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An International Investigation

Initially, staff at the Louvre didn’t realize the “Mona Lisa” had been stolen. It wasn’t uncommon for paintings to be removed for cleaning or photography, so the blank space that the portrait normally occupied was ignored for more than a day. But then, when people started to ask questions, the whole story exploded, sparking an international manhunt and unprecedented media coverage. At the time, the “Mona Lisa” wasn’t nearly as famous as it is today. But the media frenzy surrounding the theft catapulted the painting to new heights, and all of a sudden there was global public interest in Leonardo’s enigmatic masterpiece.

French police soon began interrogating hundreds of suspects. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested and imprisoned thanks to his associations with the light-fingered Joseph Gery Pieret, a man known to have stolen small items from the Louvre before. Apollinaire then implicated none other than Pablo Picasso, who had recently bought stolen sculptures from Pieret. (We don’t know if Picasso was aware they were stolen.) At one point, the American tycoon and art lover J.P. Morgan was also suspected of commissioning the theft. All of these men were found to be innocent, and the investigation dragged on.

For more than two years, the “Mona Lisa” sat hidden in Peruggia’s modest Paris apartment, where he would often take it out to gaze upon the masterpiece — he poetically stated, after his arrest, “I fell a victim to her smile and feasted my eyes on my treasure every evening. I fell in love with her.” Eventually, Peruggia tried to sell the painting, which led to his downfall. The potential buyers, upon seeing the genuine “Mona Lisa,” reported the thief to the authorities. On December 11, 1913, police arrested Peruggia and the “Mona Lisa” was returned to its rightful place in the Louvre.

The Most Valuable Object Ever Stolen

Since the theft of the “Mona Lisa,” many other famous and valuable paintings have been stolen. For example, Edvard Munch’s “Scream,” worth $120 million, was stolen twice, in 1994 and 2004, and “The Concert” by Johannes Vermeer, valued at $200 million, was stolen in 1990. Of course, it’s not only paintings that get the big bucks. A $3 million violin — known as the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius — was nabbed in 1995. And in 2003, the Saliera, a sculpture and functional salt cellar worth about $57 million, was taken from a museum in Vienna. Even Dorothy’s ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz were stolen, before later selling at auction for $28 million. And back in 1907, someone stole the Irish Crown Jewels — worth at least $5.5 million today —from Dublin Castle, in a case that remains unsolved.

The “Mona Lisa,” however, is in a different league. It’s hard to put a price on the famed painting, but it did receive an insurance valuation of $100 million in 1962, equivalent to about $865 million today — the highest insurance valuation ever recorded for a painting. This alone makes the “Mona Lisa” the most valuable object ever stolen, as recognized by Guinness World Records. More recently, in 2014, experts valued the painting at a whopping $2.5 billion, far eclipsing the value of any other stolen object in history.

What Was the First Museum?

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Author Bess Lovejoy

October 9, 2025

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The roots of museums reach back thousands of years. From Mesopotamian princesses to Renaissance aristocrats, humans have long been drawn to collect, preserve, and display the material traces of their world. But exactly how old is this tradition? And which institution deserves the title of the first museum in history?

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An Ancient Princess’s Collection

The earliest evidence of what we might recognize as a museum comes from the city of Ur, in modern-day Iraq. Once a flourishing port on the Euphrates River and the heart of ancient Sumerian civilization, Ur is also remembered as Abraham’s hometown in the Bible.

In the 1920s, British archaeologist Charles Leonard Woolley led excavations at Ur, uncovering treasures that dazzled the public: gold and lapis-inlaid jewelry, royal tombs, and evidence of elaborate funeral rites. Then, in 1924, Woolley stumbled upon something quieter but no less revolutionary.

Inside the ruins of a palace, he and his team found chambers belonging to Ennigaldi-Nanna, daughter of King Nabonidus, the last ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Among the rubble lay a puzzling collection: an inscribed black boundary stone from 1400 BCE, fragments of a king’s statue from 2250 BCE, bronze figurines, and clay tablets dating centuries earlier. The items spanned more than a millennium of Mesopotamian history.

What tied them together was a small clay drum inscribed in four languages. The text identified the origins of one of the objects and explained how it had been unearthed. To Woolley, this was unmistakably a museum label — the first known to history. He concluded that Ennigaldi had curated a collection of antiquities, deliberately displayed for their historical value.

Little is known about her motives, though her father was fascinated by the past and even conducted excavations himself. Ennigaldi also served as a priestess of the moon god Sin and may have overseen a scribal school for elite women. Whether motivated by scholarship, religion, or royal prestige, her collection, assembled around 530 BCE, stands as the earliest known public museum.

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Museums in the Ancient Mediterranean

The idea of gathering and displaying objects wasn’t unique to Mesopotamia. In the Greek and Roman worlds, temples often doubled as repositories of offerings, art, and plundered treasures. Sculptures also decorated public gardens, forums, and bathhouses.

The Museum of Alexandria, founded in the third century BCE, was another important milestone in the history of museums. Despite its name, this mouseion — literally a shrine to the Muses — resembled more of a research institute than a gallery. Attached to the famous Library of Alexandria, it housed scholars, lecture halls, and dining rooms rather than artifacts. Still, the institution’s prestige meant that later Europeans revived the word “museum” to describe their own collections.

Curiosity Cabinets

After Ennigaldi’s experiment, it took nearly 2,000 years before anything resembling a museum emerged in Europe. During the Renaissance, wealthy European nobles, merchants, and scholars began assembling “cabinets of curiosity” or “wonder rooms.” These eclectic collections brought together fossils, coins, artworks, scientific instruments, and exotic artifacts from voyages abroad.

