The Fascinating History of Birth Control

Kerry asks: What did people use for birth control before modern methods like the pill and condoms?

Pregnancy prevention around the world has a lengthy history that includes many effective yet sometimes lethal methods of early contraception.  Early contraceptive options offered an array of colorful, creative (and in some cases, incredibly smelly) choices that included innovative options in barrier devices, spermicides,…

The History of Shaving

Kelly asks: When did women and men start shaving different parts of their body?

Both sexes have a love-hate relationship with removing body hair. We’ve been pulling, plucking, burning, tweezing and ripping out undesirable hair since the dawn of time. It’s believed that as far back as 4,000 B.C., women were using dangerous substances like arsenic and quicklime to get the…

The History of April Fools’ Day

Bonus April Fools’ Day Facts:

The oldest known “April Fools’ Day” type tradition, Sizdah Bedar, can be found in Iran and has been going on since around 500 BC.  The event is simply a ceremony of sorts where people go spend the day outside and have a picnic.  It is also traditional for people to play…

LA Clippers Score 3rd Perfect Month in NBA History

The Los Angeles Clippers shot their way into the record books last night with a 107-96 victory over the Utah Jazz, giving them 17 wins in a row and an undefeated December, making them only the third NBA team to record a perfect calendar month, the AP reports.

Only the 1995-96 San Antonio…

Today in History, Dec. 21: Pierre and Marie Curie Discover Radium

This Day In History: December 21, 1898

On this day in history, 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive element radium (in the form of radium chloride), extracting it from uraninite. They first removed the uranium from the uraninite sample and then found that the remaining matter…

The History of Dentistry

This is a guest post by Shoshana Davis, a freelance contributor for TopDentists.com, the dental resource site of Everyday Health.

Brushing your teeth after every meal, visiting the dentist for cleanings, and having a relatively painless mouth is not just desired but expected in the year 2012. However, that was not always the case. Dentistry…

This Day In History: November 21

On this day in history, November 21st…

1877 : Thomas Edison announced the first of his inventions, the phonograph, a tinfoil cylindrical device that could not only record sounds, but could also re-play the recorded sound.  While  experimenting with a way to record telephone communications…

This Day In History: November 18

On this day in history, November 18th…

1307 : According to the 15th century Swiss chronicle legend, William Tell was made to shoot an apple off his son’s head. The legend goes as follows: an Austrian Vogt (like and over lord or bailiff) by the name Albrecht Gessler first installed a pole in the…

This Day In History: November 14

On this day in history, November 14th…

1851 : Harper & Brothers, New York published Herman Melville’s novel “Moby-Dick” or “The Whale” as a single volume. Inspired by real life white whale called ‘Mocha Dick’, that destroyed over 20 whaling ships and reportedly survived encounters with another 80 or so,…

This Day In History: November 11

On this day in history, November 11th…

1620 : The Mayflower anchors in Cape Cod, Massachusetts (what is now known as Provincetown Harbor), instead of their intended destination of Virginia.  The Pilgrims also signed what is known as the ‘Mayflower Compact’. This was the first governing document of the Separatists…