History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
The first modern Olympic champions received silver
At Athens in 1896, winners received silver medals, olive branches, and diplomas. The familiar gold-silver-bronze sequence for the top three arrived at the…
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The 1812 Overture puts cannons in the orchestra
Tchaikovsky specified cannon fire for the finale, making artillery part of the musical spectacle. Performances often replace it with recordings or other…
Discover moreDarth Vader barely appears in Star Wars
Vader has only a small role in the original Star Wars, but the film makes each appearance count. A little screen time did unusually heavy work.
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First full length animated feature took three years to make
Disney spent three years and more than a million hand-drawn frames on Snow White, risking a feature-length cartoon when many doubted audiences would sit…
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Hitchcock kept turning himself into a background character
His cameos put the director into his own films as a passerby, passenger, or other brief presence. Spotting him became an extra game for viewers, separate from…
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Norman Rockwell built paintings from photographs
He staged scenes and photographed them, then used the images as references for his iconic magazine covers rather than painting entirely from memory.
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Buzz Aldrin took the first space selfie
During the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, Aldrin opened the hatch and pointed a camera at his own helmet to take a picture in space.
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Pollock's drips had roots in traditional painting
Jackson Pollock studied with Thomas Hart Benton, whose figures and landscapes moved in sweeping rhythms. Pollock eventually abandoned recognizable figures,…
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Elvis bought Graceland at just 22
The estate covered 14 acres, giving Elvis room for his large entourage.
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Jimi Hendrix lasted just seven dates as the Monkees' opening act
In 1967, the pairing put Hendrix's guitar performance in front of young fans waiting for a very different band. The reception was poor and he left the tour. A…
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Two Dodgers helped turn a raised palm into the high five
After Dusty Baker's thirtieth home run in 1977, Glenn Burke greeted him with an upraised hand and Baker slapped it. The moment became a famous origin story…
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Frida Kahlo painted exactly fifty-five unique self portraits
They made up roughly a third of her work, and Kahlo said she was her own favorite subject.
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The Beatles' last concert was on a rooftop
They played an unannounced lunchtime set from their office rooftop until police stopped the concert over the noise.
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The famous composition with no notes
John Cage left the piano untouched for four minutes and 33 seconds; the audience heard the room’s ambient sounds instead. Silence wasn’t an absence of sound…
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The first Grammy winners went home without trophies
The first Grammy winners, including Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, got congratulations because the statuettes hadn't been made yet. The music industry's…
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Jackson Pollock painted with a kitchen baster
He used dried-out brushes, sticks, and turkey basters to fling paint onto canvas, turning a kitchen utensil into an unconventional tool for abstract art.
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Johnny Cash performed a legendary music concert in a prison
At Folsom State Prison, Cash sang songs about crime to an audience living behind the walls those songs described, then released the performance as a live…
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Einstein patented a fridge with no moving parts
He and Leo Szilard designed an absorption refrigerator that used heat and interacting fluids instead of a mechanical compressor. Their 1930 patent exploited…
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Paul Revere identified a body by its teeth
After the Battle of Bunker Hill, Revere identified a fallen general by the silver wire in his false teeth—a set Revere had made as a silversmith.
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Ancient Greeks thought trousers were unmanly
Trousers were associated with peoples such as Persians and Scythians, while Greek men commonly wore draped garments. Greek portrayals could use that clothing…
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Ancient Egyptians believed lettuce was an aphrodisiac
Lettuce was offered to Min, the Egyptian fertility god, and people believed it could boost stamina. A humble salad green had a surprisingly racy reputation.
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Pompeii’s snack bars left food evidence behind
At a decorated thermopolium excavated in Regio V, archaeologists found residues and animal remains including duck, goat, fish, and snails. Large containers…
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Lafayette was buried under soil from America
Lafayette was buried in Paris, but soil shipped from Bunker Hill was spread over his grave. He had arranged to rest in American earth—the closest he could…
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Diogenes answered a definition of humanity with a plucked chicken.
Diogenes answered a definition of humanity with a plucked chicken. In the anecdote recorded by Diogenes Laertius, Plato's definition of a human as a…
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