1

Woolworth’s

Woolworth’s was the place to buy everything from school supplies and toys to household goods and candy—or even to grab lunch. The first store opened its doors in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1879. It was a five-and-dime shop, and the chain soon became one of America’s most recognizable retail names, with over 3,000 stores nationwide at its peak. So, why did it disappear?

With the steady rise of suburban shopping centers and large discount stores, Woolworth’s couldn’t keep up and began a slow decline in the 1960s that culminated in 1997, when it closed its final stores for good.

2

A&P

A&P used to be the spot to get everyday groceries. It began as a tea and coffee business in 1859 and later evolved into one of America’s biggest supermarkets with more than 16,000 stores in the country at its peak. But despite pioneering high-volume retailing, A&P couldn’t stick around.

Over the decades, newer competitors entered the market, and grocery shopping became more and more competitive. Walmart, Target, Aldi, Whole Foods—A&P failed to adapt and filed for bankruptcy twice, first in 2010 and again in 2015, and finally shut down in November 2015.

3

Blockbuster

Blockbuster was the go-to for movie rentals . It dominated the market with 9,100 stores worldwide by 2004, about $6 billion in revenue, and thousands of movies to choose from—it was hard to imagine Blockbuster ever falling, but it did.

The rapid advancement of technology hit Blockbuster hard, with newer options like DVD-by-mail services, Redbox kiosks, and the final blow: streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and more. All Blockbuster corporate-owned stores closed by January 2014; however, you can still visit one holdout location in Bend, Oregon.

4

Montgomery Ward

Long before Amazon, consumers could buy almost anything from Montgomery Ward from the comfort of their homes , and the company would ship it directly to them. It felt like online shopping before the internet. So why did it vanish?

To adapt to newer shopping habits, Montgomery Ward opened physical stores and started competing with brands like Sears; but once suburban malls and discount stores became widespread in the 1980s, Montgomery Ward couldn’t keep pace and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 1997 and again in 2001.

5

Circuit City

Circuit City started in 1949 and quickly became the source for TVs, stereos, VCRs, video games, and just about every kind of electronics , especially during the 1980s. The company continued growing by the early 2000s, expanding to more than 600 stores, though one controversial decision made it trip and fall.

Circuit City was already struggling to compete with Best Buy and Walmart. And in 2007, it replaced its commissioned sales staff with low-paid hourly workers, damaging customer service—often considered one of Circuit City’s biggest strategic mistakes. By March 2009, the chain was gone.

6

Caldor

There was a time when one trip to Caldor could cover almost everything on your shopping list. Founded in 1951, it became a major one-stop discount department store . By the 1990s, it had grown to more than 150 stores across New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, but in 1995 it filed for bankruptcy. What happened in between?

Big box stores like Walmart and Target were expanding rapidly, and Caldor simply fell behind as people moved toward newer retail formats that combined department stores and supermarkets. Plus, the company took on a lot of debt in 1991, which only made things worse. Caldor finally closed for good in 1999.

7

Borders

Borders is a reminder of a time when buying a book was an experience, rather than just clicking a few buttons online. It opened in 1971 and set itself apart from other modern bookstores. At Borders, you could spend an entire afternoon browsing not just books, but music and DVDs or even grabbing a coffee.

Around 2003–2004, Borders had more than 1,200 stores worldwide , but it failed to adapt to an inevitable growing trend: online book sales. Amazon eventually took over, and Borders couldn’t stay in the game, closing its final location in September 2011.

8

G.C. Murphy

Much like Woolworth’s, G.C. Murphy was a five-and-dime store that sold a little bit of everything and had lunch counters or snack bars where people would hang out. The company opened in 1906, and it operated more than 500 stores by 1976.

But once the traditional five-and-dime model came under pressure from discount giants, G.C. Murphy was forced to adapt. The chain did make some efforts and experimented with bigger stores and different formats, but it wasn’t enough, and G.C. Murphy filed for bankruptcy in 1985.

