Archives: Facts

Custom post type for facts

In 1960, more than a third of the U.S. population was under 18.

  • Children get on a school bus, 1960s
Children get on a school bus, 1960s
Credit: World of Triss/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
January 7, 2025

Love it?

During the 1930s and early 1940s, many Americans held off on starting families because of the economic insecurity of the Great Depression and uncertainty of World War II. But the prosperous postwar era led to an increase of births between 1946 and 1964 that gave the baby boomer generation its nickname. Over this 19-year period, the booming birth rate helped the U.S. population grow by more than 50%. The country’s demographic makeup shifted so rapidly that by 1960, there were 64.2 million Americans under age 18, out of 180 million overall — a whopping 36% of the population. For context, in 2022, an estimated 22.4% of the U.S. population was under 18. 

General fertility rates in the baby boom era peaked in 1957 at 122.9 live births for every 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 — that’s 4.3 million babies that year alone. The general fertility rate took a nosedive throughout the 1960s as the birth control pill became more widely available and women entered the workforce at much higher rates. By 1970, the general fertility rate was 87.9, and the much smaller Generation X was well underway.

The baby boomer generation didn’t reproduce at the same rapid clip as their parents, but because there were so many of them, they still produced a lot of offspring. Indeed, 1990 — the year all those 1957 babies turned 33 — was another banner year for births, with 4.2 million millennials entering the world, despite a general fertility rate of just 70.9.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

The year 1960 had a senior citizen boom, too.

The 1960 census didn’t just count a whole lot of kids — it also saw nearly as large an increase in older Americans. Between 1950 and 1960, the over-65 population grew 35%. These elders had also been born during a time of high fertility rates, but they were living much longer than the generations before them. While birth rates eventually dropped, the United States’ share of senior citizens only continued to grow. In 1960, despite the increase, just 9% of the U.S. population was over 65; in 2020, it was 16.5%.

The only WWII enemy-caused deaths in the continental U.S. were at a picnic in Oregon.

  • Japanese Fu-Go balloon bomb
Japanese Fu-Go balloon bomb
Credit: © PJF Military Collection/Alamy
Author Bess Lovejoy
June 26, 2026

Love it?

Elsie Mitchell had baked a chocolate cake for the picnic that day on May 5, 1945. The young pastor’s wife, five months pregnant with her first child, accompanied her husband and five children from their congregation as they set off for a sunny day of eating and fishing on Gearhart Mountain near Bly, Oregon.

As the Reverend Archie Mitchell parked and unloaded the car that morning, the children raced off toward Leonard Creek, Elsie trailing behind them. One of the children noticed a large, mysterious, gray object near the water. She called to Elsie and the other children, who soon gathered around. A child went to pick up the object — and a massive explosion shook the forest.

Elsie Mitchell became the only adult victim of an enemy attack on the U.S. mainland during World War II. All five children also perished. The cause was Japanese balloon bombs, also known as fu-go. Made of mulberry paper and filled with hydrogen, these balloons were set aloft in the jet stream of the Pacific toward the end of the war, between November 1944 and April 1945. Each balloon carried multiple bombs, designed to kill, start forest fires, and sow panic.

Although there had been earlier sightings of the balloon bombs, the U.S. government asked the media not to report on them in order to avoid panic and to persuade the Japanese that their efforts had been fruitless. The latter strategy worked: Japan had actually canceled the program a month before the Oregon deaths, convinced their program had failed. Of course, by then, hundreds, if not thousands, of the balloons had made it to the mainland. 

When the Mitchell party tragedy was announced in the local media, no precise cause of death was given. U.S. officials didn’t fully lift the information blackout on the bombs until the following month, when it became evident that the public needed to be warned. All told, 361 balloon bombs were eventually found in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and while some did explode, the damage was minimal. (They never did start any forest fires — apparently the Japanese underestimated just how rainy the forests of the Pacific Northwest actually are.) Today, a stone-and-bronze monument marks the spot, about 13 miles northeast of Bly, where the only mainland deaths of World War II occurred.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

The story of the balloon bomb incident didn’t end with the war.

Over the decades, the memorial site near Bly has become a place of reconciliation as well as remembrance. In 1976, Sakyo Adachi, a Japanese meteorologist who helped develop the balloon bomb program, visited the monument and placed a wreath there in memory of the victims. Japanese schoolchildren later sent six cherry trees — one for each person killed in the explosion — as a gesture of condolence and peace. Those trees were formally dedicated during a rededication ceremony at the site in 1995.

