Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson cover art

All Episodes

Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson — 1000 episodes

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Title
1

The QWERTY Keyboard Made Life Easier For Typewriters, And Sometimes Typists Too

2

7Up Is Called 7Up For Reasons The Inventor Never Explained

3

Exeter Cathedral, Home Of The World’s Oldest Cat Door

4

Raising A Baby Chimp Alongside A Human Baby Can Get Weird

5

Search And Rescue Rats Are Getting A High-Tech Upgrade

6

The Guy Who Turned A Roulette Wheel’s Imperfections Into A Windfall

7

Very Precise Math Is What Keeps The St. Louis Arch Standing

8

Kissing Has Probably Been Around Longer Than Humans Have

9

Sandwich Week: A Guy Who Snagged Richard Nixon’s Half-Eaten Sandwich Still Has It 60 Years Later

10

Sandwich Week: Order A Cold Sandwich And You May Be More Likely To Get Sides, Too

11

Sandwich Week: The Worst Sandwich Ever Was A Way To Get Around Anti-Liquor Laws

12

Sandwich Week: Two US Cities Each Insist Their Cuban Sandwich Is The Authentic One

13

Sandwich Week: Elvis Once Flew Halfway Across The Country For A Giant Sandwich

14

Christopher Colles Gave The Early United States Its First Road Atlas

15

Sheila Scott Brought Grit And Glamour To Long-Distance Flying

16

Denmark And Canada Fought A “War” That Was Mostly Putting Liquor Bottles On An Uninhabited Island

17

What Exactly Was Benjamin Franklin Doing With That Kite And That Thunderstorm?

18

Project Horizon Was A US Plan To Put A Secret Base On The Moon

19

Denmark Allows People To Burn Its Flag, But Not Other Countries’ Flags

20

Sometimes You Buy A Painting For Four Bucks And There’s A Historic Document Hidden Inside

21

Some People Loathe The World’s Top Museums, And They Have Their Reasons

22

It Snowed In London In June 1975

23

There’s A Rock Wall In Bolivia That Has Thousands Of Dinosaur Tracks In It

24

Abraham Lincoln’s Best Speech May Be The One Nobody Documented - Oops

25

An NHL Team Drafted Taro Tsujimoto Even Though He Didn’t Exist

26

For The Opening Of The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Threw A Gigantic Party

27

In 1930s St. Louis, A “Robot” Tried To Keep People From Jaywalking

28

Memorial Day Special: James Garfield Had A Lot To Say On Memorial Day

29

Students In Maryland Sometimes Try To Put Their High Schools Up For Sale

30

Neta Snook Was The Pioneering Pilot Who Taught Amelia Earhart How To Fly

31

Americans Fell In Love With Dude Ranches And Started Wearing Blue Jeans

32

Andre The Giant Had To Wrestle In Front Of Saddam Hussein

33

Ennigaldi-Nanna, The World’s First Museum Curator

34

Marathon Week: Shizo Kanakuri Finished A Marathon He’d Started 54 Years Earlier

35

Marathon Week: Jessica Anderson, A Record-Setting Marathon-Running Nurse

36

Marathon Week: The 1904 Men’s Marathon Was The Weirdest Olympic Race Ever

37

Marathon Week: She Ran A Marathon While Pushing A Triple Stroller Full Of Kids

38

Marathon Week: Cliff Young Won An Ultramarathon By Running Like An “Old Turtle”

39

For Centuries, Oxford Grads Had To Take A Vow Against This One Guy Henry Symeonis

40

Budapest Has A Rail Line That’s Run By Kids

41

Edsel Ford Fong Was A San Francisco Sensation For Being “The World’s Rudest Waiter”

42

Alfred Hajós Won Olympic Titles In Swimming And Architecture

43

How Florida Turned A Mascot For Orange Growers Into A Marvel Superhero

44

How Nashville Got Its Own Parthenon

45

Mario Segale Was Once Nintendo’s Landlord And You Can Guess What His Name Inspired

46

A Japanese Train Line Was About To Stop Running, Until Tama The Cat Gave It New Life

47

Swedish Meatballs Aren’t Originally Swedish

48

Fierljeppen Is The Netherlands’ Top Sport For Pole Vaulting Over Water

49

Money Week: At The Arkansas State Capitol, They Let Visitors Hold Actual Taxpayer Dollars

50

Money Week: Ben Franklin vs Counterfeiters

51

Money Week: Australia’s Biggest Little Spelling Error

52

Money Week: How Did U.S. Dollars Get Their Name?

53

Money Week: Tenino, Washington, The Town That Makes Its Own Money Out Of Wood

54

A Big Bat Tower In The Florida Keys Sounded Like A Great Idea To Everyone Except The Bats

55

During A Job Interview, Try Not To Get Into A Loud Argument With Your Pet Parrot

56

We Could Use Kale To Mine Heavy Metals And Clean Up Polluted Soil

57

Titanic Had A Near-Twin And Boy That Must’ve Weird To See After Titanic’s Sinking

58

Owning Your Own Town Can Be Hard Work, Just Ask The Former Owners Of Wauconda, Washington

59

An Unusually Large Diamond From West Virginia Spent Over A Decade In A Cigar Box

60

Milton Berle Hosted TV’s First Big-Name Charity Telethon

61

There’s A Statue In Cambodia To Honor A Legendary Mine-Detecting Rat

62

A Moisture-Sensing Robot Could Help Grow Crops While Conserving Water

63

Some People In England Celebrated Easter By Lifting Strangers In The Air

64

A Bunny-Filled Ad Campaign Helped The Cadbury Creme Egg Become An Easter Tradition

65

Seven Decades After An Iowa Woman Wrote “Please Write Me” On An Egg, Someone Got In Touch

66

An Inside Edition Viewer Spotted A Lump On The Host’s Neck, And Helped Her Stay Healthy

67

The Three Most Important Words In Reforesting: Location, Location, Location

68

People Are More Excited About Time They Got Back Than Time That Was Always Open

69

Tactile Tech Can Help Blind Baseball Fans Follow Games With Their Fingertips

70

Queen Elizabeth II Was Sending E-Mails Decades Before Most Of Us Got Online

71

Leonard Nimoy Once Hung Out With Jimi Hendrix

72

There’s A Race For Waiters In Paris

73

Before He Made Running History, Roger Bannister Had To Work His Day Job

74

Signs And Signals Week: How To Perform Opera In American Sign Language

75

Signs And Signals Week: Here’s A Shirt That Can Feel Sound

76

Signs And Signals Week: Happy Birthday To Closed Captioned Television

77

Signs And Signals Week: How Two Deaf Mountaineers Plan To Climb The Seven Summits

78

Signs And Signals Week: Kids In Nicaragua Created Their Own Sign Language

79

Rose Coppinger, The Phone Operator Who Helped Her Town Weather A Massive Fire

80

For Years, Iceland’s TV Service Took Thursdays Off

81

People In Different Countries Can Have Very Different Dreams

82

There Was A Time When Some People Thought Being Understood On The Phone Was Feminine

83

Before She Became The Most Famous Gal In Malibu, Barbie Grew Up In Wisconsin

84

Food Companies Used To Send Out Playable Records On Cereal Boxes

85

There’s A Pickup Truck On The Side Of A Building In The Dominican Republic

86

King Louis XIV’s Chef Is Why Salt And Pepper Go Together At The Dinner Table

87

The US Military Once Tested Out A “Camel Corps”

88

The Sound Of Music’s “Do Re Mi” Song Gets Very Different In Other Languages

89

In Poland, Nothing Goes Better With Pasta Than Strawberries

90

William Addis Went To Prison For Inciting A Riot And Came Out With A Modern Toothbrush Design

91

With Enough Ice And Enough Patience, People Can Walk Across One Of The Great Lakes In A Weekend

92

Manon Rhéaume, The First Woman To Play NHL Hockey

93

Learning To DJ Might Help Some People With ADHD

94

Saturday Night Live Did A Special In New Orleans, And It Got Complicated

95

Joe Frazier Was A Legendary Athlete, But A TV Athletic Competition Didn’t Go Swimmingly Well For Him

96

Elm Farm Ollie, The Cow Who Once Flew Over St. Louis

97

One Tournament Chess Game, Twenty Hours, No Winner

98

There’s A Set Of Giant President Heads In Virginia And They’ve Been Through Some Stuff

99

Abe Lincoln Week: Abraham Lincoln, Wedding Planner

100

Abe Lincoln Week: The Time Kate Warne, America’s First Female Detective, Saved Abraham Lincoln’s Life

101

Abe Lincoln Week: The Lincoln Memorial Has A Basement

102

Abe Lincoln Week: Grace Bedell, The Girl Who Got Abe Lincoln To Grow A Beard

103

Abe Lincoln Week: When Abe Lincoln Said Thanks But No Thanks To A Herd Of Elephants

104

A Painting Chimpanzee Posed As A Modern Artist Named Pierre Brassau

105

Drummer Hal Blaine Literally Left His Stamp On Popular Music

106

Shock Rocker Alice Cooper Was Good Friends With Comedy Legend Groucho Marx

107

Fred The Cat Went Undercover To Catch A Fake Veterinarian In Brooklyn

108

Rosa Slade Gragg Outsmarted Detroit’s Racial Housing Rules, With A Workaround On A Corner Lot

109

At Least One Beatle Hoped That The Band Would Get Arrested For Its Rooftop Concert

110

Some Kansans Wanted To Turn Their Part Of The State Into West Kansas

111

A Football Team Selected John Wayne In The 1971 NFL Draft

112

In Lewis Carroll’s Time, A Real Disease Led To “Mad Hatters”

113

Before She Changed The World Of Flying, Bessie Coleman Was An Award-Winning Manicurist

114

Why Is A Pie In The Face Such A Big Part Of Comedy History?

