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More than 60 nations signed a pact to outlaw war after WWI. 

Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
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Author Rachel Gresh
January 24, 2024

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International relations changed dramatically after World War I. Public opinion swayed heavily against war, and peacekeeping measures were at the top of political agendas. One of the most ambitious attempts at deterring future conflict was signed on August 27, 1928: the Kellogg-Briand Pact. It outlawed war between the nations that signed, including France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India. 

The pact was named after U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French Minister of Foreign Affairs Aristide Briand, who spearheaded the act. Briand had proposed a bilateral agreement between France and the U.S. to deter aggression (especially from Germany), but eventually other countries were invited to join the alliance. The response was overwhelming. The world was eager to maintain peace, and the pact was signed by 15 nations initially, followed by 47 additional countries in the following years. Signatories of the “Paris Pact” (the act’s nickname) were to renounce war as a national policy and settle disputes by peaceful means. While acts of aggression were outlawed, self-defense was permitted, which led to the pact’s eventual downfall. What’s more, there weren’t any real legal consequences for violations, and nations soon began justifying international aggression as self-defense, and without any repercussions, beginning with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, China, in 1931. Although the pact failed to prevent World War II, it remains in effect today, and its goals are still relevant. In 1945, following the end of the war, key ideas such as renouncing the use of war and promoting peaceful solutions were incorporated into the United Nations Charter, which was signed by many of the same signatories as the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

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Napoleon Bonaparte and Tsar Alexander I signed a peace treaty on a river raft.

A 19th-century print titled “Entrevue des Deux Empereurs” (“Meeting of the Two Emperors”) portrays Russian Tsar Alexander I and French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte embracing each other on an elaborate raft. But this was no leisurely day of sailing — it was a pivotal meeting to sign the first Treaty of Tilsit, officially ending the war between Russia and France and forming an alliance between the two powers. It was signed on July 7, 1807, in Tilsit (present-day Sovetsk in Russia’s Kaliningrad oblast), following France’s victory over Russia at the Battle of Friedland. At the time, signing treaties along neutral borders was commonplace, so the leaders chose the Neman River, which forms the border between Kaliningrad oblast (then part of Prussia) and Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire). As seen in various artworks depicting the occasion, the leaders met in an ornate tent perched atop a wooden river raft, with advisers anchored around them in boats. The second Treaty of Tilsit, which included King Frederick William III of Prussia, was signed two days later — he wasn’t invited on the raft for the first signing.

Hans Christian Andersen ruined his friendship with Charles Dickens.

Hans Christian Andersen
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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
January 22, 2024

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Famed British novelist Charles Dickens and Danish fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen (known for The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid) could have been lifelong friends. They met in 1847 at a swanky party; Andersen told Dickens he was “the greatest writer of our time,” and Dickens, in turn, sent Andersen several books he signed as “his friend and admirer.” The pair were close pen pals for the next decade, but their relationship quickly went south in 1857, when Andersen visited Dickens for what was supposed to be two weeks, but stretched on for five.

Dickens later wrote in a letter to his friend William Jerdan — one of multiple letters to multiple people about the visit — that “whenever [Andersen] got to London, he got into wild entanglements of cabs and sherry, and never seemed to get out of them again until he came back here, and cut out paper into all sorts of patterns and gathered the strangest little nosegays in the woods.”

While Andersen, who was notoriously difficult to be around, remembers the visit fondly, for the Dickens family it was both peculiar and exhausting. Andersen was moody, anxious, and sensitive to rejection. Dickens’ daughter Katey called Andersen a “bony bore,” and one morning, Dickens’ wife Catherine found the visitor face down on the lawn, crying and clutching a bad review of his most recent book. After Andersen’s departure, Dickens left a note on the mirror in the guest room: “Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks — which seemed to the family AGES.” In the following years, Andersen continued to write letters to Dickens, but Dickens stopped responding.

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Hans Christian Andersen always traveled with an escape rope.

Despite frequent journeys all over the world, Hans Christian Andersen was an anxious traveler. He was scared of dying in a hotel fire, so he always packed a long rope in his luggage as a precaution. This wasn’t his only unusual phobia — the Danish author was so scared of being accidentally buried alive that he would sometimes place a note on his bedside table with the words, “I’m not really dead.”