The goal was encyclopedic: to contain the world’s marvels in miniature. Visitors might marvel at a stuffed dodo, a mummy’s hand, or a carved gem, all jumbled together without concern for taxonomy. John Tradescant, a gardener to English royalty, famously opened his home and garden in South London to display such a collection, later catalogued and published as the Musaeum Tradescantianum.

These cabinets were largely private, their accessibility subject to the whim of the owner. Yet they laid the foundation for the idea that collections could be displayed for education as well as prestige.

The Birth of the Public Museum

The leap from private collections to public institutions occurred from the 15th through 18th centuries. A turning point came in 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated ancient bronze sculptures to the people of Rome. This gift formed the nucleus of the Capitoline Museums, which officially opened in 1734 and are often considered the first truly public art museums.

Another watershed was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. Built to house the collections of the wealthy antiquary Elias Ashmole and the Tradescant family, it opened its doors in 1683 and is frequently cited as the first modern museum. Its displays included antiquities, coins, zoological specimens, and the (now-lost) body of the last dodo seen in Europe.

By the mid-18th century, museums were firmly established. The British Museum, founded in 1753 from the collection of Irish physician and naturalist Hans Sloane, institutionalized the model: publicly accessible repositories dedicated to collecting, preserving, and classifying the world’s knowledge. The Louvre, transformed into a national museum during the French Revolution in 1793, underscored the museum’s political as well as cultural significance.

The First Museum

So, what was the first museum? The answer depends on how you define “museum.” If we mean the first known collection curated for historical interest and accompanied by labels, the title belongs to Princess Ennigaldi’s collection in Ur. If we mean the first public institution designed to grant ordinary people access to cultural treasures, the Capitoline Museums of Rome claim the honor. And if we mean the first modern museum in the European sense — systematic, educational, and encyclopedic — the Ashmolean in Oxford stands out.

Each reflects a different stage in humanity’s enduring desire to preserve the past and make meaning from material culture. The museum has never been a single invention, but rather a recurring impulse across time: the need to gather objects, organize them, and invite others to see what stories they tell. In that sense, the first museum may not be a place at all, but an idea that keeps resurfacing whenever people try to make sense of history through things.

7 Home Features That No Longer Exist

Vintage intercom unit — Credit: Mr Doomits/ Alamy Stock Photo

Author Nicole Villeneuve

October 8, 2025

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“They don’t make them like they used to.” You’ve likely heard this common refrain or even said it yourself before. Maybe it was a grumble about modern disposability, but perhaps it was a wistful reflection on how many parts of daily life have changed.

Old houses in particular can be full of reminders of how life once looked. Over the years, some domestic features that made sense for their eras have faded away as habits, technology, and tastes evolved. Here are seven once-common house fixtures that have all but disappeared.

Laundry Chutes

For generations of kids, a laundry chute was less about dirty socks and more about fun. Who didn’t dream of sliding or sending toys down one like a secret passage? For the people in charge of the household chores, though, they were the ultimate convenience. Laundry chutes first appeared in the United States sometime around the late 1800s. They were inspired by similar systems in wealthy Victorian-era homes in England, which were an evolution of industrial chutes used for mail and coal.

While laundry chutes were initially common only in upper-class houses with staff, by the 1930s, they had become a beloved fixture of middle-class homes, too. But by the mid-1960s, their popularity was on the decline. Rising construction costs in the 1970s further pushed builders to cut out extras, and as modern washers and dryers migrated upstairs into their own rooms, the need for basement-bound chutes all but disappeared.

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Intercom Systems

They may seem quaint now compared to sophisticated smart home systems, but there was a time when built-in intercoms were a handy home tool. As postwar suburban homes grew bigger in the 1950s and ’60s, families could use them to communicate with each other from different parts of the house. A voice from the kitchen would announce dinner, remind someone to take out the trash, or check who was home — all without anyone leaving their room.

Intercoms such as the ones made by NuTone were primarily fixtures of upscale homes. They were marketed as a luxury convenience that could also broadcast AM and FM radio throughout the house. But the novelty of intercoms didn’t last long, and by the 1980s, some major intercom manufacturers such as GE had ceased making them.

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Milk Doors

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a little door on the side of the house was a common sight for many American families, but it wasn’t for letters or for a pet to scurry in and out. These built-in compartments, which usually had two doors, one on the outside and one on the inside of the compartment, were for milk. This was during an era when milkmen delivered glass bottles of fresh milk to the home. The milk doors were a receptacle for new bottles, and a place for families to return empty ones and leave the milkman’s payment.

Milk delivery continued for decades throughout the U.S. But by the 1960s and ’70s, it was competing with a new reality. Suburban sprawl made delivery routes longer and more costly, supermarkets offered cheaper one-stop shopping, and refrigerators became standard in nearly every home. Daily milk delivery was no longer needed, and remaining milk doors became little more than a symbolic portal to the past.

Razor Blade Disposals

Perhaps one of the strangest bygone house features is the built-in razor-blade disposal. Prior to the early 20th century, men would need to visit the barber for a fresh shave, since doing so at home was considered too risky. But thanks to the invention of the safety razor in 1904, at-home shaving became the norm. While this was a major leap forward in convenience, the disposable razor blades were a nuisance when it came time to throw them out. Too sharp (and potentially contaminated) for the regular trash, they were instead placed into the wall.

That’s right — small openings were incorporated into the back of medicine cabinets or in the walls above sinks. Once the blades went in, they didn’t come out. They often stayed inside the walls, accumulating until someone decided to renovate somewhere down the line. By the mid-1970s, fully disposable razors with the blade built right in became popular, and these strange little slots went out of style.

