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Celebrations

Grand Central Terminal Turns 100

The iconic New York building, which celebrates its 100th birthday this weekend, has a storied past

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Prince Charles Rides the London Tube for First Time in 33 Years

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall graced the plebeians subway commuters with their presence to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the London tube’s creation

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The First Canned Beer Went on Sale 78 Years Ago Today

If you’ve ever drank beer out of a can, you can thank Gottfried Krueger Brewery. They were the first ones, 78 years ago today, to put the tasty beverage in a can and offer it up to consumers

Dungeons & Dragons Is So Classic It Now Has Its Own Digital Archive

Guides and books from the past 40 years of Dungeons and Dragons are to be preserved online

Gandalf’s fireworks were far better of course.

How to Properly Celebrate a Hobbit Birthday

Today is J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday, and in his honor here’s how to throw the best Hobbit Birthday ever

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Rasputin Was Murdered Today in 1916

It’s still a mystery who exactly orchestrated and carried out the deed

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These Two Kids Are Turning 12 at 12:12 on 12/12/12

One plans to eat Krispy Kreme donuts arranged in the shape of a 12, because “donuts are awesome”

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On This Day in 1901, the First Nobel Prizes Were Awarded

One-hundred and eleven years ago today the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace

Eugene Cernan on the surface of the Moon, December 1972.

It’s Been 40 Years Since Anyone Rode a Rocket to the Moon

Apollo 17 took off forty years ago today

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They Celebrate American Thanksgiving in the Netherlands

From 1609 to 1620, many of the Pilgrims who came to America lived in the Netherlands

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Happy Birthday Rodin, Sculptor And Breaker of Women’s Hearts

Rodin’s contribution to society lives on in his artistic works, but he wrecked a few lives in his time

Celebrating Carl Sagan’s Birthday With the Best Tributes Around

Happy Birthday to the Father of the Modern Vampire

If Bram Stoker were alive today, he’d be 165—pretty young for a vampire

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Nobel Economists Looked at Finding The Best Deals When You Can’t Use Money

Two Americans explain how to best bring groups together

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Sounding Smart with SmartNews: Your Cheat Sheet to the Nobels

Here, in Twitter-sized bites, are descriptions of the work that won the Nobel this week

Bafflement Over the European Union’s Peace Prize Win

The European Union received the Nobel Peace Prize this morning, much to the dismay of many Europeans and Tweeters

Mo Yan and Chinese literature translator Howard Goldblatt speak at a literary festival.

China’s ‘Provocative and Vulgar’ Mo Yan Wins Nobel in Literature

Chinese author Mo Yan took this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature for his “hallucinatory realism”

The seven-segmented structure of a GPCR, the class of receptors at the heart of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Everyone Believed Cell Receptors Existed, But Chemistry Nobelists Figured Out That They Actually Did

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for work that helped to figure out the functioning of cellular receptors

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Today’s Physics Nobel Prize Didn’t Go to the Higgs

The winning research centers around figuring out the way light behaves at a very fundamental level - a field called “quantum optics”

This lobate ctenophore is another bioluminescent creature that lives off the coast of the Americas.

Bioluminescent Worms Welcomed Columbus to the New World

Before Columbus made landfall in the New World 520 years ago today, glowing green worms engaged in a mating dance may have welcomed him first

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