The yams you've been eating are probably sweet potatoes — here's how to tell...
Yams and sweet potatoes are not the same thing. In fact, you've probably bought a sweet potato, thinking it was yam!There are many types of sweet potatoes ranging from white, yellow, red, purple, or...
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How the 'Friday the 13th' superstition got started
Fear of Friday the 13th, also known as friggatriskaidekaphobia, plagues our society. The diagnosis brings together "Frigg," a Norse goddess and Friday's namesake, and "triskaidekaphobia," fear of the...
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5 things that used to be basic manners — but people no longer do
People love to complain about the death of manners.When we talk about modern manners, we seem to always wax nostalgic about how folks were more polite "back in the day." It's unclear where that means...
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Amazing images of Tokyo before it was a city
Before Tokyo matured into the gleaming, dense city it is today, it was a small fishing village called Edo.Now home to over 13 million people, the Japanese capital has changed dramatically since its...
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A lost Leonardo da Vinci painting was rediscovered after 500 years — but...
The Leonardo da Vinci painting "Salvator Munti" has a major flaw.It doesn't obey the laws of physics in a crucial way that's uncharacteristic of da Vinci.Critics say the flaw indicates it's a...
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The oldest photos taken in each state
The technology of photography was invented in fits and starts in the early 1800s. Looking at the earliest photos across the United States offers a sense of where the country was at the time, what the...
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5 manners people don't use anymore — for good reason
Manners have changed throughout history.The Greeks, for example, dined while reclining on beds. Before the Renaissance, tablecloths were used as napkins.Today, we have done away with many old-fashioned...
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13 of the most famous last words in history
We love famous last words.There's a reason there are so many books listing memorable deathbed sayings throughout history out there. Perhaps we'd just rather believe well-known figures tend to die...
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8 'famous last words' that were probably made up
Many pithy, memorable famous last words are posthumous fiction.Conflicting historical accounts and sparse witnesses make them hard to verify.The reality of famous figures' deaths tends to be more...
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The JFK files revealing new details of his death will be released today —...
John F. Kennedy was only president for 1,036 days — but his legacy has lived on for generations.The National Archives have released more than 3,000 JFK files, many of which have been classified since...
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THEN AND NOW: The largest city in every state
The transformations of the past centuries have changed pretty much everything — especially where we live.Here's a comparison of what the largest city in each state looks like now compared to centuries...
View ArticleThe history of Halloween spans 2,000 years and originates from keeping ghosts...
Samhain, a Celtic pagan festival, marked the beginning of winter and was believed to be a night on which spirits could roam among the living. Following is a transcript of the video.Halloween is known...
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I toured Ellis Island's eerie abandoned hospital — take a look inside
A family travels for 21 days on a boat that eventually lands on Ellis Island. They gaze at the Statue of Liberty before they are shuffled into lines. Before they start their new lives, a staff of...
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The dark history behind Halloween is even more chilling than you realized
• Halloween draws from both Celtic and Christian traditions.• While it's always had a morbid, spooky vibe, the festivities have changed quite a lot over the centuries.Halloween is the spookiest night...
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The most fascinating historic photo taken in every US state
Since photography was invented in the early 1800s, much of history — both the savory and the unsavory, the uplifting and haunting — has become immortalized in pictures.We dug through several historical...
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The Great Pyramid of Giza is hiding a huge, unexplored space — and scientists...
Researchers spent two years studying the Great Pyramid of Giza using muons — high-speed particles created by cosmic rays hitting Earth's atmosphere.Muons can penetrate deep into rock and reveal hidden...
View ArticleHere's why we call it 'Black Friday'
Many people believe we call the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday" because many stores become profitable on the huge shopping day and go "into the black." The true origins of the term are a bit...
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How Black Friday has changed over the years
Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, but it wasn't always such a widespread event.Before it became about massive crowds and insane sales, the day after Thanksgiving was popular...
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These incredible images show how Wall Street traded before the Bloomberg...
Today's traders are spoiled by their Bloomberg terminals.Back in the day, before broadband fired live quotes and analysis straight to our smartphones, people used to read bid-ask spreads off of...
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Here's a super-short history of 2,400 years of emerging markets
Modern emerging markets will celebrate their 30th birthday on December 31, 2017, the anniversary of the creation of the MSCI EM Index.The team at Renaissance Capital outlined the 2,400-year history of...
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