This Day In History: October 26, 1977 For many millennia, smallpox was one of the most easily transmitted and deadly diseases in the world for humans. In the 20th century alone, when a successful vaccine was already being widely administered in many countries, it is estimated that smallpox still caused somewhere between 300 and 500 million deaths worldwide. Approximately one-third […]
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This is yet another great article from our friends over at The Medicine Journal. Check out their YouTube channel here! Taking another person’s feces and shoving it up your bum doesn’t seem like a worthwhile medical procedure, but in reality, this form of defecation sharing can save someone’s life. So drink some coffee, eat a bran muffin and read on […]
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In the midst of the Cold War, it can be easy to think the United States and the Soviet Union would be unable to come to an agreement on anything. Yet they, and ten other countries gathered in Washington, D. C. in 1959 to successfully negotiate the Antarctic Treaty, which not only encouraged international cooperation with the goal of scientific […]
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This Day In History: October 23, 1091 Tornadoes aren’t the first thing to leap to mind when picturing Merry Olde England, but a whopper of a twister tore through London on October 23, 1091. It is thought to be the largest known tornado in the UK, as well as the earliest – at least that we know about. From contemporary […]
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Nazi troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, despite the best efforts of Captain Witold Pilecki and his fellow Polish soldiers. On November 9th of that same year, Witold and Major Wlodarkiewicz founded the Tajna Armia Polska (TAP or Polish Secret Army), an underground organization that eventually became consolidated with other resistance forces into The Home Army. Not long after […]
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This Day In History: October 22, 1934 One of America’s most colorful folk bandits was Charles Arthur Floyd, also known as “Choc” Floyd or “Pretty Boy.” Hailing from Oklahoma, he became one of the country’s most notorious criminals, immortalized by Woody Guthrie and in John Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath. More of a Robin Hood figure to most than a […]
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Leigh H. asks: Why do we call pennies, nickels, and dimes those names? The Penny Prior to the United States minting their own coins, it relied on foreign currency. However, that all changed with the passing of the Coinage Act of 1792, which provided the framework for regulating money produced in the United States, as well as established the United […]
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This Day In History: October 21, 1555 In July of 1554, Queen Mary I married Philip of Spain. The Queen was quite in love with her hunky new hubby. Unfortunately, many of her subjects didn’t share her affection, including Parliament who refused to recognize Philip as King on October 21, 1555. And this wasn’t the first or last time. Mary […]
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Due to the fact that they can’t move and as such can’t sneak up on you, many people never really think of trees as being dangerous. As it turns out though, beyond the occasional tree that kills a person by falling on them, there’s also a tree out there so deadly it has been dubbed “The Suicide Tree”. But as you’ll […]
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This Day In History: October 20, 1882 Be’la Ferenc Dezso Blasko, aka Bela Lugosi, was born on October 20, 1882, in Lugos, Hungary. At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for service and was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant. During the war, he was seriously wounded three times, with the treatment of his injuries facilitating a morphine addiction […]
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Most of us who have been chewing sticks of Spearmint or Juicy Fruit gum over the last several decades probably assume that the manufacture and sale of gum was what Wrigley was always about. After all, the company, which was founded by William Wrigley Jr., is famous for being the leading gum manufacturer globally, with an array of brands like […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The beeeep! beeeep! of someone’s pager going off used to be everywhere… but when was the last time you heard one? Let’s take one last look before they’re gone forever. THE DOCTOR IS OUT In 1924, a New York City businessman named Sherman Amsden started a company called the Doctors’ […]
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This Day In History: October 19, 1985 In the early 1980s, video rental stores were small-time operations that offered a very limited selection of titles. At a time when buying pre-recorded VHS movies was prohibitively expensive for many people, renting them was the perfect solution for the dedicated movie fan or couch potato. (See: The Origin and Trademarking of “Couch Potato”) […]
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This Day In History: October 16, 1931 Winnie “Ruth” Judd was the 26-year-old wife of a physician who spent much of his time away from home, including leaving Ruth in Phoenix while he was off in L.A. To kill time, Ruth kept company with 44-year-old “Happy Jack” Halloran, an influential – and also married – businessman. According to a Phoenix […]
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Simon asks: Who invented the Konami code? The Konami Code, also known as the Konami Command and sometimes the Contra Command is among the most enduring Easter eggs in video game history. For those of you who aren’t familiar, there are a number of video games released by Konami over the years in which entering up, up, down, down, left, right, […]
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This Day In History: October 15, 1946 Hermann Göring was second only to Hitler in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Commander of the Luftwaffe, acting Prime Minister of Prussia, President of the Reichstag, and Hitler’s designated successor – Göring’s Nazi resume was almost unparalleled. Born in Bavaria in 1893, Göring was the son of a professional soldier and governor in West […]
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Women’s clothes come in a baffling range of (often inconsistent) sizes which can make finding clothes that fit just right an unreasonably difficult task for many women. To help combat this, the clothing industry has a number of tricks up its immaculately tailored sleeves; in regards to jeans, one of those tricks is Natasha Wagner’s butt. Born in 1981, Natasha Wagner took […]
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This Day In History: October 14, 1977 On the early evening of October 14, 1977, legendary entertainer Bing Crosby died of a massive heart attack after doing what he loved best – playing 18 holes of golf. Bing was in Madrid, Spain playing on the La Moraleja Golf course at the time of his death. He defeated two Spanish golf […]
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