Culture
1958: Pope Designates St. Clare Of Assisi Patron Saint ...
February 17, 2020
There had to be a patron saint of television -- sooner or later, it was bound to happen. Clare of Assisi got the job, due to a strange television-like abilit...
1967: The 25th Amendment (VP Succeeds President) Is Ado...
February 10, 2020
What happens if a U.S. President resigns -- or has to be removed from office? Until the 25th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in 1967, there wasn't ...
1972: Bob Douglas Becomes The First Black Man Inducted ...
February 5, 2020
With thousands of wins under his belt and decades of experience as owner and coach of one of the most important and earliest black basketball teams, Bob Doug...
Execution In Saigon: The Famous Snapshot That Started T...
February 1, 2020
On February 1, 1968 the iconic photo of Nguyen Van Lem being executed on a street in Saigon went all the way around the world, exposing the realities of the ...
Legos: Facts, History And Trivia About The Universal Bu...
January 28, 2020
Legos are everywhere. At this point, several generations of people all over the world have grown up building things out of Lego bricks, and the toys have evo...
1977: Jimmy Carter Pardons Draft Dodgers On Day One (Bu...
January 21, 2020
President-elect Jimmy Carter talks with President Gerald Ford in the Blue Room of the White House before heading to Capitol Hill for Carter's inauguration Janua...
Nerds On Acid: The Internet's Founders Did LSD In The 1...
January 16, 2020
An unidentified boy wearing headphones and a 'psychedelic disk' on his forehead at en exhibition created by USCO (the 'Company of Us) at Riverside Museum, New Y...
How A Hockey Player Became Canada’s Starbucks
January 12, 2020
For most Americans Tim Hortons is only a name that we’ve heard in passing. Is it a coffee shop? A donut store? Do they sell guys named Tim? It’s a shame that so few Ame...
'Scared Straight:' Did The Famous 1978 Program Work? (N...
January 10, 2020
Starting with 1978’s Scared Straight, the TV special that sent at-risk teenagers to prison with adults in order to freak them out and turn them into respecta...
Sidney Gottlieb, MKUltra And Brainwashing's Mystery Man
January 8, 2020
In the Cold War years, we didn't even know about it: MKUltra, directed by Sidney Gottlieb of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). MKUltra aggressively researc...
Muriel Siebert: The First Woman To Have A Seat On The N...
December 28, 2019
January 16, 1968: Muriel Siebert appears pleased with what she sees on the ticker tape as well as hearing that she was elected to the New York Stock Exchange. T...
1966: The First Kwanzaa Is Celebrated In Long Beach, Ca...
December 26, 2019
Where did Kwanzaa come from? In 1965, while black Americans' struggle for Civil Rights was front page news, race riots broke out in the Los Angeles neighborh...
World Trade Center: The Tallest Building In The World
December 23, 2019
World Trade Center (Photo by Boris Spremo/Toronto Star via Getty Images) The World Trade Center will forever be associated with the tragedy of September 11, 2001, ...
Air Force's Operation Christmas Drop: Delivering Gifts ...
December 19, 2019
Santa Claus might ride in a sleigh, but the U.S. Air Force's Santas over Micronesian islands come swooping in on bomber planes to deliver their gifts. The hu...
When Did Jewish Americans Start Eating Chinese Food For...
December 15, 2019
Jewish Americans celebrate a lot of things, but Christmas isn't usually one of them. Even with Santa Claus, Rudolph, and the other secular trappings, a holid...
Hot Dr. Pepper Recipe (Easy + Gourmet): The 1960s Treat...
December 6, 2019
Oatmeal is best when you've got a collection of berries, just the right amount of sugar, a little spice, and some citrus zest. Keep that in mind as you read ...
Frank Serpico, The Original Whistleblower, Was NYPD's G...
December 5, 2019
Frank Serpico is a former New York City cop whose anti-corruption stance made him unpopular in the NYPD. Ultimately, though, his whistleblowing efforts to ca...
KFC: Japan's Groovy Christmas Tradition That Started In...
December 4, 2019
Every year millions of Japanese families flood their local KFC locations to take part in the annual tradition of Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii: Kentucky for Chr...
Canadian Natives Were Imprisoned On Christmas Day For A...
December 3, 2019
In the early 20th century, the Canadian government banned potlatch in an effort to destroy Native culture, depriving a generation of Tribal members of an imp...
The Twinkie Defense Myth: How Dan White, Harvey Milk's ...
November 27, 2019
Dan White and Twinkies. Sources: Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images; Wikimedia Commons Can a diet of Twinkies lead to murder? If you buy the "Twinkie defen...
Lee Harvey Oswald Was Killed By Jack Ruby, But Why?
November 24, 2019
Daily News front page November 25, 1963 - Headline: THE FATAL SHOT - Jack Ruby aims at Presidential assassin Lee Oswald in Dallas and shoots(Photo By: /NY Daily News v...
Patty Hearst, Criminal Or Victim? Facts And Trivia Abou...
November 19, 2019
Patty Hearst welcome home button. Tania was the name she received from the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). In 1974 she became a member of the FBI's ten most w...
Jonestown Massacre: What It Meant To 'Drink The Kool-Ai...
November 18, 2019
Jim Jones. Photo by Michèle VIGNES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Nearly 1,000 men, women, and children died at Jonestown, in Guyana, on November 18, 1978. Orde...
Apollo 12 Mission: 9 Wild Facts & Trivia You Probably D...
November 14, 2019
The Apollo 12 mission took Pete Conrad, Richard Francis Gordon Jr, and Alan Bean the Moon -- the second trio of Astronauts to make the trip. Following in th...
Would-Be Reagan Assassin John Hinckley Jr. Leads A Stra...
November 13, 2019
John Hinckley Jr. sitting on fence wall in front of the White House. The picture is undated, but believed to have been taken less than a year before his attempt...
Amityville Horror: What Really Happened? A Mob Hit, A D...
October 29, 2019
The Amityville Horror was the second-highest grossing film in 1979, a terrifying tale based, we were told, on actual events. Part one of the story is a fact:...
Do You Believe In Ghosts? 10 Real-Life 1960s Ghost Stor...
October 27, 2019
Ghost stories of the 1960s involve hauntings, poltergeists, restless spirits from beyond the grave, and at least one headless murderer. Accounts of these spo...
1986: When A Former Nazi Sued Satan In The Name Of Jesu...
October 24, 2019
In 1986, Ralph P. Forbes of London, Arkansas, decided he'd had enough of Halloween devilishness, and filed a lawsuit.On behalf of himself, Jesus Christ, and ...
Razor Blades in Halloween Candy: History Of The Myth Th...
October 23, 2019
1968: Booby-trapped apple with razor blade concealed inside is examined by policewoman Carol MacKay. It was given as Halloween handout to a 7-year-old child in ...
'Satanic Panic!' A Brief History Of How And Why The Who...
October 22, 2019
The "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s is one of those episodes of mass hysteria that leaves you wondering: How did this happen? Because even after it's explained,...
This Is What Famous Director Tim Burton Wore On Hallowe...
October 10, 2019
You'd think that Tim Burton likes Halloween. Burton is the auteur who brought us Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and Batman He also wrote and produced the ...
Alan Alda, Feminist: M*A*S*H Star Was The Sensitive '70...
October 8, 2019
Alan Alda at press conference for their television series MASH. Photo by Ann Clifford/DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images In the '70s, there was ...
15 WTF Maidenform Bra Ads And What They Mean
October 7, 2019
The conical jut of Maidenform bras may no longer be in style, but the Maidenform bra ad will always be iconic. "I dreamed I _____ in my Maidenform bra" was the template of...
King Tut Fever Of The 1970s Was PR For A Middle East Tr...
October 5, 2019
The exhibition of the tomb of Kink Tutankhamun -- "King Tut" -- in the 1970s was a museum phenomenon unlike any the world had seen. King Tut and the associat...
Photographs That Capture What Life Was Like In The ’60s
October 3, 2019
As the first decade of the groovy era, the 1960s were a time full of radical change, great music, and amazing fashions. The same decade that gave us Woodstock als...
10 Concept Cars Of The '60s We Wish Had Been Made
October 3, 2019
Concept cars of the 1960s reflected the era's science-fiction inspired futurism, along with real innovation and the mod styling that is appealing even 50 years later....
'The Endless Summer' Was The First Real Surfing Movie
October 2, 2019
Before The Endless Summer, Bruce Brown's 1966 documentary, surfing films weren’t really films about surfing. They were beach party films that were less about catc...
Sandy Warner: Exotica King Martin Denny's Cover Girl
September 27, 2019
You’ve seen Sandra "Sandy" Warner on Martin Denny's album covers, even if you're not sure who Martin Denny is. The albums had titles like Exotica, Primitiva, Quiet...
How 400+ Indians Occupied Alcatraz And Changed Richard ...
September 26, 2019
Native Americans, one named Tim Williams (a chief of the Klamath River Hurek tribe), approaching Alcatraz Island by boat, late 1969 or early 1970. Photo by Ralp...
How LBJ's Dog's Ears Became A National Concern In 1964
September 24, 2019
In 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson lifted a beagle by its ears in front of reporters, he enraged animal lovers and animal rights groups. Johnson, a Texan an...
