April 3, 1936 Bruno Hauptmann, convicted of kidnapping Lindbergh’s son, executed. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, convicted in the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the 20-month-old son of Charles A. Lindbergh, is executed by electrocution. On March 1, 1932, Charles Lindbergh Jr., the son of the famous American aviator who made the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in 1927, was kidnapped from the nursery of the Lindbergh home in Hopewell, New Jersey. A ransom note was found on the scene of the crime demanding $50,000 in payment for the return of Charles Jr. Three days later, the Lindbergh's involved the authorities against the kidnapper’s advice, and the ransom was increased to $70,000. On April 2, at New Jersey’s St. Raymond’s Cemetery, John F. Condon, a friend of the Lindbergh's, handed over the $70,000. The Lindbergh baby was not returned, however, and nearly six weeks later the infant’s battered and mostly decomposed body was found in the woods just a few miles from the Lindbergh home. The cause of death was determined to be a massive fracture of the skull occurring roughly two to three months before. Following the tragic discovery, the Lindbergh kidnapping case became a sensational media event, and authorities launched an extensive manhunt for the guilty party. Using the serial numbers of the ransom money as a guide, investigators in September traced more than $11,000 of the ransom money to the Bronx, New York, apartment of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German carpenter. During the subsequent criminal trial, Hauptmann maintained his innocence, claiming that a business partner, Isador Fisch, gave him the money before returning to Germany, where he died in 1934. However, other evidence also implicated him, such as the discovery of Condon’s telephone number on a closet wall in Hauptmann’s home and eyewitness testimony from the night of the kidnapping. In February 1935, Hauptmann was convicted; and on April 3, 1936, after a series of appeals, he was executed by electrocution. In the years following the kidnapping, a number of people began to question Hauptmann’s guilt and the quality of the criminal investigation; however, much of this criticism was likely motivated by opposition to Lindbergh following the public revelations of his Nazi sympathies.

There's a reason your doctor wears a white coat. People consider doctors more trustworthy when they wear a white coat. Uniforms convey a sense of competency across professions ranging from delivery person and airline staff to chef and firefighter. The psychological implications may be even stronger when it comes to matters of health: According to one study published in the medical journal BMJ Open, doctors who don the traditional white coat are perceived as more trustworthy, knowledgeable, and approachable than those who administer to patients in scrubs or casual business wear. The 2015-16 study drew from a questionnaire presented to more than 4,000 patients across 10 U.S. academic medical centers. Asked to rate their impressions of doctors pictured in various modes of dress, participants delivered answers that varied depending on their age and the context of proposed medical care. For example, patients preferred their doctors to wear a white coat atop formal attire in a physician's office, but favored scrubs in an emergency or surgical setting. Additionally, younger respondents were generally more accepting of scrubs in a hospital environment. Regardless, the presence of the white coat rated highly across the board — seemingly a clear signal to medical professionals on how to inspire maximum comfort and confidence from their patients. Yet the issue of appropriate dress for doctors isn't as cut and dry as it seems, as decades of research have shown that those empowering white coats are more likely to harbor microbes that could be problematic in a health care setting. In part that’s because the garments are long-sleeved, which offers more surface area for microbes to gather — a problem that’s compounded because the coats are generally washed less often than other types of clothing. Although no definitive link between the long-sleeved coats and actual higher rates of pathogen transmission has been established, some programs, including the VCU School of Medicine in Virginia, have embraced a bare-below-the-elbows (BBE) dress code to minimize such problems. Clothes may make the man (or woman), but when it comes to patient safety, the general public may want to reassess their idea of how our health care saviors should appear. Western doctors dressed in black until the late 1800s. If the idea of a physician or surgeon wearing black seems a little morbid, well, that may have been part of the point in the 19th century. After all, the medical field had more than its share of undertrained practitioners who relied on sketchy procedures such as bloodletting, and even the work of a competent doctor could lead to lethal complications. However, Joseph Lister's introduction of antisepsis in the 1860s dramatically cut the mortality rate for surgical patients, and with it, the perception of the possibilities of medicine underwent a major shift. While black had once been worn to denote seriousness, doctors began wearing white lab coats like scientists to demonstrate their devotion to science-based methodology, a sartorial presentation that also reflected an association with cleanliness and purity. By the turn of the century, the image of the black-clad physician was largely consigned to the remnants of an unenlightened age.