115

A Town In South Dakota Saw Winter Weather Turn Mild In Minutes

116

Károly Takács Was A Right Handed Sport Shooter, But Won Olympic Gold Left-Handed

117

A 1960s Computer Simulated A “Super Fight” Between Two Heavyweight Legends

118

Martin Luther King Jr. Was A Trekkie (MLK Day Special)

119

The “Great Bottle Hoax” Proved Some People Will Pay To See Something They Know Is Impossible

120

After The “Miracle On The Hudson,” Captain “Sully” Sullenberger Had To Deal With A Lost Library Book

121

A Woman Applied For A Job In 1976, And Got A Reply In 2024

122

The YMCA Once Sued The Village People Over The Song “YMCA”

123

Brock Meister Survived A Rarely Survivable “Internal Decapitation”

124

Basketball Week: In One Game, Jason McElwain Became A High School Basketball Legend

125

Basketball Week: Three Pro Basketball Players Once Played For Both Teams In A Single Game

126

Basketball Week: Wat Misaka Was A Pro Basketball Pioneer (And A Pretty Impressive Bowler, Too)

127

Basketball Week: Basketball Great Lisa Leslie Scored 101 Points In A High School Game

128

Basketball Week: Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 Point Game Was Truly One Of A Kind

129

How The Laugh Track Made TV Jokes Seem Funny Even If They Really Weren’t

130

46 BC Was The Extra-Long “Year Of Confusion”

131

For Some Of Us, New Year’s Eve Is The Time To Put On Some Red Undies

132

We Could Turn The Bits Of Tomatoes We Don’t Eat Into Jet Fuel

133

A German Doctor Once Tried To Turn Hawaii Into A Russian Colony

134

Watch Out, The Greek Christmas Goblins Are About To Run Amok

135

Axel Bjorklund, Boston's "Hot Dog Santa Claus"

136

Clement Clarke Moore Wasn’t Always Looking To Have His Name On “A Visit From St. Nicholas”

137

The Real-Life Festivus Holiday Was Maybe Even Weirder Than The One On “Seinfeld”

138

The First Electric Christmas Lights Were On A Rotating Tree

139

Fred Thomas Played In The World Series While He Was On Active Duty In The US Navy

140

Americans Accidentally Broke Plymouth Rock In Two - More Than Once

141

Houston’s Hanukkah House Brings All The Lights For The Holidays (Hanukkah Special)

142

The Society For The Prevention Of Useless Giving Tried To Get Americans Out Of All That Holiday Shopping

143

How An Amendment James Madison Wrote In The 1790s Got Added To The US Constitution In The 1990s

144

“O Holy Night” May Have Been The First Christmas Song Played On The Radio

145

Jakob Mierscheid, The Imaginary Member Of Germany’s Real Parliament

146

To Make A Cold War Documentary, NBC Funded An Escape Tunnel Under The Berlin Wall

147

How Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas” Became A Song For Every Christmas

148

This Robot Could Plant Baby Trees To Reforest An Area After A Forest Fire

149

Bat Week: Libraries In Portugal Are Preserving Old Books With Help From Bats

150

Bat Week: Bats Who Randomly End Up Living Together Sometimes Become Friends

151

Bat Week: Bats Can Predict Where Their Prey Is Headed

152

Bat Week: Babies Babble, And So Do Baby Bats

153

Bat Week: Bats Can Remember Our Ringtones

154

Train Cars, A Trip To The Beach And Telegraphs Helped Inspire The Bar Code

155

Thanksgiving Without Cranberries? For Many Americans In 1959, It Happened

156

The Tan Hill Inn, Where Getting Snowed In With Strangers Can Actually Be Fun

157

Mr. Delicious, The Fast Food Mascot Who Sold Roast Beef With A Side Of Middle-Aged Angst

158

Bessie Blount Griffin Invented A Way For Veterans With Disabilities To Feed Themselves, And So Much More

159

PropType Turns Almost Any Surface Into An Augmented Reality Keyboard

160

Yo-Yos Work A Little Differently In Space Than Here On Earth

161

How Bullwinkle Once Managed To Honk Off A Lot Of TV-Owning Parents

162

Peel Off A Layer Of This Paper Plate For Earth’s Sake

163

Pedestrianism, The Enormously Popular 19th Century Sport Where People Went For Really Long Walks

164

“In A Pickle” Is A Phrase That Doesn’t Have Much To Do With Actual Pickles

165

We Can Drop Artificial Snow With Help From Airplanes, But Machines Are Probably Easier

166

Some Spiders May Add Extra Threads To Webs That Let Them Know When There’s Prey Nearby

167

During The Battle Of The Bulge, Vincent Speranza Made A Beer Run For The Ages

168

Before Hitting It Big With His Novels, Kurt Vonnegut Invented A Board Game

169

Telephone Week: 39 Years After Making The First Phone Call, Alexander Graham Bell Joined A Transcontinental Conference Call

170

Telephone Week: When Maasai Herders Call The Wrong Number, They May End Up Making A New Friend

171

Telephone Week: The Undertaker Who Developed Automatic Phone Dialing

172

Telephone Week: Indiana Bell Rotated And Moved Its Office Building – And Kept Working There During The Move

173

Telephone Week: In Rural America, Some People Turned Their Wire Fences Into Phone Lines

174

If You’re Out Guising On Halloween Night In Scotland, Have A Few Jokes Or Songs Handy

175

Halloween Hoaxes About World War III Don’t Work So Well, As A California High School Found Out

176

“Cat Man” Rex Shepherd Helped Put Some Of The British Museum’s Feral Cats To Work

177

KISS Made A TV Movie Where They Fought Their Evil Clones At An Amusement Park

178

There’s A Fake House In Brooklyn That Covers Up Real Subway Equipment

179

During The Great Depression, A Community In California Used Clamshells As Temporary Money

180

When It’s Sheep Shearing Time In Wales, It’s Time To Break Out The Special Shearing Cake

181

Jet Black Is Named For A Gemstone, Not Jet Planes

182

There’s A Forest In Indiana That Grows Wood For The USS Constitution

183

How Ford Put A Mustang High Up On The Empire State Building

184

Hockey Week: Some American Hockey Players Develop Canadian-Ish Accents

185

Hockey Week: Meet The Zamboni Who Invented The Zamboni

186

Hockey Week: What Does It Take To Be Great At Underwater Hockey?

187

Hockey Week: Eddie Shore, The Hockey Player Who Would Do Anything To Make The Game

188

Hockey Week: The Canadiens And Maple Leafs Had A Brawl, And A Hockey Game Broke Out

189

The Hearing Car Is Testing Whether Self-Driving Vehicles Need More Senses On The Road

190

A Radio Show In Tennessee Told Listeners They Had To Recycle Their Old-Style $20 Bills

191

Otto The Octopus Was Really Good At Getting Into Mischief

192

The Soviet Union Put Out An Official Cookbook Of “Tasty And Healthy Food”

193

The Benshi Were Japan’s Silent Movie Whisperers

194

Times New Roman, A 1930s Typeface, Is Still A Top Font In The 21st Century

195

The Furby Fad Of The 1990s Briefly Became A National Security Concern

196

Smith Island Cake Is Maryland’s Official State Dessert

197

How William Wrigley Went From Soap Guy To Baking Powder Guy To Chewing Gum Giant And Baseball Owner

198

Önneköp Is A Micronation In Sweden That Celebrates “Cuckoo-Coffee”

199

Pizza Week: The Pizza And Pipe Organ Connection

200

Pizza Week: Math Says You Get More Pizza With A Large Instead Of Two Mediums

201

Pizza Week: Detroit-Style Pizza Got Its Shape From Another Famous Detroit Industry

202

Pizza Week: Steve Jobs, The First Person To Order A Pizza Online

203

Pizza Week: How Chuck E. Cheese Became The World’s Top Animatronic Mouse Video Gamer And Pizza Restaurateur

204

Nadia Sparkes Started Picking Up Litter On The Way To School And Became “Trash Girl”

205

Muslims Pray Toward Mecca - Which Can Be A Challenge For Muslim Astronauts On A Space Station

206

The Who’s American TV Debut Really Blew Up, Especially Keith Moon’s Drums

207

Why 90s Screen Savers Were Full Of Flying Toasters And Endless Mazes

208

We’ll Miss Maru, The Box-Obsessed Celebrity Internet Cat

209

How Pink Floyd Got A Man On Fire Onto An Album Cover

210

Roselle The Guide Dog Helped Her Human Get To Safety During The 9/11 Attacks

211

Why Take A Bath Or A Shower When You Can Hop Into A “Human Washing Machine”?

212

Teddy Bears Were Once The Big Threat To American Youth

213

Robert Coates, The Stage Actor Who Was So Terrible He Became A Legend

214

Sports Get Wild Week: Maryland’s Official State Sport Is Jousting

215

Sports Get Wild Week: “Steady” Ed Headrick, the “Father of Disc Golf”

216

Sports Get Wild Week: The Time A Golfer Won The US Open While Suffering From Dysentery

217

Sports Get Wild Week: The Netherlands Turned Pole-Sitting Into A Competitive Sport

218

Sports Get Wild Week: In The 1920s There Was A Footrace From Los Angeles To New York

219

Most School Buses Are Bright Yellow For Exactly The Reasons You’d Probably Expect

220

Before Humans Ever Went To Space, A Mom In France Tried Training Her Son To Be An Astronaut

221

Inventor Becky Schroeder Had A Patent Before She Was A Teenager

222

Rip The Dog Helped Rescue Londoners From Bomb Damaged Buildings During The Blitz

223

The Great Moon Hoax Showed Misinformation Spread In The 19th Century Much Like It Does Today

224

A Formerly Enslaved Man Roasted His Former Master In A Classic Letter

225

A Restaurant In Wisconsin Keeps Goats On The Roof

226

Isabel Morgan Unlocked The Mysteries Of Polio On The Road To A Vaccine

227

Potatoes Have Made Their Contribution To World Peace

228

Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” Was Partly Based On Real Bird Weirdness

229

When Eating With A Fork Was Scandalous

230

The Guy Who Officially Had The First Social Security Number

231

A Guy In Saudi Arabia Has Over 400 Video Game Consoles Connected To A Single TV

232

“Drop Kick Me Jesus” Is Country Music’s “Christian-Football Waltz”

233

A Fair In Washington State Is Famous For Its Spaceburgers

234

Here’s A Robot That’s Learning To Make Us Pizzas

235

The Winchester Mystery House Probably Wasn’t Built To Be Mysterious

236

Campbell’s Soup Grew To Love Andy Warhol’s Soup Can Paintings, Just Maybe Not Right Away

237

The “ManhattAnt” Is New York City’s Very Own Ant Species

238

Brad Lewis Kept His Son Safe As They Both Fell Off A Balcony

239

“Illustrated Songs” Were Proto-Music Videos Almost A Century Before MTV

240

One Of MGM’s Roaring Lions Lived A Life Even Stranger Than The Movies

241

Ford Once Tried To Replace The Steering Wheel With A “Wrist Twist” System

242

Bacteria Can Consume Used Plastic And Turn It Into Medicine

243

We’ve Tried Quite A Few Times To Send Mail By Rocket

244

Books And Authors Week: Meet Some Of The Oldest Books Ever Found

245

Books And Authors Week: Does A Book With 1,250 Endings Ever Really End?

