Romi asks: How did the “pie in the face” gag get its start? The very first known “pie in the face” gag, also known as “pieing”, was in a movie- which movie is a matter of dispute. It is definitely agreed that the first film “pie in the face” was thrown in a silent comedy in the early days of […]
Read more
This is a guest post by Noah Wass- Plastics Engineer, bicycle expert, and owner of BikeInReview.com where you will find professional bike related reviews and interesting biking news. Subscribe to his newsletter here. The bicycle was invented all the way back in 1817. A certain Baron Karl von Drais needed to get around easier while working in the Royal Gardens […]
Read more
It was the autumn of 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. The young, fledgling group who had recently changed their name officially to “The Beatles” were playing at a local club called The Kaiserkeller. Hamburg was a vice-ridden city, a 24-hour-a-day unofficial red light district in itself. Hookers, pimps, thugs, gangsters, drug dealers, and various sundry “characters” and habitues roamed the streets […]
Read more
You might think the temporary insanity defense was a relatively new thing. I mean, maybe it began in the 1940s or possibly the ’30s. What with all the psychobabble around in those times. But, no. It was actually much earlier. It all started with a guy named Daniel Sickles. Sickles (1819-1914) was a U.S. Senator and later a Congressman, as […]
Read more
It’s pretty obvious that no Major League Baseball player would be caught dead wearing a dress to the plate. But one batter wore one, and turned the at-bat into an outrageous incident that left fans hooting and hollering. Nightclub singer Kitty Burke hit a ball thrown by St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Paul “Daffy” Dean, becoming the only woman to ever […]
Read more
Today I found out the only victim of the Tacoma Narrows, “Galloping Gertie”, bridge collapse was a three legged dog. The three legged dog in question was a black Cocker Spaniel left in the back seat of the lone car abandoned on the galloping bridge. The dog was owned by reporter Leonard Coatsworth, though his wife stated in an interview […]
Read more
This post is sponsored by Chucker & Reibach Today I found out the first gas/electric hybrid vehicle was invented in 1900. While hybrid and electric cars are often touted by the media and automobile companies as the wave of the future, in fact, we’re more just re-hashing the wave of the past with them, but with updated technologies. Before gas […]
Read more
This is a guest post by Dan Lewis. Dan runs the wildly popular daily newsletter Now I Know (“Learn Something New Every Day, By Email”). To subscribe to his daily email, click here. Today I found Out how candy pumpkins and Halloween helped change Daylight Saving Time. Before 1966, Daylight Saving Time in the United States was set via a […]
Read more
Ron asks: Why did people think the Moon was made out of green cheese? Because it was formed in the Milky Way… *crickets* In fact, nobody really ever thought the Moon was made of green cheese… Well, there are nutters out there, so it’s possible that there was at least one person who thought the Moon was made of cheese, […]
Read more
Today I found out about a 16 year old sentenced to death who had to have that sentence carried out twice. The teenager was Willie Francis, the youngest of 13 children in a poor black family living in Louisiana. Francis supposedly murdered 53 year old pharmacist Andrew Thomas in St. Martinville, Louisiana in 1944. Thomas was found shot five times […]
Read more
Today I found out the name for the dwarf planet Pluto was suggested by an 11 year old girl. The girl was Venetia Burney of Oxford, England. Venetia’s great uncle, Science Master of Eton Henry Madan, in 1877 suggested the name for the two dwarf moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos (fear/panic and dread/terror). This was referencing the fact that […]
Read more
Today I found out Abraham Lincoln established the Secret Service on the day he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. Unfortunately, even had the organization been instituted earlier, it wouldn’t have helped. The Secret Service in the beginning had no part in protecting the President, but rather were tasked with cutting down on the amazing amount of counterfeit money circulated […]
Read more
Today I found out the cotton candy making machine was co-invented by a dentist, who later became the President of the Tennessee State Dental Association. Coincidence? While candy floss / cotton candy-like spun-sugar confectioneries have been around since at least the 15th century, if not earlier, it’s only been recently that cotton candy has been something practical to make and […]
Read more
Today I found out the origin of the Olympic Flame tradition and the Nazi origin of the Olympic Torch Relay. The Olympic Flame tradition has its origins in the Ancient Greek Olympics where a fire was kept burning at an altar dedicated to Hera in a sanctuary in Olympia. Other fires were also lit in Zeus’ and Hera’s temples to […]
Read more
Today I found out that uniform regulation in the British Army between the years 1860 and 1916 stipulated that every soldier should have a moustache. Command No. 1,695 of the King’s Regulations read: The hair of the head will be kept short. The chin and the under lip will be shaved, but not the upper lip… Although the act of […]
Read more
Today I found out the origin of the Olympic Rings. The Olympic ring symbol was designed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1912. The idea of using rings intertwined with one another came from the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA), which had two interlaced rings as their symbol and which Pierre de Coubertin was for a time […]
Read more
Today I found out the official Olympic salute strongly resembles the “Heil Hitler” or “Nazi” salute. In this Olympic salute, your right arm should be held out, slightly to the side, and pointing in an upward angle. Likewise, your palm should be out and your fingers touching. The Nazi salute is more or less performed the same way, except it […]
Read more
Today I found out the original Olympic flag was missing for 77 years until 1920 Olympian Hal Haig Prieste revealed he’d had it the whole time. The year was 1920. The Summer Olympics were being held in Belgium in the city of Antwerp. At the end of the Olympic Games, the flag suddenly went missing. Fast-forward to 1997 and 101 […]
Read more