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John and Abigail Adams exchanged more than 1,100 letters.

Abigail Adams wife of 2nd U.S. President John Adams
Credit: IanDagnall Computing/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Mark Dolan
December 14, 2023

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Few couples have written letters to each other more extensive, and more compelling, than John and Abigail Adams, America’s second president and first lady. The pair met in 1759, when Adams accompanied his friend Richard Cranch to see Cranch’s fiancée Mary Smith, and her younger sister, Abigail. Although unimpressed by the 15-year-old Abigail on this occasion, calling the sisters neither “fond, nor frank, nor candid,” Adams found himself smitten two years later by the young woman. Thus began a correspondence that spanned more than three decades, and offers a rare glimpse into the founding of the United States. 

The early letters between the two lovers document their courtship; Adams addressed letters to “Miss Adorable,” requesting “as many Kisses, and as many Hours of your Company after 9 O’Clock as [I] shall please to Demand.” Even after the couple married in 1764, they continued to exchange letters regularly, as John was frequently away for work. In later years, the correspondence often turned to political matters, as John valued his wife as an intellectual equal and trusted adviser. In one 1776 letter, in the throes of the American Revolution, Abigail famously urged her husband to “remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” The 1,160 letters the couple exchanged offer an incredible insight into this chapter of American history. All but one of the letters are kept in the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society and are available online. 

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John Adams was the first president to live in the White House.

When John Adams arrived at the White House (then called the President’s House) in the summer of 1800, it was still a construction site. The nation’s second president had to be temporarily put up in the Washington City Hotel nearby. (The first president, George Washington, lived in executive mansions in Philadelphia and New York.) It wasn’t until that November that Adams moved into the new residence, and even then construction hadn’t been finished. As Abigail Adams wrote, “Not one room or chamber is finished of the whole it is habitable by fires in every part, thirteen of which we are obliged to keep daily, or sleep in wet & damp places.” In the end, John Adams lived in the White House for just over four months. The one-term president lost the 1800 election to Thomas Jefferson just one month after moving in, and remained in the capital until Jefferson’s inauguration on March 4, 1801. 

The first napkins were made of soft dough.

Ancient Greeks sharing a meal
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Author Anne T. Donahue
December 19, 2023

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The ancient Greeks unknowingly set the bar for environmentally friendly dining: The first napkins were edible pieces of soft dough, which were often fed to the dogs after a meal. Centuries before the widespread use of paper napkins, soft pieces of dough were cut into small pieces, rolled, and then kneaded at the table before being used to wipe people’s fingers and hands after eating. This dough was called apomagdalia, which refers to the doughy bread inside the crusts, also known as “the crumb.” Eventually, the practice evolved, and diners used sliced pieces of bread to clean their hands. 

Since ancient Greeks ate with their hands, napkins of some sort were a necessity. At large banquets, towels and water were sometimes circulated among guests to tidy up between courses, but it wasn’t until the Romans began using cloths at mealtime that the modern napkin found its footing. A large cloth known as a mappa was draped over the body when reclining and eating, and guests would often bring their own to fill with food to take home as leftovers. 

The first paper napkins emerged in ancient China around the second century CE, when small pieces of paper were folded into squares and fitted into the bottom of baskets that held teacups. The word “napkin,” meanwhile, originated in France: “Nappe” is the French word for “tablecloth,” while “kin” was added to the end to note its smaller size.

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Etiquette expert Emily Post sanctioned the use of paper napkins in 1948.

In 1948, a New York department store asked author and socialite Emily Post whether paper or cloth napkins were better for entertaining. Her answer? “Fresh paper napkins, of course!” Post published her first book, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, in 1922, and went on to become an authority on good manners and behavior until her death in 1960. So, when she declared that paper napkins were cleaner and fresher than their fabric counterparts, her large audience listened. At the time, the changing social and economic landscape lessened the likelihood of families having a full-time staff available to launder cloth napkins after every meal — which, as far as Post was concerned, was a necessity, as she deemed “soiled” napkins “unthinkable.” 

There were female gladiators in ancient Rome.

