Emmental cheese, what's often called 'Swiss cheese,' requires cheesemakers to create a specific set of imperfections.

Watch a performance of the influential ballet 'Appalachian Spring,' with music by Aaron Copland and choreography by Martha Graham.

Explore the data behind every Major League Baseball player's success rate with ABS, its new tech-assisted challenge system.

Thomas Edison, eager to communicate with ghosts, tinkered with an apparatus called the 'spirit phone.'

The song 'Hungry Heart' was written for punk icons the Ramones, but Bruce Springsteen's manager convinced the singer to record it himself.

Read the original curriculum for the Bauhaus school, which was founded as a breeding ground for artistic collaboration across disciplines.

RIP to Tim Curry, who helped turn 'Rocky Horror' into a cult classic.

The best Dolly Parton songs, including 'Jolene,' '9 to 5,' and many more.

Dolly Parton released her first recording at age 13, a rockabilly number she cowrote called 'Puppy Love.'

Disney's 1937 film 'Snow White' was honored by the Oscars 2 years in a row.

Francis Ford Coppola once directed an episode of 'SNL' featuring experimental composer Philip Glass as musical guest.

Henry David Thoreau's 'Walden' is a popular text with young people in China exhausted by the country's emphasis on achievement.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed a gas station in Minnesota that's still in operation today.

Browse a 'time machine' that allows you to see the helmet designs for every professional football team dating back to 1960.

Explore a list of the best art museums in the US, including Atlanta's High Museum of Art, New York's Dia Beacon, and more.

Back when it was still a small restaurant, McDonald's served barbecue.

Jack Kerouac coined the name 'Beat Generation,' intending it as a contrast with 'the Lost Generation.'

Stan Getz initially didn't want to release 'The Girl from Ipanema,' which would go on to become one of the most popular jazz recordings ever.

Philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre staged his first play while he was imprisoned in a POW camp.

Legendary painter Jean-Michel Basquiat made a last-minute cameo in new wave band Blondie's 'Rapture' music video.

A 1947 news story about a pilot observing UFOs inspired an uptick in reports of 'flying saucers,' even though the pilot himself never used that description.

Explore Mary Cassatt's colorful 'Set of 10' prints, inspired by her interest in Japanese woodblocking.

At the height of its popularity, ragtime, a precursor to jazz, was criticized as dangerous, 'unmusical rot.'

The Oscar statuette represents the original 5 branches—producers, directors, writers, actors, and technicians—that comprised the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The most performed operas of the 21st century are largely 19th-century works.

Many literary scholars consider 'The Tale of Genji,' a Japanese text from the 11th century, to be the first novel.

Taylor Swift's family encouraged her interest in music from a very young age, and moved to Nashville before she reached high school so she could be close to the country music industry.

Title IX increased female participation in sports and the number of American women winning Olympic medals.

Explore interactive maps from fictional journeys, including 'The Odyssey,' 'Moby-Dick,' and more.

The rice in sushi was originally used as a way to preserve fish, but wasn't intended to be eaten.

Mark Twain was one of the first writers to cover surfing, long before the sport took off in the US.

'Harold and Maude' became a cult classic thanks to a one-screen theater in Minnesota that featured the film for two years straight.

The romantic comedy genre has waned in popularity in the US, but it's surging in other parts of the world.

Before it was a drink, coffee was used for handwashing.

Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs' 'Stay' is the shortest song ever to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Norman Rockwell considered himself an 'illustrator' rather than a 'painter.'

In 1984, Bob Dylan reimagined himself as the frontman of a punk band for a performance on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

Henry David Thoreau, the transcendentalist writer and philosopher, was inspired by the philosophical ideas of yoga.

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the entire first draft of 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' in a frantic three days, only to burn it out of disgust.

The US paperbacks of JRR Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' series transformed fantasy from a fringe literary genre to a mainstream form.

Carole King wrote—and later regretted—the song 'He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss),' which she now believes excuses domestic violence.

'Shuffle Along,' a 1921 Broadway musical, brought jazz to American musical theater and helped pave the way for Black culture in the 20th century.

The James Beard Awards are sometimes called the Oscars of food because they spotlight the best of the industry.

Alma Reville was Alfred Hitchcock's wife, but she was also a screenwriter, consultant, and secret weapon for the Master of Suspense.

Bob Newhart was the first comedian to have a chart-topping album with his 1960 record 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.'

The Atlantic proclaimed that 'The End of Reading is Here,' which might be alarmist but is based on significant data.

Many believe modern fan fiction—the cultural phenomenon in which fans reimagine their favorite stories—began with 'Star Trek.'

Emily Dickinson's poems were heavily altered after her death, with editors removing many of the peculiar aspects that readers now identify with her work.

Before launching his cereal company, John Harvey Kellogg promoted a eugenics-inspired natural food regimen.

Simone de Beauvoir, the influential feminist and existentialist philosopher, was a serious hiker.