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

Check out George Washington's beer recipe

The first American president's journal includes a recipe for "small beer," a low-alcohol beverage that was a cleaner (and slightly inebriating) alternative to the potentially sickening water of the time.

The forgotten campaign to replace the Teddy Bear with 'Billy Possum'

After a 1909 pre-inauguration dinner for incoming President William Howard Taft featured possums and potatoes as the main course, Susie W. Allgood wanted to produce and market an alternative to the Teddy Roosevelt-inspired teddy bear: Billy Possum. Kids thought it looked too much like a rat.

August A. Busch, Sr. was gifted a six-horse Clydesdale hitch to celebrate Prohibition’s end

This helped reveal the marketing power of a horse-drawn beer wagon, so it invested in a second six-horse Clydesdale hitch. The Clydesdales soon went to New York, where they drew a crowd of thousands en route to the Empire State Building. Anheuser-Busch even gifted a case of Budweiser to New York Governor Alfred E. Smith in thanks for his help in the fight against Prohibition.

A Portland dive bar helped drive Pabst Blue Ribbon's early 2000s comeback by selling cans for $1 a piece.

Budweiser temporarily changed its name to ‘America’ in 2016

In the run-up to the 2016 United States Presidential Election, Budweiser changed its name as part of a marketing campaign that ran from the end of May through the November election itself.

How a failed investment bank almost became the name of a whiskey line

In the fallout of the Great Recession of 2008, Barclays bought several assets from the failed investment bank Lehman Brothers in a fire sale and maintained the company's trademark, despite the bank's collapse. Tiger Lily Ventures attempted to launch a whiskey line parodying the name, but the product was rejected in court due to questions over Barclays' maintenance of the trademark.

John Pemberton only sold roughly 25 gallons of Coca-Cola syrup in its first year

That equates to roughly 9 drinks per day. But once he brought it to pharmacies that hooked the syrup up to their soda fountains, sales increased significantly, with roughly 2,000 gallons being sold two years later. This video about Coca-Cola's early history is narrated by actress Jenny Slate for a Comedy Central series called "Drunk History," so not all of it is intended to be entirely factually accurate.

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.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition brought along an estimated 120 gallons of whiskey and still ran out of alcohol halfway through the journey.

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.

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.

Anheuser-Busch sold half of its real estate holdings to survive Prohibition

The Budweiser parent company also created and sold out more than 25 different nonalcoholic products during this time, including but not limited to infant formula, frozen eggs, and specialized coffees and teas.

Abraham Lincoln's missing bodyguard

The night President Abraham Lincoln was shot, his bodyguard John Frederick Parker was late for his shift—and reportedly left his post to drink at the bar. Infamous assassin John Wilkes Booth entered the booth at Ford's Theater where the president sat while Parker was absent, leading to one of the United States' greatest political tragedies. Read more about the troubled history of Parker here.

Watch one of country music's most infamous performances

Jerry Lee Lewis started in the 50s as a supercharged rock ‘n’ roll star. His career imploded when it was revealed he’d married his teenaged cousin. By the time he was invited to the Grand Ole Opry, he’d reinvented himself as a country troubadour and promised to play by the venue’s strict rules. But as this infamous performance shows, Lewis couldn’t help bringing some of his past to the stage, much to the audience’s delight.

The drink that became Coca-Cola was originally called 'Pemberton's French Wine Coca.'

Watch Billy Joel deepfake himself in the 'Turn the Lights Back On' music video

Though deepfakes are often synonymous with manipulation and bad intentions, some artists have found creative uses for the technology. In this example, Billy Joel depicts himself in various eras of his career in keeping with the song's nostalgic message.

The long history of alcohol and sports

Spectators have long enjoyed alcohol at sporting events, dating back at least to ancient Rome. This article unpacks how companies leveraged this history to make beer a central part of sporting events and masculine culture.

Liquor merchant Carl Conrad registered the ‘Budweiser’ trademark in 1878

He helped commercialize the beer and licensed the Budweiser name. Before working with Anheuser-Busch, Conrad was a US importer of wines, champagnes, and liquors.

