The Real Names of 6 Classic Hollywood Stars

Marilyn Monroe

Author Tony Dunnell

February 5, 2025

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Film actors have adopted stage names since the earliest days of cinema, and some of the most recognizable names in entertainment history were in fact carefully considered pseudonyms.

These stage names were adopted for various reasons. In many cases, actors, often under the guidance of their agents or studio executives, chose a pseudonym simply because it was more marketable than the name they were given at birth — whether because it was more memorable, more glamorous, shorter, or simply easier to say or spell.

In other cases, actors adopted names that were considered more American-sounding than their given names. Martin Sheen, for example, was born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, but was persuaded to change his name to something considered more Hollywood-friendly — a decision he later regretted. Keanu Reeves also was told to change his name early on in his career, but he stood his ground and stuck with “Keanu.”

Here are six of the most legendary Hollywood stars who adopted stage names, including screen icons such as Judy Garland, Cary Grant, and Marilyn Monroe.

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Judy Garland (Frances Ethel Gumm)

Judy Garland, born Frances Ethel Gumm, began her career when she was just a child, performing with her two older sisters in a vaudeville group called the Gumm Sisters. In 1934, when the group began attracting attention, comedian and emcee George Jessel suggested the sisters change their last name to something more glamorous and theatrical. He recommended “Garland,” possibly inspired by Carole Lombard’s character, Lily Garland, in the film Twentieth Century, or perhaps after the acclaimed drama critic Robert Garland.

A year later, Garland chose to change her first name, too, adopting “Judy” after a popular Hoagy Carmichael song of the same name. The new stage name helped launch Judy Garland’s glittering career, beginning with her starring role in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.

Fred Astaire (Frederick Austerlitz)

Fred Astaire’s career on stage, film, and television spanned 76 years, and his name is now synonymous with the golden age of Hollywood. Yet he was not born Fred Astaire: His birth name was Frederick Austerlitz. Astaire and his sister Adele changed their surname early on in their vaudeville career, when they performed as a double act. It was their mother who suggested the change, as she believed that “Austerlitz” was too strongly associated with the Battle of Austerlitz — a famous 1805 battle that was one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s greatest victories. Other sources suggest that Astaire’s mother deemed it necessary to simplify and Americanize their family name to make it more elegant, easier to pronounce, and less foreign-sounding.

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Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Mortenson)

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson, and later took her mother’s surname, Baker. Norma Jeane’s transformation into one of Hollywood’s most iconic figures began with her name change in 1946, after she signed to 20th Century Fox. Coming up with her new name was a team effort. Studio executive Ben Lyon suggested “Marilyn” after the Broadway musical star Marilyn Miller. Norma Jeane, who was just 20 at the time, suggested “Monroe,” which was her mother’s maiden name.

For Marilyn, there were personal reasons for changing her name. In her unfinished autobiography, My Story, she explained that she didn’t relate to her birth name as she associated it with her troubled childhood and the neglect and abandonment she suffered in her formative years.

John Wayne (Marion Morrison)

Marion Morrison’s transformation into John Wayne was a gradual process. His friends gave him the nickname “Duke” while he was still a child. Then, while working as a prop man and occasionally playing bit roles at Fox Studios, he was given an on-screen credit as “Duke Morrison.” A year later, in 1930, director Raoul Walsh took a gamble and cast Wayne in his first starring role in The Big Trail.

Walsh and studio head Winfield Sheehan agreed that neither “Marion Morrison” nor “Duke Morrison” was suitable for the rugged-looking actor. Walsh suggested “Anthony Wayne” after the Revolutionary War General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, but Sheehan rejected it as sounding “too Italian.” Walsh then suggested “John Wayne,” which both men accepted as being a solid, masculine, and altogether American name. Marion Morrison became John Wayne without even being present at the meeting.

Doris Day (Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff)

During her early local radio performances in the 1930s, a young Doris Kappelhoff caught the attention of band leader Barney Rapp. At the time, Rapp was looking for a female vocalist. He asked Kappelhoff to audition, having already auditioned about 200 singers. She got the job, but Rapp had one request: She had to change her name. He felt that her surname was too harsh and awkward and that it took up too much space on the marquees.

Rapp suggested the name “Day” because he had been particularly impressed by the young singer’s rendition of the song “Day After Day.” Doris Day didn’t like the name at first, feeling that it sounded too much like a burlesque performer. But the moniker certainly served her well: She went on to become one of the leading Hollywood film stars of the 1950s and 1960s.

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Cary Grant (Archibald Alec Leach)

In 1932, 27-year-old actor Archibald Leach did a screen test for Paramount Pictures. The studio’s general manager, B.P. Schulberg, saw something in Leach and offered the young Englishman a five-year contract. But there was one condition: Schulberg told Leach he had to change his name “to something that sounded more all-American, like Gary Cooper.”

Leach took the first name “Cary” from the character Cary Lockwood, whom he had played in the Broadway musical Nikki. He was then handed a list of preapproved surnames by the Paramount publicity department, from which he chose “Grant.” And so, the debonair Cary Grant was born — along with one of classic Hollywood’s definitive leading men.

What Was the First Musical Instrument?

A variety of drums and flutes-Musical-Instrument

Author Timothy Ott

February 5, 2025

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Although some radio stations boast of their repertoire of “oldies,” we know that label is a bit of a misnomer. After all, songs from the 1950s are hardly old when compared to the sheer length of time that humans have been creating music.

Given the importance of this form of expression, it’s unsurprising that ancient cultures around the world created their own distinct instruments for making music. Some of these, including a 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian lyre and a 3,000-year-old Egyptian harp, are still in existence today. Others, such as the 2,000-year-old Roman water organ, are known only through documentation.

But even these standouts from antiquity represent relatively advanced examples of musical instruments. Prehistoric humans certainly sought to soothe and entertain themselves and their companions by way of music from simpler generators. So what form did these simpler instruments take? And can we definitively identify the first one known to humanity?

