A volcanic explosion caused a “year without a summer” in 1816 — and inspired “Frankenstein.” Difficult times can lead to great art. Case in point: the volcanic explosion that caused a “year without a summer” in 1816 — and inspired the novel Frankenstein. The eruption took place at Indonesia’s Mount Tambora, many thousands of miles away from author Mary Shelley’s home in England. In addition to a harrowing death toll, the April 1815 explosion caused mass amounts of sulphur dioxide, ash, and dust to fill the atmosphere, blocking sunlight and plunging the global temperature several degrees lower, resulting in the coldest year in well over two centuries. In part because of the volcano, Europe and North America were subjected to unusually cold, wet conditions the following summer, including a “killing frost” in New England and heavy rainfall that may have contributed to Napoleon’s infamous defeat at Waterloo. So what does that have to do with Shelley’s masterpiece? Then 18 and still going by her maiden name of Godwin, she and her lover/future husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, traveled to Lake Geneva in April 1816, a time of extremely gloomy weather. One fateful night that July, the two were with their friend Lord Byron, the infamous poet, when he suggested, “We will each write a ghost story.” Shelley completed hers in just a few days, writing in the introduction to Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus that “a wet, ungenial summer, and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house.” Who knows: If it had been bright and sunny that week, we might never have gotten the endlessly influential 1818 book, which later spawned an assortment of movies, TV shows, plays — and of course, iconic Halloween costumes. Shelley claimed the idea for Frankenstein came to her in a waking dream. After agreeing to Lord Byron’s ghostly prompt, Shelley initially struggled to come up with an idea for her tale. “I busied myself to think of a story,” she later wrote. “‘Have you thought of a story?’ I was asked each morning, and each morning I was forced to reply with a mortifying negative.” The idea eventually came to her one sleepless night, when her “imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided [her].” She then saw “the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.” Two years later, her book was published, leading to Mary Shelley eventually being hailed as the foremother of science fiction.

If you didn’t know, the bald eagle’s story is about as American as it gets… Chosen as U.S. national symbol in 1782 Populations plummeted due to hunting, habitat loss, and DDT Only 412 nesting pairs remained by the 1950s 1940 law banned harming eagles and their nests 1972 DDT ban reversed eggshell thinning and decline Listed as “endangered” in 1973 under federal protection Populations steadily increased through habitat and legal protections Over 71,000 nesting pairs reported by 20211 The bald eagle fought its way back from the brink of extinction… overcame great obstacles… and is now thriving. You don’t get any more American than that.

Luciana Barroso was a young waitress from Argentina. She was twenty years old, a single mother, and had been left by the father of her only child. She was struggling to make a living in America. One day, while working behind the counter, a young man asked if he could "hide" behind the counter with her. He said he was an actor and explained that there were some journalists and people in the restaurant who recognized him. He was annoyed and overwhelmed by the attention since he was still new to being famous. Luciana didn’t know who he was, but she told him, “You can hide here, but you have to at least help me!” So he helped her by making cocktails, serving customers, and washing dishes. Luciana and the stranger talked for a while. At the end of her shift, she asked him his name. "Matt Damon," he said. They have now been married for eighteen years and have four daughters. Matt also adopted her oldest child.

Did You Know? There are no Taco Bells in Mexico. Although the chain was inspired by Mexican cuisine, you won’t find any Taco Bells in Mexico itself. This isn’t for lack of effort, as Taco Bell has tried to break into the market on two separate occasions. The first attempt was in 1992, when the company opened a food cart in Mexico City. But locals were confused by the inauthentic names of menu items and also taken aback by the comparatively high prices. Taco Bell tried again in 2007 — a choice Mexican writer Carlos Monsiváis decried to the Associated Press as “like bringing ice to the Arctic.” That time, Taco Bell marketed itself as an American fast-food chain rather than pretending to sell Mexican fare. It opened a location in Monterrey, Mexico, that sold items such as french fries and ice cream, but that, too, failed to take off.

Did you know? France and Brazil were engaged in a “Lobster War” in the 1960s. In 1956, Brazil and France signed an agreement limiting France’s involvement in the South American country — including the fishing industry. But tensions broke out in 1961, when Brazilian locals spotted a fleet of French fishing vessels searching for lobsters nearing the coast, much closer than the 12-mile limit. Brazil launched naval vessels to deter the ships, but the French refused to cooperate, claiming that lobsters “swim,” and therefore Brazil had no territorial claim to the crustaceans because anyone could catch them in the ocean. Brazil disagreed, arguing that lobsters “crawl” along the continental shelf of South America, so they must belong to Brazil. On February 21, 1961, a French destroyer was deployed to safeguard the fishing vessels, but the Brazilian navy intercepted it. Both sides refused to back down, and Brazil doubled down on its fishing regulations. “The attitude of France is inadmissible, and our government will not retreat. The lobster will not be caught,” the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs declared at the time. The skirmish finally ended — without any shots fired — on December 10, 1964, with an agreement that expanded Brazil’s territorial waters to 200 miles, and allowed French fishing vessels to catch lobsters there for a five-year period. The heated debate over whether lobsters swim or crawl was never settled — according to unbiased sources, they do both.

