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Napoleon owned a watch from a company that still exists.

  • Breguet Swiss luxury watch
Breguet Swiss luxury watch
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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

May 1, 2025

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In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, then a general in the French army, embarked on a military campaign to Egypt with 35,000 soldiers and three luxury timepieces. Before setting off, he paid a visit to horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet’s shop on Quai de l’Horloge in Paris and purchased a travel clock and two repeater watches, mechanical watches that chime the hour at the press of a button. Some 250 years later, you can still purchase a brand-new Breguet timepiece — that is, if you have at least $20,000 to spend on a watch.

Swiss-born Abraham-Louis Breguet founded his namesake company in 1775, and it rose to elite status in France after gaining Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI as clients, along with many courtiers. He fled back to Switzerland during the French Revolution, but returned in 1795, just in time for Napoleon’s rise to prominence. His fine timepieces not only were practical for the military leader’s travels, but also helped signal his status among the French elite of the time.

Breguet is one of just a handful of 18th-century luxury watch companies that still operate today. Others include Blancpain, founded in 1735, and Vacheron Constantin, established in 1755. As for Napoleon’s Breguet watches, only his travel clock survives. It’s now part of the collection at the Swiss National Museum.

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Wristwatches started as women’s wear.

Multiple watchmakers take credit for the invention of the wristwatch, but one of the earliest examples on record was made by Breguet for Caroline Murat, Napoleon Bonaparte’s younger sister; it’s listed in the Breguet archives as a “repeater watch for bracelet.” The watch was completed in 1812, but disappeared after 1855. Antoni Patek, another Swiss watchmaker, helped popularize the wristwatch — called “wristlets” at the time — in 1868, after a Hungarian countess commissioned an ornate bangle with a hidden watch face concealed by a little door in the center. She wore it to impress guests at a reception, and the trend caught on.

The longest papal election took almost three years.

  • Portrait of Pope Gregory X
Portrait of Pope Gregory X
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Author Michael Nordine

May 1, 2025

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A papal conclave typically names the pope’s successor within just a few days after it begins. Pope Francis’ successor, for example, was chosen on the second day of the conclave. If the College of the Cardinals wanted to set a record, however, they’d have to deliberate for three years. The longest papal election lasted from 1268 to 1271 — more than two centuries before the Sistine Chapel was built — in Viterbo, Italy, following the death of Clement IV. By the time the next pope, Gregory X, was chosen after two years and nine months, the fine people of Viterbo had grown so angry with their guests, they had torn the roof off the building where the cardinals were staying. 

Among the more important acts of Gregory X’s tenure was establishing a precursor to the papal conclave as we now know it, in large part to ensure that no such delay took place again. He was a little too successful. Because the rules he instituted were so strict — such as sequestering the cardinals for the duration of the conclave — it took only a day for the cardinals to name Gregory X’s successor following his death in January 1276. The new rules were suspended as a result, which naturally led to the opposite problem: a conclave that lasted from April 1292 to July 1294. Old habits die hard, but at least recent conclaves have gone comparatively smoothly now that the rules have landed in a sweet spot: It hasn’t taken more than five days to elect a new pope since 1903.

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Papal elections used to be held where the previous pope died.

There’s a good reason why that three-year election took place in Viterbo: Clement IV died there. The custom at the time was for each papal election to be held in the same town or city where the prior pope had passed away, but this led to some problems: namely, townsfolk growing weary of their visitors, especially in smaller areas that weren’t as well equipped to handle an influx of holy guests with no set checkout date. The first conclave held in the Sistine Chapel took place in 1492, when Pope Innocent VIII was succeeded by Alexander VI, and every conclave since 1878 has convened there. The 1799 to 1800 conclave took place in Venice’s San Giorgio Maggiore, and four conclaves were held at the Pauline Chapel in Rome between 1823 and 1846. 

George Washington refused to shake hands.

  • George Washington portrait
George Washington portrait
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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

May 1, 2025

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George Washington had many challenges as the first president of the United States, and one of them was a lack of social mores around the presidency. The office was brand-new, so there was no established etiquette — including how constituents were supposed to greet the commander in chief.

