We have the ancient Egyptians to thank for setting us on the road to today’s $40,000-plus weddings. They came up with the idea of getting engaged, to make sure a couple was compatible, as well as throwing rice or grain (symbolic of fertility) at the ceremony. Originally, however, the dowry […]
Early Christians thought this apocalyptic return of Jesus was right around the corner, likely in their own lifetimes. But Christians didn’t have a monopoly on apocalypse. In 448, Moses of Crete, a rabbi, claimed to be the Messiah as predicted by Talmudic calculations and led his followers to the sea, which […]
If you flip through your family album, you’ll likely see your forefathers’ facial hair appear and vanish like leaves in one of those time-lapse nature documentaries. Flip-flops in facial-hair fashion date to 30,000 BCE, when our prehistoric ancestors first tried shaving with flint blades; little wonder many gave up and […]
The postwar spread of television made possible the career of the most notable competitor to Charles Atlas, François Henri “Jack” LaLanne. Like Macfadden, LaLanne was a reformed physical wreck who decided “physical culture and nutrition is the salvation of America.” He’d opened a pioneering gym in Oakland in 1936 at […]
Besides repurposing the hashtag (in Twitter) and the slash (in HTML web addresses), computer technology led to a whole slew of new symbols—first emoticons (“emotive icons”) and then emojis. Scott E. Fahlman invented the emoticon in 1982 at Carnegie Mellon University in an early online newsgroup. Concerned that humorous remarks […]
The Christmas song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” was written by James “Haven” Gillespie with music by John Coots and first performed on Eddie Cantor’s radio program in 1924. Cantor (the son of Russian Jews) commissioned the Christmas song as Gillespie was mourning his brother’s recent death. At first […]
Sarsaparilla, an ingredient in root beer, was thought to treat syphilis, among other ills, and peddled by enterprising Shakers as early as 1835. Another supposed cure-all in root beer, sassafras, was vended as a drink by Philadelphia pharmacist Charles Hires at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. Hires introduced a carbonated […]
The first “plastic money” was actually made of cardboard. In what’s still known in the industry as “the First Supper,” in 1950 Frank McNamara used the first Diners Club card to pay for dinner at Major’s Cabin Grill in New York City. Subsequent cards were made of more durable plastic, […]
The first newspaper astrology column—forerunner of those authored by Sydney Omarr and Jeane Dixon—was published by Britain’s Sunday Express. After the birth of Princess Margaret in August 1930, the editor asked astrologer R.H. Naylor to do her horoscope. Naylor safely predicted her life would be “eventful.” Asked to create several […]
It was a change in the table knife that put forks at every place—and forever separated how Americans and European eat. Cardinal Richelieu of France supposedly was so disgusted by a frequent dinner guest’s habit of picking his teeth with his knife that he had the tip of the man’s […]
