Showing results by author "Dan Lewis" in All Categories

History, it's said, is written by the winners – they're the ones who are still around to do the research, write the magazine articles, author the books and curate the encyclopedias.

Typhus is a bacterial-borne disease that is transmitted by flea, tick and mite bites. It can be fatal if untreated, but, thankfully, in almost all cases antibiotics, are effective.

In 1973, author Sidney Sheldon published the book The Other Side of Midnight, centering on a love triangle between an American World War II pilot, the lover he takes while stationed in France, and the woman back home whom he abandons her for after the war is over.

Robert Campbell served as a captain in the British military in World War I. As the conflict went on, so did the number of prisoners of war held by both sides, and by the summer of 1916, Germany held more than 1.6 million such POWs.

The word "dude" means "man" and, nowadays, is generically applicable to any person. (But you already knew that.) The term has been around since the late 1880s, but unlike most words, the etymology of the term was, until recently, mostly a mystery.

George Miller Beard was born in 1839. He attended Yale University, graduating in 1862, and in 1866 he earned a medical degree at the school now affiliated with Columbia University.

In 1918, the United Kingdom passed the Representation of the People Act, resulting in a major overhaul of the U.K.'s voting system.

The building located at 33 Thomas Street in Manhattan – like many buildings in Manhattan – is tall. But at 550 feet, it isn't all that tall by New York City's standards – it doesn't even crack the top 100.

Matthew Broderick's best movie was Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In the film, Broderick's character, a teen named Ferris Bueller, was able to skip school while avoiding the consequences of an absenteeism policy he ran afoul of many times over.

Charles Dodgson was an English mathematician. He taught at Christ Church, a college that is part of the University of Oxford, from 1855 until retiring in 1881, and he remained at the college in residence until his death in 1898.

In 1953 North and South Korea entered into an armistice, ending the Korean War and providing a shaky basis for something close to peace between the two nations.

The 2009 Disney/Pixar movie Up is an animated film and, therefore, was able to take liberties with the truth pretty easily. That's good, because the film's premise centers on the travels of Carl Fredricksen, a 78-year-old widower who ties tens of thousands of helium balloons to his house and, as the title suggests, goes up into the sky. The flight of Mr. Fredricksen is as fictional as it gets.

On the evening of December 2, 1984, a chemical manufacturing plant in Bhopal, India owned by Union Carbide began leaking toxic gas into the residential areas surrounding the plant, and the resulting tragedy is considered one of the worst such disasters in history.

In April 1939, DuPont Chemical introduced nylon stockings to the world at the World's Fair in New York City.

Alligators' tails allow them to swim. By moving its tail from side to side, the animal can propel itself through water at fish-like speeds, which is important because when it comes to eating, alligators have a pretty easily defined diet: if it is in or near the water, it is food.

Pineapples are indigenous to South America and were domesticated and spread throughout the tropical areas of the Americas well before Europeans landed in the New World.

Take some paper and various other materials, bundled into one neat package. Light it on fire. Use it for a bit and then, when you're done, throw it away, still lit.

Here's a simple experiment you can try at home – and, probably will in the near future, whether you'd like to or not. Call a customer support hotline, try to talk to a real human and, well, you don't have to do much else. In many cases, you'll be put on hold, and you'll get to experience hold music. It's almost a given that this will happen, as hold music has become a very common feature of such phone systems. But it has a very uncommon history.

Learn more about the French newspaper that publishes 'all the news that's fit to wait for a while,' on this episode of Now I Know. Some of the articles featured in the February 29, 2012 edition of the French-language newspaper La Bougie du Sapeur centered on the alleged dangers of chewing gum, changes in drink sizes, and a bunch of other items that don’t seem all that critical to everyday life. The newspaper is further distinguished by ads – there aren’t any – and by its website – it doesn’t have one.

Did you know that tug of war was once an Olympic Sport, or that President Teddy Roosevelt demanded that actions be taken to turn football into a more gentlemanly pastime? And what about Eddie Gaedel, the 3’7" pinch hitter for the St. Louis Browns who was nearly impossible to strike out? Even if you think you have a handle on all things trivia, you're guaranteed a big surprise with Now I Know: Sports. This special collection from the Now I Know archives will challenge your knowledge of the fascinating stories behind the world's greatest facts.