9

Zayre

Zayre entered the market in 1956 as a classic discount department store that looked more like a warehouse . It was a no-frills, self-service shopping experience with massive stores, wide-open interiors, and exposed ceilings where you could find lots of everyday items like clothing, household goods, or appliances at low prices.

While it was pretty successful, especially across the Northeast and Midwest, Zayre struggled to keep up with giants like Target. It tried to reinvent itself by founding TJ Maxx in 1977, but eventually sold the remaining Zayre stores to Ames in 1988, and the Zayre name vanished by 1990.

10

Service Merchandise

Service Merchandise was founded in 1934 and, unlike typical retail stores, it introduced a strange new concept called the " catalog showroom " in 1960, where display floors showcased single working samples of products, and the actual inventory was stored in an adjacent backroom warehouse. Customers would look at a catalog, place an order, and an employee would bring it to them.

The concept proved successful, and Service Merchandise operated more than 400 showrooms by the mid-1990s. But Service Merchandise’s model meant longer waiting times, and traditional discount stores began offering a faster and easier shopping experience. The company tried to modernize by introducing electronic inventory systems, but it didn’t work out. By 2002, Service Merchandise was gone.

1

Bill Clinton

Have you heard of Bill Blythe? Probably not, but you definitely know who he is: Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States.

Born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, Clinton never knew his biological father, who passed away in a car accident three months before he was born. His mother, Virginia Cassidy Blythe, later married Roger Clinton Sr. At 15 years old, Bill chose to take the surname Clinton, adopting the name of the man who had raised him .

2

Lyndon B. Johnson

Have you ever heard of a baby who went three months without a name ? As unusual as it sounds, one US president began life exactly that way.

The future Lyndon B. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, near Stonewall, Texas. But instead of naming their newborn son, his parents found themselves in a standoff. According to historical records from the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, his mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson, wanted to name him Clarence, while his father, Sam Ealy Johnson, wanted the baby named after himself. Unable to agree, they left him officially unnamed, and for the first three months of his life, he was simply "Baby Boy Johnson." The deadlock finally ended when his mother gave in, and the future president was named Lyndon Baines Johnson , honoring Lyndon Baines, a family friend admired by his father.

3

Ulysses S. Grant

The 18th president of the United States wasn't born with the name we all know. He was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio, as Hiram Ulysses Grant. So where did the famous "S." come from?

The answer is a paperwork mistake. In 1839, Ohio Congressman Thomas Hamer nominated the 17-year-old Grant to the US Military Academy at West Point. Knowing the young man went by Ulysses and that his mother's maiden name was Simpson, Hamer accidentally wrote "Ulysses S. Grant" on the nomination. Grant considered correcting the error, but eventually gave up, for two main reasons. He disliked the initials of his birth name, "H.U.G.", so the mistake didn't bother him much. In addition, fixing it would have meant a mountain of paperwork that could have jeopardized his appointment to West Point. So he simply let the new name stand, and the accidental middle initial stayed with him for the rest of his life.

4

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman may have one of the strangest stories on this list.

His first name, Harry, honored his maternal uncle, Harrison "Harry" Young. His middle initial, however, didn't actually stand for anything. Truman's parents chose the "S" to honor both of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young, without choosing one name over the other. In other words, the "S" wasn't short for Shipp or Solomon; it was simply "S". Truman himself usually wrote it without a period, since it wasn't an abbreviation. But after he became president, his staff encouraged him to add the period in official correspondence because it looked more conventional. That's why today he's almost always remembered as Harry S. Truman.

5

Dwight D. Eisenhower

President Dwight D. Eisenhower is remembered for leading the nation through the Cold War and signing the Civil Rights Act of 1957. But there's one surprising detail about him that most people never hear.

The man we know as Dwight Eisenhower was actually born David Dwight Eisenhower on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas. Named after his father, David Jacob Eisenhower, he quickly ended up with a problem: there were now two Davids in the same household. To avoid the confusion, his mother, Ida, simply began calling her son Dwight instead. He went by his middle name as if it were his first for years, but the change didn't become official until he applied to West Point at age 20. Wanting his official records to match the name everyone already knew him by, he registered as Dwight David Eisenhower and made the switch permanent.

