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One of the most famous naval heroes in history suffered from seasickness.

  • Horatio Nelson aboard the HMS Elephant
Horatio Nelson aboard the HMS Elephant
Credit: Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Author Timothy Ott
March 13, 2025

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Britain’s celebrated Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was essentially the living embodiment of the hardscrabble “Four Yorkshiremen” of the classic Monty Python sketch. As a young naval officer, he lost sight in his right eye from gravel strewn by an incoming cannonball. A few years later, he had his right arm amputated — without anesthetic — after being shot in the heat of another battle. Lord Nelson also weathered the debilitating effects of malaria, yellow fever, tuberculosis, scurvy, and dysentery at various points in his life. But the cruelest affliction may well have been the seasickness that plagued him for the duration of his three-plus decades at sea.

This unfortunate condition was revealed to many with the public display of an 1804 letter in which Lord Nelson, then head of the British fleet in the Mediterranean, described his longtime struggles with boat-rocking waves. “I am ill every time it blows hard and nothing but my enthusiastic love for my profession keeps me one hour at sea,” he wrote. Yet the seasickness hardly kept him from achieving stunning victories at the 1798 Battle of the Nile and the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, the latter of which famously featured him holding a telescope to his blind eye and pretending not to see an order to retreat. While his death amid the British triumph over Napoleon’s army at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar kept him from enjoying the spoils of success like the Monty Python characters, Nelson did them one better by becoming the first nonroyal to receive a state funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

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A painting contest was held to depict Lord Nelson’s heroic death.

Britain’s national love affair with Lord Nelson was perhaps best exemplified by a contest held for the painting that most dramatically captured his final heroic moments. One well-regarded entry came from former Royal Academy of Arts President Benjamin West, who all but replicated 1770’s “The Death of General Wolfe” by showing Lord Nelson lying in the arms of his crew on the deck of the HMS Victory. But the winner was the handiwork of Arthur William Devis, who secured his release from prison by promising to pay off his debts with the grand prize of 500 guineas. Devis was allowed on to the Victory to interview and sketch the crew members, resulting in the realistic touches that appeared in “The Death of Nelson, 21 October 1805.” And yet it was undoubtedly the liberties taken with the Christ-like portrayal of the revered naval commander, his shirtless body bathed in light and the backing pillow resembling a halo, that led to Devis claiming the award.

In 1960, one in five American households didn’t have a car.

  • Classic convertible at 1960s home
Classic convertible at 1960s home
Credit: © steinphoto—iStock/Getty Images
Author Michael Nordine
May 7, 2026

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There were more than 278 million registered vehicles in the United States as of 2022, which is to say there are almost as many cars and motorcycles in America as there are Americans — about 342 million at last count. The number of vehicles was a good deal lower in 1960, when one in every five households didn’t own a car at all. 

That year, about 57% of American households had one car, 19% had two, and 2.5% had three or more. Today, only 9% of households don’t own a car at all, while 33.8% have one, 37.6% have two, and 19.5% own three or more. Trucks are especially popular, accounting for 170 million of the 278 million vehicles in the country.

Car ownership soared in the economic boom that followed World War II, with the number of registered vehicles rising from 27.5 million in 1940 to 61.5 million in 1960. Automobile culture has become only more entrenched in the decades since, especially in rural areas: More than 96% of households in both Idaho and Wyoming report owning at least one car, the highest rate in the nation. On the other end of the spectrum is New York City, where just 44% of households own a vehicle — the only major city in the country where car ownership is under 50%.

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The Toyota Corolla is the bestselling car of all time.

Since its introduction in 1966, the Toyota Corolla has sold more than 50 million units worldwide — the most of any car ever made. It’s gone through many iterations in its nearly 60 years of production, but the humble economy car has remained popular from one generation to the next for its sheer reliability in getting drivers from point A to point B. You might even consider the Corolla an automotive example of nominative determinism, as its name means “small crown” in Latin.

The Corolla has sold twice as many units as the similar Honda Civic (24 million), which entered the market in 1972 and has been the top seller in the U.S. since 1997. Other bestselling vehicles include the Volkswagen Golf (35 million sold worldwide) and Ford F-Series (41 million), while Ford’s influential Model T sold more than 16.5 million units between 1908 and 1927.

Only one U.S. president has had a Ph.D.

  • Woodrow Wilson at Princeton
Woodrow Wilson at Princeton
Credit: North Wind Picture Archives/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Michael Nordine
September 25, 2024

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Most U.S. presidents have attained some form of higher education, and there are a number of commanders in chief with law degrees, but only one received a Ph.D.: Woodrow Wilson. After beginning his undergraduate career at Davidson College in 1873, Wilson transferred to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and studied political philosophy and history. He next attended the University of Virginia School of Law, though he withdrew during his second year. He managed to become a lawyer anyway, but quickly grew bored and chose to pursue a Ph.D. in history and political science instead. He did so at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, completing his doctorate in 1886.