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Popcorn Ceilings

Love them or hate them, popcorn ceilings were once everywhere. The infamous finish first became popular in the 1950s, when postwar homes were being built quickly and cheaply to accommodate booming populations. Construction crews appreciated the ease and affordability of the ceiling style, since it doesn’t require sanding or finishing multiple layers, and homeowners liked that it hid imperfections and even provided some minor soundproofing.

Popcorn ceilings were the norm for almost 30 years — and you may even have some in your own home today — but you likely won’t see them in homes built after 1980. A major reason? The material itself. Early formulations of the spray-on mixture often contained asbestos, naturally occurring minerals that, when disturbed, can lead to serious health risks. As maligned as their reputation may be, though, anyone who grew up under popcorn ceilings still probably has a soft spot for them — right along with shag carpets and avocado-green kitchen appliances.

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Phone Nooks

Before cellphones and even cordless home phones, the household telephone typically stayed in one spot. In the early 20th century, to make room for this emerging technology, homes were sometimes built with a dedicated phone nook (also called a phone niche). These small, recessed wall spaces were usually found in a hallway or near the stairs. They often had a compact shelf for a heavy rotary phone and space for a small seat to tuck underneath.

If the house wasn’t built with a phone nook, cabinets could be ordered from catalogs such as Sears and installed anywhere homeowners desired. But as phones became smaller, lighter, and eventually mobile, there was no longer a need to anchor them to a single place. Today, phone nooks that remain are often used as storage for items such as mail, keys, tchotchkes, and houseplants.

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Fold-Out Ironing Boards

Ironing was once a more frequent chore for many households, so having a simple setup was helpful. Enter the fold-out ironing board: a shallow, built-in cabinet, often in the kitchen, that concealed a board that could be pulled down when needed. This space-saving design choice was common in 1920s homes, along with Murphy beds and phone nooks.

Of course, ironing boards still exist, but over time many fabrics became easier to launder and wear without wrinkling, and everyday clothing became less formal. As a result, the need for these built-in boards declined. Today, you might find that existing relics of fold-out ironing board cupboards make better spice racks, but they are nonetheless a reminder of the changing domestic habits that keep households evolving.

10 Strange Presidential Nicknames

FDR’s inauguration, 1941 — Credit: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images

Author Timothy Ott

October 8, 2025

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Because U.S. presidents are often among the most famous and critiqued people of their era, they have frequently garnered nicknames for policies or activities that defined their persona — some of which are more well known than others.

George Washington, for one, was sometimes called the “American Cincinnatus,” after the Roman statesman who prioritized the well-being of the republic over personal gain. Andrew Jackson was dubbed “Sharp Knife” by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation for his ruthless negotiating tactics. And Abraham Lincoln became known on the 1860 campaign trail as the “Rail-Splitter,” for his early years of hardscrabble labor on the frontier.

While some nicknames are self-explanatory, others are more confounding when taken without context from the period in which they originated. Here’s a look at how 10 of the more unusual nicknames stuck to U.S. presidents.

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James Monroe: “The Last Cocked Hat”

Although he was younger than many of the renowned Founding Fathers, James Monroe is generally lumped in with that group due to his service in the American Revolution and in the administrations of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. As such, he was one of the final public figures to carry the torch of that era, and his insistence on adhering to the late-18th-century fashions of a powdered wig and tricorn hat, even as he served as president well into the following century, led to him being called “The Last Cocked Hat.”

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John Tyler: "His Accidency"

When President William Henry Harrison died after just one month in office in 1841, thrusting the job into the hands of the vice president for the first time in the nation's history, people were unsure as to whether John Tyler should be treated as the acting president or as a VP with expanded powers. There was nothing ambiguous about the matter to Tyler, who firmly believed he was simply the president, case closed. Yet his habit of upsetting both the Whigs he was ostensibly representing and the Democrats he had initially aligned with prompted critics across the political spectrum to refer to him by the decidedly less respectful title of "His Accidency."

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James Buchanan: "Ten-Cent Jimmy"

James Buchanan's nickname of "Ten-Cent Jimmy" originated during his tenure as a senator from Pennsylvania in the early 1840s, when he allegedly advocated for laborers to receive a pittance of just 10 cents for a day of hard work. The miserly label was revived for the 1856 presidential race, even making its way into a song for candidate John C. Frémont, although it wasn't enough to derail Buchanan's path to victory.

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James A. Garfield: "Boatman Jim"

During the 1880 presidential campaign, supporters sought to play up James A. Garfield's humble origins with songs such as "Boatman Jim" highlighting his teenage job on the vessels that navigated the Ohio and Erie Canal. Left unmentioned in these ditties were the candidate's difficulties in this line of work: According to some reports, Garfield fell overboard 14 times in a six-week span, the final instance leading to a serious fever that forced him to quit.

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Chester A. Arthur: "Dude President"

To steal a line from Paul McCartney, Chester A. Arthur was "born a poor, young country boy," but he dressed the part of a man with a taste for material riches. The transformation began in college, and by the time Arthur was running the country in the early 1880s, the press was having a field day with reports of him owning 80 pairs of trousers and splurging on hats. The sartorial presentation led to Arthur being dubbed the "Dude President" — with "dude" referring to a conspicuously fashionable man — along with related nicknames such as "Elegant Arthur" and "Gentleman Boss."

Benjamin Harrison: "The Human Iceberg"

Although he proved adept enough at campaign speeches, the scholarly Benjamin Harrison disliked small talk and was accused of being distant and aloof in person. As a result, in addition to contending with epithets that poked fun at his relatively diminutive 5-foot-6 stature, President Harrison also endured nicknames that played on his lack of personal warmth, such as "The Human Iceberg" and "The Refrigerator."

