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Ancient Romans threw walnuts during weddings.

  • Wedding in ancient Rome
Wedding in ancient Rome
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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
April 3, 2024

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The most important part of an ancient Roman wedding was the domum deductio, when the bride traveled from her family’s home to the home of her new husband, often after a staged kidnapping. The procession was public and frequently included an entourage — sometimes friends and family, sometimes random people — and, even in high-class weddings, the journey was accompanied by some extremely bawdy songs. During the domum deductio, it was customary to throw nuts, particularly walnuts. Walnuts were considered sacred at weddings, both as a fertility symbol and because the sound they made as they hit the ground was believed to be a good omen. It’s also possible that throwing nuts, which Roman children played with, symbolized the groom giving up childish things — similarly, the bride gave away her dolls the night before the wedding.

According to historians, nuts also may have been thrown by the groom after the bride reached his house, possibly as an offering to the god Jupiter, who was associated with sacred oaths such as weddings. Additionally, the Roman scholar Servius wrote that some people believed the sound of nuts clattering and children scrambling after them could drown out the sound of the marriage being consummated. It’s also possible that the Roman tradition of scattering walnuts grew from an ancient Greek tradition, in which the bride and groom had fruits and nuts poured on their heads during their nuptials.

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Ancient Roman priests kept sacred chickens.

Augury, or reading signs from the gods through the behavior of birds, was an important religious practice in ancient Rome. Because wild birds weren’t always available, Roman priests kept sacred chickens for divination purposes, and would consult them before major military actions and, often, government decisions. The fortunes revealed by the birds were taken very seriously. It was a bad sign if the chicken didn’t eat, but if it gobbled up grain while stomping its feet, it was considered a positive omen — which may be why the sound of falling walnuts was also considered auspicious.

Basque has no known linguistic relatives.

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Basque children's book
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Author Rachel Gresh
March 26, 2024

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As seen in Pablo Picasso’s famous painting “Guernica,” the destruction of the Basque region (especially the city of Guernica) during the Spanish Civil War was devastating. The conflict nearly led to the extinction of the region’s unique ancient language, Euskara (commonly called Basque), after Spanish dictator Francisco Franco banned the local tongue. However, after Franco’s death in 1975, Basque Country was granted its (limited) autonomy, and its language experienced a resurgence. There are at least six Basque dialects today, but most speakers use a modern dialect developed in the 1960s. Euskara is spoken by 35% of the Basque population and remains one of Europe’s most mysterious languages. 

Euskara is a “language isolate,” meaning it has no linguistic relatives and is unlike any other spoken language that exists today. Some linguists support the Vasconic substrate hypothesis, which proposes that Basque is the only surviving version of an ancient family of Vasconic languages — but other linguists reject this. Most experts agree that Euskara likely developed during the Neolithic period (late Stone Age) by farmers who were geographically isolated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees mountain range in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. Its popularity diminished following the arrival of the Romans and Indo-European languages (namely the Romance languages) around the second century BCE.

Today, the mystery continues. A recent discovery of a 2,100-year-old inscribed amulet from Navarre in northeastern Spain (where the Basque language originated) features a Vasconic language that might be related to Euskara. The first word of the inscription, “sorioneku” or “sorioneke,” is very similar to the modern Basque word “zorioneko,” meaning “good fortune,” leading experts to believe this amulet might reveal more information about the enigmatic Basque language.

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Spain has at least four regional languages.

The official national language of Spain is Castilian Spanish (also referred to as modern Spanish), which is spoken by the majority of the population. Initially a local dialect from the Cantabria region in northern Spain, it spread throughout the Castile region (for which it is named) and eventually became the official national language in the 15th century. Yet the Spanish Constitution recognizes other languages that “shall also be official in the respective Autonomous Communities”: for example, Catalan, Galician, and Euskara. These regional languages are centuries old. Catalan, dating to the 12th century, has around 9 million speakers within Spain, primarily in Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands. Galician is spoken by around 4 million Spaniards, mainly in the Galicia region. Basque is the least-spoken native language of Spain, but has been one of Basque Country’s official languages since 1979.

Ancient people slept on pillows made of stone.

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Egyptian headrest
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Author Kerry Hinton
March 26, 2024

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Choosing a pillow in the 21st century is no simple task. The options can seem overwhelming. Memory foam, down, feathers — the list goes on. There are even customized pillows that sell for around $5,000. But long before humans had their pick of soft, comfortable pillows, many ancient cultures developed early versions that barely resemble the cushy supports we use today. 