Divers recently found a long-lost shipwreck that sank in a hit-and-run.

  • A fishing vessel run aground
A fishing vessel run aground
Credit: Gannet77/ iStock
Author Nicole Villeneuve
June 26, 2026

Love it?

More than 160 years after vanishing beneath the waves of the Atlantic, the wreck of French steamship Le Lyonnais was discovered off the coast of Massachusetts. The ship’s demise in November 1856 was a bit out of the ordinary. Le Lyonnais didn’t topple in a storm or suffer an epic wreck — it sank as a result of a hit-and-run.

Le Lyonnais was sailing from the U.S. to France when it collided with the U.S. sailing ship Adriatic. The Adriatic suffered only minor damage and sailed on, heading for port in Gloucester, Massachusetts, for repairs. The crew of the Adriatic reportedly thought Le Lyonnais was fine to carry on as well, but the French ship was not so fortunate: The hull was punctured, and despite the crew’s efforts to patch the breach, the situation grew worse. Three days later, Le Lyonnais succumbed to the damage and sank. Of the steamship’s 132 passengers, only 18 survived.

Though the fate of Le Lyonnais was known, the exact location of its wreckage remained a mystery until recently. In August 2024, a shipwreck hunting and salvaging team discovered the vessel about 200 miles from New Bedford, Massachusetts. They knew they’d found the right ship thanks to a few key details including the horizontal steam engine and iron hull plates. Most crucially, the engine’s cylinder measured 57 inches — a perfect match with the ship’s records. According to Jennifer Sellitti, a member of the crew that found the ship and the author of The Adriatic Affair: A Maritime Hit-and-Run off the Coast of Nantucket, Adriatic Captain John Durham later had his ship apprehended by French authorities and was put on trial. But even with the international attention, the sinking of Le Lyonnais was all but forgotten after the onset of the American Civil War.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

A California chicken farmer once discovered a $400 million shipwreck.

Mel Fisher followed a winding path to becoming one of history’s most profitable treasure hunters. After spending his childhood and university years in Indiana, followed by a stint with the U.S. Army, Fisher ended up in California, where he worked on his parents’ chicken ranch. It was there that he indulged in a longtime passion, opening his first dive shop in a feed shed on the ranch. By the 1960s, Fisher was immersed in the world of shipwreck hunting and had become fixated on finding the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a Spanish treasure galleon that sank off the Florida Keys in 1622. In 1985, it paid off: Fisher’s team found the long-lost ship, and its gold, silver, jewels, and other artifacts, worth about $400 million, were intact. The Atocha treasure made Fisher a millionaire — and led to law reform. In 1987, Congress passed the Abandoned Shipwreck Act, giving states ownership of shipwrecks found within 3 miles of their coastlines.

The first official U.S. coin told people to ‘mind your business.’

  • Fugio cent, 1850
Fugio cent, 1850
Credit © YA/BOT/Alamy
Author Michael Nordine
June 26, 2026

Love it?

There are many ways to display your patriotism on the Fourth of July, one of which is to “mind your business.” That, at least, is what the first official U.S. coin, minted in 1787, had written on the obverse (front side). 

Inspired by a design from Benjamin Franklin, it was known as the Fugio cent because it featured that Latin word (which means “I fly”) next to a sundial. Below the image was the phrase “Mind your business.” Taken together, the message has been interpreted to mean “Time flies, so mind your business.” 

That bluntness is echoed in another early American motto: “Live free or die,” which traces back to a letter written by General John Stark in 1809 and was later adopted as New Hampshire’s state motto. 

The reverse side of the Fugio cent was comparatively mild and featured the phrase “We are one” surrounded by 13 chain links representing the original colonial states; it wasn’t until the next year that “E pluribus unum” was first printed on U.S. currency.

The Fugio cent, for its part, didn’t last long in circulation. The coin was lightweight, which people apparently didn’t enjoy the feel of.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

The U.S. once printed $100,000 notes.

The highest denomination of U.S. currency in circulation is $100, but America used to print much more valuable bills. The Bureau of Engraving printed $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 bills until July 14, 1969, when the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve System announced that these bills would be discontinued due to lack of use. For a brief period between December 18, 1934, and January 9, 1935, the bureau even issued a $100,000 Gold Certificate. That note featured a portrait of Woodrow Wilson and was used only by Federal Reserve Banks against an equal amount of gold bullion held by the Treasury. Because they weren’t intended for public use, the certificates never entered circulation.

After World War I, people used X-rays to try on shoes.

