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Category: Economics & business

By The Generalist Posted on August 2, 2022August 13, 2022

The book arcade

Around the end of the 19th century, Melbourne, Australia, hosted one of the biggest – and certainly the most carnivalesque – bookstores in the world: Cole’s Book Arcade.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Economics & business, Literature, Oceania
By The Generalist Posted on June 2, 2022January 25, 2023

Happiest meal

McDonald’s iconic Happy Meal came to us via a Chilean-Guatemalan restauranteur, a Missouri advertising agent, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Categories: 20th century history, Economics & business, Film & television, Food & agriculture, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on January 19, 2022January 18, 2022

First piggy bank

The origins of the modern piggy bank are lost to history, but the oldest extant piggy bank comes from 12th century CE Java.

Categories: Animals, Economics & business, Fashion & design, Medieval history, Southeast Asia
By The Generalist Posted on January 18, 2022January 17, 2022

A world without banks

What would a country look like without banks? In 1970, all the banks in Ireland closed for half a year. In response, the Irish people set up their own exchange systems centred on (of course) pubs.

Categories: 20th century history, Economics & business, Europe
By The Generalist Posted on January 3, 2022December 30, 2021

Beach theft

In 2008, a whole beach in northwestern Jamaica was reported stolen: five hundred truckloads of sand went missing and were never recovered.

Categories: 21st century history, Economics & business, North & Central America, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on December 20, 2021December 19, 2021

The magician’s toilet

John Nevil Maskelyne was a turn of the century stage magician who created the first levitation trick, built an automaton that could play whist, revealed the secrets of card sharks, and invented the pay toilet.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Economics & business, Europe, Technology, Theatre
By The Generalist Posted on September 6, 2021September 5, 2021

Match king of Sweden

In 1930 the Swedish match magnate Ivar Kreuger negotiated a legal monopoly with Germany; it lasted for fifty three years.

Categories: 20th century history, Economics & business, Europe
By The Generalist Posted on August 25, 2021August 25, 2021

Personal carbon footprint

The “personal carbon footprint” concept was popularised by an oil company advertising campaign to divert attention away from their own climate-unfriendly practices.

Categories: 21st century history, Earth science, Economics & business
By The Generalist Posted on August 17, 2021August 14, 2021

Death Valley swindler

Walter E. Scott performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, scammed thousands of dollars with a fake gold mine, set a cross-country train speed record, and claimed to be building a castle in the midst of Death Valley.

Categories: 20th century history, Architecture, Economics & business, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on July 21, 2021July 16, 2021

Islamic banking

By most modern interpretations, Islamic law forbids charging interest. So some modern banks have found ways to profitably lend money without it.

Categories: Economics & business, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on July 2, 2021July 1, 2021

McDonald’s vs. H. R. Pufnstuf

The creators of the cult children’s TV show H. R. Pufnstuf once sued McDonald’s for plagiarism – and won big.

Categories: 20th century history, Economics & business, North & Central America, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on May 12, 2021May 11, 2021

Invisible art

The French artist Yves Klein sold empty space – an invisible “zone of immaterial pictorial sensibility.” Buyers paid in gold, half of which Klein would throw into the Seine River.

Categories: 20th century history, Art, Economics & business, Europe
By The Generalist Posted on May 2, 2021January 25, 2023

For President: Convict No. 9653

Eugene Debs received more than 900,000 votes in the 1920 American presidential election – while in prison for sedition.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Economics & business, North & Central America, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on April 26, 2021April 26, 2021

Human alarm clock

How did people wake up in the morning before alarm clocks? They paid to get knocked up.

Categories: 19th century history, Economics & business, Europe
By The Generalist Posted on April 20, 2021January 25, 2023

The Clipper route

The fastest sailing route around the world – the Clipper route – is also the most dangerous.

Categories: 19th century history, Economics & business, The oceans
By The Generalist Posted on March 25, 2021January 25, 2023

Bridges of the Euro

The bridges depicted on the Euro banknotes were fictional… until the Dutch city Spijkenisse built them all.

Categories: Architecture, Economics & business, Europe, Places

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