The Very Real Rhinoceros Political Party Of Canada
September 22, 2019
What if Canada was Ruled By The Rhinoceros Party of Canada (neorhino.ca/) The satirical political group known as the Rhinoceros Party formed in Canada in 1963 and ha...
1960s Life Vs. Today: Numbers That Will Astound You
September 20, 2019
Vintage 1960 Wedding Family Portrait. Source: (Getty/steinphoto) What do we do differently now than we did 50 years ago? A look at the numbers and statistics tells u...
1960s Sugar Companies Paid Harvard Scientists To Make F...
September 19, 2019
A young woman in a bikini eats a Butterfingers brand candy bar as she sunbathes on a beach near Malibu, California, 1970. (Photo by Co Rentmeester/The LIFE Pict...
Chilling Photos From The Groovy Era
September 17, 2019
We can find a myriad of narratives in historical photos, and not all of them are pleasant. They can show us slices of life that we’d rather not think about, and startling images that w...
Heineken's WOBO Bottle, Designed For People To Build Ho...
September 17, 2019
For Alfred "Freddy" Heineken, building a house out of glass beer bottles was a solution to two problems -- and in 1960, it was a visionary attempt at recycli...
'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner' Was A Racial Reality Che...
September 14, 2019
In Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, Sidney Poitier plays John, a black man meeting his white fiancee's parents, who are played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine He...
Australia, 1960: Shocking Kidnapping-Murder Leads To La...
September 13, 2019
In 1960 Graeme Thorne, an eight-year-old Australian boy was abducted and murdered after his parents, Bazil and Freda Thorne, won the Sydney Opera House lotte...
1967: When Computer Science Was 'Women's Work' Because ...
September 12, 2019
A woman working on a Honeywell tape drive computer, circa 1969. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images) In the late 1960s, computers were hulking, unsexy m...
Disney Created Fake Companies To Buy Up Land In Florida
September 8, 2019
Left: Disney World's Magic Kingdo under construction prior to its 1971 opening. Right: A window on Main Street commemorates M.T. Lott Real Estate Investments. Sour...
Modulex: The Short-Lived 1963 LEGO for Architects
September 7, 2019
Shopping the Modulex way. Source: flickr.com/photos/minkowsky/ We've all seen impressive Lego models of buildings and cities, but there was once a name for Lego archit...
The CIA Would Use 'Love Dolls' As Decoys In The 1970s
September 6, 2019
In the thick of the Cold War, America's Central Intelligence Agency conscripted unfeeling, pneumatic specialists to foil the enemy: inflatable plastic or rubber l...
Gunter Schabowski: How One Man's Mistake Brought Down T...
September 4, 2019
Left: Gunter Schabowski at a press conference on November 9. 1989. Right: Citizens demolishing the Berli Wall. Sources: DPA/AFP/Getty Images; theimaginativecons...
How The 1960s Made Us Scared Of Quicksand
August 31, 2019
Why were we afraid of quicksand? On TV shows and in movies of the '60s and '70s, quicksand was a go-to plot twist that could be inserted virtually anywhere for a jolt of susp...
Why Were Blacklight Posters So Popular In The '70s?
August 28, 2019
Few wall adornments are so quintessentially '70s as the blacklight poster, depicting Marvel superheroes, noble warriors, R. Crumb cartoons or drug imagery. Througho...
1960: The First Woman To Win 3 Olympic Gold Medals Had ...
August 27, 2019
Medalists in the Ladies 200 meter final at the 1960 Rome Olympics. From left to right, Britain's Dorothy Hyman (bronze), the USA's Wilma Rudolph (gold) and Germ...
Long Haired Men, Employee Mustaches Were Banned From Di...
August 25, 2019
A hippy at the Isle of Wight pop festival in 1970. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images) When Disneyland opened in 1955, men with flowing locks of hair wer...
1960: Australian Pilot Stops Hijack By Punching Terrori...
August 24, 2019
Hijacking planes was a pretty new concept in 1960, but when a bomb-toting freak tried to pull something on a Trans Australian Airline flight, he got a knuckl...
This Is How Satanism Was Invented In The 1960s
August 21, 2019
Who founded the Satanic Church, and how old is Satanism? Well, Satan is an old idea -- an Old Testament villain -- but Satanism only goes back to 1966. That's when Anton...
MSG Isn't Bad For You: How A Groovy-Era Myth Started
August 20, 2019
Left: A window filled with roasted ducks at a restaurant in Chinatown, central London. Right: Food packaging bearing the 'No MSG' messge. Sources: David Cliff/SOPA Im...
Sgt. Pilcher: The Narc Who Arrested Mick Jagger, John L...
August 19, 2019
Beatle John Lennon and his Japanese girlfriend Yoko Ono leaving Marylebone Magistrates Court after they appeared to answer charges of drug possession and police...
