HISTORY

Take a Walk Down Vermeer's Real-Life Little Street

A Dutch historian rooted through tax records to discover where the famed artist painted the work.

The Time Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton Made a Movie Together

The playwright and the comedian didn't exactly hit it off.

Steam Train Maury, the Hobo King

He traveled thousands of miles, carried a stick topped with owl feathers, and was crowned “Grand Patriarch of the Hobos.”

36 Film History Firsts

All of Hollywood's most important milestones, from the first sound film to the first flushing toilet shown on screen.

Listen to Basketball Inventor James Naismith Discuss the Early Days of the Sport

The rare audio was recorded just months before Naismith's death.

25 Rock-Solid Facts About New Hampshire

19. "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils," lifelong New Hampshirite John Stark wrote to his fellow veterans in 1809.

Wellcome Trust, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 4.0

Fascinatingly Filthy: How Bad Science Saved Lives in Victorian London

London used to really stink—but cleaning it up made a world of difference in public health.

25 Things You Should Know About San Jose

23. It's home to the world's only life-size Monopoly board.

“The End Looks Farther Off”

Erik Sass is covering the events of the war exactly 100 years after they happened. This is the 217th installment in the series.

Stacy Conradt via Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Meet the Mount Rushmore Baseball Team

The men who crafted the memorial worked hard—but they also played hard.

The Theatrophone: The 19th-Century Version of Livestreaming

As usual, the Parisians got there way before you.

Brush Up On These 10 Facts About Blush

From ancient Egypt to contemporary Japan, learn more about the makeup's colorful history.

A Brief, Fur-Filled History of Cat Shows

The origins of feline animal pageants can be traced back to England.

This Super-Sweet Watermelon Has a Deadly History

People were literally dying to get their hands on a Bradford melon.

How Bathroom Stick-Figures Became Universal Symbols

Love them or hate them, we all know what these figures are supposed to mean.

Stills from the Lumière Brother's La Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon (1895-1896).

Watch 120 Years of Movies in 120 Seconds

December 28 marks the birth of modern moviegoing as we know it, as it was on this day in 1895 that Auguste and Louis Lumière mounted the world’s first commercial movie screening at Paris’s Grand Café.

From Goat Dung to Face Cream: The History of Morocco’s Argan Oil

Argan oil’s rise from local resource to world-wide sensation didn’t happen overnight.

The Strange Story of Gef The Talking Mongoose

In the 1930s, the Irving family claimed they were being haunted by a peculiar being: a bawdy talking mongoose called Gef.

25 Flashy Facts About Nevada

A few fascinating facts about the Silver State—on the house.

10 Surprising Early Versions of Santa Claus

Whether he's skinny, smoking, or sexy, see how Santa looked before he became the jolly, rotund elf we know today.

11 Booze-Soaked Facts about Alcohol’s Role in America’s History

Some of these will make your head spin.

25 Neat Facts About Nebraska

2. Remember that little yellow-and-black booklet that got you through 'Julius Caesar'? You can thank a Nebraskan for the Cliff's Notes version.

10 Festive Facts About Holiday Greeting Cards

Yes, Virginia, Hallmark had a lot to do with it.

41 Eerie Photos of Abandoned Soviet Buildings

Rebecca Bathory explores the remains of the crumbled Soviet Union and satellite states.

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