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Voice and Makeshift Instruments

If we consider voice a musical instrument, then this is undoubtedly the answer. Although it’s unknown when early humans first discovered their capacity for singing, they would have possessed the physical ability to do so as far back as 530,000 years ago.

If our definition of a musical instrument is an object that is deliberately used to create sounds, then it’s also worth noting that hominids realized they could rhythmically whack a stick against a tree or clap two rocks together at an indeterminate juncture of the distant past.

It would seem logical, then, for the earliest known instruments to be those of the percussion variety, which create sounds by the act of banging or shaking them. In fact, a remarkable “orchestra” of these instruments, consisting of mammoth bones and ivory rattles, was found at a 20,000-year-old Paleolithic settlement in modern-day Ukraine.

But neither these nor any other prehistoric percussion tool can be considered the world’s oldest musical instrument. The honor instead belongs to flutes that are at least twice as old, although the age and instrumental status of at least one of the candidates is up for debate.

A Neanderthal Flute May Be 60,000 Years Old

In 1995, an archaeological team discovered an unusual object in the cave of Divje Babe, located around 755 feet above the Idrijca River in Western Slovenia. This object was a 4.5-inch bone that featured two perfectly preserved holes and two partial holes lined up on one side, along with what appeared to be a sharpened rim on one end.

The bone was revealed to be the femur of a juvenile cave bear. Analysis of the archaeological layer where both the bone and stone tools were found yielded an age of around 50,000 to 60,000 years old. Because Homo sapiens didn't arrive in Europe until around 40,000 years ago, these objects were attributed to the Neanderthals.

Researchers were intrigued by what they determined to be symmetrical, human-made holes on the bone. Through careful replication of the item, musicologists discovered that the pitches created by blowing into the bone and varying finger placement on the holes matched the notes of the standard diatonic scale. The result was a playable instrument that created what certainly sounds like music to modern ears.

Beyond holding a claim as the oldest known instrument, the Divje Babe flute presented a new dilemma for sociologists to consider: If Neanderthals were capable of designing instruments to express themselves through music, they were perhaps far more intelligent than initially believed.

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Critics Dispute the Age and Origins of the Neanderthal Flute

Despite the flute's well-publicized place on the National Museum of Slovenia's website, some archaeologists aren’t buying its designation as a landmark discovery.

In a 2015 paper, paleoecologist Cajus G. Diedrich of the Paleo-Logic Independent Institute of Geosciences detailed his examinations of the Neanderthal flute and what he found to be a lack of any telltale signs of human-instigated puncturing. He suggested that the shape and positioning of holes were indicative of the bite marks of an Ice Age spotted hyena instead.

While one might point to the playability of the flute as proof that it was fashioned as an instrument, the paper cast doubt on the reliability of the techniques that determined its age. Even the museum describes the treasured object as "about 20,000 years older than other known flutes," providing additional fodder for critics who are skeptical of this outlier of such extraordinary age.

Musical Discoveries in Germany Are More Reliably Dated

If the Divje Babe bone is no more than a hyena chew toy, then other Paleolithic flutes present sturdier evidence of being the oldest surviving musical instruments.

During the first decade of the 2000s, a series of excavations in caves in southwestern Germany uncovered a variety of flutes made from bird bones and mammoth ivory by some of the earliest humans in the area. Although the artifacts were originally believed to be in the neighborhood of 35,000 years old, improved radiocarbon dating technology has pushed the ages of the flutes from one site to between 42,000 and 43,000 years old.

Overall, this discovery is more consistent with the long-held view that Homo sapiens were able to eclipse the Neanderthals through their capacity for innovation. Additionally, researchers cited the radiocarbon dating results as evidence that our prehistoric ancestors appeared in the Upper Danube region earlier than originally thought, before a cold climactic phase settled in the area approximately 40,000 years ago.

Perhaps this ability to make music is something to be celebrated as distinctly human. And as modern musicians keep pushing the envelope with their original compositions and means for conveying them, we may be fortunate enough to learn more about humanity’s musical origins as even older instruments are discovered.

Why Did They Dig Trenches in World War I?

Soldiers in trench, 1914

Author Tony Dunnell

January 24, 2025

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The First World War transformed modern battle through the emergence of trench warfare, a defining characteristic that shaped the conflict from its start in 1914 to its end in 1918. This entrenchment was not a planned strategy, but rather a necessary adaptation to the brutal realities of modern warfare and the devastating effectiveness of modern weapons.

By the early 20th century, advances in weaponry meant that previous battlefield tactics had to be scrapped. Infantry could no longer march toward the enemy in formation, cavalry charges were impossible, making the grand maneuvers of past battles obsolete. The war soon became an effective stalemate at the front lines, most famously along the Western Front, with opposing armies digging into increasingly elaborate trench systems. Here’s a closer look at how trench warfare came to define World War I.

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Protection From Artillery

Artillery was the most destructive weapon on the Western Front. Modern artillery shells could devastate troops in open terrain, raining down high-explosive shells, shrapnel, and poison gas. Artillery created zones in which almost nothing could survive in the open, putting an emphasis on defense and the advantage with the defender, as attacking became too risky.

Because of the catastrophic effects of artillery, generals were forced to dig in at the start of the war. Trenches were initially seen as a temporary measure, but they soon became an absolute necessity, providing crucial protection against shell fragments and shock waves from explosions. As artillery quickly became the war’s deadliest weapon — around 60% of battlefield casualties were caused by exploding artillery shells — the depth and complexity of trench systems grew to match this horrific aerial threat.

Defense Against Rifle Fire and Machine Guns

Rifles were by far the most commonly used weapon of World War I. These were sophisticated weapons, with a firing rate much greater than that of their 19th-century predecessors. The standard British rifle, the Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) Rifle Mk III, had a maximum range of 2,493 yards (with an effective killing range of 600 yards), and a well-trained infantryman could fire 15 aimed rounds a minute. This alone made advancing across No Man's Land — the area between the two opposing front lines of trenches — incredibly perilous, and anyone sticking their head above a trench was an instant target.