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 popular myth behind the India pale ale

Legend has it that the beer style earned its name in the late 1700s and early 1800s, when one brewer realized he had to add more alcohol and hops to his beers to survive the long boat ride to India. But as this essay by one beer historian makes clear, the facts don't line up with that myth.

Explore an archive of Budweiser’s past Super Bowl ads

With about 47 of them airing over the past few decades, Budweiser’s Clydesdale ads have basically become synonymous with the Super Bowl—but how many have you actually seen? From 1991 to 2024, this website includes many of Budweiser’s most famous Super Bowl ads.

The federal agents who followed Billie Holiday

After the success of "Strange Fruit," the Federal Bureau of Narcotics began surveilling Holiday on suspicion that she was using heroin. Jimmy Fletcher, an agent tasked with following her to clubs and parties, later said that they became quite close. "She was the type who would make anyone sympathetic because she was the loving type," he was reported as saying.

The Jonestown cult had a youth basketball team that was away at a tournament when the group engaged in a massive ritual suicide.

The story behind one infamous World Series moment

“The Bartman Incident” during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS forever changed the life of Cubs fan Steve Bartman, who quickly descended into anonymity. This 2005 ESPN story attempts to find answers behind the notorious Bartman.

The ubiquitous 1990s “Got Milk?” ad campaign was intended to fix milk’s dwindling popularity in the late 20th century

Despite its success in spreading the word about milk, the sales numbers weren’t quite as impressive. This Mental Floss article details the marketing efforts themselves, as well as how milk lobbyists didn’t necessarily succeed despite their revolutionary ads.

From 1989 to 2022, Anheuser-Busch had exclusive alcohol ad rights to the Super Bowl

That meant if an alcohol company was not owned by Anheuser-Busch (and later after the merger, AB InBev), it could not advertise during the Super Bowl. This monopoly was part of how Budweiser became known for its Clydesdale Super Bowl ads.

Watch a 1965 press conference with Bob Dylan where he mocks the media's focus on celebrity.

The CIA once tried to poison Fidel Castro's milkshake during the Cold War.

Hamilton's endorsement helped win Jefferson the presidency

In the 1800 presidential election, neither candidate won a majority in the Electoral College, sending the decision to the House of Representatives. After 36 failed votes, Alexander Hamilton lobbied for his ideological rival, Thomas Jefferson, over Aaron Burr, helping break the deadlock.

There’s some confusion over who founded the Bavarian Brewery that later became Budweiser

While many traditional histories credit German immigrant George Schneider with founding the Bavarian Brewery in 1852, an investigation from St. Louis Magazine found that it was actually started in 1857 by a fascinating German physician named Dr. Adam Hammer.

John D. Rockefeller—the world's first billionaire—was born to a well-known con artist father.

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.

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.

The man who created the slogan 'Ithaca Is Gorges' never trademarked it, viewing it instead as a gift to his hometown.

One pop-culture historian fooled the nation with a fake origin story of April Fools' Day

In 1983, Joseph Boskin, a professor at Boston University, was interviewed by the Associated Press to discuss the history of April Fools'. Boskin shared a made-up story about a jester who took over Rome for a day and proclaimed that April 1 would henceforth serve as 24 hours of silliness. AP published the fib about "King Kugel," creating buzz and confusion for news outlets around the country.

Budweiser pioneered refrigerated rail transport for its beer in the 1870s

This enabled Budweiser to achieve national distribution long before competitors, fundamentally transforming the US beer industry. It was also among the earliest large-scale adopters to use pasteurization, allowing it to be shipped long distances without going bad.

Bud Light was created to compete in the lower-calorie light beer market

Arguably sparked by Miller Lite's successful 1975 launch, Anheuser-Busch rolled out Bud Light in 1982. The brand faced controversy in 2023 after a sponsorship deal with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, sparking a Bud Light boycott.

A biker from Hell's Angels said Hunter S. Thompson's book about the group was mostly 'cheap trash'

Thompson's popular coverage of the motorcycle gang was not necessarily popular with the gang members themselves. In a bizarre and amusing TV interview from 1967, a biker is given the opportunity to confront Thompson about using the gang for profit, misrepresenting them, and failing to buy beer he promised them.