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Do You Know When Your State Was Founded? Find Out With This Interactive Map

See all 50 states in order from oldest to newest—and test your knowledge with a quiz.

12 Facts About the End of World War II

11 of the Most Famous People of 1985

6 Things You Might Not Know About Ice Cream Sandwiches

How Jen Pawol Became the First Female Umpire in MLB History

Pawol made history this weekend as the first woman behind home plate at a major league game. What took so long?
Jake Rossen|

How the Japanese City of Kokura Narrowly Avoided Nagasaki’s A-Bomb

Kokura was the original target, but avoiding the atomic bomb may have been more than just random chance.
Christopher Klein|

Quiz: It’s Almost Impossible to Put These Atomic Age Events in the Right Order

How well do you remember how history played out at the end of World War II?
Kat Long|

War

7 Retro Toys From the Atomic Age

From a dollhouse with a nuclear bunker to an atomic energy lab with real uranium, some of these toys from the ‘50s and ‘60s have us scratching our heads.
Kaeli Conforti|

Classroom Cold War: When Students Were Trained to “Duck and Cover”

The nuclear anxiety of the 1950s led to two unlikely strategies: ducking under school desks and taking advice from a cartoon turtle.
Jake Rossen|

How 12 ‘Enola Gay’ Crew Members Remember Dropping the Atomic Bomb

After dropping the atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, almost all of the 12 men aboard the ‘Enola Gay’ had something to say about it.
Miss Cellania|

12 Facts About the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Eighty years after the first—and only—deployment of atomic bombs, here’s a look back at one of history’s most devastating acts of war.
Colin Scanlon|

Why Do We Still See Fallout Shelter Signs?

Tens of thousands of fallout shelter signs, with three yellow triangles in a black circle, are visible on building façades today. They serve as grim reminders of the hottest flashes of the Cold War. So why are they still around?
Tim Brinkhof|

7 Close Calls in the Nuclear Age

Sometimes the military systems put in place to avert nuclear annihilation worked a little too well.
Floss books|

How 5 Influential People Responded to False Reports of Their Death

Some people made jokes; one person established the Nobel Prize.
Judith Samuel|

8 Forgotten Figures From the American Revolution

While their images might not be immortalized on dollar bills or their stories ingrained into every high school syllabus, these lesser-known figures nonetheless played critical roles in the shaping of the American Revolution.
Colin Scanlon|

Titanic

‘Violently Torn Apart’: 3D ‘Titanic’ Model Reveals New Details of the Ship’s End

A digital double promises fresh insight into the tragedy of the ‘Titanic.’
Jake Rossen|

Hershey’s Is the Latest Brand to Get a Movie Adaptation

‘Hershey’ will depict the life and times of the chocolate king.
Jake Rossen|

Why Do We Refer to Airplane and Ship Passengers as ‘Souls’?

Hearing the phrase ‘souls on board’ usually portends bad news. Why do we use it?
Jake Rossen|

Presidents

The Bizarre Free Love Cult That Housed a Presidential Assassin

John Humphrey Noyes wanted to build a heaven on Earth—but for Charles Guiteau, life at the Oneida Community was a living hell.

Ulysses S. Grant’s Great-Great-Grandson Is Alive—and Writing Erotic Vampire Novels

Can You Identify the President Based on Their Facial Hair?

47 Amazing Facts About All 45 American Presidents

Mystery

The Lost “Song of Wade”: A New Translation Decodes Fragment of Mysterious Medieval Tale

The medieval hero known as Wade was thought to have encountered elves in his adventures. But they might have been wolves instead.
Ellen Gutoskey|

6 Strange Maritime Mysteries

From the Bermuda Triangle to the ‘Mary Celeste,’ here are some of the most puzzling enigmas of the deep.
Claire Cock-Starkey|

The Murder of Rasputin: The Mystery That Won’t Die

Delve into the mystery surrounding the assassination of Grigori Rasputin, and see how the circumstances of his death have taken on a life of their own.
Andrew Lenoir|

The Quest to Break America’s Most Mysterious Code—And Find $60 Million in Buried Treasure

For the past century, the quest to break the Beale Ciphers has attracted the military, computer scientists, and conspiracy theorists. All have failed.
Lucas Reilly|

Philosophy

Quiz: Did Confucius Really Say That?

The Chinese philosopher and sage had a lot of wise things to say. But many of the quotes you've seen online were actually said by someone else. Can you tell them apart?
mentalfloss .com|

Who First Said “The Customer Is Always Right”?

The proverb that empowers rude shoppers has been going strong for over a century. Who’s to blame?
Jake Rossen|

8 Fascinating Facts about Alchemy

There’s more to this spooky pseudo-science than simply turning lead into gold.
Claire Cock-Starkey|

What 3 Famous Thinkers Said About the Meaning of Life

“What is the meaning of life?” is simultaneously one of the oldest questions in philosophy and a relatively new concept. Here’s what Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Albert Camus had to say on the matter.
Adam Penkin|

Knowledge Is Power: A Brief History of the Philosophical Phrase

It’s succinct enough to fit on a bumper sticker. But what did ‘knowledge is power’ originally mean?
Mark Peters|

Royalty

5 Ways Royals Shaped Fashion

Royals from Queen Victoria to Princess Diana have left their mark on the world of fashion.
Colin Scanlon|

The Reason Why Members of the Royal Family Must Always Travel With One All-Black Outfit

It all began in 1952 when then-Princess Elizabeth was caught without a black outfit when the circumstances called for one.
Ellen Gutoskey|

11 Surprising Facts About Windsor Castle

Over the past 900-plus years, more than 30 monarchs have called Windsor Castle home. It has also been the site of several royal weddings—including Prince Harry's 2018 nuptials to Meghan Markle.
Lucas Reilly|

King Tut

See Exact Replicas of King Tut’s Treasures in His Recreated Tomb

If you can’t make it to Egypt, head to Washington, D.C., where “Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures” puts visitors inside the artifact-stuffed rooms of King Tut’s tomb.

8 Fascinating Facts About Howard Carter

Can You Solve the 5 Brainteasers in This King Tut Puzzle?

15 Pharaonic Objects Buried in Tut's Tomb

hourglass in yellow

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