6

Gerald R. Ford

On July 14, 1913, a baby boy named Leslie Lynch King Jr. was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and 61 years later, he became the 38th president of the United States. If the name doesn't sound familiar, there's a good reason: he entered the White House under a completely different name.

Leslie Lynch King Jr. was named after his father. However, just 16 days after his birth, his mother, Dorothy, fled the marriage with her infant son to escape her abusive husband. Three years later, she divorced King and married Gerald Rudolph Ford, a paint salesman who raised the boy as his own. From then on, everyone knew him as Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. , even though he didn't legally change his name until December 3, 1935, when he was 22 years old.

7

Ronald Reagan

Have you ever heard of "Dutch" Reagan? Perhaps not, but that was in fact the childhood nickname of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States.

Born as Ronald Wilson Reagan on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan got his nickname from his father, who thought his newborn son looked like a "fat little Dutchman." The moniker stuck almost immediately. As a boy, Reagan embraced it so completely that, according to his autobiographies and records at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, he disliked being called Ronald and insisted everyone call him Dutch instead. That changed only after he arrived in Hollywood in the late 1930s, when studio executives convinced him that "Dutch Reagan" wasn't exactly leading-man material.

8

Jimmy Carter

Born James Earl Carter Jr. on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, and named after his father, the future president had been called "Jimmy" almost from the day he was born.

Over the years, the nickname became the name he truly identified with. So when he took the presidential oath in 1977, Carter broke with tradition. Instead of using his formal first name like all the presidents, he was sworn in as Jimmy Carter, becoming the first (and still the only) US president to take the oath of office using a nickname rather than his legal name.

9

John Quincy Adams

The second president of the United States, John Adams, is one of the best-known Founding Fathers. His name is instantly recognizable to most Americans, and that's exactly why his son made an important decision about what he would be called.

John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, in the North Precinct of Braintree, Massachusetts, an area that was officially renamed Quincy in 1792. The nation's sixth president and the first son of a president to become president himself carried a name with a story. He was named not only after his father, but also after his maternal great-grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, who was gravely ill when the baby was born. Although Quincy was originally a family surname, it became the baby’s middle name. As an adult, he embraced all three names, John Quincy Adams, helping distinguish himself from his famous father while honoring both sides of his family.

10

Grover Cleveland

Most people have never heard of Stephen Cleveland, but mention Grover Cleveland, and they'll know exactly who you're talking about. The thing is, they're the same person.

Born on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey, the future 22nd and 24th president of the United States was actually named Stephen Grover Cleveland. His father, a Presbyterian minister, chose the name to honor Reverend Stephen Grover, the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Caldwell, where he was serving at the time. As he grew older, however, Cleveland made an unusual choice: instead of going by his first name, Stephen, he adopted his middle name because he simply liked the sound of "Grover Cleveland" better.

1

Point Roberts, WA: The 49th parallel accident

Imagine if you had to cross two borders just to get to the market for a gallon of milk. That’s actually a reality for residents of Point Roberts, Washington. That’s because, following the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, the 49th parallel divided Canada and the U.S. In 1846, the line was extended westward and then officially recognized by the International Boundary Commission in 1925.

However, a tiny tip of the Tsawwassen Peninsula poked out just below that line. Since then, the locals have lived in a boundary quirk. To get to the rest of Washington State by land, they must drive through Canada, show their passports, and do it all over again on the way back.

2

Statue of Liberty: Common misconception

If you want to start a friendly argument at a dinner party, ask whether the Statue of Liberty lives in New York or New Jersey. The funny thing is, both answers are technically right . While the statue physically sits in the waters of the Garden State, Liberty Island is legally an exclave of New York. This dates back to a 1664 land grant by the Duke of York in a document so vague and confusing that it took a 1834 Compact between the two states to settle the deal. New Jersey gets the water and the submerged lands, but New York keeps the monument.

However, the Federal Government actually manages the site through the National Park Service (NPS), providing security and maintenance.