The earliest pillows can be traced to Mesopotamia — the region known as the “cradle of civilization,” centered in modern-day Iraq — around 7000 BCE. These curved stone bolsters served a practical purpose: keeping bugs and vermin out of the mouths, eyes, and noses of the wealthy. Ancient Egyptians improved on the formula some 5,000 years later with the elevated headrest. Made of wood or stone, the Egyptian headrest consisted of a base and stem attached to a cradle to raise the user’s head. Most Egyptian headrests consisted of a flat, rectangular base with a straight shaft and curved neckpiece, and the user’s head was meant to mimic the sun rising in the horizon. The Egyptians also added a spiritual element to pillow use, often placing them in the tombs of the deceased; Pharaoh Tutankhamun was laid to rest with no fewer than eight ancient pillows in his tomb. Ancient Egyptians believed that protecting the head was essential even in the afterlife. Headrests were also thought to dispel demons, and many were adorned with images of Egyptian gods such as Bes and Taweret, believed to banish evil from the dark night in both life and death. 

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The first Saturday in April is International Pillow Fight Day.

Although pillow fights have likely existed since the days of ancient Rome — the Romans were among the first cultures to use soft pillows, stuffed with reeds and straw, or feathers for wealthier citizens — they didn't become globally organized until the 21st century. Combining this ancient pastime with the modern-day flash mob, International Pillow Fight Day is organized by the Urban Playground Movement, whose internet-promoted activities have included massive pie fights, dance parties, and zombie marches. The first International Pillow Fight Day was held in 2008, across 25 cities around the world, reaching approximately 5,000 participants in New York City alone. It is now held each year on the first Saturday in April.

Charles Dickens was in a paranormal investigation society called the “Ghost Club.”

  • Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
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Author Nicole Villeneuve
March 20, 2024

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Charles Dickens is known for a good ghost story. Some of his most famous works, including the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, revolve almost entirely around the supernatural. The English author’s interest in spirits even extended beyond the written word: He was an original member of the Ghost Club in London, an exclusive group interested in dissecting all things otherworldly. 

The Ghost Club claims to be the oldest society of its kind. It was formally founded in 1862, although its history dates back to informal gatherings of Cambridge University academics in the mid-1850s. Along with Dickens, the group has counted such literary luminaries as W.B. Yeats, Siegfried Sassoon, and Arthur Conan Doyle among its members. Spiritualism was a hot topic in Victorian-era England, and the curiosity and discussion around it was widespread: Physicists, philosophers, biologists, and more were found among the early Ghost Club members. The club kept minimal records, and little is known about specific investigations at the time of Dickens’ membership, but research suggests that ghostly encounters, clairvoyance, and exposing frauds working as mediums were all on the table.

Dickens, for all his obvious spiritual inclinations — including dabbling in hypnosis — was also healthily skeptical. “All such narratives must be received with the greatest circumspection, and sifted with the utmost care,” he wrote in an 1853 article about haunted houses. “Nothing in them must be taken for granted, and every detail proved by direct and clear evidence, before it can be received.” Dickens died in 1870 and the Ghost Club later disbanded, although not for long. It was revived in 1882, and despite fluctuations in activity, the club endured, and remains an active organization today. 

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Mary Todd Lincoln held seances in the White House.

On February 20, 1862, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln died in the White House after battling typhoid fever. The death of young Willie Lincoln devastated the family, and Mary Todd sought solace by communicating with the spirit world. She brought mediums into the White House and, eventually, started holding her own seances, some of which were even attended by the president. The practice brought the grieving mother some relief. “Willie lives,” she once told her half-sister. “He comes to me every night and stands at the foot of the bed with the same sweet adorable smile he always has had.” Visiting with Willie, Mary Todd said, was her younger son Eddie, who had died just before his 4th birthday. The Lincoln children were not the last of the family to appear as apparitions on the premises: Years later, several people, including Winston Churchill, claimed to see the ghost of Abraham Lincoln throughout the White House.

There’s a 2,400-year-old ship at the bottom of the sea, and it’s virtually intact.