While there, he wrote a book called Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics that was published before he graduated. Wilson’s time in academia didn’t end there, however. After teaching at Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan University, he returned to his alma mater — first as a professor, and then as the 13th president of Princeton. He served in that role from 1902 to 1910, when he launched his successful bid for governor of New Jersey, and later won the 1912 presidential election with 435 electoral votes. 

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Several U.S. presidents never attended college.

As impressive as Woodrow Wilson’s education is, there’s also something to be said for reaching the highest office in the land without ever receiving a college degree. Twelve presidents did just that, including George Washington. Washington’s father died when he was 11, preventing the future president from receiving a higher education; Washington felt embarrassed by this throughout his life, though that didn’t stop several colleges and universities from being named after him. The other commanders in chief who never graduated from college are James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Millard Filmore, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Harry Truman. 

Listerine was originally a surgical antiseptic.

  • Vintage Listerine ad
Vintage Listerine ad
Credit: © The Reading Room/Alamy
Author Michael Nordine
May 7, 2026

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When chemist Joseph Lawrence developed Listerine in 1879, he didn’t have bad breath in mind. Inspired by surgeon Joseph Lister, who pioneered antiseptic medicine, Lawrence formulated and sold the product bearing Lister’s name as a surgical antiseptic. Other applications for his invention that failed to catch on in the marketplace include floor cleaner, hair tonic, dandruff cure, deodorant, and “beneficial remedy” for such diseases as dysentery, diphtheria, smallpox, and gonorrhea. Eventually, Lawrence licensed the product to Jordan Wheat Lambert, a local pharmacist in St. Louis, and it was he who began selling it to dentists in 1895 as a mouthwash and disinfectant.

Listerine first became available as an over-the-counter mouthwash in 1914, but it didn’t achieve widespread popularity until the following decade, and minor changes to the formula were made over time. That was when Lambert’s son began an aggressive marketing campaign that pitched Listerine as the cure for chronic halitosis, better known as bad breath. 

Bad breath wasn’t a major social concern at the time, but as authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner wrote in Freakonomics: “Listerine changed that. As the advertising scholar James B. Twitchell writes, ‘Listerine did not make mouthwash as much as it made halitosis.’ In just seven years, the company’s revenues rose from $115,000 to more than $8 million.” The next time you’re feeling self-conscious about your breath, you can think of mouthwash as both the source of, and solution to, your problem.

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Surgery was almost banned before Lister’s ideas took off.

As you might imagine, surgery was an incredibly dangerous affair before surgeons decided to start washing their hands. The germ theory of disease had yet to be accepted in the mid-19th century, and doctors reacted with condescension and outrage to the idea that they could be exacerbating the very problems they were trying to solve. So many surgical patients died from septic complications, in fact, that there was talk of banning the practice in English hospitals. That changed thanks in part to Queen Victoria. Lister was called upon to drain an abscess growing under her armpit, a simple procedure he performed with his own antiseptic method using carbolic acid. “Because she allowed him to do this operation,” The Butchering Art author Lindsey Fitzharris told NPR, “she kind of gives her blessing to the antiseptic techniques and germ theory by default.” Lister was later knighted for his pioneering work in antiseptic surgery.

The baby boom caused a nationwide diaper shortage.

  • Woman tying a baby’s diaper, 1955
Woman tying a baby's diaper, 1955
Harold M. Lambert/ Archive Photos via Getty Images
Author Nicole Villeneuve
March 6, 2025

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Living in America during World War II often meant going without everyday necessities. At the end of the war, ration restrictions were lifted, but the U.S. still found itself in short supply of a crucial item: diapers. The country was in the nascent stages of a postwar baby boom, and as the young population surged with soldiers returning home and starting families, cloth diaper production remained in its wartime slowdown. 

Government agencies such as the War Production Board (WPB) denied the diaper shortage and said manufacturing was on pace to meet the demand. But textile insiders said otherwise, claiming that after the war, manufacturers had shifted looms away from diaper cloth to make more profitable cotton fabrics. The National Institute of Diaper Services blamed government officials who were not fathers and therefore didn’t understand infant needs, while retailers said shipments were not arriving quickly enough. On top of everything else, diaper prices were on the rise. Ultimately, frustrated parents and caregivers were left navigating the consequences.

The shortage wasn’t entirely unexpected. Diaper services — which, before the advent of disposables, collected soiled diapers and delivered fresh ones — were already under strain before the baby boom was in full swing. In 1943, wartime fuel rations made it difficult to run delivery trucks, and with many women working in war industries, fewer families had the time or resources to wash diapers at home. In June 1946, John K. Jones, president of the National Institute of Diaper Services, introduced a new folding technique in an attempt to help families cope with the ongoing shortage. Known today as the “kite fold,” it involved folding the corners of a diaper to create extra thickness in the center, making the diaper more absorbent and thus ideally able to last longer than a traditional triangle fold. The diaper shortage made headlines across the country for years, but by 1947, mention of it had tapered off.

