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President Andrew Jackson was involved in as many as 100 duels.

  • Andrew Jackson in a duel
Andrew Jackson in a duel
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Author Michael Nordine

October 9, 2023

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The seventh President of the United States was known to be as thin-skinned as he was quick-tempered. This dangerous combination resulted in Andrew Jackson challenging many a foe to a duel — as many as 100, by some counts. Most of these confrontations involved little more than the combatants firing their guns into the air as a show of courage for not rejecting the initial challenge, but at least one turned deadly. It began when fellow horse breeder and longtime rival Charles Dickinson leveled a series of insults at Jackson (calling him a “worthless scoundrel” and referring to his wife as a bigamist, among other things), which escalated into a feud that ended with Dickinson’s death on May 30, 1806. Jackson barely escaped with his own life, as Dickinson fired upon him and hit the future President near his heart. The bullet was never removed, and Jackson carried it with him for the rest of his life. 

Though Jackson participated in more duels than most, the practice was fairly commonplace at the time. Aaron Burr famously killed his personal and political rival Alexander Hamilton in one on July 11, 1804, at which time Burr was serving as Thomas Jefferson’s Vice President. Unlike Jackson, however, Burr was vilified for his actions — Hamilton was a founding father, after all — and Burr never held elected office again after his term ended.

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Andrew Jackson lost a presidential election despite winning the most votes.

The presidential election of 1824 was hotly contested, with four different candidates receiving a substantial number of electoral votes: Jackson (99), John Quincy Adams (84), William H. Crawford (41), and Henry Clay (37). All four belonged to the Democratic-Republican Party, which was part of the problem: After winning six consecutive elections during the Era of Good Feelings — a time of economic prosperity in the new nation — the party failed to rally around one candidate. Jackson won more popular votes and electoral votes than his trio of opponents, but failed to secure a majority. This sent the election to the House of Representatives, as dictated by the 12th Amendment, with Adams emerging victorious. It wasn’t without controversy, however. Jackson accused Adams of striking a “corrupt bargain” with Clay (in which Clay used his influence as speaker of the House to swing the vote for Adams in exchange for the coveted secretary of state position) and used the accusation as a major part of his successful 1828 campaign.

Victorian bakers added a toxic ingredient to make bread whiter.

  • Loaf of bread in Victorian kitchen
Loaf of bread in Victorian kitchen
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Author Nicole Villeneuve

October 24, 2024

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In Victorian-era England, as in most of human history, bread was a dietary staple, and white bread, which was seen as containing fewer impurities and was associated with the upper class, was increasingly in vogue. Indeed white bread was so desirable that some British bakers resorted to using questionable ingredients to bleach their loaves. One such ingredient was alum, an aluminum-derived chemical compound that is toxic when consumed. It made bread not only whiter, but also heavier, allowing bakers to charge more for their wares and supplement flour doing food shortages. Alum was also cheaper than flour, meaning bakers could pocket more profits — but unfortunately, all this came at the expense of public health. 

Alum, when consumed regularly, caused digestive issues and diarrhea, the latter of which could be fatal to young children at the time. In the mid-1850s, prominent English physician John Snow proposed a connection between Brits’ poor health — notably the widespread prevalence of rickets, a bone-softening disorder — and the alum-filled bread they were consuming, a theory that came to be viewed in scientifically favorable light in the decades that followed. 

Without widespread awareness of these health issues, however, food adulteration — adding cheap ingredients to keep costs down and production up — persisted throughout much of the 19th century; plaster of paris and chalk were also commonly added to bread. Regulations such as Britain’s 1860 Adulteration of Food and Drugs Act sought to curb the use of harmful additives in food, but were not mandatory nor strictly enforced. A revision in 1875 was taken more seriously, and remained in effect for some 60 years until updated government public health guidelines and food safety laws came into place.

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Victorians’ favorite shade of green was poisonous.

Scheele’s green, named for the chemist who originally invented it in 1775, was a bright, rich color similar to emerald that was hugely popular in 19th-century England. It also happened to contain arsenic. Despite its toxicity being known by the inventor and some experts, the pigment was used in the production of clothing, wallpaper, and even children’s toys. Contact with arsenic-laced clothing or other household items often resulted in rashes or sores; some people suffered fatal respiratory issues. Factory workers who produced goods with the pigment had it even worse: Matilda Scheurer, a 19-year-old worker who made artificial flowers, died from the exposure, but not before the whites of her eyes turned green. Regulations around tracking and disclosing arsenic use went into effect in the U.K. in 1851, and by the end of the 19th century, manufacturers of various goods had all but replaced the toxin with safer ingredients.

Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” after being challenged by Lord Byron.

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Mary Shelley's novel
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Author Bennett Kleinman

August 29, 2023

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Mary Shelley’s Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein is one of the horror genre’s most formative works, but it may have never existed if not for a playful challenge. In 1816, Shelley — who was then unmarried and known by the surname Godwin — vacationed at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. She was accompanied by her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, her stepsister Claire Clairmont, English poet Lord Byron, and Byron’s physician John William Polidori. Weather conditions were abnormally unpleasant at the time due to the lingering effects of the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora the previous year, forcing the group to largely remain indoors. Amid the dark and frigid evenings of that “Year Without a Summer,” the weary vacationers read and debated literary works late into the night, most notably horror stories and macabre poems that seemed appropriate given the gloomy weather outside.

As the days progressed, Lord Byron issued a challenge to those in attendance to write a scarier, more compelling horror story than the ones they’d been reading. Polidori eagerly and immediately complied, later publishing his novella The Vampyre in 1819, but Shelley struggled to find inspiration at first. That all changed after a ghoulish visage came to her one stormy night, which the author recounted in an 1831 preface to Frankenstein, writing, “I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion.” Shelley began work on what became her magnum opus, and effectively “won” Lord Byron’s challenge with the publication of the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus.

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Thomas Edison produced the first "Frankenstein" movie.

Though 1931’s Frankenstein had a more indelible impact on pop culture, Mary Shelley’s work of horror was first adapted into moving-picture form by Thomas Edison in 1910. The film, totaling around 11 minutes in length at modern projection speed, was produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company, which brought on pioneering filmmaker J. Searle Dawley to write and direct the movie. Narratively, the short opens with Frankenstein departing for college, where he creates a monster after discovering the mystery of life. However, the scientist regrets his experiments, and is confronted by his evil creature at home later in the film. Despite Shelley’s Gothic literary vision, Dawley was advised to focus more on the story’s mystical elements than its horrific components, as Edison was a member of the prudish National Board of Censorship at the time. This early adaptation of Frankenstein was considered a lost relic for decades, until a Wisconsin man named Al Dettlaff produced a copy from his private collection in 1980.

French aristocrats wore a version of pimple stickers.

  • 18th-century cosmetic patches
18th-century cosmetic patches
Credit: Wellcome Library, London/ CC-BY-4.0
Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

October 17, 2024

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We are, perhaps, currently in the cutest era of acne treatment. Rather than attempting to hide a pimple, many people are leaning into the imperfection by using fun, colorful hydrocolloid stickers that both cover and treat the blemish. While this trend emerged in the last decade or so, it’s not the first time cute acne accessories have been in vogue — not by a long shot.

Decorative blemish covers called mouches were all the rage in France at the end of the 16th century. Cute little shapes such as hearts, crescent moons, and diamonds were cut from silk, taffeta, velvet, or satin, and often backed with adhesive before sale. But it wasn’t just acne that these early users were worried about: Smallpox and syphilis were abundant, and both left serious scarring behind.

The bold patches went well with the ostentatious makeup popular among the French aristocracy at the time, including white hair powder, white face paint, and dramatic rouge. Just as today’s adorable pimple patches are sometimes worn just for fun, mouches started appearing on unblemished skin — and sometimes in meaningful locations. Wearing one on the right cheek, for example, would communicate that you were married, while the left cheek meant engaged. Mouches weren’t the first complexion stickers, either. Ancient Romans would stick small leather dots called splenia or alutae to their faces to cover blemishes — and, as with the patches of Renaissance-era France and today, people eventually started wearing them for fun.

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Whole pigeons were used in Renaissance beauty treatments.

Beauty rituals in the 16th century were not for the faint of heart: Bloodletting, lead-based paint, and even urine were all part of the cosmetic arsenal. One of the stranger recipes to emerge from the era is a lotion made from whole pigeons, published in 1540. It called for two plucked pigeons stuffed with Venice turpentine, lilies, eggs, honey, periwinkles, pearls, and camphor, cooked in a glass vial. The liquid from the pigeon vial was infused with musk and ambergris — it probably didn’t smell very good — silver, and more pearls. Similar recipes for “pigeon water” appeared throughout the 17th century and, occasionally, beyond. One variation published in 1832 calls for, among other things, eight pigeons, crumbs from French rolls, and white wine, left to stew for 17 to 18 days.