Knowing he had to interact with the public, Washington held weekly one-hour receptions, called “levees,” which were very buttoned-up and formal. He received his guests wearing a black velvet suit and carrying a ceremonial sword — and he refused to shake anyone’s hand, which applied to his closest friends as well as the general public. He even held a hat to discourage anyone from trying. Instead, he and his guests would bow stiffly at one another at the beginning and end of the reception.

Washington was attempting to strike a balance between commanding respect and remaining accessible to the public, but his penchant for pomp was a little too close to the British royal court for some Americans. This included Washington’s longtime frenemy Thomas Jefferson, who preferred a more informal style. The presidential salons and customary bowing continued through John Adams’ presidency, but Jefferson abolished the levees and started shaking hands after he took office in 1801.

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George Washington disapproved of the Boston Tea Party.

The Boston Tea Party, the seminal protest in which a group of angry American colonists dumped 342 chests of tea from the British East India Company into Boston Harbor, helped rally colonists toward the cause of independence. But some of the Founding Fathers weren’t happy about it, including George Washington. While he was sympathetic to the cause, he said he disapproved of the participants’ conduct. Benjamin Franklin went a step further and asked that the British East India Company be paid back for the tea. John Adams, on the other hand, cheered the protest, declaring it “so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible.”

Where Does the Name ‘Uncle Sam’ Come From?

  • Uncle Sam building poster
Uncle Sam building poster
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Author Michael Nordine

January 10, 2024

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Every country needs a national symbol to represent its noble struggle, and the United States has one of the most recognizable: Uncle Sam, who is said to be named after a New York meat merchant. Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York, was himself known as Uncle Sam, an affectionate nickname that became familiar to millions of Americans after he supplied thousands of barrels of beef and pork to hungry troops during the War of 1812. The barrels had “U.S.” stamped on them to indicate that they were government property, but the initials came to be associated with Uncle Sam among grateful soldiers.

The name took off, and before long, illustrations of Uncle Sam began appearing in print. Cartoonists such as Thomas Nast and Joseph Keppler depicted the patriotic figure as a thin and bearded older man with a top hat and coattails, popularizing the image we recognize today. The origin of the name “Uncle Sam” remains disputed, however, and some historians have noted that references to the name appeared in newspapers before Wilson ever stamped “U.S.” on his meat barrels. Still, the legend is widely accepted, and Congress even passed a resolution in 1961 recognizing Wilson as Uncle Sam’s namesake. Today, the figure is inextricably linked with America, but he wasn’t the first personification of the country. He was preceded by Brother Jonathan, a rustic but good-natured character who originated in New England during the American Revolution.

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America has a female personification as well.

Though Uncle Sam is the most famous personification of these United States, he was preceded by Columbia, also known as Miss Columbia and Lady Columbia, a goddess-like figure named for Christopher Columbus. The figure was first introduced in a 1697 poem by Chief Justice Samuel Sewall of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who suggested naming the colonies Columbina. She took on greater prominence when Phillis Wheatley, a formerly enslaved woman, invoked her in a 1775 ode to George Washington that ends with the lines “Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales /For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.” Countless cities and companies have since been named in her honor, and the Columbia Pictures logo is perhaps her best-known modern portrayal.

During the Dust Bowl, some dust clouds reached as far as Boston, causing red snow.

  • Dust cloud, 1936
Dust cloud, 1936
Credit: RBM Vintage Images/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Michael Nordine

April 24, 2025

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The Dust Bowl wasn’t entirely confined to the actual Dust Bowl states. Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico were certainly the most affected by the extreme drought that ravaged the Great Plains in the 1930s, a natural disaster that followed overcultivation and proved disastrous for both the land and the people living on it. But some of the dust storms that resulted were so extreme that their clouds reached cities more than 1,500 miles away on the East Coast. Boston, Massachusetts, even saw red snow due to red clay soil becoming concentrated in the atmosphere.

