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

Kitty Hawk’s wide space, isolation and winds were ideal for flight experiments

North Carolina’s Outer Banks at the turn of the 20th century were not the summer resort destinations they are today. The brothers sought privacy as they toyed with their aviation designs, camping in Kill Devil Hills and using its sand dunes as launch points for early glider designs.

Some claim the Wrights weren’t first in flight

Their scientific and engineering achievements aside, the Wrights’ claim to be first in flight is debated—and rejected—by some in the industry. Other early pioneers like Gustave Whitehead or Alberto Santos-Damonto are said to deserve the title.

The Wright brothers began as bicycle manufacturers in Dayton, Ohio

In the late 1800s, the duo managed several bike shops in the Dayton, Ohio area, where they would sharpen their teeth in engineering and design. Some of their earliest aviation efforts were funded by their bicycle business and initiated in their bike shops.

Meet Icarus the Second, the first English pig to fly

"When pigs fly" is an ironic phrase meant to express disbelief or impossibility, though it isn't as true today as it may once have been. This article details how a piglet dubbed "Icarus the Second" took flight in November 1909. Stashed in a basket...

North Carolina was the first state to ban payday lending

In 2001, the North Carolina state legislature let a 1997 law that permitted the small-dollar loans expire—effectively banning payday loans. In 2005, the NC bank commissioner ruled that Advance America, a payday lending company, had been operating in the state illegally.

North Carolina's original copy of the Bill of Rights was stolen during the Civil War and recovered 138 years later

A Union soldier looted the document from the state archives in 1865 and sold it for $5. It remained in private hands for more than a century before an undercover FBI agent posing as a buyer seized it in 2003 at a Philadelphia office building.

1928: A quote from Amelia Earhart

"Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting."

How one North Carolina college welcomed the Bauhaus

After the Bauhaus in Berlin closed because the school wouldn't comply with the Nazis' demands, many of its teachers, students, and affiliated artists—including Walter Gropius—left Germany and relocated at Black Mountain College, a quirky liberal arts school in the mountains of western North Carolina.

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

The graffito appeared seemingly everywhere throughout the 1940s and followed a similar pattern: A man with an oversized nose peering over a ledge, with the phrase written below it. Scholars believe it was an American form of similar tags that appeared in Australia and England, making "Kilroy" a meme long before the word had entered the lexicon.

At the 100th birthday of Route 66, a look at what makes it distinctive

The iconic road from Chicago to Santa Monica was first laid out by Cyrus Avery, a member of the highway board, in the 1920s. Before the interstate system was created in the 1950s (rendering the route a tourist route), Route 66 became the site of major roadside attractions, food stops, and lore as early American drivers explored the countryside by highway. This visual-rich essay showcases its origins and how the route stands today.

Georgia urges residents to wear clothes in driver's license photos

A program in Georgia allows residents to create digital IDs from home for quicker passage through airports, and officials have had to warn users to be clothed in the photos they produce for the ID.

“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.

Nike only paid $35 for the swoosh—and cofounder Phil Knight didn’t like it at first

A student Nike cofounder Phil Knight met while teaching at Portland State designed the logo for the “Nike” football shoe (the company was still Blue Ribbon Sports at the time). When Phil Knight saw it, he said, “Well, I don’t love it, but it will grow on me.”

How black boxes made flying safe

Black boxes—which are actually orange—were not universally present in airplanes until roughly 1967, a process which grew out of frustration over frequent, unexplained crashes in the industry's first few decades. This piece tells the origins of...

The man behind the Preakness' iconic weathervane, which features every winner's name

Since 1988, Lawrence Jones has climbed into Pimlico's cherry picker to paint the Preakness winners' silks on its iconic weathervane—a tradition born in 1909. This America's Best Racing profiles Jones, a retired graphic artist, and how he has to meticulously paint the weathervane—even under challenging conditions. Learn the rich history of the event, and what happened to the weathervane after the 1966 fire.

John Glenn's Friendship 7 flight finally put the US in orbit in February 1962

After the Soviets took the lead in the space race, John Glenn's three-orbit Friendship 7 mission on February 20, 1962, made him the first American to orbit Earth. This NASA anniversary piece delivers a minute-by-minute account—from launch delays to splashdown and recovery.

The Civil War turned the Continental Divide into an American symbol of identity

Historians argue that the boundary only became a celebrated American symbol in the 1860s, when Civil War-era leaders promoted a west-east geographic divide to replace the devastating north-south political divide, and that the term's use spiked after the transcontinental railroad crossed it in 1868.

Eleanor Roosevelt's 1941 flight with a Black pilot helped legitimize the Tuskegee Airmen program

During a 1941 visit to the Tuskegee Institute, Roosevelt ignored protests from her Secret Service detail and flew for an hour over Alabama with chief instructor Charles Alfred Anderson. Photos of the flight were shared nationwide and helped advance the case for Black pilots in combat.

The tragic death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. changed NASCAR safety forever

When Michael Waltrip crossed the finish line at the 2001 Daytona 500, it was his first win. But the celebrations quickly turned to sorrow when everyone learned that Dale Earnhardt Sr. had died in a final-lap crash. Within eight months after the collision, nearly every driver wore head-and-neck restraints before a mandate took effect.

Guy Bradley was one of the nation's first game wardens

Bradley's 1905 murder inspired a series of laws helping to bring Florida's bird populations back from the brink of extinction.

O’Connor despised romantic portrayals of the South

1939’s “Gone With the Wind” presented a rosy image of the Old South, something a 14-year-old O’Connor allegedly despised. Later, she wrote “A Late Encounter With the Enemy,” a story mocking how Confederate Army veterans were honored at the film’s premiere.

General Jennie Carignan was the first woman to lead a NATO mission

"NATO Through Time" is a podcast exploring NATO’s history and its impact on today’s world. This episode features General Jennie Carignan, Canada’s top military leader, as she shares insights from her NATO missions in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' was inspired by a billboard

If you’ve ever been to a baseball game, you’ve likely sung "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." The song was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth, a Tin Pan Alley musician inspired by a billboard advertising a game at the Polo Grounds in New York.

Frisbee, Jet Ski, and Dumpster—explore a list of words you might not realize are trademarked

Many products that have become household names started out as first-of-a-kind items. As those products grew in popularity, the brand name became the default name for the product.

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.)

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

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 the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

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

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

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

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

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.

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 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

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.

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

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

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.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

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.'