Category: Interesting Stories

To many people, asbestos will be forever associated with warning signs around old high school buildings, office towers, and dated apartment blocks. The fibrous, silicate material that has long been used as a fireproofing insulation has now also been known to be toxic. But as much as it may sound like a modern invention, asbestos […]

“What a load of bunk!” Nowadays, the word bunk has become such a familiar word for garbage or nonsensical language that we’ve even invented an opposite term — debunk —meaning to fact-check, or prove that something is untrue. As familiar as both those words are, however, few people know their history and the connection that […]

A vast castle and ancient fortress located on the north bank of the Thames —just along from its equally impressive namesake, Tower Bridge—the Tower of London is one of England’s most famous and most recognizable landmarks, as well as one of the capital’s most popular tourist attractions. Built in the 11th century, today the Tower […]

From our Achilles tendon to our zeppelin airships, there are countless words in the dictionary that are named after characters, both real and invented, from throughout history and literature. But if legend is to be believed, easily one of the most unusual stories in the dictionary is that which lies behind both the name of […]

To soccer fans around the world, the Jules Rimet Trophy is one of the most famous and important trophies in all of sport. Named after the third president of soccer’s ruling body FIFA, the Jules Rimet Trophy was for many years the top prize in the FIFA World Cup competition, awarded to the contest’s winner […]

Chances are that, at some point in your life, you’ll have enjoyed a game of Scrabble—the tricky word-connecting board game developed in the 1930s, in which players build words from differently-valued lettered tiles in an attempt to outscore and outplay one another. If you’re something of a word nerd, you might even be fairly proficient […]

What do Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Peanut, and Rich Uncle Pennybags from the Monopoly game all have in common? The answer, of course, is their headgear. All three are well known for wearing a top hat; or in President Lincoln’s case, the even more impressive stovepipe. According to fashion legend, the top hat was invented by […]

William Shakespeare famously based a number of his history plays on real-life characters from the past, including the English Kings Richard III, Henry V, and Henry VI; legendary figures like King Lear and Cymbeline, an ancient king of Britain; and Roman generals and leaders, like Titus Andronicus, Coriolanus, and Julius Caesar. But of all his […]

The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 was one of the most memorable in modern royal history. While more than 750 million viewers around the world watched the ceremony on their television sets, a further 600,000 people lined the procession route through the streets of London, hoping to catch a glimpse […]

Historians tend to disagree about the precise start date of the so-called Colonial Era—when many of the major seafaring nations of Western Europe began to travel around the world establishing new trade routes and eventually imposing (often violently and uncompromisingly) their control over the rest of the globe. No matter when this era is said […]