Then there were machine guns, which made traditional infantry attacks a near-impossible undertaking. The modern machine gun, invented in 1884 by Hiram Maxim, was used in battle in the late 19th century, in conflicts such as the Boer War and the Spanish American War. The weapon revolutionized battlefield dynamics, as a single machine gun could fire hundreds of rounds per minute, effectively defending against hundreds of attacking troops. Trenches provided essential cover from both rifle fire and the sustained attacks of machine guns, allowing soldiers to move and fight while staying below the enemy’s line of sight.

A Deep Defensive Strategy

As World War I progressed, trenches became far more than just ditches for duck-and-cover protection. They quickly formed part of a sophisticated defensive strategy (much like the layered battlements of a large medieval castle). On the Western Front, the line of trenches stretched from the North Sea all the way down to Switzerland — a distance of about 475 miles.

The classic British trench was about 6 feet deep and 3.5 feet wide, although deeper and more elaborate trenches were built. They were typically constructed in a zigzagging pattern, so that any enemies who managed to infiltrate the trench could not fire along its entire length, and blasts from exploding grenades and artillery shells couldn’t travel far along a single trench.

Behind the front line there could be three or four more lines of trenches, all connected by a system of communications trenches. If attackers captured the front line, they were then faced with additional entrenched positions that could be quickly reinforced. Support trenches housed reserves, supplies, and command posts, creating a defensive depth that meant any major enemy offensive required massive resources, and usually resulted in heavy casualties for minimal gains. These support trenches also allowed soldiers to be rotated in and out of the front line. A soldier might spend four to six days in the frontline trench before being sent to the support or reserve trenches further back for some much-needed rest and recuperation.

The End of Trench Warfare

The trench systems of World War I represented both the pinnacle and the end of static defensive warfare. While trenches were used in later conflicts, they never again dominated warfare as they did from 1914 to 1918.

The stalemate of trench warfare came to an end with the Battle of Amiens and the beginning of what came to be known as the Hundred Days Offensive, a string of Allied offensive successes on the Western Front that led to the collapse of the German army and the end of the war. At Amiens, the Allied forces launched the largest combined arms offensive of the entire war, with thousands of heavy and super-heavy field guns, more than 600 tanks, and 2,000 aircraft. They advanced some 8 miles in three days, along a 15-mile-wide front, a massive achievement in a war characterized by minute gains. The deadlock was broken, and the German trenches were ultimately overrun. In time the trenches dug during the war were reclaimed by nature, or filled in and returned to agricultural land, though unexploded ordnance remained a problem for many years. Others were preserved or turned into monuments, such as the trenches at Vimy near the Vimy Ridge Memorial in France, and Sanctuary Wood in Ypres, Belgium.

Which Came First: Wine or Beer?

Glasses of beer and red wine

Author Timothy Ott

January 24, 2025

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Whether you’re enjoying a glass of cabernet with a meal or downing IPAs with friends, you’re taking part in the multifaceted, multicultural act of alcohol consumption that dates back many thousands of years.

Indeed, although the dangers of excessive drinking are well known, and even small amounts of alcohol are now believed to come with health risks, imbibing has been part of the fabric of human existence since the dawn of recorded time. Some anthropologists argue that alcohol featured prominently in social customs that facilitated the rise and progression of civilizations. Others suggest that civilization itself was formed as a result of people settling in one area to domesticate crops for the production of alcohol.

Because spirits such as whiskey or vodka involve a more complex distillation process, beer and wine (and wine’s less-prominent cousin, mead) are the earliest forms of alcohol, left over from a time before any of humanity’s famous names, wars, or inventions etched themselves into history. Which sets up the ultimate bar debate: Which of these two ancient libations is older?

Early Humans Likely Discovered Alcohol by Accident

To let some of the air out of the suspense, we’ll note that it’s difficult to pinpoint when people first began drinking wine or beer, since proto-versions of both drinks can be formed with little to no human intervention.

Ethanol, or drinking alcohol, is created through the fermentation process that takes place when sugar meets yeast. In the case of beer, that occurs when a grain such as barley is exposed to moisture and its starches are converted into sugar, priming this component for catalyzation by deliberately introduced or naturally appearing yeast. Similarly, crushed or even overripe fruits with high sugar content including grapes or figs will naturally begin to ferment, creating the basis for wine.

It’s likely that early humans (or even animals) stumbled upon the intoxicating effects of fermented grains and fruits, and maybe even figured out how to replicate the experience by leaving their collected wares out in the elements for too long. We can only speculate on the concoctions that may have been experimentally produced by pre-Neolithic people, although they were almost certainly different from the beers and wines that emerged under more controlled conditions in later epochs.

Mesopotamians and Egyptians Enjoyed Beer and Wine

Unsurprisingly, such conditions were well established by the civilizations that introduced writing and other major advancements in math and science: the ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians.

Along with the 5,000-year-old remnants of barley beer discovered at the Godin Tepe ruins in modern-day Iran, evidence of a Sumerian drinking culture has surfaced in the cuneiform receipts of beer sales as well as in the “Hymn to Ninkasi,” an ode to the Sumerian beer goddess, which includes a recipe for brewing. Grain-rich beer provided nutritional benefits for Bronze Age drinkers, and may have been safer to consume than the water from rivers, which could be contaminated with animal waste.

Beer also figured prominently into the lives of Egyptians around the same time; it’s believed that workers on the pyramid of Giza received more than 10 pints per day in rations, while even children consumed low-alcohol varieties.

Meanwhile, non-native wine grapes were grown in both areas, although wine was typically reserved for the palates of royalty and priests. The Egyptians were the first known culture to document their winemaking, and left behind records of the process to go with jars of their handiwork in the burial chambers of rulers and other prominent figures.

A 9,000-Year-Old Wine-Beer Hybrid Was Found in China

Of course, humans lived in settlements for thousands of years before these celebrated civilizations emerged, and alcohol played a part in many such early cultures.

