Washington State’s flag has appeared on every College GameDay set since 2003

ESPN’s College GameDay show has been a Saturday staple since 1987

Debuting in 1987, College GameDay has become college football’s premier pregame show—broadcasting live from campuses nationwide, featuring spirited fan signs, and setting the stage for the day’s biggest matchups.

‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ became associated with sports at the 1918 World Series

The song is often played at the start of amateur and professional sports games, a tradition that historians say became popular during World War I. During the seventh-inning stretch of the first game of the 1918 World Series, a band started an impromptu version. Red Sox player Fred Thomas, on leave from the Navy, turned to salute the flag, and the crowd followed his lead.

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.

“Dotting the i” in Script Ohio is one of college football’s most famous band traditions

Performed by The Ohio State University Marching Band since 1936, Script Ohio culminates with a sousaphone player ceremonially dotting the “i”—a revered honor that’s become an iconic symbol of Buckeye football Saturdays.

Inside one credit union’s big NFL bet

Herndon, Virginia-based Northwest Federal Credit Union is working to bring credit unions into the spotlight. The relatively small institution just made a big splash when it struck an $8M-per-year naming rights deal with the Washington Commanders. Northwest is now the official credit union partner for the team and has turned FedEx Field into Northwest Stadium. Banking nerds and sports fans alike are paying close attention. Read this article to learn more.

The Confederate flag that most people recognize was not the national flag

The familiar Confederate flag was actually a battlefield banner; the Confederacy's true national flag, the "Stars and Bars," featured a blue canton with white stars and red-white-red stripes resembling the US flag.

The story behind the iconic flag-raising photo on Iwo Jima (1945)

The iconic image captured by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal went viral, as far as it could in the 1940s, showing six marines raising a flag atop Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. The shot was used for public relations by the military, but it would later be shrouded by controversy when it was revealed it was the second flag raising that day, inviting accusations it was staged.

George Washington's birthday was a federal holiday until it was moved to the third Monday in February in 1968

Washington's February 22 birthday became a federal holiday in 1879. A 1968 law moved it to the third Monday in February, and decades of advertising popularized the unofficial name "Presidents' Day," which the federal government never formally adopted.

See the evolution of Super Bowl logos and how the NFL refined its visual identity over time

Tracing Super Bowl logos from early, varied designs to today’s standardized look shows how the NFL adapted to shifting design trends, television demands, and brand strategy.

Texas and Oklahoma have played annually at the State Fair of Texas since 1929

Known as the Red River Showdown, the Texas–Oklahoma game is a centerpiece of the State Fair in Dallas. The neutral-site clash has produced iconic moments and often shapes Big 12 and national championship races.

Washington sat for a portrait at least 12 times during his career

Those sittings were primarily for painter Charles Willson Peale. Without photographs, capturing the accurate physique of the tall, commanding Washington is difficult—but you can get a sense of his appearance with this collection of paintings over several decades.

College football rivalry trophies range from historic prizes to bizarre oddities

From the Paul Bunyan Trophy and the Golden Hat to the Old Brass Spittoon and the Bronze Pig, rivalry games feature prizes that mix tradition, regional pride, and a dash of eccentricity.

The Rose Bowl was first played in 1902 and was the first postseason college football game

Held annually in Pasadena, California, the Rose Bowl is known as the “Granddaddy of Them All,” pairing top teams in a historic stadium and coinciding with the famed Rose Parade each New Year’s Day.

The 2007 college football season was one of the wildest in history

In 2007, a record number of top-ranked teams fell, including 41-point underdog Stanford stunning USC. Upsets scrambled the rankings weekly, producing an unpredictable and memorable season.

The 2024 women's national championship between Iowa and South Carolina drew nearly 19 million viewers

Fueled by Caitlin Clark's star power in her final college game, the South Carolina-Iowa championship peaked at 24 million viewers, more than the men's final that year, making it the most-watched basketball game of any kind in five years.

See top-down views of Washington state's geology with cutting-edge lidar

Lidar is a revolutionary tool that creates visual models of landscapes using rapid light pulse measurements. Geologists in Washington state have deployed the technology to study the state's fault lines, landslides, tsunami inundation zones, and much more.

Browse a list of the most important invention from each state

From Alabama's electric hearing aid and Idaho's television to Washington's artificial heart and Wisconsin's space suit, this map highlights technological breakthroughs with outsized impacts from each US commonwealth. The District of Columbia is also featured as the state of origin for the telegraph and Morse code. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Red is deeply symbolic in Chinese culture

Since the bold hue warded off the mythical Nian, the color red has come to represent luck, prosperity, and celebration. If you come across a home or neighborhood preparing for new year celebrations, you'll see red lanterns, wall hangings, clothing, and more.

Montana's Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School was home to a world champion girls' basketball team

In 1904, the school, featuring players from multiple tribes in Montana and Idaho, won the championship at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also known as the St. Louis World Fair).

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.

Student loan debt differs from state to state

Washington, DC, has the highest average federal student loan debt in the country at $54,795 per borrower. North Dakota has the country's lowest average at $29,647 per borrower.

Disneyland's drinkers once had their own unofficial mascot

Disney has countless subcultures and unofficial fan clubs, including D3, also known as the Disney Day Drinkers. Founded in 2021, the club began informally meeting near a trashcan, nicknamed Binny, in Disney World’s Epcot park … until it mysteriously disappeared in 2023.

Whitman's words have appeared in numerous shows and movies

Whitman's poems have had significant screen time in movies like “Dead Poets Society” and television shows like “Breaking Bad.”

How Pearl Jam helped inspire Coachella

Pearl Jam hasn't yet played Coachella, but they did play a major role in inspiring the annual music festival. The story goes back to 1993, when Pearl Jam was protesting all Ticketmaster-owned venues, which made playing a Los Angeles-area date next to impossible. That led concert promoter Goldenvoice to the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, where the first Coachella took place six years later.

Eliza Scidmore advocated for planting cherry trees in Washington, DC, in the early 1900s

The first female writer for National Geographic, Scidmore championed planting Japanese cherry trees around the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC. Her idea succeeded in 1912, after years of lobbying, creating one of the National Mall's most enduring traditions and tourist draws.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

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

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.

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

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

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

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

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.

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

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

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.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

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

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.'

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution