Wikipedia's puzzle globe logo was developed by a 17-year-old

In 2014, a Wikipedia monument was unveiled in Słubice, Poland

Created from fiber and resin, the $14,000 sculpture features four people holding the Wikipedia globe—the company's logo since 2003. An inscription on the monument pays homage to the anonymous editors who contributed to the site.

The software for wikis—user-editable websites—was launched in 1995

Computer programmer Ward Cunningham created the WikiWikiWeb online application based on an offline system that helped track how ideas moved through his company. The application enabled users to collaborate and edit website content through a web browser, as well as link pages without requiring a structured navigation scheme.

It took a month for the Rubik's Cube inventor to solve the cube

The Rubik's Cube is the most popular puzzle toy in the world, with over 350 million sold since its invention in 1975. Originally created as a tool to teach three-dimensional movement, the colorful problem-solving game skyrocketed in popularity, spawning speedcubing competitions and becoming a fixture of global toy culture.

Visualizing 100 years of Pulitzers

This fascinating data visualization breaks down a century of Pulitzer Prizes. Award categories are laid out against a timeline, and the symbols used to represent each winner indicate the topic of the winning work; the number of prizes won by that outlet thus far; and whether the prize was awarded to an individual or a newsroom. For the best viewing experience, zoom in using the magnifying glass on the cursor until it hits full-screen mode.

View the evolution of the National Science Foundation logo

When the agency was established in 1950, the logo featured an eagle holding a shield with symbols of a pyramid, a test tube, a microscope, and a lamp from which light radiated. Subsequent logos featured variations of a ring composed of people holding hands, which would eventually be redesigned to enclose a globe bearing the "NSF" abbreviation.

The stories behind open-source project logos, including Tux, Linux's penguin mascot

During a trip to an Australian zoo, Linus Torvalds, the developer of the Linux kernel, was bitten by a penguin, which inspired the animal to be selected as the software's logo. The first design was drafted by Larry Ewing while a student at Texas A&M University, and the Tux name—short for tuxedo—aligned with the animal's appearance.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Explore a collection of resources celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ISS

The media includes a 3D model of the International Space Station, a gallery of images taken from there of Earth, a set of virtual puzzles created from images related to the station, and an ISS digital coloring book.

Mosaic is credited for making the World Wide Web accessible to everyday people—not just scientists—for the first time

Mosaic was a web browser that allowed people to more easily access webpages on the World Wide Web. But unlike previous browsers, Mosaic was a graphical browser, which means it displayed images alongside text. This helped turn the web from a place for scientists into a cultural location that captured people's attention.

Wikiracing involves moving between two articles in the fewest clicks

The quirky pastime has evolved into a competitive event at yearly Wikimedia conferences, highlighting the interconnectedness of human knowledge. Neuroscientific research suggests lateral thinking is a crucial skill found in successful Wikiracers.

A collaborative map lets anyone rename the entire world in real time

Rename.world is a playful, community-driven project where users discover, claim, and rename locations across a live global map. It's kind of like Wikipedia meets Google Maps, filtered through the internet's love of chaos and whimsy.

Find 36 hidden messages in these household name company logos

Brand logos are designed to represent a business's core values and products in a unique, differentiating way. We experience this branding mechanism regularly, and hundreds of businesses are recognizable to us via only this one symbol, even when...

The story of Kryptos, the long unsolved cryptographic sculpture outside the CIA's headquarters

Made by American artist Jim Sanborn, the sculpture features four copper plates engraved with messages written with the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet and question marks. The last of these plates was solved in 2025, but the piece remains of interest to cryptoanalysts.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

A 1908 toy visualizes how the sun never set on the British Empire

Researchers uncovered an early-1900s children’s toy that romanticized the British Empire: a rotating world map showing where the sun shone on Britain’s far-flung territories. The interactive device also served as an advertisement for "The Children’s Encyclopedia."

How a competition honoring a king's birthday uncovered history's first chaotic system

A committee established a contest for King Oscar II's 60th birthday, featuring four unsolved problems in mathematics, including one on proving the stability of a system of more than two objects held together by gravity. Focusing on three celestial objects, Henri Poincaré won the prize for his proof, which he later learned was incorrect and, upon correcting it, instead proved these systems to be unstable.

Salvador Dalí designed the Chupa Chups lollipop logo

The ubiquitous lollipop design actually comes from the mind of Salvador Dalí. Dalí had no problem creating commercial work for the right price and agreed to create the eye-catching logo. Dalí's skill for attracting attention explains why the logo is placed on top rather than the side.

Steve Jobs designed the original Mac calculator in 10 minutes

Unsatisfied with the designs provided by Chris Espinosa—Apple's youngest employee when he was hired at 14 in 1976—the engineer designed a program that gave Jobs access to every visual parameter, which he used to build the calculator's user interface.

Raymond Pettibon designed Black Flag's iconic logo

Pettibon’s brother, Greg Ginn, was the guitarist for a new band in search of a logo. Pettibon delivered an image that would become one of the defining icons of punk: four black bars, meant to symbolize a waving flag.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

A 21-year-old college student designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

In 1981, a 21-year-old Yale architecture student, Maya Lin, won the national design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The design was controversial for rejecting heroic statues, using a black wall, and avoiding overt patriotic symbolism.

Google Search includes over 50 Easter eggs hidden behind specific search terms

Some queries—besides providing search results—trigger additional effects on the site, including tilting the page after searching for "askew," having the page perform dance moves to the song after searching for "[cha-cha slide]," and the ability to play a version of block breaker after searching for "Atari breakout."

The story behind one iconic meme

The 2012 post titled "Just a book owners smile" shows 11-year-old Maggie Goldenberger—resplendent in her braces, pigtails, and treasure map-like vest—holding a trio of Goosebumps books and grinning wildly at the camera. Another user quickly captioned it, "GERSBERMS. MAH FRAVRIT BERKS."

Y Combinator was founded in 2005 to bridge gaps between founders and investors

In one of Paul Graham’s essays on his website, he took the time to explain how and why he and his cofounders (including his girlfriend at the time, and now wife, Jessica Livingston), came up with the idea of and eventually created Y Combinator.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

The bizarre 1920 proposal to form a pizza-shaped central European state

In light of the challenges of the Treaty of Versailles, which concluded the Great War, a mostly unknown author, and son of the map's printer, PA Maas suggested central Europe be integrated into a single state. With a central capital in Vienna, 24 Kantons, or regions, would radiate outward in pie-slice shapes.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

What it's like to work in an office designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright's SC Johnson Global Headquarters is an administrative building in Wisconsin that radically challenged common practices for creating a corporate office space. Built in 1939, the office remains functional today with a spacious central room for exchanging ideas.

'Jeopardy!' super fans use a specific method to calculate a player's score

In its many decades on the air, “Jeopardy!” has developed a fervent fanbase that likes to play along at home. The Coryat score was developed by Karl Coryat, who appeared on the show in 1996. The equation ignores forced responses on Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy! Correct responses for Daily Doubles are scored as their natural value.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

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

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

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

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

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

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

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.