This Day In History: May 26, 1897 On May 26, 1897, Irish author Bram Stoker’s masterpiece Dracula was released for sale in London. Dracula was not only a sensation in its own right, but inspired a genre of horror that remains immensely popular today. But Bram Stoker certainly wasn’t the creator of vampire lore; the history of the blood-sucking undead […]
Read more
This Day In History: May 25, 1961 “I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” –JFK On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech before a joint session of Congress that put the United States […]
Read more
This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Surprising Truth About the Difference Between Hardwoods and Softwoods Generally speaking, wood is often put into one of two categories- hardwood and softwood. But what exactly makes a given piece of wood qualify as either hard or soft and how […]
Read more
This Day In History: May 22, 1958 “They were looking for a place to stick the knife into rock & roll. And Jerry gave it to them—well, I did, I opened my mouth.” – Myra Lewis Williams As 1958 dawned, Jerry Lee Lewis was riding high. He’d recently had two huge hits with “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great […]
Read more
Bert Trautmann was born October 22, 1923 in Bremen, Germany. Blue-eyed and blond haired, Trautmann was the product of a tumultuous political climate within the post-World War I country. He grew up surrounded by Nazi-ideology, including blaming the Jews for the country’s economic problems and believing certain Germans, such as himself, were members of the “master race.” So it’s not […]
Read more
At only a few inches long and with no distinguishing external physical features to speak of, Scutisorex somereni, better known as the Hero or Armoured Shrew, is seemingly an unremarkable creature. That is, until you accidentally step on one. You see, the Hero shrew can comfortably survive being stood on by a typical adult human without any injury. The secret to […]
Read more
This Day In History: May 21, 1992 On May 21, 1992, 17-year-old Amy Fisher was arrested two days after shooting her lover’s wife on the porch of their home in Long Island, New York. The victim, though gravely injured, survived the attack and eventually forgave her assailant. When the sordid details of her affair with her much older, very married, […]
Read more
In this video from MinuteEarth, created by Henry Reich et al, you’re going to learn about the invasion of the Yellow Crazy Ants, and other interesting spreading of animals. In the Bonus Facts below, you’re also going to learn a lot of other fun animal facts. If you like this video, go check them out and subscribe to their channel […]
Read more
Olivia B. asks: Why do women always seem to be fainting in classic books? Dropping like flies (or at least as far as many stories indicate), it seems as if well-bred ladies in the 1800s struggled to maintain consciousness when faced with even the slightest emotional or physical shock. Over the years there have been several theories as to why […]
Read more
This Day In History: May 20, 1908 James Maitland Stewart, one of the most likable and versatile actors in motion picture history, was born on May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He appeared in over 80 films during his long career. Stewart is most loved and fondly remembered for his various portrayals of Mr. Every Man, a simple, hard-working American […]
Read more
Clocking in at 5 minutes and 55 seconds long and encompassing elements of hard rock, opera and pop, Bohemian Rhapsody is certainly one of the more eclectic songs to make it into the charts, but it’s by no means the longest. Hey Jude by The Beatles (7:11), I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) by Meatloaf (7:58) and All Around […]
Read more
The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Ice Folly It’s not like Spain, with its mild Mediterranean climate, is well known for its frozen lakes and canals. So why would its king contact craftsmen and tell them to drop everything and make 7,000 pairs of skates? And this was back in 1572, long before there were indoor […]
Read more
This Day In History: May 19, 1836 A very young Cynthia Ann Parker moved from Illinois to Texas by wagon train with members of her family in 1832. They built a civilian stockade around their settlement, located approximately 40 miles east of present day Waco, which came to be known as Parker Fort. Their solidly constructed protective barricade was supposedly […]
Read more
This Day In History: May 18, 1989 On May 18, 1989, an estimated one million Chinese protestors swarmed Tiananmen Square and the surrounding streets of Beijing demanding a democratic system of government. It was the largest popular demonstration in the 40-year history of communist China. Student-driven protests calling for democracy had begun in China a month before but ramped up […]
Read more
Richard K. asks: How do they set the dividing line in hardness between what’s considered a hard wood vs. a soft wood? Generally speaking, wood is often put into one of two categories- hardwood and softwood. But what exactly makes a given piece of wood qualify as either hard or soft and how did those definitions come about? Perhaps the most […]
Read more
Nathan G. asks: Why is lead bad for us? Given that humans have been using lead in various product for over 8,000 years (with the first known mining of it in Anatolia around 6500 BCE), you might be surprised to learn that we have known that lead is dangerous and shouldn’t be trifled with since at least 150 BC, when […]
Read more
This Day In History: May 15, 1869 “Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less!” – The Revolution On May 15, 1869, The National Woman Suffrage Association was formed in New York City. The group was the result of ideological and political disagreements between two factions of the suffrage movement, one difference being whether to support […]
Read more
In this episode, you’re going to learn about a fascinating time in history when England had its security world shattered when a man waltzed into town and promptly easily picked the previously unpickable type of lock securing most of the valuables in the country. This is the story of the “Great Lock Controversy of 1851” [TRANSCRIPT] As mentioned in the […]
Read more