Thanks to the discovery of drinking vessels in prehistoric Andean sites, archaeologists believe that the popular South American maize-based beer known as chicha may have been around since 5000 BCE. Going back even further, the detection of wine residue in jars and grape pollen in the soil around two sites near Tbilisi, Georgia, dating to around 6000 BCE showed that the residents of these former villages were among the earliest known wine producers.

To date, the earliest confirmed chemical evidence of an alcoholic concoction is neither specifically beer or wine, but something of a combination of the two: As detailed in a 2004 paper, an examination of 9,000-year-old pottery jars from the Jiahu Neolithic site in northern China revealed the residue of a fermented beverage of rice, honey, and fruit.

New Evidence Continues To Emerge

Meanwhile, ongoing discoveries continue to push the beginnings of boozy beverages even further and further into the past.

While it was once thought that humans domesticated grapevines no earlier than 8,000 years ago, a 2023 study of the DNA of more than 3,500 vine samples showed that wine grapes were domesticated in the Caucasus region of Western Asia and Eastern Europe as far back as 11,000 years ago. Table grapes were also domesticated in the Middle East around that same time, and it was these crops that were crossbred with wild versions to launch the wine varieties that became popular throughout the continent.

The idea of an 11,000-year-old wine is certainly impressive, but the archaeological record suggests the possibility of an even older brew: In 2018, a Stanford University research team found the 13,000-year-old remains of starch and plant particles called phytolith, which result from wheat and barley beer production, at a Natufian gravesite near modern-day Haifa, Israel. Although critics believe the evidence points to breadmaking, the Stanford team contends that both bread and a thick, grog-type beer were created at this site.

For now, we’ll give the edge in this battle of seniority bragging rights to beer. But with more discoveries sure to pop up in the coming years, it's likely this debate will be revived — and continue past many a closing hour.

Did People in the Middle Ages Really Believe the Earth Was Flat?

Flat Earth model

Author Tony Dunnell

January 23, 2025

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The Middle Ages lasted for about 1,000 years, from the collapse of Roman civilization in the fifth century to the beginning of the Renaissance era. Despite it being such a long stretch of time, people of the era tend to get thrown together into one group when it comes to our common perception of them. And, in general, they tend to get a bad rap. Our medieval ancestors are often portrayed as unwashed, uneducated, and generally uncouth ruffians. These stereotypes, however, are either gross exaggerations or outright misconceptions.

One commonly held idea about the Middle Ages is that most people believed the Earth was flat, and thus you could easily fall off the edge of the world if you sailed too far. But this is yet another misconception foisted upon the people of the medieval period. As it turns out, folks in the Middle Ages were not nearly as ignorant of basic geographical and astronomical facts as we tend to believe.

The Ancient Understanding of the Earth

Not only did most educated people in the Middle Ages know the Earth was round, but this knowledge also had been common among scholars since antiquity. The spherical nature of the Earth was well established in ancient times, particularly through Greek astronomy.

Aristotle provided convincing proof of Earth’s roundness in the fourth century BCE, including the observations that ships disappear hull-first over the horizon and that Earth casts a round shadow on the moon during lunar eclipses. Later, around 240 BCE, the ancient Greek polymath Eratosthenes even calculated Earth’s circumference with remarkable accuracy. This knowledge was preserved and transmitted through the Roman Empire and into medieval times through texts and scholarly traditions.

Of course, many people in the Middle Ages were uneducated. Public education was scarce at best, and illiteracy was widespread — literacy rates in Western European countries during the Middle Ages were generally below 20% (and were often far below that). Still, it is likely that even uneducated people knew that the Earth was round, simply because this information would have filtered through society to become common knowledge.

Medieval Scientific Knowledge

Medieval scholars not only accepted the idea of a spherical Earth but also incorporated this knowledge into their own scientific and philosophical works. The medieval monk and scholar known as the Venerable Bede explicitly described the Earth as spherical and even explained how this affected the length of days in different regions. “The reason why the same days are of unequal length,” he wrote circa 723 CE, “is the roundness of the Earth, for not without reason is it called ‘the orb of the world’ … It is, in fact, a sphere set in the middle of the whole universe. It is not merely circular like a shield [or] spread out like a wheel, but resembles more a ball, being equally round in all directions.”

By the 13th century, the Earth’s spherical shape was regarded as established scientific fact, with influential scientists, thinkers, and clergymen such as Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Johannes de Sacrobosco all agreeing with this premise. So where did we get the idea that medieval scholars rejected classical knowledge and widely regarded the Earth to be flat?

Origins of the Misconception

The misconception gained a foothold in the 19th century, partly due to Washington Irving’s popular 1828 biography of Christopher Columbus. Today, Irving’s A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus is regarded as historical fiction based loosely on the life of Columbus. But when it was released, it popularized the now-debunked story that Columbus’ voyage faced opposition from Catholic scholars who believed the Earth was flat. (In reality, the debate centered on the Earth’s size, not its shape.)

The myth was further entrenched in the public consciousness by inaccurate histories such as John William Draper’s History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science (1874) and Andrew Dickson White’s History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom (1896). These works incorrectly (and self-servingly) promoted the myth as part of their broader argument about an alleged historical conflict between science and religion.

These narratives, though historically inaccurate, proved compelling and highly persistent — so much so that their incorrect portrayals of medieval scientific beliefs endure to the present day. But while it’s true to say that medieval Europeans held many beliefs that modern people would consider unscientific, their understanding of the Earth’s shape was not one of them.

What Is the World’s Oldest Story?

Inscribed “Epic of Gilgamesh” tablet

Author Timothy Ott

January 21, 2025

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Whether relayed by way of a novel, poem, movie, or word of mouth, stories have served as a means of connecting people through shared experiences and emotions since we first learned to communicate with one another.

Some of the most famous stories have endured for hundreds or thousands of years. William Shakespeare penned his celebrated plays in the 16th and 17th centuries. Beowulf was written several hundred years before that, while the Iliad and Odyssey epics push back even further into the first millennium BCE.

And yet there are even older and far more obscure examples of storytelling that won’t turn up in a college literature course. Which inspires the question: How far back do we need to travel to find the world’s oldest story?

