Stories: United States — Page 2

Stories connected to United States.

The club needed a band name. A TV cartoon supplied one.A Nashville country band needed a name so a club could advertise its show. Singer Michael Reynolds chose Pinm…
He wanted pasta to hold more sauce. He spent three years redesigning it.Food podcaster Dan Pashman worked with a US pasta maker from 2018 to 2021 on a new shape. The result, cascate…
'I'll coach seriously now,' said a fake post. Then the team started winning.Parody account NBACentel invented a 2024 quote claiming Milwaukee's coach would start taking coaching serious…
A new TV station went on air. Before week one ended, it had a buyer.Kansas City's KCMO-TV began broadcasting on September 27, 1953. Before its first week ended, its company agre…
'More powerful' and hard to understand. The chip never spread widely.Rockwell announced its unusual 8-bit PPS-8 processor in 1974. Computer writer Adam Osborne described it as po…
A college choir went on tour. Its earnings helped build a dorm.Facing financial trouble, Hampton Institute formed a touring choir in 1872 under Thomas P. Fenner. Its concer…
A football game brought missiles onto the field.Chicago's Armed Forces Benefit Game ran from 1946 to 1970 with military ceremonies. Two Nike Ajax anti-aircra…
She escaped occupied Hong Kong. Then kept nursing across Asia.US-born Elsie Chin nursed the wounded during the 1941 battle for Hong Kong. After the Japanese occupation, sh…
Olympic gold in boxing. Twelve years later, gold on ice.American Eddie Eagan won light-heavyweight boxing gold at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. At the 1932 Wi…
The world's tallest structure once belonged to a local TV station.A North Dakota station completed a transmission mast in 1963, about 590 meters high with a roughly 34-meter a…
A station won the ABC affiliation. Then a $50,000 bribe emerged.Ohio's WKTR-TV became a primary ABC affiliate in 1970. A scandal followed: an ABC manager had told the statio…
They planned a new federal building. Then found 419 people's remains.During excavation for a New York federal building in 1991, workers uncovered a historic African burial ground…
Punishments did not work on her. Teachers called her a 'female tiger'.Taiwan-born scholar Jing Tsu recalled being a difficult primary-school student. Her teachers nicknamed her 'f…
Height was not enough. They made the giant ride twist.Raging Bull opened in Illinois in 1999 as the first 'hyper-twister' roller coaster. It pairs a tall, fast rid…
School was out. The brothers went to a producer's house.The Lemon Twigs reached producer Jonathan Rado after sending demos online. Still in high school, the brothers…
She began a campaign online. Then moved to Samoa to grow it.US-raised Doris Tulifau launched Brown Girl Woke online in 2014 to support women and girls and challenge dome…
Guess the bargain price. Then viewers could buy the product.The 1987 US show Bargain Hunters mixed price-guessing games with home shopping, offering merchandise to peopl…
Play the music. Leave out the song names.In 1970s Minnesota, FM station WGGR favored a music-heavy format with little talking. News and weather were k…
Neptune on live television. The pictures took four hours to arrive.In 1989, US public television covered Voyager 2's Neptune flyby through a nine-hour overnight broadcast. Imag…
He visited friends for three days. Then signed to play basketball there.American basketball player Barry Leibowitz stopped in Israel for a three-day visit with friends during a vaca…
CBS bought a television station. A golf-club membership came with it.CBS's 2011 purchase of WLNY included a membership at a golf club built by the station's former owner. A 2021…
They found a new cactus together. One friend's name stayed on it.American horticulturist Bob Foster and his friend Charlie Glass made 15 plant-hunting trips to Mexico between…
Cannes gave it a mixed reception. Decades later, opinion shifted.Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me drew a polarized reaction at Cannes in 1992; contemporary reports described bot…
He was hired to demolish it. After seeing it, he called city officials.A Frank Lloyd Wright house in Arizona faced demolition for redevelopment in 2012. Landscaper Alexander Malate…
Could paper towels empty a pool? It would take over a million.YouTuber Tyler Oliveira posted a 2020 video trying to absorb a swimming pool with large numbers of paper towe…
A building for sorting letters. A guard's shooting range on the roof.New York's Bronx General Post Office opened in 1937 with extensive mail-sorting facilities. Its original buil…
Recording began in a basement. The album arrived over a decade later.Rapper Boldy James and producer Sterling Toles began recording Manger on McNichols in a Detroit basement betw…