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William McKinley: "Wobbly Willie"

Even after Spain was widely (and likely erroneously) blamed for the explosion of the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba in February 1898, President William McKinley sought a diplomatic solution to tensions with the European country. The measured approach didn't sit well with bloodthirsty opponents in Congress and the press, who called the president "Wobbly Willie" for his refusal to take a firm stance in defense of the red, white, and blue. Although the president soon gave Congress the go-ahead to declare war, the nickname resurfaced whenever McKinley was thought to be wavering on an issue.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: "The Sphinx"

Often simply known by the initials FDR, Franklin D. Roosevelt earned a new nickname from the press late in the second term of his presidency. Cagey about whether he planned to run for a third term — at the time, there were no presidential term limits — Roosevelt was coined "The Sphinx" after the famed Egyptian landmark that supposedly guarded the answer to a great riddle. FDR even saw his likeness lampooned with a papier-mâché Sphinx sculpture during a December 1939 journalists' dinner, although he resisted answering the riddle until confirming his third-term candidacy just before the July 1940 Democratic National Convention.

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Lyndon B. Johnson: "Light Bulb"

Also widely known by his initials, Lyndon B. Johnson briefly took on a harmless if unflattering nickname after ascending to the presidency in November 1963. Apparently eager to demonstrate his energy-saving ways, Johnson made a habit of trekking through the White House to shut off lights in empty rooms, prompting amused observers to dub him "Light Bulb" Johnson. The appellation reappeared during the 1964 presidential campaign, with opponents distributing paraphernalia reading, "Turn off Light Bulb Johnson."

Richard Nixon: "Iron Butt"

While seemingly as derogatory as his longtime alias of "Tricky Dick," bestowed for allegations of political scheming, Richard Nixon's law school nickname of "Iron Butt" originated from a place of admiration. The moniker apparently stemmed from Nixon's reputation as one of the most studious members of his class. When discussing his career prospects with an older student, the elder insisted that Nixon would be able to handle the professional workload just fine because of his "iron butt" built to withstand long hours in a seat.

5 Strange Rules From Hollywood’s Hays Code

Actors on set, 1937 — Credit: Archive Photos via Getty Images

Author Nicole Villeneuve

September 24, 2025

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The golden age of Hollywood was an era of glamorous stars and timeless films, but behind the sparkle was a somewhat less romantic reality. From 1934 until the late 1960s, films were subject to strict moral scrutiny and censorship under the Motion Picture Production Code, better known as the Hays Code.

Named for politician Will H. Hays, who served as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, the set of rules was born from scandal. A series of high-profile controversies in the 1920s convinced the public that Hollywood was reckless, immoral, and a dangerous influence on the general public. Fearing government censorship, Hollywood studios opted to police themselves instead.

On paper, the Hays Code guidelines promised protection for impressionable viewers. In practice, this meant a long list of oddly specific rules primarily targeting crime, profanity, or anything sexual in nature, many of which reflected social anxieties of the era but seem outlandish and outdated today. Here are five of the strangest rules from Hollywood’s Hays Code days.

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No “Raspberry” Sounds

It’s a sound most of us associate with children or silly teasing, but in 1930s Hollywood, making a “raspberry” sound was forbidden. The juvenile act of placing one’s tongue between the lips and blowing (also known at the time as the “Bronx cheer”) was deemed a “vulgar expression” and listed under the Hays Code’s profanity section. Other gestures of mockery were flagged as well, such as using the middle finger.

Of course, the rules didn’t just forbid gestures. Many words were also considered profane, including “cripes,” “lousy,” and “damn.” In fact, one of the most famous lines from 1939’s Gone With the Wind — “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” — almost didn’t make it past censors the Production Code Administration office, who ultimately allowed the line due to its literary roots.

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No Funny Clergy

Hollywood had strict orders when it came to religion: Ministers, priests, and other clergy could not be portrayed as comic relief or sinister villains. This rule didn’t just reflect the societal norms at the time; it was also due to the personal influence of Hays, a pillar of the Presbyterian church, as well as Joseph Breen, who oversaw the PCA’s enforcement of the Hays Code for decades and was himself a devout Catholic.

This isn’t to say that clergy couldn’t be portrayed as flawed or unconventional, but they couldn’t be made into a laughing stock. Popular films such as Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) fit the mold perfectly: Bing Crosby’s beloved character Father Chuck O’Malley was portrayed as approachable and human but always dignified. The rule extended to language, too: The words “God,” “Lord,” “Jesus,” and “Christ” could be said only if they were used reverently.

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No Dancing While Feet Are Stationary

Dancing is everywhere in classic Hollywood films, and the Hays Code even recognized it as “an art” and “a beautiful form of expressing human emotions.” But even this beautiful art form had its limits at the time. Any dancing that suggested sexual activity or that was “intended to excite the emotional reaction of an audience” could get a movie canned. More specifically, dancing that “involved excessive upper-body movement while the feet stayed still” was considered indecent. Suggestive hip-swaying? No way, especially not without the added distraction of moving feet.

High-energy, dazzling routines full of spins, lifts, and fancy footwork were a hallmark of the era, however. Film critic David Denby has even suggested that the magic between screen legends Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers might never have been the same without the limitations of the Hays Code. According to Denby, what could have been rote “scenes of passion” were instead dance numbers that became their own form of courtship through dizzyingly dynamic sequences.

No Childbirth

It’s one of the most natural (and dramatic) moments of human life, but Hollywood was not allowed to depict childbirth “in fact or in silhouette” under the Hays Code. Pregnancy itself was not specifically off-limits in the official list of rules, but Olga J. Martin, one of Breen’s former secretaries, confirmed in her book Hollywood’s Movie Commandments that it was certainly frowned upon and was almost always removed from films since it was considered “improper for public discussions.”