Female gladiators marble sculpture
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Author Michael Nordine
December 19, 2023

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If you learned everything you know about gladiators from a certain Ridley Scott movie, there’s a lot left to discover about the ancient Roman blood sport. Most compelling, perhaps, is the fact that there were female gladiators. Details of their exploits are scant compared to those of their male counterparts, but scholars and historians agree that gladiatrices had their share of glory in the arena. Though most came from lower classes, including enslaved women, some middle- and upper-class women also took up the sword and sandal, despite their lifestyle being frowned upon by Roman society, where they had far fewer freedoms than men and were defined in relation to them.

As for why women of means would choose to enter the arena, the University of Michigan’s David S. Potter offers this timeless explanation to History.com: “It’s exciting. It’s different. It pisses off their parents.” Though these female fights were relatively rare and mostly presented as novelty acts, literary and archaeological evidence suggests that a select few women received as much reverence as the men did. The most famous example is a bust depicting two gladiatrices using the stage names Amazon and Achillia, who fought to a noble draw — proving what we do in life really does echo in eternity.

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Most gladiator fights weren’t to the death.

Though it makes for compelling drama, the idea of gladiators fighting to the death simply wasn’t practical, and most of their bouts did not end in loss of life. For one, fighters were expensive investments for the men who promoted (and, in many cases, owned) them; if the sponsor of an individual fight (known as a munerarius) decided that a defeated gladiator was to be killed, he would have to compensate said combatant’s owner (or lanista). Which isn’t to say that a gladiator could expect to live a long life. Quite the opposite — few made it past their 20s, and it’s estimated that anywhere from one in five to one in 10 fights did end in death. 

The first portable music player was invented in 1924.

Record being placed on a Mikiphone
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Author Nicole Villeneuve
March 13, 2025

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Long before the Walkman and iPod, there was the Mikiphone. Invented in 1924 by Hungarian siblings Miklós and Étienne Vadász, the Mikiphone was a portable record player designed to be compact enough to fit into a pocket or purse. It featured a turntable, a tonearm with a needle, and a circular metal resonator that amplified the sound in place of a traditional phonograph’s horn. No power supply was needed — an internal spring drive mechanism rotated the turntable. Everything folded up into a round metal case that measured just over 4 inches across and just under 2 inches thick, more closely resembling an oversized pocket watch than a miniature gramophone. 

The Mikiphone was manufactured by Swiss company Paillard, which was known for its watches and music boxes. Advertisements at the time called the music player a “marvel of compactness” and boasted it was “ideal for picnics, car jaunts, [and] river trips.” Ads even extolled it as “literally the Eighth Wonder of the World.” It was indeed novel for its time, but despite its small size, the device was ultimately a bit cumbersome. The Mikiphone required that several parts — including small pieces such as the needle and the record weight — be carefully assembled and disassembled for each use, and when put together, it primarily played 10-inch, 78 RPM records — hardly a pocket-sized piece of media. Between 1925 and 1927, Paillard manufactured around 180,000 units, but by 1928 sales had plummeted, and Mikiphones were being let go at a major discount as a discontinued product. Today, the Mikiphone is known as the originator of portable music and is a prized collectible.

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The Walkman was originally called the “Soundabout” in the U.S.

When Sony released its revolutionary portable cassette player, it wasn’t universally known as the Walkman. In the United States, the device was called the “Soundabout”; in the U.K. it was called the “Stowaway”; and in Australia, it was the “Freestyle.” At the time, retail companies outside Sony’s home in Japan thought “Walkman” wasn’t right for Western markets — another suggested name for the U.S. market was “Sony Disco Jogger.” But the Walkman name had already gained traction in Japan, where, upon the player’s 1979 release, early sales far exceeded expectations: Sony predicted moving 5,000 units a month, but the Walkman sold upwards of 50,000 in just the first two months. In 1980, Sony co-founder Akio Morita decided the Walkman name would be used worldwide, though advertisements show the Soundabout moniker held on in the U.S. for another few years.

Only one president since Herbert Hoover was not named “TIME” Person of the Year.

President Gerald Ford
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Author Michael Nordine
December 14, 2023

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Though the outcome of any given presidential election is always in doubt, one thing is not: Whoever wins will almost certainly be named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year. The tradition dates back to 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first president to be so honored. The title itself was established in 1927, with TIME naming aviator Charles Lindbergh its first Man of the Year (the name was changed to Person of the Year in 1999). President Calvin Coolidge, who was in office in 1927, was passed over by the magazine, as was Herbert Hoover, Coolidge’s successor. Since then, Gerald Ford is the only U.S. president who has not been named Person of the Year.

In a way, that’s fitting, as Ford is also the only commander in chief to never actually be elected vice president or president. He was appointed to the former office after Richard Nixon’s original VP, Spiro Agnew, resigned in disgrace, and he became president after Nixon avoided a likely impeachment over the Watergate scandal by likewise resigning. Ford’s controversial decision to immediately pardon his predecessor is widely considered a black mark on his record that doomed his reelection chances. Jimmy Carter, who defeated Ford in the 1976 election, was named TIME’s Person of the Year shortly after his victory.

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Gerald Ford wasn’t his birth name.

The future president was actually named Leslie Lynch King Jr., after his biological father. He had a good reason for abandoning the moniker: Ford’s father was abusive toward Ford’s mother, Dorothy Ayer Gardner, and according to biographer James M. Cannon, he even threatened to murder her and the baby just days after Ford was born. Gardner separated from him within days, fleeing first to her sister’s home in Oak Park, Illinois, and then to her parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She married Gerald Rudolff Ford a few months before the fourth birthday of her son, who didn’t know that Gerald wasn’t his biological father until he was 13. Though he was never technically adopted by his father figure, Ford formally changed his name to Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. on December 3, 1935.

A Roman emperor declared war on the sea.

Bust of Emperor Caligula
Kizel Cotiw-an/ Shutterstock
Author Michael Nordine
January 10, 2024

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To say that Caligula was not well liked in his time is putting it lightly, as the first historians who wrote of him are said to have been so biased against the eccentric Roman emperor that it’s difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. Nevertheless, his erratic behavior is well documented, including the fact that he once declared war on the sea. He appears to have done so in order to declare a symbolic victory on the vast ocean. Roman historian Suetonius wrote of the incident in 40 CE, “And while no one could imagine what he intended to do, he suddenly commanded them to gather up seashells, and fill their helmets and the folds of their tunics with them, calling them ‘the spoils of the sea due to the Capitoline and the Palatine.’”

The seashells were then brought back to Rome, though historian David Woods has suggested that “seashells” is a mistranslation of the word “conchae,” which was also used to denote British ships captured in the English Channel. To celebrate his triumph, Caligula had a lighthouse built, gave his soldiers 100 denarii (Roman silver coins) each, and told them, “Go your ways and be merry; for now you are rich!” 

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A movie based on Caligula’s life was banned in several countries.

Any movie that properly conveyed the emperor’s life was bound to be controversial, but the filmmakers behind Caligula probably didn’t expect the level of pushback they received. Produced by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, who wanted to make the film as explicit as possible, Caligula was disavowed by screenwriter Gore Vidal and original director Tinto Brass due to extensive changes made during production. Guccione refused to submit the film to the MPAA, which he assumed would grant it an “X” rating, and instead gave it a “Mature Audiences” label. Among the countries that went even further by banning it outright for its graphic sexual content were Russia, Belarus, Canada, and Iceland, while England cut more than eight minutes before deeming it acceptable or even legal to screen. The countries that did allow it still didn’t like it — Caligula received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with Roger Ebert calling it “sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash” in his zero-star review. Contemporary appraisals have been kinder, especially with 2023’s release of the “Ultimate Cut,” which is 17 minutes longer than the theatrical version and intended to be closer to Vidal’s vision.

Magic mushrooms have been used since prehistoric times.

