now you know

No one really knows how the system started, but it dates all the way back to the Middle Ages

Ancient Romans did use the thumbs-up gesture, but back then it didn't mean "good job."

TIME's archives offer unique insight into the history of the job

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.

In New York City the color is mandated by law

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