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The “Epic of Gilgamesh” Is the Oldest Surviving Written Tale

The ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh is often cited as the oldest known surviving story. This epic poem tells the tale of King Gilgamesh, the part-divine ruler of the ancient city of Urek, who battles terrible monsters sent forth by spiteful gods and seeks out a plant that brings eternal youth. Derived from sources that date back to approximately 2100 BCE, the first full version of Gilgamesh appeared on cuneiform tablets early the following millennium.

But while this would be an early example of a story that could be held and read, it’s more accurate to refer to Gilgamesh as the oldest known work of narrative literature. If you consider visual art capable of telling a story, then there are plenty of surviving creations that predate the written word.

Neolithic Carvings Have Been Shown To Portray Narratives

One such creation is the collection of carvings at the ruins of an 11,000-year-old settlement in modern-day Turkey. Found on a limestone bench in a communal building, the carvings show ferocious animals surrounding a male figure who conspicuously holds his genitalia.

According to archaeologists, the carvings represent separate scenes meant to be read together, rendering this display the oldest narrative sequence on record. However, while some believe the carvings are meant to convey a show of masculinity, the exact story being communicated is a mystery.

If a single image can tell a story, then a recently discovered cave painting on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is the oldest physical example of a story. Depicting three humanlike figures with sticks alongside what appears to be a giant pig, the painting is believed to be more than 50,000 years old.

This scene may be the abstract representation of a hunt, but again, we can only guess at the narrative being depicted in this ancient painting.

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Aboriginal Dreamtime Myths May Be Even Older

Given the absence of a concrete narrative in prehistoric art, better candidates for the world's oldest story are found among the Dreamtime creation myths of the First Nations (Aboriginal) people of Australia. Shared by way of song, dance, and body painting, these stories describe the world's spiritual beginnings in the foundational period of the Dreamtime, also known as the Dreaming, the mythology of the Aboriginal culture.

Because the First Nations people lived on the continent for more than 60,000 years before Europeans arrived in the late 18th century, they were able to pass along their oral stories without outside influence for hundreds of generations. What’s more, the events depicted in creation myths have been shown to coincide with geologic and cosmic events that allow experts to deduce when the stories may have been spawned.

For example, the Palawa of Tasmania have a story about when the strip of land connecting the island to Australia was submerged in a flood. By examining the terrain and deposits around the Bass Strait, which now separates Tasmania from the rest of the continent, a research team found that the land bridge was swallowed by a rising ocean around 12,000 years ago, making that time period the likely origin point of the story.

The Palawa also tell of a "Great South Star" named Moinee, which never budged from its position in the night sky. Determining this to be the star now commonly known as Sirius, the team analyzed astronomical data to find an epoch when the celestial marker seemingly never moved, a period between 12,000 and 14,000 years in the past — likely around the same time the story was first told.

The Budj Bim Creation Story May Be More Than 30,000 Years Old

Which brings us to the creation story of Budj Bim. According to the Gunditjmara people of Southwest Australia, a god named Budj Bim emerged from the earth in the form of a volcano, his head becoming the rocky protuberance, his teeth forming the basalt deposits, and his blood spilling over the land as lava. The volcano still exists, albeit in dormant mode as a feature of the Gunditjmara ancestral lands, now known as the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape.

In the 1940s, an artifact known as the "Bushfield axe" was found beneath a layer of ash from the Tower Hill volcano complex, located about 25 miles from the Budj Bim complex. More recently, thanks to advancements in radiocarbon dating, scientists were able to determine that both Budj Bim and Tower Hill last erupted more than 30,000 years ago.

Since the axe was found beneath the ash, it stands to reason that people inhabited the region at the time the volcano erupted. As such, the local Dreamtime myth about the lava-spewing god that changed the landscape may also be more than 30,000 years old.

Constellations May Have Inspired an Even Older Story

Is there an older story still? According to a pair of astronomers, the answer can be found by again turning to the stars.

The Pleiades are a cluster of stars commonly known as the "seven sisters," although only six are visible to the naked eye since two of them are close enough to appear as one. As described in a 2021 paper by researchers Ray Norris and Barnaby Norris, stories about the missing sister can be found among European, African, Asian, Native American, and South Pacific cultures. Specifically, the Greeks of antiquity and First Nations people of Australia share similar tales about the sisters escaping the lustful yearnings of the nearby constellation Orion, despite there being no contact between the two cultures.

They did have a common ancestor, however, as humans are believed to have begun migrating out of Africa approximately 100,000 years ago. At that time, the seven sisters were more visibly distinct, providing reason to think that the original Pleiades-Orion story crystallized in Africa in this mind-bogglingly distant era.

There are reasons to be skeptical, however. One critic cautions that many cultures ascribe male and female identities to constellations, so this alone is not strong evidence that the stories came from a common source. Also, a period of 100,000 years is far longer than most oral traditions are thought to survive.

Which isn’t to say the Pleiades-Orion story is not the world’s oldest story, only that we don’t know for sure. After all, one can easily envision this tale being dreamed up by stargazers in the plains of Africa, using the same power of imagination that has spurred the creation of the greatest stories known to humanity.

When Did People Start Eating Sweets for Dessert?

Selection of French desserts

Author Timothy Ott

January 16, 2025

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Most of us don’t give a whole lot of thought to the habit of finishing a satisfying meal with a dessert of something sweet — we’re too busy savoring the delectable mouthfuls of cake, custard, or ice cream.

Yet this is a clear culinary tradition that many people follow. While some may elect to eat sweets before a main course, and others simply dig into pie or brownies at any time of the day, most adhere to the standard operating procedure of dessert after the main course at lunch or dinner. But how and when did this order come about? Why do we eat sweets after a savory meal, and not the other way around?

Humans Evolved To Have a Need for Sweets

To start somewhere close to the beginning, the craving for sweets is biological. Our hominid ancestors realized they derived more energy from ripe fruit with a higher sugar content than unripe fruit, and humans evolved with a hardwiring that connected sweetness to pleasurable feelings.

