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,

Why is it called “seltzer”? Seltzer water was named after the German town of Selters. Germany loves its beer, but seltzer is a close second. The country is so entwined with the fizzy beverage that the word “seltzer” comes from the name of the German town of Selters, which is famous for its naturally carbonated mineral springs. The springs have been well known in the area for more than 1,000 years, and by 1791, fizzy water from Selters was so popular, it was exported throughout the world in jugs stamped with the name “selters-wasser,” or “selters water.” The word transformed into “seltzer” when the beverage became popular in North America, especially in New York and Philadelphia, around the early 19th century. Today, the Selters wasser museum (in Selters, of course) chronicles the local spring’s long history. But Germany’s love of seltzer goes beyond just one town. The world’s first commercial soft drink was created by German jeweler and amateur scientist Jacob Schweppe, who improved upon a way to manufacture carbonated water in the late 18th century. Schweppes soda water expanded throughout Europe, and was mostly sold as a health tonic, especially for upset stomachs. According to the company, some early customers called it “lightning in a bottle” because of its then-novel carbonation. Today, Germany is still one of the highest-ranked countries when it comes to bottled water consumption (fizzy and nonfizzy). Coca-Cola was originally marketed as a “brain tonic.” In the 19th century, drink-makers of all kinds sold their concoctions as tonics or healthy cure-alls. In reality, some of these “medicinal drinks” were little more than various alcohols mixed with drugs like cocaine (a legal ingredient at the time). So it wasn’t strange when John S. Pemberton, a pharmacist from Georgia, marketed his newest nonalcoholic libation, Coca-Cola, as a “brain tonic.” The first advertisement for Coca-Cola said the “intellectual beverage … contains the valuable tonic and nerve stimulant properties of the coca plant and cola (or Kola) nuts.” It’s a strange ad campaign compared to soda-swilling Santa Clauses or pop-pounding polar bears, but clearly it worked.

Want to try ice cream that doesn't melt? Turkey makes a kind of ice cream that doesn't melt. Globe-trotters who spend time in Turkey can find many ways to indulge their taste buds: rich and foamy coffees, juicy kebabs, and crispy baklava filled with nuts and honey. Then there’s dondurma, or what some call Turkish ice cream, a warm-weather delight that’s served in a cone but has one not-so-frosty feature: It doesn’t melt. Like most ice cream, dondurma is a dairy-based confection, in this case made from goat milk and sweetened with sugar. However, it has two additional ingredients that give the dessert its unique texture and anti-melting properties: salep and mastic, both harvested from plants native to Turkey. Salep is a type of flour made from the bulbs of wild purple orchids that grow throughout the country; it’s also used in a hot and milky regional drink that goes by the same name. The powder gives dondurma its thickness and helps keep it from melting. The second ingredient, mastic, is a natural resin extracted from the region’s mastic trees and has long been used as chewing gum. The thick and heat-resistant substance looks like sap and has a light cedar flavor. It also gives dondurma its chewy texture. Unlike other ice cream, dondurma isn’t churned, and is instead created more like taffy. Stretching and beating the ingredients together over and over again — much like kneading dough to activate stretchy wheat gluten — gives the ice cream its elasticity. Although it can’t melt, dondurma is still kept frozen, then scooped into cones or bowls as a summertime snack — a recipe that’s been satisfying sweet tooths for possibly 500 years. Scientists don’t fully understand why “brain freezes” happen. “Brain freeze” is much easier to pronounce than “sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia,” the term scientists use to describe the uncomfortable and sudden headache caused by consuming cold foods and drinks too quickly. Brain freezes aren’t at all life-threatening, though it’s not entirely clear why they happen — the working theory is that sudden cold sensations cause the blood vessels in our mouths and throats to momentarily narrow and constrict blood flow. When the vessels quickly widen again, the fluctuation triggers pain receptors in the face and head. Some scientists believe the pain is one way our brain protects itself, warning us to stop what we’re doing to keep a continuous supply of blood and oxygen going at all times. However, not everyone experiences this sensation, and researchers aren’t sure why; studies show that less than half of people get brain freezes, though people who are prone to migraines are more likely to experience the unpleasant response. #Interestingfacts

