The Long History Of The Christmas Tree

December 21, 2022

The 1930s saw the beginning of artificial Christmas tree production, first using brush bristles; by the 1950s and 1960s, they started to make trees from aluminum and PVC. This w...

Terracotta Warriors: A Tale Of Two Men And Thousands Of Statues

December 12, 2022

In 246 B.C., a Chinese ruler named Yiren died, leaving his 13-year-old son Ying Zheng to ascend the throne. At the time, the governing principle of Qin ...

Rarely Seen Photos From The 70s For Mature Audiences Only

December 6, 2022

Unedited photo of Jamie Lee Curtis and her ageless mother Janet Leigh at Studio 54...details of her visits to the hedonistic club are reserved for mature audiences...

Pleasure Gardens: 18th Century England’s Wild Nightlife Scene

December 5, 2022

A ball at Vauxhall garden in London c. 1830, engraving (Photo by Apic/Getty Images) If you think that people living in Georgian and Victorian England wer...

Wassail: The Yuletime Tradition

December 2, 2022

The term can be used to refer to the beverage, the celebration, and even be used as wassailing or reveling. Wassailing, as a custom, may have originated in Ancient Rome from the sacrif...

The Submarine That Was Used In The Revolutionary War

November 28, 2022

Details from a model of the Turtle prior to conservation. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images) The U.S. Navy got its first modern submarine on April 11, 1900. The machine, ...

“Eve of Destruction”: The Powerful and Controversial Sixties Protest Song

November 25, 2022

A student demonstration outside the US Embassy, protesting against US policy in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, December 1965. (Photo by Mich...

The Time Michigan Won Big Over Ohio State

November 21, 2022

As the college football world focuses their attention on the biggest rivalry game of the season, the Michigan-Ohio State game that is traditionally held the Saturday after Th...

The Monopoly Boards That Helped POWs Escape

November 18, 2022

In the midst of the Great Depression, Charles B. Darrow of Germantown, PA invented the game known today as Monopoly. He presented it to executives at Parker Brothers. When ...

When Japan Invaded Alaska

November 14, 2022

During World War II, in what has been called the “Forgotten Battle,” Japan invaded Alaska. Japan was already gathering information about the Aleutian Islands before they entered World War II...

The Not-So Puzzling History of Jigsaw Puzzles

November 11, 2022

One of our favorite ways to spend a cozy winter afternoon is to gather with friends and family around a jigsaw puzzle. Although they can be challenging and frustrating at...

Pemberton Mill Collapse: Remembering One of the Worst Industrial Accidents of the 1800s

November 7, 2022

By the mid-1800s, the textile industry was booming in the New England states. With a ready supply of cotton from the South and n...

The Beginnings Of The American League And The First World Series

November 4, 2022

In 1900, when the National League shrunk from twelve teams down to eight, the American League did not exist. There were, of course, minor league organi...

The Rise Of Buffalo And The Grain Elevator

October 31, 2022

Buffalo began as a village, named after Buffalo Creek; the first recorded appearance of the name was in John Montressor’s 1764 journal. By 1802, a road to Pennsylvania was b...

La Brea Tar Pits: The History Behind the TV Show

October 28, 2022

The premise of the NBC television drama series La Brea may seem far-fetched – a massive sink hole opens in Los Angeles and several people fall into a prehistoric world...

The Wide Awakes: A Pre-Civil War Political Movement

October 21, 2022

The Wide Awakes formed in early 1860, when Cassius Clay, a Kentucky abolitionist, visited Hartford, Connecticut to campaign for the Republican gubernatorial candida...

M&M’s Began as a Treat for the U.S. Military

October 19, 2022

One of America’s best-loved candies, M&M’s, was first introduced in 1941 but not to the general public. In fact, average citizens couldn’t get their hands on the chocola...