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Mental Floss
© Bettmann/CORBIS “We will not appear unless Negroes are allowed to sit anywhere,” The Beatles said in a press statement on September 6, 1964. Halfway through a 23-city U.S. tour, the group was looking ahead to their date at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonvill
Bill DeMain|
Bug image via Shutterstock It doesn’t happen to every single bug, but if you stumble upon an expired roach in the bathroom or a downed fly by the window, you’ll find that they’re frequently flat on their backs, legs in the air. It’s such a familiar death
Matt Soniak|
Installment #12: On April 14, 1912, at 11:40 p.m., the ocean liner RMS Titanic, en route from Queenstown, Ireland, to New York City, accidentally rammed an iceberg, tearing a series of holes in the side of the massive ship. The world’s largest ship was tr
Erik Sass|
From 1757 to 1775, Ben Franklin lived in an elegant four-story Georgian house at No. 36 Craven Street in London during his time as an ambassador for the American colonies. In late 1998, a group calling itself Friends of Benjamin Franklin House began to co
Matt Soniak|
In the final years of World War II, both the Allied and Axis Powers knew that there was no chance of defeating Hitler without cracking his grasp on Western Europe, and both sides knew that Northern France was the obvious target for an amphibious assault.
Matt Soniak|
Installment #11: In the years leading up the First World War, weapons technology advanced with such breathtaking speed that it became impossible to imagine what combat in the next war would actually look like. The first dreadnought battleship was built by
Erik Sass|
Map image via Shutterstock This isn't exactly what tourism bureaus want you to picture when you hear a town or region's name. 1. Guinea Worm A parasitic nematode several feet long, European explorers named it for the Guinea coast of West Africa in the 1
Calli Arcale|
© David Woo/Corbis Every American’s least favorite day of the year is just around the corner. In commiseration, here are some things you might not know about the income tax. 1. More People Think It’s Okay to Cheat Taxes are never popular, but recently t
Kathy Benjamin|
St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., provided mental health care services to members of the U.S. armed forces and District residents when it opened as the Government Hospital for the Insane in 1855. Founded by social reformer and mental health adv
Scott Allen|
See how many of these you recognize, and how many of them would puzzle your kids or grandkids.
Kara Kovalchik|
Humanity spent the last hundred years virtually eradicating some of the planet’s most unpleasant diseases. But some of them have started showing up again.
Kathy Benjamin|
Blood, sweat, tears? Classic bodily fluids. And then there’s mucus, spit, semen, and urine—well known to juvenile minds everywhere. But what else is oozing around inside you?
Maggie Ryan Sandford|
Ota Benga, a young Pygmy, spent part of September 1906 on display at what is now the Bronx Zoo. It wasn't the first time he had been exhibited as an oddity.
Bill DeMain|
When traveling across the United States, it sometimes feels like the locals are speaking a whole different language.
Haley Sweetland Edwards|
The sacred Christian holiday of Easter is celebrated in somewhat similar ways around the world, but there are some traditions from various regions that may be new to you.1. Baranek
Miss Cellania|
Many of us started out at jobs way down at the bottom of the food chain. Getting coffee and stuffing envelopes isn’t exactly a dream job for most people, but if you’re doing it now, take heart in the fact that these people started out as interns as well –
Stacy Conradt|
Fish normally are found in three places: in the wild water, in aquariums, and on our dinner plates. But fish can move from one of these worlds to another. Fish imported to eat or to keep as pets sometimes get into the local ecosystem, which is not their n
Miss Cellania|
Toilet image via Shutterstock File under "News to Me": you know that old story about how northern hemisphere toilets flush counter-clockwise, and southern hemisphere toilets (and buckets, drains, and such) flush clockwise, due to the Coriolis effect? I
Chris Higgins|
One way of gauging the popularity of a television series is by how many Peeps dioramas are constructed around them.
Miss Cellania|
At 1:10 a.m. on May 9, 1945, night owls in the USSR heard a radio report that Nazi Germany had officially surrendered to the Soviet Union. Less than 24 hours later, they faced another crisis: a lack of vodka.
the mag|
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