You’ve read Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying stories. You can quote “The Raven.” How well do you know the writer’s quirky sense of humor and code-cracking abilities, though? Let’s take a look at five things you might not know about the acclaimed author, who was born 202 years ago today.

1. He Was the Original Balloon Boy

You probably remember 2009’s infamous “Balloon Boy” hoax. Turns out the Heene family that perpetrated that fraud weren’t even being entirely original in their attention grabbing. They were actually cribbing from Poe.

In 1844 Poe cooked up a similar aviation hoax in the pages of the New York Sun. The horror master cranked out a phony news item describing how a Mr. Monck Mason had flown a balloon flying machine called Victoria from England to Sullivan’s Island, SC in just 75 hours. According to Poe’s story, the balloon had also hauled seven passengers across the ocean.

No balloonist had ever crossed the Atlantic before, so this story quickly became a huge deal. Complete transatlantic travel in just three days? How exciting! Readers actually queued up outside the Sun’s headquarters to get their mitts on a copy of the day’s historic paper.

Poe’s report on the balloon was chock full of technical details. He devoted a whole paragraph to explaining how the balloon was filled with coal gas rather than “the more expensive and inconvenient hydrogen.” He listed the balloon’s equipment, which included “cordage, barometers, telescopes, barrels containing provision for a fortnight, water-casks, cloaks, carpet-bags, and various other indispensable matters, including a coffee-warmer, contrived for warming coffee by means of slack-lime, so as to dispense altogether with fire, if it should be judged prudent to do so.” He also included hundreds of words of excerpts from the passengers’ journals.

The only catch to Poe’s story was that it was entirely fictitious. The Sun’s editors quickly wised up to Poe’s hoax, and two days later they posted an understated retraction that noted, “We are inclined to believe that the intelligence is erroneous.”

2. He Dabbled in Cryptography

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Winston Churchill had one of the most immediately recognizable faces of the 20th century, and you probably know all about his triumphs as a statesman and orator. Let’s take a look at five things you may not know about him, including how his mom tried to bribe him to give up smoking.

1. He May Have Masterminded a UFO Cover-Up

During World War II, a squadron of Royal Air Force bombers had what they believed was an encounter with an alien spacecraft during a flight. While flying along the British coast near Cumbria after a bombing raid, a crew claimed that a hovering metal disc had silently shadowed their plane’s movements, and they even snapped pictures of it.
When Churchill heard these reports, he sprang into action and ordered that the story be kept secret for at least 50 years. Churchill was understandably concerned about sparking a mass panic when World War II was already raging, and he further worried that spotting an alien would shake peoples’ religious beliefs at a time when they needed their faith to help deal with the war.

2. He Was an Honest Pedestrian

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His name may not ring any bells, but if you were born after 1970, chances are Nolan Bushnell had a hand in shaping your childhood. Let’s take a look at five things you might not know about this inventive businessman.

© Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS (1985)

1. He Invented Pong

Yep, Bushnell’s the man behind the video game revolution. He first debuted Pong, which he developed with Allan Alcorn, as an arcade game at a Sunnyvale, CA, bar in 1971, and tavern patrons loved it. In fact, the machine was so popular that first night that it broke down when its coin receptacle became overloaded.

That’s not to say Pong was an immediate success on all fronts, though. When Bushnell took the first consumer version of Pong to a toy show, he moved a whopping total of zero units. Bushnell later reminisced, “One of the most successful consumer products of the time, and we sold none…. Innovation is hard.”

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Sculptor and architect Maya Lin is best known for her design of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, D.C., but modern viewers may not know about her rise to prominence and the subsequent controversy. Let’s take a look at five interesting facts about the architect from Athens, Ohio.