A former soldier was injured by a car. Dance classes helped her move again.LaTasha Barnes worked in satellite communications in the US Army and later at the White House Communications…
The opera was a tragedy. His costume dropped twice.During a 1935 performance of Rigoletto at Boston Opera House, singer Ettore Verna's lower costume fell to his…
Jean shorts became 'jorts'. Punks, skaters and rappers all wore them.The word jorts, shortened from jean shorts, is recorded from the 1990s and is sometimes used to mock unfashio…
She won a Broadway role. The theater shut after three rehearsal days.Elizabeth Teeter was cast as Lydia in Broadway's Beetlejuice in March 2020. After three days of rehearsals, t…
Desert land came cheap. Finding water did not.Frank Lloyd Wright bought Arizona desert land for his winter studio in 1937. It was cheap partly because grou…
The person behind the song left a message. It ended up on the debut single.US band Honey Revenge released its debut single Miss Me in 2021. Singer Devin Papadol had written it years ea…
After a space-center tour, he made an unscheduled supermarket stop.During a September 1989 US visit, Soviet politician Boris Yeltsin stopped at an ordinary Houston grocery stor…
It flowers, fruits and grows readily. That may be why snobs overlook it.Mammillaria prolifera is a familiar, easy-to-grow cactus that can bear flowers and fruit at once. It has intr…
He was studying law. The next day he flew to New York to act.Dabney Coleman was struggling at law school when actor Zachary Scott, a friend of his wife, visited for about…
The paper helped make a newscast. Then worried it might report first.The Philadelphia Inquirer was linked to the 1990s program Inquirer News Tonight. Editors sometimes withheld i…
Making liquor was illegal. A monk helped farmers build stills.During US Prohibition, Benedictine brother Justus Trettel reportedly helped Minnesota farmers build stills to…
An opera singer needed tuition. A Kodak jingle helped pay it.American composer and soprano Susan Botti took commercial work on Kodak's 1988 Olympic 'True Colors' jingle t…
ABC launched a national morning show. One local station kept its own.In Tulsa, Oklahoma, KTUL's John Chick Show was a popular live morning music program. After ABC launched Good…
Headaches led to brain surgery. The next season he returned to play.US college football player Chad Brinker developed severe headaches and blurred vision in 2001. Doctors found…
Staff learned their radio station was being sold. Its owner died that same day.Employees of WLOK in Lima, Ohio, were told on 30 July 1954 that their station was being sold. On the same day…
He was not looking for new species. One flower still got his name.Colorado botanist Harold Harrington collected unusual plants and sent them to specialists rather than hunting…
A station replaced its news anchors. Viewers showed up to protest.Florida TV station WPEC fired Reg Miller and moved Laurel Sauer to weekends in 1988. Viewers responded with p…
An early Green Bay Packer also worked for the packing company.Wally Ladrow played for the Green Bay Packers from their founding season in 1919. He also worked for the Indi…
The Wizard of Oz opened in 1939. Its original film soundtrack arrived in 1956.The soundtrack using recordings from the film came out in 1956, around the movie's television premiere. Other…
She could not pay for her final semester. She later earned an unprecedented law degree.Unable to afford her last semester at Howard, Mabel Dole Haden transferred to Virginia State College and comp…
A high-school radio station fell silent when its adviser went to Europe.California school station KAUG stopped broadcasting while its only qualified faculty adviser studied in Europ…
A campus webcam began in 1994. Fans objected when it was set to close.Two students started FogCam at San Francisco State University in 1994. Guinness recognised it as a long-runni…
A bag meant to reduce waste became something people collect.Baggu launched reusable bags in the US in 2007. Limited designs and collaborations later attracted collectors…
The roof leaked. The architect reportedly said to move the chair.Frank Lloyd Wright designed Wingspread, a Wisconsin house completed in 1939. It later suffered leaks. Accordi…
Some plant fossils still carry the colors they had millions of years ago.The Clarkia beds within the Latah Formation in the northwestern US formed about 16 million years ago. Excepti…
He had not dated anyone, so he listened to couples for a love song.Conan Gray said the idea for his 2021 song People Watching came from overhearing couples and wishing to share…
Some shop managers did not know who owned their shopping mall.In 1997, several managers at Michigan's North Kent Mall told a local newspaper they did not know who owned th…