One of the worst storms hit the Great Plains region on April 14, 1935, which became known as Black Sunday. What started as a sunny morning quickly turned into an oppressive haze that dropped temperatures more than 25 degrees in an hour and turned the sky black. This “black blizzard” displaced an estimated 300,000 tons of topsoil, an agricultural disaster that led to further hardship and a number of casualties. Woody Guthrie immortalized the event in his song “The Great Dust Storm” from the album Dust Bowl Ballads, which included the line, “It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down / We thought it was our judgment, we thought it was our doom.”

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Most “Okies” weren’t from Oklahoma.

Anyone who’s read The Grapes of Wrath knows that “Okie” was a pejorative term for people fleeing the Dust Bowl — even if they weren’t from Oklahoma. The catchall insult applied equally to folks from Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas and could be found on signs such as this one outside a California diner: “Okies and dogs not allowed inside.” Most people who fled the Dust Bowl didn’t venture that far west, though, more often migrating to nearby states in the hopes of restarting their farms in unaffected areas. John Steinbeck’s novel won both the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize on its way to becoming one of the most celebrated books of the 20th century, but not everyone was pleased with it. Lyle Boren, who represented Oklahoma in Congress, described The Grapes of Wrath as “a lie, a black, infernal creation of a twisted, distorted mind.” 

A mysterious “sweating sickness” struck Europe in 1485.

  • Henry VII of England
Henry VII of England
duncan1890/ iStock
Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

January 18, 2024

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In the late 15th century, England got hit with an epidemic straight out of a horror movie: a so-called “sweating sickness,” which appeared suddenly in August 1485, after Henry VII returned to England and claimed the throne following the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses. Some historians suspect the sickness was brought by mercenaries hired to win the war for the Tudors. Illness came on abruptly and aggressively, usually killing its victims in less than a day and sometimes in as little as two hours. The disease, characterized by aches and fever, worked so quickly that people who survived more than 24 hours typically made a full recovery.

The first wave of sweating sickness, also called the “English sweat” (sudor anglicus in Latin), caused 15,000 deaths in just six weeks. The disease struck England a total of five times over the course of 70 years, always appearing in the late summer or early fall and, puzzlingly, always hitting wealthy people harder. After the fifth outbreak, it disappeared — possibly after mutating into a milder, less-lethal version — leaving one of the world’s greatest medical mysteries behind.

The Black Death, a devastating plague that swept through Europe in the 14th century, was far more deadly than the sweating sickness, but we know conclusively what caused it. Scientists are still searching for an explanation for the sweating sickness more than half a millennium later. One of the prevailing theories was that it was a particularly nasty strain of hantavirus, a respiratory disease spread by rodents; one hantavirus outbreak in 1993 very closely resembled sweating sickness. It could also have been insect-borne like dengue fever, especially given the time of year it typically appeared. Some have even suggested anthrax. But we may never know for sure.

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We might be able to thank sweating sickness for King Henry VIII.

Henry VIII is one of the most notorious English kings in history, known for having six wives and causing England’s break with the Catholic Church. Yet Henry wasn’t born as heir to the throne; his elder brother Arthur was next in line, until Arthur’s sudden death in 1502 at the age of 15. Some historians think the cause of death was sweating sickness, although others believe it was a longer-term illness such as tuberculosis. Regardless, Arthur’s death shook his younger brother, and Henry spent most of his life as a hypochondriac. He was particularly nervous about the sweating sickness, and left town during every outbreak.

Seashells used to be used as currency.

  • Cowrie shells used as money
Cowrie shells used as money
Credit: 19th era 2/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

April 24, 2025

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Long before the gold standard came and went, seashells were a hot commodity — so much so that they were the preferred currency in various civilizations around the world. Cowrie shells, which come from small sea snails, were particularly widespread. While there’s some disagreement among historians about when cowries evolved from valuable items to functional currency, it’s likely that it happened during the Zhou dynasty in China (around 1046 to 256 BCE). The shells declined in use in the 19th century, but were still used as money in Bengal and some parts of West Africa up until the early 20th century.

Unlike most shell money, cowrie shells were used whole and unaltered. In addition to their intrinsic value as an adornment, cowries are durable, portable, and hard to counterfeit. They were also exceedingly difficult to harvest — except in the Maldives, a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean that, until relatively recently, was extremely difficult to visit. 

