The practice of trick or treating didn't appear in North America until the 1930s, when kids started emulating front-page criminals and used principles of extortion and racketeering to demand candy—or else.

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Before Vladimir Nabokov gained fame for ‘Lolita,’ he helped hone the writing skills of a future Supreme Court icon.
In this final bonus episode of History Vs., Erin and Mental Floss fact checker Austin Thompson discuss the challenges and delights of tracking down the truth about Theodore Roosevelt—and bust some TR myths, too. Learn more about your ad-choices at https
Grant Imahara, who passed away in July at age 49, is the namesake of The Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation, which will help bring opportunities to students.
Andrew Scott’s unforgettable performance in Phoebe Waller-Bridge's 'Fleabag' warrants a LEGO portrait or two.
Theodore Roosevelt had very particular ideas about how Sagamore Hill should be designed—including "a very big piazza ... where we could sit in rocking chairs and look at the sunset." Here what you should know about Roosevelt's "Summer White House."
Bermuda's red soil and the Bahamas's white-sand beaches might have come from the same place: the Sahara Desert.
Plenty of people want to go all out as Baby Yoda or Beetlejuice, but even more just want to throw on a pointy hat and call it a day.
During its first 20 years, every face paint-caked zombie or masked ghoul working at ScareHouse was taught one maxim: Get into people’s personal space. Then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived.
No matter what generation you belong to, consider these retro gifts when shopping for the Millennials in your life.
The pervasive slang term was everywhere following the 2006 release of 'Borat.' But it isn't made up.
"RIP" has a pretty obvious meaning, but some tombstone symbols—like a corn husk or a camel—can be a little puzzling.
It’s hard to compete with the Ivy League schools, but the institutes of technology are putting up a good fight.
By measuring the heart rates of viewers, GIGACalculator.com has determined the most terrifying movies in the horror genre.
While 'The Conjuring' films, 'The Amityville Horror,' and 'The Haunting In Connecticut' brought paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren fame, the question of who they were behind the films remains as interesting as ever.
It's a bit of an oversimplification, but the food you eat really can take a wrong turn before it hits your stomach.
The rodents have taken to noshing on pumpkins this Halloween season, but there are a few ways you can fight back.
Families have celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with Charlie Brown and friends for years (and they still can).
Kurt Russell, the actor famous for films like 'Escape From New York' and 'The Thing,' once had a close encounter with a UFO he didn't publicly discuss for decades.
Point Pleasant residents first spotted the infamous cryptid in 1966—now, there’s a Mothman statue, a museum, and even a festival for it.
The British ships HMS 'Terror' and HMS 'Erebus' had vanished while searching for the Northwest Passage. A young Irish ghost purportedly knew where they were.
'Bone,' 'crack,' and 'pubis' were on the list of words censored by the chat software at this year's virtual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference.
Mention Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca' to any bibliophile and they will no doubt share the many reasons why the novel has charmed and captivated so many generations of readers.
It doesn’t have a huge fan base, but the people who run the website ‘ilovetab.com’ are going to be very upset about this.