We all know that Santa Claus has supernatural abilities, and the origin of Santa Claus' powers are explained by the Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum in his story The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. This is the surprising connection between Oz and Santa.
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In the final month of 1988, Armenia was struck by an earthquake that absolutely devastated the northern region of the country and displaced thousands of people.
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Whether it be at the dawn of the Roman empire in the B.C. era or the heights of the Cold War a few generations back, powerful states have attempted and failed many times to conquer land. The reasons vary on why these invasions may have failed. Here is a list of invasions that went horribly wrong.
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While modern Christmas traditions are nearly universal thanks to pop culture, they used to be very different. If you look back at the 19th and early 20th centuries, you'll see unexpected holiday celebrations. Here are some strange Christmas traditions that were considered normal 100 years ago.
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The history of how nutmeg came to be a staple in our kitchens is not really in line with the whole "Peace on Earth, good will to men" business we like to tell ourselves. The notions of reunion, comfort, and human connection we now get from a hint of nutmeg actually came at a terrible human cost.
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All in all, being a president has to be rough, and some of the rules surrounding the job make it even more so. At least the silly rules end when a president's time in office is up, right? Actually, only some of them do.
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it makes sense why a teenage, Jewish Mary who visited her cousin and husband-to-be Joseph for a few months, and then became pregnant, would have been in quite a lot of trouble. In fact, Jewish law was quite brutal and strict in this regard.
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The Yule Goat can fly, and it often carries Santa on his yearly journey to deliver his sack of goodies around the world.
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The city, founded in 315 BCE and named after Alexander the Great's half-sister Thessaloniki, was a major thoroughfare in the Macedonian Empire, and became a center of trade between east and west under the Byzantine Empire.
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Despite its long affiliation with the Christian holiday of Christmas, the Yule log actually has its roots in pagan Norse mythology. The tradition originated in Scandinavia, then spread to the Celtic Brits and Gaelic Europeans, who believed that burning a yule log would bring good luck.
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Women have dipped their blades in the fires of battle all around the world for millennia. This is the forgotten history of women in combat.
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President Franklin Roosevelt was reportedly concerned that his administrations' records would be lost, destroyed, or sold, which had been the case for past presidents. He also wanted a place in which to write his memoirs and to "burnish his image as a defender of democracy."
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Celebrating the Christmas holiday was actually banned in Massachusetts from 1659 through 1681, per Time magazine. Early American Life magazine notes that Puritans "abhorred the excesses of church celebrations" and saw Christmas as just another day on which to work hard in the name of Lord.
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As with most holidays, Christmas is rife with symbols that we take for granted, but of course there is lots of rich history behind them. Just like Christmas trees, candy canes, and mall Santas, the tradition of hanging wreaths had to start somewhere, and exactly where kind of depends on who you ask.
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"Jingle Bells" is a favorite everywhere, from Christmas radio stations to seasonal concerts, as a cheerful holiday melody that everyone can sing along to. But it was never originally intended to have any connection to Christmas at all.
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People used to put candles on their Christmas trees, explained Popular Mechanics. The tradition was brought to England by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, who grew up in Germany. A magazine published an illustration of the Queen's family gathered around a tree with candles adorning it.
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Hanging decorated stockings by the fireplace, with the hope that Santa Claus will fill them with treats, is a popular tradition. In 1823, the practice was commemorated in song with the publication of the famous poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," better known today as "The Night Before Christmas."
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One theory posits that employers distributed "Christmas boxes" full of gifts, money, and leftovers from their holiday feasts to their servants on December 26, as the servants would have worked on Christmas Day. The boxes were the 1800s' version of holiday bonuses.
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Santa Claus at the top of the world in a winter wonderland. His workshop bustles in the Arctic Circle while his helpers pump out toys for billions of kids. But the North Pole at the top of the world isn't the only place that Santa calls home. You can find the jolly saint in several different places.
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In a common sense way, it's understandable why ancient people would have used snow to craft a human figure, or even just play with (if they weren't trying to avoid freezing to death, that is). After all, cave paintings, tribal figurines, and hand-hewn statues all depict the human form.
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The relationship between the US and the indigenous people of North America has been infamously bloody, cruel, and usurious. In a single century, from 1784 to when the Dawes Act was signed in 1887, native lands were stolen, bit by bit, until only tiny fragments of modern-day reservations remained.
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Even as a world record holder, life is anything but easy for the World's Shortest Living Man.
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It's perhaps the most famous sidewalk in the world, but not many people know the true history of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, even though it has some very interesting tales to be told. Here is the history of the Hollywood Walk of Fame explained.
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On July 20, 1969, one of the most momentous events in human history occurred: Men walked on the Moon. Eventually the United States completed six Moon landings, bringing a total of 12 astronauts to the Moon's surface by 1972. Then we stopped. This is the real reason we haven't been back to the moon.
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Thousands of old men would impersonate our altered vision of what St. Nick looked like and sit in shopping malls to let countless children sit in their laps to ask if they're real. That last one is a Christmas staple these days, but exactly how did it get its start?
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The National Confectioners Association reports that candy canes are the most popular non-chocolate candy during December, with 90 percent of them sold between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This comes to 1.76 billion candy canes produced in the United States each year. But where did they originate?
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Where did these staunch Christmas helpers come from? Why exactly does an immortal, bearded man with a magic, toy-spawning bag of holding need slave elves to manufacture said toys before the toys are teleported into said bag? This (and other yuletide mysteries of the ages) clearly needs unraveling.
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