Keith Johnston

J. Bruce Ismay’s life was changed in an instant. At 1:40 a.m. on April 15, 1912, sporting pajamas under a suit and topcoat, with slippers on his feet, the chair

People have come up with a range of ingenious, harebrained, and sometimes grim but often remarkable ways to stay cool during a summer scorcher.

Québec slang, as heard in Montréal and elsewhere, is a remarkable 'méli-mélo' (hodgepodge) of ancient French, more recent borrowings from Arabic- and Haitian Creole-speaking communities, and English loanwords.

How’s your hose? If the question is confusing—or sounds like someone is trying to sell you gardening equipment—you might not be up on your baseball slang. “Ever

Many Victorian Christmas traditions inspired our holiday rituals today. But some odd ones, like playing snap-dragon and other dangerous parlor games, are no longer common.

If you’re a fan of the TV show 'Peaky Blinders,' you already know that historical gangs could get very creative with their names. Here’s how 11 other creatively-named gangs came up with their monikers.

Over the years, your tax dollars have gone toward Osama bin Laden action figures, reconnaissance pigeons, psychedelic drugs, and some homemade porn.

Despite its reputation as a learned language of science, religion, and philosophy, ancient Latin was in fact a rough-and-ready language full of strikingly frank insults designed to cut to the bone.