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The oldest D-Day soldier was a president’s son.

  • Roosevelt Jr. in uniform
Roosevelt Jr. in uniform
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Author Michael Nordine
December 19, 2023

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More than 130,000 Allied troops landed at Normandy as part of D-Day, but only one of them was the son of a former U.S. president: Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who also held the distinction of being the oldest soldier to deploy. He was born on September 13, 1887, making the brigadier general 56 years old when he asked to land with the first wave. After two verbal requests were denied, Roosevelt submitted a written petition, in which he wrote, “I personally know both officers and men of these advance units and believe that it will steady them to know that I am with them.”

High command finally relented, and Roosevelt landed on Utah Beach equipped with his walking cane and service pistol on June 6, 1944. Later, soldiers from his unit indeed credited his “calm and humorous demeanor” with helping them push through. Roosevelt was already a decorated veteran at this point, having served with distinction in World War I, but his military career was cut short when he suffered a fatal heart attack barely a month after D-Day. General George Patton hailed him as one of the bravest men he ever knew, and Roosevelt received a posthumous Medal of Honor on September 21, 1944. His son Quentin Roosevelt II stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day, making them the only father-son duo to take part in the Normandy landings.

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The “D” in D-Day doesn’t really stand for anything.

Though you might logically assume it stands for any number of terms, from “deployment” or “disembarkation” to “departure” or “doom,” the “D” in D-Day doesn’t exactly stand for anything. The most likely explanation is that the “D” was a redundancy, and simply means “day.” The term dates back to World War I as a placeholder for the start of a military operation, and “H-Hour” was also used to specify the exact time an operation would occur. In addition to keeping such details out of enemy hands, these vague terms allowed some flexibility when planning attacks whose actual start times could change at the last minute.

The first toy advertised on TV was Mr. Potato Head.

  • Mr. Potato Head
Mr. Potato Head
Robert Linder/ Unsplash
Author Bennett Kleinman
January 2, 2024

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While toy commercials are ubiquitous today, they were virtually unheard of before April 30, 1952. That day, a television ad for Mr. Potato Head aired for the first time. George Lerner created an early version of the toy tuber in 1949, and sold the rights to Hassenfeld Brothers (which became Hasbro) three years later. The original package contained 30 plastic accessories, including facial features, hands, and feet, which could be affixed to any real potato or similar vegetable. What transformed the toy into a major success, however, was the innovative TV advertising campaign that soon followed.

The inaugural Mr. Potato Head commercial was the first of its kind to advertise directly to children rather than their parents, revolutionizing the marketing industry. The ad featured a cartoon mascot talking to kids about how to play with Mr. Potato Head and all the fun they could have. More than a million kits were sold in the first year, and the Mr. Potato Head line soon expanded to include a Mrs. Potato Head, Brother Spud, Sister Yam, and many additional parts. When new government regulations in the 1960s forced the company to pivot away from the sharp accessories necessary to puncture real potatoes, Hasbro began selling a plastic potato body with premade holes.

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Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son.

John Lloyd Wright, son of famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, based Lincoln Logs on a real project that he worked on alongside his father. John began as his father’s apprentice in 1913, and while the professional relationship was short-lived, John briefly played a role in planning Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel. The hotel plan featured an innovative design of interlocking timber beams to increase stability, which actually helped the structure survive the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Though John quit before the project was complete, he drew great inspiration from its design, and in 1920 he patented an interlocking log cabin toy. He chose the name “Lincoln Logs” to evoke a sense of Americana, basing it on the 16th president’s childhood log cabin. 

George Washington wrote reviews of early American inns.