This primal need perhaps explains why sweets have traditionally featured into religious ceremonies for many cultures. As described in Michael Krondl’s Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert, Mesopotamian cooks prepared cakes as an offering to the goddess Ishtar. Similarly, Hindus throughout India have presented a sugar and milk concoction known as pedha to deities such as Kali for more than two millennia.

At times, the ritual of serving sweet dishes at distinct intervals has translated to something similar to the modern idea of dessert. After a day of fasting in celebration of Krishna’s birthday, Hindus traditionally indulge in treats such as bhog kheer, a pudding, or shrikhand, a sugar-flavored yogurt. In Turkey, the end of fasting at Ramadan means an opportunity for celebrants to sink their teeth into baklava, a beloved pastry.

Of course, the preparation and consumption of sweets has long been a part of secular mealtimes as well. The Deipnosophists, a work from the third-century Greek writer Athenaeus of Naucratis, describes an array of honey-coated fare served over a series of lavish banquets. However, the now-commonplace notion of specifically relegating such sweeter foods to the end of a meal has its origins in France.

Diners in Medieval France Enjoyed Meal-Ending Sweets

According to Sweet Invention, the term "dessert" appears in French cookbooks as far back as the 14th century; the French loanword is the noun form of the verb desservir, meaning "to remove what has been served." In the Late Middle Ages, dessert was distributed after the dishes of the main meal had been cleared, although these edibles weren't necessarily of the sweet variety.

The serving that followed dessert and concluded the meal, known as the issue, was more likely to consist of sweet foods such as fruit or spiced candies. Both the dessert and issue fell under the category of entremets, smaller portions that appeared between or after the main courses.

For European diners of the Late Middle Ages, it was common to see dishes of meat and cakes served together as the main course; there was little attempt to separate these foods of radically different tastes and textures. This remained the case even after sugar became more widely available on the continent, and influential Renaissance-era Italian cooks began showering all varieties of meals with healthy doses of the valuable commodity.

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Desserts Emerged as a Distinct Course in the 17th Century

By the 17th century, there was a growing distinction between sweet and savory courses among French culinary practitioners, and with it arrived the modern notion for the proper way to end a meal. Dessert even earned an entry in the 1690 edition of the Dictionnaire Universel, defined as "the last course placed on the table... Dessert is composed of fruits, pastry, confectionery, cheese, etc."

Recipe books of the era also devoted increasing quantities of print to instructions for pastries, jams, and fruit dishes. However, the preparation of these meal-ending foods fell under a different jurisdiction than that of the chefs in charge of the main courses. Desserts were handled by confectioners who worked in the kitchen’s "office," or pantry.

Although the office initially was considered a subordinate branch of the kitchen pecking order, its confectioners came to be considered artisans in their own right thanks to the sculptural desserts served at the ostentatious dinners of King Louis XIV and other royals. Dessert as an art form arguably reached its peak in the early 19th century with the creations of French chef Antonin Carême, who built massive replications of pyramids, temples, and fountains out of sugar mixtures.

The French Revolution Led to Modern Dining Customs

The guidelines for dessert were changing even as Carême was producing his classically inspired pièces montées. The fall of the ruling class with the French Revolution meant that the chefs who once toiled in palace kitchens became unemployed. While some were able to find wealthy benefactors, others spurred the transformation of the public dining house by launching new eateries around Paris.

These restaurants introduced the concept of service à la russe, in which each customer ordered individual dishes to his or her liking, delivered one course at a time. Meanwhile, the rise of cafés and tea houses throughout the city further popularized the concept of single-portioned desserts.

By the arrival of the 20th century, the habit of dessert to polish off a meal, whether at home or a restaurant, had taken root in the country. And given France's powerful influence on culinary customs, it wasn't long before this sweet finishing touch at mealtime became standard across the rest of Europe, as well as on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Rise and Fall of Sears Mail-Order Homes

Sears catalog, 1897

Author Mark DeJoy

January 16, 2025

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In 1906, Sears was a flourishing catalog company that had just launched a highly successful initial public offering. The company went public under the name Sears, Roebuck and Co. after completing the construction of an enormous new headquarters and distribution center in Chicago, which totaled 3 million square feet of floor space over 40 acres of land. Sears advertised the new complex as “the largest mercantile plant in the world,” and included illustrations of it on the backs of its catalogs. It was a heady time for the company, but not everything was running smoothly.

Though Sears was growing, its building supplies department was proving unprofitable, and a decision to close it loomed. Manager Frank W. Kushel was appointed to oversee the liquidation of the department, but he instead developed a way to sustain it: All the supplies needed to construct a home were bundled together with blueprints, and shipped directly from the factory. This eliminated the need to warehouse the materials, thus saving costs, while simultaneously creating a bigger-ticket product line. The Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans — the first catalog of Sears mail-order houses — was sent to prospective customers in 1908.

Sears was not the first company to sell kit houses — the Aladdin Company, Montgomery Ward, Lewis Homes, and others were also in the market around the same time — but Sears touted its status as one of the “largest commercial institutions in the world” with its massive distribution center, and promised to save customers between “$500 and $1,000 or more” in building costs, while guaranteeing the quality and reliability of materials. Balloon-style framing design, with drywall instead of lath and plaster, reduced the carpenter hours needed to build a house, in turn lowering the total cost for the buyer. In the initial 1908 catalog, 22 home designs were offered, ranging in price from $650 to $2,500 (roughly $20,000 to $80,000 today) and in sizes from unassuming to approaching grandeur.

Not surprisingly, delivery of materials was a complex operation. The average buyer didn’t have the space to store all the building pieces at once, so shipments were phased. The lumber and nails for the frame arrived first, in order to allow the roof and enclosure to be built, thus ensuring adequate shelter for the ensuing materials. When the customer was ready, they sent for the next shipment, which included millwork and inside finish. Hardware, paint, and any additional furnishings were the third and final shipment.

The majority of mail-order houses arrived by train; the buyers hauled the materials from the boxcar to their building site, unless they were well heeled enough to pay for the railroad to truck the supplies from the station. The first orders for homes were placed by customers around late 1908 or early 1909.

