World History
The Curious History of the Piggy Bank
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Article
If you’ve ever dropped spare change into a rotund, smiling, ceramic pig, you may have wondered: Why a pig? The idea of putting coins inside a chubby farm animal may seem whimsical, but the story of how pigs became the symbol of savings reaches back further than you might expect — and the real explanation busts a common myth that’s been circulating since the 1990s. Credit: Harold M. Lambert/ Archive Photos via Getty Images Pigs as the Original Savings Account Before there were coin jars, there were pigs — real ones. In modest households across ...Read More
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World HistoryArticle0What Ancient Egyptians Ate for Breakfast
Ancient Egypt was an industrious civilization, with extensive trade networks, a highly productive agricultural economy, and ambitious construction projects that ranged from ship building to monumental architecture. It existed for…
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World HistoryArticle3What Did People Do Before Shampoo?
Shampoo as we know it today is less than a century old, but the act of hair-washing stretches back thousands of years. So what did people do before sudsing up…
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World HistoryArticle22The Oldest Food Brands in Your Pantry
Take a look around your kitchen and chances are you’ll spot a few brand names you’ve known your whole life. From Keebler cookies to Campbell’s soup, certain monikers feel like…
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World HistoryFact6Coffee was all the rage in London before Brits switched to tea.
There are few things more enmeshed in British identity than tea, but when the beverage first arrived in Europe in the 17th century, it was far from the drink of…
