History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
Tennis rackets were once strung with sheep intestines
Vegans would have absolutely hated early tennis. For centuries, the bouncy strings on a racket were made from 'natural gut'—which is a polite way of saying…
Discover more
He lost his nose in a duel over math
If you're going to lose a facial appendage over an algebra dispute, you might as well replace it with solid bling. The brilliant 16th-century astronomer got…
Discover more
Victory celebrations once drained Russia’s vodka reserves
Because when you finally crush fascism, the only logical response is to drink an entire global superpower dry. When news of Germany's surrender hit Moscow, a…
Discover more
The strange story of Karl Marx and the street lamps
Writing the manifesto for global revolution is stressful, so clearly getting hammered and aggressively fighting infrastructure is entirely justified. When…
Discover more
Iceland’s parliament began beside a rock
The Icelandic Althing is widely recognized as the oldest continuously functioning parliament in the world, founded in 930. Long before marble buildings and…
Discover more
There’s a town in Michigan named Hell
There is a perfectly pleasant small town in Michigan officially named 'Hell'. Theories on the name vary, from a German settler calling it 'so schön hell' (so…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
How Arabic gave English its word for zero
For centuries, European mathematics was completely handicapped by Roman numerals, which blatantly lacked a symbol for nothing. The concept of zero had to be…
Discover more
Why Calvin Coolidge had his head rubbed with Vaseline
Calvin Coolidge was known as 'Silent Cal' because he barely spoke, but his morning routine screamed louder than words. He demanded that his head be…
Discover more
President had to run twice to get his old job back
Grover Cleveland is the reason US presidential numbering is completely messed up. He won the election in 1884, lost his re-election bid in 1888, and then just…
Discover more
The woman who was hit by a meteorite in her sleep
In 1954, Ann Hodges was taking a perfectly normal afternoon nap in Alabama when an 8.5-pound rock blasted through her ceiling, bounced off a radio, and…
Discover more
The presidential candidate who ran from prison
Eugene V. Debs didn't let a minor detail like federal incarceration stop his political ambitions. Arrested for speaking out against the draft during the early…
Discover more
Citizens were forced to buy overpriced government salt
The French 'Gabelle' was one of the most hated taxes in human history. The government monopolized salt and mandated that every citizen over the age of eight…
Discover more
The state that collapsed because it couldn't tax itself
Before Tennessee existed, there was the State of Franklin, a rogue territory that declared independence from North Carolina in 1784. They drafted a…
Discover more
The asteroid blast that shattered Chelyabinsk's windows
In 2013, a 66-foot asteroid sneaked past every early warning system and exploded in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia. The flash was brighter than the…
Discover more
How Martin Van Buren helped make OK famous
If you use the word 'OK', you are unwittingly referencing the deeply mediocre 8th US President, Martin Van Buren. His nickname was 'Old Kinderhook', and his…
Discover more
When Indiana lawmakers tried to redefine pi
In 1897, the Indiana State Legislature actually debated a bill that would legally declare the mathematical value of Pi to be exactly 3.2. A crank…
Discover more
Swampy peninsula was bought to stop border disputes
In 1819, Spain essentially gave up on trying to manage Florida. The territory was overrun with runaway slaves, indigenous tribes, and American squatters, and…
Discover more
The counties that tried to create a new state
In 1941, a group of rural counties in Northern California and Southern Oregon got so fed up with their terrible roads that they decided to secede and form the…
Discover more
Why eavesdropping once meant getting soaked
The term 'eavesdropping' wasn't originally about digital wiretaps; it was heavily literal. In medieval times, houses had wide eaves to throw rainwater away…
Discover more
David Atchison may have been president for one day
In 1849, James K. Polk's term ended on a Sunday, and Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on the Sabbath. This technically left David Rice Atchison, the…
Discover more
The equals sign was invented to spare one mathematician's wrist
In 1557, Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde got utterly sick of writing the words 'is equal to' hundreds of times in his algebraic texts. To save his own…
Discover more
The blizzard that trapped children at school
In 1888, the US plains experienced an unusually warm winter day. Kids went to school without coats. Out of nowhere, a massive arctic front dropped…
Discover more
Teddy Roosevelt drank a gallon of coffee a day
Teddy Roosevelt was essentially a human anxiety attack fueled by caffeine. He consumed roughly a gallon of coffee every single day, often adding five to seven…
Discover more
The Kentucky land you can reach only through other states
Thanks to a series of violent seismic shifts in 1811, the Mississippi River violently changed course, completely isolating a chunk of Kentucky. The 'Kentucky…
Discover more