Author Archives: Emily Upton

The Origin of Cheerios

Today I found out that Cheerios used to be called CheeriOats. Cereal has become such a go-to food for breakfast for children and adults alike that it’s difficult to think that it hasn’t always been around. In the grand scheme of things, cereal is a relatively modern invention. Cheerios entered the cereal playing field a bit late, and they weren’t […]

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The One-Legged Woman Who Was “the Most Dangerous Of All Allied Spies”

Today I found out about the one-legged woman who was “the most dangerous of allied spies.” Her name was Virginia Hall, an American spy born in Baltimore in 1906. She attended both Barnard College and Radcliffe College—two prestigious all-women’s higher education facilities—and continued her studies at schools in France, Germany, and Austria. She had dreams of a career in foreign […]

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Pirates Rarely Made People Walk the Plank

John asks: Did pirates really make people walk the plank? For thousands of years, pirates of various sorts have preyed on innocent ships at sea. Their exploits have been documented by the likes of Cicero and Homer in ancient Rome and Greece, and Vikings were once the scourge of the sea, plaguing seaside towns throughout the middle ages. However, the […]

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August 6, 1855- Bloody Monday

This Day In History: August 6, 1855 Monday, August 6, 1855 was an election day in Louisville, Kentucky. The political field looked a bit different then, with the two main parties being the Democrats and the Know-Nothings (an offshoot of the Whig Party), but they faced a lot of the same issues that the Democrats and Republicans do today- they […]

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Why There Are Bibles in Hotel Rooms

Rhamit asks: Why are there Bibles in hotel rooms? When did this tradition start? “Hotel Bibles” are also called “Gideon Bibles” after Gideon International, a group of male missionaries and Christian businessmen who took it upon themselves to provide this work to hotels across the nation. Here’s how it all started. In 1898, John H. Nicholson stayed at the crowded […]

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How Chicago Got Its Name

Crystal asks: Why is Chicago named that? The first European to set foot in the area we know today as Chicago was Nicholas Perrot, a French trader, in 1671. He was followed a few years later by fellow French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette. The area was largely populated by the native Algonquian people who had long been established […]

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The Day the Lights Went Out

May 19, 1780 began like any other day. Then, between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., the sky above most of New England grew dark and eventually pitch black. The darkness was witnessed from Maine to New Jersey, plunging what was then almost half of America into fear and chaos. The event was reported to last well into the evening in […]

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Elephants Really Do Have Exceptionally Good Memories

Hannah asks: Do elephants really “never forget”? It is obviously impossible to say that elephants never forget anything- and it seems likely they do forget things- but studies have shown that elephants do have exceptionally long memories for certain types of things. For instance, in 1999, an elephant named Jenny was living at The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. When […]

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How the Newbery Award Got Its Name

Katie asks: Why is the Newbery Award called that? The Newbery Award is named after a man, John Newbery, who is considered more or less the “Father of Children’s Literature”.  Newbery was born in 1713 in England. He was apprenticed at the age of sixteen to a printer named William Ayers and later to William Carnan. When Carnan died, he […]

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