246

Books And Authors Week: I Review The Body Electric

247

Books And Authors Week: A Big-Time Librarian Kept “Goodnight Moon” Off The Shelves For 25 Years

248

Books And Authors Week: Never Skip The Dedication Page Of A Book, They Can Get Wild

249

The North Pole Moved Three Feet Because Of Dams

250

Watergate Salad Is An Actual Sweet Dish Named For Our “Long National Nightmare”

251

A Blood Sample From A Late Composer Is Powering A Musical Experiment

252

Guitarist Cordell Jackson Was Rocking Out Before There Was Rock Music

253

A Burma-Shave Ad Offered A Trip To “Mars,” And A Guy Tried To Take That Trip

254

Quiet Riot’s Biggest Hit Came From A Recording Session They Tried To Tank

255

Which Horse Is On Wyoming’s License Plate? It's Complicated

256

The BBC Once Reported That Cows Might Have Accents

257

A Shop In Small-Town Nebraska Gave The World The Tin Roof Sundae

258

Tiny Swarms Of Robots Might Help Us Get Through Sinus Infections

259

How Fireworks Illuminate Independence Day, The Way John Adams Wanted

260

The Original Version Of The Michelin Man Was Kind Of Terrifying

261

Graham Island, The Mediterranean’s Disappearing Volcanic Island

262

How Canada’s Flag Ended Up With A Maple Leaf Instead Of Union Jacks, Beavers Or Mounties

263

June Robertson McCarroll, The Doctor Who Painted A Line Down The Middle Of The Road

264

Fashion Week: The Jumpsuit Century

265

Fashion Week: The Fabric With A Built-In Cooling System

266

Fashion Week: The Plastic Bags Of Today Could Be The Fashionable Fabric Of Tomorrow

267

Fashion Week: Bioprinting Clothes (And More) Out Of Algae

268

Fashion Week: The First Top Hat Got Its Inventor Arrested

269

Monkeys Follow Some Of The Same Economic Principles As Humans Do

270

How The Juneteenth Holiday Spread From Galveston, To Texas, To The Whole United States

271

The Vatican Once Sang The Praises Of The Blues Brothers

272

To Get Kids To Eat Their Veggies, A Company Sold A Line Called “I Hate Peas”

273

Cracker Jack Originally Came With More Peanuts And No Prizes

274

The Man Versus Horse Marathon Is Pretty Much What The Name Suggests

275

Easy Listening Emerged From When Radio Programmers Tried To Target Women

276

The Centuries-Long Quest To Choose A Punctuation Mark For Irony And Sarcasm

277

The US Once Had A National Raisin Reserve

278

Don Ritchie, “The Angel of the Gap”

279

As The Allies Stormed The Beaches On D-Day, Bill Millin Played The Bagpipes

280

When Teenager Michael Chang Beat The World’s Top Tennis Player At The French Open

281

Tyromancy Is The Practice Of Fortune Telling Through Cheese

282

Living Wall Coatings Could Make City Buildings Greener

283

The ReefRanger Is A Robot That Could Help Restore Coral Reefs

284

Home Sweet Home Week: There’s A House In The Middle Of France’s Loire River

285

Home Sweet Home Week: In The 60s, There Was A Plan To Make Houses Out Of Heineken Bottles

286

Home Sweet Home Week: The Spite House, An Elegant, Expensive Way To Get Back At Somebody

287

Home Sweet Home Week: A Guy In Massachusetts Made Pretty Much His Whole House Out Of Old Newspapers

288

Home Sweet Home Week: They Built A Real-Life Simpsons House In Nevada

289

Leonard Nimoy Once Drove The Bangles Around In A Music Video

290

When Mailman Floyd Martin Retired, The People On His Route Gave Him A Big Sendoff

291

Betty Crocker May Not Be A Real Person, But She’s Been A Real Help To Bakers For Years

292

How The Streisand Effect Makes The Information People Want Hidden More Popular

293

Ohio Was The 17th State, And Also Kind Of The 48th

294

Calvin Coolidge’s Family Kept Their Pet “William Johnson Hippopotamus” At The National Zoo

295

Williamina Fleming, The Onetime Maid Who Became A Legendary Astronomer

296

Stop Signs Used To Be Yellow

297

The Real-Life Kid Who Inspired Ezra Jack Keats’ “The Snowy Day”

298

The Strange Story Of Ireland’s Worst Driver Ever

299

“Pomp And Circumstance,” A Graduation Musical Tradition, Was Not Written For Graduations

300

Oatman, Arizona, The Gold Rush Town That’s Now Home To Wild Donkeys

301

We Could Run Our Smart Speakers By Writing Into The Air

302

The Only Guy Who Ever Broke Into The Bank Of England’s Vault Of Gold

303

Chimps Apparently Like To Get Together For Drinks

304

Map Week: Every Six Months This Island Switches Countries

305

Map Week: Canada Was Almost Named “Borealia”

306

Map Week: How To Find Where You Are In Just Three Words

307

Map Week: Earth Has Five Oceans Now, But Also Just One Ocean, It’s Complicated

308

Map Week: Point No Point And Other Amazing, Actual Places

309

Ella Fitzgerald And Marilyn Monroe Were Kind Of Besties For A While

310

A Political Dispute In Washington State Led To A Weird Race Between The Governor And Lieutenant Governor

311

When Key West Left The US To Become The Conch Republic

312

Planet Earth Got Its Name From The Earth Beneath Us

313

Queen Elizabeth II Wrote A Letter To Sydney, Australia That Won’t Be Opened Until 2085

314

A Town In Northern Japan Says It’s Home To The “Tomb Of Christ”

315

In Sweden And Finland, The Thursday Before Easter Is The Time For Trick-Or-Treating Witches

316

On The Micronesian Island Of Yap, Huge Stone Discs Are Used As Money

317

A Museum In Virginia Is Home To A Ham From 1902

318

Don Calhoun, The Fan Who Hit The Chicago Bulls’ “Million Dollar Shot”

319

America’s Oldest Board Game Was A Road Trip Through The Early US

320

Walter Hunt Invented The Modern Safety Pin To Pay Off A $15 Debt

321

Pennsylvania Once Tried To Make It A Crime To Mock The Governor In Editorial Cartoons

322

The Physiophone Turned Music Into Physical Sensations For Deaf People To Enjoy, And Dance To

323

Beavers Build Dams That Can Last Centuries, Maybe Even Millennia

324

Some Spiders In Loud Areas Soundproof Their Webs

325

To Protect Riders, This 3D Printed Bike Helmet Contracts During A Collision

326

Scientists Sent A Diaper-Wearing Ferret Named Felicia Through A Particle Accelerator

327

The BBC Once Ran An April Fools Day Story About Spaghetti Growing On Trees

328

An Engineer Wanted To Add Car Ramps To The Eiffel Tower

329

“Wing Walker” Gladys Ingle Could Change An Airplane’s Tire In The Middle Of The Sky

330

Eliza Scidmore Lobbied For Decades To Bring Cherry Blossoms To Washington DC

331

The Supremes Were Such A Popular Group, They Had Their Own Bread

332

How A “Sea-Worm” Inspired Marc Brunel To Dig London’s Thames Tunnel

333

A Teacher In Illinois Made The Washington DC Trip A Spring Break Tradition

334

Searcy County, Arkansas Is The World’s Chocolate Roll Capitol

335

Farm Week: When A Giant Safe Showed Up In His Yard, A New York Farmer Decided To Embrace The Mystery

336

Farm Week: Dogs Are Saving Citrus Orchards From Disease

337

Farm Week: Robots And Soap Bubbles Might Help Pollinate Crops

338

Farm Week: Laser Apple Robots

339

Farm Week: That Time More Than 300 Nebraskans Moved A Barn By Hand

340

Tim Wong Became The Best Friend A Rare Butterfly Ever Had

341

SS Baychimo, The “Ghost Ship” That Kept Reappearing In The Ocean

342

Mitchelville Was The First US Town Led By Formerly Enslaved People

343

The “Petticoat Rulers” Of Jackson, Wyoming

344

In The 1950s, Groups Of College Students Tried To Cram Themselves Into Phone Booths

345

For 18 Days, Lake Champlain Was A Great Lake

346

During World War II, The US Used Trampolines To Train Pilots

347

Edith Keating Let The World See What The World Looked Like From The Air

348

King Cakes: Two Holidays, Three Colors, Lots Of Little Plastic Babies

349

There’s An Official Spanish-Language Version Of “The Star-Spangled Banner”

350

The Most Interesting Story Out Of Boring, Oregon Involves A Boxing Champion And A “Town Pest”

351

The Philadelphia Phillies Were Also Sort Of The “Blue Jays” For A While

352

The Fight Of The 80s Was Johnny Cash Vs. Waldo The Ostrich

353

The Squeaky History of the Rubber Duck

354

The Keys To Rescuing One Dolphin? An NBA Player’s Long Arms

355

Paint Week: “Fordite” Is The Gem Made From Paint At Auto Factories

356

Paint Week: Really, Really White Paint Can Act Like A Coat Of Air Conditioning On A Building

357

Paint Week: The Race To Keep Day-Glo Paints Glo-ing

358

Paint Week: With Solar-Reflective Paint, School Playgrounds Are Getting Cooler

359

Paint Week: “Mummy Brown” Was A Paint Made From Actual Mummies

360

Elvis Once Bought A Yacht That Franklin Roosevelt Used As President

361

Walk On This High-Tech Goo And It’ll Make Electricity

362

Long Before He Was President, Abraham Lincoln Was A Tavern Owner

363

For One Supreme Court Nominee, The Nation’s Number One Question Was About His Mustache