Pablo Picasso’s full name was more than 100 letters long. Pablo Picasso is one of the most recognizable names in art history, but if the painter had opted to go by his full name, it’d be a lot harder to remember. He was baptized with one first name, two last names, and 12 middle names, for a grand total of 112 letters: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano María de los Remedios de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso. (The exact order and spelling vary by source.) It’s common in Spanish-speaking cultures to have two last names, one for each parent. In Picasso’s case, Ruiz was his paternal surname, Picasso was his maternal surname, and he was given his first name, Pablo, in honor of a paternal uncle who died a few years before his birth. His many middle names each had their own meaning, too. Some are family names: He was given Diego for both his paternal grandfather and oldest uncle, Francisco de Paula for his maternal grandfather, Juan Nepomuceno for his godfather, and María de los Remedios for his godmother. Others are religious. Santísima Trinidad means Holy Trinity, while Crispín and Crispiniano come from St. Crispín and St. Crispinian, whose feast day, October 25, is also Picasso’s birthday. Some of the artist’s earlier works are signed P. Ruiz, P. Ruiz Picasso, or P.R. Picasso — but eventually, he settled on the name known by millions today, choosing just “Picasso” for his signature. #Picasso

A woman traveled more than 86,000 miles by bicycle in a single year. Amanda Coker is an endurance cyclist who currently holds the record for the greatest distance cycled in a single year by either a woman or a man. She covered 86,573.2 miles between May 15, 2016, and May 14, 2017, averaging 237.19 miles each day. She largely achieved the record by cycling through the same 7-mile stretch of paved trails in Flatwoods Conservation Park near Tampa, Florida, where Coker usually spent more than 12 hours a day pedaling away. She continued on until July 11, 2017, in an effort to become the fastest person to complete 100,000 miles. Coker finally accomplished the feat after 423 days, shattering legendary cyclist Tommy Godwin’s 500-day record set back in 1940. On October 23, 2021, Coker also became the first recorded female cyclist to break 500 miles in 24 hours, riding a whopping 512.5 miles in that brief time frame.

Did this man really eat an entire plane?! 🛩️ A man ate several bicycles, TVs, and a waterbed over the course of his life. Michel Lotito was a French entertainer renowned for his unusual diet, earning him the nickname “Monsieur Mangetout” (“Mr. Eat-it-All”). He was known to consume bicycles, TV sets, and other items made of metal and glass. In a 1978 interview with Canadian newspaper The Leader-Post, the man with the seemingly iron stomach claimed to have eaten his first piece of glass in a swimming pool at the age of 16 before going on to eat “plates, nails, and bottles — all to win bets.” He later carved out a career eating indigestible objects for others’ amusement. On one occasion in 1978, Lotito ate 15 pounds of a bicycle over the course of 12 days for $5,000 (around $24,000 today), washing it down with 10 bottles of mineral oil and 100 razor blades on the side. To digest these materials, Lotito chopped the metal items into tiny pellets, stretched his meals out over multiple days, and drank plenty of water. Newspapers also reported on Lotito’s ability to consume TV sets, and he once ate a whole waterbed to help promote a Texas-based furniture company. However, Lotito’s most awe-inspiring feat, if true, was his claim to have consumed an entire Cessna 150 aircraft between 1978 and 1980 — an achievement confirmed by Guinness World Records but deemed unverifiable (though possible) by Snopes. Lotito maintained the truth of this claim until he died of natural causes in 2006, and in a 1999 interview with journalist Ben Sherwood, he purported the plane’s rubber tires to be the least appetizing part of the aircraft. #Dinner

Should We Be Eating Ants? Some ants are edible. Although ants rarely appear on the menu in the United States, it’s a different story in other parts of the world. Countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America — not to mention Mexico in North America — all have traditional dishes or ingredient blends that contain ants. In Laos, weaver ants add an acidic tang to fish soups, while in Mexico, fried leaf-cutting ants are a fixture at local markets. Although both larvae and adult ants can be eaten, the former is usually more appetizing; adult ants contain less flavor, though they are richer in protein. Ants also contain fiber, vitamins, and minerals such as iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and phosphorus. In other words, ants might just count as a superfood. Nutrition aside, perhaps the most convincing reason people might consider adding ants — and other insects — to their diet is the low environmental impact of consuming these creatures. Compared to conventional livestock farming, which may produce around 17% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, raising insects for consumption produces less emissions, uses less land, and provides other benefits, such as pollination and waste decomposition. Even substituting corn-based animal feed with insects could take a significant bite out of the agricultural industry’s carbon footprint. With the world’s population expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, some experts argue that a green-friendly source of protein and vitamins shouldn’t be ignored — even if some people will still need to get past that unappetizing “ick” factor. Estimated number of people around the world who eat insects on a regular basis 2 billion The world’s most painful sting belongs to a South American ant. Think of the most painful sting in the world, and the infamous “murder hornet” might come to mind. However, the record for the most painful sting from an animal belongs to the bullet ant (Paraponera clavata). The bite of these tiny creatures, native to parts of Central and South America, contains poneratoxin — a paralyzing toxic peptide that reportedly feels like “walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail embedded in your heel.” That’s according to American entomologist Dr. Justin Schmidt, nicknamed “the King of Sting,” who allowed a variety of species to sting him and then rated the results on a four-point scale in a pain index published in 1983. The effects of a bullet ant’s sting last around 12 to 24 hours and can include sweating, shaking, goosebumps, nausea, and vomiting — but thankfully not death.