Psilocybin mushroom
Kyrylo Vasyliev/ Shutterstock
Author Anne T. Donahue
December 14, 2023

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Though research into the therapeutic effects of psilocybin is a relatively modern development, people have experimented with magic mushrooms (fungi with hallucinogenic effects) since the early days of human civilization. Following the discovery of a mural in northern Australia depicting mushroom-like figures and psychedelic drawings, archaeologists surmised that mushrooms likely played a social and cultural role in Sandawe and Bradshaw cultures as far back as 10,000 BCE. Similar mushroom-headed figures have also been found in prehistoric caves in North Africa and Spain.

While little is known about these early psychedelic dabblings, the Aztecs’ ritual use of magic mushrooms has been well documented. Known in that culture as “teonanacatl,” or “flesh of the gods,” the fungi were used in religious ceremonies to induce trances, produce visions, and communicate with gods. Magic mushrooms were later outlawed by 16th-century Spanish colonizers, who cited their use as barbaric and anti-Catholic. As a result, the Spanish destroyed all records and evidence of psilocybin (the hallucinogenic chemical found in psilocybe mushrooms), and drove the ritual use of mushrooms underground, where it stayed for centuries.

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Magic mushrooms were stigmatized because of the hippie movement.

If it weren’t for the 1960s “hippie” counterculture, the West’s relationship with magic mushrooms might be a lot less controversial today. In 1957, Swiss chemist Albert Hoffmann isolated psilocybin from the fungi and began to use the compound in medical trials — albeit briefly. The early research was promising, but the rampant use of psychedelics within the hippie movement led to federal backlash against the drug in the U.S., discouraging medical studies. Much of the decade’s social and political turbulence was attributed to psychedelic drug use, and this fueled the DEA’s push to ban the use of magic mushrooms and their hallucinogenic counterparts. As a result, psilocybin was outlawed under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and research didn’t pick back up until the turn of the 21st century. 

During WWII, the U.S. coded messages in the Navajo language.

Navajo code talkers
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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
December 14, 2023

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Diné bizaad is an Indigenous language primarily used by the Navajo, or Diné, people of the American Southwest. Not only is the language complex, but it’s traditionally passed down orally. During World War II, the United States military used this to its advantage by recruiting Navajo people fluent in both English and Diné bizaad, dubbed “code talkers,” to transmit secret messages among Allied forces.

The U.S. military wasn’t the first to use the tactic — members of Cherokee, Lakota, and other nations used their native tongues to evade German detection in World War I. The Marines, however, established the first formal training program for code talkers, and 29 Navajo completed the training in 1942. Recruits developed and memorized a two-part secret code inside a guarded room. The first part used 26 Diné bizaad words to stand in for letters of the English alphabet. The next part was more complex, and required making up hundreds of terms for English words that didn’t have a direct translation — for example, “iron fish” for “submarine,” and “humming bird” for “fighter plane.”

Even after recruiting more trainees into the program, the Marines struggled to find enough soldiers fluent in both languages to scale the program. But where code talkers were deployed, they passed along information with incredible security and accuracy. The Navajo Marines provided a valuable and often dangerous service to the U.S. military and its allies, but ironically, many had attended government or church-run boarding schools where they were punished for speaking languages other than English. After the war, the code talkers and their service went completely unacknowledged for decades. Their mission stayed classified until 1968, in case the military wanted to use the code again. In 2001, the original 29 code talkers were finally awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, and the rest were awarded the Congressional Silver Medal.

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Indigenous people had high enlistment rates during WWII.

In 1941, the year Pearl Harbor was bombed, the estimated Indigenous population of the United States was below 400,000, around 45,000 of whom saw active duty in World War II. Among them was Corporal Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian and one of the soldiers pictured in the famous flag-raising photo at Iwo Jima. While many Indigenous peoples were motivated to protect their ancestral lands, enlistment rates varied among different tribes. For instance, Hopi principles prohibit bearing arms, and Thomas Banyacya, a leader in the Hopi tribe, spent seven years in jail for refusing the draft. In 1953, he secured conscientious objector status for any Hopi who requested it.

Historians recently discovered a hidden fragment of the Bible.