How old was the oldest person to ever live? The oldest recorded age anyone has reached is 122. When Jeanne Calment was born in France on February 21, 1875, the Eiffel Tower had yet to be built and the telephone wouldn’t be invented for another year. When she died on August 4, 1997, she’d lived the longest life in recorded human history: 122 years and 164 days. A longevity expert who knew Calment attributed her record-setting lifespan to the facts that she was wealthy, didn’t smoke until much later in life, and had “absolutely nothing to do except to take care of [herself], to visit France and have social activities.” There are an estimated 722,000 centenarians — people at least 100 years old — living in the world today, with Japan responsible for more than any other country (roughly 146,000). The vast majority of people who reach that milestone are women, and the oldest man to ever live, Jiroemon Kimura, “only” reached 116. Anyone perusing a list of the world’s oldest people alive today would currently have to scroll down past the top 30 names before reaching a man. Women tend to live longer than men in general, with a mix of genetics, hormones, and lifestyle choices most often cited as the main reasons for their longevity. French presidents Calment lived through 20 Percentage of American centenarians who are women 78% Age at which Calment took up cigarettes 112 Age of the world’s oldest living person as of April 2025 116 The number of U.S. centenarians is expected to quadruple in the next 30 years. As of 2025, there are about 101,000 centenarians in the United States, but the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that number will quadruple to about 422,000 by 2054. Centenarians currently account for 0.03% of the population, a number expected to reach 0.1% in the same time frame. Japan is the only country with more centenarians than the United States, with China, India, and Thailand rounding out the top five. On a per capita level, Japan is most impressive: 12 out of every 10,000 people reach 100, compared to five in Thailand, three in the U.S., and fewer than one in China and India.

Seashells used to be used as currency. Long before the gold standard came and went, seashells were a hot commodity — so much so that they were the preferred currency in various civilizations around the world. Cowrie shells, which come from small sea snails, were particularly widespread. While there’s some disagreement among historians about when cowries evolved from valuable items to functional currency, it’s likely that it happened during the Zhou dynasty in China (around 1046 to 256 BCE). The shells declined in use in the 19th century, but were still used as money in Bengal and some parts of West Africa up until the early 20th century. Unlike most shell money, cowrie shells were used whole and unaltered. In addition to their intrinsic value as an adornment, cowries are durable, portable, and hard to counterfeit. They were also exceedingly difficult to harvest — except in the Maldives, a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean that, until relatively recently, was extremely difficult to visit. Shell money was used all over the world, although the specific type of shell varied greatly. Usually, shells would be crafted into money before going into circulation — such as wampum, which were beads made from clam and whelk shells by Indigenous peoples in the northeastern U.S. Rings made from sea snail shells called Tabu are still used in Papua New Guinea today. Did you know? An ancient pigment was worth three times its weight in gold. In ancient times, there was no color more luxurious than Tyrian purple, and some Roman emperors even threatened punishment by death to any nonroyals caught wearing the color. Not that anyone else could afford it, anyway: The deep reddish-purple shade was made from snail mucus, and it took around 10,000 snails to make a single gram of dye. The process for turning the snails into pigment was a closely guarded secret, and around the 15th century, that knowledge was lost, despite modern archaeologists trying to piece it back together.

Did you know? Bugs Bunny was named an Honorary Marine. The title of Honorary Marine was formally established in 1992, and has since been awarded to fewer than 100 people, including comedian Bob Hope and actor Gary Sinise. But decades earlier, the distinction was unofficially bestowed upon a different breed of entertainer: Bugs Bunny. In 1943, the legendary cartoon character starred in the animated short Super-Rabbit, in which he joins the Marines and sings their official song, the “Marines’ Hymn.” The actual Marines were so flattered by the portrayal that Bugs was inducted as an honorary member soon after, and the organization even issued the character a set of official dog tags and registration papers. Throughout the remainder of World War II, Bugs Bunny was “promoted” several times, rising to the rank of master sergeant before being “discharged” after the war.

Think croissants are French? Think again. Croissants originated in Austria, not France. Few things are as quintessentially French as croissants, which, in addition to being delicious, provide an opportunity to test your most egregious French accent when you talk about them. As it turns out, however, croissants aren’t originally from Paris or anywhere else in France — they actually originated in Vienna and are known in Austria as kipferl, the German word for “crescent.” (As you may imagine, that’s also what “croissant” means.) According to legend (though it’s most likely apocryphal), kipferl were created in celebration of a 1683 military victory against the Ottoman Empire, with their shape mimicking that of the Ottoman crescent moon symbol. Others have traced the pastry’s origins as far back as the 13th century. Croissants are classified as viennoiserie in France, a term referring to breakfast pastries made in the Viennese style, and they became popular in France after an Austrian baker opened a shop in Paris in the 1830s — though they were less flaky and buttery than the croissants we know today, as French bakers began using a laminated dough in the early 20th century. Croissants share their surprising origins with another pastry that’s usually associated with a different country: Danishes, which, despite their name, aren’t Danish. They also hail from Vienna, hence why they’re known as wienerbrød (“Viennese bread”) in Denmark. Maybe it’s time Austrian bakers were given their well-earned due.