The creator of Fabergé eggs made a Fabergé potato.

Mosaic Fabergé egg
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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
January 22, 2024

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Even if you don’t know the name of Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé, you’re probably familiar with his Fabergé eggs, most of which were made for the Romanov family in their last few decades as Russian rulers. Like most things associated with the Romanovs, these Easter eggs were over-the-top opulent, finely crafted with intricate diamond patterns, hidden treasures, and elaborate bases. One single egg is worth around $33 million today.

Fabergé didn’t just make eggs, however. His other designs, including fruits and flowers in tiny crystal vases, also fetch a high price. But among all his dainty, ornate work, one unexpected subject stands out: a potato, just under 4 inches long, in a realistic, irregular shape. Crafted around 1890, the Fabergé potato is a polished box carved from pink agate, decorated with a gold-mounted lid and a fleur-de-lis clasp. It’s one of his lesser-known works, but it bears the mark of the Russian jeweler Michael Perkhin, the master goldsmith Fabergé used to create his eggs at the time. Anything that’s a Fabergé is extremely valuable, whether it’s an enameled egg with a tiny, perfect gold replica of a palace inside, or a humble spud. Indeed, the potato box was sold by the auction house Christie’s for $93,750 in 2016.

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The accent on the end of Fabergé was made up.

When Peter Carl Fabergé’s father Gustav founded the family’s jewelry firm, his name was actually Gustav Faberge — without the accent. Gustav changed it around 1842, when he finished his goldsmithing apprenticeship in St. Petersburg, Russia. One theory is that the accent was added to make the name sound more French, making his jewelry a little more appealing. In his defense, the Faberge family did actually come from France, where their last name was originally Favri. They fled the country in the 17th century, and over the next several generations the name morphed into Faberge.

Memorial Day was originally called “Decoration Day.”

Decoration Day in Philadelphia, 1876
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Author Nicole Villeneuve
May 15, 2024

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As the American Civil War came to an end in 1865, communities across the U.S. honored fallen soldiers through local ceremonies at burial sites. On May 30, 1868, the first national ceremony of this kind took place on a day that would come to be known as Memorial Day — though at the time, it was called “Decoration Day.”

A few weeks before the ceremony, John Logan, head of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veterans organization, issued a proclamation urging Americans to decorate Civil War soldiers’ graves with springtime’s “choicest” blooms. Logan stated that the May 30 commemoration would be “designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.” About 5,000 people gathered at Arlington National Cemetery for the first official Decoration Day observance. Along with flowers, each grave was adorned with a small American flag.

By the end of the 19th century, Decoration Day ceremonies were taking place on May 30 throughout the country. The name had started to evolve by this time, too; people began using the term “Memorial Day” instead. That moniker, however, didn’t become common until after World War II, and Congress didn’t make the name change official until 1967. A year later, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, declaring that certain federal holidays would be observed on Mondays, including Memorial Day, which was to be commemorated annually on the last Monday in May. Today, the holiday honors all Americans who have died in military service.

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It’s legally required to observe a National Moment of Remembrance on Memorial Day.

Despite Memorial Day’s origins as a time to honor fallen Civil War soldiers, it has largely become an unofficial kickoff to the summer season. What barbeque lovers and beach trippers might not know, however, is that the holiday also comes with a law requiring a National Moment of Remembrance. This solemn reminder was said to be inspired by a group of children. While touring Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., in 1996, the children were asked what Memorial Day meant to them. Their answer? “The day the pools open!” The National Moment of Remembrance law was passed in 2000, and encourages all Americans to pause for one minute at 3 p.m. local time to think about the sacrifices of fallen military personnel. 

The term “brunch” first appeared in 1895.