  • Portrait of George Washington, 1846
Portrait of George Washington, 1846
Credit: American portraiture/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Michael Nordine
April 5, 2025

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When he wasn’t busy winning the Revolutionary War and not telling lies, George Washington had a thoroughly modern pastime: reviewing American inns. The founding father penned a series of these assessments early in his presidency, a time when he swore not to accept invitations to stay in his fellow Americans’ private residences while traveling. This was not because he didn’t enjoy home-cooked meals, but because he didn’t want to “incommode any private family,” as he wrote in a 1791 letter, and also to avoid any appearance of political favoritism. This necessitated patronizing inns during two major trips — one to New England and one to the South — as he got the lay of the land and greeted citizens, who he hoped would think of him as a man of the people.

Most of these accommodations, according to his extensive writings, were hardly five-star experiences. One he described as “not a good House” situated near an “intolerable” road, while at another “the entertainment was not very inviting.” Conditions were especially dire in the rural South, where, Washington wrote, he failed to find “a single house which has anythg. of an elegant appearance.” He fared better in Boston, where he noted a widow kept a “very decent & good House” and found that Delaware’s Buck Tavern was “a better house than the appearances indicate.” 

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George Washington didn’t have children.

Despite being a founding father, the first U.S. president never had biological children of his own. He and Martha Washington were married for 40 years, and together they raised her two surviving children from her first marriage: John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis. Martha also had four grandchildren in addition to several nieces and nephews who came to live with the couple at Mount Vernon. Five other presidents had no known biological children: James Madison, James Polk, Warren G. Harding, James Buchanan, and Andrew Jackson.

The phrase “raise a toast” refers to actual toasted bread.

  • Wassail Bowl, Middle Ages
Wassail Bowl, Middle Ages
Credit: Chronicle/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Nicole Villeneuve
January 2, 2024

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By the Middle Ages, the custom now known as a “toast” had evolved from its ancient Greek origins and was common in Europe, and the medieval era’s culinary habits contributed to its eventual name. Many meals at the time included a piece of soaked bread or toast (known as “sop”), and during the holiday season in England, communal bowls filled with a warm, spiced alcoholic drink such as mulled cider or ale were common. They were known as wassail bowls, a name derived from the Anglo-Saxon greeting of “waes hael,” meaning “be well” or “be in good health.” Wassail bowls were garnished with slices of toasted, spiced bread. 

Some theories suggest the toast was used to augment the drink’s flavor or to serve as an accompanying snack — not hard to believe given the prevalence of sops. But it possibly had another purpose: In some cider-producing regions, the wassail tradition also included a blessing for good crops from farmers’ apple trees, during which villagers hung pieces of wassail-soaked toast in the branches for the robins. Throughout the 17th century, the word “toast” became distanced from just the charred drink topper. By the 18th century, according to linguist Dan Jurafsky, English dinner parties often honored a guest as the “toast” of the night, a tradition that eventually evolved into the verb “to toast.”

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Shaking your head “no” actually means “yes” in some parts of the world.

The popular phrase “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” is an important reminder to respect unique customs and cultural etiquette around the world. In Bulgaria, that means adopting a cue that’s altogether the opposite of most other places in the world: shaking your head side to side to express “yes,” and nodding up and down for “no.” One theory for how this regional body language developed suggests that, during Ottoman rule, Orthodox Bulgarians used it as a way to resist pressure to renounce their faith, nodding their head “yes” when asked to convert religions while inside meaning “no.” Today, many Bulgarians try to accommodate visitors, who, if they’re aware of the custom, do the same for locals — leading to potentially confusing conversations.

People in the Victorian era frequently took photos of the dead.

  • Postmortem portrait, early 1900s
Postmortem portrait, early 1900s
Credit: AA Images/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Bess Lovejoy
March 27, 2025

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Though it may seem shocking to us today, taking and displaying postmortem photographs was a popular practice in European and American life during the Victoria era. In a time before modern sanitation, vaccines, and antibiotics, death was commonplace, and making images of the dead was part of mourning rituals. Postmortem portraiture — in the form of drawings and paintings — had long been available to those who could afford it, but the invention of photography democratized the trend. 