1. She Had an Early Start

Lin’s design has become so celebrated that it’s easy to forget how young she was when she first proposed it. The national contest to design a Vietnam memorial drew 1,421 entries, including such oddball suggestions as a steel soldier’s helmet the size of a house, but in the end, Lin’s granite wall won the competition. She wasn’t a seasoned architect and sculptor, though; when Lin won she was still a 21-year-old senior at Yale.

Although the victory obviously kick-started Lin’s career, it also led to some awkward situations. Lin had originally designed the monument as a project for a class on funerary architecture with Professor Andrus Burr. Burr had submitted his own design in the memorial competition but lost out to Lin. It’s often reported that Burr gave Lin’s design a B+, but the professor claims she received an A (but she received a B+ for his course).

2. She Had Her Share of Critics

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You probably know Henry Kissinger as a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. Let’s take a look at five things you might not know about the German-born political scientist and diplomat (pictured above with Pele in the Giants Stadium locker room before a New York Cosmos game in 1977).

1. Mao Tried to Give Him a Lot of Ladies

In 1973 Kissinger was engaged in a discussion of trade with Mao Zedong when the chairman abruptly changed the subject by saying, “We (China) don’t have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands.”

Kissinger sidestepped this bizarre offer and changed the subject, but Mao later returned to the subject by jokingly asking, “Do you want our Chinese women? We can give you 10 million.”

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Legendary jazz musician Dave Brubeck may be approaching his 90^th birthday, but he still occasionally sits down at his piano for a crowd. Let’s take a look at five things you might not know about the Kennedy Center Honoree, jazz standards composer, and leader of the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Image credit: Katie Falkenberg/The Washington Times

1. His College Degree Came With a Catch

Brubeck enrolled at what’s now University of the Pacific in 1938 with plans to study veterinary medicine. He eventually switched his major to music, though, and he tore through his classes until he had to enroll in keyboard instruction his senior year. At that point, Brubeck had to admit to his professor that he couldn’t read a single note of music, even though he played jazz as well as anyone.

Brubeck’s professor and dean informed him that they couldn’t let a student graduate with a music degree if he couldn’t read music. Brubeck shrugged off their worries by saying he didn’t care about reading music; he just wanted to play jazz. Brubeck’s other teachers protested that he was a very gifted musician even if he couldn’t read music, so the dean cut a deal with the jazz man: Brubeck could graduate, but only if he promised never to teach music and embarrass the school by revealing his shortcoming. Brubeck later laughingly told the website JazzWax, “I kept that promise ever since, even when I was starving.”

2. He Narrowly Avoided the Battle of the Bulge

Brubeck served under General George Patton during World War II, and he nearly fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Before his unit was sent to the front lines, though, Brubeck and his fellow soldiers got a visit from a Red Cross show. The show needed volunteer pianists, and Brubeck signed up. He tickled the keys so dazzlingly that the Army pulled him out of his unit so he could form a jazz band to entertain the troops. He spent the rest of the war touring various camps with no fewer than three liberated pianos and an integrated band known as the Wolfpack.

3. He Was a Jazzy Diplomat

From the 1950s on, the Dave Brubeck Quartet toured the world on behalf of the State Department. Brubeck and his bandmates cultivated jazz fans in unlikely places such as Turkey, Iraq, and Pakistan. (more…)

Cher’s done a little bit of everything. She’s blown up the pop charts, hosted a hit variety show, and even won an Oscar. Let’s take a look at five things you might not know about the woman who was born Cherilyn Sarkisian.

1. She Sang on More Famous Songs Than You Think

Before she struck out as a solo artist and worked with Sonny Bono, both Sonny and Cher worked for Phil Spector. Bono later described his job as “a general flunky for Phillip.” Both also sang backup vocals when Spector needed session singers, so Cher’s pipes are somewhere in a number of Spector’s biggest hits. She sang backup on the Crystals’ “Da Do Ron Ron,” the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” Listen closely and see if you can hear her.

