March 6, 2019

When the United States Congress finally caved to pressures from temperance groups and passed the 18th Amendment in 1920, the country went dry. Alcohol produc...

March 1, 2019

1839: The flag of the Republic of Texas, the 'Lone Star' state was admitted to the Union in 1845. Source: (Photo by MPI/Getty Images) Today, it seems strange to think that Texas could st...

February 25, 2019

On May 3, 1916, Suffragettes carry a banner announcing that 'Women have full suffrage in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho' at the Women of all Nations Parade in New ...

February 23, 2019

Many Native Americans helped to shape the history of the United States. Some of them lost their land as well as their heritage while others thrived and beca...

February 21, 2019

Finally, in 2015, more than 90 years after it was first published, the song everyone sings before blowing out their birthday candles, the ditty “Happy Bi...

February 13, 2019

Gregory Peck in a scene from the 1956 movie “Moby Dick'' Source: (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images) In 1851, Herman Melville published hi...

February 10, 2019

Fugitive slaves fleeing from Maryland to Delaware by way of the 'Underground Railroad', 1850-1851. Engraving. Source: (Photo 12/UIG via Getty Images) Slavery, in any form, is an abomination of...

February 8, 2019

We might not think that a common, household object like a blanket could have an impact on history, but that has happened with the iconic Hudson’s Bay point b...

January 25, 2019

We all remember the children’s nursery rhyme about Little Jack Horner. It’s the about the little boy who sticks his thumb into a pie and pulls out a plum. Pl...

December 10, 2018

Patrons walk among the canons and an American flag flown at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD on September 9, 2014, the 200th anniversary of the Star-Spangled Banner. (Photo by Lin...

December 9, 2018

Ten of the twelve vortices/image from pinterest In 1972, Ivan T. Sanderson, a Scottish biologist who founded the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained, published an art...

November 5, 2018

For ancient explorers, sailors, and navigators, knowing which way to go was a challenge. The very first sailors used the sun and the stars to help them find their way to their destin...

November 4, 2018

The RMS Titanic sank early in the morning of April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg only four days into their voyage. Only 710 passengers out of 2,224 people on board survived. Here are just a...

November 1, 2018

Visitors of the Mayflower II in Plymouth. (Photo by Essdras M Suarez/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) As kids, we learned about the Mayflower at an early age. It was, in fact...

September 24, 2018

Drivers wait in the drive-thru line at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Alhambra, California. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. B...

September 23, 2018

What baby boomers would refer to as having a “blast” would be perceived as “boring” to today’s generation. Yesterday’s culture looked quite different than ours does today. The forms of entertainment ...

September 21, 2018

American silversmith, engraver, and Revolutionary patriot, Paul Revere (1735-1818), on his famous ride spreading the alarm that the Royal troops were advancin...

September 16, 2018

An abandoned house, damaged by Hurricane Katrina, in the eerie glow of streetlamps is seen in the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans on August 15, 2015. AFP PHOTO / LEE CELANO ...

September 15, 2018

A robot waiter stands in a restaurant at Huangpu District on July 3, 2016 in Shanghai, China. The robot waiter is used to deliver food to customers, and it can play welcoming words and music. (Phot...

September 12, 2018

Sunset over Lake Michigan with lighthouse (Photo by: Digital Light Source/UIG via Getty Images) The Bermuda Triangle has cemented its status as one of the most mysterious...

September 10, 2018

There was much hype and anticipation when Disney announced that it would release a Polynesian-based feature-length animated movie, called Moana, in 2016. Th...

August 8, 2018

We’ve grown up hearing people say “it’s a fact” about something or other, we’ve even been taught certain “facts” in school. However, a fact is a fact until disproved or until someone disco...

July 25, 2018

If you think about it, the future that is, it’s not hard to come up with something so “out there” as a possible futuristic invention. In fact, the more ridiculous it sounds to us at t...