Shell money was used all over the world, although the specific type of shell varied greatly. Usually, shells would be crafted into money before going into circulation — such as wampum, which were beads made from clam and whelk shells by Indigenous peoples in the northeastern U.S. Rings made from sea snail shells called Tabu are still used in Papua New Guinea today.

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An ancient pigment was worth three times its weight in gold.

In ancient times, there was no color more luxurious than Tyrian purple, and some Roman emperors even threatened punishment by death to any nonroyals caught wearing the color. Not that anyone else could afford it, anyway: The deep reddish-purple shade was made from snail mucus, and it took around 10,000 snails to make a single gram of dye. The process for turning the snails into pigment was a closely guarded secret, and around the 15th century, that knowledge was lost, despite modern archaeologists trying to piece it back together.

Abraham Lincoln approved a balloon corps during the Civil War.

  • Hydrogen gas air balloon
Hydrogen gas air balloon
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Author Bennett Kleinman

January 10, 2024

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In 1861, shortly after the start of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln authorized the creation of an aerial surveillance organization known as the Union Army Balloon Corps. Before the war, balloonists were usually carnival performers, but that all changed thanks to aeronaut Thaddeus S.C. Lowe. On July 11, 1861, Lowe was invited to demonstrate his ballooning skills for the president, who hoped to use hot-air balloons for aerial reconnaissance missions in the war.

During his demonstration, Lowe ascended 500 feet into the air and relayed a telegraph about what he saw to Lincoln’s staff. After the successful showcase, Lincoln offered Lowe the role of chief aeronaut in the Balloon Corps, which formally began operations that October. The purpose was to gather intel about the Confederate Army’s location and relay it to Union troops on the ground, who could then fire on the army from a great distance without even seeing the enemy. The fleet grew to include seven balloons, some of which were tethered to barges in the Potomac River that effectively served as early precursors to the modern aircraft carrier. Though the surveillance proved strategically beneficial, many Union officers, including General George B. McClellan, were concerned about the safety of the balloons. Lowe ultimately resigned his post on May 7, 1863, and the Balloon Corps were dissolved shortly thereafter.

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Bugs Bunny was named an Honorary Marine.

The title of Honorary Marine was formally established in 1992, and has since been awarded to fewer than 100 people, including comedian Bob Hope and actor Gary Sinise. But decades earlier, the distinction was unofficially bestowed upon a different breed of entertainer: Bugs Bunny. In 1943, the legendary cartoon character starred in the animated short Super-Rabbit, in which he joins the Marines and sings their official song, the “Marines’ Hymn.” The actual Marines were so flattered by the portrayal that Bugs was inducted as an honorary member soon after, and the organization even issued the character a set of official dog tags and registration papers. Throughout the remainder of World War II, Bugs Bunny was “promoted” several times, rising to the rank of master sergeant before being “discharged” after the war.

There used to be a 3-cent U.S. coin called the “trime.”

  • An 1853 3-cent coin
An 1853 3-cent coin
Credit: Julia Hansen/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Nicole Villeneuve

April 24, 2025

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One of the lesser-known coins in the history of U.S. currency is the 3-cent silver piece known as the “trime.” In 1851, Congress lowered the cost of mailing a letter from 5 cents to 3 cents to compete with private mail carriers, and simultaneously authorized the creation of the 3-cent trime to simplify postage transactions. Before that, carrying or making change with copper cents and half cents was impractical, since the coins were disproportionately heavy and large for their low value.

At the same time, the California gold rush, which peaked in 1849, had flooded the U.S. economy with gold, decreasing its value relative to silver. Coins such as the dime, quarter, and dollar were 90% silver at the time, and became worth more than their face value. They began disappearing from circulation as people started hoarding, melting down, and selling the silver coins. The trime, however, was 75% silver and 25% copper, making it the rare U.S. coin that was actually worth more in your pocket than it was melted down.

Designed by the U.S. Mint’s chief engraver James B. Longacre, the trime was one of the smallest American coins ever minted, at just 14 millimeters in diameter. Its obverse featured a six-pointed star with a shield, surrounded by the words “United States of America” and the year it was made. The reverse showed the Roman numeral “III” inside a decorative “C,” with 13 stars representing the 13 original colonies. 

