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SearsFounded in 1886, Sears was once the world’s biggest retailer and America’s largest private-sector employer. The department store’s former Chicago headquarters was even the world’s tallest building until 1996.
But since its bankruptcy filing and delisting from the Nasdaq in 2018, the company has struggled financially. As of June 2025, Sears had only eight stores left in the US—down from the roughly 4,000 stores it had at its peak in 2012.
Before Sears and its famous Sears catalog, most people had only purchased items they could touch and feel in person before buying, and they typically bought those goods from someone they knew and trusted. The Sears catalog changed that, normalizing the consumer behavior that e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay now thrive on.Explore Sears
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There’s a group of people hunting down remaining Sears and Roebuck homesThis podcast episode dives into the history of Sears and Roebuck houses, including the people searching for these real estate relics today. Many of them were destroyed or renovated beyond recognition, so they’re not easy to find or identify. Business InsiderSears used to sell entire DIY houses in its catalogFrom 1908 through the 1940s, Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600. An estimated 100,000 homes were built, but fewer than 5,000 have been identified today. 1440Sears failed to evolve in a changing economyAt its peak, Sears was the largest retailer in the world, making elite objects accessible to the middle class. But in 2018, the company officially filed for bankruptcy due to massive debt and losses. CBS Sunday MorningExplore Sears’ holiday Wish Book catalogs dating back to 1930The Sears Wish Book was a holiday-themed version of its catalogs that helped people make Christmas gift wish lists and more from the 1930s until the early 2000s. See what they looked like with editions in this archive. christmas.musetechnical.comSome argue the Sears catalog undermined Jim Crow laws in the rural SouthWhen the Sears catalog was popularized, Black Americans didn’t always have an easy time shopping in US stores due to racism and Jim Crow laws. Some say that the Sears catalog was radical at the time for helping Black Americans avoid retail shopping in the South—often a negative experience. VoxA reclusive billionaire ran Sears before its bankruptcyFormer Sears CEO and hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert was once kidnapped from his home in Greenwich, Connecticut by criminals looking to get rich. Some argue that the incident colored Sears’ history. Business InsiderThe Sears catalog sold some weird products before it folded, including drugsAt various times in its existence, the Sears catalog sold everything from heroin to tombstones. But by the 2000s, the catalog was no longer in publication. Smithsonian MagazineThere’s a group of people hunting down the remaining Sears and Roebuck homesA podcast episode dives into the history of Sears and Roebuck houses, including the people still searching for these real estate relics today. Many of them were destroyed or renovated beyond recognition, so they’re not easy to find or identify. Business InsiderInside one of the last Sears stores in the USSears was once one of the most successful businesses in the US. Today, there aren’t many Sears stores left in the nation, and the ones that are still around feel more like ghost towns than meccas of retail history. CBS BostonMultiple business choices may have hindered Sears’ financial successThere’s no shortage of potential culprits for Sears’ death, from hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, to Amazon, to the 2008 stock market crash. InvestopediaExplore a Sears historical timelineSears has existed for over 130 years, and is remembered for much more than its 2018 bankruptcy, from the Sears and Roebuck’s catalog to Discover Card and Allstate Insurance. HISTORYHow Sears helped create Discover CardSears owned the financial services company Dean Witter, which rolled out the Discover Card in 1986. The Discover Card is just one of many Sears inventions that seems to have outlasted Sears’ peak popularity, including Allstate Insurance and the clothing brand Lands End. InvestopediaSears once tried to become a tech companyIn 1984, Sears arguably created one of the first online retail services, called “Prodigy,” in 1984 alongside IBM and CBS. But it was more of a WeChat than an Amazon, offering a variety of other services to users a few years before the dot com era. Chicago MagazineSears and Roebuck once sold DIY house kitsBetween 1908 and 1940, "kit homes" that buyers could build themselves were advertised in Sears’ famous catalog—and many of them are still standing today. SearsHouses.comSears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018Although the retailer may have failed financially speaking, some argue that longevity in itself is a success—the brand operated for over 130 years before that bankruptcy filing, after all. The AtlanticScroll through a Sears historical timeline, starting in the year 1886The Sears story starts with railroad worker Richard Sears purchasing a declined shipment of watches for a discounted price. An interactive historical timeline chronicles the history of Sears from then onwards. CNNThe Sears Tower was the world’s tallest building for about 25 yearsOriginally constructed in 1970, the Sears Tower in Chicago was later renamed the Willis Tower shortly after Sears headquarters moved out of the building. The Real DealSearch Lyme disease incidence in your countyThe searchable database at the bottom of this webpage allows users to check the reported incidence of Lyme disease in US counties and Canadian health regions. In 2022, for example, Baltimore County in Maryland had a rate of about 34 probable and confirmed cases per 100,000 people. Arlington, County in Virginia was less than half of that for the same time period. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health'Fragrantica' is a perfume encyclopedia with innovative featuresSearch perfumes by notes (citrus, magnolia, etc.), designers, location, popularity, and more, and stay up to date with the latest perfume news with this international passion project. Each perfume is broken down into its "accords" or blends of ingredients so you can learn the many scents that go into each fragrance. A must-have stop for anyone curious or passionate about fragrances. FragranticaDark stars are hypothetical stars that would have existed in the early universePrimarily composed of visible matter, this celestial object would also contain a significant amount of dark matter that would annihilate with itself, converting its mass into energy. This energy would prevent the star from collapsing under its own gravity and from triggering nuclear fusion until its dark matter fuel was exhausted. Harvard UniversityA third of Americans now live in wildfire risk zonesClimate change and human development into fire-prone regions have extended the wildfire season, with some areas experiencing fire conditions year-round. Extreme conditions, poor compensation, and exposure to carcinogens have complicated firefighter recruitment, further exacerbating wildfire risks. VoxSome Christian communities start Advent six weeks before Christmas instead of fourWhile most Western churches begin Advent on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, the Ambrosian Rite (northern Italy) and the Mozarabic Rite (Spain) begin six Sundays before Christmas. Liturgical Arts JournalExplore how close you live to some of the most contaminated places in the USKnown as Superfund sites, these toxic locations undergo long-term cleanup to remove hazardous waste, protect health, and restore land for safe reuse. As of 2025, the EPA lists around 1,300 active Superfund sites on its National Priorities List, with more than 450 cleaned and removed since 1980. EPABroadway employs tens of thousands of people in various rolesWhile we often just think of the actors and directors who take top billing, Broadway productions operate as distinct businesses employing numerous people in various roles: stage managers, sound designers, house managers, ushers and more. BackstageIn 1999, Microsoft and Intel’s addition signaled the information tech era for the DowMicrosoft and Intel became the first information technology firms added to the DJIA. Their inclusion marked a turning point—the digital revolution and tech began to drive the American economy. BBC NewsInfluenza infects up to a billion people worldwide each yearThe World Health Organization estimates that seasonal influenza causes about 1B cases annually, including 3 to 5M severe illnesses and between 290,000 to 650,000 deaths. World Health OrganizationProgrammed cell death drives leaves to fall from treesAll living things have innate mechanisms to prompt organized cell death, typically to protect the integrity of the living organism. Leaves fall from trees to allow the tree to preserve resources and bloom again in the future. The ConversationAsia's agriculture-focused set of 24 'small seasons'In contrast to the four broad seasons and their basis in astronomy and climate, ancient farmers in China and Japan had many more and varied seasons (or "sekki). Take Keichitsu (March 6 to 21), for example: this means "going-out of the worms" when bugs come out from hibernation. Small SeasonsExplore America’s top companies by revenue in 1994 versus 2023America’s top companies by revenue have changed a lot in the past few decades. Sears, for instance, isn’t on the 2023 list, while Amazon isn’t in the 1994 edition. Visual CapitalistWatch the Super Bowl commercial that launched DiscoverA Sears subsidiary, the financial services company Dean Witter, launched Discover Card through a Super Bowl commercial during Super Bowl XX. Ad AgeSome stars take longer to form than the current age of the universeThe first stars only burned for millions of years, providing the universe's first heavy elements. Some in the current population will burn for trillions of years, delaying the appearance of black dwarfs and other exotic cold stars. Smithsonian MagazineEvery ‘SNL’ season, rankedThis list gives an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, and nuances of every one of the 50 seasons of "SNL." Helpfully, it also includes plenty of great sketches, acting as a compilation of the legendary show’s definitive moments. Inside HookAliens may be closer to Earth than scientists have previously assumedThe hunt for extraterrestrial life is often associated with traveling far into the depths of space for clues. But answers could be closer than we think. Modern space missions have demonstrated our capability of sending probes beyond the solar system, making it plausible that other civilizations could do the same. AeonColosseum spectators needed tickets and social rank to get a good seatEntry to the Colosseum was free but tightly controlled: spectators presented tesserae, sat strictly by class, and risked losing their seats if they left for lunch, while senators watched in comfort and women and slaves were pushed to the top tiers. toldinstoneEndurance art strains and exhausts the bodyArtists like Marina Abramović are known for testing the limits of human endurance. Endurance art can involve carrying heavy objects or posing uncomfortably for long durations. (This resource contains some artistic depictions of violence.) Little Art TalksWhat the stars once meant to ordinary peopleThe stars were a crucial aid for ordinary