Commissioned for pineapple juice ads, O'Keeffe first painted a flower and papaya.In 1939 Georgia O'Keeffe made Hawaii paintings for Dole pineapple juice advertising. Her first submissions sh…
She cut up leggings for comfort. A WNBA style followed.In 2018, A'ja Wilson wanted to keep a sore leg warm but found full leggings restrictive. She cut a pair to co…
He argued that his life sentence ended when he was revived. The court disagreed.Iowa prisoner Benjamin Schreiber was resuscitated after severe illness in 2015. He later argued that his life…
A jazz arrangement of a Kirby game tune won a Grammy.The US-based 8-Bit Big Band rearranges video game music for jazz orchestra. Its version of Meta Knight's Reve…
Thieves broke into a cave and took formations that took millennia to grow.In August 2020, vandals forced open the gate of Fitton Cave in Arkansas and stole or destroyed formations inc…
A salmon relative appears to have lived its whole life in fresh water.Eosalmo fossils from Eocene lake deposits in western North America include juveniles and adults. That pattern…
The building called Wall Street Plaza has a Pine Street address.New York's Wall Street Plaza stands in the Financial District but does not adjoin Wall Street. Its address is…
US ketchup grading asks how far it flows in half a minute.A Bostwick consistometer measures the flow of tomato ketchup for US grades. At 20°C, grades A and B require i…
SpongeBob's creators wanted a theme loud enough to annoy sleeping parents.The SpongeBob SquarePants theme adapts an old sea-shanty melody. Creative director Derek Drymon later recalle…
He left school to help his family, then led Colorado's state House.Ruben Valdez dropped out of high school at 15 to work in a brickyard as his family struggled financially. He…
Seattle's mayor sprained his ankle while hunting and was missing for over 30 hours.On 25 September 1902, Mayor Thomas J. Humes slipped and sprained his ankle during a bear hunt. He remained mi…
During the American Civil War, the Union built ships for a second, feared war.In 1863 the Union Navy feared Britain might enter the Civil War on the Confederate side. It planned fast Wamp…
A bald eagle incubated a rock. Then rescuers gave him a real chick.At a Missouri sanctuary in 2023, Murphy the bald eagle began incubating a rock and guarding it from other eag…
A leader thought the tower too short. After his death, lightning struck it.Brigham Young had disliked the short tower of Utah's St. George Temple. In 1889, two years after his death, a…
Turning off JavaScript does not rule out every kind of fingerprinting.CSS normally controls a web page's appearance. Conditional style rules can also reveal clues about a visitor'…
A modest home stood among Manhattan towers and drew a huge crowd.America's Little House opened on Park Avenue in 1934 as a model home, complete with a lawn and white fence. S…
The suggestion to try American football came from a burger-shop owner.Samoan-born, Australian-raised Laki Tasi grew up playing rugby. A family friend who owned a burger shop sugge…
Before his NFL appearance, he was a world champion at throwing dried cow dung.Greg Jensen stepped away from football after high school. He won a state cow-chip throwing contest in 1985 an…
Two nuthatch species gave an ornithologist a literary pun.Robert Allen Norris compared two nuthatches for his 1954 doctoral dissertation: Sitta pusilla and Sitta pygma…
A lawyer began filming communication tips inside a parked pickup truck.In 2022, Texas lawyer Jefferson Fisher recorded short videos in his truck in Silsbee. A TikTok on how to argu…
An election tally assigned 130 votes to a candidate's brother.In Vermont's 1860 congressional election, 130 votes from Fairfield were mistakenly credited to Carlos Baxter…
To follow an Edison biography, a reviewer started at its last chapter.Edmund Morris's 2019 biography Edison runs from the inventor's death back to his birth. NPR's Scott Detrow fo…
An apology after two fans were ejected helped start a baseball tradition.In 2000, security removed a lesbian couple from a Los Angeles Dodgers game for kissing. The club apologized.…
A tanker lost to a torpedo later served as demolition practice.In April 1942, the tanker Axtell J. Byles was torpedoed while US Coast Guard cutter Dione escorted its convoy…
The actor playing a clockmaker went to learn the craft himself.Ben Ahlers plays clockmaker Jack Trotter in The Gilded Age. For the show's second season, he took watchmaking…
The lead actress brought bears and wolves to the film set.For the 1920s film The Grub-Stake, Nell Shipman moved her animal collection between filming locations. It inc…