At first, the tiny trime did its job — it made buying stamps easier and it circulated widely. But the coin was so small it often got lost, and its alloy tarnished easily, eventually earning it the undesirable nickname “fish scales.” Its popularity waned, and after being replaced by a nickel 3-cent coin following the Civil War coin shortage, the trime barely resurfaced in circulation. It was officially discontinued with the Coinage Act of 1873. 

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The first official U.S. coin said “Mind Your Business” on it.

In 1787, the United States was still in its infancy and was figuring out, along with many other things, its national currency. That year, Congress approved the first official U.S. coin for circulation: the Fugio cent. The copper coin, believed to have been designed by Benjamin Franklin, came with a curt piece of advice: “Mind Your Business.” It wasn’t meant as a slight: Taken together with the picture of a sundial and the Latin word Fugio, meaning “run” or “flee,” it’s been interpreted to mean “time flies, so take care of your affairs.” The reverse side of the coin featured 13 linked rings representing the 13 colonies becoming united as a nation, surrounding the motto “We Are One.” The Fugio cent was made by a private contractor for just one year; in 1792, the Coinage Act was passed and the U.S. Mint was established.

In 1908, there was a car race from New York to Paris.

  • Thomas Flyer in Manchuria, 1908
Thomas Flyer in Manchuria, 1908
Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images
Author Nicole Villeneuve

April 24, 2025

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In the early 20th century, when automobiles were in their infancy, the idea of driving long distances was still ambitious. But that was precisely the challenge of the 1908 New York to Paris race, a bold, 22,000-mile competition that spanned three continents during the dead of winter. On the morning of February 12, six teams representing four countries — France, Germany, Italy, and the United States — gathered in front of 250,000 spectators in Times Square in New York City. The cars and their teams, made up of drivers, mechanics, and journalists, departed at 11:15 a.m. The American Thomas Flyer car quickly pulled into the lead. Behind it came Italy’s Zust, Germany’s Protos, and three entries from France — a Motobloc, a De Dion, and a Sizaire-Naudin (the latter broke down and dropped out of the race after just 96 miles). 

The ambitious plan was for the teams to reach San Francisco within 22 days; from there, a ship would take them to Alaska, where they would drive across a presumably frozen Bering Strait into Siberia, continue across Russia and Europe, and finally reach Paris. But the race didn’t exactly take place as planned. The cars took twice that time to reach the West Coast, and the spring thaw made the Alaskan route too difficult. Competitors were instead rerouted to Seattle, shipped across the Pacific to Japan, and then shipped again across the Sea of Japan to Vladivostok, Russia.

Along the way, drivers endured blizzards, sandstorms, and nearly impassable roads — if there were roads at all. Mechanical problems, personnel changes, and visa delays also caused setbacks. In the end, just three of the original six cars completed the journey. On July 30, the Thomas Flyer finally reached Paris. A police officer initially refused to let the car proceed with its broken headlight, but a passerby offered up a bicycle light. Though the Protos had technically arrived three days earlier, organizers issued a penalty for shortcuts taken along the way. So at 6 p.m., after a 169-day journey, the American car officially won the great race.

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Thomas Edison and Henry Ford developed an electric car together.

Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's friendship has been well documented, and along with their shared vacation homes and camping trips, the two collaborated on new technology together. In January 1914, Ford confirmed to The New York Times that he was working with Edison on a low-cost, long-range electric vehicle. Edison worked to design a durable battery that was also lightweight, and Ford planned to manufacture the cars in a new plant to be run by his son, Edsel Ford. 

At least two known prototypes were built: a tiller-steered design with batteries under the seat, and a second design that incorporated elements from the Model T along with a different motor position and an extra bank of batteries. Despite high expectations, the project never went to market. Edison’s nickel-iron batteries were still too big and inefficient, and refinements to it were quickly outpaced by improvements in fuel engines and infrastructure. By the 1920s, Ford and Edison had quietly abandoned the idea.

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