New Research

Artifacts Found in Indonesian Cave Show Complexities of Ice Age Culture

Pendants and buttons as well as carvings suggest the inhabitants of Wallacea were as advanced as Europeans during the Ice Age

Before World War II, almost every Dutch village had a wooden shoe maker.

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Only 30 Dutch Wooden Shoe Makers Remain

The traditional trade is in trouble

President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan meet with the Beach Boys a few months after Reagan's Secretary of the Interior announced that rock bands attracted "the wrong element."

The Secretary of the Interior Once Banned Rock Bands From the National Mall

James Watt, who was outed from office in the early 1980s, said the only songs he knew were ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ and ‘Amazing Grace’

The interesting thing is that it doesn't sound like people minded much.

Once Upon a Time, Exploding Billiard Balls Were An Everyday Thing

It was a side effect of no longer making them from ivory

Kaboom.

Your Alaskan Cruise Is Possible Because Canada Blew Up an Underwater Mountain

People predicted tsunamis and an earthquake, but nothing particularly bad happened

Found: One of the Oldest North American Settlements

The discovery of the 14,000-year-old village in Canada lends credence to the theory that humans arrived in North America from the coast

Susannah Madora Salter was hanging up laundry when she heard her name was on the mayoral ballot.

130 Years Ago, Men Against Women’s Suffrage Put Susanna Salter’s Name on the Ballot

Boy, were they sorry.

Millicent Garrett Fawcett gives a speech in Hyde Park in 1913.

London’s Parliament Square Will Get Its First Statue of a Woman

Suffragist leader Millicent Garrett Fawcett will join the ranks of 11 statesmen who have been honored with monuments there

Amounts of arsenic that were deadly to children and the elderly were easily metabolized by healthy adults, which is one of the reasons it took many people so long to accept that arsenic wallpaper was bad news.

Arsenic and Old Tastes Made Victorian Wallpaper Deadly

Victorians were obsessed with vividly-colored wallpaper, which is on-trend for this year–though arsenic poisoning is never in style

Velcro was originally available only in black, but even when it started coming in multiple colors, 1960s fashionistas wanted nothing to do with it.

Before Velcro’s Patent Expired, It Was a Niche Product Most People Hadn’t Heard Of

The hook-and-loop tape’s moment in the sun came after others were free to copy it

The Sayler Park tornado which struck the Cincinnati area as part of the "Super Outbreak" was a category F5 storm on the Fujita scale, the highest possible rating on the scale.

How 148 Tornadoes in One Day in 1974 Changed Emergency Preparedness

The “super outbreak” flattened towns and killed and injured thousands, all with little warning and in the space of 24 hours

Marilyn Leistner, who was the last mayor of Times Beach, stands next to a caution sign erected in front of the town in 1991, not long before the town was bulldozed and buried.

How Agent Orange Turned This American Small Town Into a Toxic Waste-Ridden Deathtrap

“Walking into the houses, many of them were like people had just simply stood up, walked out and never come back”

National Park Service Seeks Public Help in Death Valley Fossil Theft

Fossilized footprints, which had been left in a lakebed by ancient mammals and birds, have been swiped

WWII Marine Buried at Arlington, 73 Years After His Death

Harry K. Tye’s body went missing after the 1943 Battle of Tarawa. Decades later, his remains were discovered and returned home.

Sourdough starters can be used to make all kinds of things: –pancakes, waffles, even cake–but the staple is sourdough bread.

Gold Miners Kept Their Sourdough Starters Alive By Cuddling Them

San Francisco-area miners used sourdough starters as a replacement for commercial leavening agents

Was sticking an eraser on the back of a pencil common sense, or a new invention?

Happy Birthday to the Modern Pencil

The patent for this supremely convenient invention didn’t last long

By the time Harvard relented and offered Mary Whiton Calkins a special Ph.D, she turned it down.

This ‘Brilliant’ Pioneering Psychologist Never Got a Ph.D….Technically

Despite “the most brilliant examination” Harvard had ever seen, the school didn’t grant degrees to women at the time

The queen

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Corrosion Could Bring a Premature End to This Legendary Ship

New report sounds the alarm on the RMS Queen Mary

A vintage ad for Coca Cola from around the late 19th or early 20th century.

Coca-Cola’s Creator Said the Drink Would Make You Smarter

Like the wine and cocaine drink that preceded it, Coca-Cola was first marketed as a brain tonic

"Straight Outta Compton" just landed a spot in the National Recording Registry.

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N.W.A., NPR Among This Year’s National Recording Registry Inductees

The latest class of 25 also includes Judy Garland and Vin Scully

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