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John Tyler had 15 children, the most of any U.S. president.

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John Tyler memorial
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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

November 21, 2023

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America’s 10th president, John Tyler, was born in 1790, and as of December 2023, still has one living grandchild. The reason that’s possible? Tyler had children at all stages of his adult life — 15 kids total, the most of any U.S. president. His first child, Mary, was born in 1815, when he was 25 years old. His youngest, Pearl, was born in 1860, when Tyler was 70, less than two years before his death.

Tyler and his first wife, Letitia Christian Tyler, had eight children together. The couple were both in their early 50s and already grandparents when Tyler took office in 1841, first as Vice President and then, after the death of President William Henry Harrison a month later, as president. Letitia wasn’t in good health, and passed away in 1842, making Tyler the first U.S. president to become a widower while in office. Two years later, Tyler married his second wife, Julia Gardiner Tyler — making him also the first U.S. president to get married while in office. Julia was just 24 years old at the time, 30 years the president’s junior. Together, they had seven more kids, for a grand total of 15. Tyler’s 13th child, Lyon, was born when his father was 63 years old, and later in life, Lyon also had a much younger second wife. Lyon had two very long-lived sons who were born in the 1920s when Lyon was in his 70s. The elder son, Lyon Jr., died in 2020. John Tyler’s last surviving grandson, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, is more than 90 years old today.

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It’s a common myth that William Henry Harrison died due to a long inauguration speech.

William Henry Harrison, who died just a month into his presidential term, is still the shortest-serving president in U.S. history. For more than a century, the commonly accepted story was that Harrison caught a cold after delivering what’s still the longest-ever inaugural address in freezing weather. As the story goes, the president wore no overcoat, hat, or gloves during the 8,445-word speech, and wound up with pneumonia. But even Harrison’s doctor was unsure of the diagnosis at the time. In 2014, researchers took another look at the evidence and noted that Harrison’s symptoms started not in his respiratory system, but in his gut. They theorize that Washington, D.C.’s sewage, which at the time flowed into a marsh not far from the White House, got into the president’s water supply and caused typhoid fever. 

The first known vending machine dispensed holy water.

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Holy Water dispenser
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Author Nicole Villeneuve

November 21, 2023

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Because vending machines are now automated, they can feel like a relatively modern invention. However, the basic contraption has actually been around for more than 2,000 years. Introduced around the first century CE by Greek engineer and mathematician Heron of Alexandria, the first vending machine didn’t deliver snacks — it dispensed holy water. Similar to modern machines, Heron’s device required inserting a coin into a slot. The coin fell onto a pan that was connected to a lever, which opened a valve on the other end where the holy water flowed out. The pan continued to move under the weight of the coin until, eventually, the coin slid off. The lever would then raise back to its initial state and close the valve, stopping the flow of water.

The machine — described by Heron as a “sacrificial vessel” — was made to limit the amount of holy water people were using at ancient temples. (This was during the Hellenistic period, when Alexandria was a multicultural hub for various Roman, Greek, and Egyptian faiths.) Heron’s invention didn’t stick around with any regularity until centuries later, however. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, coin-operated machines were used to sell tobacco in English taverns, and by the 1800s, they were selling everything from banned literary works to stamps. In 1888, a new chewing gum called Tutti-Frutti appeared in custom penny-operated vending machines on New York City subway platforms, introducing the United States to vending machines as we know them today.

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The microwave was invented by accident.

During World War II, Allied forces gained a significant tactical advantage by deploying the world’s first true radar system. The success of this system increased research into microwaves and the magnetrons (a type of electron tube) that generate them. One day around 1946, Percy Spencer, an engineer at the aerospace and defense company Raytheon, stepped in front of an active radar set and noticed, to his surprise, that microwaves produced from the radar melted a candy bar in his pocket. After getting over his shock — and presumably cleaning up — Spencer conducted a few more experiments using eggs and popcorn kernels, and realized that microwaves could be used to cook a variety of foods. Raytheon patented the invention a short time later, and in 1947, the company released its first microwave.

