Before the creation of synthetic plastics, patent leather was made by glazing animal hides with layers of resin-based varnish. The coating protected items like boots and carriage parts from wear and ...

The gas station doesn’t know how much fuel you’re going to buy when you pay at the pump. To make sure you have enough funds ...

Japan’s geisha are experts in their field, but they’re often treated like tourist attractions. See why Kyoto officials have had to crack down on tourist photos.

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

If you ever get the chance to sip an ice-cold soda on a warm Hawaiian beach, you might notice something strange about the can it comes in: There are four ridges around the top. The design isn’t ...

Most decades are easy to name. It takes no thought at all to realize we’re in the ‘20s, and just about every other decade is equally easy: the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s ...

From pop royalty to prog-rock gods, here are the household names who decided against showing up to the pop cultural ...

From David Lynch to Queen Elizabeth I, these folks achieved a type of lexical immortality when their names became adjectives.

The line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” from Jaws (1975) has gone down as one of the most iconic quotes in movie history. Spoken by Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) moments after the eponymous ...

According to the study’s findings, Ithaca, New York—home to both Ithaca College and Cornell University—is the best university city in the world. It ranked much higher than the rest in terms ...

Filling in the blanks of your historical knowledge would probably be easier if you could readily visualize when and where events occurred in relation to other events. Fortunately, there’s an ...

Once you notice how many cartoon characters have four fingers, it‘s hard to ignore. The artistic choice originated with Disney and other early animation studios in the 1920s, and since then it ...