A woman in labor did make it onto the big screen, however, and in an iconic film at that. In 1939’s Gone With the Wind, Olivia de Havilland’s character Melanie goes into premature labor. The audience doesn’t see much — a pained face and a vague silhouette. But given the bluntness with which the subject matter was banned, it’s a wonder the PCA, albeit after a back-and-forth with the film’s producer David O. Selznick, allowed the scene to exist at all.

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No Toilets

Old Hollywood was a time of many taboos, but toilets might be the most absurd. For decades, in the name of decorum, bathroom interiors, especially toilets, did not appear on screen. Broader “toilet gags” — which encompassed any form of potty humor as well as certain bodily functions — were also banned under the Hays Code’s profanity section.

It wasn’t until Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho that a toilet — and a flushing one at that — finally appeared on screen. It was just one of the film’s many snubs to the Hays Code, which at the time was being challenged by filmmakers and enforced less and less, a gradual process that began after Breen retired in 1954.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Hays Code steadily lost influence and was enforced less and less — as television and foreign films outside of its jurisdiction became more accessible, filmmakers began pushing boundaries. By 1968, the code was officially replaced by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system that is still in use today.

8 Military Honors Beyond the Purple Heart

U.S. military medals — Credit: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images

Author Tony Dunnell

September 23, 2025

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The Purple Heart is the oldest and arguably most famous military award in the U.S. Its origins stretch back to 1782 and the Badge of Military Merit — a heart made of purple cloth — which became the modern Purple Heart in 1932. The medal is awarded to U.S. military service members who have been wounded or killed as a result of enemy action. In total, more than 1.8 million Purple Heart medals have been presented.

However, it’s far from the only military decoration in the U.S. In fact, the U.S. military maintains an extensive system of honors and awards. There are more than 100 decorations, including medals, service ribbons, ribbon devices, and specific badges, recognizing various forms of service, valor, achievement, and dedication. These acknowledge everything from the highest acts of heroism in combat to meritorious service in peacetime operations.

Let’s take a look at some of the most prestigious and notable U.S. military decorations. Each one, in its own way, recognizes the exceptional service and sacrifice displayed by members of the armed forces — and in some cases, civilians.

Medal of Honor

The Medal of Honor is the highest medal for valor in combat that can be awarded to members of the U.S. armed forces. While the Purple Heart is awarded to U.S. military service members who have been wounded or killed as a result of enemy action, the Medal of Honor is for acts of extraordinary valor. Created in 1861, the medal recognizes the bravest of the brave. Since its inception, more than 3,500 service members have received the Medal of Honor. Only 19 have received it twice — five of those recipients were Marines with Army units who received both the Army and Navy versions of the medal, and 14 others received it for separate acts of supreme valor.

The recommendation process for receiving the Medal of Honor can be complex, taking more than 18 months as it passes up the chain of command. It’s ultimately approved or disapproved by the president of the United States, who personally awards the medal.

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Service Crosses

The Service Crosses represent the second-highest level of military decorations for valor, honoring extraordinary acts of heroism in action against an enemy. The crosses come in three variations: the Army’s Distinguished Service Cross, the Air Force Cross, and the Navy Cross. The Navy Cross is awarded to members of both the Navy and the Marine Corps, as well as members of the Coast Guard when operating under the authority of the Department of the Navy.

Silver Star

The Silver Star is the third-highest military combat decoration. It is awarded for displaying gallantry while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States. This decoration recognizes acts of valor that, while extraordinary, do not quite meet the criteria for the Medal of Honor or Service Crosses.

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Distinguished Service Medals

The Distinguished Service Medal is a family of awards, with separate versions for the different branches of the military, as well as a version for the Department of Defense (the Defense Distinguished Service Medal). Unlike the Army’s Distinguished Service Cross, which is awarded only for heroism in combat, the Distinguished Service Medal is also awarded for noncombat services — officially described as “exceptionally meritorious service to the government in a duty of great responsibility.”

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Bronze Star

The Bronze Star is given for acts of heroism, acts of merit, or meritorious service in a combat zone. When awarded specifically for acts of valor, the metal is decorated with a “V” device. Civilians can receive the Bronze Star as well. For example, the war reporter Joseph Galloway received the award for heroically rescuing a badly wounded soldier while under fire during the Vietnam War. Ernest Hemingway was also awarded the Bronze Star for his service as a war correspondent during World War II. Within the hierarchy of military awards, the Purple Heart is ranked immediately behind the Bronze Star.

Legion of Merit

The Legion of Merit is awarded to members of the armed forces for “exceptionally outstanding conduct in the performance of meritorious service to the United States.” When it was established in 1942, the Legion of Merit was the first U.S. decoration created to honor both American service members and citizens of other nations. To this day, it is given to foreign officials of high rank or foreign military advisers for services to the United States.

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Distinguished Flying Cross

The Distinguished Flying Cross, created in 1926, is America’s oldest military aviation award. The medal is awarded to any officer or enlisted person of the armed forces for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. The first Distinguished Flying Cross medal was presented by President Calvin Coolidge to Charles Lindbergh on June 11, 1927, in recognition of the aviator’s solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

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Air Medal

The Air Medal was created during World War II, partly as an effort to boost morale among U.S. Army Air Force crews during the dark days of the war. It was meant to recognize actions that were “meritorious” but did not reach the level of “heroism or extraordinary achievement” required to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The Air Medal’s reward criteria have shifted considerably over the years, with the medals awarded for service during World War II often regarded as particularly significant due to the extreme dangers faced during the conflict.

Surprising Facts About Every U.S. President

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Author Tony Dunnell

September 18, 2025

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Since the establishment of the office in 1789, 45 people have served in 47 presidencies. Each president has brought their own brand of political discourse to the role, and historians tend to remember these leaders primarily for their major historical achievements and policy decisions.

