Stories

In 1957, to celebrate Oklahoma’s 50th anniversary of statehood, a brand-new Plymouth Belvedere was sealed in a concrete vault in Tulsa as a time capsule. The car, nicknamed “Miss Belvedere,” was meant to showcase the modern design of the era and be a gift to future generations.

In 1952, a young Jimmy Carter, then a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, was part of an elite nuclear team trained under Admiral Hyman Rickover. Carter’s expertise would soon be tested in an unexpected way.

In the 1960s, the Cold War heightened concerns about what would happen if the U.S. president became incapacitated. After John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, the need for a clear process to replace a disabled or deceased president became more urgent.

The Meow Wars began in 1996, ignited by a group of Usenet users, an early internet forum. The conflict started when users began flooding newsgroups with cat-related content, often just the word “meow,” disrupting normal conversations. What started as a playful joke escalated into one of the first known instances of online trolling and spam wars.

Jenny Hanivers are bizarre creations made from the bodies of skates or rays, carefully cut and dried to resemble mythical creatures. This practice, dating back to at least the 16th century, was popular among sailors who fashioned these grotesque figures to sell as “mermaids” or “sea monsters” to curious travelers at port cities.

During Nazi Germany’s rise, Lutz Heck, director of the Berlin Zoo, pursued a controversial project: bringing extinct animals back to life. Inspired by Germany’s mythic past, Heck aimed to recreate extinct species like the aurochs, wild cattle that disappeared in the 17th century.

In 1942, Calvin Graham, a 12-year-old boy from Texas, enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He lied about his age, claiming to be 17, and forged his mother’s signature to join the war effort. Despite his age, Graham successfully enlisted and was sent to serve aboard the USS South Dakota. “I didn’t like Hitler to start with,” Graham later told a reporter.

Hazel Ying Lee was born in 1912 in Portland, Oregon, to Chinese immigrant parents. She developed a passion for flying at a young age and became one of the first Chinese-American women to earn a pilot’s license in 1932. She trained at the Chinese Flying Club of Portland, defying the societal norms of the time.

In the late 19th century, Nikola Tesla envisioned a groundbreaking idea: wireless transmission of power and communication. His bold plan was to create a worldwide system where electricity could be transmitted without wires. To achieve this, he needed a monumental structure, and in 1898, Tesla convinced financier J.P. Morgan to invest $150,000 in his project. The result was Wardenclyffe Tower, a futuristic construction on Long Island, New York.

The doughnut burger, or “Luther Burger,” is believed to have originated in America. It is often credited to a soul food restaurant in Decatur, Georgia, and named after singer Luther Vandross, who reportedly loved this indulgent creation.