Icelandic television was not broadcast on Thursdays until 1987.

  • RUV TV Iceland Studio
RUV TV Iceland Studio
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Author Nicole Villeneuve

October 9, 2023

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The history of Iceland’s national public broadcaster, RÚV, dates back to 1930, when it started as a radio service. Almost 40 years passed before RÚV launched a television channel in 1966, and even then, it wasn’t until 1987 that Icelanders could watch TV every day of the week.

Until RÚV went on the air, Icelanders’ only way of watching TV was to intercept the signal of the English-language station intended for soldiers at the U.S. Army base in Keflavík. Some Icelanders, including famed nationalistic writer Halldór Laxness, were concerned about the U.S. program’s influence on their country’s culture, especially without a local alternative. When RÚV was launched, the station was only on the air two nights a week. Eventually, it worked up to a near-daily schedule, broadcasting just a few hours each day, but remained off-air on Thursdays. It’s widely believed this was an attempt to encourage residents to venture outdoors and socialize, but some locals remember it as a dedicated day off for the station’s small crew (who also got the entire month of July off until 1983).

After facing mounting competition from private channels, including Channel 2, which began broadcasting in Iceland in 1986, RÚV finally started airing every day of the week. The first time it broadcast on a Thursday was in October 1986, when Reykjavík hosted a summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan arrived on a Thursday and RÚV covered it live.

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A perfectly preserved Big Mac from 2009 is on display in Iceland.

In 2008, high import tariffs and taxes in Iceland caused the only McDonald’s in the country to close down. On the last day of service, in 2009, a man named Hjörtur Smárason went for one last meal, picking up a Big Mac and fries. The order sat forgotten in his garage until he was packing to move in 2012 and found the bag with his order still inside — looking exactly as it did the day he bought it three years earlier. Smárason first took the “artifact” to the National Museum of Iceland; a year later, the burger and fries were moved to the Bus Hostel in Reykjavík, where they stayed on display for years. Now, the still-preserved meal is showcased at the Snotra House hostel. In 2020, responding to various instances of McDonald’s burgers not decomposing, the company released a statement claiming its burgers contain no preservatives and might not decompose due to a lack of moisture in some environments, but will certainly dry out. 

The entire Australian government was dissolved in 1975.

  • Coat of Arms of Australia
Coat of Arms of Australia
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Author Bennett Kleinman

October 2, 2023

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While the majority of government shutdowns are averted with budget compromises, that wasn’t the case during the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975. On November 11, Governor-General Sir John Kerr — Queen Elizabeth’s representative in the Australian government — formally dismissed the country’s prime minister, Gough Whitlam, a member of the Labor Party who failed to broker a bipartisan spending bill. Whitlam’s firing came at 1:15 p.m., and 15 minutes later, Kerr appointed Liberal Party leader Malcolm Fraser, a member of the opposition, as the new prime minister. The Liberal-controlled Senate then pushed through a spending bill, though the Labor-controlled House revolted against Fraser with a vote of no confidence. All the bickering came to a head at 4:50 p.m., when Kerr, at the request of Fraser, dissolved the entire Australian Parliament. This forced Australia to hold new elections a month later that were ultimately swept by Fraser and the Liberals.

Queen Elizabeth II’s involvement in this debacle remained ambiguous until 2020, when a series of letters between Kerr and Buckingham Palace were released. Although she technically served as Australia’s head of state, the queen’s role in the country’s affairs was largely symbolic. Even still, Kerr consulted with Buckingham Palace over his theoretical right to dissolve Parliament on the monarchy’s behalf. Letters between Kerr and Martin Charteris — the queen’s private secretary — implied that Kerr would be within his power if he chose to act, but also concluded it was “better for Her Majesty not to know.” Around that time, Kerr also communicated with Prince Charles regarding concerns over the Australian prime minister, asking the prince to relay the message to the queen.

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Queen Elizabeth II first appeared on currency as an 8-year-old princess.

Long before Queen Elizabeth II appeared on English currency, she made her monetary debut in 1935 by gracing the front of Canada’s $20 note. Canada was under British dominion, with Elizabeth’s grandfather, George V, serving as reigning monarch. That year was the first that the Bank of Canada began producing banknotes, including one featuring the likeness of the 8-year-old Princess Elizabeth. By 1953, Queen Elizabeth II appeared on all newly minted coinage in both Canada and the United Kingdom, in the form of a portrait created by artist Mary Gillick. Over the years, the portrait was updated to reflect the queen’s age, culminating with an image depicting a 90-year-old Elizabeth that appeared on a 2-pound coin issued for the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands in 2017. All told, Queen Elizabeth II appeared on the currencies of no fewer than 33 countries before her death in 2022.

