Kat Eschner

 

Kat Eschner is a freelance science and culture journalist based in Toronto.

Jackie, the second MGM "Leo the Lion," was recorded in 1928.

The Story of Hollywood's Most Famous Lion

Actually, there have been five of them

This 1898 photograph shows a young black boy holding hands with a young white girl during the Easter egg roll. The contraption on her head is an Easter bonnet.

The Curious History of the White House Easter Egg Roll

Thousands of families enter the lottery each year to take part in this White House tradition

The "Black Sunday" dust storm was 1,000 miles long and lasted for hours. It blacked out the sky, killed animals, and even blinded a man.

This 1000-Mile Long Storm Showed the Horror of Life in the Dust Bowl

In the American history of extreme weather events, ‘Black Sunday’ sticks out

Many of the records from MKUltra have been destroyed, but 8,000 pages of records were discovered in 1977.

What We Know About the CIA's Midcentury Mind-Control Project

Project MKUltra began on this day in 1953 and continued for years

"Wing," "coin" and "toil" are all words you can play in any Scrabble game. "Biten," however, is not legal.

The Tournament Scrabble Dictionary Contains More Than A Hundred Slurs

One woman first raised the issue of the Scrabble dictionary containing offensive words in the 1990s

The Mark Strand Theater in 1914. See more images of the luxurious movie palaces at the Library of Congress website.

Movie Palaces Let Everyday Americans Be Royalty

They were an important part of the studio system that flourished until the late 1940s

Sergei Korolev was technically still a political prisoner when he began working on the Soviet rocket program.

The First Manned Space Flight Was the Rocket Designer’s Victory as Much as Yuri Gagarin’s

Sergei Korolev designed the entire Soviet rocket program. But nobody knew his name until after he died

In the years after the Surgeon General confirmed the link between smoking and cancer, smoking cessation aids blossomed.

This Patented Smoking Deterrent Made Little Coughing Noises

The history of smoking cessation aids has a few funny detours like this one

Part of the seized "Supergun," now at a museum in England.

The Bizarre Story of Saddam Hussein’s Failed “Supergun”

It was called “Big Babylon” and it was originally supposed to fire satellites into orbit

The Eighteenth-Century Founder of Homeopathy Said His Treatments Were Better Than Bloodletting

Samuel Hahnemann was trying to fix the unscientific field of medicine

The caption to this cartoon from 'Scribner's Monthly' reads "Henry Bergh on Duty"

The ASPCA’s Founder Was Known as “The Great Meddler”

Although Bergh's efforts to prevent animal cruelty weren't well-received by all, the ASPCA did change how animals were seen in the United States

David Fairchild in 1940, tasting the fruit of an antidesma tree in Indonesia.

This Swashbuckling Botanist Changed America’s Landscapes

Not always for the better

Bevo, Anheuser-Busch's "cereal beer" or "near-beer," was the most popular of non-alcoholic malt beverages sold during Prohibition.

How Some Breweries Survived Prohibition

It mostly involved playing to their non-alcoholic strengths

President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan meet with the Beach Boys a few months after Reagan's Secretary of the Interior announced that rock bands attracted "the wrong element."

The Secretary of the Interior Once Banned Rock Bands From the National Mall

James Watt, who was outed from office in the early 1980s, said the only songs he knew were 'The Star Spangled Banner' and 'Amazing Grace'

The interesting thing is that it doesn't sound like people minded much.

Once Upon a Time, Exploding Billiard Balls Were An Everyday Thing

It was a side effect of no longer making them from ivory

Kaboom.

Your Alaskan Cruise Is Possible Because Canada Blew Up an Underwater Mountain

People predicted tsunamis and an earthquake, but nothing particularly bad happened

Susannah Madora Salter was hanging up laundry when she heard her name was on the mayoral ballot.

130 Years Ago, Men Against Women's Suffrage Put Susanna Salter’s Name on the Ballot

Boy, were they sorry.

Velcro was originally available only in black, but even when it started coming in multiple colors, 1960s fashionistas wanted nothing to do with it.

Before Velcro’s Patent Expired, It Was a Niche Product Most People Hadn’t Heard Of

The hook-and-loop tape's moment in the sun came after others were free to copy it

Amounts of arsenic that were deadly to children and the elderly were easily metabolized by healthy adults, which is one of the reasons it took many people so long to accept that arsenic wallpaper was bad news.

Arsenic and Old Tastes Made Victorian Wallpaper Deadly

Victorians were obsessed with vividly-colored wallpaper, which is on-trend for this year–though arsenic poisoning is never in style

The Sayler Park tornado which struck the Cincinnati area as part of the "Super Outbreak" was a category F5 storm on the Fujita scale, the highest possible rating on the scale.

How 148 Tornadoes in One Day in 1974 Changed Emergency Preparedness

The “super outbreak” flattened towns and killed and injured thousands, all with little warning and in the space of 24 hours

Page 19 of 28