FeedCity: History Facts

War rarely follows a strict schedule. Fighting flares, subsides, and then sometimes flares up again, and a peace agreement that seems decisive can fall apart. Determining the longest war in history can therefore be a little tricky, and historians don’t always agree on the be...

History Facts
30 Sep 20:48 • Tony Dunnell

Why Did Old Airplanes Have Black Noses?

Flip through photos of mid-20th-century airplanes and one detail keeps popping up: a prominent black nose. It was once seen everywhere, even across rival airlines with completely different color schemes and branding — almost as if these companies had all agreed on one small,...

History Facts
30 Sep 20:48 • Kristina Wright

How PB&J Became America’s Favorite Lunch

Ask a group of friends to name their favorite childhood sandwich, and chances are peanut butter and jelly will be near the top of the list. However you make it, it’s a simple sandwich that has a way of calling up childhood lunches, school cafeterias, kitchen counters, and th...

History Facts
30 Sep 20:48 • Michael Nordine

Early movie theaters hired people to explain what was happening onscreen.

Before they were a ubiquitous facet of everyday life, movies — and movie theaters — were a novelty that few people fully understood as a storytelling medium. And when something is difficult to understand, the best option is usually to bring in someone who can explain it. Tha...

History Facts
30 Sep 20:48 • Michael Nordine

The croquet competition at the 1900 Olympics had almost no spectators.

Some events are synonymous with the Olympics, while others can feel somewhat out of place. Gymnastics, swimming, and track and field are enduring parts of the quadrennial event, while some events have been bizarre one-offs. Bowling made it to the Games in 1988, breakdancing ...

History Facts
30 Sep 20:48 • Michael Nordine

Einstein never learned to drive.

As you might imagine of the man whose name is synonymous with genius, Albert Einstein was a tad eccentric. In addition to sleeping at least 10 hours a night and not wearing socks, he also never learned to drive. This mostly came down to preference rather than inability...

History Facts
30 Sep 20:48 • Michael Nordine

People used to wear tiny perfume holders around their necks to survive bad city smells.

The past probably didn’t smell as bad as we tend to think, but there are certainly exceptions. European cities, for example, tended to be quite, shall we say, fragrant in the Middle Ages. To combat this, as well as the prevailing belief at the time that disease was mainly sp...

History Facts
28 Sep 20:21 • Timothy Ott

Ohio’s abbreviation used to be just ‘O.’

With the 1831 publication of Table of the Post Offices in the United States, the Post Office Department acknowledged the population’s reluctance to completely spell out state names on mailing envelopes (such as the always-vexing “Massachusetts”) and for the first time unveil...

History Facts
25 Sep 16:12 • Tony Dunnell

6 Car Features You Never See Anymore

Get in a car from the 1960s or ’70s and it feels like a different species of vehicle. No LCD screens, no GPS, and certainly no smartphone mirroring. Instead, you’ll see a number of features that have quietly disappeared over the decades, killed off by safety regulations or s...

History Facts
25 Sep 16:12 • Tony Dunnell

Surprising Hidden Talents of 10 U.S. Presidents

Through much of history, the American public has been largely unaware of the non-job-related abilities of its Presidents.

The post Surprising Hidden Talents of 10 U.S. Presidents appeared first on History Facts.

History Facts
25 Sep 16:12 • Timothy Ott

Why Do Older Movies Look Faster?

When we think about old, silent films, we’re likely to picture the choppy, fast-paced movements of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton, or perhaps the newsreel footage of Babe Ruth hitting a home run and seemingly zipping around the bases at 40 miles per hour. As talented as th...

History Facts
25 Sep 16:12 • Anne T. Donahue

The Rise of Plastic: A History of Credit Cards

The introduction of the Diners Club card, the first modern charge card, made spending even more convenient

The post The Rise of Plastic: A History of Credit Cards appeared first on History Facts.

History Facts
25 Sep 16:12 • Tony Dunnell

Surprising Facts About Every U.S. President

Since the establishment of the office in 1789, 45 people have served in 47 presidencies. Each president has brought their own brand of political discourse to the role, and historians tend to remember these leaders primarily for their major historical achievements and policy ...

