Essential Facts About F.D.R.

March 13, 2022

Portrait of American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) as he sits behind the wheel of his car outside of his home in Hyde Park, New York, mid 1930s. (FPG/Getty Images) He Was...

Who Was Frida Kahlo?

March 7, 2022

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907–1954), wearing a folk costume and flowers in her hair, leans her head on her hand while lying in a hammock, c. 1950. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) She Wanted To Be...

November 21, 1902: The First Night Football Game

November 23, 2021

The Philadelphia Athletics of the 1902 National Football League. (Unknown author/Wikimedia Commons) Before the National Football League formed in 1920, American footbal...

1904: King C. Gillette Patents The Gillette Razor Blade

November 11, 2021

Gillette razor and packaging, circa 1930s. (IgniteSMA/Wikimedia Commons) King C. Gillette's parents must have had high hopes when they named him, and fortunately...

History Of Bologna, America’s Best-Loved Lunch Meat

October 24, 2021

In today's haute cuisine and foodie culture, it can be easy to dismiss the humble bologna sandwich as a product of a bygone era, but the history of bologna is the...

One Of The Deadliest Hurricanes In U.S. History Hits Galveston, Texas

September 10, 2021

Hurricanes may be getting stronger and more frequent, but some of the worst storms happened more than a century ago. In fact, the 1900 Galveston h...

The Assassination Of President William McKinley Led To The Creation Of The Secret Service

September 2, 2021

A horrified crowd looks on as Leon Czolgosz shoots President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York...

History Of The Radio Flyer: The Little Red Wagon That Defined Childhood

August 5, 2021

Bulldog Wilbur is pulled in a Radio Flyer Red Wagon to the dog run at Madison Square Park by his owner, Krista McGruder. (Robert Sabo/NY Daily News...

1904: The Worst Olympics Ever

July 27, 2021

Not every Olympics is a hit, but the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri really won the gold when it came to the worst games ever. To be fair, the Olympics as we know them today we...

How The Polio Vaccine Was Developed (And All The Hiccups Along The Way)

April 30, 2021

Child vaccinated with Dr. Salk’s vaccine against polio in 1956. (Jean-Pierre Grisel/RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images) Polio has plagued humans ...

How The New York City Subway Came To Be

April 14, 2021

The City Hall station of the I.R.T. Lexington Avenue Line, sometime between 1900 and 1904, part of the first underground line of the subway that opened on October 27, 1904. (Libra...

The History Of The Getaway Car And Where It Started

April 10, 2021

1912 Stanley steam car. (Stephen Foskett/Wikimedia Commons) Before the advent of the automobile, bank robbers, rustlers, and no-goodniks of all stripes fled the scen...

The First Barrel Ride Down Niagara Falls Happens In 1901

April 9, 2021

Annie Edson Taylor, first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive (cat in photo is likely the same cat that went over the falls in a test run). (L...

When A Shoemaker Convinced People To Kidnap A German Governor

March 10, 2021

German postage stamp commemorating Voigt released in 2006. (Carsten Wolff/Wikimedia Commons) There are people in the world who can convince anyone to do an...

Galveston Hurricane: The Deadliest Day In American History

December 14, 2020

Removing dead bodies to the barges for burial at sea. (NOAA Photo Library/Wikimedia Commons) September 8, 1900 became the deadliest day in American history wh...

1902 Mount Pelée Eruption: Volcano Kills 30,000 When Governor Decides Election Is More Important

November 9, 2020

In April of 1902 the Mount Pelee volcano on Martinique island erupted. (Carl Simon/United Archives/Universal Images Group...

Vladimir Lenin: Everything You Didn't Know About The Russian Revolutionary

October 21, 2020

Becoming Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born to a middle-class, well-educated family in Simbirsk, Russia on April 22, 1870. His f...