A party nominated a man who said he had tried to avoid the nomination.In Michigan in 1912, L. Whitney Watkins preferred another candidate for governor and said he had sought to av…
A brass group changed a trombone's sound with folded foil.The Westerlies, a U.S. ensemble of two trumpets and two trombones, has experimented by folding tin foil acros…
A U.S. college recruited a German player it had never seen play.In 2020, American football player Leander Wiegand was offered an athletic scholarship by the University of Ce…
He built a house door that his pets and people could all open.Writer Paul Corey made a door at his California home that his two cats, dog and human residents could operate…
Workers found contaminated nests at a nuclear site, without finding the insects.In 2025, a radioactive wasp nest was found at the U.S. Savannah River Site; three more were found later. The…
He did not make the baseball team, but later led the university's sports department.Graham Rossini tried out for Arizona State's baseball team but accepted a student-assistant role suggested by…
How many times does one rock song say 'Na'?A Rock Sound writer counted 261 instances of 'Na' in My Chemical Romance's song Na Na Na. The repetition itse…
A new TV station made its employees' paychecks part of the promotion.WMT-TV, which began broadcasting in Iowa in 1953, paid employees in unusual two-dollar bills as a promotional…
When threatened, this rabbit may dive in and swim away.The swamp rabbit lives in wetlands of the southern United States. It is territorial and mostly active at nigh…
After being drafted by the NFL, a player wanted to find the judge who sent him to reform school.Ralph Jarvis began playing football at a juvenile reform school, continued in college, and was drafted by the…
On a coastal rail line, the hillside can decide whether commuters get a train.Washington state's Sounder North Line cancelled a record 170 trips between September 2012 and March 2013 beca…
A pianist's arm pain led her to a smaller instrument and a new musical path.After tendinopathy made both her arms sore, American pianist Phyllis Chen turned to the toy piano. She founde…
He tried to lift soldiers' spirits with a ceremony for a gun—and was recalled.In 1861, Civil War chaplain Thomas Mooney 'baptized' a cannon at Fort Corcoran. His archbishop objected to th…
A hurricane nearly erased this island; moving sand began to bring it back.Hawaii's East Island was reduced to a narrow sandbar by Hurricane Walaka in 2018. Natural sediment movement t…
A laid-back dog drawing went viral, then became a cryptocurrency without its artist's consent.Phillip Banks posted Chill Guy in 2023. The image spread widely in 2024, and an unauthorized meme coin used i…
A patent dispute led an engineer to build a working computer with game-console parts.Lee Boysel demonstrated the early AL1 chip in a small computer built for a microprocessor patent dispute. Its…
In a forest radiation experiment, lichens proved unexpectedly tough.Researchers irradiated part of a Wisconsin forest in 1972 to study ecological effects. Lichens and some plant…
They moved into a Frank Lloyd Wright house and sat on cardboard boxes.The Freemans initially could not afford furniture for their Los Angeles house, designed by Wright, so they sa…
Nicolas Cage took cooking lessons for a chef role.For the 2021 film Pig, two Portland chefs trained Cage to portray a Portland chef. One was Gabriel Rucker, wh…
One wall showed winners. Another displayed 600 arrowheads.At California's Chicken Ranch bingo hall in 1992, a gift shop displayed 600 arrowheads on one wall and photos…
A UFO festival has hosted costume contests for pets.McMinnville, Oregon, began its UFO festival in 2000 around the 50th anniversary of famous 1950 UFO photos. It…
The wanted man was his own sonBass Reeves escaped slavery and became a deputy U.S. marshal in 1875. His career eventually brought a painful…
Funeral biscuits came with a black sealA British magazine in 1790 described sweet biscuits given to funeral guests. The biscuits were wrapped in pap…
Soldier Robert was DeborahIn 1782 Deborah Sampson enlisted under a male name during the American Revolution. A doctor discovered her id…
His baseball uniform had a question markFormer player Max Patkin became a comic performer at baseball grounds across North America. His baggy uniform…
A chicken inside a duck inside a turkeyTurducken puts a deboned chicken inside a deboned duck, then inside a deboned turkey. Its name combines the n…
Woodstock had a “Please Force”At the original Woodstock festival in 1969, Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm collective helped with preparations a…
He performs with cards and tests how they feelCard expert Richard Turner developed his performance skills despite losing his sight. A playing-card company…