364

Margaret Horton Hung Onto The Tail Of A British Warplane As It Took Off And Flew

365

What Football Was Like Before The Forward Pass

366

Classical Music Can Calm A Fetus’s Heart Rate

367

Turn-On, The TV Show That Got Pulled Off The Air During Its Premiere

368

How Wichita Falls, Texas Became Home To “The World’s Littlest Skyscraper”

369

Lennie Gwyther Made A 600 Mile Solo Trip On Horseback At Age Nine

370

Let’s Jump Into The History Of Parachutes

371

A Guy Used A Loophole In International Law To Put Himself “In Charge” Of Western Antarctica

372

The World Of Fighting Fires Is Getting More Robotic

373

Researchers Added QR Codes To Bees To Figure Out What They Did All Day

374

You Can Only Drive To Michigan’s “Lost Peninsula” Through Ohio

375

Tiger Woods Once Hit A Golf Ball Behind A Boulder, Then He Got People To Move The Boulder

376

Never Forget That There Are People With Nearly Perfect Memories

377

The Dogs That Made The Serum Run To Nome, Alaska Were Very, Very Good Dogs

378

Marysville, Kansas, The Town Where Black Squirrels Are Number One

379

Not All Of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Biggest Fans Are Fans Of The Biggest MLK Monuments

380

For Crops In The Desert, Try These Inflatable Container Farms

381

The Plan To Build A New US Highway With Nuclear Bombs

382

A Jury In An Illegal Liquor Case Deliberated By “Testing” The Evidence

383

Wausau, Wisconsin (Kind Of) Banned Snowball Fights For Over A Century

384

A County In Texas Officially Greeted People With “Heaven-o” Instead Of “Hello”

385

Mountain Week: The Race Up The World’s Longest Staircase

386

Mountain Week: The Dog That Climbed All Of New Hampshire’s 4,000 Foot Mountains

387

Mountain Week: The Guy Who Climbed Mount Hood To Drop Off A Morning Paper For His Friends

388

Mountain Week: The Mountain That’s Higher Than The Highest Mountain

389

Mountain Week: A 10 Month Old Kitten Once Climbed The Matterhorn… Somehow

390

Greenland Starts The New Year With Visits From Silent Masked Visitors

391

A Lawmaker Tried To Get Americans To Eat Hippo Meat, AKA “Lake Bacon”

392

Happy New Year, Happy Same Galactic Year

393

The Oxford Electric Bell Has Been Ringing For Over 175 Years

394

The British Comedy Sketch That’s A New Year’s Eve Tradition In Germany

395

Albert Gunter Had To Jump London’s Tower Bridge While Driving A Double Decker Bus

396

In Wales, Mari Lwyd Brings A Costumed Horse Skull To Your Door For Some Winter Fun

397

Hanukkah Will Skip The Year 3031 And Go Straight To 3032

398

Black Cake Makes Christmas In The Caribbean Sweet And Delicious

399

At Christmas In Iceland, It’s All About The Books

400

There’s A Rooftop Sign That Reads “Welcome To Cleveland” But It’s Not In Cleveland

401

A 24/7 Diner Chain Gave Its Workers Christmas Day Off, Then It Had To Figure Out How To Close

402

Poinsettias Have Gone By A Whole Lot Of Names Over Time

403

Animation Legend Chuck Jones Made Dr. Seuss’s Grinch A Part Of TV History

404

Chas Newby, Beatle Bassist For Two Weeks

405

May Kaarlus Was A Trick Shot Billiard Prodigy Who Walked Away From It All

406

The Advent Calendar Turns The Month Of December Into A Christmas Countdown

407

Movie Critic Gene Siskel Helped Make A Popcorn Company A Chicago Icon

408

Apollo 17 Proved People Can Be Allergic To Moon Dust

409

For Over A Century, Kids Have Been Writing Amazing And Sometimes Bewildering Letters To Santa

410

Charlie Brown Is A Blockhead, But He Did Star In A Great Christmas Special

411

Troublemakers Beware, It’s Time For Austria’s Krampus Parades

412

Ernest Bazin Invented A Ship With Rolling "Wheels" And Named It After Himself

413

Joe Hickel Made Massive Gingerbread Villages At An Alaska Hotel For Decades

414

Pink Floyd’s Inflatable Pig Once Got Loose Over London

415

When Gas Was In Short Supply, Some Europeans Drove Firewood-Powered Cars

416

Thanksgiving Week: When “WKRP” Thought Turkeys Could Fly For Thanksgiving

417

Thanksgiving Week: Wanda And Jamal, The Best Accidental Thanksgiving Friends Ever

418

Thanksgiving Week: How Thanksgiving Leftovers Led To TV Dinners

419

Thanksgiving Week: We’re Grateful For Off The Wall Thanksgiving Sides

420

Thanksgiving Week: When The Macy’s Parade Rickrolled Thanksgiving

421

The “Butt Fumble” Made The New York Jets The Butt Of Endless Football Jokes

422

People Named A North Carolina Town ‘Whynot’ Because Why Not

423

Clyde Stubblefield, Music’s Original Funky Drummer

424

What Is The Deal With This Bathroom On The Cal Poly Campus

425

Touch Tone Phones Freed Callers From All That Rotary Dialing

426

Australia’s Navy Helped Save A Six Year Old’s Life By Enlisting Her

427

Movie Star Veronica Lake Gave Up Her Trademark Hairstyle For The War Effort

428

The Really (Expletive) Complicated History Of Swearing On TV

429

The Leonid Meteor Storm Of 1833 Was “The Night The Stars Fell”

430

Doug Hegdahl’s Razor-Sharp Memory Helped Hundreds Of American POWs In Vietnam

431

The Black Dog That Helped Inspire Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”

432

When Theodore Roosevelt Got A Full Term As President, He Also Got Two Ostriches

433

New York City Cabs Used To Have Celebrities Remind Passengers To Buckle Up

434

Hartford Election Cake Is An Old-School Way To Eat Your Way Through A Campaign

435

The Easy-Bake Oven Has Put Kids At The Forefront Of Lightbulb-Based Cooking For Decades

436

Pan de Muerto Is The Day of the Dead’s Signature Bread

437

Charlie Brown’s TV Neighbors Gave Him Rocks For Halloween, But Real People Sent Him Candy

438

John Adams And Ben Franklin Shared A Room Once And Spent The Night Arguing About The Window

439

Karolina Olsson, “The Sleeper of Oknö,” Woke Up After 32 Years In Bed

440

The “Logan Bar” Was Not-So-Sweet Chocolate And That’s Just How The US Military Wanted It

441

A Town In Colorado Holds Coffin Races

442

Norwood, Ontario Had A Water Tower That Looked Like A Crushed Can

443

William Lyttle, The “Mole Man” Who Dug Tunnels Around His London Home

444

Scientists Once Trained Rats To Drive Little Cars

445

William A. Mitchell, The King Of Space Age Snacks

446

Flag Week: It’s Not Just A Giant American Flag, It’s Superflag

447

Flag Week: Benny Benson, The 13 Year Old Who Designed Alaska’s Flag

448

Flag Week: Bob Heft Designed The 50-Star U.S. Flag In High School

449

Flag Week: The Star-Spangled Banner That Inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner”

450

Flag Week: Betsy Ross May Not Have Made The First Flag, But She Really Did Make Flags

451

Could Smart Tech And Music Playlists Help People Stay Sober?

452

Ed Wood, The Filmmaker Who Made The Best Worst Movies Ever

453

The Great Naha Tug of War Gets Thousands Of People Pulling And Partying

454

Somebody Put A Big Pumpkin Way Up On Top Of A Cornell University Tower

455

The New York Times Used To Have A Period In Its Logo

456

Sputnik Kicked Off The Space Age, And Also Gave Us The Word “Beatnik”

457

Even The Inventor Of Inline Skates Crashed Once In A While

458

The History Of Margarine Hasn’t Always Been Smooth

459

The New York Earth Room Is An Apartment Filled With Dirt, For Art’s Sake

460

Barry Marshall Pinpointed The Cause Of Most Ulcers By Giving Himself One

461

Rabbit Show Jumping Might Be The Most Adorable Sport

462

In Iceland, People Help Baby Puffins By Throwing Them Off Cliffs

463

Keeping Mold From Growing On Space Stations Takes Extra Effort, But It’s Worth It

464

Jimmy Doolittle Proved Pilots Can Fly Completely By Instruments

465

The “Space Capsule” On The Roadside Near Winganon, Oklahoma

466

Why Did The Fonz Jump The Shark In The First Place?

467

Dean Jones Put On A Cricket Clinic While He Was Sick And Extremely Dehydrated

468

Jim Delligatti, The Father Of The Big Mac

469

Sometimes Just A Five Second Break Is All It Takes To Get Along Better With A Spouse

470

In Post-War Yugoslavia, Mariachi Music Was A Huge Hit

471

Mister Rogers Made Friday The 13th A Fun Day In The Neighborhood Of Make-Believe

472

Even The Harlem Globetrotters Haven’t Won Every Game They’ve Played

473

When Planes Were Grounded On 9-11, People Came Together To Get A Donor Liver To A Baby For A Life-Saving Transplant

474

An NFL Team Drafted Norm Michael In College, But He Didn’t Find Out Until 55 Years Later

475

Colonel Sanders Was The Face Of KFC, And Occasionally Its Vocal Critic

476

Pacemaker Pioneer Wilson Greatbatch Helped Millions Of Hearts

477

A Group Of Teens Got Stranded On A Pacific Island For 15 Months, And Never Went All “Lord Of The Flies” On Each Other

478

Baby Food Giant Gerber Once Sold Jars Of Mushed Up Food For Adults

479

Charles Downing Lay, America’s Olympic Medalist In Town Planning

480

Did A Department Store Really Keep A Guy On Staff To Be “Fired” In Front Of Angry Customers?

481

Astronomy Week: The Hubble Telescope’s First Space Photo Was Kind Of Blurry

482

Astronomy Week: What Was July 4th Like Before The Fourth Of July?