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3D shipwreck model
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Author Nicole Villeneuve
March 20, 2024

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Ancient Greek shipwrecks have proved to be unparalleled sources of historical insight. The Antikythera mechanism, the oldest known analog computer, for instance, was discovered in a wreck found in the Mediterranean in 1901. And in 2018, a primitive Greek trading vessel was discovered in the Black Sea that provided previously unknown information to historians — because despite its age, the 2,400-year-old ship was almost entirely intact.

The 75-foot vessel dates back to about 400 BCE and was found lying on its side roughly a mile below the water’s surface. Its mast, rudders, and rowing benches were all in place and in excellent condition. The unique preservation is thanks to the Black Sea’s deep waters being anoxic, meaning they don’t contain oxygen. Beyond a distance of about 500 feet near the shore, the oxygen levels drop to zero — a crucial component in the preservation of organic materials such as wood. More than 60 other shipwrecks have also been discovered in the fruitful area.

Before the ship was found, researchers had only seen its kind in ancient Greek artworks such as the Siren Vase, a piece of pottery depicting the ship of the mythical hero Odysseus. The discovery, according to the archaeology team that found the ship, serves as an important piece of a historical puzzle, providing a real-life look at previously theoretical shipbuilding and maritime practices.

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The Titanic might be completely gone from the ocean floor by 2050.

It was once considered a mighty engineering marvel, but the Titanic is fading away — and the remains may be completely gone in the not-too-distant future. Resting on the ocean floor since it tragically sunk in 1912, the iconic ship has been subject to a harsh marine environment, including not only the strong North Atlantic Current, but also microorganisms that feed on the iron in the ship. Research and tourism expeditions have contributed to the ship’s decline, too, as submersibles sometimes land on or bump into the wreckage. Deterioration has been observed since the site of the famous shipwreck was found in 1985, and researchers from Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University as well as UNESCO suggest it might only take a few more decades for it to entirely disappear. The U.S. company that owns the salvage rights to the site is planning another expedition to recover historic artifacts, but the government maintains that it should remain undisturbed and respected as the gravesite that it is.

Mansa Musa is widely considered the richest person in history.

  • Emperor of Mali Empire
Emperor of Mali Empire
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Author Rachel Gresh
March 20, 2024

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Move over, modern-day billionaires — the wealthiest person of all time lived seven centuries ago. Musa I of Mali was a 14th-century king (called a “mansa”) who came into power in 1312 CE. He greatly expanded the Mali Empire, culminating in a large swath of West Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuktu and beyond. The empire had significant reserves of salt and gold (nearly half of the world’s supply of gold at the time), and it became incredibly wealthy. Mansa Musa also controlled some of the biggest trade centers in Africa, establishing Timbuktu as a major hub. Some sources speculate that his wealth was equivalent to roughly $400 billion today — though an exact figure is impossible to calculate, many historians believe he is the wealthiest person in history. By comparison, most modern billionaires have net worths of around $200 billion, though sources put Elon Musk’s wealth between $300 billion and $400 billion as of 2025, so it’s possible Mansa Musa won’t hold his title for much longer.

In 1324, the Muslim ruler decided to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. He traversed the Sahara Desert with tens of thousands of followers dressed in Persian silk (including soldiers, enslaved people, merchants, and the entire royal court). Adding to the spectacle, 100 camels carrying hundreds of pounds of gold were also in tow. The caravan reportedly spent three months in Cairo, Egypt, where Musa handed out gold as if it were candy. In fact, Musa’s trek through the Middle East caused the price of gold to plummet in Egypt due to the sheer amount of treasure he brought into the region. Although Musa died sometime in the 1330s, his legacy continued. He made Mali a well-known empire, and it was added to the Catalan Atlas (one of the most popular medieval maps) for the first time in 1375. On the map, a golden-crowned Musa is depicted holding a scepter and a gold nugget.

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Pineapples were once so expensive, they were rented as a status symbol.

Imagine walking the streets of Georgian-era London and seeing an aristocrat on a stroll with a pineapple tucked under their arm, proudly showing off the golden fruit. Pineapples, sometimes known as “king’s fruit,” were one of British society’s most sought-after status symbols for 250 years. They were often displayed at dinner parties on special plates but typically weren’t eaten. Hosts saved thousands of dollars by renting pineapples instead of buying them — one pineapple cost a whopping £60 (around $17,000 today) in the mid-17th century. The fruit earned its luxurious reputation during the 16th century, when it was first imported from the Caribbean, and by the 18th century, growing pineapples became a pastime of the upper class. The end of the fruit’s reign was marked by the emergence of steamships in the late 18th century, which transported pineapples from the American colonies. Soon, the tropical fruit was so readily available that the working class could afford it, and the wealthy moved on to newer, less spiky status symbols.