The upper half chased the escaping legsIn a 1937 stage illusion, Johnny Eck and his twin brother helped add a twist to the familiar sawing act. Subs…
The show continued after her husband diedAdelaide Herrmann had played many roles in her husband’s magic shows. When he died in 1896, she decided to co…
The billionaire gave money away in secretChuck Feeney built a fortune through duty-free retail and spent years giving anonymously. His lifetime donati…
Michigan gave up Toledo and gained more peninsulaIn the 1830s Ohio and Michigan disputed land around Toledo. A compromise tied Michigan’s statehood to surrend…
A museum for Spam, not unwanted emailAustin, Minnesota has a museum devoted to the canned meat Spam. Exhibits cover the changing cans and the prod…
A museum for mistakes too interesting to ignoreThe Museum of Bad Art began after a painting was recovered from the trash. It looks for seriously intended or…
A shipboard spring suggested a toyIn 1943 Richard T. James worked on springs for supporting sensitive instruments aboard ships. Watching a drop…
She did not describe her cookie as an accidentRuth Graves Wakefield’s Toll House cookie is sometimes explained as a mistake involving chocolate that failed…
The childhood ice-pop story has a complicationFrank Epperson is associated with a story about a childhood drink freezing around a stirring stick. Later rep…
Eight days after winning, she lost the titleRosie Ruiz was initially declared the women’s winner of the 1980 Boston Marathon. Eight days later, she was s…
Ten-cent beer ended with a forfeited baseball gameOn June 4, 1974, Cleveland’s stadium offered ten-cent beer during a game against Texas. Late in the game, spe…
An earthquake helps explain some of the odd architectureCalifornia’s Winchester Mystery House is known for dead-end stairs and unusual doors. The 1906 earthquake dam…
Four leaders fell, and the trailing skater took goldIn the men’s 1,000-metre short-track final at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Steven Bradbury was behind the other…
King beat the former champion in three straight setsIn Houston in 1973, 55-year-old Bobby Riggs faced 29-year-old Billie Jean King in a heavily publicized tennis…
A room projects roughly 66 metres with no columns beneath itAt Wisconsin’s House on the Rock, the Infinity Room projects about 66 metres from the main structure without…
Broken bottles and shells decorate a thirty-metre towerSimon Rodia spent 33 years building the Watts Towers in Los Angeles. Steel and concrete structures are decora…
Newspapers became walls and furniture in this houseMassachusetts’ Paper House was built in the 1920s. Newspaper panels filled a wooden frame and were left visib…
He left a failing aircraft and entered a thundercloudIn 1959, US pilot William Rankin ejected after his aircraft’s engine failed. His parachute opened inside a th…
Rain arrived, but his promised payment did notSan Diego approached self-described rainmaker Charles Hatfield in 1915 about filling a reservoir. Heavy rain…
Another game on the mound bought him a fishing breakAfter winning a seventeen-inning game for Milwaukee in 1900, Rube Waddell was offered a three-day fishing vac…
A major-league uniform carried the number one-eighthEddie Gaedel appeared for the St. Louis Browns on August 19, 1951, wearing number 1/8. Four consecutive balls…
Her drawings helped establish who designed the machineMargaret Knight developed a machine to make flat-bottomed paper bags automatically. After someone else patent…
A windshield-wiper patent did not quickly find a buyerMary Anderson patented a window-cleaning device in 1903, operated from inside a vehicle by a lever. In 1905,…
A skating problem became an ear-protector businessAccounts of Chester Greenwood describe him wanting to protect his ears while skating at fifteen. His grandmot…
A damaged instrument helped reveal an adhesiveA material examined by Harry Coover’s team was rejected as too sticky for another purpose. In 1951, a chemist…
An early zipper predecessor began with shoesWhitcomb Judson’s clasp-locker was a predecessor of the modern zipper, first intended for shoes and high boot…
She handed out wire to explain a nanosecondGrace Hopper distributed pieces of wire about thirty centimetres long to represent how far light travels in a…
The experimental vehicle walked on four legsGeneral Electric created an experimental four-legged Walking Truck in 1965. An operator inside used hand and…
Another town’s claim helped inspire a garlic festivalGilroy’s Garlic Festival began in California in 1979. Its founder was inspired by a French town’s annual fest…
A household job led to a job classifying starsWilliamina Fleming worked as a maid in the home of Harvard’s observatory director. She began helping with obs…
