1

Grilling dates back to ancient civilizations

Ancient civilizations were the first to master the art of cooking meat over open flames. Archaeological digs across the Mediterranean, Asia, and Mesoamerica have unearthed primitive clay braziers, iron grates, and roasting pits dating back thousands of years.

Ancient Greeks and Romans cooked meat on iron grids elevated over hot embers, while ancient Asian cultures used portable ceramic cookers like the Japanese Kamado. The fundamental principle, direct heat transforming raw meat into a charred meal, has remained unchanged for millennia.

2

Caribbean roots of modern barbecue

The word "barbecue" traces back to the Indigenous Taíno and Arawak peoples of the Caribbean. When Spanish explorers arrived in the West Indies during the 15th and 16th centuries, they observed native inhabitants drying and slow-smoking meat over raised wooden frameworks built from green timber.

The Arawak called this elevated rack a barabicu . Spaniards adapted the term to barbacoa and eventually made its way into English as "barbecue".

3

Henry Ford patented the first charcoal briquette

In one of history’s most surprising industrial crossovers, the charcoal briquette exists thanks to the Model T car. In the 1920s, Henry Ford realized his automotive plants were generating tons of scrap wood and sawdust. Looking for a profitable way to repurpose the waste, Ford consulted inventor Thomas Edison.

Together they developed a process to compress powdered charcoal mixed with starch binders into dense pillows. Ford established a charcoal plant and sold "Ford Charcoal" at his car dealerships, encouraging motorists to explore the countryside on weekend camping trips. After Ford sold the operation, it was renamed Kingsford Charcoal, which remains a dominant brand today.

4

Weber invented the iconic kettle grill

Before the 1950s, backyard outdoor cooking was an irritating chore conducted over open brick pits or shallow metal brasero pans. Rain, wind, ash, and sudden grease flare-ups frequently ruined meals.

Frustrated by open grills, a welder at Weber Brothers Metal Works in Chicago took a hollow metal buoy used for lake navigation, cut it in half, added legs, and punched ventilation holes in the top dome. The enclosed sphere created a convection oven effect, giving cooks control over oxygen, heat, and smoke while protecting food from the elements. Released in 1952 as the "Weber Kettle," it revolutionized backyard cooking forever.

5

The rise of the gas grill

Charcoal provided a delicious smoky flavor, but it required patience and cleanup. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, natural gas companies looked for new ways to promote gas consumption during warm summer months when home heating demands dropped.

In 1960, Walter Coleman and William G. Wepfer of the Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Company modified a charcoal grill to run on liquid propane bottled in portable tanks. Shortly thereafter, companies like Chicago Combustion Corporation introduced the LazyMen gas grill. The promise of turning a knob and cooking within minutes opened up weeknight outdoor dining to busy families.

6

Backyard grilling became a post-war tradition

The end of World War II sparked an unprecedented housing boom across North America, giving rise to suburban neighborhoods. Suburban homes featured private yards, paved patios, and sliding doors that blurred the line between indoor and outdoor.

Grilling became a symbol of leisure and hospitality. Pop culture reinforced this trend, positioning suburban fathers as the "pitmasters" of the backyard.

7

Grilling goes global: international influences

20th-century travel and immigration made suburban pitmasters incorporate global traditions into their setups. These diverse techniques, such as Japanese Hibachi & Yakitori, South African Braai, Korean Gogi-gui, and Brazilian Churrasco, enriched backyard menus, elevating simple burgers and hot dogs into a world of complex marinades and skewered meats.

8

The first barbecue cookbook

As outdoor cooking conquered the backyards, home cooks needed help beyond basic grilling. In 1939, Sunset Magazine published Sunset’s Barbecue Book , considered the first dedicated barbecue cookbook.

Written specifically for suburban homeowners, the book included blueprints for building stone or brick backyard pits, alongside recipes for marinades, basting mops, and dry rubs. In just a few years, pit cooking became a domestic culinary art form.

9

Grill competitions spark a culinary movement

In the late 1970s and 1980s, casual regional rivalries blossomed into competition circuits like the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest and the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS).

These events brought together backyard enthusiasts, commercial pitmasters, and scientists to debate the precise mathematics of internal meat temperatures, smoke rings, and wood choices.

10

Tailgating perfected the portability of grills

The growth of American college football and professional sports stadiums during the mid-20th century gave birth to a unique pre-game tradition: tailgating. Fans realized that portable propane units and mini kettle grills could turn stadium parking lots into outdoor kitchens. Grill manufacturers responded by designing lightweight and folding models, solidifying the grill as an essential tool for community gathering.

