Society & Culture

In honor of the comedy legend Mel Brooks' 100th birthday this weekend, watch some of the best scenes from his films, including classic bits from 'Young Frankenstein,' 'Spaceballs,' 'Robin Hood: Men in Tights,' and more.

When police raided New York's Stonewall Inn, a well-known gay bar, on June 28, 1969, patrons resisted, leading to 6 nights of protests that would eventually inspire modern Pride celebrations.

Mark Twain started writing 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' considered one of the greatest novels in American literature, to distract himself from a frustrating project.

The ultraviolent Mortal Kombat caused panicked parents and lawmakers to create the video game industry's first rating system in 1993.

Explore the history of American restaurants through an archive of menus dating back to the early 1800s.

The lyrics of John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads,' the unexpected anthem for the US World Cup team, reference landmarks mostly in western Virginia rather than West Virginia.

Tennis balls are yellow, partly thanks to a suggestion by British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

Wimbledon enforces a strict all-white dress code, a tradition dating back to the 1800s, when white clothing signified elite status.

Before becoming a country superstar, Dolly Parton recorded girl-group-style singles as a teenager, including one that became a hit outside the US.

Independent bookstores are expanding across the country, though studies show literacy rates are rapidly declining, with only 35% of American high school seniors considered proficient readers.

A Russian ban on food from outside countries has created a black market that's led the government to sometimes burn contraband food on state TV.

Lincoln Logs, the popular children's toy, was designed by John Lloyd Wright, son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was inspired by his father's foundation of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel.

In the late 1800s, over 10,000 entries of the Oxford English Dictionary were written by a patient in a psychiatric hospital.

Rest in peace, Clive Davis, the executive responsible for signing influential artists like Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, and Alicia Keys.

Start compiling your summer reading list with this list of 50 great novels under 200 pages, including works by Albert Camus, Shirley Jackson, James Baldwin, and more.

Michael Nesmith, an original member of the '60s group the Monkees, created a music video show that inspired MTV.

Chicago Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong's mom starred in 'Little Big League,' a '90s baseball movie about a child who manages the Minnesota Twins.

150 years old this year, Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 'Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette' is considered an impressionist masterpiece that captures the fleeting moments of working-class people at a beer hall.

World Cup athletes use tattoos to convey aspects of their identity—including details of their faith, family, and accomplishments—in the otherwise tightly regulated arena of professional sports.

60 years ago, patrons at a New York bar staged a 'sip-in' protest against an anti-gay liquor law.

Explore fun facts about Father's Day, including its status as the fourth-largest card-sending holiday in the US, with roughly 72 million cards exchanged each year.

While on vacation, writer Mary Shelley was inspired by a challenge from British poet Lord Byron to write the novel 'Frankenstein.'

World Cup venues spend months cultivating their fields and choosing their grass based on the cities' climates.

Pizza Hut helped pioneer online food delivery in 1994 with PizzaNet, a website that allowed users in select areas of California to order pizzas online.

Novelist Charles Dickens championed the rights of the oppressed in his fiction, but after separating from his wife, he tried to have her committed to a mental asylum against her will.

A sealed copy of Super Mario Bros.—widely considered the most influential video game of all time—sold for $3M, making it the most valuable video game cartridge ever auctioned.

Iceberg lettuce was introduced to the world in the 19th century by a Pennsylvania seed company and became popular thanks to its durability.

Musician Gladys Bentley defied gender norms during the Harlem Renaissance and was openly gay, even though homosexuality was still widely considered taboo.

'Bonnie and Clyde,' the 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was the first major American movie to feature graphic violence.

Every player from a Stanley Cup-winning team has his name added to the trophy, though the NHL gradually removes older names to keep the trophy from becoming unwieldy.

David Hockney was renowned throughout the late 20th century for his colorful paintings, though later in life he drew attention for experimenting with making work on his iPad.

The cartoonist behind 'Calvin and Hobbes' refused to license his characters, leading bootleggers to create and sell their own merchandise.

Between 2002 and 2012, at least 12 people were killed in the Philippines in incidents related to off-key karaoke singing of Frank Sinatra's 'My Way.'

The Hodag was a mythological animal—part reptile, part mammal, with spikes running down its back—invented by a 19th-century Wisconsin lumberjack-turned-con-artist who claimed he'd slain one after it attacked a child.

After the bitter breakup of The Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney only played music together one more time—at an impromptu studio session in 1974, joined by Stevie Wonder.

Sidearm pitchers—who throw the ball at an odd angle, sometimes very close to the ground—are a rarity in modern baseball, which often makes them more difficult for batters to hit.

Before he appeared in a 'Star Wars' movie, character Boba Fett made his first public appearance at a sweltering small-town parade.

Painter Wayne Thiebaud's portraits of 20th-century Americana are often called 'pop art,' the kitschy movement associated with Andy Warhol that focused on commercialism and everyday objects, but Thiebaud disliked the term and the movement.

The Victor Talking Machine Company's logo, an iconic image used on early record players, was based on a painting portraying a dog mourning its dead owner.

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

The word 'serendipity' was coined by 18th-century writer Horace Walpole and is based on 'Serendip,' a historical Sanskrit name for Sri Lanka.

Explore the niche music genres, including 'Spanish synthpop' and 'South Dakota indie,' that Spotify uses to tag its music.

In 1932, Mexican artist Diego Rivera painted a series of murals in Detroit depicting the city's automotive workers and criticizing the Ford Motor Company, leading to weeks of controversy.

Check out a comprehensive guide to all 1,248 World Cup athletes that breaks down their biographies, strengths, and place in the tournament's larger narratives.

In 1980, Steven Spielberg added a scene depicting the interior of an alien spaceship to a rerelease of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' at the studio's request, but later regretted the decision, believing it depleted the movie's enchanting mystery.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers use the same idiomatic expressions.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US win over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.