June 28, 2018

Birth control didn’t start with The Pill in 1960. In fact, women have sought out ways to control their own fertility since the antiquity. Today’s generation o...

October 30, 2017

The United States once planned on shooting a nuclear bomb at the moon. If you presumed that the reasoning behind such an act was “because we can,” you are absolut...

October 10, 2017

Most believe it is due to the limited technology at the time to capture a smile - exposure times were long and so it was easier to hold a serious expression over a long ...

September 9, 2017

From dinosaurs to large flying birds, the world was once ruled by large creatures. Luckily, some of them are still with us today, and their sheer size never fail to captivate us....

August 3, 2017

What we were taught in school was only the tip of the historical iceberg. Here are 10 facts from history they never taught you in school...

June 28, 2017

The US dollar bill has been redesigned many times over the years; the version you see now was finalized in 1963. But what do all of the different symbols on the U...

April 20, 2017

History can be a tricky subject, especially when you are trying to accurately portray significant events. Nobody is alive to confirm firsthand whether certain eve...

April 17, 2017

The hollow trunk of this 650-year-old oak tree was used as a hideout by two Jewish brothers during World War II. In Wisniowa, Poland, there is an English oak tre...

April 16, 2017

Since the Constitution was put into operation on March 4, 1789, 33 amendments to the United States Constitution have been proposed by the U.S. Congress and sent to the states for ratifi...

April 11, 2017

In Herodutus’ discussion of the Persians, he wrote (Book I, chapter 133) that they decide upon important issues by first getting drunk. Once drunk, they start the...

April 7, 2017

One fateful day in September, 1984, a woman stood in front of the Taco Time salsa bar in The Dalles, Oregon, holding a small plastic bag filled with a brownish sl...

March 29, 2017

Have you ever wondered where names of things or words we regularly use came from? Here are 13 things named after people (some of them actually did not even invent them): ...

March 10, 2017

The landscape of Socotra Island has a view that looks as if it was derived from a sci-fi film but in reality, it has evolved to appear like the 'lost world' island has...

March 7, 2017

Take a look at these 13 giant companies and their modest beginnings. Some discovered their niche and instantly dominated the industry during their launch, while others needed to a...

March 4, 2017

A medieval castle is not just a huge glamorous palace with hefty stone walls surrounding it -- it's more than that. It's an architecture that was entirely designe...

March 3, 2017

One clear afternoon in Sylacauga, Alabama, Ann Hodges was napping on her couch. It was 1954. She was resting and covered by quilts, when all of a sudden, a softball-size h...

March 2, 2017

The first ruler of the Swedish Munsö dynasty, Bjorn (Björn Järnsida in Swedish) was a well-known legendary king of Sweden who lived sometime during the 9th centur...

February 21, 2017

The Armillaria ostoyae, more popularly known as the honey mushroom, began from a single spore too tiny to be seen by the naked eye. It has been entwining its blac...

February 17, 2017

Enjoy these insider information...

February 6, 2017

Dr. James Naismith is known world-wide as the inventor of basketball. He was born in 1861 in Ramsay township, near Almonte, Ontario, Canada. The concept of basketball ...

February 6, 2017

In 1896, the United States released the Educational Series of silver certificates, a series of currency depicting three allegorical motifs that would become some of the...

February 5, 2017

The layout of the stars was officially standardized in 1912, while the colors were standardized in 1934. Starting in 1818, the new flags were introduced on July 4...

February 3, 2017

Foot binding was a custom practiced on young females for approximately one thousand years in China, from the tenth century until the early twentieth century. Wome...

January 31, 2017

Where do they keep the Charters of Freedom, which is the collective name for the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, when ...

January 31, 2017

Located in Sequoia National Park is an astounding natural wonder, the President Tree, stands at 247-feet tall and a several thousand years old. This incredible tr...