  • Shoe-fitting fluoroscope
Shoe-fitting fluoroscope
Credit: Yakoniva/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
June 26, 2026

Love it?

There’s a reason we typically receive X-rays only in a medical setting: Without the proper precautions, radiation is extremely dangerous. But for several decades following the discovery of X-rays in 1895, most people didn’t think twice about sticking their feet inside unregulated X-ray machines at the shoe store. Shoe-fitting fluoroscopes, which show moving images in real time, were developed during World War I to examine injured soldiers’ feet without removing their boots. After the war, they were adapted for commercial use to help fit people for shoes, and they became staples at shoe stores in many countries, including the United States.

The machines were tall wooden or metal cabinets with an X-ray tube encased in lead at the base, and an alcove for the customer’s feet just above. When the fluoroscope was turned on, X-ray beams created an image on a fluorescent screen above the feet, which could be viewed through eyepieces on top of the cabinet. The devices were heavily marketed to mothers and children, and some machines had three eyepieces: one for the seller, one for the customer, and one for the parent.

While some experts raised alarms about the potential dangers of the machines in the 1920s and ’30s, the public became more acutely aware of the effects of radiation after World War II. States started regulating and testing shoe-fitting fluoroscopes in the late 1940s. At least one shoe store employee suffered radiation burns on her foot from a leaky machine, and medical experts warned that radiation exposure could damage kids’ growing bones. However, it’s impossible to determine how many people were hurt, since radiation injuries come on slowly and nobody at the time was keeping track of who was using the machines or for how long.

In 1957, Pennsylvania became the first state to ban the shoe-fitting X-rays altogether, and most other states followed suit over the next few years, effectively wiping out their use in the United States. 

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Radium water was initially considered a cure-all.

Nobel Prize-winning scientists Marie Curie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in 1898, and it was immediately heralded as a miracle substance; people used it to make toys, makeup, toothpaste, and even condoms. Some doctors claimed that a little radium in the water could cure just about anything, from anemia to impotence to arthritis.

Customers had a few options for getting radium (or radon) into their water: They could fill a radioactive jar or water crock, place a radioactive bar or stone into a nonradioactive water bottle, or take a shot of Radithor, an ounce of triple-distilled water with at least 1 microcurie each of radium and mesothorium. One can safely say that it was actually the opposite of a cure-all. Radithor in particular caused one of the first high-profile deaths by radium poisoning. Athlete and businessman Eben Byers championed the drink and consumed around three bottles a day, which ultimately led to his death just a few years later in 1932. Around the same time, the case of the Radium Girls, factory workers who were killed by exposure to radioactive paint, was making headlines, and the world’s love affair with all things radium started to fizzle out.

Abraham Lincoln could plausibly have sent a fax to a samurai.

  • Vintage facsimile machine
Vintage facsimile machine
Credit: © Luisa Vallon Fumi—iStock/Getty Images
Author Michael Nordine
June 25, 2026

Love it?

The 1860s weren’t eventful just in the United States. As the American Civil War raged in the first half of the decade and Abraham Lincoln became the first president to be assassinated, a way of life was ending in Japan: that of the samurai, who dwindled after the Meiji Restoration both modernized and westernized the country. 

Before that happened, though, there was a brief period of seemingly unlikely convergence during which the 16th U.S. president could theoretically have sent a fax to a samurai. The first fax (short for “facsimile”) machine was invented in 1843 by Scottish mechanic Alexander Bain, but English physicist Frederick Bakewell was the first to actually demonstrate facsimile transmission eight years later — at which time Lincoln was still a lawyer in Illinois and the samurai were still revered halfway across the world.

However, fax technology wasn’t commercialized until 1863, when Italian inventor Giovanni Caselli received a patent for his “telegraphic apparatus.” At the time, Lincoln was fairly busy trying to keep the Union intact and the samurai were fighting for their very existence. Still, Honest Abe could have sent a copy of the Gettysburg Address to a member of Japan’s legendary warrior class had he been so inclined.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Fax machines are still widely used.

Despite being thought of as a relic of the analog past, fax machines are still widely used — and, by some metrics, the fax market is growing, not shrinking. It’s estimated that as many as 17 billion faxes are sent each year, the health care industry being by far the world’s biggest contributor. This is largely due to HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which sets standards for protecting patient medical information. Fax machines with dedicated phone lines can be HIPAA-compliant, which can’t be said of newer technology such as text messages. Indeed, the vast majority (89%) of health care organizations still use fax machines. Because every fax transmission includes the date, time, and both the sender’s and recipient’s numbers, many legal, governmental, and tax agencies continue to use them for similar reasons. Courts, for instance, have been accepting faxes as legal proof for decades and continue to do so today.

