History - Trivia, Quizzes, and Brain Teasers | Mental Floss

Why Do We Call Hit Movies Blockbusters?

andresr/iStock via Getty Images

Why Do We Call Hit Movies Blockbusters?

Remaking an Icon: How Paris's Notre-Dame Cathedral Is Being Restored to Its Former Glory

Notre-Dame Cathedral two years after the fire on April 15. 2019.

Remaking an Icon: How Paris's Notre-Dame Cathedral Is Being Restored to Its Former Glory

Why Mother's Day Founder Anna Jarvis Later Fought to Have the Holiday Abolished

A portrait of Mother's Day founder Anna Jarvis.

Why Mother's Day Founder Anna Jarvis Later Fought to Have the Holiday Abolished

6 Historical Figures Who Kept Secret Coded Diaries

The official campaign portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

6 Historical Figures Who Kept Secret Coded Diaries

Garum, the Funky and Fishy Condiment That Rose and Fell With the Roman Empire

Ruins of a garum factory near Brittany, France.

10 Famous Authors and Their Moms

Your favorite authors got support, words of wisdom, and sometimes tough love from their moms.

Royal Event: Princess Diana’s Wedding Dress to Go On Display at Kensington Palace

Princess Diana's wedding attire captivated both England and the world.

How 10-Year-Old Samantha Smith Helped Ease Cold War Tensions In the Early 1980s

Samantha Smith (second from right) is greeted by Russian Young Pioneers at the airport in Moscow in 1983.

Why the Fire Pole Is Beginning to Disappear

Scenes from a firehouse in 1950.

Why Do We Call Kindergarten Kindergarten?

Kindergarten survived some early controversy to become part of the American education system.

10 Offbeat Products for Shakespeare Obsessives

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild/Amazon

The Word Boycott Comes From a British Land Agent Shunned by His Town

A cartoon depicting Irish rent boycotts from December 1880.

A Brief History of Unsolved Mysteries

Robert Stack hosts the original Unsolved Mysteries.

10 Amazing Facts About Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe

12 Facts About the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Robbery—the World's Biggest Art Heist

An FBI photograph of the crime scene after the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery, as seen in This is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist (2021).

The Reason We Celebrate Earth Day on April 22

Earth Day has roots in Arbor Day.