Thomas Edison created the first strand of electric Christmas lights in 1880

Before electric lights, Christmas trees were lit with real candles

The practice of lighting Christmas trees with electricity didn’t begin until the late 1800s. Before that, families used wax candles on branches—a dangerous tradition that originated in 16th-century Germany.

A collective effort from multiple scientists and inventors led to the light bulb

While Thomas Edison's thin carbon filament design made light bulbs commercially viable, prior contributions, such as Joseph Swan's development of the first successful incandescent filament electric lamp, made its eventual invention possible.

Martin Luther is often cited as the first to decorate the Christmas tree—though the practice began decades earlier

Luther lore claims he may have been the first to link tree decorations to Jesus, as he used candles to symbolize the Nativity star. However, German bakers had adorned evergreens with apples and sweets as early as 1419 for Christmas Eve displays.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularized the Christmas tree in 1840s Britain

An 1848 engraving of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert around a decorated Christmas tree sparked a trend across Britain and the US. Their German-inspired custom quickly became a fashionable centerpiece of holiday celebrations.

The first commercial Christmas card was created in 1843

Overwhelmed by the task of writing many holiday letters, Sir Henry Cole commissioned artist JC Horsley to design a festive card he could send to friends and family in 1843—creating and popularizing the first mass-produced Christmas card.

Thomas Edison publicly executed animals with AC to convince the public of its dangers

J.P. Morgan first backed Thomas Edison's direct current system, seeing electricity's potential to usurp John D. Rockefeller's kerosene empire. Despite the investments and smear campaign against alternating current, alternating current ultimately won public support after lighting the 1893 World's Fair, after which Morgan would fund Tesla's wireless transmission tower.

See Rockefeller Center's Christmas trees since 1931

In 1931, with construction still underway, Rockefeller Center's very first Christmas tree was erected out front. John D. Rockefeller himself greeted the construction workers who put up the first 20-foot tree and decorated it with cranberries and paper garland.

Charles Dickens transformed Christmas into an important family-centric holiday

When Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol” in 1843, its story of an old man’s redemption helped reshape the holiday, popularizing themes of generosity, reflection, and family that transformed the Christmas season.

Explore a gallery of electric vehicles from before 1920

In 1884, Thomas Parker invented the first practical electric car in London. By the turn of the century, early EVs were seen on the streets of Washington, DC. Automaker promotional materials included photographs of cars on mountain roads and other terrains.

Mall Santas became a widespread tradition beginning in the 1900s

Santa Claus and commercialism are inextricable. In the early 1900s, department stores started putting “live” Santa Claus displays in their windows to help sell goods.

Thomas Edison captured the only known footage of Mark Twain

The inventor was a pioneer in the early film industry and made his own motion pictures. In 1909, he shot a short film featuring Twain at Stormfield, his property in Connecticut. In it, Twain wears his iconic white suit and drinks tea with his daughters.

The history of the North American power grid, which is composed of five major grids

Thomas Edison's Pearl Street Station was the first US commercial power plant, burning coal to power lamps for some Manhattan residents. Over time, local power plants would be bought out by larger ones, forming interconnected systems spanning multiple states. Today, the Eastern Interconnection and Western Interconnection are the largest of these systems.

See how artificial Christmas trees are made

Modern artificial Christmas trees are built from bent steel frames and PVC plastic. The plastic is cut into strips and shredded to mimic the needles of an evergreen tree. See the factory process of these mass-produced holiday mainstays.

The unexpected origin story of the snow globe

In 1900, a Vienna tradesman named Erwin Perzy I was attempting to invent an inexpensive way to improve light amplification in hospital operating rooms. After experimenting with a glass globe filled with water, the idea for the snow globe struck. Industrious as well as inventive, Perzy eventually turned his idea into a successful business. Read the full article to learn how the invention grew to become recognized globally.

LEDs emit pure colors, while incandescent bulbs filter white light

Traditional Christmas lights produce softer, less saturated colors by partially blocking the full spectrum of light, resulting in a particularly warm glow by dimming the cooler blue tones. LEDs are designed to emit a single wavelength of light, creating intense colors that are visually unbalanced in multicolor environments.

The first computers performed calculations using lightbulb-like tubes

Before transistors, the first electronic computers relied on vacuum tubes—components that switched signals on and off. Despite machines like ENIAC—the first programmable, general-purpose, electronic computer—utilizing nearly 18,000 tubes that generated massive amounts of heat and frequent failures, they laid the foundation for modern computing hardware.

The first rooftop solar panels were installed in 1883

In 1883, New York inventor Charles Fritts created the first solar cell by coating selenium with a thin layer of gold. The cell achieved energy conversion rates of 1 to 2% compared to the 15 to 20% of modern photovoltaics.

Nikola Tesla was born in modern-day Croatia and moved to the US in 1884

His interest in electricity came from his mother, who invented small household appliances during Tesla's upbringing. Upon arriving in America, he began working for and improving upon the electrical inventions made in Thomas Edison's lab.

A New York fireworks ban necessitated a new way to ring in the New Year

In 1906, the city banned fireworks displays, forcing the Times Square celebration to find a new centerpiece. The Times commissioned Jacob Starr, a Ukrainian immigrant who worked for Strauss Signs, to develop an ornament. He returned with the now-iconic New Year’s ball.

Key moments in fintech history include the transatlantic cable’s invention and E-Trade’s founding

Founded in 1982, E-Trade was the first-ever online brokerage, pioneering a method of investing that is common today. Its story is part of a timeline that the New York Times put together of key moments in early fintech history.

The Benjamin Franklin letter that anticipated daylight saving time

Benjamin Franklin did not invent daylight saving time. But while living in Paris, he did pen a satirical letter to Parisians suggesting they could save money on lamp oil by changing their sleep schedules. Read it in full here.

Fluorescent bulbs can be illuminated by overhead power lines without making contact

The electromagnetic fields produced by the alternating current in transmission lines can induce the motion of charges in nearby objects. This motion yields electric currents that can light up bulbs but are too small to harm humans.

Many myths continue to circulate about the first Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving myth didn’t really start in 1621, argues historian David Silverman in this interview with Smithsonian. Rather, it took hold over 200 years later. During the Civil War, Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln as a way to promote national unity. The tidy story of friendship between Native Americans and colonists was used to quell racial tensions of the late 19th century.

The first recorded worker strike in the United States happened in 1768

That year, journeymen tailors went on strike to protest a wage reduction. By 1794, cobblers in Philadelphia formed the nation’s first trade union, the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers. But that’s just the beginning of labor union history in the US.

How nylon was created

Nylon, one of the most ubiquitous materials in the world, was invented in 1935. Chemist Wallace Carothers was hired by American conglomerate DuPont to perform research. After seven years of work he produced nylon, the first wholly synthetic fabric. Carothers’ life ended tragically, but his contributions revolutionized everything from military equipment to women’s fashion.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Massive blooms of microscopic plankton called dinoflagellates produce the neon blue light seen in glowing tides.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.