Nudie Suits: Flashy Rodeo Fashion Of Rock And Country S...
August 15, 2019
Left: Country-rocker Gram Parsons in his famous custom Nudie Suit circa 1969. Right: Robert Redford in the Nudie suit he wore in 'The Electric Horseman,' (1979)...
More Than Andy Warhol: 10 Pop Artists Of The '60s
August 6, 2019
We've all seen Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans and Roy Lichtenstein's comic-book canvases -- the "Pop Art" movement that popped in the 1960s is practically defined...
There'll Never Be Another Woodstock: 50th Anniversary F...
August 2, 2019
Left: Poster art for the doomed Woodstock 50 festival. Right: John Fogerty performs on stage at the announcement of the Woodstock 50 Festival Line-Up on March 1...
That One Time Queen Met The Queen In 1974 (And Everyone...
July 30, 2019
British rock band Queen posing with a woman, September 1974. Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images Queen, the group that would give us "Bohemian Rhapsody" and...
The Fisher Protocol: Nutty Plan To Hide Launch Codes In...
July 29, 2019
Left: All hell breaks loose when the computer in 'Wargames' figures out the nuclear launch code. Right: Is this a valid deterrent? Sources: YouTube; Lepro/Getty...
While He Created Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax's Wife ...
July 28, 2019
In 1974, wizard Gary Gygax brought Dungeons & Dragons to the masses, and role-playing games have been a massive phenomenon in the decades since. Gygax (and h...
Who Killed Sharon Tate? How The Manson Murders Went Dow...
July 26, 2019
Left: Sharon Tate circa 1968. Right: Charles 'Tex' Watson, one of the Manson Family members involved in Tate's murder. Sources: Silver Screen Collection/Archive...
Deadheads Forever: How The Grateful Dead Live On
July 26, 2019
Left: Original lineup of The Grateful Dead featuring (l-r) Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan. Right: A Deadhead holds a sign i...
How Volvo Inventor Nils Bohlin Made Cars Safer For Ever...
July 24, 2019
Safe, not sexy -- that's been the Volvo way. The Swedish car manufacturer can claim a life-saving invention in the three-point seat belt, developed by a Volv...
Rare Stories From Woodstock 1969: Some Do Remember It
July 22, 2019
A woman sits on the grass waiting for a bus to take her to the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, New York, August 1969. The festival ran from August 15 to 18. (Photo by...
The True Story Of Sukeban: Violent Girl Gangs Of '70s J...
July 18, 2019
Violent schoolgirls on the loose, ruthless brawlers in cute outfits, teens with concealed razor blades -- the young female street-gangsters known as sukeban ...
How The Hells Angels Became America's Notorious Black S...
July 5, 2019
Members of the Hells Angels gang, acting as both security and hoodlums, jump the stage with Jorma Kaukonen of the Jefferson Airplane on December 6, 1969 at the ...
Service Before Stardom: Photos Of 28 Icons Who Served I...
July 4, 2019
Left: Willie Nelson playing a show in South Carolina in 1996. Right: Nelson during his time in the air force, circa 1950. Sources: (Paul Natkin/WireImage; Wikim...
Bobby Fischer, Cold War Chess Hero: His Rise And Eccent...
June 28, 2019
Left: Bobby Fischer in an undated photo. Right: Fischer poses for a portrait in the photographer's home in 1971 in New York City, New York. Credits: IMDB; David...
'Roots:' The Show About Race That United American Viewe...
June 27, 2019
Left: LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte in 'Roots.' Right: Lloyd Bridges (as Evan Brent) and Georg Stanford Brown (as Tom Harvey). Source: IMDB; Walt Disney Televisio...
7 Failed Presidential Assassination Attempts Of The '60...
June 23, 2019
Left: Chaotic scene of the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. Press Secretary James Brady (in blue suit with two men over him) was cri...
Fire On The Cuyahoga River: 1969's Environmental Wake-U...
June 21, 2019
Left: Firemen spray water on a fire in the Cuyahoga River in 1952, in a photograph that was wrongly associated with the 1969 fire. Right: Fire. Sources: Getty /...
Becoming Charles Manson: His Life Before The Tate-LaBia...
June 14, 2019
Left: Charles Manson in 1970. Right: Manson at Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Terminal Island, California on May 2, 1956. Sources: Bettmann/Contributor/Ge...
I'm With The Band: GTOs And Groupies According To Pamel...
June 12, 2019
Left: Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page accompanied by his girlfriend Miss Pamela (Pamela Des Barres) on June 3, 1973 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich...
'Ballad Of The Green Berets' Singer Barry Sadler's Rise...
June 3, 2019
Left: Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler in 1966. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images). Right: Sadler's mug shot from 1979. Courtesy Nashville Metropolitan Po...