Some historical ketchup was made from mushroomsBritish ketchup historically included versions made mainly from mushrooms. A mushroom ketchup recipe also app…
He automated a skilled bottleneck in shoemakingSuriname-born Jan Matzeliger worked in the American shoe industry and developed an automatic lasting machine.…
His toilet paper carried his own watermarkJoseph Gayetty marketed toilet paper in the United States in 1857. It came as separate sheets rather than a r…
Tomato preserves have a long printed historyTomato jam is a preserve made from tomatoes and sugar. An American recipe was published in 1840. Some sandwic…
A painting technique helped solve typing errorsSecretary Bette Nesmith Graham was frustrated when small typing errors meant redoing a page. Painting over mi…
A separate shirt part reduced the washing taskDetachable collars could be removed and washed independently from a shirt. If only the collar was dirty, the…
Her land game was designed to question monopoliesLizzie Magie patented The Landlord’s Game in 1904 to demonstrate problems with land monopolism. Later version…
He sold the safety-pin patent for four hundred dollarsWalter Hunt developed his safety pin in 1849, using a protective clasp and a coiled wire that kept the point…
Fruit and vegetables can share a gelatin moldAmerican jello salad combines flavored gelatin with fruit and sometimes vegetables such as grated carrots. Ot…
Her umbrella could put on a different colorAmong Beulah Louise Henry’s inventions was an umbrella with interchangeable, differently colored snap-on clot…
Mock turtle soup imitates another soupEnglish mock turtle soup uses ingredients such as calf’s head to imitate the texture and flavor of turtle sou…
The cloudy solution was not thrown awayStephanie Kwolek’s cloudy solution was the sort usually discarded. Concern that it would clog the spinning eq…
She tried it as material for a diaper coverMarion Donovan experimented with materials in her attic and repurposed a lightweight shower curtain into a wa…
The pole-vault champion also developed a construction toyA. C. Gilbert shared the pole-vault gold medal with Edward Cook at the 1908 Olympics. In 1913 he developed th…
A hinged bed can give its space back to the roomA Murphy bed folds upright against a wall or into a cabinet when not in use. Folding bedsteads existed before…
The Mighty Atom was still performing in his eightiesJoe Greenstein, known as the Mighty Atom, continued strongman performances into his eighties. Accounts record…
The apparent kiss is a territorial confrontationMale sarcastic fringeheads display their large, brightly colored mouths in territorial encounters. Rivals can…
The player unable to capture losesHawaiian kōnane begins with alternating pieces filling the board and opening removals creating space. Subsequ…
She added baskets to a Niagara tightrope crossingMaria Spelterini crossed the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope in July 1876. On a subsequent crossing she strapped…
Her husband became part of the strength displayCircus strongwoman Katie Sandwina performed feats including lifting her husband overhead with one hand. A rep…
The inventor brought his equipment to a real rescueIn 1916, Garrett Morgan was summoned at night to a Cleveland tunnel disaster. He and his brother arrived in p…
Goodyear did not found the company named GoodyearCharles Goodyear is associated with the development of vulcanized rubber. The tire company bears his name, bu…
The 1988 patent followed years of developmentOphthalmologist Patricia Bath conceived a laser device for cataract surgery in 1981. Following research inclu…
The melted-candy story is not securely documentedPercy Spencer’s microwave work is often introduced through a candy bar melting in his pocket. Credible primar…
A study of an unread script filled 180,000 cardsAlice Kober studied the frequencies and patterns of Linear B signs. When the Second World War made paper hard…
Borge read the marks as sound effectsPianist and comedian Victor Borge’s Phonetic Punctuation routine added exaggerated sound effects for periods,…
The number names the toppings, not the heatCincinnati chili is served over spaghetti. Chili and pasta make a two-way; cheese creates a three-way; adding…
A regional sandwich combines familiar formsThe chow mein sandwich places a brown-gravy chow mein mixture in a hamburger-style bun. Associated with south…
A date and place marked the copying breakthroughOn October 22, 1938, Chester Carlson and Otto Kornei produced a xerographic copy in Astoria, New York. The im…
The Garbage Plate is a meat-and-sides combinationRochester, New York’s Garbage Plate piles hot dog or hamburger meat and sauce over sides such as macaroni sal…
Diemer taught the salesmen to blow bubblesWalter Diemer worked as an accountant while experimenting with gum in his spare time. His 1928 bubble gum dev…
