Commonplace Fun Facts

Almon Strowger: The Undertaker Who Thought Someone Was Stealing His Dead Customers—and Reinvented the Telephone

When undertaker Almon Strowger suspected a competitor was stealing his telephone customers, he didn’t simply complain to the phone company. He invented a way to bypass telephone operators altogether. His solution helped revolutionize telecommunications, although the famous story behind his motivation may be more legend than fact. Either way, it’s an impressive amount of trouble…

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October 26, 2026

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Almon Strowger: The Undertaker Who Thought Someone Was Stealing His Dead Customers—and Reinvented the Telephone

When undertaker Almon Strowger suspected a competitor was stealing his telephone customers, he didn’t simply complain to the phone company. He invented a way to bypass telephone operators altogether. His solution helped revolutionize telecommunications, although the famous story behind his motivation may be more legend than fact. Either way, it’s an impressive amount of trouble…
Read more: Almon Strowger: The Undertaker Who Thought Someone Was Stealing His Dead Customers—and Reinvented the Telephone
10 Unsung People Who Changed History by Inspiring Someone Famous

Behind Billy Graham, Einstein, Darwin, Churchill, and Beethoven stood people whose names history largely forgot. From a Sunday school teacher in a shoe store to a professor whose recommendation helped revolutionize science, meet 10 unsung influences who changed the world without getting top billing.
Read more: 10 Unsung People Who Changed History by Inspiring Someone Famous
Gene Autry: The Singing Cowboy Who Battled Robots, Made Rudolph Famous, and Bought a Baseball Team

Gene Autry was more than America’s favorite singing cowboy. He battled underground robots, flew military planes, helped make Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer a Christmas institution, owned the Los Angeles Angels, and had a horse that enjoyed afternoon tea at London’s Savoy Hotel. Somehow, he also found time to make 93 movies.
Read more: Gene Autry: The Singing Cowboy Who Battled Robots, Made Rudolph Famous, and Bought a Baseball Team
America’s First Airmail Flight Was a Spectacular Failure—30 Miles in the Wrong Direction and a Train Ride to Finish

On August 17, 1859, balloonist John Wise set out from Lafayette, Indiana, on a mission to revolutionize mail delivery. His destination was New York City, his transportation was a balloon named Jupiter, and his navigation system consisted largely of hoping the wind wanted to go in the same direction. It didn’t. What followed was five…
Read more: America’s First Airmail Flight Was a Spectacular Failure—30 Miles in the Wrong Direction and a Train Ride to Finish
The Iron Riders: How Buffalo Soldiers Rode 1,900 Miles So the Army Could Decide It Didn’t Need Bicycles

In 1897, the U.S. Army sent 20 Buffalo Soldiers on a 1,900-mile bicycle expedition from Montana to Missouri. Armed with rifles, camping gear, and an apparently unlimited supply of determination, they battled mountains, mud, sand, and scorching heat. Nineteen completed the journey, proving that bicycles could serve military purposes. The Army celebrated the Iron Riders’…
Read more: The Iron Riders: How Buffalo Soldiers Rode 1,900 Miles So the Army Could Decide It Didn’t Need Bicycles
William Phelps Eno: He Never Learned to Drive, So Naturally, He Wrote the Rules for Everyone Else

William Phelps Eno helped create modern traffic rules, traffic circles, and one-way streets. Even so, the Father of Traffic Safety never learned to drive.
Read more: William Phelps Eno: He Never Learned to Drive, So Naturally, He Wrote the Rules for Everyone Else
Mary Walton: The Woman Who Quieted New York’s Trains After Thomas Edison Couldn’t

When New York’s elevated trains became an unbearable neighborhood nuisance, boardinghouse owner Mary Walton fought back with sand, ingenuity, and a patent. She also developed an early approach to controlling industrial smoke. Thomas Edison had fame and laboratories. Walton had a basement, a mechanical mind, and very little patience for noisy trains.
Read more: Mary Walton: The Woman Who Quieted New York’s Trains After Thomas Edison Couldn’t
Helen Duncan and the 1944 Witchcraft Trial: Because Fighting Hitler Wasn’t Keeping Britain Busy Enough

In 1944, while Britain prepared to invade Nazi-occupied France, Helen Duncan went to prison under a witchcraft law dating from 1735. Her extraordinary case involved suspicious ectoplasm, a sunken battleship, an outraged Winston Churchill, and a legal system that apparently hadn’t finished with the eighteenth century.
Read more: Helen Duncan and the 1944 Witchcraft Trial: Because Fighting Hitler Wasn’t Keeping Britain Busy Enough
The Federal Tea Tasters: For 99 Years, the U.S. Government Paid People to Drink Tea—and It Took an Act of Congress to Make Them Stop

For nearly a century, the federal government employed professional tea tasters to determine whether imported tea was good enough for Americans. The program survived multiple presidents, inspired a Supreme Court decision, and required an act of Congress to abolish. Naturally, it took another 27 years to finish the paperwork.
Read more: The Federal Tea Tasters: For 99 Years, the U.S. Government Paid People to Drink Tea—and It Took an Act of Congress to Make Them Stop
Micronauts: The Tiny Toys That Built an Entire Universe

Discover how Micronauts grew from Japanese Microman toys into a 1970s phenomenon, spawning strange worlds, memorable characters, and a Marvel legacy.
Read more: Micronauts: The Tiny Toys That Built an Entire Universe
The Princess Bride Hoax: William Goldman’s Missing Reunion Scene

William Goldman invented an author, an entire literary history, and a missing reunion scene in The Princess Bride. Thousands of readers wrote to his publisher requesting it. The response became an even more elaborate practical joke.
Read more: The Princess Bride Hoax: William Goldman’s Missing Reunion Scene
Abraham Lincoln: The Man Who Never Met His Intellectual Equal

Abraham Lincoln had less than a year of school yet carried the confidence of a man who had never met his intellectual equal. Here’s why.
Read more: Abraham Lincoln: The Man Who Never Met His Intellectual Equal
How a Priest Named Ronald Knox Destroyed Big Ben on the Radio—and Accidentally Terrified Britain

In 1926, Catholic priest Ronald Knox announced on BBC radio that communist revolutionaries had destroyed Big Ben, demolished Parliament, and blown up the Savoy Hotel. Some listeners believed him, despite the broadcast being introduced as fiction. Twelve years before Orson Welles frightened Americans with Martians, a British priest accidentally demonstrated the extraordinary power of fake…
Read more: How a Priest Named Ronald Knox Destroyed Big Ben on the Radio—and Accidentally Terrified Britain
The Exploding Rats of World War II: Britain’s Strangest Successful Failure

During World War II, British intelligence devised a plan to sabotage German factories using exploding rats. The Nazis intercepted the shipment before a single rat could explode. Then the Germans reportedly began searching for more, turning Britain’s bizarre military failure into an unexpected psychological victory. Sometimes the best bomb is the one that never goes…
Read more: The Exploding Rats of World War II: Britain’s Strangest Successful Failure
The First Telephone Book Had 50 Names, No Numbers, and Some Very Strange Rules

The world’s first telephone book had 50 names and no phone numbers. Nine months later, subscribers faced three-minute call limits, rules against swearing, and instructions on how to say hello. Welcome to telecommunications in 1878. #History #Technology
Read more: The First Telephone Book Had 50 Names, No Numbers, and Some Very Strange Rules

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