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Origins

Nursery Rhyme Origins: Humpty Dumpty

The popular nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty does not actually state that the character is an egg. It was first published in 1810 in Gammer Gurton’s...

Phrase Origins: Hair of the Dog

“Hair of the dog that bit you” is a colloquial expression most commonly used to refer to alcohol that is consumed to lessen the...

Billboard Magazine was Orignally a Trade Paper for Circuses & Carnivals

Billboard is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. Originally founded in Cincinnati in 1894 as Billboard Advertising, it was a trade paper for the...

Legends: Pied Piper Originally Led Children Away Not Rats

The original story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is a legend about the departure or death of a great many children from the town of...

The Original 7Up Contained Lithium

7 Up was created by Charles Leiper Grigg, who launched his St. Louis-based company The Howdy Corporation in 1920. Grigg came up with the formula for...

Origins: SOS

SOS is the commonly used description for the International Morse Code distress signal (· · · — — — · · ·). It was first adopted by the German government in radio regulations effective April...

Inventions: Popsicle

In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson left a mixture of powdered soda, water, and a stirring stick in a cup on his porch. It was...

Origin of the Pencil

The pencil is a descendant of the ancient Romans who wrote with a thin metal rod called a stylus, which produced a light marking....
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