Mental Floss

NEWS

Fabbriche di Careggine, a sunken town in Italy, emerges from under Lago di Vagli reservoir.

Forget Atlantis (which probably doesn’t exist)—we’re taking a trip to 10 real cities that ended up underwater.

Erin McCarthy


The red, white, and blue.

Read on to discover which American president wanted to be a concert violinist, which carried a dictionary around in his pocket, who burned his official White House portrait, and why Joe Biden's dog made history.

Corinne Cummings






Fragments of the Coligny calendar.

Cultures throughout history have come up with their own unique ways to track the days, months, and seasons.

Jane Alexander


Be prepared to bring your own.

Hotels readily give guests soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and even sewing kits. But why don’t we get tubes of toothpaste when we check into a room? The answer is kind of complicated.

Garin Pirnia














Make sure you know how to properly fly your flag.

Ingloriously crammed between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, Flag Day tends to get overlooked. Here’s a brief history of the patriotic day. 

Kate Erbland
Open up and say ...

Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ isn’t just an enduring summer classic—it also includes plenty of fun slang terms that’ll make you feel like its Shark Week all year long.

Angela Tung