Stack of ancient books
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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
March 6, 2025

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As detailed in a 2023 research paper, an Austrian medievalist examining texts in the Vatican Library discovered an ancient fragment of the Book of Matthew, which had been hidden for around 1,500 years under two other layers of text. The biblical text is an interpretation of parts of Matthew 11 and 12 that had never been seen before. It’s from one of the earliest translations of the Bible, written in Old Syriac. The Old Syriac translation dates back to the third century CE — even before the New Testament canon was officially established — but was lost for centuries, and only four examples have been unearthed in modern times, including the 2023 discovery. 

Some of the earliest versions of the Gospels — the four canonical New Testament books that tell the story of Jesus Christ — originated in Syria, which was home to major early Christian hubs such as Damascus and Antioch; these early versions were written in or translated to Old Syriac. The text unearthed in 2023 dates back to the sixth century, so it’s possible it was in widespread use before its disappearance.

When the earliest forms of the Bible were taking shape in the first few centuries CE, scholars wrote on parchment made from animal skin. (Paper didn’t reach the Middle East until the eighth century CE.) Since it wasn’t easy to come by, pieces of parchment were often erased and used for other works. Today, historians can use ultraviolet photography to reexamine materials that have already been in academic or religious libraries for a long time and see what was originally written beneath. In the case of the 2023 discovery, it’s believed the parchment containing the Old Syriac Gospel was covered by a Greek translation of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers (a collection of stories about early Christian hermits in Egypt), which was covered again by a Georgian manuscript. 

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Archaeologists discovered a 4,250-year-old library in Syria.

More than 4,000 years ago, the city of Ebla in northwestern Syria was a major hub of manufacturing, education, and agriculture. In 1974, archaeologists were excavating the former site of its royal palace when they discovered 42 tablets filled with cuneiform script. The palace, including the wooden shelves where the tablets were stored, had burned down around 2250 BCE, but the fire baked and preserved the clay tablets. Archaeologists kept digging and eventually found more than 17,000 cuneiform tablets, containing everything from commercial ledgers to literary works.

The Civil War started and ended on the same person’s property.

Wilmer McLean's house
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Author Rachel Gresh
December 7, 2023

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The 1860s brought war to the doorsteps of many Americans, but none as literally as Wilmer McLean, who witnessed the beginning and end of the Civil War from his own home. McLean and his wife, Virginia Mason, moved to Manassas, Virginia, in 1853, shortly after their wedding. A few years later, the couple was surprised when Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard commandeered their property to serve as his headquarters ahead of the first major land battle of the Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run (although several smaller skirmishes had been fought during the months prior). The home was so close to the action that a cannonball soared through the kitchen and landed in the fireplace. The battle ended on July 21, 1861, in a Confederate victory, and as the fighting continued, the McLeans decided to head south.

As fate would have it, by 1863, the McLeans were reestablished in a small village called Appomattox Court House in southern Virginia. On April 9, 1865, the couple received a knock on their door. It was Charles Marshall, the aide to Confederate General Robert E. Lee, asking for a secure meeting location for the general. McLean showed Marshall surrounding properties, but none was as suitable as his own home, which he eventually volunteered. Later that day, Lee arrived at the McLean house, followed by Union General Ulysses S. Grant. It was at this meeting in the parlor that Lee formally surrendered to Grant, signaling the end of the American Civil War.

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The “S” in Ulysses S. Grant’s name has no meaning.

Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant on April 27, 1822, though as a child he often went by his middle name, Ulysses. In 1839, he applied to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the benefactor who oversaw the application, Ohio Congressman Thomas Hamer, mistakenly wrote “Ulysses S. Grant” on the document, apparently taking the initial from Grant’s mother’s maiden name, Simpson, though Simpson was never Grant’s middle name. In fact, the erroneous “S” in Grant’s name doesn’t stand for anything, and Hiram, his real first name, was completely dropped — yet the name stuck. Grant’s attempts to correct the error were curbed by delays and more paperwork, so he eventually accepted his new moniker. In an 1844 letter to his future wife, Julia Dent, Grant quipped, “Find some name beginning with ‘S’ for me.” 

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