According to author Roy Richard Grinker, the 1860 U.S. census included more than 300 causes of insanity, including childbirth, poverty and masturbation.

Do you like having a color computer monitor? It was first invented in 1980 by Mark Dean, an African American computer scientist and engineer for IBM.

YInMn Blue is the first inorganic blue created in more than 200 years (cobalt blue was the last one back in 1802). It’s derived from yttrium, indium, and manganese. Crayola created a new crayon, Bluetiful.

Any Fiat Barchetta built between 1995 and 2002 contained a hand-written travellers’ prayer on a little piece of paper hidden somewhere in the car.

Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., is a private Christian institution named for Flavius Josephus Lee. Yards away from the campus is a monument to Confederate military dead. Even though the university isn’t named for Robert E. Lee, it still has had a Confederate monument-removal controversy.

This article appears in February 19 • 2021.

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