You used to be able to send children through U.S. mail. You can send a lot of things in the mail, but you can’t send a person — at least not anymore. There was nothing preventing people from mailing their own children in the early days of the U.S. Postal Service’s parcel post service, though, and at least seven families took advantage of it. That includes the Beagues, an Ohio couple who in 1913 paid 15 cents in postage to mail their newborn son to his grandmother’s house a mile down the road. Beyond the novelty of it — when the parcel post service began on January 1, 1913, some were eager to see which packages they could get away with sending — it was a surprisingly practical way of getting one’s kiddo from point A to point B. To start with, many people in rural areas knew their postal carriers fairly well, which meant the children were simply walked or carried on often-short trips. In other instances, children traveled on trains as Railway Mail, but with stamps instead of (usually more expensive) train tickets. The longest known trip of a child through the mail occurred in 1915, when a 6-year-old was sent 720 miles from Florida to Virginia — a lengthy trip that cost just 15 cents. Fortunately, there are no reports of children being injured by being sent through the mail. (Pictures of children in literal mailbags were staged.) The practice ended, as so many do, when certain higher-ups became aware of the loophole and decided to close it, also around 1915. #Interestingfacts

Sunglasses used to be for something else entirely 🕶️ Some of the earliest sunglasses were used by judges in court to hide their facial expressions. Long before they became fashionable accessories for sunny days, some of the earliest sunglasses served a far different purpose: In Chinese courtrooms, judges used dark-lensed glasses to hide their facial expressions. Eyeglasses became popular in Chinese society during the late 13th century and early 14th century, and around the same period, rudimentary sunglasses featuring dark lenses made from smoky quartz were invented. While they protected against glare, they were also intended to provide judges with an air of impartiality during trials by obscuring their eyes — and thus their emotional responses. It wasn’t until the 18th century that an early precursor to modern sunglasses, explicitly designed for dealing with sun and glare, became popular in Europe. “Goldoni’s eyeglasses” were developed circa 1700 in Venice, Italy, and were nicknamed for playwright Carlo Goldoni, who fashionably wore a pair. These green-tinted spectacles were primarily worn by Venetian gondoliers as well as high-society women and children in an effort to shield their eyes from the glare that bounced off the canal water. In 1752, British optician James Ayscough unveiled a new invention to serve a similar purpose: blue-tinted glasses that he believed protected eyes against harmful light better than white glass. Wooden “sunglasses” date back to the first century CE. While traditional sunglasses featuring glass lenses and metal frames are a more modern invention, the world’s first known sunglasses were made of wood. Around 2,000 years ago, ancient Siberians and Inuits in the North American Arctic region donned these wooden goggles to protect from snow blindness — a painful condition caused by UV rays reflecting off the snow. These simple shades featured a piece of wood carved to fit around the eyes and tied around the head using twine. Thin slits were carved directly above each eye, allowing the wearer to maintain their vision while limiting sun exposure. In addition to wood, these devices were also made from bone or walrus ivory. Archaeological digs have uncovered pristine examples of these early sunglasses from regions throughout Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia. #Interestingfacts