483

Astronomy Week: Cincinnati Built An Observatory Any Stargazer Could Use

484

Astronomy Week: Caroline Herschel Discovered Comets And Became A Star

485

Astronomy Week: Guillaume Le Gentil, The 18th Century Astronomer With the Worst Luck

486

A Churchgoer In Spain Did “The Worst Art Restoration Project Of All Time”

487

The Sun Would Be Very Loud If You Could Hear In Space

488

After His Legendary Basketball Career, Wilt Chamberlain Became A Pro Volleyball Player

489

In Delaware, Drivers Can Auction Off Their License Plates For Big Bucks

490

Long Before Photoshop, Photographers Knew How To “Photoshop” Photos

491

The Iowa State Fair Has A Husband Calling Contest

492

Ignacio Anaya García, The Inventor Of Nachos

493

In The Early 20th Century, Some Americans Thought Tipping Was Horrible

494

The Grateful Dead Once Jammed With Live Crickets

495

Scientists Are Teaching Batteries To Put Themselves Out If They Catch On Fire

496

George Sutton Made His Name Playing Billiards After Losing His Hands

497

Two Countries Showed Up At The 1936 Olympics Flying Identical Flags

498

Lynne Cox Made A Cold Swim From The US To The USSR During The Cold War

499

Gertrude Ederle Set A Record For Swimming The English Channel, And She Did It In A Thunderstorm

500

There’s A Far-Off Planet Sometimes Called Earth’s Evil Twin

501

Olympians Week: The Original Olympic Flag Went Missing For Over 70 Years

502

Olympians Week: Two Olympians Turned A Silver And A Bronze Into “Medals Of Friendship”

503

Olympians Week: Margaret Abbott Won Olympic Gold Even Though She Didn’t Know She Was In The Olympics

504

Olympians Week: “Eric The Eel” Won An Olympic Heat With The Slowest Time In The Field

505

Olympians Week: The 1904 Men’s Marathon Was The Weirdest Olympic Race Ever

506

William Rankin Fell Through A Thundercloud And Lived

507

Tom Stuker Used His Lifetime Airline Ticket To Travel More Than 24 Million Miles

508

The Bee Gees And Peter Frampton Starred In A Sgt. Pepper Movie That Was A Glorious 70s Trainwreck

509

The Ice Cream Cone Got The Spotlight At The 1904 World’s Fair, But That Isn’t When It Was Invented

510

Michigan’s Official State Vehicle Fleet Includes A Vintage Model T

511

It Took Researchers Twenty Years To Figure Out The Rosetta Stone

512

New York Once Built Artificial Reefs Out Of Old Ice Cream Trucks

513

There Was Almost A Scary Sequel To “E.T.”

514

Embo, Scotland, Declared Itself Independent For A Day

515

William Walker, The Diver Who Saved Winchester Cathedral

516

Buckminster Fuller Proposed Putting A Big Dome Over Manhattan

517

Ina Koenig Saved A Kid Who Fell Into A Mine Shaft By Keeping His Head Above Water

518

Bir Tawil Is Land Between Egypt And Sudan That Neither Country Wants

519

In A Letter From Ancient Babylon, A Teenager Complains To His Mom About Clothes

520

Taco Bell Once Trolled America By Claiming It Had Bought The Liberty Bell

521

Alvin Straight Couldn’t Drive To See His Ailing Brother, So He Took A Road Trip On A Lawn Mower

522

The Washington Monument That Was Built Before The Washington Monument

523

Ford Once Tried To Turn A Station Wagon Into A “Pushbutton Camper”

524

Utah Restocks Its Remote Lakes By Dropping Fish Out Of Airplanes

525

Every July 1 Is A Million Dollar Day For Baseball’s Bobby Bonilla

526

The Treaty That Ended World War I Also Set The International Standard For Musical Pitch

527

A Town In Japan Built An Anne Of Green Gables-Themed Park

528

Medieval Europeans Really Could Have Banged Coconuts Together, Like In Monty Python

529

Sallie Gardner Was The Galloping Horse In The First Proto-Movie

530

Volcanic Ash Shut Down All Of British Airways Flight 009’s Engines - But It Still Landed Safely

531

Dessert Week: If You’re Making Cookies In Space, Be Patient

532

Dessert Week: The Great Banana Split Rivalry

533

Dessert Week: Even For Meringue This Meringue Is Light

534

Dessert Week: Queen Elizabeth I Had Her Guests Eat Gingerbread Men That Looked Like Themselves

535

Dessert Week: Agnes B. Marshall, The First “Queen” Of Ice Cream

536

Every Year Readlyn, Iowa Elects An Official Town Grump

537

Tying Cans To A Wedding Car Has Roots In Protesting A Marriage

538

The Baseball Game Lou Gehrig Played After He Stopped Playing Baseball

539

How Jophery Brown Became One Of Hollywood’s Most Iconic Stuntmen

540

Legend Says Instead of Fighting A War, Two Armies In Switzerland Sat Down For Some Soup

541

In 1520, Two Kings Spent Millions To Throw Themselves A Party For Over Two Weeks

542

A Teen Got To The “End” Of NES Tetris, And People Figured Out How To Hack The Software And Keep Playing

543

A Handful Of VIPs Can Travel To Other Countries Without Passports

544

American Cheese Got Its Start With A Guy From Canada

545

Alexander Graham Bell Invented A “Photophone” That Sent Sound On Beams Of Light

546

Some American Hockey Players Develop Canadian-Ish Accents

547

Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb’s “Penny Parade” Helped Build A Northern Wisconsin Hospital

548

There Was More Than One “Real” Rosie the Riveter

549

The Cherry Sisters Baffled Vaudeville But Guaranteed Newspapers The Right To Criticize Bad Shows

550

Memorial Day Special: The Many One True Birthplaces Of Memorial Day

551

Planet Week: Uranus Was Originally Going To Be Named “George”

552

Planet Week: Venus: If You Lived Here, You’d Have Melted By Now

553

Planet Week: Selfies On Mars

554

Planet Week: At Age 11, Venetia Burney Named Pluto

555

Planet Week: Could Jokes About Uranus Prevent A Mission To Uranus?

556

The Pillsbury Doughboy Has A Name And A Family

557

Maria Beasley Invented A Life Raft And Lots Of Other Hugely Useful Things

558

When France And Spain Had A “War Of The Stop Signs”

559

Didier Delsalle Landed His Helicopter On Top Of Mount Everest

560

Baltimore’s Mr. Trash Wheel Cleans Up The Waterfront With Technology And Googly Eyes

561

Did A Finnish Skier Actually Spit Out His Dentures On His Way To A Gold Medal?

562

Some People Are Sweet On Kool-Aid Pickles, But Others Have Soured On The Idea

563

In The 90s, Coca Cola Wanted Us To Drink OK Soda

564

El Reno, Oklahoma Is The Home Of The Fried Onion Burger

565

The Outtakes From Orson Welles’ Wine Commercial Might Be His Most Legendary Work

566

Ancient Romans Once Threatened To Exile Anyone Wearing Pants

567

The Distress Call Mayday Doesn’t Have Anything To Do With May

568

Bonnie Richardson Won A State Track Team Championship By Herself - Twice

569

When News Companies Tried To Deliver Newspapers Through Radio Transmissions

570

Willie Nelson Once Recorded An Album To Pay Back Taxes To The IRS

571

A Single Tree In New York Grows 40 Different Fruits

572

Absorbing An Oil Spill With Cork And Lasers

573

The “Electronic Tongue” That Can Tell When Wine Starts To Spoil

574

"English As She Is Spoke," A Guide To English Written By A Guy Who Didn't Really Speak English

575

This Smart Glove Could Help Divers Warn Each Other When There’s Danger Nearby

576

Two US Cities Each Insist Their Cuban Sandwich Is The Authentic One

577

The Minor League Baseball Game That Took Three Days To Play

578

Kansas City’s Subtropolis Is A Huge Business Complex That’s 100 Feet Underground

579

A “Lunar Olympics” Almost Ended In Disaster For The Apollo 16 Astronauts

580

Leonardo da Vinci, Inventor of the Resume

581

Murphy, The Eagle Who Became Dad To A Rock

582

Glowing Orbs In The Netherlands Could Light The Way Toward Clean Water

583

The Tempest Prognosticator Used Leeches To Predict Stormy Weather

584

Florence Price Finally Takes Her Place On The List Of Great Composers

585

A Study Says Everyone In Japan Could Have The Same Last Name Five Centuries From Now

586

A Dog In The UK Saved Lives During The Blitz, Thanks To A Full Bladder

587

A Guy In Melbourne Walks Around With A Giant Carrot Just For Fun

588

Baseball Player Ping Bodie Once Won An Eating Contest Against An Ostrich

589

Communist Countries Thought The TV Show “Dallas” Would Scare Citizens Away From Capitalism, But It Backfired

590

In 1906, Chicago’s Newspapers Told Everybody The City Was Being Attacked By Dinosaurs

591

Fine Art Week: Some Art Looks Great Even When Accidentally Hung Upside Down

592

Fine Art Week: Edmonia Lewis, A Sculptor Who Brought Her Subjects To Life

593

Fine Art Week: Why Is It So Hard To Tell A Real Rembrandt Painting From A Copy?

