The hand-dug 'Big Well' of Greensburg, Kansas

The title of 'World’s Largest Christmas Tree' is disputed

Cities in the US, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands all claim they have the world’s largest Christmas tree—ranging from massive evergreens, TV and communication towers, and hillside light displays.

Learn how aquifers and wells provide the largest reserves of accessible freshwater on Earth

Roughly a third of Earth's freshwater is stored underground in aquifers—permeable and porous rock formations where water naturally flows from the Earth's surface and accumulates. About half of this groundwater is accessed through wells, a feat of engineering used for thousands of years.

Recovering the USS Oklahoma was the largest naval salvage operation ever attempted

In 1943, engineers spent three months using 21 giant winches and an intricate cable system to right the capsized USS Oklahoma. It was the largest naval salvage effort ever attempted at the time and remains one of the most complex in history.

Fracking brought short-term wealth and long-term collapse to Rock Springs, Wyoming

In the early 2000s, the fracking boom transformed the quiet mining town into a hub of oil field laborers with plentiful job opportunities. Once the boom faded and industry left, unaffordable housing, unsafe working conditions, and drug epidemics left many residents with no prospects amid a disappearing way of life.

'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' was inspired by a drought

In 1886, Baum moved to Aberdeen, South Dakota, opening a general store and a newspaper. A drought afflicted the area, decimating crops. Baum moved, but his first 'Oz' book describes Dorothy's Kansas in a way that matched what he saw in South Dakota.

Kansas has been home to the Museum of Deaf History, Arts & Culture since 2001

The Museum of Deaf History, Arts and Culture—a small, independent museum—documents discrimination against the deaf and the unique culture and history of people with hearing loss in the US.

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 world's first geothermal power plant was built in 1913 in Devil's Valley

In Tuscany, Italy, Prince Piero Ginori-Conti of Trevignano established the plant nine years after creating a generator that powered five light bulbs using steam vents in the area. Within three years, a second plant was built with two generators, each with 10 times the energy output of the first.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

One roadside attraction invented modern mini-golf

Garnet Carter and his wife Frieda owned and operated Fairyland, a roadside attraction on Lookout Mountain in Georgia. While other mini-golf courses tried to mimic the regal courses of its parent game, the Carters built obstacles and decorations from items they had around Fairyland, effectively inventing the leisure-minded version of the game.

The story of the first commercial US oil well and why crude oil is measured in barrels

The 1859 oil discovery in Titusville, Pennsylvania, sparked a boom in oil exploration and production to meet the demand for kerosene lamp fuel. Because the 42-gallon barrel was a readily available container already in use for shipping fish, butter, wine, and other goods, it was adopted by the Petroleum Producers Association in 1872 and by both the US Geological Survey and the US Bureau of Mines in 1882.

See the world's longest glass-bottom bridge in China

China's Huangchuan Three Gorges Scenic Area sports the world's longest glass-bottom bridge, spanning over 1,700 feet. Designed by the Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University, it stands 660 feet above the Lianjiang River. The bridge features bright red towers, an 29-foot-wide deck with three layers of thick glass, and can support 500 people. The bridge surpassed the previous record-holder, a 1,600-foot bridge in Hebei province.

The legend of Pittsburgh’s fake Burger King

Years ago, a Burger King in Pittsburgh lost its franchise due to repeated customer complaints about food quality. However, the franchise-holders continued to operate the restaurant, switching to generic packaging but keeping the signage and uniforms. Customers eventually caught on and raised suspicions, leading to Burger King's corporate leaders' involvement. Learn more about the bizarre establishment and how it managed to continue operations for months.

Dangers of a record-breaking, sleep-skipping stunt

In 1963, 17-year-old Randy Gardner decided to stay awake for as long as it took to break the current world record. He managed to stay awake for 11 days. In 2017, the then-71-year-old Gardner told NPR that his experience had come back to haunt him as insomnia. The challenge has since been removed from the Guinness Book of World Records due to its dangerous consequences.

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

Santa Barbara’s Botanic Garden was the first to showcase the state’s native plants

Founded in 1926, the garden’s founders sought to showcase the state’s local flora as a matter of conservation, rather than the water-hungry exotics regularly being imported. This story focuses on how the garden’s design took a more natural and less formal direction.

Utah is the ‘greenest’ state to die in—determined by burial emissions and green options

This map ranks each US state based on accessible, sustainable burial services and recent emissions from people’s burial decisions. Utah, Colorado, Washington, and Vermont are ranked as the greenest options.

In 1965, Warren Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway, a failing textile company

After buying bulks of its stock, Buffett then flipped Berkshire Hathaway into the most successful and largest holding company in the world, which owns companies like Geico, Duracell, and Fruit of the Loom.

Go inside the ranch where the famous Budweiser Clydesdales live

Budweiser's famous Clydesdales, including the ones you see in Super Bowl commercials, live a cushy lifestyle on Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville, Missouri. The ranch is home to roughly 70 and 80 Clydesdales at any given time.

DeWitt Clinton’s “Big Ditch” gamble transformed New York

Mocked as “Clinton’s Folly” and “Clinton’s Big Ditch,” New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton championed the Erie Canal against skeptics. His political drive secured funding for the project in 1817.

As of 2025, the Factory of the Future 1.0 is the world's largest 3D printer

Housed at the University of Maine, the machine incorporates AI and can utilize bio-based materials to construct homes exceeding 3,000 square feet in size. Homes made from these materials are fully recyclable, as their components can be deconstructed, ground up, and reused as raw materials for printing.

Disney World's Magic Kingdom includes an underground utilidor

Walt Disney viewed everything happening in his parks as a performance and didn't like it when that performance was disrupted by necessary aspects of the park's maintenance, like trash collection. With Florida's Disney World, the company corrected that problem by building a massive area underneath the park to be used as a "backstage."

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.

Farmer secretly plants sunflower field for 50th anniversary with wife

Kansas farmer Lee Wilson wanted to give something special to his wife of 50 years, Renee, on their golden anniversary, so he secretly planted 80 acres of sunflowers in May for an August bloom. The gift consists of roughly 1.2 million sunflowers,...

A $7.5M renovation aimed to protect Fallingwater from climate-related damage

The exhaustive plan took over three years to reach the finish line. The majority of the expenses went toward hiring skilled laborers to address issues such as water damage in the unique location.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

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

A submarine canyon helps produce the biggest ocean waves in the world

Off the shores of Nazaré, Portugal, the canyon is nearly three times as deep as the Grand Canyon in places. This creates a rare convergence of fast and slow swells that erupt into towering walls of water over 100 feet high.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

The mysterious Fort Knox houses much of America’s gold reserves

This fortified vault, built in 1936, is part of the US Mint, but it doesn’t create any currency. Only a presidential order can open Fort Knox—there has not been an audit of its contents since 1953.

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

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.

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

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

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

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

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

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

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

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

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.

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

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.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

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.

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.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

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.

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