But behind the presidents’ political legacies lie plenty of lesser-known details we don’t hear about as often, whether it’s a past life as an executioner, a penchant for skinny-dipping, or a fierce dislike of broccoli. Here is a surprising fact about every U.S. president.

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George Washington

George Washington’s second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1793, was the shortest ever at less than two minutes long and only 135 words. (The average length of an inaugural address is 2,350 words.)

John Adams

John Adams was the first U.S. president to inhabit the White House. He moved into the unfinished and largely unfurnished residence in November 1800, with only six rooms completed.

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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson helped popularize ice cream, French fries, and macaroni and cheese in America. He brought recipes from Europe that his staff prepared for guests at the White House.

James Madison

James Madison was the shortest president. He measured 5 feet, 4 inches (163 centimeters) tall and is estimated to have weighed about 100 pounds.

James Monroe

Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, was named after James Monroe, making it the only capital city outside the U.S. named for an American president.

John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams had a daily routine that involved early morning nude swims in the Potomac River. He maintained his habit of swimming in the Potomac into his late 70s.

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Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was involved in at least a dozen duels during his lifetime (some put the number as high as 100), most of which were resolved without bloodshed. But Jackson did kill one opponent and was shot twice himself.

Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren was the first U.S. president who spoke English as a second language. He grew up in a Dutch community in upstate New York, and his first language was Dutch.

William Henry Harrison

After only one month in the White House, William Henry Harrison became the first president to die in office, serving the shortest tenure in U.S. presidential history.

John Tyler

John Tyler fathered 15 children with two wives, more than any other president. His first child was born in 1815, when Tyler was 25, and his last in 1860, when the former president was 70.

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James K. Polk

Some of James K. Polk’s contemporaries considered him to be a rather boring man. This likely wasn’t helped by his wife, Sarah, who banned hard liquor and dancing at the White House.

Zachary Taylor

In 1848, the Whig National Convention nominated Zachary Taylor as president of the United States. Letters were sent to Taylor requesting his acceptance, but he didn’t respond — he had instructed the local post office not to deliver his mail to avoid postage fees, and didn’t get official word of his nomination for weeks.

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Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore came from a large, poor family and received little formal education until he was 18. When he became president, he and his wife, Abigail, established the first permanent library in the White House.

Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce was the first U.S. president to recite his inaugural speech entirely from memory — all 3,336 words of it.

James Buchanan

James Buchanan never married and remains America’s only bachelor president.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is the only president to hold a patent. His invention was designed to buoy and lift boats over shoals and obstructions in rivers.

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson was supposed to be assassinated on the same night as Abraham Lincoln, as he was serving as Lincoln’s vice president at the time. But his would-be assassin, George Atzerodt, lost his nerve and got drunk instead.

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant’s real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. He wound up with the moniker we know today due to a mistake by his benefactor on his application form to West Point, which he was never able to correct.

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Rutherford B. Hayes

As part of his “Great Western Tour” in 1880, Rutherford B. Hayes became the first president to visit the West Coast while in office.

James A. Garfield

When President James A. Garfield was shot by an assassin on July 2, 1881, he was attended to by Charles B. Purvis — the first Black physician to treat a sitting president.

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Chester A. Arthur

Chester A. Arthur appreciated the finer things in life. His administration spent $30,000 (around $2 million today) lavishly refurbishing the White House, and his love of clothing — he reputedly owned 80 pairs of trousers — earned him the nickname “the Gentleman Boss.”

Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland was the only president to officially serve as an executioner. As the sheriff of Erie County, New York, he performed the role of hangman on a handful of executions.

Photo credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Benjamin Harrison

Benjamin Harrison was the first president to have electric lighting installed in the White House, but he and his wife Caroline were afraid to touch the light switches for fear of electrocution.

William McKinley

William McKinley’s favorite pet was a double yellow-headed Mexican parrot that he named Washington Post and taught to whistle “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

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Theodore Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt was disappointed with his official presidential portrait by artist Théobald Chartran, which his family jokingly said made him look like a “mewing cat.” Just before the end of his presidency, Roosevelt had the painting removed from the White House and burned.

William Howard Taft

In 1910, William Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to throw the ceremonial first pitch of a baseball season.

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Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson is the only U.S. president to be buried in Washington, D.C. He is interred at the Washington National Cathedral.

Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding was involved in a number of extramarital affairs. He wrote more than 100 lustful letters to his mistress Carrie Fulton Phillips.

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Calvin Coolidge

Considering it to be good for his health, Calvin Coolidge had his head rubbed with petroleum jelly every morning while he ate his breakfast in bed.

Herbert Hoover

While living in China, Herbert Hoover and his wife were caught up in the Boxer Rebellion, an uprising against foreigners that occurred in 1900. While they were trapped during the Siege of Tientsin, Hoover took a leading role in the defense, building barricades around residential areas.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

FDR suffered from a mild case of triskaidekaphobia, a fear of the number 13. He didn’t like Friday the 13th, wouldn’t travel on the 13th day of any month, and avoided hosting 13 guests at a dinner party.

Harry S. Truman

The “S” in Harry S. Truman’s name doesn't stand for anything — it’s simply the letter “S” and not an initial for a middle name. According to Truman, the letter was chosen as a compromise between the names of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

In 1954, Dwight D. Eisenhower had a putting green installed outside the Oval Office — but squirrels kept digging holes in it. Growing increasingly irate, he had his groundskeepers live-trap the squirrels, which were then released in nearby Rock Creek Park.

John F. Kennedy

When JFK and his crew were stranded on an island during World War II, they carved a rough rescue message onto a coconut shell. Kennedy later had the coconut turned into a paperweight, which sat on his desk throughout his presidency.