594

Fine Art Week: Sarah Biffin, A 19th Century Painter “Without Hands” Who’s Getting 21st Century Recognition

595

Fine Art Week: Pigeons Would Make Pretty Good Art Critics

596

If This TV Show Hadn’t Been Canceled, We Might Not Have Had The Original Versions of “Star Trek” and TV’s “Batman”

597

For Our Fifth Birthday, The Story Of The Song “Happy Birthday To You”

598

Taco Bell Once Sold A Burger Called The “Bell Beefer”

599

Shizo Kanakuri Finished A Marathon He’d Started 54 Years Earlier

600

The Nutty Narrows Bridge Was Built For Squirrels In Washington State

601

Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” Became A Hit, After A Tape Machine Cut It To Pieces

602

Before Alarm Clocks, Some People Awoke With Help From A “Knocker-Up”

603

Legendary Physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard Once Teamed Up To Design A Refrigerator

604

Here’s A Tiny Fish That Can Make Sounds As Loud As A Jet Engine

605

A Boycott Against Charles Boycott Gave Us The Word “Boycott”

606

New York City’s 311 System Has Gotten Some Wild Calls Over The Years

607

Musical Alarms Could Help Save Lives In Hospitals

608

Cap’n Crunch Once Got Sued Because There Weren’t Actual Berries In Crunch Berries Cereal

609

Whey Protein Could Help Stop E-Waste

610

Ruth Belville, The Last “Time Carrier” In London

611

Police Squad, The TV Comedy That Got Canceled For Being Too Funny

612

When Danish Farmers Started Breeding “Protest Pigs”

613

La Bougie du sapeur, The Newspaper That Only Comes Out On February 29

614

If Humans Start Living On Other Worlds, They Might End Up Creating New Accents

615

Charles Strite, The Inventor Who Made Toasters Pop

616

Whitney Smith Flew The Flag For Studying Flags

617

Mail Week: How Ethel Merman Helped Get America To Use ZIP Codes

618

Mail Week: Henry Brown Escaped From Slavery By Mailing Himself To Philadelphia

619

Mail Week: Meet Owney, The Legendary Postal Dog

620

Mail Week: “Stagecoach” Mary Fields, Montana’s One-Of-A-Kind Mail Carrier

621

Mail Week: When Americans Could Mail Their Children From Place To Place

622

When Missouri Banned Schools For Black Students, John Berry Meachum Started A School On A Riverboat

623

The Blackwell Family Tree Traces Black History Through Centuries

624

Haters Used To Give Out “Vinegar Valentines” To Push People’s Button

625

How Ski Ballet Ended Up At The Olympics In The 80s And 90s

626

The “Hairy Eagle” Is A Decoration Made Partly With Abraham Lincoln’s Hair

627

Snowflake Bentley Showed The World Just How Amazing Snow Can Be

628

ELIZA Was An AI Chatbot Decades Before ChatGPT

629

The US Rationed Shoes During World War II, So People Made Footwear Out Of Old Firehoses

630

February Is The Shortest Month For Literally Odd Reasons

631

Indiana Almost Set The Value Of Pi At 3.2, Even Though That Isn’t Pi’s Value

632

Jessica Cox, The First Person Born Without Arms To Become A Licensed Pilot

633

When Indiana Tried To Get “Louie, Louie” Off The Radio

634

This Smart Glove Can Help People Recover From A Stroke

635

Jean Carroll, TV's First Female Standup Comedy Star

636

Holland, Michigan Has A Snow Melting System Built Into Its Downtown

637

Cat Week: A 10 Month Old Kitten Once Climbed The Matterhorn… Somehow

638

Cat Week: Room 8, The Cat Named For A Classroom In L.A.

639

Cat Week: A Bike Trip Around The World With A Cat

640

Cat Week: There’s Music For Cats And It’s Apparently Very Good For Them

641

Cat Week: Félicette, The First Cat In Space

642

To Win A Dance Marathon, Couples Might Have To Keep Going For Five Months

643

Auto Companies Hire People To Make Sure The New Car Smell Is Just Right

644

During Prohibition, Grape Growers Sold “Wine Bricks” To Thirsty Customers

645

Designers Put Airbags In Clothes To Protect People From Falls

646

When Martin Luther King Jr. Won The Nobel Peace Prize, Atlanta Held A Historic Dinner In His Honor

647

How Mr. Clean Became The World’s Top Bald Sailor Genie Cleaning Icon

648

John Thompson Lost His Arms In A Farm Accident, Got Himself Help And Got The Arms Back

649

Berlin’s Jazz Age Nightclubs Let People Message Each Other Through Pneumatic Tubes

650

Richard Nixon Once Wished He’d Been A Rapper

651

Newspaper Reporters Once Bought A Chicago Dive Bar To Catch Corrupt Officials

652

Schoolhouse Rock Taught Generations About Bills, Adverbs And Magic Numbers

653

The UK Reality Show “Shattered” Was Essentially A Sleep Deprivation Contest On TV

654

In Whittier, Alaska, A Lot Of Residents All Live In One Building

655

A City In Ecuador Starts The Year With A Festival Of Dancing Devils

656

Garisenda Tower Is Italy’s Other Leaning Tower

657

When The New Year’s Ball Drop Is Over, New York City Gets Busy Cleaning Up Times Square

658

The Letter Z Once Looked Like A Fancy Capital I

659

Puerto Rico’s Festival de las Máscaras Gets Colorful And Loud

660

When George S. Patton Bombed A Volcano

661

Tilly Smith Saved 100 People From A Tsunami Because She'd Listened In Class

662

Babbo Natale, The Yule Goat and The World’s Many Christmas Gift Givers

663

How The Snow Globe Started Shaking Up Winter

664

Nixon And Elvis, The Most Iconic Meeting In 70s History

665

How A Christmas Card Gave Us “It’s A Wonderful Life”

666

Where Did We Put All The Goodwill Moon Rocks From Apollo 17?

667

Joseph Grimaldi, London’s “King Of Clowns”

668

High Tech Snow Chains Could Pop Out When Your Car Needs Them And Retract When It Doesn’t

669

A Baboon Named Jack Once Worked For A Railroad, And He Was Good At His Job

670

How Google Street View Could Help Stop Invasive Weeds

671

Teddy Roosevelt Tried To Change How We Spell Words

672

The Delicious History Of Hanukkah Latkes

673

Do Stoplights Need A Fourth Color?

674

Tom Waits Went To Court Over An Ad For Doritos

675

Black Firefighters In Chicago Helped Give The World The Fire Pole

676

People In The “Dirty” Middle Ages Actually Liked To Get Clean

677

How A Guy In 1974 Used A Computer To Order Pizza

678

A Statue Of Liberty Stamp That Didn’t Actually Feature The Statue Of Liberty

679

Let’s Meet The Guy Named Mason Who Patented The Mason Jar

680

There’s A Secret Military Airline Known As “Janet”

681

Can We Patch Back Injuries The Way We Patch Holes In Car Tires?

682

Bruce Lee Was A Legendary Martial Artist And A Terrific Dancer

683

When Domino’s Tried To Have Reindeer Deliver Pizza

684

Before There Was Halloween Trick-Or-Treating, There Was The Thanksgiving Ragamuffin Parade

685

Groups Of Chimpanzees Spy On Each Other

686

How “Hello” Became The English Language’s Way Of Saying Hello

687

Before The Internet Was All About Dumpster Fires, There Was The Creation Of The Dumpster

688

The Key To Next-Generation Batteries Might Be In Crab Shells

689

Oklahoma’s Panhandle Was Once Known As “No Man’s Land”

690

A Whole City Came Together To Give “BatKid” One Super Day

691

Movie Fans In Texas Enjoy Pickles When They Go To The Theater

692

A Turkey Once Interrupted A Green Bay Packers Game

693

Moon Week: That Time Pink Floyd Jammed Out During The Moon Landing

694

Moon Week: Why Did The Moon Disappear 900 Years Ago?

695

Moon Week: Our Long History Of Crashing Stuff Into The Moon

696

Moon Week: The Earth’s Rotation Is Slowing, Thanks To The Moon

697

Moon Week: Apollo 12 Crashed Its Lunar Module On Purpose

698

Alberto Manzi Convinced Italians That “It’s Never Too Late” To Learn

699

Warren Harding’s Human Friends Hurt His Presidency, But His Dog Friends Were Great

700

Toronto’s “Stork Derby” Happened Because Of A Very Wealthy Lawyer’s Very Strange Will

701

If You Want To Go Old School For Halloween, Try Carving Some Turnips

702

Creeped Out By Clowns? Here’s The Science That Explains Why

703

Isaac Singer Invented The Modern Sewing Machine, But What He Really Wanted To Do Was Act

704

Listening To A Symphony Can Actually Sync Up The Audience’s Heart Rates

705

Here’s A Robot That Can Roll Up And Down Stairs

706

An Excited James Brown Fan Almost Swore Through The Recording Of “Live At The Apollo”

707

“Mr. Tornado” Ted Fujita Was The Original Severe Weather Detective

708

Dogpiles Are How Baseball Teams Celebrate Big Wins And Sometimes Hurt Themselves

709

A Medical Robot Can Help Steer A Needle Through Living Tissue

710

In 1867 Alaska, It Was Friday, And Another Friday Came Afterward

711

Neil Diamond And Barbra Streisand Had A Hit Duet Almost By Accident

712

The Cardiff Giant Was A Fake Giant That Caused A Real Uproar

713

The Thirteen Club Put Thirteen Guests Together For A Thirteen Course Meal On Friday The 13th

714

Winning The Nobel Prize Is Hard, Calling Someone To Tell Them They Won The Nobel Prize Can Also Be Hard

715

Scientists Flipped Coins 350,757 Times To See If The Results Were 50/50

716

A Writer In 1870 Couldn’t Figure Out What All The Fuss Over Yosemite Was About

717

Jellyfish Just Proved You Don’t Need A Brain To Learn From Experience

718

The Zeitpyramide Is An Art Project That Will Take 1,200 Years To Build

719

The Pitch Drop Experiment Is A Single Research Project That’s Been Running Since The 1930s

720

Antonín Dvořák’s First Symphony Went Missing For Six Decades

721

Patrick Combs Cashed A $95,000 Promotional "Check" And Actually Got The Money

722

The Marx Brothers Became Comedians Thanks To An Escaped Mule In Texas

723

Sometimes Coffee Isn’t A Beverage, It’s Coffee Jelly

724

Two Australians Once Had A Staring Contest For Over 40 Minutes

725

Hector, The Thunderstorm That Arrives Like Clockwork Over Australia’s Tiwi Islands

726

Johnny Appleseed’s Trees Gave Homesteaders A Way To Make Adult Beverages

727

William Faulkner Was An Iconic Author And A Mediocre Mailman

728

Robert Shields Kept A Decades-Long Diary Of Pretty Much Everything He Ever Did

729

Sam Brinkley, The “Longest Bearded Man In The World”

730

Why The USSR Once Thought A Hot Dog Stand Was A Top US Military Installation

731

A Soviet Cosmonaut Once Pretended To Land On The Moon To Troll NASA

732

What Ants Can Teach Us About Mass Transportation

733

Cecil Chubb, The Guy Who Bought Stonehenge At An Auction

734

How Joyce Chen Helped The US Fall In Love With Chinese Food

735

When Phineas Gage’s Skull Met An Iron Bar, Things Got Weird

736

The Flatwoods Monster Put A West Virginia Town On The Map, After Scaring Local Kids