U.S. figure skating team killed in plane crash. On February 15, 1961, the entire 18-member U.S. figure skating team is killed in a plane crash in Berg-Kampenhout, Belgium. The team was on its way to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Among those killed in the crash was 16-year-old Laurence Owen, who had won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in the ladies’ division the previous month. She was featured on the February 13, 1961, cover of Sports Illustrated, which called her the “most exciting U.S. skater.” Bradley Lord, the 1961 U.S. men’s champion, also perished in the crash, as did Maribel Owen (Laurence’s sister) and Dudley Richards, the 1961 U.S. pairs champions, and Diane Sherbloom and Larry Pierce, the 1961 U.S. ice dancing champions. Also killed was 49-year-old Maribel Vinson-Owen, a nine-time U.S. ladies’ champion and 1932 Olympic bronze medalist, who coached scores of skaters, including her daughters Maribel and Laurence. Vinson-Owen also coached Frank Carroll, who went on to coach the 2010 men’s Olympic gold medalist Evan Lysacek U.S. champion Michelle Kwan. In addition to the skaters, 16 people accompanying them, including family, friends, coaches and officials, were killed. The other 38 passengers and crew aboard Sabena Flight 548, which left New York on the night of February 14, also died when the plane went down around 10 a.m. in clear weather while attempting to make a scheduled stopover landing at the Belgian National Airport in Brussels. One person on the ground, a farmer working in the field where the Boeing 707 crashed in Berg-Kampenhout, several miles from the airport, was killed by some shrapnel. Investigators were unable to determine the exact cause of the crash, although mechanical difficulties were suspected. The tragedy devastated the U.S. figure skating program and meant the loss of the country’s top skating talent. Prior to the crash, the U.S. had won the men’s gold medal at every Olympics since 1948 (when Dick Button became the first American man to do so), while U.S. women had claimed Olympic gold in 1956 and 1960. After the crash, an American woman (Peggy Fleming) would not capture Olympic gold until 1968, while a U.S. man (Scott Hamilton) would not do so until 1984. The incident was the worst air disaster involving a U.S. sports team until November 1970, when 37 players on the Marshall University football team were killed in a plane crash in West Virginia. Shortly after the 1961 crash, the U.S. Figure Skating Memorial Fund was established; to date, it has provided financial assistance to thousands of elite American skaters. In 2011, the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, the 18 members of the 1961 figure skating team, along with the 16 people traveling with them to Prague, were inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado. #Interestingfacts

There are thousands of miles of internet cables under the ocean. Water has a way of disrupting Wi-Fi connections, so it may come as a surprise that there are hundreds of thousands of miles of internet cables along the ocean’s floor. In fact, our ability to communicate globally is thanks to nearly 750,000 miles of fiber optic cables that crisscross underwater. While it’s commonly believed that our phones and computers connect us through satellites, about 95% of all voice and data transmissions are routed through these cables. The first such cable connected the United States, U.K., and France in 1988, but the concept dates back more than 150 years — the first transatlantic communications cable was a simple copper wire used to transmit telegraphs between the U.S. and Great Britain. First used in 1858 following two years of planning and line laying, the cable worked for just a few weeks — but would inspire a world of communication for years to come. #Interestingfacts

These little candies started out as medicine. Conversation hearts can trace their roots back to medical lozenges. Conversation hearts — also known as Necco hearts, candy hearts, or Sweethearts — are considered Valentine’s Day iconography, but their origins are far from romantic. In fact, they were originally created by a pharmacist who got his start making medical lozenges. In 1847, pharmacist Oliver Chase was working on building his lozenge business after making his way from England to Boston. The production process was slow: Chase hand-rolled ropes of dough made from peppermint, brown sugar, and gum arabic and cut them into individual tablets; he then sold them to apothecaries where customers sought them out for sore throats, coughs, and other minor ailments. To speed things up, the enterprising Chase invented a machine that cut the lozenges mechanically. Recognizing the potential, he shifted focus from medicine to confections, founding what became the New England Confectionery Company, or Necco, and introducing its namesake candy, the Necco Wafer. It was still a while before the colorful, chalky candy became heart-shaped and adorned with their trademark messages, though. In 1866, Oliver's brother Daniel Chase devised a way to press words onto the round candy wafers using a felt roller pad and red vegetable dye. The conversation candies — or motto lozenges, as they were known — were shaped into baseballs, horseshoes, and kites, and featured much more elaborate messages than those we see today, including “Married in white, you have chosen right,” and “How long shall I have to wait? Please be considerate.” In 1902, the candies took on their now-famous heart shape, and the phrases evolved into classics such as “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me.” Each year, about 80 different sayings circulate, including around 20 that are new for that holiday season. Many popular sodas started as medicine. In the 19th century, carbonated water was considered a medicinal aid. Pharmacists began mixing it with various herbs, extracts, and syrups to create drinks marketed as remedies for a range of ailments. One of the most famous examples is Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton. The now-ubiquitous soft drink was originally marketed as a cure for headaches, fatigue, and other common ailments. It contained small amounts of cocaine, extracted from coca leaves, which was legal at the time and common in medicine. (It was later removed from the beverage around the turn of the 20th century.) Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and 7Up also started out as medicinal drinks, the latter of which was formulated to treat depression. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 placed more regulations on ingredients used at soda fountains, and by the 1950s, soft drinks were no longer marketed as “miracle elixirs,” but remained popular as bottled and canned treats. #Interestingfacts