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Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson owned an amphibious car, which he used to prank people. Exclaiming to all on board that the brakes had failed, he’d head straight into a lake — at which point the terrified passengers would learn that the car could actually float.

Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon was a talented musician. He played five musical instruments — saxophone, violin, clarinet, accordion, and piano — and even composed a piano concerto.

Gerald Ford

While still in his late 20s, Gerald Ford worked as a fashion model. He even made it onto the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine.

Jimmy Carter

During a fishing trip in 1979, President Jimmy Carter was “attacked” by a swamp rabbit. He was in a small boat when the agitated rabbit swam toward him, possibly trying to escape a predator. The press had a field day with the story, dubbing it the “killer rabbit” or “banzai bunny” incident.

Ronald Reagan

Over the course of seven summers, the young Ronald Reagan was a lifeguard at Lowell Park on the Rock River. During that time, he saved 77 lives — a number he kept track of by cutting a notch in a log each time he pulled someone from the water.

George H.W. Bush

George H.W. Bush had a passionate dislike for broccoli. While reports that he banned it from the White House and Air Force One may have been exaggerated, Bush is on record as having said, “I'm president of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli.”

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Bill Clinton

In 1963, when he was just 16 years old, Bill Clinton shook hands with President John F. Kennedy — and the moment was captured on video.

George W. Bush

During his senior year of high school in the 1960s, George W. Bush was the head cheerleader at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts.

Barack Obama

As a child, Barack Obama spent four years living in Indonesia. His family pets included a large turtle and an ape named Tata — and his stepfather secretly bred crocodiles in the house.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s Secret Service code name is Mogul, while Melania Trump is Muse. Both code names were selected during Trump’s first term as president.

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Joe Biden

While he was a student at the University of Delaware, Joe Biden was put on academic probation for a prank in which he sprayed the dorm director with a fire extinguisher.

5 Life Lessons From Albert Einstein

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Author Nicole Villeneuve

September 18, 2025

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Most people know Albert Einstein as the face of genius, but there was much more to this famous figure than his groundbreaking work in physics. The German-born, Nobel Prize-winning scientist was curious, compassionate, and principled, and he thought deeply about what it means to live a purposeful, ethical life. These weren’t just abstract ideas — they were guiding principles that informed much of what he did and spoke about. Here, distilled from the many nuggets of wisdom Einstein shared over his 76 years, are five life lessons we can all take to heart.

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Imagination Is the Key

When asked about the process behind his scientific discoveries in a 1929 interview, Einstein credited a perhaps surprising trait: imagination. “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” he told The Saturday Evening Post. “For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the entire world.”

Einstein’s famous thought experiments — including picturing himself racing alongside a beam of light when he was 16 years old — showed that visualizing the impossible could help unlock new scientific truths. Other pursuits also gave his imagination room to meander. Playing violin often helped him work through complex problems, and sailing, which he loved but did not exactly excel at, gave him time to let his quiet mind wander.

For Einstein, imagination wasn’t an escape from science but a key component to his breakthroughs. Facts played an important role, certainly, but it was all that daydreaming that first led him into the unknown.

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Stay Curious

For Einstein, curiosity wasn’t just about asking questions (although he did plenty of that), but also about remaining open to change and new perspectives throughout life. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious,” he famously said. That openness helped him question long-held assumptions about the universe, and in turn he upended ideas of absolute space and time with his theory of relativity; reimagined gravity; and engaged critically with emerging quantum theory, investigating its limits while refining his own views when needed.

Einstein’s curiosity extended beyond science, too. He drew insights from philosophy, literature, music, and social issues, showing that learning could happen anywhere. He believed that education could — and should — be indefinite as long as we keep asking questions and embrace the unexpected.

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Strive To Be More Valuable Than Successful

In a 1955 interview, Einstein cautioned against measuring life by status or titles. “Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value,” he said to Life magazine. “He is considered successful in our day who gets more out of life than he puts in. But a man of value will give more than he receives.”

Einstein lived this principle by using his influence to advance causes beyond physics, such as speaking out against racism in the United States, advocating for peace, and guiding generations of younger scientists through his teaching. Even his scientific contributions followed this ethic: He was driven less by personal acclaim than by a desire to expand humanity’s understanding of the universe.

“Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty,” Einstein wrote in a 1947 letter to an admirer. “It stems rather from love and devotion towards men and towards objective things.” Indeed, the famous scientist struggled with his fame, referring to it in a 1922 letter to his friend as “buffoonery.”

Follow Your Intuition

Einstein often trusted his instincts even before he had the research to back them up. “I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am,” he told The Saturday Evening Post. Those leaps of faith, tested rigorously later, were what prompted his most famous ideas, such as the theory of relativity.

Intuition also guided his personal choices: When a traditional academic path was difficult to navigate at first, he instead worked at the Swiss Patent Office, carving out quiet hours to get lost in his thoughts. Einstein didn’t worry about intuition’s lack of scientific proof. To him, it was an intrinsic part of the process — the spark lighting the way into unexplored territory.

Have the Courage To Question Authority

Einstein’s most radical discoveries began with doubts, a hallmark of his rebellious streak. Why should time be fixed? Why must space be absolute? Even at a young age, his independent mind clashed with the rigid expectations of school. Later, his refusal to accept conventional wisdom drove breakthroughs that overturned physics as we knew it. “Blind respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth,” he famously said.

This same spirit shaped Einstein’s public life. He vocally condemned militarism and nationalism, often at a personal cost — he was watched closely by the FBI for years. To him, questioning authority was not about defiance for its own sake, but about choosing truth over tradition. Authority demands obedience, but progress, a hallmark of Einstein’s life, happens when someone dares to ask why.

Why Do We Eat Cake on Our Birthday?