While we tend to associate death with the morbid or grotesque today, many of these images were beautiful and emotional remembrances. The dead were often depicted in their beds or coffins accompanied by flowers (such as lilies and forget-me-nots) or keepsakes. If the deceased was a small child, they were held or propped up by family members. These photos were often displayed in parlors and family photo albums alongside pictures of the living, or they might be carried in lockets.

Postmortem photography reached its peak in the 1860s and 1870s, but began to fade away by the early 20th century, and had all but disappeared by the 1930s. By then, the cultural attitude toward death and mourning had changed. It was less likely that people would pass away at home and be taken care of by family members, and more likely that death was seen as a matter for hospitals and funeral homes. The mass casualties of World War I also encouraged a turn away from elaborate Victorian-era mourning customs. For one thing, families simply didn’t have time to mourn so many losses, and these wartime casualties often took place far from home. Yet today, postmortem photographs have become a treasured item for many collectors, who see great tenderness in these attempts at immortality. 

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Queen Victoria influenced the mourning customs of her time.

When Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861, Britain’s queen entered a mourning from which she never emerged. In keeping with the etiquette of the time for widows, she rarely wore colors, and even then only the purples that were permitted in half-mourning. She avoided social outings (being out in public was seen as being in extremely bad taste for widows), kept Prince Albert’s rooms just as he had left them, and slept with a postmortem photograph of him above her head. Although she was criticized for the depths of her mourning, many other widows of the era copied her signs of grief. At the time, it was common to swathe the house in black crepe, send intricate black-bordered memorial cards, and wear all-black clothing (down to underwear and jewelry, the latter often made of jet). Widows were expected to mourn for roughly two years, and widowers for three months.

Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital.

  • Jimmy Carter in his study
Jimmy Carter in his study
ZUMA Press, Inc./ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Bennett Kleinman
November 15, 2023

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The majority of U.S. presidents were born in their parents’ homes, as it wasn’t until the early 20th century that hospital births became common throughout the United States. In fact, the first president born in a hospital was Jimmy Carter, on October 1, 1924. America’s 39th president (who served as commander in chief from 1977 to 1981) was born at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia, where his mother, Lillian Carter, worked as a nurse at the time. (The institution was later renamed the Lillian G. Carter Nursing Center in her honor.) Jimmy Carter’s upbringing was far from modern, however; when he left the hospital as a baby, he went home to the family farm, which lacked plumbing and electricity.

Only five other U.S. presidents have been born in hospitals: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan, was born in his parents’ apartment in Tampico, Illinois. George H.W. Bush, who succeeded Reagan, was born at the family home in Milton, Massachusetts, and remains the last U.S. president not born in a hospital.

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Martin Van Buren was the first president born a U.S. citizen.

From George Washington through Andrew Jackson, America’s first seven presidents were born as British subjects, before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Martin Van Buren, who came into the world on December 5, 1782, was the first U.S. president born after America declared independence from Britain, and thus the first president born a U.S. citizen. Van Buren was raised in the Dutch community of Kinderhook, New York; in fact, Dutch was Van Buren’s first language, making him the only president to learn English as a second language. He was elected to the presidency in 1836 and served a single term before being succeeded by William Henry Harrison. Born in 1773, Harrison was older than Van Buren and was the last U.S. president born before the country’s independence. 

Snake oil wasn’t always a scam.

  • Elixirs display
Elixirs display
Credit: Efrain Padro/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
March 27, 2025

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In the popular lexicon, “snake oil” refers to a scam product or bogus claim, particularly related to health. That connotation originated with one of history’s most notorious American hucksters, Clark Stanley, who sold “snake oil” he claimed would cure pain and rheumatism in the late 19th century. 

Stanley would demonstrate to audiences how he would kill and boil a rattlesnake, letting its fat rise to the surface. But his Snake Oil Liniment was, to be clear, a scam. Not only were his claims about rattlesnake fat unverified, but the actual product he was selling didn’t even contain snake oil — it was a combination of capsaicin from chili peppers, mineral oil, turpentine, and tallow, probably from beef.