Only four sitting vice presidents have been elected U.S. president.

  • John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, and George H.W. Bush
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, and George H.W. Bush
Credit: (from left): wynnter/ E+ via Getty Images; GeorgiosArt/ iStock via Getty Images Plus; Historical/ Corbis Historical via Getty Images; Bettmann via Getty Images
Author Michael Nordine
August 14, 2025

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America has had 50 vice presidents, 15 of whom went on to become president. Only four of them were elected president while still serving as veep, however: John Adams (1796), Thomas Jefferson (1800), Martin Van Buren (1836), and George H.W. Bush (1988). Several other sitting vice presidents have run for the highest office in the land but were unsuccessful, including Richard Nixon in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, and Al Gore in 2000. So while the vice presidency stands as perhaps the single best springboard for the Oval Office, it’s far from a sure thing.

Elsewhere in government, 19 House of Representatives members, 17 senators, 17 governors, and 12 military generals have gone on to become president of the United States. In other anomalies, Woodrow Wilson is the only commander in chief to have obtained a Ph.D., Andrew Johnson is the sole president to later be elected to the Senate, and William Howard Taft is the only one to also serve as chief justice (which was his real ambition all along). Only two vice presidents have resigned: John C. Calhoun, who found serving under Andrew Jackson frustrating and moved to the Senate in 1832, and Spiro Agnew, who left office in 1973 after pleading no contest to a felony charge of tax evasion. Nixon replaced Agnew with Gerald Ford, who became president when Nixon himself resigned less than a year later.

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The presidential line of succession wasn’t made official until 1967.

Nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency due to their predecessor either dying in office or resigning. Until the 25th Amendment was passed in 1967, however, this was done as a matter of course rather than being official policy. The language of the amendment is unequivocal, with Section 1 reading simply, “In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.”

The U.S. government had a “president” before George Washington.

  • Portrait of John Hanson
Portrait of John Hanson
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Author Darren Orf
March 20, 2024

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Though George Washington is indisputably the first president of the United States, he technically wasn’t the first person in the federal government with the title of “president.” Washington was elected under the government formed by the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788 — he even won the vote unanimously — but the Constitution wasn’t the only government-forming document in the nation’s history. Ratified in 1781, the Articles of Confederation — the United States’ first constitution — formed what’s known as the Confederation Congress, and this governing body was led by a president who held a one-year term. 

The Confederation Congress was an extension of the Continental Congress that had existed in different forms since 1774, and was renamed after the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. Samuel Huntington of Connecticut was serving as the president of the Continental Congress at the time, and became the first president of the new government. He resigned that July, however, and was succeeded by Thomas McKean of Delaware; McKean himself was replaced when the first new delegates to Congress were chosen on November 5, 1781. They elected John Hanson, the delegate from Maryland, as the new leader, and he was the first to serve the full year-long term in the role. Each of these men held the title of “president,” but they didn’t possess the powers of the position that would eventually be enumerated under the U.S. Constitution. And though they presided over some of the most consequential years in the nation’s history, their contributions were soon eclipsed by Washington’s inauguration in 1789. 

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General Washington lost more military battles than he won.

Many Americans see George Washington as an almost mythical figure — a military genius who led a ragtag army against the world’s most powerful military and won. But the famed general actually lost more battles than he won: Of the 17 battles that Washington fought during the Revolutionary War, the Americans won six, the British won seven, and four were considered a draw. Still, the general’s long-term vision eventually proved the famous wartime truism of “losing the battle, but winning the war.” His true talent was his ability to accurately survey a battlefield, pressing every advantage while also knowing when to retreat to fight another day. This strategy didn’t make him popular — a cabal even tried to remove him from the top spot — but it did prove to be effective, leading the Continental Army to victory over Great Britain.

Ireland had its own time zone for 36 years. 