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Author Bess Lovejoy

September 17, 2025

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Few traditions feel as universal as gathering around a frosted cake, lighting candles, and singing “Happy Birthday.” While the ritual seems timeless, the story of why we eat cake on our birthdays stretches back thousands of years — winding through ancient temples, Roman banquets, German children’s parties, and American kitchens.

Cakes as Sacred Offerings

The word “cake” comes from the Old Norse kaka, but cakes in the ancient world looked quite different from today’s airy, sugar-laden desserts. Early cakes were dense, breadlike creations sweetened with honey, enriched with eggs or cheese, and flavored with nuts, seeds, or dried fruits such as raisins or figs. Archaeological and textual evidence shows that cakes were baked in Mesopotamia more than 4,000 years ago, and the Roman writer Cato described cakes wrapped in leaves and served at weddings and fertility rites.

But cakes weren’t just food — they were often sacred offerings. The Greeks presented honey cakes and cheesecakes to their gods, sometimes decorated with candles. One common offering to Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt, was the amphiphon, a round cheesecake topped with glowing candles meant to mimic the moon. Romans, too, baked cakes for religious purposes, including the libum, a mixture of cheese, flour, and egg baked on bay leaves as an offering to household gods. In these early forms, cakes linked the human and divine, symbolizing gratitude, fertility, or cosmic cycles.

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Birthdays Enter the Picture

Though cakes were plentiful, birthdays were only inconsistently celebrated in antiquity. While there’s some evidence for these annual celebrations in ancient Sumer, they weren’t common in ancient Greece. The Romans were the first to mark personal birthdays, though only for men — women’s birthdays weren’t celebrated until the Middle Ages. Roman citizens honored relatives and friends with feasts, and men turning 50 received a special cake made with wheat flour, nuts, honey, and yeast.

Still, birthday cake traditions were limited and inconsistent during ancient times. For centuries, cakes remained associated with weddings, festivals, and offerings to the gods rather than private anniversaries.

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The German “Kinderfeste”

The modern birthday cake owes its clearest debt to 18th-century Germany. There, children’s birthdays were marked with Kinderfeste — festive gatherings that included a sweet cake crowned with candles. Each candle represented a year of life, plus one extra for the year to come, a tradition that still survives. The candles were lit in the morning, replaced throughout the day, and finally blown out in the evening after dinner. Much like today, children were encouraged to make a wish as the smoke carried their hopes skyward.

This ritual blended ancient practices, such as Greek candlelit offerings and Roman birthday cakes, into something recognizably modern: a sweet centerpiece, flames to mark the passage of time, and the magical moment of blowing out candles.

From Luxury to Everyday Treat

Even with Kinderfeste in Germany, birthday cakes weren’t for everyone, as the food was considered a luxury treat. For most of history, cakes required expensive ingredients such as refined sugar, fine flour, and butter. They were labor-intensive to make and decorated with painstaking artistry. In the early 19th century, American cookbook author Catharine Beecher suggested apple bread pudding as a child’s birthday treat — simple, hearty, and inexpensive. However, children’s birthday parties weren’t common celebrations in the U.S. until after the Civil War.

The Industrial Revolution played a decisive role in democratizing cake. As ingredients became cheaper and more widely available, bakeries could mass-produce cakes and sell them at affordable prices. And for home cooks, birthday cakes reached new heights of extravagance by the early 20th century. In 1912, the popular Fannie Farmer Cookbook included a full-page photo of a “Birthday Cake for a Three-Year-Old,” complete with angel cake, white icing, candied rose petals, sliced citron leaves, and sugar-paste cups for candles. These elaborate confections reflected both rising prosperity and a more ambitious form of cake decorating.

Birthday Cake’s Symbolism

Today’s birthday cakes are often simple — such as a frosted sheet cake with a name piped across the top (a tradition that began around the 1940s) — but the symbolism has a long and rich history. Cakes mark abundance, indulgence, and festivity. Candles represent the passage of time, each flame a year lived, each puff a wish cast into the unknown. The act of gathering around the cake, singing together, and celebrating life’s milestones connects us across centuries to ancient rites of gratitude and hope.

From moonlit cheesecakes for Artemis to a 3-year-old’s angel cake in Fannie Farmer’s kitchen, birthday cakes tell a story about how humans celebrate time, community, and the sweetness of life. Every slice is part of a lineage that is both sacred and ordinary — proof that sometimes the simplest rituals carry the deepest history.

7 Everyday Products That Came Out of WWI

German soldiers, 1914 — Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo

Author Tony Dunnell

September 17, 2025

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World War I lasted four long years, and the unprecedented scale of the conflict demanded rapid innovation and resourcefulness. The brutal war of attrition, characterized by trench warfare, created many problems to be solved, from the desperate need to treat wounded soldiers to the challenge of feeding armies and maintaining communications across vast distances.

The pressures of wartime necessity sparked a wave of creativity that led to the development of numerous technologies and products — some of which went on to become staples in our everyday lives. Here are seven products that came out of World War I that we largely take for granted today.

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Wristwatches

Before the First World War, wristwatches were worn almost exclusively by women as fashion accessories. Most men used pocket watches, which had been around since 1700, but these were impractical for trench warfare. During World War I, wristwatches grew in popularity, initially among the officer classes. New watch designs emerged that were larger, stronger, and often featured luminous dials for ease of reading in low-light conditions — vital for coordinating attacks and artillery barrages.

Rank-and-file soldiers from Britain saw their officers wearing wristwatches, and soon started buying their own. By the time the United States entered the war a year before it ended, troops were being issued wristwatches as part of their gear. These new accessories not only were practical, but also became a symbol of courage and bravery, helping establish wristwatches as a mainstream product after the war.

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