This week in 1926, a will left behind by a very unusual lawyer in Toronto led to a ten year baby-having contest nicknamed the “Stork Derby.”
Today we’re learning about new research on learning in jellyfish that suggests that you can learn even if you don’t have a brain!
Today was the birthday in 1918 of Robert Pershing Wadlow. Fans of world records remember him as the tallest man who ever lived, but there was more to the Alton Giant than his height.
50 years ago today, a man named Donald Gorske ate a McDonald’s Big Mac. It was the first of over 30,000, and yes, he holds the world record for most Big Macs eaten by a single person.
Maine became a state today in 1820. One of its best-known inventors was Chester Greenwood, who came up with a way to keep his, and many other people's, ears warm.
Today was the birthday in 1925 of actor and entrepreneur Paul Newman, who made some very popular and very acclaimed movies. But there was one movie he made that he loathed so much, he actually took out ads to convince people not to watch it.
Today in 1977, the Not Ready For Prime Time Players were joined by perhaps the most unusual guest host ever: Miskel Spillman, an 80 year old grandma from New Orleans and the winner of the "Anyone Can Host SNL Contest."
On or around this day in 1922, a pilot wrote the first skywriting message in the United States. It was a way to demonstrate an advertising technique that would be a big part of business for the next few decades.
Today's the birthday of a mystery author known to millions of kids, Donald J Sobol. He wrote the Encyclopedia Brown series, about a 10 year old detective who solved cases because he knew, as his nickname suggested, all sorts of unusual and obscure facts in the era way before the internet. Plus: it’s National Taco Day, and here's the story of one of the largest tacos ever made.
Today in 1979, a story that sounds like it came straight out of a movie: two families in Communist East Germany escaped to the West by making and flying a hot air balloon. Plus: Today in 2018, Denise Mueller-Korenek broke the world record for “fastest bicycle speed in slipstream": 183.9 mph.
