Shakespeare's father was a professional ale taster

Shakespeare included a reference to toasting in ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’

At one point in the 1602 play, the character Falstaff calls for a quart of wine, asking for toast to be placed in it, as was customary at the time.

Shakespeare was criticized in his own time

Robert Greene was a respected writer during Shakespeare’s time as an actor-playwright who famously dismissed the young upstart, accusing him of plagiarism and criticizing his ability to write blank verse.

Documented proof of Shakespeare’s life

Birth in 1564 in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon; marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582; and the appearance of his first born (1583) and first printed play (1594): If you’ve ever doubted the Bard’s existence, here are his life’s milestones backed by historical documents.

Bear-baiting was another form of entertainment during Shakespeare’s time

We tend to think of Shakespeare’s audiences as prim and proper, but the Bard’s shows were just another form of amusement, viewed by commoners as entertainment not unlike the animal blood sports that were similarly popular during the time period.

The best Shakespeare plays, ranked

The Guardian worked through the Bard's plays, from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to "The Winter's Tale," evaluating what distinguishes the mediocre from the truly excellent.

Linguists proved Shakespeare wrote his plays

In the 1800s, linguist Wincenty Lutoslawski invented a method of linguistics analysis called stylometry to help certify literary authorship. Stylometrists concluded that Shakespeare wrote his plays, and likely collaborated with Christopher Marlowe for some.

How Shakespeare changed the sonnet

A sonnet is a rigid poetic form from the Renaissance, featuring 14 lines, a consistent meter (or beat) and rhyme scheme, and a noticeable thematic shift known as a "volta." Shakespeare popularized a form featuring three four-line stanzas and a rhyming couplet, departing from the Petrarchan two-part structure of eight- and six-line stanzas.

One '$64,000 Question' winner went from police officer to Shakespearean scholar overnight

Redmond O’Hanlon was a police officer living on Staten Island, New York, when he competed on “The $64,000 Question.” His knowledge of Shakespeare earned him $16,000, which was four times his annual salary. After appearing on the show, he became a minor celebrity, and created a Shakespeare-themed set of playing cards and established the O'Hanlon Shakespeare Service, a consultancy on the Bard, all while continuing to work for the NYPD.

No, Shakespeare didn't write the Bible

Some believe Shakespeare helped write the King James Bible—and left his name hidden in Psalm 46. The evidence seems uncanny… but the truth is much less dramatic.

As a child, Twain worked as a 'printer's devil'

Twain’s father died in 1847, forcing the 12-year-old Twain to leave school to earn money for the family. He took up work in a print shop as a “printer’s devil,” or an apprentice. He became fascinated with the technology, an experience he’d pursue further when he became a journalist several years later.

William Blake may be best known as a poet, but he was also a painter

The author of "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" was a romantic poet and painter. "Newton," one of his better-known pieces, satirizes Isaac Newton, whom he saw as too concerned with the empiricism of science and, as a result, lacking an understanding of nature.

One of the earliest known satires is an ancient Egyptian parody of life advice

“The Satire of the Trades” mocks the then-popular “wisdom literature,” which imparted life advice. In the text, a father, a scribe, explains why his son should work the same job, detailing the miseries of several other lines of work. His ultimate argument is that it’s best to be a manager rather than a worker: “See, there is no office free from supervisors except the scribe's. He is the supervisor!”

How a modern 'beer archaeologist' crafts ancient ales

The short documentary follows Travis Rupp, a University of Colorado classics professor who also works with Avery Brewing to produce Ancient Egyptian, Roman, and Peruvian beer.

Anheuser-Busch was passed from father to son for five generations

The Busch family put a couple drops of Budweiser beer onto each first-born son’s tongue when they were born, according to family lore. Given their Anheuser-Busch ownership dynasty, the Busch family was considered beer royalty, with a Busch man running the operation up until the $52B InBev acquisition in 2008.

The word 'punk' originally meant 'female prostitute'

The Oxford English Dictionary records the first usage before 1575. Shakespeare used the word in his play “Measure for Measure,” with one character suggesting another “may be a Puncke.” Over time, the word acquired additional meanings. By the 20th century, it was used as an insult for a young man.

His father, an art instructor, taught him to paint

Picasso’s talent was evident from an early age. With the encouragement and instruction of his father, an artist and art instructor, he developed classical techniques that often surprise those only familiar with his abstract works.

A teenage Springsteen struggled with his father

Springsteen’s father didn’t understand why his son was interested in pursuing a music career, leading to a tense relationship that was often exacerbated by his father’s struggles with mental illness.

The Judgment of Paris was organized by Steve Spurrier

The English wine merchant organized the competition with Patricia Gallagher at his Paris wine shop. In this in-depth interview, he talks about how he got into the wine trade, how the Judgment of Paris impacted his own career and the global wine scene, and tells some of his favorite stories from the past.

John D. Rockefeller’s father had a nefarious past

William A. Rockefeller Sr. earned his money via various schemes that included pretending to be a doctor to sell “herbal medicines” and posing as a deaf person to peddle for money.

Jane Austen was unhappy in the city of Bath, but it inspired some of her books

In 1801, Austen's father retired and abruptly moved the family from Steventon to Bath. Austen loathed her new home, but she used it as the setting for pieces of her novels "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey." "The scandals and shallowness of the city fueled her cynicism and wit; nothing escaped her scathing pen," an exhibition on Austen from the Bath Preservation Trust explained.

The origins of British pub names

An estimated 50,000 pubs dot the streets and countrysides of Britain, many of which have histories going back centuries. This deep dive traces the origins of some of the most common pub names to the medieval era, including favorites Red Lion, Crown, and Royal Oak. Learn why such names were originally chosen and how they have come to evolve in recent centuries in this comprehensive overview.

Madison once lost an election because he refused to give voters free alcohol

After serving in Virginia's 1776 convention, James Madison lost a 1777 house of delegates race after refusing to bribe voters with liquor, which he believed violated republican principles.

John Steinbeck spent 6 years studying at Stanford, but never earned a degree.

Beard was influenced by his godfather, a Chinese-born cook

Beard made no secret of the impact that Jue-Let, his godfather, had on his own love of food and cooking. Beard wrote about Let, though he has still been relegated to the annals of American cooking, something historians say is unfortunately common for minorities.

Anne Frank's father, Otto, speaks to the BBC

The 13-year-old Jewish girl Anne Frank has inspired millions with her optimistic diaries amid Nazi oppression in the Netherlands. In 1976, her father—the sole survivor among Anne's immediate family—showed the world the original copy of one of Anne's three diaries in this BBC interview. Hear why Otto decided to publish the diaries and how that decision changed his life.

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

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

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.'

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

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

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.

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.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

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

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year