Family enjoying brunch, circa 1800s
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Author Anne T. Donahue
January 24, 2024

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When British author Guy Beringer coined the word “brunch” in 1895, weekend dining was changed forever. In an essay for Hunter’s Weekly titled “Brunch: A Plea,” Beringer introduced the concept of a breakfast-lunch hybrid, suggesting that readers forfeit their heavy Sunday meals in favor of something lighter, served earlier in the day. The United States soon followed suit; in 1896, The New Oxford, a Pennsylvania newspaper, described the latest dining “fad” in which guests ate after 11 a.m. Initially considered an upper-class experience, brunch was largely reserved for households that had the time and resources to host guests for a leisurely midday meal.

Hollywood helped bring brunch to the mainstream in the 1930s. Movie stars taking transcontinental train trips frequently stopped in Chicago for a late-Sunday-morning bite, and hotels were happy to accommodate. Restaurants soon followed, and by 1939, The New York Times declared Sunday a “two-meal day.” The American public gladly obliged, and not only for their chance to socialize outside a church setting. While Beringer had originally advised diners to substitute tea and coffee for whiskey and beer with the meal, by the middle of the 20th century the brunch crowd was sipping on signature cocktails such as bloody marys and mimosas.

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A New York alcohol ban helped create the boozy brunch trend.

Brunch often goes hand-in-hand with drinking, but ironically, the meal’s abundance of booze can be traced back to a New York law meant to curb the consumption of alcohol. The Raines Law, passed in 1896, prohibited the sale of liquor on Sundays, but hotels were exempt if the drinks they were serving accompanied a meal. Enter: Sunday brunch. Since the Raines Law explicitly stated that lodging houses with 10 rooms or more could serve booze with meals, weekend brunch offered hotels a loophole to get around the ban. Fruity cocktails such as bloody marys, mimosas, and Bellinis became the popular drinks of choice for the late-morning meal, as the juice mixers made daytime drinking more socially acceptable. 

Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman both served as postmasters.

Abraham Lincoln as postmaster
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Author Timothy Ott
May 15, 2025

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Abraham Lincoln and Harry S. Truman are presidents of different eras and renown, but they nevertheless share the distinction of being the only two commanders in chief to have served as a town postmaster.

For the 24-year-old Lincoln, the 1833 appointment to postmaster for New Salem, Illinois, supplied a steady pay amid uncertain times, as well as perks that included a free daily newspaper. Lincoln had already failed in a bid for a seat in the state Legislature, and the postmaster job provided an opportunity for him to develop his connections around town by way of personal delivery service, the mail usually carried in his hat. 

The job also led to an event that burnished his reputation as a man of unflagging integrity. After the New Salem post office closed in 1836, Lincoln found himself in the care of some $16 to $18 in leftover funds. When a post office agent dropped by a few months later to collect the balance, Honest Abe produced the exact coin pieces from a sock, having refused to touch the money since it fell under his watch.

Unlike Lincoln, Truman never actually undertook the responsibilities of postmaster, although his connection to the role also reflected favorably on his character. Appointed to the position for Grandview, Missouri, in December 1914, Truman immediately passed along the day-to-day tasks — and the paycheck — to a widow who needed the money to support her family. Although he owned a farm and held another job with the town, the not-yet-wealthy future president certainly missed the postmaster salary of approximately $50 per month, noting in his autobiography that it “would have paid two farmhands.”

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Abraham Lincoln also worked as a bartender (of sorts).

Immediately prior to his three-year gig as postmaster, Lincoln joined forces with his former Illinois militia companion William F. Berry to open a general store in New Salem. Such establishments could sell liquor to consume on the premises with a proper license, and Lincoln served food and booze for a few weeks before reportedly tiring of his partner's heavy-drinking ways. Although some sources gleefully name Lincoln as the only licensed bartender to become president, this claim isn't entirely accurate; the store wasn't a "bar" in the modern sense of the term, and the tavern license was only in Berry's name. That said, Lincoln certainly did dole out drinks for paying customers like a frontier version of Sam Malone from Cheers, marking a distinct chapter in his unique rise to the nation's highest office.

The world’s oldest computer is more than 2,000 years old. 