737

Monster Trucks Started When A Guy Put Giant Tires On His Own Ride

738

The Egg Cream Is A Refreshing New York City Classic

739

Old Coffee Grounds Could Make Concrete Stronger, Greener, More Jittery

740

Cry A Little And You’ll Power The Smart Contact Lenses Of The Future

741

How High-Tech Garbage Trucks Can Help Maintain A City

742

Lewis Howard Latimer, The Black Inventor Who Helped Make The Modern World Modern

743

Italy’s “Festival of the Ugly” Reminds Everybody That Looks Aren’t Everything

744

To Get Out Of A Record Contract, Van Morrison Made A Malicious Compliance Album

745

People In Ancient China Built Ceramic Water Pipes Thousands Of Years Ago

746

An Urban Legend Says The Devil Took Over Everybody’s TV Screens In 1968

747

Leon Theremin’s Musical Instrument Can Be Played Without Being Touched

748

Momofuku Ando, The Guy Who Invented Instant Ramen

749

These Smart Glasses Can Generate Real-Time Speech Captions For Deaf People

750

John Lennon and The Many Other Pop Stars Who Say They Saw UFOs

751

A California Artist Once Helped Drivers By Adding His Own Road Sign To The Highway

752

How Font Sizes On Menus Could Help People Eat Healthier

753

Snack Week: Quit Hating On Candy Corn, At Least Until You Hear Its Story

754

Snack Week: In Belgium, Eating Fries Is Patriotic

755

Snack Week: Queen Elizabeth I Had Her Guests Eat Gingerbread Men That Looked Like Themselves

756

Snack Week: How The Cheese Curl Was Invented (Partly By Accident)

757

Snack Week: Pretzels Have Been Twisting Their Way Into Our Hearts For Over A Millennium

758

During The Burryman’s Parade, A Scottish Dude In A Suit Made Of Burrs Walks Around Drinking Whiskey

759

A Shower Of Souvenir Baseballs Led To A Major League Forfeit

760

The Fly-Swatting Champion Of Bisbee, Arizona

761

A US Treasury Official Decided To Feature Himself On Currency

762

Turkmenistan’s Leader Once Drove Doughnuts Around A Flaming Crater Known As The “Gates Of Hell”

763

Moss And Tracy Hills, The Cruise Ship Musicians Who Saved Hundreds From A Sinking Ship

764

If You’re Trying To Visit All 50 States, North Dakota Wants You To Save The “Best For Last”

765

The US Almost Had Coins Worth A Tenth Of A Cent

766

Jackie Ormes Brought Black Characters To The Comics Page

767

Kitty Burke Once Batted In A Major League Game

768

When People From Towns Named Dull, Boring And Bland Get Together, You Know It’ll Get Lit

769

In The 19th Century, Steamboat Racing Was An Extreme Sport

770

The First Road Trip Across The Continental US Won A Guy Fifty Bucks

771

How Colorado Got The Colorado River To Run Through Colorado

772

Before Detroit Was The Motor City, It Was Known For Its Stoves

773

Winneconne, Wisconsin Once Seceded From The State Over A Highway Map

774

Want To Burn Lots Of Calories? Try High-Level Chess

775

AI Phone Bots Foil Scammers By Wasting Their Time

776

Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan Flew To Ireland When He Was Supposed To Fly To California

777

Gail Halvorsen, The “Candy Bomber” Of The Berlin Airlift

778

In India, Telegrams Were Still Around Until 2013

779

The Hollywood Sign Was A Big Ad That Turned Into a Landmark

780

The 1924 Olympic Men’s Cross Country Race Was Literally A Hot Mess

781

Dick Roth Won Olympic Gold While He Had Appendicitis

782

Two Young Brothers Rode Across The Country On Horseback To Hang Out With Teddy Roosevelt

783

Samantha Smith, A Kid From Maine Who Tried To Make The Cold War A Little More Peaceful

784

In Soviet Russia, Vacation Took You

785

The Secret Service Has An Ink Library To Foil Crimes

786

Not Even An Alien Attack Or Zombie Apocalypse Could Keep The US From Protecting Its Founding Documents

787

A Newspaper Called The Recycler Helped Bring Together Some Of The Biggest Rock Bands Of All Time

788

Irna Phillips Brought The World Of Soap Operas To Life

789

Marie C. Bolden, A Black Teen In Cleveland, Helped Win A National Spelling Title In 1908

790

The Wild History Of The White House Telephone

791

Before There Were Chicken McNuggets, McDonald’s Tried Selling Onion Nuggets

792

A Teenager In Michigan Once Started Building A Nuclear Reactor In The Shed

793

Babe Ruth Once Pitched A Combined No-Hitter, At Least Technically

794

Some People Didn’t Think The Earliest Air Conditioners Were Very Cool

795

The Dog That Climbed All Of New Hampshire’s 4,000 Foot Mountains

796

West Virginia Is Landlocked, But It Has A Lighthouse Anyway

797

Raise A Glass Of Red Drink On Juneteenth

798

Lifting Something Heavy? Think Positive Thoughts, Or You Might Hurt Yourself

799

Why We Don’t Pronounce The Last S In Arkansas

800

The Star-Spangled Banner That Inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner”

801

Charles Osborne Had The Hiccups For 68 Years

802

In Wartime, Knitters Have Used Their Skills For Spying

803

This Doll From The 18th Century May Be One Of The First Computers

804

A Startup In Switzerland Is Putting Solar Panels In Between Railroad Tracks

805

Virginia Apgar's Score Has Helped Millions Of Babies Stay Healthy

806

Clarence Blethen, The Pitcher Who Got Bit By His Own False Teeth

807

The World Has Ankle Monitors Partly Because Of Spider-Man Comics

808

First Lady Mamie Eisenhower Had Her Own Shade Of Pink

809

Rockford, Illinois Is The Birthplace Of The Sock Monkey

810

The Michigan Tycoon Who Made His Descendants Wait 92 Years To Inherit His Fortune

811

How Suitcases With Wheels Helped Travelers Get On A Roll

812

The Arlington Ladies Remember Every Servicemember Buried At Arlington National Cemetery

813

If It Had Been Up To Billie Jean King, Astronaut Sally Ride Might Have Been A Pro Tennis Player

814

Hands Across America Brought Together Some Hands Across Some Of America

815

Novelty Maker S.S. Adams Put The Joy In Joy Buzzers

816

French President Paul Deschanel Once Fell Out Of A Moving Train

817

The Legend Of Blanche Heriot, Who Saved Her Love’s Life By Keeping A Bell From Ringing

818

Rock On Week: One Of Aerosmith’s Biggest Hits Happened Partly Because Of A Mel Brooks Movie

819

Rock On Week: When Pat Boone Made A Heavy Metal Record

820

Rock On Week: When A 19 Year Old Drummer Got Onstage With The Who

821

Rock On Week: The Best Defense Against Cougars Is Metallica

822

Rock On Week: Why Van Halen Said No To Brown M&Ms

823

Parrots Like To Do Video Calls WIth Other Parrots

824

To Drive To Minnesota’s Northwest Angle, You Have To Go Through Canada

825

NASA Has Its Own Railroad

826

Meet ESTHER, A Robot That Plays Wheelchair Tennis

827

Guy Goma Became An Internet Expert By Accident On Live TV

828

There’s A Big Metal Ball Just Hanging Out In Earth Orbit, And It’s Super Useful

829

How A Farmer In Belgium Accidentally Changed The Country’s Borders

830

A Game Of Twister On “The Tonight Show” Helped Make The Game A Hit

831

Why People Push Peanuts Up Pikes Peak With Their Noses

832

Medieval Monks Were Volcano Trackers Without Even Knowing It

833

Today Is Ed Balls Day, To Which We Say “Ed Balls”

834

Cliff Young Won An Ultramarathon By Running Like An “Old Turtle”

835

There Were Storm Chasers Even In The 19th Century

836

Kids In Canada Went On Strike Over The Price Of Candy Bars

837

Libraries In Portugal Are Preserving Old Books With Help From Bats

838

When An Apollo Astronaut Had A Gas Problem On The Moon

839

The 300 Club Is The Hottest - And Coldest - Club In Antarctica

840

When World War II Meant No Bananas For The UK, People Made “Mock Bananas” Out Of Parsnips

841

Gregory Robertson Saved An Unconscious Skydiver After A High-Speed Dive

842

What Does It Take To Be Great At Underwater Hockey?

843

Did A Dolphin Known As Pelorus Jack Actually Guide Ships Through The Sea?

844

This Old City Bus Is Now A Traveling Sauna

845

Why Do Some People Love Licorice And Other People Loathe It?

846

Claire Weekes Came Up With Six Words To Help With Anxiety

847

The Wilhelm Scream Is The Classic Hollywood Sound Effect You Can’t Stop Hearing

848

California Miners Once Tried To Start “The Great Republic Of Rough And Ready”

849

The Twinkie Has Longevity In More Ways Than One

850

Carlester Smith Walked His Way Through Annapolis

851

The Volleyball Game Played Over A Border Fence

852

There’s A Lunchbox Museum In Columbus, Georgia

853

Baseball Week: Germany Schaefer, The Baseball Player Who Stole First Base

854

We Let AI Write This Show And Host Most Of It, Too

855

Baseball Week: Little Leaguer Katie Brownell Once Struck Out Every Batter In An Entire Game

856

Baseball Week: Satchel Paige Was So Good He Could Still Get Batters Out In His Late 50s

857

Baseball Week: Baseball's First, Fightingest Umpire

858

Baseball Week: Carlton Fisk’s Home Run Wave Changed TV Sports, But It Almost Didn’t Get Filmed At All

859

Dad Jokes Are Good For Kids, And Here’s The Science That Says So

860

Potatoes Could Help Astronauts Build “Cosmic Concrete” On Mars, Or Even Here On Earth

861

For Self-Help Robots, Looks Matter

862

The Air Force Once Bombed Montana

863

Ulysses, Kansas, The Town That Moved A Couple Miles Down The Road

864

How To Keep Flying Robots Flying Even When Their Wings Are Damaged

865

This Pen Can Help People With Parkinson’s Disease Keep Writing

866

A Company In Mexico Is Making 3D Printed Bricks Out Of Eggshells

867

The Prison-Only Potato Chips Known As “The Whole Shabang” Live Up To Their Name

868

Uranus Was Originally Going To Be Named “George”

869

How Insects, World War I, Golf Balls And Halloween Candy Helped Lead Us To Daylight Saving Time

870

When The Supreme Court Kind Of Ruled That An Airplane Wasn’t A Motor Vehicle

871

For Safer Motorcycling, How About Pants With Airbags?