human beings in premodern societies, acting as regular timekeeping phenomena and celestial navigators. Today, light pollution and modern technology have rendered the stars a mere aesthetic delight for most of us, but their significance in history remains. Watch this brief video to learn how premodern humans used the stars for navigation, mathematics, and more. The Royal SocietyView a tracker of the most popular search engines from 1993 to 2021Before Google dethroned Yahoo! as the most popular search engine in 2002 on its way to dominating the market, significant shares of internet searches were conducted across multiple sites, including MSN, AOL, AskJeeves, and AltaVista. Captain GizmoGoogle’s ranking system combines filters, signals, and machine learning layersRather than static rankings, dynamic tools, including Twiddlers, which adjust ranking positions based on document traits and search context, and FreshnessNode, which reshuffles top results to prioritize timely informational content, constantly shift search results. Search Engine LandGoogle Searches have increased from 14 billion to 5.9 trillion from 1999 to 2025As of 2025, an estimated 5.01 billion people use Google Search worldwide, with over 20% of activity conducted via voice search. “YouTube” is the most searched term, with an average monthly search volume of over 375 million. DemandSageThe 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. ESPNMichelin stars arrive in New York CityA contemporaneous article from when the Michelin Guide arrived in New York City in 2005. This piece gives an overview of the impact on the city’s restaurant scene. Chefs like Eric Ripert of La Bernardin (three stars) share their feelings upon learning the news. Don’t miss Mario Batali’s kvetching that his spot, Babbo, only received one star—something that would make many chefs jump for joy. The article also explores how the newly awarded Michelin stars line up with other reviewers, including Zagat Guides and the New York Times. Denver PostSearching for a hate crime's unknown victimIn 2004, two federal agents heard a rumor: two white men, one under investigation for an unrelated crime, had gotten away with killing a Black man 15 years earlier as a requirement to join a white supremacist group. One of the men confessed to the crime, though he didn't know who was killed. This series dives into the search for the slain man and the justice he deserved. Deep Cover: The Nameless ManMore than $100M in scholarships goes unclaimed each yearMore than $50B in scholarships are awarded each year, though analysts estimate more than $100M goes unclaimed due to a lack of qualified applicants. That fact should be unsurprising given the dizzying number and criteria for thousands of applications. This portal from the US Department of Labor lets you quickly search more than 9,600 scholarship opportunities by program, eligibility criteria, and more. US Department of LaborSearching for Albert Einstein's stolen brainWithin moments of Einstein's 1955 death, someone reportedly ferreted away the 76-year-old genius's brain. Decades later, a reporter's editor told them to solve the case. This 64-minute podcast episode follows the work of Steven Levy, the reporter who ultimately tracked down Einstein's brain, which had been sliced and stored in slides, goo, and a cardboard box in a scientist's office. RadiolabAstronomers use a star's color to determine how fast it's movingAccording to the Doppler Effect, light from objects moving away from Earth shifts toward the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum, with the severity of the shift correlating to recession speed. Due to the universe's expansion, light from the most distant galaxies can be moved from ultraviolet to infrared. Las Cumbres ObservatoryShe sells seashells by the seashore or, more accurately, she sells dinosaur fossils along the Jurassic CoastNow known as the mother of paleontology, Mary Anning was 12 years old in 1811 when her seashore scrounging uncovered an ichthyosaur fossil, the first complete one known to the London scientific community at the time. She spent the rest of her life contributing to a field that didn’t care to welcome her. This article details her life and work. ABCSearching for the history of cancer in ancient human bonesNestled under archaeology lies bioarchaeology, which involves the study of bones, human or animal. This subfield recently birthed another field of study: paleo-oncology. Paleo-oncology looks for cancer and related biomarkers in bioarchaeological remains. This TED article explains how this nascent multidisciplinary field challenges the idea that cancer is modern. TED Conferences,How search and rescue teams pull survivors from rubbleOn any given day, large-scale seismic activity has the potential to devastate entire regions, often with little warning. This leaves emergency responders perpetually on call, a need particularly critical in areas with poor or unregulated... ReutersSearch this digital archive of 19th-century "panoramic" maps of US and Canadian citiesThe panoramic map was a popular cartographic form used to depict U.S. and Canadian cities and towns during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. You can peruse a gallery of almost 2,000 of them in this digital archive from the Library... Library of CongressNeutron stars are ultra-dense remnants of massive starsWhen these stars exhaust their fuel, they undergo gravitational collapse and smash electrons into protons to create cores full of neutrons with a density equivalent to packing the mass of Mount Everest into a sugar cube. These stellar remnants can spin rapidly, emit powerful radiation, and possess magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth's. Kurzgesagt
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