The Antikythera mechanism
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Author Bess Lovejoy
May 15, 2025

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When it was unearthed in 1900 among the ruins of an ancient Greco-Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, the instrument now known as the Antikythera mechanism was more or less ignored. The sponge divers who brought the corroded bronze lump to the surface had no idea they had just recovered an ancient marvel now considered the world’s oldest analog computer, dating back to around 100 BCE. Indeed, they were more interested in the bronze and marble sculptures, coins, and other treasures scattered around the shipwreck. The Antikythera mechanism even broke apart (perhaps because of exposure to the air) a few months later at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, but it still took more than half a century before its remnants received sustained scholarly attention. 

In 1976, Derek J. de Solla Price, a Yale professor of history of science, published “Gears From the Greeks,” an academic text on the Antikythera mechanism based on more than 20 years of research. Price argued that the fragments of corroded bronze had once been a “calendar computer,” and explained how their complex system of gears and dials had been used to calculate the positions of the sun, moon, and planets at any day in time, past or future. The mechanism was also able to track the Egyptian and Corinthian calendars and the Olympiad cycle, calculate eclipses, and more, although some of its functions remain mysterious.

Of course, this wasn’t a computer in the digital, electronic sense; the gears were cranked by hand, and the whole thing was housed in a wooden case about the size of a mantel clock. However, the Antikythera mechanism is often referred to as an analog computer, or an extraordinarily sophisticated calculator. It was called the “most complex scientific instrument from the ancient world” by historian Alexander Jones, and nothing like it appears in the historical record for another thousand years. While scholars still debate some of its intricacies, its existence shows that ancient technology can be leaps and bounds beyond what we once imagined. 

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The Antikythera mechanism was recovered during the first major underwater archaeological dig.

In the spring of 1900, a group of Greek sponge divers returning from an expedition off North Africa took shelter from a storm near the island of Antikythera. When the sea calmed, diver Elias Stadiatis descended in search of clams, but instead discovered an ancient shipwreck. He returned to the surface shaken, describing what looked like naked bodies — broken marble statues scattered across the seabed. That autumn, the divers returned under the direction of the Greek government, working with a University of Athens professor and a Greek navy ship. Over the course of 10 months, despite dangerous conditions, they recovered dozens of marble and bronze sculptures, coins, glassware, and most remarkably, the Antikythera mechanism. The dive was the first major underwater archaeological excavation in history, but it was not without cost: One diver died and two were permanently injured due to the extreme depths and lack of modern equipment. Because of the difficult conditions, the site remained largely untouched until oceanographer Jacques Cousteau revisited it in 1953 and again in 1976, recovering hundreds more artifacts and human remains. Since 2014, the Return to Antikythera archaeological project has continued exploring the wreck, uncovering new treasures including weapons, equipment, and a large marble head of a bearded male figure thought to be part of a statue of Hercules.

A baboon worked for a railroad company.

Rail signal man and baboon
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Author Bennett Kleinman
January 22, 2024

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In 1881, a South African railroad employee named James Wide purchased a baboon named Jack whom he trained to become his assistant. Four years earlier, Wide had suffered a terrible accident in which he lost both his legs, and he was struggling to perform at work. He discovered Jack at a local market, where the baboon was leading an oxcart. Wide was so impressed with the animal’s abilities that he purchased the creature and deputized Jack as an employee at the Port Elizabeth Railway Station.

At first, Wide enlisted Jack’s help by training him to push a trolley during the morning commute. But Jack really thrived as a signalman, and he was later taught how to operate the station switchboard. After watching Wide, Jack learned how to throw switches and change tracks, and his work was so impeccable that he never experienced a single incident over the course of nine years. Eventually, Jack could perform the duties without Wide’s supervision, and passing conductors had no idea that a baboon was operating the system until they saw it with their own eyes.

Before long, word of Jack’s “employment” reached authorities, who decided to give the creature a competency test. To their amazement, Jack passed with flying colors, saving both his and his owner’s jobs. Jack was given an official employment number and paid 20 cents a day plus half a bottle of beer each week. Jack continued working for the railroad company until his death in 1890.

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A rhinoceros won more than 100,000 votes for city council in São Paulo.