Bubble gum is pink because it was the only dye the inventor had on hand.

  • “1928 Original” Dubble Bubble gum
"1928 Original" Dubble Bubble gum
Credit: Felix Choo/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Nicole Villeneuve

October 17, 2024

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It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention, and when it comes to confectionery, it is indeed the reason for bubble gum’s iconic color. Bubble gum was invented in 1928 by Walter Diemer, an accountant at a Philadelphia candy company called Fleer. Although chewing gum had existed for thousands of years in various forms — such as birch bark resin or chicle, a natural gum from the sap of the sapodilla tree — the products available in the U.S. at the time were more sticky than stretchy. That included an early version of bubble gum (also invented by Fleer) known as Blibber-Blubber, which was hard to chew and stubbornly stuck to people’s faces when the meager bubble inevitably burst.

Diemer spent his downtime experimenting with the company’s gum recipes, and he eventually came up with a more pliable chewing gum that, for the first time, could easily form and hold a bubble. The new formulation was appealing, but its appearance certainly wasn’t — the chewy gray substance needed some color. The only dye Diemer had on hand at the time was red; with no other choice, he added it to his mixture to give it a cheerful tint, and the first batch of pink bubble gum was born. Fleer demonstrated the new bubble gum at a local grocery store and had an immediate hit on its hands. The gum was named Dubble Bubble and inspired a slew of pink copycats — including the famous Bazooka Bubble Gum released just after World War II. 

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Gum doesn’t actually take seven years to digest.

Gum is many things, including chewy, flavorful, and sticky. It’s possible that last attribute led to the long-standing myth that gum will stay in your body for seven years if you swallow it, but that myth is not actually true. Most gums contain a base, softeners, preservatives, and sweeteners or other flavors. While most of these ingredients are easily broken down by our digestive enzymes, the gum base is not — not unlike fiber, corn kernels, and some seeds that can’t be digested by the body. But if you swallow a piece of gum, it isn’t going to stick around — it’ll simply travel the same path as other foods and pass out of the body, typically within 24 to 48 hours. 

Woolly mammoths still roamed the Earth when the Egyptian pyramids were being built.

  • Herd of woolly mammoths
Herd of woolly mammoths
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Author Michael Nordine

October 2, 2023

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Woolly mammoths roamed the Earth for at least half a million years, coexisting with humans for millennia before finally going extinct some 4,000 years ago. That’s a long time, but it’s not that long in the grand scheme of things. For perspective, consider the fact that woolly mammoths were still alive when the pyramids of Egypt were being built. That speaks to both how long one of history’s most famous empires lasted — Egypt existed for more than 3,000 years, making it 15 times older than the United States — as well as how relatively recently the elephantlike creatures existed.

If your mind still isn’t sufficiently blown by ancient Egypt’s longevity, remember also that Cleopatra lived closer to the moon landing than she did to the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza. Woolly mammoths, meanwhile, were impressive in their own way, even if they weren’t as big as you might imagine — they were about the size of a modern African elephant. Nevertheless, these creatures still loom large in the collective imagination millennia after their extinction, which was long thought to have been caused by humans hunting them. More recently, a consensus has emerged that the true culprit was climate change: The planet warmed too rapidly for them to adapt, as melting icebergs wiped out the vegetation they subsisted on. 

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Some scientists want to bring woolly mammoths back.

Though it’s a hotly debated topic in the scientific community for a number of reasons — some logistical, others ethical — some scientists want to resurrect woolly mammoths. Just as importantly, they think they can pull it off. Among them is the company Colossal, and Harvard University geneticist George Church, who believes these neo-mammoths can help combat climate change by trampling away layers of snow and allowing more cold air to reach the soil and maintain the permafrost. Because mammoths roamed extremely cold climates, some corpses are so well preserved that scientists have been able to extract DNA from them — including that of a mammoth discovered in 2013 named Buttercup. Whether it’s a good or even plausible idea, however, remains to be seen.

Abraham Lincoln is the only U.S. president to have obtained a patent.

