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What Was the First Sound Ever Recorded by a Machine?

By Merrill Fabry

Why Is Tennis Scored So Weirdly?

By Merrill Fabry

Where Does the 'Thumbs-Up' Gesture Really Come From?

By Merrill Fabry

Here’s How the First Fact-Checkers Were Able to Do Their Jobs Before the Internet

By Merrill Fabry
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Now You Know: Why Are There Special Gifts for Each Anniversary Year?

Many people give paper for a first anniversary, silver for a 25th and so on—but why? Here's what to know about the tradition's origins.

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Why Are Taxi Cabs Yellow?

In New York City the color is mandated by law

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Why Is 'Teatime' in the Afternoon?

It started in the 1840s, some 200 years after tea was first introduced to England

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Why Did Americans Start Naming Their Babies After the President?

"Yes we named it after you," one father of a boy named John wrote to then-Senator Kennedy in 1960

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Why Do People Always Look So Serious in Old Photos?

It's not just a matter of bad teeth or long exposure times

By Merrill Fabry

What Was the First Credit Card?

Credit cards became big business in the 1950s

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

The famous question has thousands of years of history behind it

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: When Did People Start Saying That the Year Was 'A.D.'?

The terms weren't introduced at the same time—A.D. came before B.C.—and each took hundreds of years to catch on

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Why Do We Have Middle Names?

Romans may have used three names, but that's not why Americans have middle names today

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Where was the First Public Telephone Booth?

The first was in Connecticut—but which town gets the prize depends on what you mean by "telephone booth"

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Who Was the First U.S. President to Wear Pants?

It was probably John Quincy Adams

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Why Are There Two Dakotas?

Because different population sizes, trade routes and politics meant the two halves didn't really like each other

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: How Did Long Hair Become a Thing for Women?

The convention goes back to ancient times, when Roman men were judged harshly for having hair that required extra attention

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: What Happens If the President Gets Drunk?

As it turns out, not much.

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: Where Was the Original 'Smoke-Filled Room'?

It was in Chicago, the location of the 1920 Republican Party convention

By Merrill Fabry

Now You Know: What Really Happened on the Ides of March?

Caesar was stabbed 23 times

By Merrill Fabry
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