America’s first roller coaster initially transported coal instead of people

The first American roller coaster was built at Coney Island

LaMarcus Thompson was an inventor and businessman who developed the first US amusement park ride in the 19th century and sparked a booming business. Customers spent a nickel to coast on wheeled benches over gentle hills, leaving Thompson with around $600 per day in profits.

The steep and slippery Russian ice slides sparked centuries-long obsessions with thrill-seeking

When a French traveler happened upon the 17th and 18th century Russian pastime of sledding down man-made hills, he brought the idea home and inspired others to modernize the mechanics. Adoration for coasters spread around Europe and eventually reached the US, where the scream machine would undergo major advancements.

Why roller coaster loops are never circular

The beloved looped roller coaster rides used to be shapes as perfect circles and constructed with wood, resulting in wobbly machinery that gave people whiplash. After the invention of steel and further scientific understanding, Six Flags debuted The Great American Revolution—a modern, oval loop with steel that offered a safer and smoother experience.

Boston opened the first subway tunnel in the US in 1897

By the end of the 19th century, nearly 400,000 people were packed into less than a square mile of downtown Boston, with 8,000 horses pulling trolleys through streets choked with noise, manure, and congestion. This prompted the city to pursue a then-controversial subway system.

Ingenuity and advanced engineering have allowed trains to overcome extreme landscapes

The Jungfrau Railway utilizes electric trains powered by hydroelectric energy to ascend the Swiss Alps, while Poland's Elbląg Canal hauls ships along cable-powered tracks driven by waterwheels. Germany's Wuppertal monorail navigates bends as it glides over a river valley, and New Mexico's Holloman High-Speed Test Track can achieve speeds of Mach 8.6 for rocket sleds.

A rush to invest in British rail in the 1840s led to investor ruin

During “Railway Mania,” speculative excitement pushed British rail shares to extreme valuations as investors chased rapid expansion. When costs ballooned and profits failed to materialize, the bubble collapsed in 1847—wiping out fortunes across the country.

George Pullman popularized tipping in the US with his Pullman sleeping car business

By 1868, Pullman, who operated luxury sleeping cars on the country’s growing network of railways, had started hiring formerly enslaved Black men as porters for extremely meager wages, working long hours in poor conditions. He encouraged wealthy passengers to tip them, helping institutionalize tipping in the US.

Atlantic City was a major vacation destination in the early 20th century

The city’s boardwalk, filled with amusement parks and vendors, became a significant attraction for vacationing families. The town also became a hub for entertainment, with actors often starting there before heading to Broadway.

Before the Panama Canal, there was the Panama railroad

The first ship to cross the isthmus of Panama went not by sea but by land: The paddlewheel steamship Explorer was taken apart and transported by rail, an effort that generated “more trouble than profit,” according to one account.

How America became a nation of gamblers

For thousands of years, humans have liked to gamble. What started as dice games and betting on chariot races became a way for states to generate revenue here in America. This article explores how states have been using gambling to pay for infrastructure and capital projects–and the cost it’s had on the citizens.

Why so many people love roller coasters even though they’re scary

When a threat arises, it triggers our bodies to go into fight-or-flight mode and prepare for danger. However, when no obvious threat to our safety is present, this natural high can become enjoyable. Some people are more likely to enjoy these thrills based on factors like individual brain chemistry or physical health.

Abandoned racetracks can be found via Google Earth

With auto racing a favorite American pastime in the 1900s, tracks both small and large were built across the country. Some were local tracks used for small races, while others were super-speedways used by NASCAR.

'Mystery hikes' were a popular attraction in the 1930s

Still reeling from the Great Depression, many Americans were looking for low-cost (or free) activities. Some travel agencies curated "mystery hikes," which offered intrepid amblers the opportunity to be set on a blind adventure.

100 years of passenger air travel: a visual guide

This interactive timeline covers the first 100 years of passenger air travel, which was created in 1925 when the U.S. Post Office allowed private airlines to start delivering mail.

Six Flags’ now defunct Green Lantern ride was known to many as a ‘pelvic nightmare’

The Defunctland YouTube channel focuses on telling the stories of extinct amusement rides and experiences, like the ambitious “Green Lantern” coaster that ran from 2011 to 2024. Critics, enthusiasts, and casual riders alike seemed to agree the ride was the worst at Six Flags due to its discomfort on the lower body.

There are currently over 6,500 active coasters in the world

See a database including every country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe to see stats about their coaster count, and compare it to their populations and square footage.

Parton opened the Dollywood theme park in 1986

The theme park, situated in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, offers roller coasters, games, and other family-friendly activities alongside Parton-themed exhibits, including a replica of her childhood home.

The Bill of Rights toured the United States on the Freedom Train from 1947 to 1949

Alongside the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Bill of Rights traveled the country for 18 months. Nearly 3.5 million people viewed the documents as they traveled to all 48 contiguous states in the US. (Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states.)

The surprising world of coal seam fires

Hundreds of coal seam fires are actively smoldering around the world at any given time, including some that have stayed lit for centuries. These fires have occurred naturally for millions of years, lit atop deposits of coal in the earth. Dive into...

Yellowstone was the world's first national park

Before it was designated as such, it was home to 27 Indigenous tribes, including the Blackfeet, Crow, and Nez Perce. European trappers and traders traveling west were entranced by the area’s stunning beauty and natural resources, fueling a push for the government to preserve the land for future generations.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Disneyland’s opening day was called 'Black Sunday'

A rushed, hectic construction process left the park was in bad shape for its opening, leading to a disastrous first day at the park, which employees came to call “Black Sunday.”

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.

The electric microphone led to a country music boom

The electric microphone provided enhanced audio and greater portability, saving the fledgling record industry and making recording outside of New York and Camden, New Jersey, possible. This proved critical for capturing early country and rock ‘n’ roll.

Explore an alternative investments timeline

From what’s known as the first leveraged buyout, when JPMorgan acquired the Carnegie Steel Company, to the creation of the first-ever hedge fund, alternative investments have a long history.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

The Rockefellers funded the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg

John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife spent millions of dollars restoring Colonial Williamsburg and turning it into the tourist attraction it is today. You can go back in time via video footage from before and after the restoration.

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.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

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

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.

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

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

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

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

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

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

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

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

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.

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.

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.

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.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.