  • Buoying vessels patented by Lincoln
Buoying vessels patented by Lincoln
Credit: Chronicle/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Bennett Kleinman

October 15, 2024

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Abraham Lincoln wore many (stovepipe) hats prior to his presidency: He was a store clerk, postmaster, railsplitter, state legislator, and even an amateur inventor. His passion for innovation resulted in Patent No. 6469, a device conceived by Lincoln to help lift boats over shoals. Lincoln received the patent on May 22, 1849, and remains the only U.S. president ever to obtain a patent.

Lincoln developed an early fascination with mechanics because of his father, Thomas, who was described as “something of a mechanic” by Lincoln’s former law partner and biographer William H. Herndon. Honest Abe was also well-versed in water navigation, having spent his teenage years riding riverboats. During these formative years, Lincoln noted how tough it was for boats to navigate through shallow sandbars without getting stuck. He also curiously noted that there was no easy solution — yet.

In 1848, Lincoln began work on an invention to remedy this problem after an incident in which he found himself stranded on a sandbar while traveling from Washington, D.C., back to Illinois. He came up with a way to use adjustable buoyant air chambers to help boats navigate through shallow waters with ease, and hired Springfield architect Walter Davis to create a scale model replica. While the device was never widely manufactured, Lincoln brought the replica back to Washington, where he successfully procured a patent for his invention.

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Lincoln once argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Abraham Lincoln is one of 27 lawyers to hold the position of U.S. president, eight of whom have argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court: John Quincy Adams, James Polk, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Richard Nixon, and of course Lincoln. The case he argued was Lewis v. Lewis (1849), which dealt with the statute of limitations over a contested land deed. Lincoln argued in favor of the defense on March 7 and 8, 1849, just after his first and only term in Congress came to a close. His arguments have since been praised by legal experts, as he showed great skill in defending his client. However, the court ultimately ruled against Lincoln’s client, with Chief Justice Roger Taney issuing the majority opinion. Coincidentally, Taney later administered the oath of office at Lincoln’s presidential inauguration in 1861.

Archery used to be required by law for English men.

  • Medieval English archers
Medieval English archers
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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

October 2, 2023

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Throughout the Middle Ages, English men were required by law to practice longbow archery — a mandate that was in place for longer than you might expect. Early laws encouraged practicing archery indirectly: King Henry I, who ruled England from 1100 to 1135, declared that deaths accidentally caused by practicing archers didn’t count as murder or manslaughter. During the reign of Henry III, the 1252 Assize of Arms required that able-bodied men of a certain means between the ages of 15 and 60 be equipped with a bow and arrows and know how to use them — although residents of England’s royal forests had to practice with blunt arrows to protect the king’s game.

In 1363, King Edward III, who was in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War and convinced that archery skills were “almost wholly disused,” declared that able-bodied men must practice archery on holidays. The Archery Law, enacted that same year, further demanded practice on Sundays. Edward also outlawed, on pain of imprisonment, watching or participating in “vain games of no value,” a wide net that included handball, football, hurling stones, and cockfighting. 

Subsequent kings laid down similar acts: Richard II banned several games and required serfs and peasants to practice the longbow, and Edward IV set minimum imports for equipment. Henry VIII, after introducing several bans on games and tighter enforcement procedures earlier in his reign, passed one of the most notorious pro-archery laws of all in 1541: It nullified all previous acts, banned even more non-archery sports, and exempted wealthy people. In addition to requiring men under 60 (and, to a lesser extent, their male children) to own a certain amount of archery equipment, it empowered employers to garnish the wages of any servants who didn’t have it. The 1541 law was still on the books in bits and pieces until the 20th century, but England’s Betting and Gaming Act of 1960 finally nullified the last of the country’s longbow mandates.

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Humans have been using bows and arrows for more than 60,000 years.

Yew longbows were exciting new military technology in medieval England, but archery has likely existed in one form or another since the Stone Age. Bows and arrows are often made of organic materials that don’t stand the test of time, but the earliest surviving evidence of the weapon is around 64,000 years old, discovered in Sibudu Cave in South Africa. Stone arrowheads found at the site have remnants of blood and bone on them, glue residue that could have been used to attach them to wooden shafts, and damage patterns consistent with being used as projectiles (versus signs of thrust, like would be seen on spears). Archery made an early appearance all over the world. Archaeologists found 48,000-year-old bone arrowheads in Sri Lanka’s Fa-Hien Lena cave in 2020, and 54,000-year-old arrowheads in France’s Grotte Mandrin in 2023.

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