History
Everybody has to start somewhere, even some of the greatest writers of all time. He’s a Survival survivor Dan Brown is another rare writer to launch a craze: He wrote The Da Vinci Code and its many sequels about Robert Langdon, an art history professor who solves historical and conspiratorial mysteries. In the late ‘80s, […]
Just some kooky stories about people who died…while flirting with death in other ways. Death by the shock of death In 2010, a man in India named Than Singh received a letter from a local crematorium. That was something of a surprise, as no one in his family or circle of friends had recently died. […]
Here’s how all the stuff in your garage, shed, and on the truck got their names. CHISEL Along with the gentle or aggressive tapping of a hammer, a chisel is used to chip away into very hard surfaces like stone or bricks. In a very slow, even indirect way, chisel cuts into stone, so it […]
In 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state in the union. Here are some other things that make the Aloha State unique and special. …with an isolated population center. It’s actually the most densely populated place in the world that’s thousands of miles from other crowded places. It’s nearly 2,400 miles from California, nearly 4,000 from […]
July 1st is the day that Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories celebrate Canada Day, commemorating the day the nation officially formed in 1867. Had history gone a bit differently, there’d be a lot more of Canada to celebrate on Canada Day. Vermont From 1777 to 1791, the state of Vermont was an independent republic, […]
Back in junior high, you probably learned about the pantheon of Ancient Greek gods and goddesses — Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, and so forth. Your teachers probably didn’t cover these more obscure — and very specific — grand deities. Wandering planet gods The Greeks believed in “Astra Planeti,” a special class of gods that ruled over […]
“The Flag” of the United States wasn’t created overnight out of whole cloth (pardon the pun). It evolved over time, involving many different designs and people. • Up until the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and into the early years of the subsequent American Revolution, several flags were in use throughout the […]
College isn’t all math classes, science labs, and lectures about Medieval English literature. There are also these strange — and very real — courses offered by colleges and universities. The Amazing World of Bubbles This course at the prestigious scientific institute Caltech does involve blowing bubbles, but it’s more about exploring the complex physics behind […]
On Memorial Day, we’ll honor all that served in 20th and 21st century conflicts, including World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War. The U.S. has been a country for more than 200 years now, and involved in a number of freedom-fighting missions. Here’s a look at a few — and the men […]
They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and these women invented something so important, they’re now regarded as the “mother” of their respective field. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there, both literal and metaphorical. The Mother of Wi-Fi Hedy Lamar was one of the most glamorous and successful actresses of […]
April 23 is celebrated as the birthday of the Bard, William Shakespeare, quite likely the greatest writer in the English language. (Well, it’s probably Billy’s birthday — records from 1564 England are spotty, but historians are fairly certain of the date.) As one of the most famous and revered people to ever live, there’s a […]
Here is a look back through history to some past candidates for the highest office in the land who honestly had very little chance of winning. WILLIAM WIRT By the 1830s, a conspiracy theory developed that said the Freemasons, a fraternal service organization, was actually a secret society with plans for national domination. In response, […]
Back in the 1890s or so, the Anderson Valley was an extremely remote, sparsely populated, and very isolated farming community in northern California. The largest town there: Boonville, which lends its name to Boontling, the system of slang / secret language locals developed for gossiping purposes. Today, only about 100 people still speak and understand […]
There are certain phrases and aphorisms we all use that everybody seems to know…and yet, when you think about them even a little bit, you’ll realize that they don’t make a lick of sense. Here are some of those bizarre, everyday sayings…and how they entered the lexicon. CLEAN AS A WHISTLE According to this old […]
In recognition of Black History Month, here are the stories of some notable African-American inventors who changed the world with their ingenuity and technical know-how. Lewis Lattimer Two of the most famous inventors in American history — Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell — didn’t work alone. A Massachusetts-based inventor named Lewis Lattimer worked on […]
Some months have 30 days and others have 31. And then there’s weird old February, packing a scant 28 days (or 29 in a leap year). Why are you so short, February? The Romulus calendar In the eighth century B.C., the Roman Empire operated via the Romulus Calendar, a 10-month system that started in March […]
In photographs, she presents the grim, humorless visage of a middle-aged, Victorian spinster. But Esther Howland popularized valentine giving in the United States and, by the time of her death in 1904, had earned the sobriquet “Mother of the American Valentine.” (This article was first published in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Book of Love.) Be […]
One of the greatest moments of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But it wasn’t planned that way. (This article was first published in Uncle John’s Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader.) The March That Wasn’t In 1941 A. Philip Randolph, founder and […]