Spector actually produced Cher’s first solo single, a commercial flop called “Ringo, I Love You.” Don’t look for it under Cher’s name, though. She released the record under the name Bonnie Jo Mason. Have a listen:

2. She’s Not Much on Acceptance Speeches

In 1988 Cher won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck. When Cher went on stage to receive her Oscar, she gave a big shout-out to her hair and makeup artist…but forgot to thank her director, Jewison. (more…)

You know that John Tyler took over the presidency when William Henry Harrison died in 1841, but what else do you know about “Tyler Too”? Here are five things about our tenth president you might find interesting.

1. He Set Up Presidential Succession as We Know It

You probably remember from history class that Tyler ran for the vice-presidency with William Henry Harrison on the “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!” slogan. You probably also remember that Old Tippecanoe lasted about a month in office before succumbing to an illness. Harrison’s death brought up an odd situation for the federal government. For the first time ever, a President had died in office, and it wasn’t entirely clear how the succession situation would play out.

Amid the confusion, Tyler declared that he had full presidential powers. He arranged to be sworn in and gave an inaugural address while downplaying any talk of being a “temporary” President. Although opponents dubbed Tyler “His Accidency,” his rise to power would set the basic standard for presidential succession that would eventually be formalized in 1967 with the 25th amendment. Tyler’s plan wasn’t exactly the same as the one we have now, though; he spent the rest of his term without a vice president.

2. He Wasn’t So Popular

When you’ve got a nickname like “His Accidency,” you’re already working behind the 8-ball as a politician. (more…)

Football teams around the country are furiously training for the upcoming season, so this week let’s take a look at five things you may not know about the man whose name has been synonymous with pigskin action for generations of boys, Glenn Scobey “Pop” Warner.

1. He Was Originally a Lawyer

Although Warner played football for Cornell from 1892 to 1894, he didn’t think of turning the sport into a job. (He did, however, get a lifelong nickname from his teammates, who called him “Pop” because he was a few years older than the rest of the roster.) When Warner graduated from Cornell, he moved to western New York and began working as a lawyer.

The legal profession didn’t suit Warner, though, and he quickly left the field to take a job as the football coach at Iowa State. By 1895 he was the head coach at Georgia. Over the course of his 44-year career as a head coach, Warner also helmed teams for Cornell, Pitt, Stanford, Temple, and Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a Native American school in Carlisle, PA.

The Indians’ football program was only active from 1893 to 1917, but Carlisle’s .647 winning percentage is still the highest of any defunct college football team. Warner later called the Carlisle job “the easiest coaching assignment I ever had.” He continued, “Those Indians were natural athletes, and their powers of observation remarkably keen. The younger players watched the older ones and caught on quickly. I never had to teach them much.”

2. He Invented a Lot of Football’s Staples

You may know that Warner innovated a number of football basics, but it’s amazing just how many of Warner’s ideas we now take for granted. (more…)

Ian Fleming is best known for his terrific series of twelve novels and two short story collections detailing the adventures of British spy James Bond, and he also wrote the children’s classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Let’s take a look at five things you might not know about the author.

1. He Had a Lot in Common with Bond

Fleming was no Double-0 agent, but he wasn’t a total slouch, either. During World War II he worked as an assistant to the Royal Navy’s Director of Naval Intelligence, and he eventually rose to the rank of Commander, just like Bond.

Fleming wasn’t just working in back rooms, though. He hatched a plan for a complex mission called Operation Ruthless that was aimed at capturing a German naval Enigma code machine. The basic gist of Fleming’s plan was this: the Royal Air Force would capture a German bomber, staff it with a German-speaking British crew, and stage a crash in the English Channel. When the Nazi rescue boat arrived, the “German” flight team would kill the ship’s crew and sail it back to England.

Fleming actually took a crew to Dover to wait for an opportunity to try this plan in 1940, but the operation fell through when logistical concerns over finding the right ship to commandeer and floating a stolen German bomber in the channel proved too complicated.

2. JFK Was a Fan

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