Mostrando resultados por autor "Dan Lewis" en Todas las categorías

In China, millions of women regularly gather for morning square dancing – despite the government's attempt to stop them. Get the step-by-step story on this episode of Now I Know. Today millions of Chinese women aged 55 and older regularly gather for morning square dancing – even though the Chinese government tried to stop them. Square dancing in China, at least among middle-aged and older women, became a trend in the mid-1990s.

What do you do when fog disrupts a soccer match? If you're the UK in 1940, you broadcast an imaginary game instead. Get the full, fogged up story on this episode of Now I Know. In 1875, two of Edinburgh’s soccer teams – Heart of Midlothian F.C, and Hibernian F.C. – faced off for the first time. The two teams, nicknamed the “Hearts” and the “Hibs,” now meet on the pitch regularly, and the games have become a cultural touchstone.

Did you know that stop signs weren't always red? Explore the stop sign's colorful past on this episode of Now I Know. Ask enough people to describe a stop sign and you will get some pretty common answers: it has the word STOP in white lettering (at least in the United States), it has eight sides, and – of course – it’s red. Everyone knows that.

Did you know that tug of war was once an Olympic Sport, or that President Teddy Roosevelt demanded that actions be taken to turn football into a more gentlemanly pastime? And what about Eddie Gaedel, the 3’7" pinch hitter for the St. Louis Browns who was nearly impossible to strike out? Even if you think you have a handle on all things trivia, you're guaranteed a big surprise with Now I Know: Sports. This special collection from the Now I Know archives will challenge your knowledge of the fascinating stories behind the world's greatest facts.

When Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, died in January 1924, Winston Churchill summed up his life aptly: "[The] worst misfortune [of the Russian people] was his birth: their next worst his death." Lenin's death was a dangerous moment in history, Churchill aptly observed.

In 1952, the owner of a chicken restaurant named Harlan Sanders began franchising out his brand to other restaurateurs throughout the country. Colonel Sanders's chain, then known as Kentucky Fried Chicken (and now KFC), spread quickly, and Sanders became a very wealthy man.

Crying, many people believe, can be cathartic – a good way to relieve stress and let other emotions out. But in many cultures, crying – especially in public – is socially frowned upon.

On the southern shore of eastern Cuba is Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a small outcrop of land and sea controlled by the United States. The almost-rectangular 45-square-mile zone has been home to US troops since the summer of 1898, when Marines landed there during the Spanish-American War.

The Mexican state of Chiapas (officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas) is located in the nation's south, bordering Guatemala and the Pacific Ocean. Among the many indigenous people of the area are the Tzotzil, who are about 300,000 strong and live primarily in a municipality known as San Juan de Chamula (known simply as Chamula).

For many people around the world, the day starts with a cup of coffee. This has been true for centuries, but the origins of the drink aren't quite clear.

On April 15, 2014, the moon wasn't nearly as bright as the moon typically is, and appeared to take on a reddish color (from Earth, of course) – the result of a lunar eclipse, which occurs when the sun, earth and moon are aligned. The earth blocks most (but not all) of the sunlight that would have otherwise reflected off the moon's surface, leading to a dull, red sphere in the sky.

Yves Rossy is a pilot. Like most other pilots, he flies things. But unlike any other pilot, the thing he flies is himself.

Take out a loan and you may have to offer up something as collateral – an item of value that, if you fail to pay back the money owed, your creditor gets to take from you.

It was June 23, 2011. A 59-year-old man named Richard James Verone was being held in North Carolina, unable to pay his $2,000 bond. He was awaiting his day in court – June 28th – for a crime he'd committed two weeks earlier. It was a smooth, calculated crime. On the morning of June 9th, Verone showered, ironed his shirt, and hopped into a cab to go to a nearby bank. He handed the teller a note with a simple demand: take some money out of the drawer and hand it over.

From the end of World War II until the fall of the Soviet Union nearly fifty years later, the happenings of those nations behind the Iron Curtain were hidden in the shroud of communism. Many of the goings-on came to light in subsequent years, with most being stories of abuses under communist dictators. But some of the revelations unveiled in the 1990s were secrets about the Nazis. For example, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, someone discovered a swastika made of trees.

There's a grim, dark side to the honey bun biz. Get the un-sugarcoated story on this episode of Now I Know. A honey bun is a cake-y dessert that sells for about $1 at your deli. It’s nothing special, as pre-packaged desserts go, except perhaps for the fact that it’s pretty bad for you. The small version of the treat weighs three ounces and runs 340 calories, 15 grams of fat, and 210 milligrams of sodium – roughly the same nutritional value as one and a half Snickers bars.

Did you know that San Diego’s Frozen Zoo is home to preserved DNA samples from over 8,000 endangered or threatened species, or that the tell-tale smell of freshly mowed grass is actually the plant’s version of a distress call? And what about Henrietta Lacks, the “immortal woman” whose cancer cells have been divided and multiplied for research purposes for over 60 years? Even if you think you have a handle on all things trivia, you're guaranteed a big surprise with Now I Know: Science.

In 2011, a total of 81,000 people were adopted by Japanese families. If you think that's a lot of babies changing families, though, you're wrong – but not because 81,000 is a small number.

Penicillin was discovered by a scientist named Alexander Fleming in September 1928. Two years later, it was used for the first time to cure an infection – on November 25, 1930, British Doctor Cecil George Paine used penicillin to help an infant suffering from neonatal conjunctivitis.

There's been a hostage situation in the UK every year since the 1500s. Oh, and it involves the queen. Explore the Queen of England's 'flesh and blood' insurance policy, on this episode of Now I Know. Every May or June – depending on whether the United Kingdom is holding Parliamentary elections that year – both houses of Parliament assemble to be addressed by the reigning monarch. The event is rife with pomp and circumstance, as one would expect from a regal tradition dating back to the 1500s.