Malcolm Butler's late interception sealed the Patriots' Super Bowl XLIX victory

A major upset in Super Bowl XLII prevented the Patriots from completing an undefeated season

In Super Bowl XLII, the heavily favored New England Patriots lost 17-14 to the Giants, ending a 16-0 season after David Tyree's improbable helmet catch set up the winning drive.

The Patriots came back from a 28-3 deficit in Super Bowl LI

In Super Bowl LI, the New England Patriots erased a 28-3 third-quarter deficit against Atlanta, forcing the first overtime in a Super Bowl and winning 34-28, the largest comeback in Super Bowl history.

Super Bowl XXXIV came down to the final play at the goal line

In Super Bowl XXXIV, Tennessee drove to the Rams' one-yard line on the final play, but Kevin Dyson was stopped by Mike Jones on the final play, sealing a 23-16 St. Louis win.

Rob Gronkowski dented the Lombardi Trophy during the Patriots' celebration

After their victory in Super Bowl LII, Patriots' tight end Rob Gronkowski dented the trophy by using it as a baseball bat before throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park. Team owner Robert Kraft decided not to repair the trophy.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots are tied for the most Super Bowl wins

The Steelers and Patriots each have six wins, while the Cowboys and 49ers are tied for second with five wins. The Patriots have the most appearances with 11, while four teams—the Browns, Lions, Texans, and Jaguars—have never played in a Super Bowl.

The general public cannot buy Super Bowl tickets at face value

The NFL controls every Super Bowl ticket, distributing none through a general public sale; after allotments to teams, players, sponsors, and the league, only about 11,600 tickets—roughly 16%—are available to fans at face value, mostly via team lotteries.

Butler made back-to-back national championship games as a mid-major underdog

A 5-seed from the small Horizon League, Butler reached the 2010 title game against Duke—where Gordon Hayward's half-court heave at the buzzer narrowly missed. They returned as an 8-seed in 2011, losing to UConn. The runs launched Hayward into the NBA lottery and coach Brad Stevens to the Boston Celtics.

Auburn’s “Kick Six” in 2013 is one of college football’s most unforgettable finishes

In the 2013 Iron Bowl, Auburn’s Chris Davis returned a missed Alabama field goal 109 yards for a touchdown as time expired—securing a 34–28 win and instantly etching the play into college football lore.

Rivalry between the AFL and NFL led to a merger—and the creation of the Super Bowl

Competition between the American Football League and the National Football League led to a 1966 merger agreement, with the Super Bowl created as a championship game to determine league supremacy before the two leagues were fully integrated.

John Elway's 'helicopter dive' capped his first Super Bowl title at 37

In Super Bowl XXXII, John Elway's airborne "helicopter" scramble symbolized his deep desire to win his first championship at age 37, after losing three previous Super Bowls.

History was made in the NFL

Tom Brady became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 600 touchdown passes with a 9-yard scoring strike to Mike Evans on Sunday against the Bears.

Prince's Super Bowl halftime show is widely considered one of the best

The 2007 performance was idiosyncratic, featuring a handful of songs by other artists (including Foo Fighters' "Best of You" and Jimi Hendrix's rendition of "All Along the Watchtower" and a torrential rainstorm. Its differences, along with Prince's legendary stage presence, have led many critics to call it the best Super Bowl halftime performance ever.

The most expensive Super Bowl ad cost $26M

Amazon’s 2022 “Mind Reader” ad with Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost is the most expensive Super Bowl ad to date. The ad is a minute and a half long, which drastically drove up the price of the commercial.

Ohio State’s 2003 Fiesta Bowl win ended Miami’s 34-game winning streak

In a thrilling double-overtime BCS title game, Ohio State defeated defending champion Miami 31–24. This snapped the Hurricanes’ 34-game win streak and delivered the Buckeyes their first national championship since 1968.

Explaining the 1985 Chicago Bears defense, the greatest ever

Led by coach Mike Ditka, the Bears' 1985 defensive unit led the league in total points allowed, yards allowed, and total takeaways. Throughout the season, the team maintained an average of 12.4 points per game, and during its last three playoff games, it only allowed ten points. Few teams have come close to such a defensive display.

The Battle of Midway flipped the balance of power in Pacific naval dominance

Between June 4–7, 1942, U.S. carrier-based aircraft, aided by broken Japanese codes and radar detection, ambushed and sank all four Japanese fleet carriers while losing only one, decisively undermining Japan's offensive capacity and marking the turning point in the Pacific War.

Washington's military acumen and political judgment were crucial to the Continental Army's success

In this podcast, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson argues that Washington's endurance, strategic communication, political judgment, and ability to elevate capable subordinates proved decisive, in sharp contrast to the failures of British leadership during the war.

Squanto was a tragic character in the original Thanksgiving story

Tisquantum (also known as Squanto) played a crucial role in the survival of the Pilgrims. As an English speaker, Squanto assisted the Pilgrims in gathering food and communicating with other Native peoples. However, his story also involved being sold into slavery by an English sea captain and returning home to find his tribe decimated by disease during the Great Dying. Tisquantum met his end not long after that first Thanksgiving, with historians speculating he died either by disease or assassination.

Malcolm X's 'Ballot or the Bullet' speech emphasized the political power of Black voters

The 1964 speech addressed institutionalized racism in the United States and urged Black Americans to exercise their right to vote or be prepared to defend themselves if democracy continued to fail them. It is lauded as one of the most unflinching speeches from the Civil Rights movement.

A 'halo' protects drivers

After the 2015 death of driver Jules Bianchi, Formula 1 mandated that all cars include a protective barrier called a “halo.” This video breaks down how that measure saved the life of Romain Grosjean, who survived a horrific crash in 2020 at a race in Bahrain and later credited the halo as the reason for his survival.

Palantir's software is widely speculated to have enabled Osama bin Laden's assassination

While Palantir has never publicly confirmed the use of its software in the 2011 assassination, its technology is widely speculated to have been a critical aspect of the operation. However, Palantir executives have never denied the claim, either, and have frequently commented on the software's important role in defending Western civilizations from terrorism.

Fantasy sports have turned fans into 'second screen' consumers

The rise of smartphones made fantasy sports more accessible and contributed to a phenomenon called “second screen consumption,” where sports fans are not only watching a live broadcast but are simultaneously watching the statistics from that game play out in their fantasy matchup.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Husky goes way off track at the Westminster Dog Show

Lobo the Siberian Husky lost an agility competition at the Westminster Dog Show in New York City, but won the hearts of the audience after getting off track.

One NHL team tosses salmon to its fans

Detroit Red Wings fans have thrown octopuses on the ice since 1952, and fans of other teams have tried their own hand at tossing things in the rink ever since. It's now become a calling card for the Seattle Kraken, whose fans nod to the city's Pike Place Market by tossing salmon onto the ice.

The Supreme Court decided that a public school coach's postgame prayers were protected speech

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of a high school football coach who had been suspended for kneeling in prayer at midfield after games. The decision shifted away from the Lemon test and toward a more expansive view of religious freedom in the Establishment Clause.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

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.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Neutron stars, the remains of some massive stars after they explode in a supernova, are the densest directly observable objects in the universe.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

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.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

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

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

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