The practice of turning one cigarette upside down in a pack of cigarettes started in World War II. To a U.S. soldier, if you made it to the last cigarette in your pack it meant you lived another day, thus the last cigarette was considered lucky.
Garth Brooks created Chris Gaines as a one-off fictional rock persona.
Edward Titchener introduced “empathy” into the English language in 1909 as the translation of the German term “einfühlung” (or “feeling into”).
The elephant birds of Madagascar (or “vorompatra” in Malagasy language) were large, flightless ratites – some weighed more than 700 kilograms and stood up to 3 meters tall. They became extinct around 1,000 years ago, soon after humans first settled in Madagascar.
New research concludes Leonardo da Vinci was only half-Italian, his mother a slave from the Caucasus.
This article appears in March 24 • 2023.