Broomball players wear specialized shoesBroomball takes place on ice, but players use specialized rubber-soled shoes rather than skates. They send a…
The pickleball kitchen is not simply off limitsPickleball’s kitchen is the non-volley zone beside the net. Restrictions concern hitting a ball before it bou…
Anna Coleman Ladd used portrait skills for wartime masksDuring World War I, Anna Coleman Ladd made cosmetic masks for soldiers with facial injuries. She used pre-inj…
Zoetropes turn a strip of pictures into apparent motionA zoetrope holds a sequence of pictures inside a slotted cylinder. As it turns, viewers look through the slot…
Houdini also performed a large stage illusionHarry Houdini made an adult elephant vanish at New York’s Hippodrome. This was a non-escape stage illusion, a…
Crossing sweepers cleared a pedestrian’s wayNineteenth-century crossing sweepers cleared a path through dirty urban streets in exchange for gratuities. H…
An egg cream’s name does not list its ingredientsAn egg cream combines milk, carbonated water and flavoured syrup. Despite its name, it contains neither eggs…
Quimby worked across aviation, journalism and filmHarriet Quimby obtained a US pilot’s licence in 1911 and also wrote films directed by D. W. Griffith that yea…
Absquatulate means to leave in a hurryAmerican English absquatulate is slang for departing quickly or fleeing. Attested since the 1830s, it is a jo…
Ruth Law’s engine stopped over ManhattanAfter a nonstop flight from Chicago to New York State in November 1916, Ruth Law continued to New York City t…
Snollygoster describes an unprincipled, shrewd personThe old English slang term snollygoster describes a shrewd person not guided by principles, especially a poli…
Scott’s early hop complicates a first-flight claimBlanche Scott’s training aircraft had a throttle limiter intended to keep it on the ground. A shift in that l…
The modern crumber shrank table cleaningBaltimore restaurateur John Henry Miller invented the modern crumber in 1939. The pocket-sized tool removes c…
Doris Self competed long after an airline careerFormer flight attendant Doris Self set a Q*bert world record under tournament settings in 1984, aged fifty-ei…
She could run, but could not crouchA plane crash injured Betty Robinson in 1931. She eventually ran again, but could not kneel for a sprint star…
From dirt roads to Olympic goldRacial segregation denied Alice Coachman access to proper sports facilities. She ran barefoot on dirt roads a…
The horses outnumbered the soldiersDuring Operation Cowboy in 1945, US troops moved horses from Hostau in what is now Czechia. The horses outnum…
Crooked things and imaginary creaturesIn American colloquial English, catawampus can mean crooked or out of alignment. As a noun, it can also name…
She waited for the start in the bushesDenied entry to the 1966 Boston Marathon, Bobbi Gibb hid near the start and joined the runners. She finished…
A word for letting time drift awayTo lollygag is to dawdle or spend time idly. It puts a playful-sounding label on the familiar business of get…
Someone tried to remove her race numberKathrine Switzer registered for Boston in 1967 using her usual signature, K. V. Switzer. During the race, an…
A strange word against confusing writingGobbledygook describes language made confusing by excessive complexity. Maury Maverick used it in a 1944 memo…
Rejected by the race, she crossed the ChannelA Channel swimming competition rejected Florence Chadwick in 1950 because she was not well known. She organis…
The people waiting for 22 October 1844In the United States, Millerites awaited Christ’s return. The movement adopted 22 October 1844 as the expecte…
From a leg brace to three Olympic goldsChildhood polio weakened Wilma Rudolph’s left leg. After treatment, she learned to walk without a brace by ab…
This cricket-like insect drums with its abdomenJerusalem crickets are neither true crickets nor native to Jerusalem. During courtship, they beat their abdom…
An umbrella word that sounds misleadingly BritishBumbershoot is a humorous slang word for an umbrella, originally and chiefly American. It is sometimes mistak…
The actress’s award went to the wrong person on stageAt the 1985 Emmy Awards, Barry Bremen reached the stage before winner Betty Thomas. He said he thought she wa…
The fake tanks were only partly hiddenIn World War II, the US Ghost Army used inflatable vehicles to suggest the presence of troops. Some concealme…
A chicken decides the bingo numberFruita, Colorado, celebrates Mike, a chicken that survived for about eighteen months after losing most of its…
A tiny forklift retrieves the stockAstronomer Clifford Stoll sells glass Klein bottles online. He stores stock in the crawlspace beneath his Oak…