In October 1959, the residents of São Paulo, Brazil, expressed their dissatisfaction with the local government by voting en masse for a rhinoceros for city council. The townsfolk were furious about São Paulo’s deteriorating infrastructure, and rather than vote for any of the 540 official candidates, they decided to stage a protest vote. A group of students printed out 200,000 ballots featuring the name of a 5-year-old rhino, Cacareco (meaning “rubbish”), who lived at the local zoo. The ballots were cast, and Cacareco received more than 100,000 votes, earning a spot on city council. Officials refused to acknowledge Cacareco’s election, however, and nullified the results before calling for a new election. Though the animal never held office, the phrase “Voto Cacareco” (“Vote Cacareco”) remains a popular protest slogan in São Paulo today.

FDR was related to 11 other presidents.

Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, 1905
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Author Michael Nordine
May 8, 2025

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At least two of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s family ties are well known: The nation’s 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, was his fifth cousin, and he married his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt. But FDR was related to 10 other presidents, five by blood and six by marriage: John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, and William Howard Taft. 

Other presidents who were distant relations of one another include Abraham Lincoln and George W. Bush (seventh cousins four times removed) and George Washington and Jimmy Carter (ninth cousins six times removed).

Despite his famous family, FDR himself was an only child. He and Eleanor did have six children, however, two of whom entered politics. James Roosevelt represented California’s 26th district in the House of Representatives from 1955 to 1965, while Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. represented New York’s 20th district from 1949 to 1955 and was the under secretary of commerce under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, from 1963 to 1965.

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FDR unsuccessfully ran for vice president.

A dozen years before winning the highest office in the land, FDR was on the losing end of a presidential election. Ohio Governor James M. Cox chose Roosevelt, who at the time was serving as assistant secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson, as his running mate in 1920. It wasn’t meant to be, however, as Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge won in a landslide: 404 electoral votes to Cox’s 127, carrying 37 of 48 states and winning 60% of the popular vote. Coolidge became president when Harding died in office three years later, and FDR went on to win four consecutive elections at the top of the ticket, beginning with the 1932 presidential election.

A giant wave of beer once flooded London.

Horseshoe Brewery, London
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Author Nicole Villeneuve
January 18, 2024

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London was once a prominent beer-brewing city; in the 1850s, the U.K. capital was home to the largest brewery in the world. London’s beer business was robust in the 19th century — and it was also the source of an industrial accident that sent thousands of gallons of beer flooding the streets. It happened at the Horse Shoe Brewery, located at the corner of Great Russell Street and Tottenham Court. On the afternoon of Monday, October 17, 1814, one of the large iron rings used to hold together the brewery’s wooden fermentation tanks broke. The vat was massive: It stood about 22 feet high, and held roughly the equivalent of more than 3,500 standard barrels of the company’s porter beer. Within an hour, the damaged tank burst, sending a gush of beer that broke through a wall and caused several more of the tanks on the premises to split open. 

More than 380,000 gallons of beer then rushed through the streets of St. Giles, a densely populated, poverty-stricken London neighborhood. The wave reached up to 15 feet high, and came crashing into nearby homes and businesses. Although everyone at the brewery survived, the London Beer Flood claimed the lives of eight people in the neighborhood. In the aftermath, the media reported a respectful atmosphere as St. Giles residents reckoned with the tragedy; stories about locals scooping up as much beer as they could drink also emerged, although historians now dispute the likelihood of these reports. A hearing ultimately found that the brewery was not responsible, dubbing the incident an act of God.

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London brewers once took water from the Thames to make beer.

The River Thames has long been a significant water source for London industry, supporting everything from electricity to freight, and even beer. In the 18th century, most of London’s breweries were located along the Thames, where they could more easily receive raw materials such as grain and coal used in the brewing process. It was also the most convenient way to get the large quantities of water needed to make beer. By the late 1780s, increased industrialization led to concerns of contamination in the river, so brewers dug wells nearby to filter the river water, fitting them with pipes that ran about 3 feet underground. Pollution, however, continued to plague the Thames: In the summer of 1858, levels of human and industrial waste were so high that odors blanketed the city, a time known as the Great Stink. By this time, London and its beer industry no longer bootstrapped their beer water, relying instead on a clean, centralized water supply. Today, the Thames benefits from modern water treatment and is even considered one of the cleanest city rivers in the world.

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