Archaeologists have found 3,000-year-old pots of honey that are still edible.

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Wooden honey stick
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Author Nicole Villeneuve

November 21, 2023

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Ancient Egyptian royals were often buried with objects they believed were needed for a harmonious transition to the afterlife. Items such as jewelry and games were common inclusions in their tombs, as were everyday staples such as clothing and food. And while we might expect any ancient food to decompose past the point of recognition, archaeologists have actually uncovered 3,000-year-old pots of honey that were, remarkably, intact — and still edible.

Honey’s extraordinary shelf life is the result of several factors. Its low water content and high sugar levels create an environment that’s inhospitable to bacterial growth, and it also contains trace amounts of hydrogen peroxide, which acts as a natural microbial inhibitor. While other foods with similar sugar makeup tend to spoil faster, honey has its sophisticated alchemists to thank for its resilience: Bees use their rapidly flapping wings to evaporate most of the honey’s water, and an enzyme in their stomachs contributes to honey’s unique antibacterial property. Egyptians were some of the earliest known organized beekeepers, and along with sending honey into the next life with the deceased, they also offered the sweet substance to their deities.

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The bear that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh preferred condensed milk.

Winnie-the-Pooh is often seen in books or cartoons with a paw in a jar of honey. But the real-life bear that Pooh was based on preferred a different sweet snack: condensed milk and, sometimes, corn syrup. The inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh children’s book was a Canadian black bear cub who was adopted by a soldier named Harry Colebourn during World War I. Colebourn named the bear after his hometown of Winnipeg — “Winnie” for short — and trained the bear with rewards of condensed milk and corn syrup. He eventually donated the bear to the London Zoo, where she became a popular attraction. Local author A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, often visited the zoo and became smitten with Winnie, spending time with her and doling out one of her favorite snacks: condensed milk. 

The Rocky Mountains were once called the Stony Mountains.

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Pikes Peak in the Rocky Mountains
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Author Michael Nordine

January 16, 2025

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The Rocky Mountains have had many names since humans first came into contact with them, some more fanciful than others. Their current moniker comes from the Plains Cree term ᐊᓯᓃᐘᒋᐩ, usually transcribed as asinîwaciy and literally meaning “rocky mountain” or “alp.” The first European to describe the pride of Colorado was explorer Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who gave them their current name when he called the mountains “montagnes de Roche” in a 1752 journal entry. Four decades later, the John Reid Company published a map in which they were called the Stony Mountains.

Another journal, this one belonging to fur trader Gabriel Franchere and written between 1811 and 1814, claimed “the first travellers called them the ‘Glittering Mountains,’ on account of the infinite number of immense rock crystals, which, they say, cover their surface, and … reflect to an immense distance the rays of sun.” The Rockies have also been called the Mountains of Bright Stones and the Shining Mountains, each name a testament to how striking they are.

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The Andes are the longest mountain range in the world.

The Rockies are massive, passing through six U.S. states (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico) in addition to two Canadian provinces (Alberta and British Columbia), but they aren’t the longest above-water mountain range in the world. That would be the Andes, which are 5,500 miles long — 2,500 miles longer than the Rockies. (The longest mountain range of any kind is the mid-ocean ridge.)  The Andes extend across the entire western edge of South America, passing through Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela on their way to the Caribbean. Aconcagua, a mountain in Argentina, is the range’s peak at an elevation of 22,831 feet. The world’s highest volcanoes are also in the Andes, including the 22,615-foot-tall (and, thankfully, dormant) Ojos del Salado.

The average life expectancy in ancient Rome was 35 years.

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Ancient Rome citizens
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Author Michael Nordine

January 15, 2025

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The Roman Empire is responsible for countless innovations that are still used on a daily basis, but it would be putting it lightly to say that medical science has advanced quite a bit since Rome fell. Given that — as well as all the gladiators, wars, and assassinated emperors — it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that life expectancy in ancient Rome was just 35 years. Yet the real culprit behind that figure is actually the infant mortality rate at the time, as some 25% of babies born in the first century CE didn’t make it past 1 year old, and only half survived past the age of 10.