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Sugar was the first and last food rationed in the U.S. during World War II.

After the U.S. entered World War II, many goods, including food, were rationed to ensure military troops and manufacturers had enough supplies, and to enforce fair distribution among civilians. Sugar was the first food placed under rationing, mainly because of supply shortages: Before the war, the U.S. imported most of its sugar from the Philippines, but that supply was cut off after Japan occupied the islands in 1941. At the same time, cargo ships that once transported sugar were, like many things at the time, prioritized for military use.  Even after the war ended in 1945, low crop yields and the rebuilding of trade networks meant that sugar remained in short supply. The U.S. government continued rationing sugar for two years, finally lifting restrictions in 1947 — making sugar not only the first but also the last food to be restricted during World War II.

Victorian doctors prescribed beards. 

  • Bearded man, late 19th century
Bearded man, late 19th century
Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Sarah Anne Lloyd
August 14, 2025

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The well-coiffed men of the Victorian era wore finely tailored suits, trim waistcoats, and fancy statement hats. These men also, in contrast to their generally prim and proper aesthetic, sometimes had truly impressive beards. The Victorian “beard movement,” which started around 1850, was partially about looking manly and rugged — especially after British soldiers came back from the Crimean War unshaven in 1856. But beards were also, according to some medical professionals at the time, a way to ward off disease.

At the time, many doctors endorsed the miasma theory of disease, which (incorrectly) held that illnesses such as Britain’s common cholera outbreaks were caused by bad air. (To be fair, rampant air pollution was making people sick, just not in ways that scientists understood at the time.) Facial hair, some reasoned, could provide a natural filter against breathing in so-called “miasms.”

“[T]he moustache is emphatically nature’s simple respirator, while the hair covering the jaws and throat is intended to afford warmth and protection,” one doctor wrote in the Edinburgh Medical Journal in 1861. Clergymen and other public speakers were particularly encouraged to have beards to protect their voices.

Beards started losing popularity by the 1880s. Changing standards of masculinity played a role, but the medical justification was also weakening as microbial biology and germ theory took hold. Beards, it turns out, can hold a lot of microbes.

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Mustaches used to be mandatory in the British army.

Most U.S. soldiers have to be clean-shaven while on duty. But for decades in Great Britain, soldiers were forbidden from shaving their upper lips. In the first half of the 19th century, facial hair was increasingly popular for several reasons, including its supposed medical benefits. And in the 1860s, mustaches went from popular to mandatory in the British army. Regulations stated that “moustaches are to be worn, and the chin is to be shaved (except by pioneers, who will wear beards also). Whiskers, when worn, are to be of moderate length.” The regulation fell apart during World War I for a few logistical reasons, including difficulty putting on a gas mask over a mustache.

The first known use of ‘OMG’ was in a letter to Winston Churchill.

  • Winston Churchill, 1939
Winston Churchill, 1939
Credit: Evening Standard/ Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Author Darren Orf
November 15, 2023

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

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

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“LOL” originally meant “little old lady.”

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

Toothpaste used to be radioactive.

  • Young girl brushing her teeth
Young girl brushing her teeth
Credit: © E. HIBBS—ClassicStock/Alamy
Author Michael Nordine
April 30, 2026

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As with many world-changing discoveries, people initially went a bit overboard with radioactivity. The atomic process that causes radiation was discovered by Henri Becquerel in 1896 and studied further by Marie and Pierre Curie in the following years. And while radiation exposure is now known to be highly lethal, in the early 20th century, products with radioactive properties were believed to be beneficial to one’s health. 

One such item was Doramad, a toothpaste made by the German company Auergesellschaft, which used traces of thorium (a radioactive element) in its teeth-cleaning formula. Advertisements urged customers to “protect yourself by using the biologically active, radioactive, Doramad toothpaste.” (If this ad didn’t make you want to brush your teeth, what would?) 

Doramad’s packaging included the description, “Special biological healing effects by radium rays. A thousand times medically prescribed and recommended.” And the back of the tube claimed the following: “What does Doramad do? Through its radioactivity, it increases the defenses of teeth and gums. The cells are charged with a new vigorous life energy, which inhibits bacteria in their destructive ability. Hence the exquisite prevention and healing effect on gum diseases.” 

Radioactive elements were thought to have beneficial health properties at the time, including for teeth; we now know that the opposite is true, of course. Doramad was sold from the 1920s until the end of World War II, by which point the dangers of radiation were better understood — including by scientists on both sides of the conflict attempting to develop a nuclear bomb.

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The ancient Egyptians made toothpaste out of salt, mint, and pepper.

