Today in History: November 18, 1978 On this day history, 1978, over 900 Americans died in a South American cult commune on the order of Reverend Jim Jones. Many of his followers willingly drank a poisoned concoction that led to their deaths, others were forced to do so at gunpoint. The children of the cult were the first to die; […]
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In this video from our YouTube channel (click here to subscribe), we take a look at the real reason the day after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday.” And if you’ve heard it’s because that’s when retailers finally make a profit for the year (moving out of the red, and into the black)… well, you might want to give this video […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Tang was Not Invented for the Space Program In fact, Tang was actually invented by chemist and occasional playwright William A. Mitchell in 1957 while he was working for General Foods. General Foods introduced Tang to the public in powder form in […]
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Immense, stretching up to nearly 70 feet long and weighing over 50 tons, the sperm whale is the seventh largest animal, and the largest with teeth, in the world. Prized for centuries because of its oil and the almost supernatural ambergris it creates, the sperm whale today remains vulnerable. And although we have hunted and studied this leviathan for well […]
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Myth: Doctors are bound by the Hippocratic Oath. A binding agreement, as much a social contract as Social Security or Medicare, the traditional Hippocratic Oath holds those who swear to it to a strict code of professional and personal conduct. Contrary to popular belief, though, most doctors never take this oath, and, actually, most of us are probably glad they […]
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Today in History: November 15, 1985 A dark-haired, blue-eyed two-week-old baby girl known to the world as “Baby Fae” (later revealed as Stephanie Fae Beauclair) underwent a first-of-its-kind heart transplant and died on this day in 1985. What made this transplant unique at this time? The tiny infant received a baboon heart in an attempt to correct hypoplastic heart syndrome, […]
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Absent from the visible spectrum and neither a wave nor a particle, the color pink is, for many, a scientific enigma: how can a shade that doesn’t even appear in the rainbow exist? The answer lies in color theory. The Primary Colors: RGB Unlike art production (see below), when it comes to eyesight (and video production), the primary colors are […]
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Luke asks: Why when I squint does it help me see things clearer? Squinting causes two reactions that help you visualize the world around you in better detail. First, it changes the shape of our eye, allowing light to be focused better. Secondly, it decreases the amount of light that is allowed to enter the eye. Light coming from a […]
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Today in History: November 14, 1970 Marshall University had chartered a plane to bring its football team, the Thundering Herd, home after a game with East Carolina University on November 14, 1970. The plane hit a row of trees and careened into a hillside less than two miles from their destination – the Tri-State Airport in Kenova, West Virginia. All […]
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Jay asks: When/How did the Cold War start and finish? The Cold War was the geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle between two world superpowers, the USA and the USSR, that started in 1947 at the end of the Second World War and lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. The Cold War was marked by continuous rivalry between […]
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On an autumn evening, October third to be exact, in 1849, a middle-aged Edgar Allan Poe was found wandering the streets of Baltimore, Maryland in a delusional, hysterical state. Unkempt, dirty, with “vacant eyes” and in someone else’s clothes, the writer was admitted to Washington College Hospital unable to explain what had happened to him. At five am on October […]
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Today in History: November 13, 1953 On this day in 1953, Robin Hood was declared a Communist, at least by the Indiana Textbook Commission. Mrs. Thomas J. White, Republican member of the committee, insisted that all references to the book “Robin Hood” be purged from textbooks used in state schools. She felt this was necessary because there was a Communist […]
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Today I found out that Welch’s Grape Juice started out as a substitute for sacramental wine. You’ve probably heard about Jesus turning water into wine, but Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch is a lesser-known drink magician who developed a way to turn something that would have been wine into a non-alcoholic version of the drink, in an attempt to make an […]
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Today I found out why school buses are yellow. An estimated twenty-six million students in the United States alone are transported to school every school day via bus—over half the student population in the country. While school buses in countries outside of North America usually look like any other buses, North American school buses are distinctive for their yellow colour. […]
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Today in History: November 12, 2004 After a two-year ordeal that dominated the headlines and engrossed the entire nation, a jury found Scott Peterson guilty of murder 23 months after his heavily pregnant wife Laci Peterson suddenly vanished from her home in Modesto, California on Christmas Eve. Peterson stated that Laci had gone for a walk with their dog while […]
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In 1975, George Lucas was casting for his upcoming sci-fi film The Star Wars (name later changed to simply Star Wars). After a joint casting session with Brian De Palma, who was looking to hire actors for his new horror movie Carrie, Lucas was able to cast many of his principal actors. He decided on two young no-names, Carrie Fisher […]
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Today I found out about the origin of the phrase “in the limelight.” Today it means “at the centre of attention,” but back in the day “in the limelight” meant, well, being in the limelight. “Limelight,” which is also known as “calcium light,” was used as stage lighting for years after being discovered by Goldsworth Gurney in the 1820s. Gurney […]
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Today in History: November 11, 1988 During the early 1980s, ex-nurse’s aide Dorothea Puente ran a boarding house for the elderly in Sacramento, California. She was a schizophrenic who had numerous run-ins with the law. She served time for forging checks, and also was incarcerated for drugging and then robbing random people she had met in bars. She opened her […]
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