When Charles Dickens visited the White House, no one answered so he let himself in.

  • Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Credit: GL Archive/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Timothy Ott
June 25, 2026

Love it?

As part of an extensive tour of the United States that encompassed most of the first half of 1842, English author Charles Dickens earned an invitation to meet President John Tyler at the White House. However, this visit left a lot to be desired on the part of the author, beginning with his attempt to actually locate the commander in chief. As explained in his travelogue American Notes, Dickens and an unnamed official, “having twice or thrice rung a bell which nobody answered,” simply entered the White House and attempted to find the president on their own.

After wandering upstairs and catching the attention of a servant, Dickens noticed how the others gathered in a waiting room had no compunction about spitting tobacco juice as they pleased. He wrote, “Indeed all these gentlemen were so very persevering and energetic in this latter particular, and bestowed their favours so abundantly upon the carpet, that I take it for granted the Presidential housemaids have high wages.” While he didn’t have to wait long to see President Tyler, the meeting soon unfolded into an awkward spectacle. Tyler commented on the youthful appearance of the 30-year-old writer, who failed to reply in kind to the “worn and anxious” 51-year-old president. The two then sat in silence near a hot stove until Dickens excused himself, sarcastically noting that his host was clearly very busy.

The disappointing visit to the Executive Mansion was a microcosm of Dickens’ overall experience in the United States. Overwhelmed by the mobs of people who gathered to see him, dismayed by the ongoing institution of slavery, and frustrated by his inability to generate interest in international copyright laws, the author vented his criticisms of the titular country when American Notes was published later that year, in turn igniting the ire of U.S. citizens until Dickens returned to make amends in 1867.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Visitors enjoyed near-unfettered access to the White House for most of the 19th century.

While the concept of someone breezing into the White House seems unusual in this day and age, it was actually pretty common for several decades before and after Dickens’ visit. The practice began with the mansion’s second resident, Thomas Jefferson, who encouraged visitors to the building by displaying artifacts from the Lewis and Clark Expedition and even placing taxidermied bears on the lawn. While James Monroe installed gates around the premises, visitors could still largely enter the building as they wished, except for mornings or when the president was out of town. The near-unfettered access was first curtailed in the mid-1890s, when First Lady Frances Cleveland ordered the gates locked over safety concerns for her young daughter, Ruth. Although Warren G. Harding reopened the grounds to the public in the early 1920s, the arrival of World War II brought stricter security measures that all but closed off the “People’s House” to the people, save for those with previously approved appointments.

Julius Caesar was once kidnapped by pirates.

  • Julius Caesar captured by pirates
Julius Caesar captured by pirates
Credit: Penta Springs Limited/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Timothy Ott
June 25, 2026

Love it?

Before he emerged as a military hero and the envy of Roman senators who feared his popular reach, Julius Caesar demonstrated his ability to manipulate minds during a reported encounter with pirates around 75 BCE.

Although the tale varies based on the historian who relayed it, the general outline holds that Caesar was captured off the coast of modern-day Turkey. According to Plutarch’s Life of Caesar, the young nobleman laughed when he heard that his ransom was set at a mere 20 talents of silver (a huge sum of money, possibly worth millions today) and suggested it be raised to the more appropriate sum of 50 talents. After sending his men to fetch the money, Caesar proceeded to boss around his captors: He forced them to listen to his poems and speeches, calling them illiterate savages when they didn’t approve; ordered them to keep quiet when he tried to sleep; and brazenly announced that they would all be executed once he was free. 

Released when the ransom arrived after 38 days, Caesar proceeded to the nearby port of Miletus (an ancient Greek city in modern Turkey), raised a fleet, and hunted down the pirates. When the governor of Asia wavered over the fate of the imprisoned men, Caesar took charge of the situation and had them all crucified.

Given that the story may well have originated with Caesar himself, one could be forgiven for finding the details of this seafaring adventure a little fishy. Nevertheless, it fits in well within the biographical narrative of a powerful man who wrested control of a war-torn republic and helped usher its transition to the Roman Empire.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Caesar was allegedly not a talented poet.

