HISTORY

Newlyweds have been saving their wedding cakes for hundreds of years.

Why Do People Freeze Wedding Cake?

Freezing a portion of a wedding cake is a centuries-old tradition. If you’re going to freeze the top layer of your wedding cake, make sure you do it right.

Here’s Why Some People Wear Orange—Not Green—On St. Patrick’s Day

You might be used to people wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day, but some sport orange instead. Here’s why.

Some of these mistakes were pretty costly.

11 of the Most Expensive Typos in History

From the NASA mistake that made an interplanetary rocket explode to the bible with a very naughty misprint, these typos are an ode to proofreaders.

Baltimore, Maryland had a brief stint as capital.

9 Places That Have Served as the Capital of the United States

Washington, D.C., hasn't always been the political center of the United States.

Flags on planes need to adhere to specific standards.

Why Are Some Flags Painted Backwards on Airplanes?

Depicting the mirror image of a flag on aircraft is done for a very specific (and very patriotic) reason.

Where Did the Expression ‘Gung Ho’ Come From?

We get this byword for enthusiasm from an officer in the Marines named Evans Fordyce Carlson.

The border between these two countries is a little odd in places.

Over the Borderline: The Little Bit of Minnesota That Could Have Gone Canadian

An old map error led to some strange—and at times contentious—geography.

Clockwise from top left: Shirley Chisholm, Clara Barton, Ellen Ochoa, Nellie Bly, Josephine Baker, Mary Pickford, Maya Angelou, Amelia Earhart, Kalpana Chawla, and Kamala Harris.

130 Amazing Women Who Changed the World

From singers to scientists and athletes to activists, here are 130 amazing women who have changed the world for the better.

Forged in the Heat of Battle: The Origin of the Boy Scouts

Those iconic khaki uniforms are usually associated with childhood adventure, but scouting was actually forged in the heat of battle by a desperate British military officer.

Rosa Parks is fingerprinted by a Montgomery, Alabama, police officer after being arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger.

11 Peaceful Protests and Their Historic Results

Civil disobedience and nonviolent protests have moved mountains. Here are just a few examples of when people took back power.

American officials exchanged Soviet spy Rudolf Abel for the American U-2 spyplane pilot Francis Gary Powers in the 1962 “Bridge of Spies” transfer.

How a Nickel and a Paperboy Brought Down a Cold War Spy

Soviet spy Rudolf Abel might have never been caught were it not for a Russian turncoat and a newspaper delivery boy who thought he’d been stiffed.

10 Hoax Definitions, Paper Towns, and Other Things That Don’t Exist

Facts become very easy to copyright when they aren’t true. Here are people, places, and things that exist only on paper, solely to thwart would-be info burglars.

You must be a lucky one of you find a four-leaf clover.

Why Are Four-Leaf Clovers Considered Lucky?

While the shamrock mainly has religious ties, the four-leaf clover—often mistaken for the same plant—is often associated with luck. We explain why.

March’s weather is notoriously volatile.

Why Do We Say March ‘Comes In Like a Lion, Goes Out Like a Lamb’?

It’s one of the most common weather idioms. But what do lions and lambs even have to do with the month of March?

The Berlin Wall was a symbol of the Cold War from 1961 to 1989.

11 Chilling Facts About the Cold War

The U.S. and USSR employed spies, quelled internal dissent, made allies abroad, and stockpiled nuclear weapons in this proxy war.

The ‘Eagle’ has (crash-) landed: The Andrée expedition’s balloon on the ground on Kvitøya, Svalbard.

The Disastrous North Pole Balloon Mission of 1897

Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée and two companions wanted to fly a hydrogen balloon over the North Pole. Their Arctic mission didn’t go as planned.

The Equal Rights Amendment is the best-known Constitutional amendment that is not yet part of the Constitution.

6 Constitutional Amendments That Just Missed the Cut

Since 1789, Congress has sent 33 constitutional amendments to the states for ratification. Here’s the scoop on the six amendments that didn't make the grade.

Mr Payback, An Interactive Movie (1995) trailer [FTD-0013]

The ’90s Flop That Billed Itself as “the First Interactive Movie”

‘Mr. Payback’ might not have set the box office alight, but it did at least try to pioneer a new form of entertainment.

How One Pilot’s Sweet Tooth Helped Defeat Communism

The code name for the American mission: Operation Little Vittles.

How NASA Helped Solve a Murder

The space agency helped out on a landmark criminal case in 1990.

A map of the 63 National Parks in the U.S.

1 Fact About All 63 U.S. National Parks

From Acadia to Zion, the U.S. has some pretty majestic national parks. Here’s one fun fact about every single one—plus a map so you can see where they all are.

How Did Latin America Get Its Name?

Latin isn’t widely spoken in Latin America, so why is it called that?

Civil War medical officers including Jonathan Letterman, a surgeon who pioneered the ambulance-to-ER transport of wounded patients during the Civil War.

5 Medical Innovations from the Civil War

Civil War surgeons learned fast. Here are a few of the MacGyver-like medical solutions that have had a lasting impact.

Katherine Johnson at NASA's Langley Research Center, 1980.

10 Fascinating Facts About Katherine Johnson

Before she helped send the first astronauts to the moon, Katherine Johnson was a human “computer” working behind the scenes at NASA.

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