Sears moved aggressively to improve home offerings and stimulate sales. In 1909, it acquired a lumber mill in Mansfield, Louisiana. The following year, electric lights and gas (high-end amenities at the time) were included in home designs. The next two years saw the completion of an additional lumber mill in Cairo, Illinois, and the acquisition of a millwork plant in Norwood, Ohio.

The new facilities enabled the company to manufacture its entire line of homes using its own sources, which allowed for an expanded number of home designs. By 1912, the Modern Homes department reached an annual sales volume of $2,595,000, which equated to a profit of $176,000. This was enough to wipe out the previous losses from the department’s former building supplies incarnation. Kushel’s plan was a success.

5 Surprising Facts About the Secret Service

Secret Service agents, 1982

Author Kristina Wright

January 16, 2025

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The U.S. Secret Service is a prominent part of American culture, often portrayed in action films and news footage where agents are seen sprinting alongside the president and leaping into action during high-risk situations. These representations have shaped much of our perception about the agency, creating an image of an elite force dedicated to the protection of the nation’s leader.

Yet the Secret Service is much more than the group of sharp-suited agents seen flanking the president. Since its founding in 1865, the agency’s role has included some truly fascinating — and often surprising — responsibilities. Here are five facts about the U.S. Secret Service that you may not know.

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Abraham Lincoln Established the Secret Service

On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation establishing the U.S. Secret Service. Although now synonymous with protecting the president of the United States, the agency was not originally created for this purpose. Instead, it was conceived as a division of the U.S. Treasury Department, tasked solely with addressing the rampant issue of counterfeit money. In the aftermath of the Civil War, nearly a third of U.S. currency in circulation was counterfeit, destabilizing the fragile economy. The Secret Service’s mission was to combat this crisis, investigate forgeries, and safeguard the nation’s financial security.

Establishing the Secret Service turned out to be Lincoln’s final legislative achievement, as he was assassinated later that same day by John Wilkes Booth. Ironically, the agency Lincoln established did not take on the responsibility of presidential protection until decades later, following the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.

McKinley’s death, the third presidential assassination in 36 years, highlighted the urgent need for enhanced measures to protect the nation’s leaders. In response, the Secret Service was formally assigned the responsibility of safeguarding sitting presidents. Despite this significant expansion, the agency has retained its original mission of protecting the nation’s financial system, a task that remains integral to its operations.

The Secret Service Has the World’s Largest Ink Library

The Secret Service maintains a forensic laboratory that houses the world’s largest ink library, with more than 15,000 samples of marker, pen, and printer inks dating back to the 1920s. This extensive collection is important for forensic analysis, allowing the agency to identify counterfeit currency and analyze forged documents by comparing inks to known samples. Such examinations can determine the authenticity of a document and trace the origin of counterfeit materials.

The Secret Service’s lab also uses cutting-edge technologies to analyze fingerprints, materials, and other forensic evidence. These capabilities support the investigations into financial crimes and protective operations, allowing agents to detect and prevent threats before they materialize.

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Women Joined the Secret Service in the 1970s

Before there were female agents in the Secret Service, the agency occasionally relied on clerical staff or other personnel when a woman's presence was needed for specific operations. That finally changed in 1971, when Phyllis Shantz, Laurie Anderson, Sue Ann Baker, Kathryn Clark, and Holly Hufschmidt became the first women appointed as Secret Service special agents, marking an important step toward gender inclusion in the agency.

Since then, women have played pivotal roles in the Secret Service’s dual missions of protection and investigation. Female agents have served in nearly every capacity, from presidential details to combating cybercrime and leading undercover operations to dismantle financial fraud rings. Women also have risen to leadership positions, with Julia Pierson becoming the first female director of the Secret Service in 2013.

Secret Service Agents Are Trained in “10-Minute Medicine”

When the president travels, the Secret Service's preparations extend far beyond standard security measures. Agents not only are trained in emergency medicine but also carry a range of medical supplies, including a supply of blood matching the president’s blood type, to ensure immediate access in case of a medical emergency or violent attack. Their training is in "10-minute medicine," which involves stabilizing the president for the crucial 10 minutes it may take to get them to the nearest trauma center. This training ensures that agents are equipped to act quickly in life-threatening situations, providing lifesaving care until more extensive medical treatment can be administered.

The Secret Service's emergency training has proved invaluable in several high-stakes situations. During the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, agent Jerry Parr’s emergency medicine training and quick thinking were crucial in saving the president’s life. After Reagan was shot, Agent Parr immediately recognized the severity of the situation and directed the motorcade to George Washington University Hospital instead of the White House, ensuring the president received prompt medical attention. His timely intervention, along with the actions of other agents, helped stabilize the president during the critical first moments after the attack.

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Protection Is Mandatory for the President and Vice President

The Secret Service is mandated to provide protection to the president and vice president of the United States, as well as their immediate families. Additionally, the agency is responsible for protecting former presidents, their spouses, and their children under the age of 16, as well as visiting foreign dignitaries and their spouses, and major presidential and vice presidential candidates and their spouses. They also secure specific events that have been designated as National Special Security Events by the Department of Homeland Security, such as the presidential inauguration and the State of the Union address.

The Former Presidents Act of 2012, signed by President Barack Obama, reinstated lifetime post-presidential protection after a 1994 statute limited that protection to 10 years. While Secret Service protection is mandatory for the sitting president and vice president, anyone else who is entitled to protection can choose to refuse it. Richard Nixon decided to drop his Secret Service detail in 1985, 11 years after he left office, and his wife, Pat Nixon, relinquished protection the previous year. Nixon is the only U.S. president to have declined Secret Service protection.