Life expectancy is an average, and one that has tended to increase over time, but lifespan hasn’t actually changed much in human history. Indeed, it was not uncommon for ancient Romans to live to a ripe old age. Gordian I was 81 when he became emperor of Rome, and Roman statesman Cicero’s wife Terentia lived to be 103, for instance. Pliny the Elder (who, despite his moniker, lived to be just 55 before dying in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius) was particularly impressed by one centenarian he studied. He wrote, “The solitary instance of Xenophilus, the musician, who lived one hundred and five years without any infirmity of body, must be regarded then as a kind of miracle.”

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The king of Pontus consumed small amounts of poison to develop an immunity to it.

History is written by the victors, but even Rome had to have been impressed by one of its greatest foes: Mithridates VI Eupator, who led the Kingdom of Pontus for nearly six decades and regularly waged war against the Roman Republic. The Romans considered him their most formidable opponent since Hannibal, with the three Mithridatic Wars fought between 89 BCE and 63 BCE to show for it. As he rightly believed he had a target on his back, Mithridates began ingesting small quantities of poison on a regular basis in order to develop an immunity to its effects. According to Roman physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus, this toxic concoction consisted of 36 different ingredients that were ground into a powder before being mixed with honey and formed into chewable tablets the size of an almond. It seems to have been effective: Mithridates tried to take his own life via poison after being soundly defeated by Pompey, but it didn’t work. More than 2,000 years later, the term “mithridate” survives to describe an antidote against poison.

The Library of Congress is America’s oldest cultural institution.

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The Library of Congress
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Author Michael Nordine

November 21, 2023

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Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress predates every other federal cultural institution in the United States — it’s so old, in fact, that it was brought into existence by the same bill that relocated the U.S. capital from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. The nation’s second President, John Adams, approved said bill, which provided $5,000 (roughly $122,000 today) for books to be used by Congress. Two years later, Thomas Jefferson made the increasingly important librarian of Congress post a presidential appointment. From those humble origins, the repository of knowledge eventually became the world’s largest library: It was home to more than 175 million items as of September 2022, with more than 10,000 added every day.

Given the massive size of its collection, the Library of Congress is naturally home to a number of strange and fascinating objects. Its smallest book, Old King Cole, is a nursery rhyme measuring 1/25th of an inch, roughly the size of a period; its largest is a 5-by-7-foot photo book featuring images of Bhutan. In addition to books, the library houses audio materials, maps, sheet music, photographs, newspapers, presidential papers, manuscripts, and other media.

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The original library was burned down in the War of 1812.

The Library of Congress was comparatively tiny for the first 14 years of its existence, but that didn’t make it any less tragic when its collection of 3,000 books was destroyed in a fire along with the Capitol building on August 24, 1814. After the conflagration, Thomas Jefferson offered his own collection of 6,487 books (then the largest personal library in the nation) as a replacement for the lost volumes. Though he didn’t do so for free — Congress paid him $23,950 — Jefferson did provide the foundation for what the library eventually became. Sadly, a second fire destroyed most of his contribution, as well as nearly two-thirds of the entire collection on Christmas Eve 1851, but the institution rose from the ashes once again.

The oldest shoes in the world were found in Oregon.

  • Sagebrush sandal on display
Sagebrush sandal on display
Credit: Gina Kelly/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

January 16, 2025

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Human beings first arrived in the Americas more than 20,000 years ago, long after the earliest dated cave paintings, musical instruments, and sewing needles. North America is, however, home to the oldest known pair of shoes, unearthed in central Oregon in the 1930s and dating back more than 10,000 years. But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean the earliest Americans made the chilly journey across the Bering Strait barefoot — these sandals are just the earliest surviving shoes that we know about.