Ketchup was once sold as medicine. The ketchup we slather onto hot dogs, burgers, and fries today once had a different purpose: Doctors believed it was best consumed as a health tonic. Ketchup has come a long way from its roots in China as far back as the third century BCE, when cooks fermented seafood to create a salty, amber-colored sauce that resembles modern fish sauce (an anchovy-based condiment that adds umami flavor to many Asian dishes). By around the 16th century, British sailors had taken word of ketchup back to their home country, and British cooks tried to replicate it with their own versions made from walnuts and mushrooms. It’s not clear exactly when tomatoes came on the scene, though the first known tomato ketchup recipe appeared around 1812, published by Philadelphia horticulturist James Mease. It wasn’t until the 1830s that some doctors began rebranding tomatoes as a 19th-century superfood. One physician, Dr. John Cook Bennett, especially promoted tomatoes as cures for indigestion and other stomach ailments, encouraging a craze for the fruit that eventually saw the introduction of ketchup pills and extracts. (One memorable jingle went, “tomato pills will cure all your ills.”) The fad lasted through around the 1850s, but soon enough home cooks focused on creating their own ketchups instead of taking the vitamin equivalents. The sauce then became an easily obtainable American dinner table staple in large part thanks to the H. J. Heinz Company, which released its first tomato ketchup in 1876.

Why people danced for two months straight in 1518. In the “dancing plague” of 1518, hundreds of people danced uncontrollably for two months. The phrase “dance the night away” took on a more literal meaning back in 1518, when as many as 400 people were struck by a “dancing plague” in the city of Strasbourg in modern France. The epidemic began in July with a single woman known as Frau Troffea, who spontaneously began boogying away in the middle of the street. She danced alone and continuously for an entire week before several dozen others found themselves overcome by the urge to dance as well. By month’s end, the number had grown to several hundred. The mysterious dancing eventually waned, and Strasbourg returned to normalcy in September. Authorities were concerned by this inexplicable rise in dance fever, though ill-informed physicians attributed the ailment to “hot blood” and suggested people simply needed to dance until they no longer felt the urge. As the weeks went on, several dancers collapsed from exhaustion, and some suffered fatal heart attacks. Locals sought answers, and some feared they had been cursed by St. Vitus, the patron saint of dance. Many modern historians posit that stress, coupled with the rise of new and untreated diseases such as syphilis, likely induced this mass hysteria. There had been numerous reported outbreaks of “dancing plagues” around the Holy Roman Empire in the preceding 500 years, including a significant one in 1374. Another theory points to a fungus known as ergot, sometimes found on bread. The fungus causes convulsions if consumed, and may have been responsible for the uncontrollable dancing as well as other instances of mass panic. A Tanzanian boarding school suffered a laughter epidemic in 1962. Laughter really can be contagious, as attendees of a girls’ boarding school in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) discovered in 1962. In January of that year, three students at a school in the town of Kashasha began laughing hysterically out of nowhere. The epidemic soon spread to other students, as individuals suffered laughing fits that lasted anywhere from a few hours to 16 days. With doctors unable to explain the phenomenon and students unable to focus, the school temporarily closed in March, though the issue only grew from there. The girls returned home and “infected” those communities, and entire towns were suddenly overcome with insatiable laughter. Fourteen schools closed throughout the country, with each wave of laughter lasting for around a month. In the end, there were thankfully no fatalities, though more than 1,000 people were affected by this mysterious event. #Interestingfacts