5 Retro Photos From the Swinging ’60s

Dancers at Cromwellian Club, 1966

Author Nicole Villeneuve

January 16, 2025

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The Swinging ’60s were a period of whirlwind of change in the United Kingdom — bold, colorful, and bursting with possibility. At the dawn of the decade, Britain was still shaking off the postwar doldrums, with austerity lingering and life defined by staid convention and cautious optimism. But as the country entered an era of economic growth and prosperity, a sense of freedom and opportunity also emerged. By the end of the 1960s, London had transformed into a global hot spot of youth, freedom, and creativity, where music, fashion, and art collided in a cultural revolution that reverberated around the world.

As a generation of young people — resulting from the postwar baby boom — emerged free from war and its looming shadow, they embraced individuality. Not content to follow the old rules, they set out to rewrite them entirely: Music became their driving force, with bands such as the Beatles leading the charge. Fashion transformed too, with Mary Quant’s daring designs embodying the era’s exuberance. London was alive with energy, and the city spent the better part of the decade reinventing itself. Here are five photos from the era that illustrate what it was like to live through the Swinging ’60s.

Credit: Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix/ Alamy Stock Photo

George Harrison’s Sitar (1968)

Few things capture the cultural imprint of 1960s London quite like the Beatles. Their meteoric rise to fame coincided with the youth-driven revolution that defined the era. The Fab Four were more than just a band; they were an unstoppable force that touched everything from fashion to philosophy. The Beatles were known to experiment with new sounds, particularly Eastern influences, and guitarist George Harrison’s introduction of the sitar into their music marked a pivotal moment.

This photo, taken in June 1968 at Heathrow Airport, shows George and Pattie Harrison, Ringo Starr, Maureen Starkey, and Beatles assistant Mal Evans returning to England from California after Harrison filmed scenes for the Ravi Shankar documentary Raga. Shankar, a renowned Indian composer and musician, was a major influence on Harrison, and Harrison can be seen carrying his own sitar off the plane. Years earlier, in 1965, the Beatles became the first Western rock band to use the sitar on a commercial recording when they released the song “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).” It inspired fellow musicians to explore new sonic landscapes, paving the way for the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and others to adopt the psychedelic sound that formed the soundtrack of the Swinging ’60s.

Carnaby Street (1967)

Carnaby Street was the beating heart of Swinging London. By 1967, it was home to several iconic clothing stores that helped define the fashion of the era. This included popular shops by men’s fashion tailor John Stephen, often dubbed the “King of Carnaby Street,” as well as Lady Jane, one of the first women’s boutiques on the street. Lady Jane caused a commotion when it opened in 1966. Live models changed outfits in the window display, drawing crowds big enough to stop traffic — and to attract famous customers including Mia Farrow and the Motown group Martha and the Vandellas.

This photo outside the iconic Lady Jane captures not only hip Londoners’ trendy clothing — including bright shades of pink and blue and short hemlines — but also radio DJ Tony Blackburn. Blackburn was a fixture of the British music scene, starting his career on the legendary pirate radio station Radio London. These illegal, ship-based stations played a crucial role in the Swinging ’60s. They brought the latest pop music to a voracious young audience that was, at the time, largely ignored by the BBC. When pirate stations were shut down, the BBC launched its own pop station with Radio 1, and Blackburn became its first DJ.

Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo

The Cromwellian Club (1966)

In the mid-to-late ’60s, the Cromwellian Club was the place to be. Though it was rumored to have been an illegal casino in its early days, it transformed into a quintessential London venue after being acquired by successful restaurateur Tony Mitchell in 1964. The club's reputation soared when a few wrestlers-turned-promoters also bought into the business and started booking the entertainment. The three-floor spot had it all: a bar on the ground floor, a casino upstairs, and in the cellar, a legendary dance floor and live music venue, the lifeblood of the club.

It was here that Jimi Hendrix made his London debut and a who’s who of music royalty, from Eric Clapton to Stevie Wonder to Reg Dwight (now known as Elton John), regularly took to the stage to jam. Meanwhile, the dance floor buzzed with all-night energy; it wasn’t unusual to see members of the Beatles or Herman’s Hermits floating around alongside Hollywood heavyweights such as Jayne Mansfield and Sean Connery. The club’s time as a cultural cornerstone was meaningful but short-lived; by the end of the 1960s, the owners had moved on.

Credit: Smith Archive/ Alamy Stock Photo

The Swinging Blue Jeans (1963)

The Swinging Blue Jeans were one of the standout Merseybeat bands (a pop genre that emerged around Liverpool) of the 1960s, known for their hits “Hippy Hippy Shake” and “You’re No Good.” In 1963, Liverpool denim brand Lybro recruited the group to advertise the company’s new line of clothing — one made for teenage girls who wanted to dress like their favorite pop stars. In this photo, the group stands on the Eros statue stairs at London’s famed Piccadilly Circus. Between them are three young women, each dressed in a pair of jeans and a sleeveless, collarless vest jacket over what Lybro called its “hitch-hike shirt.”

After the end of World War II, denim evolved from its utilitarian roots into a symbol of youthful rebellion and casual cool. The Beatles also did an advertisement for Lybro jeans in 1963; other than their own merchandise, it was the only nonmusical product endorsement the band did in their career.

The Miniskirt (1967)

If just one piece of clothing had to be chosen as the defining garment of the Swinging ’60s, it would undoubtedly be the miniskirt. The sky-high hemline was a ubiquitous wardrobe staple by the mid-1960s, representing not only a fresh fashion trend but also a cultural rebellion. British designer Mary Quant is widely credited with inventing the style, and while her playful, youthful designs indeed helped define the looks of the era, Quant attributed the miniskirt’s origins to London’s creative and visionary street style.

In this 1967 photo, model Nicky Smith walks Carnaby Street in a gingham mini shift dress looking every bit the playful-yet-polished mod. If her look alone isn’t enough to encapsulate the essence of the era, her surroundings — at the intersection of Carnaby Street and Foubert's Place — certainly help. Behind Smith is a long-standing staple of Carnaby, Shakespeare’s Head pub, which claims roots dating back to the 1700s and a (very unlikely) connection to the Bard’s descendants. The Tudor-style building seen in this picture was rebuilt in the late 19th century; it stood throughout the entirety of London’s Swinging ’60s, and remains today.

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