History Facts
23 Sep 22:15 • Bess Lovejoy

5 Historical Figures Who Were Picky Eaters

Picky eating isn’t limited to children refusing their vegetables. History is full of prominent adults who approached mealtime with strong opinions about what belonged on their plates. Some were guided by taste, while others followed elaborate health theories, philosophical b...

History Facts
23 Sep 22:15 • Tony Dunnell

7 Jobs That Existed Only Because There Was No Electricity

In our modern world, the idea of spending more than a few hours without electricity — no screens, no social media, no air conditioning — seems like something out of a dystopian nightmare. Unplug our lives, and we soon start doing truly bizarre things like reading actual book...

History Facts
23 Sep 22:15 • Kristina Wright

10 TV Shows Everyone Watched in 1970

Ask a bunch of people what their favorite TV show is right now, and there’s a good chance you won’t recognize at least a few of the titles. Given today’s television landscape, filled with hundreds of cable channels and seemingly endless streaming options, it’s difficult to n...

History Facts
23 Sep 22:15 • Bess Lovejoy

Columbus said he saw mermaids.

On January 9, 1493, as Christopher Columbus was sailing along the northern coast of Hispaniola (near what is now the Dominican Republic), his journal recorded an unusual sighting from the previous day. Near the mouth of what’s now the Yaque del Norte River, which Columbus na...

History Facts
23 Sep 22:15 • Michael Nordine

Mother Teresa’s real name wasn’t Teresa.

Though the world knew her as Mother Teresa, the nun who would become a saint was known to her family of devout Albanian Catholics as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Born in 1910 in Skopje, then a part of the Ottoman Empire and now the capital of North Macedonia, she moved to Ireland ...

History Facts
23 Sep 22:15 • Bess Lovejoy

Kids used to gather to watch giant blocks of ice being delivered.

Before electric refrigerators became standard kitchen equipment in the U.S., the arrival of the iceman was a familiar neighborhood event. Horse-drawn wagons carried huge blocks of ice through American streets, stopping wherever a household needed to replenish its icebox. The...

History Facts
23 Sep 22:15 • Nicole Villeneuve

For centuries, inns made strangers share beds.

When you book a hotel room, you expect the bed to be yours alone. Even a hostel, where you’re likely to share a room, gives you your own mattress. But a couple of centuries ago, travelers had very different expectations. Sharing a bed with a stranger was often part of the de...

History Facts
17 Sep 21:27 • Tony Dunnell

7 Everyday Products That Came Out of WWI

World War I lasted four long years, and the unprecedented scale of the conflict demanded rapid innovation and resourcefulness. The brutal war of attrition, characterized by trench warfare, created many problems to be solved, from the desperate need to treat wounded soldiers ...

History Facts
17 Sep 21:27 • Kristina Wright

7 Popular 1950s Items You Never See Anymore

Seventy years ago, Elvis was shaking up the airwaves, Lucille Ball had Americans laughing in their living rooms, and Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower were charting very different visions for a postwar United States. The space race was just beginning to heat u...

History Facts
17 Sep 21:27 • Michael Nordine

The Most Accurate War Movies of All Time

Even if you favor entertainment over education when it comes to cinema, you probably care at least a little about historical accuracy when watching historical dramas. A little creative license never hurt anyone, but attention to detail adds an authenticity that makes the vie...

History Facts
17 Sep 21:27 • Timothy Ott

7 Fascinating Features of U.S. Military Uniforms

Military uniforms serve a multifaceted purpose for the people who wear them: They forge a feeling of cohesion and present a unified front in battle, while also leaving room for individual identification of rank and accomplishments by way of specific clothing, insignias, and ...

History Facts
17 Sep 21:27 • Michael Nordine

The Eiffel Tower used to be painted yellow.

If you’ve ever wondered whether the color of the Eiffel Tower has its own name, the answer is oui: “Eiffel Tower brown,” which consists of three shades and was chosen for the way it blends into the Paris cityscape. But the iconic landmark has undergone several hue changes si...

History Facts
17 Sep 21:27 • Sarah Anne Lloyd

Some U.S. states had laws requiring margarine to be dyed pink.

Twenty states regulated margarine’s labeling, and seven more banned it outright.

The post Some U.S. states had laws requiring margarine to be dyed pink. appeared first on History Facts.