Those “illiterate” pirates may have been on to something when they rejected Caesar’s poetic efforts. Although the Roman dictator is credited with composing several verses during his life, including a poem dedicated to Hercules and another describing a journey to Spain, only a few lines from his oeuvre survive today. This is partly due to the failure of medieval monks to copy what they considered to be minor documents, but also due to deliberate censorship by Caesar’s esteemed successor. As explained by the historian Suetonius, some of Caesar’s early works were set for posthumous publication, until Emperor Augustus abruptly squashed the idea. That was just as well, according to the historian Tacitus, who asserted that Caesar’s overall reputation benefited from the lack of access to his poetry.

Four U.S. presidents were cheerleaders.

  • Cheerleader pom poms and megaphone
Cheerleader pom poms and megaphone
Credit: njnightsky/ iStock
Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
June 18, 2026

Love it?

Despite its modern association with women, cheerleading started in the mid-19th century as what was considered a masculine sport — an ideal pastime for charismatic, athletic young men. Women were actively excluded at first, but started taking the field during World War II when many college-aged men were fighting abroad, and they didn’t really overtake the sport until the 1960s; as women cheerleaders became more common, the sport was trivialized and viewed as not athletic enough for men. So even though the United States has not had a female president, it’s not necessarily surprising that four former occupants of the White House — Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush —  spent time hyping up a crowd as cheerleaders for their school sports teams.

Though FDR didn’t play any other college sports himself, he was an avid football fan, devoting many column inches to the Harvard team while editor of the Harvard Crimson newspaper, and he eventually became head cheerleader. Eisenhower desperately wanted to play baseball and football at West Point in the 1910s, but after a career-ending knee injury during a football game (which he promptly reinjured horseback riding a few days later), he expressed his love for the game as head cheerleader.

Cheerleading at basketball games was just one of Reagan’s laundry list of athletic extracurriculars at Eureka College in the 1930s, along with track, football, and serving as captain and coach of the swim team. And Bush, who attended boarding school at Phillips Academy Andover in the 1960s, where athletic participation was mandatory, became a cheerleader after warming the bench in basketball, baseball, and football. He eventually rose to the rank of head cheerleader his senior year. Bush took the megaphone amid a cultural shift: While cheerleading was still considered masculine at Andover, back in his home state of Texas it was largely viewed as a feminine activity.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Samuel L. Jackson was a cheerleader in college.

Actor Samuel L. Jackson became a cheerleader at the all-male Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1966 so that, according to him, he could travel with the basketball and football teams to meet women. Jackson eventually declared a major in drama, a department shared with the all-female Spelman College, where he met his wife LaTanya Richardson — so it turns out he didn’t have to travel too far after all.

Italy once called for the abolition of pasta.

  • Macaroni maker in Naples
Macaroni maker in Naples
Credit: © The Picture Art Collection/Alamy
Author Nicole Villeneuve
June 17, 2026

Love it?

Pasta is a culinary staple worldwide, but in Italy it’s also a cultural institution — which is why it’s shocking to consider that the country once tried to abolish the food.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Benito Mussolini’s fascist government pushed a campaign against pasta that was framed as an attempt to improve public health. Some officials and allies of the regime argued that a modern, stronger nation would be better off with fewer carbohydrates and more protein. People who ate pasta, proponents claimed, were sluggish and bloated, and merely trying to fill an insatiable emotional emptiness.

But the campaign had ulterior motives. Since pasta relied heavily on imported wheat, the anti-pasta rhetoric was really an effort to reduce foreign economic dependence and to tighten control over everyday civilian life by increasing domestic crops such as rice. 

Many Italians, perhaps unsurprisingly, resisted Mussolini’s efforts. In the rice fields of northern Italy, working-class women known as the mondine organized strikes and protests over poor wages and conditions. Elsewhere, the mayor of Naples defended pasta by saying, “The angels in Paradise eat nothing but vermicelli al pomodoro.” By the 1940s, the fascist control over Italians’ everyday diet had shifted, overtaken by the realities of World War II and a population far more concerned with eating at all than with the details of the menu.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

America’s first pasta factory ran on horsepower and sunlight.

The first U.S. pasta factory was surprisingly low-tech. It was opened in 1848, not under Italian ownership, but by French immigrant Antoine Zerega. Along the waterfront in Brooklyn, New York, dough was kneaded with horse-powered machinery, then shaped and laid out to dry on the rooftop. In the open air, the sun and sea breezes did most of the work long before modern industrial drying systems existed.

As Italian immigration increased and urban food markets expanded, pasta gradually shifted from a niche import to an everyday staple in the U.S. Additional small factories began appearing in industrial centers such as Philadelphia and Jersey City, and by the 1960s, Zerega’s modest operation had grown to distribute pasta nationally, helping the food become a fixture of American pantries.

x