HISTORY

10 Electrifying Facts About Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday's formal schooling was limited, but his work as a bookbinder allowed him to learn about chemistry, physics, and a mysterious force called "electricity."

London's Trafalgar Square Gets a Poetry-Writing Red Lion

It eats visitor-suggested words and spits out poems.

10 Things You Might Not Know About the Battle of New Orleans

Here's everything you need to know about the last major engagement in the War of 1812.

Interactive Version of a Classic Color Manual Used By Charles Darwin Is Now Available Online

It lists the animals, plants, and minerals each color appears in.

How Lewis Keseberg Was Branded the Killer Cannibal of the Donner Party

According to rumors, he preferred human flesh to California beef.

Madelyn Pugh Davis, the “Girl Writer” Behind I Love Lucy

She tested most of the slapstick herself.

Newly Discovered Documents Reveal Details of William Shakespeare's Early Years, Based on His Father's Financial Fall

His father's grave debts probably influenced the Bard's writing on class and money.

Wellcome Images, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0

Endeavour, Captain Cook's Lost Ship, Might Have Been Found—Solving a Centuries-Old Mystery

But only a full excavation will prove its identity for sure.

British soldier, archaeologist, and explorer Percy Fawcett circa 1920

8 of the Most Intriguing Disappearances in History

It's usually hard to vanish without a trace, but these folks managed it.

14 Facts About International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! Let’s hoist the Jolly Roger, break out the rum, and look back at the holiday’s timber-shivering history.

There Could Be Hundreds of Frozen Corpses Buried Beneath Antarctica's Snow and Ice

Mummified penguins occasionally turn up, too.

Dolly Parton, They Might Be Giants, and More Featured on New Album Inspired By the 27 Amendments

Even the amendments most history books gloss over.

14 Surprising Facts About Boardwalk Empire

12. It was one of the most expensive series ever produced.

In 1938, The New York Times Thought Cheeseburgers Were a Weird New Food Fad

"At first, the combination of beef with cheese and tomatoes, which sometimes are used, may seem bizarre," the venerable newspaper concluded.

Ice Age Wolf Pup and Caribou Mummies Discovered in Yukon

Fur and all.

Highway Fidelity: When Cars Came With Record Players

In 1956, Chrysler introduced a record player that could be mounted under dashboards and promised that it would never skip. Common sense argued otherwise.

The Time 14 Cargo Ships Were Trapped in the Suez Canal ... for Eight Years

The ships moored together and formed a micronation. (It might as well have been an adult summer camp.)

How 15 Berlin Neighborhoods Got Their Names

The German capital's eight centuries of history show up in the names of its districts.

The British Codebreaker Who Convinced the U.S. to Join WWI

Could Texas ever be returned to Mexico? In 1917, Germany tried.

15 Star-Studded Facts About the Emmy Awards

3. Only six awards were handed out at the first ceremony, and one went to a ventriloquist.

Volkswagen Is Killing Off the Beetle—Again

Over its decades-long run, the Beetle became one of the most recognizable cars on the road, thanks in part to Disney, hippies, and Ted Bundy.

Michael Swigart, Flickr // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

15 U.S. Town and City Names With Unusual Backstories

While many towns in the U.S. were named after historical figures or nearby topographical phenomena, some monikers have origin stories that are a little more unusual.

12 Scrumdiddlyumptious Facts About Roald Dahl

A world without Roald Dahl would be a world without Oompa Loompas, Snozzcumbers, or Muggle-Wumps. And who would ever want to live in a world like that?

Author Roald Dahl with his then-wife, actress Patricia Neal.

9 Splendiferous Words from the Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary

The dictionary goes from aardvark to zozimus because "every dictionary has to start with aardvark; otherwise it would have to start with aback, which is just too boring."

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