Researchers found the footwear in Fort Rock Cave, located in the northern Great Basin area, preserved in ash from the eruption of Mount Mazama roughly 7,700 years ago. Around 100 pairs were present, including some in kids’ sizes, and most were well worn; some were caked with mud, and one had even been singed by sparks from a fire.

Like other sandals found around the Great Basin area, the Fort Rock shoes were made from sagebrush and covered the toes. But they had a distinct weaving style, with just five thick warps along the sole that were split into smaller cords for a thinner toe flap. They were secured to the feet with cords that tied around the ankle. This style faded out around 9,300 years ago, when it was replaced by different weaving styles that were still being used thousands of years later by Klamath and Modoc tribes, who are Indigenous to the area.

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Crater Lake is in a collapsed volcano.

Preserving a large shoe collection was one of Mount Mazama’s lesser impacts. When the volcano erupted 7,700 years ago — one of the largest eruptions on Earth in the last 12,000 years — its magma chamber emptied and the volcano collapsed. It left a giant caldera, or volcanic crater, in its place — similar to how Yellowstone National Park was created. Smaller eruptions continued for the next 750 years, but over time, the caldera filled with water and became Crater Lake, now a national park in Oregon, which eventually became deep enough to hide any volcanic activity. 

John Steinbeck’s dog ate the first draft of “Of Mice and Men.”

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Portrait of John Steinbeck
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Author Timothy Ott

January 7, 2025

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By the spring of 1936, life was clearly on the upswing for John Steinbeck. As described in Jay Parini’s biography, the commercial success of his 1935 novel Tortilla Flat had produced newfound financial comfort for the author and his wife, Carol, and with it they were building a new home in an isolated stretch of wilderness outside Los Gatos, California. Meanwhile, Steinbeck was knee-deep in another work, tentatively titled Something That Happened, that was originally meant as a children’s story but was turning into an experimental piece that could be absorbed from the page or performed on stage.

And then, a “minor tragedy stalked,” Steinbeck wrote in a letter to his literary agent on May 27, 1936. “My setter pup [Toby], left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my ms. [manuscript] book. Two months work to do over again. … There was no other draft.” Yet whatever anguish the author initially felt over seeing his months of hard work reduced to shreds had clearly tempered by the time he sat down to write the letter. “I was pretty mad but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically,” Steinbeck continued. “I didn’t want to ruin a good dog for a ms. I’m not sure is good at all. He only got an ordinary spanking with his punishment flyswatter. But there’s the work to do over from the start.”

Fortunately, Toby’s drastic edits proved but a temporary obstacle in the gestating story’s path to completion. Inspired by his new surroundings, which included a study crafted to his liking, Steinbeck restarted his tale of codependent migrant workers George and Lennie and furiously plowed through revisions until submitting what became Of Mice and Men to his editors in August. And while Steinbeck initially had modest hopes for his completed novella, Of Mice and Men became another critical and commercial hit upon publication in February 1937, ensuring that its now-famous author, his wife, and especially Toby could enjoy nothing but the finest dining options in the days to come.

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Another of Steinbeck's dogs featured prominently in one of the author's last books.

Nearly a quarter-century after Toby made a mess of the Of Mice and Men manuscript, Steinbeck took his French poodle, Charley, for a three-month tour of the U.S. in a pickup truck fitted with a camper top. Ostensibly there to provide companionship for long, anonymous stretches of highway, the poodle instead became a prominent figure in Steinbeck's 1962 travelogue Travels With Charley: In Search of America.  Avoiding the urge to feast on his owner's letters that formed the basis of the book, Charley lived up to his end of the bargain both as a sidekick and instigator of events, including his bouts with prostatitis that prompted the need to seek out veterinary care. While Travels With Charley later invited controversy for Steinbeck's alleged fudging of many details, the titular canine’s ever-steady presence throughout its pages helped give its ailing and aging author one final bestselling book.

The first known use of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill.