If Stanley’s supposed cure-all had contained a specific kind of snake oil, it might have been at least somewhat effective. Oil from Chinese water snakes has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine to treat arthritis and other joint pain. Railroad laborers who immigrated to the U.S. from China shared it with other workers after long, painful days, which may have contributed to the popularity of generic snake oil as a treatment.

Modern research has shown this particular Chinese snake oil may indeed have health benefits. It’s packed with more omega-3 fatty acid than salmon, and may help with improving cognitive function, reducing blood pressure, and lessening inflammation. Genuine rattlesnake oil, on the other hand, is, well, snake oil — in every sense.

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Snakes evolved three times faster than lizards.

Today, we have snakes in just about every kind of habitat, from the ocean floor to deserts to treetops, and in sizes ranging from a few inches to several yards long. On an evolutionary timeline, snakes achieved that diversity much more quickly than other species, and on a grander scale, according to research completed in 2024.

More than 100 million years ago, some prehistoric species of lizard started losing their legs, and snakes became snakes practically overnight. And it wasn’t just universal snake traits such as flexible skulls that came in rapidly. Over the next 66 million years, snakes also went through what evolutionary biologists call adaptive radiation, developing traits highly specialized to their environment. (For comparison, it took hundreds of millions of years for Homo sapiens to evolve.) Some snakes were able to eat prey that lizards couldn’t, some developed infrared vision, and some became venomous. Despite their common ancestors, snakes evolved as much as three times faster than lizards.

Stonehenge was designed to frame the sunset on the winter solstice.

  • Stonehenge at sunset
Stonehenge at sunset
inigofotografia/ iStock
Author Nicole Villeneuve
December 7, 2023

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Humans have long viewed the sun as a crucial part of life. Many early civilizations such as ancient Egypt and Rome, as well as the Japanese and the Maya, even deified the sun. It was so revered by the Neolithic people of modern-day England, in fact, that it’s believed they may have built Stonehenge to frame the rising sun on the summer solstice and the sunset on the winter solstice.

Starting about 5,000 years ago, the prehistoric monument was constructed in several stages on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. Without any written record, many theories about the origin and purpose of the mysterious monolith have emerged over the years. One of the most plausible is that Stonehenge was built as an astronomical observatory to help mark the seasons. On the winter solstice, the sun currently falls behind one of the site’s several trilithons — a structure consisting of two vertical stones with a horizontal one across the top — creating a picture-perfect framing. Although some of the rocks have fallen over the years, affecting the current view, laser surveys have all but confirmed that Stonehenge was designed in relation to the path of the sun on the solstice. On the winter solstice, the sun also sets perfectly in line with an individual stone known as the Heel Stone, about 100 feet away from the main site. On the summer solstice, the sun rises over the Heel Stone.

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The Black Sabbath and "Spinal Tap" Stonehenge jokes were likely a coincidence.

For their Born Again tour in 1983 and 1984, the metal band Black Sabbath created a replica of Stonehenge, a nod to the track of the same name from their latest album. But the prop ended up being too big for all of the pieces to actually fit on stage, the result of a mix-up between meters and feet in the design specs. In 1984, a suspiciously similar mistake occurred in the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. In the film, the fictional rock band decides to create a replica of the prehistoric monument for their own song “Stonehenge,” only the prop ends up being comically small. It has widely been speculated that the joke was inspired by the Black Sabbath mishap, yet it’s possible it was just an unlikely coincidence. This Is Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner maintains that the movie’s production timeline would have made a Black Sabbath mockery impossible; according to some reports, Reiner filmed a 20-minute demo reel in 1982 that included early versions of the Stonehenge scenes, a year before Black Sabbath’s tour.

LBJ would prank guests at his ranch by driving his car into the lake.

