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Lava Lamps Were Invented by a British Accountant Who Got the Entire Idea From Staring at an Egg Timer, and the Full Story Is Stranger Than the Lamp
A pub, an egg timer, and an invention someone else already owned Edward Craven…
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1stDibs Just Surveyed Hundreds of Working Professional Designers, and Vintage Antiques Beat Out Every Single Other Style on Their Wish List
The survey: who they asked and how Marketplace 1stDibs surveys its own network of…
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Mood Rings Were Invented by Two Guys With Absolutely Zero Science Background, and It Turns Out They Never Actually Read Anyone’s Real Mood at All
A ring that came out of a weapons lab, not a jewelry bench The…
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The Sony Walkman Almost Never Got Made at All, Until Sony’s Own Co-Founder Had to Personally Overrule an Entire Company That Genuinely Hated the Idea
A recorder built for one man’s ears In 1978, Sony honorary chairman and co-founder…
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MTV Just Turned 45 Years Old This Year, and the Very First Video It Ever Aired Almost Wasn’t the One That Everybody Actually Remembers Today
MTV launched at exactly 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981, and the very first…
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‘Who Shot J.R.?’ Became the Single Biggest Cliffhanger in Television History, and No Scripted Episode Has Ever Matched Its Real Nielsen Numbers Since
On March 21, 1980, CBS aired the final episode of “Dallas” season three, ending…
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Slap Bracelets Got Banned in Schools Across the Entire Country Within a Single Year of Hitting Store Shelves, and the Real Reason Still Surprises People
Slap bracelets went from a shop teacher’s side project to a nationwide school ban…
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Clackers Were the One Toy Every Kid Absolutely Had to Own in 1971, Until They Started Shattering Into Pieces and Sending Kids to the Emergency Room
Clackers took a piece of ranching equipment and turned it into the most dangerous…
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Lawn Darts Were So Genuinely Dangerous the Federal Government Banned Them Nationwide in 1988 After Kids Kept Getting Seriously Hurt in Their Own Yards
By the time the Consumer Product Safety Commission finally acted, lawn darts had been…
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Pokemon’s Original Trading Card Game Just Turned 30 Years Old, and It’s an Entirely Separate Empire From the Video Games Everyone Remembers
Wizards of the Coast made more money off Pokémon cards in their first ten…