872

Science Once Figured Out How To Give Rats Gambling Problems - And How To Take Them Away

873

For Michelangelo, Painting The Sistine Chapel Was Literally A Pain

874

Science Says Cats Can Perceive Time, Sort Of

875

Susanna Madora Salter Became The First American Woman Mayor Kind Of By Surprise

876

Pennies Were First Used Back When A Penny Was Worth Something, By Golly

877

Clippy, The AI Paper Clip Chatbot That Really Wanted To Help You Write Letters

878

This Device Could Tell You When Your Voice Is Getting Tired

879

Steve Jobs, The First Person To Order A Pizza Online

880

Ora Washington, The “Queen Of Two Courts,” Ruled Tennis And Basketball Alike

881

Robert Wadlow Was Known For His Heart As Well As His Height

882

Some Of The World’s Languages Are Whistled

883

Before There Were Big Car Sales On Presidents Day, There Were Big Bicycle Sales

884

Henry E. Baker Made Sure Black Inventors Got Recognized

885

How Choose Your Own Adventure Books Let Millions Of Young Readers Pick The Ending Of The Story

886

Gaming Prosthetics Are Making Minecraft More Inclusive

887

The Heart Shape Comes From Just About Everywhere Except Actual Hearts

888

The Time Millions Of Legos Fell Into The Ocean And Washed Up On Beaches

889

How Lusia Harris Became The “Queen Of Basketball”

890

Bill Veeck, The Wildest Owner Baseball Ever Saw

891

Why Did Actual People Start Building Snow People?

892

The First Time Astronauts Walked In Space Without A Tether

893

The Legend Of James Bartley, Who Was Supposedly Swallowed By A Whale

894

Clara MacBeth, The Queen Of Cruise Ships, Spent Decades At Sea

895

Sound Waves Could Help Keep High-Tech Batteries Going And Going And Going

896

There’s A Basketball Court In The US Supreme Court Building

897

The Moon Trees Came From Seeds That Went Into Lunar Orbit

898

President Franklin Roosevelt Once Dreamed Of Writing Movies

899

Electric Cutlery Can Make Food Taste Saltier Without Being Saltier

900

Before Play-Doh Became A Childhood Icon, It Was Known As Kutol Wallpaper Cleaner

901

This Solar Powered System Can Help Address Both Plastic Waste And Greenhouse Gases

902

The History Of The World, According To Peanut Butter

903

Hydrogel Sheets Could Clean Up Spills Quicker Than Ever Before

904

If Winter Is Your Thing, Try Staying At An Ice Hotel

905

The Mysterious “Poe Toaster” Raised A Glass To The Author Every Year On His Birthday

906

Banning Sliced Bread Was Not The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

907

When Al Capone Gave Two Cherry Trees To A Baltimore Hospital

908

Ben’s Chili Bowl Was One Of Martin Luther King’s Regular Stops In DC

909

Sign Spinning Isn’t Just A Job, It’s A Sport

910

Eclipse, The Dog Who Rode The Bus

911

A City In Japan Is Trying To Make Electricity From Snow

912

Cranberry-Based Packaging Is Plastic-Free And Completely Dissolvable

913

When Richard Nixon And Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev Went For A Drive

914

A New Mexico Lawmaker Tried To Make Expert Witnesses Dress Like Wizards In Court

915

How Aaron “Bunny” Lapin Became The Whipped Cream King

916

Why Don’t We Pronounce The First D In Wednesday?

917

The Leaning Tower Of Pisa Is Straightening Out

918

Rhnull, The Blood Type That Only A Handful Of People In The World Have

919

Betsy Ross May Not Have Made The First Flag, But She Really Did Make Flags

920

For Some People Decades Ago, Winter Was Time For Barrel Jumping

921

Egg Whites Are Helping Get Microplastics Out Of The Ocean

922

Jackdaws Decide When To Take Off As A Group

923

Here’s Why There Aren’t B Batteries

924

A Sailor In An Around-The-World Race Turned Around To Save An Opponent

925

Why “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” Was Almost Canceled

926

There Are Schools Where You Can Learn To Be Santa

927

If You’re Really Lucky, You Might See The Winter Solstice Inside Newgrange In Ireland

928

Houston’s Hanukkah House Brings All The Lights For The Holidays

929

Ebeneezer Scrooge Might Have Been Based On These Real People

930

The Ferris Wheel Was Designed To Show Up The Eiffel Tower

931

The Birth Of The Blinking Cursor

932

We Can Send Edible Drones To People While They’re Waiting For A Rescue

933

Don Karkos Regained Sight In His Right Eye After A Horse Headbutted Him

934

Frank Sinatra Was Once Offered The Lead Role In “Die Hard”

935

Kecksburg, Pennsylvania Is Home To The World’s Most Famous “Space Acorn”

936

Cheers To The First Woman To Perform Shakespeare Onstage, Whoever She Was

937

When ALS Stopped Jason Becker’s Guitar Playing, He Became An Accomplished Composer

938

The First Cars Licensed As London Taxis Were Electric Vehicles

939

Sarah Biffin, A 19th Century Painter “Without Hands” Who’s Getting 21st Century Recognition

940

Monster Week: Rhinelander, Wisconsin Is America’s Hodag Headquarters

941

Monster Week: Milicent Patrick Gave The Black Lagoon Its Creature

942

Monster Week: Whatever’s In Loch Ness Isn’t What’s In The Famous Loch Ness Monster Photo

943

Monster Week: How “Them!” Became The Greatest Giant Ant Movie Of Its Generation

944

Monster Week: The‌ ‌Big‌ ‌Muddy‌ ‌Monster‌ ‌Ran‌ ‌Wild‌ ‌In‌ ‌Murphysboro‌

945

The "Snow Bowl" Proved Playing College Football In A Blizzard Is Hard

946

When “WKRP” Thought Turkeys Could Fly For Thanksgiving

947

President Franklin Pierce Got An Acclaimed Author To Write His Campaign Biography

948

All Work And No Play Makes A Dull Bumblebee

949

The Classic Black And White Soccer Ball Was Designed To Look Like A Satellite

950

When Alan Shepard Hit Golf Balls On The Moon

951

Colorado’s State Capitol Has Pretty Much All The World’s Rose Onyx

952

The “McBarge” Was A Floating Wonderland Of Fast Food

953

Helen Hulick, Who Went To Jail For The Right To Wear Slacks In Court

954

The American Warship That Accidentally Launched A Torpedo At FDR

955

A Comanche Code Talker Sent The First Message From Utah Beach On D-Day

956

With A Name Like The Hope Diamond, It’s Gotta Be Cursed (Or Not)

957

Piano Chords May Help Stop Chronic Nightmares

958

How Auctioneers Keep Up Their Patter And Get Bidders To Bid

959

The “Parcel Post Bank” Was Mailed To Its Construction Site, A Few Bricks At A Time

960

When South New Jersey Wanted To Become Its Own State

961

The Worst Sandwich Ever Was A Way To Get Around Anti-Liquor Laws

962

When Marlon Brando Hosts An Acting Seminar, It Can Get Really Wild

963

Repainting The White House Takes 570 Gallons Of Paint

964

A Couple In Texas Made A Replica Of The Munsters’ TV House

965

Why Audiences Throw Things At The Stage, Though Obviously They Shouldn’t

966

Farming Robots Are Weeding The Fields With Lasers

967

The New York Mets Once Made A Mule Their Mascot

968

Florence Foster Jenkins Stunned Carnegie Hall With Her Singing

969

The United Nations Is Home To The World’s Countries, And Bees

970

Who Was Granny Smith And How Did She Get An Apple Named After Her?

971

Googly Eyes On Self-Driving Cars Could Help Keep Pedestrians Safe

972

Need To Build A House Quick? Try Inflatable Walls That Get Filled With Concrete

973

There’s A Bulldozer Under The University Of Illinois’ Stadium - Or Is There?

974

The Inventor Of Fettuccine Alfredo Was - No Surprise - A Guy Named Alfredo

975

A Quick Look At Superfast Bullet Trains

976

A New Brace Can Treat Scoliosis Without Cramping The Wearer’s Style

977

Teams Of High-Tech Drones Can 3D Print In The Air

978

Each Year, London Pays Rent To The Crown For Land That’s… Somewhere

979

The Talking Stamps Of Bhutan

980

A College Football Game Ended With A Score Of 222-0

981

For Decades, The Chicago Cubs Missed The World Series, And Fans Blamed It On The Curse Of The Billy Goat

982

Hisako Koyama Tracked Sunspots For Almost Half A Century

983

Margaret Abbott Won Olympic Gold Even Though She Didn’t Know She Was In The Olympics

984

The U.S. Had An Aunt Sammy As Well As An Uncle Sam

985

Abel Gonzales Is The Fried Food King Of The Texas State Fair

986

The Original Declaration Of Independence Had A Rough Century Or So

987

Mike Yurosek, The Founding Father Of Baby Carrots

988

The Dunce Cap Was Once A Hat Worn By Great Scholars

989

Cop Rock, The Show Where Police Sang As They Solved Crimes

990

There’s A House In The Middle Of France’s Loire River

991

With Solar-Reflective Paint, School Playgrounds Are Getting Cooler

992

It’s September 21st, So Of Course We're Doing A Show About Earth, Wind & Fire's "September"

993

The “Lunch Atop A Skyscraper” Photo Was Originally A Publicity Stunt

994

The Play Where All The Actors Were Dogs

995

Under The Sea Week: How Space Might Save The Whales

996

Under The Sea Week: Ship To Shark Communication

997

Under The Sea Week: The CIA Once Created Robot Fish

998

Under The Sea Week: Pilot Whales Trick Their Predators By Mimicking Their Voices

999

Under The Sea Week: The Greenland Shark Can Live For Hundreds Of Years, So Don’t Make It Mad

1000

Queen Elizabeth II Had A Bunch Of Birthdays