LaLaurie: New Orleans's Famously Sadistic Slave Owner
People | February 9, 2020
New Orleans is full of ghost stories, but the most haunting tale is that of Delphine LaLaurie, a mad slave owner who tortured the men and women in her employ....
Mary Queen of Scots: Stories, Trivia, And A Botched Beheading
People | February 8, 2020
When King James V of Scotland died at the ripe age of 30 (hey, it was ripe for medieval times), his kingdom was in a bit of a pickle. His only surviving l...
1904 Baltimore Fire: 80 Blocks Burned And Lessons Learned
Events | February 7, 2020
Men hurry on the street as they work to demolish buildings during the Baltimore fire, 1904. The leveling of the buildings by dynamite was a desperate attempt to ...
Elizabeth II: Stories And Facts You Maybe Didn't Know Quite Yet
People | February 6, 2020
Elizabeth II became queen on February 6, 1952, although she had to wait until June for her official coronation ceremony. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Imag...
Jesus Christ Was A Shape-Shifter, According To This Ancient Egyptian Text
Artifacts | February 5, 2020
You know Jesus, right? Son of God, born in Bethlehem, great with fish, and wine for blood? He was a good guy who could do a lot of cool stuff. Acco...
The Doomsday Clock: What Does It Mean? How Doomed Are We?
Artifacts | February 4, 2020
We hear a lot about the Doomsday Clock ticking closer and closer to "midnight," which is when we're all doomed, but what does that really mean? During the Cold War...
Vlad The Impaler: Real-Life Dracula's Most Monstrous Acts
People | February 3, 2020
You could say Vlad the Imapler was a bad guy. After all, you don't get to be immortalized as a bloodthirsty monster if you're Mr. Congeniality. Not only did Vlad I...
The Origins Of Groundhog Day: Why Do We Celebrate It Again, Exactly?
Events | February 2, 2020
On February 2, all eyes look to a particular rodent in Pennsylvania to see if he can predict the coming weather better than the television meteorol...
Clark Gable: Hitler, Bugs Bunny, And More Stories You've Never Heard
People | February 1, 2020
Happy birthday to Clark Gable! The uber-masculine heartthrob of the Golden Age of Hollywood was born on this day in 1901. This birthday boy lit up ...
Guy Fawkes: The Man, The Myth, The Mask
People | January 31, 2020
A man with a Guy Fawkes mask during a protest. (Photo by Giorgos Georgiou/NurPhoto via Getty Images) In recent years, we've come to know Guy Fawkes more for his dashing, mustach...
The Assassination Of Mahatma Gandhi: Why, How, And Who
Events | January 30, 2020
After a lifetime of advocating for nonviolence, Mahatma Gandhi was gunned down by Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948. His assassination ripped through the peace commu...
The Many Men Of Elizabeth Taylor
People | January 29, 2020
What comes to mind when you see the name Elizabeth Taylor? Is it Cleopatra? Her humanitarian work? Or is it her stature as the queen of divorce? In 1951, before she was 20 years old, this ...
The Six Wives Of King Henry VIII
People | January 28, 2020
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived: A morbid rhyme indeed, but useful if you want to keep up with the lives and fates of the six wives of Henry VIII. While his reign wa...
J.D. Salinger Was Basically Holden Caulfield
People | January 27, 2020
J.D. Salinger wrote Catcher in the Rye in 1951 and then spent the rest of his life running away from its central character, Holden Caulfield. He didn't want to talk about the b...
The Legend Of The Green Man: Raymond Robinson Had No Face, Friends
1900s | January 26, 2020
Have you heard the one about Green Man? You know, the guy without a face who walks the highway at night? Supposedly, he fell into a vat of acid, but some ...
Jack The Baboon Operated A Railway, Earned A Salary, And Never Made Mistakes
People | January 25, 2020
Anyone passing through Cape Town, South Africa on the Port Elizabeth Mainline Railroad in the late 1800s saw something curious along the railway...
Rasputin's Daughter Literally Ran Away And Joined The Circus
People | January 24, 2020
Imagine this scenario: Your father is a high-profile mystic, purported to be impossible to kill. Your friends are empresses. Not what most people consider ...
Ancient Mesoamericans Invented Rubber 3,000 Years Before Goodyear
Ancient History | January 23, 2020
Rubber played a big part in the traditional Mesoamerican ballgame, which was played by many civilizations in Mesoamerica. (Photo by Alex Peña/LatinConten...
The Unabomber's Manifesto Totally Nailed Our Addiction To Technology
1990s | January 22, 2020
Industrial Society and Its Future: More than just a catchy title From 1978 to 1996, Ted Kaczynski (better known as the "Unabomber") went on a reign...
The Making Of A Mad Monk: How Rasputin Went From A Peasant To Advisor Of The Romanovs
People | January 21, 2020
Grigorj Rasputin, Russia's Mad Monk and mystic. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images) Known as "the Mad Monk," Grigori Rasputin was a ...
When The U.S. Government Poisoned The Alcohol Supply During Prohibition
1920s | January 20, 2020
The Prohibition Party was hemming and hawing about alcohol consumption for years before they got their way in 1919 with the passage of the 18th Amend...
Edgar Allan Poe And His Adoptive Father Feuded For His Entire Life
People | January 19, 2020
Closeups of a very old book by Edgar A. Poe. (Photo by Herbert Gehr/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images) One of the best-known American write...
Winnie Was A Real Bear: A. A. Milne's Inspirations
People | January 18, 2020
Winnie the Pooh is one of the most beloved children’s literary characters in history. Along with his pals Piglet, Tigger, Owl, Eeyore, and Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh ha...
Brink's Building Robbery: The Heist That Tore A Gang Apart
1950s | January 17, 2020
The Brink's building heist of 1950 is one of the most daring robberies of the 20th century. Like something from a movie, the robbery itself went off without a hit...
Whisky A Go Go: The Whisky Opened Today In 1964
1960s | January 16, 2020
Standing proud on the Sunset Strip is one of the most renowned rock clubs in history, the Whisky a Go Go. Opened in 1964, the club has played host to some of music's most im...
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