  • Irish flag in Dublin
Irish flag in Dublin
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Author Rachel Gresh
March 20, 2024

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“Dublin Time” might sound like a metaphor for enjoying a pint of Guinness, but it was once an actual time zone observed throughout Ireland. Before clocks were standardized in Ireland and Great Britain in the late 19th century, local time was set by region, resulting in a whole lot of confusion. Almost every town kept their own time, determined by the location of the sun. To regulate the system, Ireland and the U.K. were given their own respective time zones under the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act of 1880 (even though Ireland was technically part of the U.K. at the time). For 36 years, Ireland’s time zone, known as Dublin Mean Time, was 25 minutes and 21 seconds behind England, which followed Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), based on the location of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. Dublin Mean Time was set according to the longitude of the Dunsink Observatory, an 18th-century astronomical observatory located just outside the capital. 

However, because the economies of Ireland and England have long been codependent, the time zone differences created issues in travel, communication, and business, especially as both regions continued to grow with the Industrial Revolution. To mitigate these issues, business lobbyists urged the British government to change Ireland’s time to be consistent with the rest of the U.K. The change went into effect with the Time (Ireland) Act on October 1, 1916 — just months after the Easter Rising in Dublin, part of the ongoing fight for Irish independence. The Emerald Isle made the switch to Greenwich Mean Time as daylight saving time came to an end that fall; the clocks in Ireland were set back 35 minutes instead of one full hour to accommodate the 25-minute difference and synchronize the two time zones.

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The United States began using time zones because of railroads.

Trying to catch a train in the mid-19th century was no easy feat: At the time, more than 144 local time zones were spread across North America. Before the invention of railway travel and train schedules, these slight time discrepancies weren’t a big deal, but by the end of the 19th century, they were causing logistical chaos. To solve the schedule issues, four standard time zones were established across the continental U.S.: Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time, and Pacific Time. The railway industry initiated the change, which was enacted on November 18, 1883. Due to the importance of the railroads, the federal government eventually followed suit. In 1918, the Standard Time Act made these time zones official, and also established daylight saving time. 

Mount Rushmore was supposed to include the bodies of the presidents.

  • Gutzon Borglum with Mount Rushmore model
Gutzon Borglum with Mount Rushmore model
Credit: George Rinhart/ Corbis Historical via Getty Images
Author Michael Nordine
August 5, 2025

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Like many artistic endeavors, Mount Rushmore went through several phases before its final concept was decided upon. Before it was a tribute to four U.S. presidents, the massive sculpture was intended as a tourist destination honoring icons of the American frontier; potential figures included Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Buffalo Bill, and Lakota leader Red Cloud. But Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor responsible for Mount Rushmore, had a different idea. He wanted his “Shrine of Democracy” to honor George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt; he also wanted the sculpture to include their full bodies, but funding ran out. When Borglum died in 1941, 14 years after the project officially began, South Dakota deemed the sculpture complete with just the busts of the presidents. 

Even in this limited form, it took more than 400 workers to finish the monument, none of whom perished during its construction (a rarity at the time). The four presidents were chosen to represent America’s birth (Washington), expansion (Jefferson), preservation (Lincoln), and development (Roosevelt). Jefferson oversaw the Louisiana Purchase, Lincoln prevented the country from splitting in two, and Roosevelt supported the construction of the Panama Canal. Known to the Lakota people as Tunkasila Sakpe Paha, meaning “Six Grandfathers Mountain,” the landmark was renamed for New York lawyer Charles E. Rushmore, who visited the site in 1885 and remarked that it needed a name.

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Susan B. Anthony was almost added to Mount Rushmore.

Lewis and Clark, Buffalo Bill, and Red Cloud weren’t the only people who almost made it onto Mount Rushmore. Susan B. Anthony, the activist who played a vital role in the women’s suffrage movement, was considered as well. This came at the behest of a woman named Rose Arnold Powell, who wrote letters to President Calvin Coolidge, Borglum, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to advance her cause. After Roosevelt wrote her own letter to Borglum, he politely declined because he felt the addition of a fifth face was contrary to his original artistic vision, but he clarified that “no man living has a greater respect or a greater admiration for, or places woman in a more lofty position in civilization than I do.” 

Borglum went on to write, “I have resented all my life any and all dependence or second place forced upon our mothers, our wives or our daughters, as has been the history of men’s civilization, but I feel in this proposal that it is a very definite intrusion that will injure the specific purpose of this memorial.” A bill was nevertheless introduced to Congress suggesting Anthony be included on Mount Rushmore, but it was unsuccessful. Her visage was later immortalized on a dollar coin produced by the U.S. Mint between 1979 and 1981.

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