Awesome History

Vintage pictures of boxers often show fighters standing in this silly “fisticuffs” stance. But that position served a purpose, as Primo – Boxing explains in this short video. Basically, the lower arm protected the torso since gloveless fighters took way more body blows and aimed for the head less frequently to prevent broken hands.

Frozen TV dinners and the microwaveable meals we can buy today have long been a convenient way to easily fix a full, hot meal. But who came up with these compartmentalized dinners, and when was the first TV dinner served? Weird History Food explores the origin story of this popular mealtime shortcut.

If you can believe it, there was a brief moment when people thought spaghetti grew on trees. Erin from Mental Floss takes a look at this famous hoax along with a handful of others that were so well executed that the public was convinced of its truth. That lady who gave birth to bunnies, woah.

When it comes to Halloween candy, we hand out full-size Hershey bars and Reese’s – because that’s how we roll. But some people offer more trick than treat, giving out circus peanuts, candy corn, or black licorice. The History Guy delves deep into these divisive candies and where they came from.

Despite many people despising the fake, sugary flavor of candy corn, it’s still a wildly popular Halloween treat. Mental Floss explores the history of this divisive, tri-colored candy and why it’s so closely associated with the holiday. We never thought about it before, but candy corn has real corn in it, sorta.

With 24 released installments, and at least nine canceled ones, the Need for Speed video game franchise has been around since 1994. Noodle takes a look back at the popular racing series’ origins and evolution of the game, from its roots as a Road and Track tie-in to slick CG action. The opening animation alone is worth the watch.

When you don’t want to deal with ordering pizza delivery, cooking a frozen pizza at home is the next best option. Weird History Food explores the origins of the cheese, tomato, and flatbread combination, and the technology that made it possible to transport and store frozen pies.

Author and audiophile Gideon Schwartz follows up the excellent Hi-Fi with a visual history of turntables and vinyl recordings. The 264-page hardcover includes hundreds of images of turntables, their stories, and the rise, fall, and rebirth of the medium.

Tools like DALL·E 2 have proven it’s possible for AI tech to create art based on text. Neural Synesthesia fed text descriptions of the history of the Earth and the evolution of its species into StableDiffusion, which it used as a guide to creating the video Voyage Through Time. The music is Order from Chaos by Max Cooper.

These days, most content is streamed. But there was a time when videotapes were the media of choice. Mental Floss takes a trip in the wayback machine to tell the story of VCRs, the epic war between Betamax and VHS, and how the technologies changed everything for visual entertainment.

Defunctland creator Kevin Perjurer delves deep into the history of a strange Garfield-themed theme park ride. Garfield’s Nightmare operated as an overlay on an old Tunnel of Love ride at Kennywood’s Old Mill in Mifflin, PA. There’s lots of backstory before Garfield shows up, but it’s a fascinating watch for theme park fans.

Restaurants like Showbiz and Chuck E. Cheese’s were staples of suburban childhood in the ’80s and ’90s. Beyond the arcades and mediocre pizza, these places also featured audio-animatronic musicians. Snellby Reviews looks back at the history of these restaurants, and their sad fate in the 2000s. Part two here.

We all have a pretty specific image in mind when someone says “caveman.” But did these thick-browed, cave-dwelling early humans exist, or is this just a caricature created by popular culture? Today I Found Out digs into what we now know about the Stone Age, and how closely it matches up with these stereotypes.

In 16th century France, a mysterious book was published, filled with illustrations of 120 strange monsters and not a single word of text. Video essayist Hochelaga explores the imagery of The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel and its creepy, grotesque, and comical creatures, and what they might have meant.

Chocolate has been one of the world’s favorite confections for thousands of years. But it hasn’t always been the sweet treat we know and love today. Mental Floss host Justin Dodd takes us through the earliest known uses of cacao beans, and explains the process that turns it into chocolate.

As one of the most notable designs of the 20th century, the Eames LCW (Lounge Chair Wood) is an icon of mid-century modern furniture. Brandmade.TV looks back at the history of the chair, and goes inside the factory where Herman Miller continues to make these chairs by stacking, bending, and sanding plywood veneers.

(PG-13: Language) Want to know the true story of Blackbeard’s last stand? Look no further than the music video for Alestorm’s track The Battle of Cape Fear River. It’s just one of the pirate metal tracks off of their latest album Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum. Turn captions on for lyrics – including the guitar solo.

The reason that electric plugs typically have two or three metal prongs is very easy to explain. But what about those holes you see in the tips of the prongs? Silver Cymbal digs into the backstory and purpose of this mysterious design attribute and shines some light on the topic.

The font Cooper Black dates all the way back to 1922, and over its century in use has appeared everywhere from David Bowie albums to ramen noodles, to signs for neighborhood businesses. Vox digs into the history of this playful, yet legible serif typeface, and why it became so popular.

We love us some nice crispy French fries. Mental Floss host Justin Dodd digs into the origins of this fast food staple, its varieties, and why it’s become one of the most popular side dishes on earth. Along the way, you’ll enjoy a snack of potato chips and Tater Tots.

The Romans built the first bridge across the Thames River in the 2nd century. Over the years, the structure has been replaced several times. In this episode of Unfinished London, host Jay Foreman provides an informative and entertaining exploration of the history of London Bridge, and why one of them is now located in Arizona.

Apple released its first Macintosh computer back in 1984, running one of the earliest graphical user interfaces for personal computers. The guys at Nobel Tech put together a retrospective of every version of the Macintosh operating system, from its first public release, System 0.97 to the latest version of macOS 12, Monterrey.

We’re grateful to have lower case letters, if only to limit people typing in ALL CAPS. The Generalist Papers digs into the history of letterforms in the English language on a quest to explain why we have two different versions of every character in the alphabet.