  • Lyndon B. Johnson in his Amphicarx
Lyndon B. Johnson in his Amphicarx
Credit: Everett Collection Inc/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Michael Nordine
March 27, 2025

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Not many people were lucky enough to own an Amphicar, the only mass-produced civilian amphibious vehicle, but at least one of them put theirs to good use. Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, used his Lagoon Blue model to prank unsuspecting guests at his ranch in Stonewall, Texas, by driving it into the lake without warning. On land, the Amphicar looked like any other car; once in the water, propellers turned it into a boat.

One victim of the prank, Joseph A. Califano Jr., served as LBJ’s special assistant for domestic affairs at the time. As the car began rolling down an incline at the lake’s edge with Califano in it, he recalled the president shouting, “The brakes don’t work! The brakes won’t hold! We’re going in! We’re going under!” It took him a few moments to realize he was safe, but LBJ teased him for his reaction later: “Did you see what Joe did? He didn’t give a damn about his president. He just wanted to save his own skin and get out of the car.” Good thing Califano wasn’t in the Secret Service.

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LBJ won his Senate primary by just 87 votes.

The future president had represented Texas’ 10th congressional district for 12 years by the time he decided to take a second go at the upper chamber, having lost a 1941 election to fellow Democrat Pappy O’Daniel by 0.23%. His next Senate race was even closer. His opponent for the Democratic nomination in 1948 was Coke Stevenson, who had just finished six years as governor of the Lone Star State. 

The initial tally was 477,077 votes (39.68%) for Stevenson and 405,617 (33.73%) for Johnson. Because neither candidate reached 50%, it went to a runoff. This was the real nail-biter, as Johnson emerged victorious with 494,191 votes (50.004%) to Stevenson’s 494,104 (49.996%) — a difference of just 87 ballots. The controversial bout was rife with claims of voter fraud from both camps, with LBJ earning a tongue-in-cheek nickname in the process: Landslide Lyndon. He lived up to it in the Senate general election though, winning 66% of the vote and holding the office until becoming vice president in 1961.

The ancient Egyptians were the first to divide the day into 24 parts.

  • Hipparchus
Hipparchus
Chronicle/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Mark Dolan
December 20, 2023

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Ever wondered why there are 24 hours in a day? We have the ancient Egyptians to thank, at least in part. The basis for our modern calendar dates back to the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, around 1550 BCE to 1069 BCE. During this era — about a thousand years after the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza — the Egyptians became the first civilization to divide the day into 24 smaller parts — though with a couple of key differences to how we do it today. 

For starters, the ancient timekeeping system tracked daytime and nighttime separately, with each divided into 12 parts. Also, these parts — which were measured in various ways, including sundials and water clocks — were not hours as we think of them today. Known as temporal hours or daylight hours, their length changed with the total amount of daylight at different times of year: For instance, the daytime hours would be longer in the summer than in the winter. So why 12? There are a couple of theories. Ancient astronomical tables suggest that nighttime was divided into 12 hours based on how the stars moved across the sky over time, as well as the cycles of the moon. It’s also possible these Egyptian timekeepers were following the duodecimal system, which is based on the easily divisible number 12, and was used in many ancient cultures. 

It wasn’t until the second century BCE that the idea emerged to break the day into 24 parts of equal length, a concept first introduced by the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus. The 24-hour day became the standard for tracking time throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, and remains so to this day.

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The term “o’clock” originated to differentiate between sundials and mechanical clocks.

Mechanical clocks were invented in Germany in the early 14th century. As they increased in popularity throughout Europe, people began to replace previous forms of timekeeping that relied on tracking the sun, such as sundials. Before long, a term originated in the English language to distinguish between these different ways of telling time. People would say it was, for example, four “of the clock” when referring to a mechanical timepiece. This eventually became shortened to just “four o’clock.” According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of the term “o’clock” dates back to 1535. 

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