A popular tag in World War II announced 'Kilroy was here'

'Keep Calm and Carry On' was long-forgotten World War II propaganda

The British Ministry of Information developed the stoic phrase ahead of German attacks at the start of World War II in 1939. It was never officially released on posters and then lay dormant until 2000, when one of the remaining posters was discovered at a bookstore in the UK. It has since been adapted into countless memes.

Ancient Romans sometimes lobbed insults through graffiti

Graffiti was used to communicate ideas, offer advice, and, not unlike the internet, talk some trash. That was especially true with tourists, who sometimes scrawled messages on the pyramids, including one person who complained, "I can not read the hierogylphics." In response, someone replied, "Why do you care that you can not read the hieroglyphics? I do not understand your concern."

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

TAKI 183 was a teenager whose graffiti drew widespread attention

Inspired by graffiti he saw throughout the city—including some tags he saw as early as 1964—the 16-year-old began tagging surfaces with "TAKI 183," a reference to a Greek nickname for Demetrius and his street (183rd) in Washington Heights. After a 1971 New York Times profile, his tag—and graffiti culture in New York—exploded.

The famous image of Che Guevara was captured by accident

Alberto Korda wasn’t aiming for Che Guevara when he snapped one of the most reproduced photos in history. This longread traces how that fleeting moment became a global icon—later commodified across pop culture, fashion, and advertising.

How Chuck Norris 'Facts' gave birth to the modern meme

In the early 2000s, anonymous, absurdly hyperbolic jokes about one B-level action star suddenly appeared everywhere on the internet. "Chuck Norris Facts" were spawned by a high school senior, who'd noticed something funny online and taken it to the next level. As Ryan Hockensmith shows in this detailed history, Spector's joke laid the groundwork for the modern meme.

How Guinness became a social media trend

In early 2024, an unexpected meme emerged on Instagram and TikTok: "splitting the G," where Guinness drinkers would attempt to take a first sip big enough to leave the remaining beer perfectly aligned with the middle of the "G" on a Guinness pint glass. This Vinepair article explores where the trend came from and how it took off.

Rockwell's 'Rosie the Riveter' alludes to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel

Norman Rockwell's 1943 painting was intended to show the strength of female contributions to the American war effort and used the character of Rosie the Riveter, popularized in a 1942 song, to represent that. Although Rockwell used a model for the portrait, he made the woman larger on the canvas to parallel Michelangelo's painting of the Prophet Isaiah on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The Foolkiller: The mysterious submarine at the bottom of the Chicago River

In November 1915, a submarine was found at the bottom of the Chicago River. It had been there for at least 10 years, was 40 feet long, and contained the remains of a man and his dog. To this day, no one knows who built it.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

The term ‘McCarthyism’ was coined by a political cartoonist

In February 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy infamously proclaimed that he had a list of communist State Department employees. The next month, cartoonist Herbert Block published a cartoon in the Washington Post featuring a reluctant elephant (the mascot of the Republican Party) being pushed to stand on a wobbly tower labeled “McCarthyism.”

Meet the Marree Man, one of the world's largest works of art

In the summer of 1998, a pilot flying over the Australian outback discovered a geoglyph 1.7 miles long featuring an aboriginal man hunting. The massive work of art is one of the world's largest.

The 'Sign Post Forest' in Canada's Yukon collects roadsigns from across the globe

The unique roadside attraction is a common stop for those traveling along the Alaska Highway, allowing visitors to browse over 100,000 signs. The collection is believed to have been started in 1942 by a homesick American soldier.

A rich archive of the visual imagination of the Cold War era

The blog aggregates art, design, fashion, and technology from the atomic and space age, spanning mid-century American futurism and its Soviet counterpart. The content has a broad range: escape pods from a B-58 bomber sit alongside Tour de France caravan vehicles and unidentified industrial designs.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Roosevelt’s post-Pearl Harbor address became one of America’s most iconic speeches

Delivered to a joint session of Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared Dec. 7 “a date which will live in infamy.” The speech, heard by tens of millions of Americans, helped consolidate national support for entering the war.