3

The State of Franklin: Failed 14th state

In 1784, three counties in North Carolina felt neglected by their government and decided to strike out on their own . They even elected a governor, John Sevier, and printed their own money. They came just two votes short of being recognized by Congress as a formal state.

Eventually, things got heated, and North Carolina sent troops, leading to a small civil war between the locals. By 1789, the dream of Franklin was buried, and the territory became part of Tennessee.

4

Kentucky Bend

If you look closely at a map, there’s a piece of Kentucky that looks like it doesn’t belong. That’s the Kentucky Bend, also called the New Madrid Bend, a tiny peninsula in Fulton County that is almost completely separated from the rest of the Bluegrass State . The strange situation was the consequence of the massive series of earthquakes that took place in that area between 1811 and 1812, which were so violent they famously caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for several hours. When the dust settled, the river had carved a new path that looped around this small patch of land, surrounded by Missouri and Tennessee instead of Kentucky. The 9 residents living there today go through Tennessee just to get to their home state.

5

The State of Deseret: The empire that almost was

Imagine a state so big it makes Texas look tiny. That almost happened back in 1894, when Mormon pioneers proposed the State of Deseret. The territory comprised what we now know as Utah, most of Nevada, parts of Arizona and Colorado, and a massive chunk of the California coast, including San Diego.

Had it been formalized, it would have been a powerhouse with its own seaport and total control over the West. However, Washington, D.C. wasn’t so keen on one group having that much territory and power, so they whittled it down, and we ended up having the states we know today.

6

The lawless "No Man's Land"

Have you ever wondered what happens when two governments simply give up on a piece of land? Between 1806 and 1821, there was a strip of land in what is now western Louisiana that was, literally, No Man’s Land. Neither the U.S. nor Spain, which owned part of the territory, could agree on the border, so they declared it "Neutral Ground" to avoid armed conflicts . The plan backfired as, with no laws to contain it, it quickly became a favorite for the outlaws in the West —meaning deserters and bandits hiding there were legally untouchable. The conflict was resolved by the 1819 Adams-Onis Treaty, which officially set the Sabine River as the legal boundary.

7

The Republic of the Indian Stream

In the early 1830s, people living in a small area between New Hampshire and Quebec were fed up, and in this case, taxes were the problem. Both Canada and the US were trying to collect taxes, and nobody likes being double-billed . In 1832, the residents essentially said "neither of them can tax us" and formed their own country called the Republic of the Indian Stream. They had their own constitution and Capitol for four years, until 1836, when the militia marched on the disputed territory to reclaim the land. It wasn’t until 1842, when the land dispute and the double taxation were definitively resolved by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty, which assigned the land to New Hampshire.

8

The Northwest Angle: Mapping mistake of 1783

When the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 to end the Revolutionary War, the mapmakers used a chart that was flat-out wrong. They thought the Mississippi River started much further north than it actually did. Because of that mistake, a piece of Minnesota got cut off from the rest of the country . To this day, the "Northwest Angle" is the only place in the lower 48 states north of the 49th parallel. Much like Point Roberts, you have to cross a massive lake or drive through Canada just to visit it.

9

The District of Columbia’s "lost" corner

If you look at a map of D.C., you’ll notice it’s missing a chunk; it’s not a perfect square as it was originally intended. Originally, the capital was a perfect ten-mile square diamond , taking land from both Maryland and Virginia. But by 1846, things got tense. Residents in the Virginia portion, which included Alexandria and Arlington, were worried the federal government would abolish slavery in the District, which was the backbone of their economy. They successfully petitioned to have Virginia "take back" that portion of the land and subsequently changed the shape of the national capital forever.

10

UN Headquarters: International territory

If you want to feel international, go to the United Nations Headquarters on the East River in midtown Manhattan, New York. Once you cross that gate onto the 18-acre site, you are technically leaving the United States. You don’t need to show your passport, but that’s international territory, which means it has its own laws , its own security force, and even its own postal service. It is a legal hole in the middle of New York City.