It wasn’t just their attitudes toward cats that made the ancient Egyptians ahead of their time. They also concocted what one scribe at the time described as a “powder for white and perfect teeth” made of rock salt, mint, dried iris flower, and pepper. Heinz Neuman, a dentist who tried the ancient toothpaste at a dental conference in Austria, told The Telegraph that it “was painful on my gums and made them bleed as well, but that’s not a bad thing, and afterwards my mouth felt fresh and clean.” He added that the recipe “would have been a big improvement on some of the soap toothpastes used much later.”

In 1932, Australia declared a ‘war’ against emus (and lost).

  • Wandering Outback emus
Wandering Outback emus
Credit: robynmac/ iStock
Author Michael Nordine
November 21, 2023

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Australia is known for its unique wildlife, not all of which is friendly. In 1932, the country received a harsh reminder of that when a drought caused some 20,000 emus to move inland in search of water during their breeding season, disrupting farmers’ crops in the process. The ostrich-like birds had already had their classification downgraded from “native species” to “vermin” despite being endemic to Australia and appearing on its coat of arms alongside the kangaroo, and this mass migration made them public enemy No. 1. The government sent in World War I veterans to assist the beleaguered farmers, and though they were outfitted with machine guns, they soon found themselves overwhelmed by their flightless foes. Emus are fairly imposing, to be fair — among all bird species, only ostriches and cassowaries are larger. 

“The machine-gunners’ dreams of point-blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated,” observed D.L. Serventy, an Australian ornithologist. “The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month.” In other words, the emus emerged victorious in what’s now known as the Great Emu War. The birds were simply too much trouble to get rid of, and though they suffered heavy casualties, they still thrive Down Under.

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Emus lie awake for a while before falling asleep.

Anyone with a pet knows that cats, dogs, and other animals tend to fall asleep right away (lucky them). Not the emu, which spends up to 20 minutes getting into the right position before finally nodding off. That’s according to The Sleep of the Emu author Klaus Immelmann, a zoologist who observed emus and ostriches at the Frankfurt Zoological Garden over the course of 10 consecutive nights. Though they get ready for bed as soon as the sun goes down, and exhibit “preliminary drowsiness” described by Immelmann as “remarkably suggestive of a late-at-night reader in a comfortable armchair,” emus often jerk back awake just before falling asleep and rise as many as eight times a night. 

One ancient wonder only stood for about 55 years.

  • Colossus of Rhodes statue
Colossus of Rhodes statue
ClassicStock/ Alamy Stock Photo
Author Bennett Kleinman
November 21, 2023

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Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes stood for the shortest period of time — roughly 55 years. Sources vary as to the exact number, but what’s certain is that the statue existed for a mere blip in the annals of history. (By comparison, the Great Pyramid of Giza has stood for more than 4,500 years.) The Colossus’ creation dates back to the siege of the Greek island of Rhodes in 305 BCE, when the Macedonian ruler Demetrius I led an ultimately futile attempt to capture the city and harbor. As his army abandoned its efforts the following year, they left behind their supplies and equipment, which the city later sold off for profit. With this unexpected windfall, Rhodian officials commissioned a celebratory statue of the Greek sun god Helios, the patron god of Rhodes. 

Greek sculptor Chares of Lindos was tasked with building the colossal 108-foot-tall statue; he began around 292 BCE, and the work lasted for 12 years. Though the sculpture’s exact location is unknown, it’s believed to have stood on the harbor’s eastern side, and was likely made of iron and stone coated with bronze. The Colossus stood triumphantly for five decades, but it fell around 226 BCE when an earthquake struck the region and toppled the great wonder. Its remnants were scattered around until 654 CE, when invading Arabian forces gathered and sold what remained of the statue. There was so much debris that it’s said to have taken more than 900 camel loads to transport.

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The marathon was inspired by an ancient Greek battle.

The origin of the marathon race dates back to the Greco-Persian Wars of the fifth century BCE and the ancient Battle of Marathon, though the commonly told origin story is likely a myth. According to the legend, a messenger named Pheidippides ran 25 miles between Athens and the city of Marathon to spread the news of a Greek victory in the battle. That myth is likely a combination of two events that actually occurred. In 490 BCE, over the course of several days, Pheidippides ran nearly 300 miles from Athens to Sparta and back to gather additional forces to defend against a Persian attack. The Athenians won the Battle of Marathon days later, and marched 25 miles back home from Marathon to defend against a potential second attack. That march was conflated with Pheidippides’ initial run in retellings of the battle that were written centuries later, including Robert Browning’s 1879 poem “Pheidippides.” The myth inspired French archaeologist Michel Bréal to propose a similar event for the 1896 Athens Olympics. The first Olympic marathon featured 17 runners traversing a 24.8-mile course between the Marathon battlefield and the city of Athens. 

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