Why Queen Elizabeth I had black teeth. Queen Elizabeth I’s teeth turned black from too much sugar. You may think you have a sweet tooth, but it likely doesn’t compare to the sugar craze that swept through the English upper crust in the 16th century. Due to colonial trade, sugar — a rare seasoning and preservative in the medieval period — flowed into Elizabethan England. Yet because of its high cost, the sucrose could only be purchased by the wealthy. The treat became the central ingredient of lavish banquets, and cookbooks of the well-to-do began to collect delectable dishes made with this new confection. However, sugar’s deleterious dental effects weren’t as well known at the time, and the most high-profile victim of this sweet ignorance was none other than Queen Elizabeth I herself. It was no secret that the queen possessed a legendary sweet tooth; historians say she even used a sugar-based toothpaste to polish her teeth, which 10 out of 10 dentists don’t recommend. In 1599, a German traveler named Paul Hentzner described the 65-year-old queen and revealed what a lifelong sugar addiction can do: “Her Lips narrow and her Teeth black… a defect the English seem subject to, from their too great use of sugar.” Yet the queen’s black, rotting teeth didn’t detract from her appeal. Because only the rich could afford sugar (and the tooth decay it engendered), black teeth became seen as fashionable, and people would artificially blacken their teeth with soot to fit in, a fad that eventually faded after the reign of Elizabeth I. Did you know? Queen Elizabeth I made red hair fashionable. The Tudor dynasty, which ruled England from the coronation of Henry VII in 1485 until the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, was known for its redheads. Henry VIII, the most infamous of the Tudor kings, was described as having golden-red hair, but it was his daughter Elizabeth who really made fiery manes fashionable. A natural redhead, Elizabeth chose to forgo the use of wigs (which were fashionable at the time) in favor of her own red locks, and even dyed her horses’ tails the same color. There are a few theories as to why her majesty chose this striking color, including that she wished to put questions about her legitimacy to rest by highlighting the hair color she shared with her father, the former king. Whatever the reason, the fashion trend stuck, and courtesans dyed their hair and beards to show their allegiance. The Elizabethan era was a golden age not just for England, but for redheads, too.

The story of Europe’s “dance plagues” Medieval and early modern Europe saw “dance plagues” in which people danced uncontrollably for days. There’s dancing like no one’s watching, and then there’s dancing like you have a plague. Such was the plight of hundreds of denizens of Strasbourg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire and now part of France, where a “dancing plague” lasted for weeks in 1518. First on the dance floor (read: city square) was one Frau Troffea, who danced until she collapsed from exhaustion one extremely hot day in July; after recovering her strength, she resumed her rug-cutting. She and the 30 or so others who joined in over the next week in a variety of public locations seemed unable to stop, as though their movements were involuntary. The “plague” lasted until early September, by which time at least 400 had joined in. Many were injured, and some sadly didn’t live to tell the tale. This wasn’t the only dance plague to occur in medieval and early modern Europe. Similar events took place throughout the Holy Roman Empire as well as in Germany, Switzerland, and France, though none have been documented as thoroughly as the one in Strasbourg. No one is sure, all these centuries later, why any of this happened in the first place — many contemporary explanations were religious and/or superstitious in nature, whereas more modern theories suggest that a mold called ergot might have been responsible. As with many phenomena from ages past, we may never know the full story.

Lindbergh baby kidnapped. On March 1, 1932, in a crime that captured the attention of the entire nation, Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family’s new mansion in Hopewell, New Jersey. Lindbergh, who became an international celebrity when he flew the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, and his wife Anne discovered a ransom note demanding $50,000 in their son’s empty room. The kidnapper used a ladder to climb up to the open second-floor window and left muddy footprints in the room. The Lindbergh's were inundated by offers of assistance and false clues. Even Al Capone offered his help from prison. For three days, investigators found nothing and there was no further word from the kidnappers. Then, a new letter showed up, this time demanding $70,000. The kidnappers eventually gave instructions for dropping off the money and when it was delivered, the Lindbergh's were told their baby was on a boat called Nelly off the coast of Massachusetts. After an exhaustive search, however, there was no sign of either the boat or the child. Soon after, the baby’s body was discovered near the Lindbergh mansion. He had been killed the night of the kidnapping and was found less than a mile from home. The heartbroken Lindbergh's ended up donating the mansion to charity and moved away. The kidnapping looked like it would go unsolved until September 1934, when a marked bill from the ransom turned up. The gas station attendant who had accepted the bill wrote down the license plate number because he was suspicious of the driver. It was tracked back to a German immigrant and carpenter, Bruno Hauptmann. When his home was searched, detectives found a chunk of Lindbergh ransom money. Hauptmann claimed that a friend had given him the money to hold and that he had no connection to the crime. The resulting trial was a national sensation. The prosecution’s case was not particularly strong; the main evidence, besides the money, was testimony from handwriting experts that the ransom note had been written by Hauptmann. The prosecution also tried to establish a connection between Hauptmann and the type of wood that was used to make the ladder. Still, the evidence and intense public pressure were enough to convict Hauptmann and he was electrocuted in 1936. In the aftermath of the crime—the most notorious of the 1930s—kidnapping was made a federal offense. #Crime, #Ransom, #Kidnapping,