  • Winston Churchill, 1939
Winston Churchill, 1939
Credit: Evening Standard/ Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Author Darren Orf

November 15, 2023

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Winston Churchill’s remarkable life was filled with genuine “OMG” moments, from withstanding the disastrous Gallipoli campaign during the First World War to leading Britain through World War II as prime minister. Churchill held a front-row seat to many history-defining moments, even including the little-known origin of the term “OMG” itself. 

The expression “OMG,” an acronym for “oh my god,” became popular as early internet lingo during the 1990s. But the first known use of the acronym actually dates back to a letter written to Churchill in 1917, while he was serving as first lord of the admiralty in the British navy. The letter was written by John Arbuthnot Fisher, who, as first sea lord (the navy’s highest ranking officer), often quarreled with Churchill.  In the 1917 missive, Fisher wrote, “I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis [table] — O.M.G. (Oh! My God!) — Shower it on the Admiralty!!” Sadly for the linguistically hip Fisher, neither Churchill, the navy, nor the British people adopted his clever quip. It wasn’t until the arrival of the internet age some 70 years later that the “OMG” acronym exploded in popularity. 

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“LOL” originally meant “little old lady.”

Language evolves over time, and the same can be said of time-saving acronyms, including the ubiquitous “LOL” (most commonly understood to mean “laugh out loud”). The acronym is now a go-to response when a joke, meme, or photo elicits some measure of mirth (though many keep “ROFL” in their back pocket for those truly hilarious moments). But the oldest use of “LOL” actually dates back to the 1960s and had a very different meaning: Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Herb Caen used the acronym in his book Only in San Francisco to mean “little old lady.” In the book, Caen wrote, “A traffic officer bellowed at an LOL who didn’t seem to know which way to turn her car.” Caen, who spent most of his career at the San Francisco Chronicle, also coined the term “beatnik,” referring to the counterculture inspired by Beat Generation writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

Mary Poppins’ “A Spoonful of Sugar” was inspired by the polio vaccine.

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"Mary Poppins" scene, 1964
Allstar Picture Library Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Michael Nordine

November 21, 2023

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When inspiration strikes, you have to just go with it — no matter how unexpected the circumstances. Few knew that better than Robert B. Sherman, who, along with his brother Richard, made up one of the best-known songwriting duos in Hollywood history. In addition to The Jungle Book, The Sword in the Stone, and other Disney classics, they collaborated on 1964’s Mary Poppins — including the song “A Spoonful of Sugar,” which was inspired by the polio vaccine. This was recounted by Robert’s son Jeffrey, who in late 2020 shared his story of receiving the vaccine as a child. When asked whether it hurt, Jeffrey told his father, “They put it on a sugar cube and you just ate it. He stared at me, then went to the phone and called my uncle Dick.”

Robert recalled the incident similarly: “I realized at the moment that I had the spark of a winning song,” he wrote in his autobiography Moose: Chapters From My Life. “I couldn’t sleep all night. The lyric mulled around in my mind. The next day, at work, I showed up half an hour earlier than usual so that I could pop the idea on my brother.” Created by virologist Jonas Salk, the polio vaccine (originally administered as a shot) was released in 1955, after which Salk was hailed as a miracle worker and refused to patent it. An oral vaccine, the type Jeffrey Sherman received, was developed later by biomedical scientist Albert Sabin. Within 25 years, the polio vaccine eliminated transmission of the disease in the United States.

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Julie Andrews wasn’t the first choice to play Mary Poppins.

Despite giving one of the best-known performances in film history, Julie Andrews wasn’t who the studio had in mind as the iconic musical’s title character. Both Walt Disney and Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers had Bette Davis as their top choice — understandable, given that the two-time Oscar winner (and the first actor to receive a total of 10 nominations) was essentially Hollywood royalty. Angela Lansbury was considered as well. That changed when Robert B. Sherman, who co-wrote the movie’s songs, saw Andrews on TV one night in 1962. “Before she finished her first song, I knew that Julie was the one,” he recalled later. “My brother, Dick, agreed. The next day, we learned that Walt and half the studio had the same idea we did.” Andrews went on to win an Academy Award of her own for the role.

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