Explore a list of trademarked phrases

Trademarks can extend to phrases and slogans when the words become brand identifiers. Some phrases that have been trademarked are famed boxing announcer Michael Buffer's "Let's get ready to rumble!" and reality television star Paris Hilton's "That's hot."

The origins of Neil Armstrong's moon landing quote is still debated

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon on July 20, 1969, his first words, transmitted across the globe, became legendary. Decades later, historians still debate whether he meant to say "one small step for a man," and where the phrasing may have originated.

What was the typical dinner like for US soldiers during WWII?

This odd little nearly 20-minute video details the very excited narrator's unpacking of a 1943 package of K rations. Such meals would have been consumed by American soldiers during World War II. A fascinating look at what soldiers had to depend on for nourishment, made slightly harder to watch by showing the narrator eating 80-year-old biscuits and more.

Teenager Guy Gabaldon captured the most prisoners in US military history

After the vicious battle of Saipan outside Japan in World War II, the Japanese were opting for suicide rather than surrender. Gabaldon, a Marine with a track record for skillfully convincing the enemy to surrender, managed to capture 800 Japanese single-handedly.

North Carolina adopted 'First in Flight' license plates in 1982—to snarky reviews

Many locals surfaced the irony of enshrining the accomplishments of two men from Ohio on the license plates of North Carolinans. Nonetheless, the style endures to this day, alongside Ohio’s “Birthplace of Aviation.”

Radar saved the British Royal Air Force from Nazi air assaults

Radar technology—particularly the Chain Home early-warning system—enabled the RAF to detect incoming Luftwaffe raids up to 80 miles out, coordinate fighter deployments through the Dowding System, and achieve interception rates over 90%. This technological edge was pivotal in winning the Battle of Britain and halting Germany's air campaign.

David Ogilvy once worked for the man who created the Gallup Poll

In 1938, when Ogilvy came to the United States, he started working for George Gallup’s Audience Research Institute in New Jersey. He took his learnings with him through the rest of his career, including during World War II, when Ogilvy worked with the Intelligence Service at the British Embassy in Washington.

The word 'dude' was originally used as an insult

Although the actual origin of the word is unknown, stymologists found the first recorded use in the United States was in the 1880s and referred to a young man, usually from the East Coast, who was overly concerned with his appearance. "Dude ranches" were an informal name for the ranches out West that catered to these types of men.

Roy Lichtenstein popularized benday dots in his famous comic-inspired paintings

American newspaper publisher Benjamin Henry Day Jr. developed the "benday" printing and photoengraving technique to produce grays and colors with fine patterns of ink of equal size and distribution. The process would become widespread in newspaper printing and define the work of Roy Lichtenstein.

How 'Don't leave home without it' became the American Express tagline

The tagline was created by legendary New York advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather. Its first commercial was fronted by Karl Malden, famous for his role in the TV show "The Streets of San Francisco." The slogan was originally designed for American Express traveler's cheques, but was revived for the company's credit cards. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

David Hockney's 'Splash' paintings depicted the Brit's adoration for California

Bradford-born David Hockney saw the lure of California as an escape from the dreariness of London and a symbol of social and sexual freedom. Sotheby’s reflects on Hockney’s series of three "Splash" paintings, capturing ephemeral moments and the magic of America as a cultural export in the 1960s.

A 94-year-old stumbles upon a photo of herself from 1947 at an airport

Earlier this year, Gwendolyn Bruhn, who worked for Hawaiian Airlines in the 1940s, spotted herself in a photo blown up on an airport wall. Here's her story.

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

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

The original copy of the Declaration of Independence is not a pristine document, and even features a smudged anonymous handprint in the bottom left corner.

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

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

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

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

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

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.

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

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