January 19, 2017

Probably unheard-of --- January 4th is National Trivia Day! Celebrate by engaging with some of these fun facts from Mental Floss into conversation. ...

January 16, 2017

In 1536, these three cages, used to hold the dismembered remnants of opposing religious leaders in the region, still hang on St. Lambert’s Cathedral in Münster, Germany The ...

January 6, 2017

Cost of living is the amount of money necessary to maintain a certain standard of living, basic expenditures included such as housing, food, taxes and health care. Take a l...

December 31, 2016

Portland Castle is an artillery fort constructed during the time of Henry VIII on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, in the early 1540s. The two-storey keep was buil...

December 29, 2016

Planted in 1625, this bonsai tree is currently 391-years-old and has survived the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. The tree belonged to the Yamaki family, who in...

December 28, 2016

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The pr...

December 21, 2016

There are 195 countries in the world and here are some random facts about each one. Credit: Wendover Productions

December 5, 2016

Few people know that barbering (the simple practice of cutting hair on the scalp) and dentistry co-existed for many years. As far back as the Bronze Age (3500 BC) men...

November 25, 2016

Stephanie Kwolek is the chemist who invented Kevlar in 1965. She started working as a chemist in 1946 just to earn enough money to go to medical school, to fulfill her child...

November 15, 2016

On 30 June 1908, an huge explosion ripped through the air above a remote taiga forest in Siberia, near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river. The fireball is believed ...

November 12, 2016

This infographics, brought to you by wordpandit, defines the different types of governments and provides their brief description.

November 5, 2016

Tristan da Cunha is a tiny overseas territory of the United Kingdom, smack in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. The island has no airport. The only regular trans...

November 5, 2016

Some random facts about 7 US presidents...

November 4, 2016

Mathematics is all around us, and it has shaped our understanding of the world in countless ways. Here are ten equations that have shaped mathematics and human hi...

November 3, 2016

Did you know California was once a country? Credit: Top Lists

November 3, 2016

1958 Georgia: Nuclear Bomb Training Accident Nuclear Bombing training exercises were common during the 1950s, so it’s not entirely surprising for an accident to occ...

October 29, 2016

Every single ancient site discovered around world is shrouded in mystery as to how, when, and why they were built. Here are 10 of the most mysterious and intrigui...

October 27, 2016

This fascinating infographic from Jonkers Rare Books illustrates the unpublished titles of some of the most famous books of Western fiction, and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kam...

October 26, 2016

From alien theories to the rights of Egyptian women, here are 15 of the most surprising and myth-breaking facts about Ancient Egypt discovered these last few decades. H/T Planet Do...

October 15, 2016

There have been all forms of horrible torture and execution methods throughout history. One of the most brutal yet strangely elegant methods of execution in ancient Greece ca...

October 11, 2016

H/T 9gag

October 11, 2016

The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. It has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404-1438), and may ...

October 11, 2016

They could almost be mistaken for innocent trinkets, but these metal stamps were used to tattoo prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the early days of th...

October 8, 2016

H/T 9gag.com

October 5, 2016

Here are some bits of facts from different points in history we thought you'd enjoy...

October 3, 2016

Although he only ruled for two years – from 1483 to 1485 – Richard III stands out among his peers as one of the most famous (or infamous) Kings of England. King ...

October 3, 2016

October 1, 2016

October 1, 2016

Information about history of famous buildings across the centuries, dates and names of architects included, as well as less-known fascinating info. H/T Visually

September 30, 2016

The Science of Dogs blogged a series comparing your favorite dog breeds from the 1915 book "Dogs of All Nations" to their present counterparts. Many dogs have bee...

September 28, 2016

Coat of Arms are highly popular in the medieval period for Knights to use as a form of identification. They are still a matter of Civil Law in England and the use and dis...

September 27, 2016

If you've ever studied the skyline of Paris, you might have noticed that the central part of the city has virtually no tall buildings. Seems odd for a bustling Eu...