1

Arizona skips Daylight Saving Time

Image: Christoph von Gellhorn

This is partly true because most of the state doesn’t bother with Daylight Saving Time . They stopped changing the clocks back in 1967. The exception is the Navajo Nation, which stretches into Utah and New Mexico and keeps DST so all its communities stay on the same schedule. Now, as for the smaller Hopi reservation, inside the Navajo Nation, it sticks with Arizona time… Yes, quite confusing if you’re not a local.

2

Georgia isn’t really the Peach State

Image: Jessica Furtney

Georgia loves its peaches, sure, but the state’s top fruit money-maker is actually blueberries . In recent years, blueberries have brought in several times more cash for farmers than peaches. Meanwhile, California grows far more peaches than Georgia ever has. The nickname stuck from the old days when Georgia peaches were famous for their flavor, not their volume. So while the pride is real, the peaches aren’t quite the powerhouse people may think.

3

Nevada didn’t record the hottest US temperature

Image: tommao wang

You probably think of Nevada’s desert heat as unmatched, but the all-time record belongs to California’s Death Valley . In July 1913, it hit a mind-melting 134 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature not only in America but the hottest ever recorded on Earth!

4

Minnesota doesn’t have the most lakes

Image: Tom Conway

Minnesota proudly calls itself the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," but that’s selling itself short… The real number is closer to 12,000. However, Alaska wins this battle . The state has more than 3 million lakes over five acres in size. In fact, Alaska contains over 40 percent of the nation’s surface water. If you love fishing, kayaking, or just staring at a quiet stretch of water, the true lake capital of America is far up north.

5

Pineapples aren’t native to Hawaii

Image: Christian Joudrey

Pineapples are everywhere in Hawaiian imagery, but the plant actually comes from South America , mainly Paraguay and southern Brazil. Spanish explorers likely brought them to Hawaii in the 1500s after spreading them across the Pacific to places like the Philippines and Guam. Hawaii’s climate turned out to be perfect for growing them and by the 1900s, the islands were producing so many pineapples that the fruit became a symbol of Hawaii itself.

6

Maine isn’t the country’s easternmost point

Image: Chris Henry

If you’re a Geography geek, you’ll love this one. You might picture Maine’s rocky coast as the eastern tip of America, but the actual easternmost point is thousands of miles away, on Alaska’s Semisopochnoi Island in the Aleutians. How is that possible? Well, that’s because it crosses the 180th meridian, putting it in the Eastern Hemisphere. That means part of Alaska technically sits farther east than anywhere in Maine.

7

The biggest US earthquake didn’t happen in California

Image: Lala Miklós

California has suffered some big earthquakes in its history, but the most powerful earthquake in America struck Alaska in 1964 . It hit Prince William Sound with a magnitude of 9.2. It was so strong it shook the ground for four and a half minutes and triggered massive tsunamis. In today’s dollars, the damage would total more than $2 billion. Alaska sits on a collision zone of tectonic plates, making it one of the world’s most seismically active regions.

8

The Everglades isn’t America’s biggest swamp

Image: Joshua J. Cotten

A lot of people picture the Florida Everglades when they think of swamps, but technically, the Everglades isn’t a swamp at all. The real title of the largest swamp in the United States goes to Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin , which spans about 1.4 million acres. This swamp has a vast mix of cypress forests, bayous, and marshes, and it’s more than twice as productive as the Everglades when it comes to wildlife and plant life.

9

Big cities aren’t always capitals

Image: Mackenzie Cruz

It surprises people how often the biggest city isn’t the state capital . New York City? Not the capital… Albany is. Chicago? Nope, that honor goes to Springfield. Pennsylvania’s capital isn’t Philly or Pittsburgh, it’s Harrisburg. Even California’s capital isn’t L.A. or San Francisco, it’s actually Sacramento. Out of fifty states, only seventeen have their most populous city as the capital.

10

Alaska isn’t divided into counties

Image: Rod Long

Alaska likes to do things its own way. Instead of counties, it’s split into boroughs , and a massive area known as the Unorganized Borough has no local government at all. People out there don’t pay property taxes, but that freedom comes with challenges, limited services, fewer job options, and tough living conditions.

1

A renovation project saved thousands of lives on 9/11

On September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., killing 189 people. Few people know this part: the death toll could have been much higher. But there was a renovation project underway at the time of the attacks.

The Pentagon’s five-sided structure is divided into five "wedges," and workers had been renovating them one at a time. Flight 77 struck the wedge that had just been completed. Of the 4,500 people who normally worked in that section, only about 800 had moved back in. Without the reinforced construction and the incomplete occupancy, experts believe the casualties would have been catastrophically higher.

2

The Cold War and the hot dog stand

In the middle of the Pentagon’s five-acre center courtyard once stood a modest hot dog stand. According to a Cold War legend (one still retold by official Pentagon tour guides on every public tour), between the 60s and the 80s, Soviet satellite images tracked large groups of high-ranking military officials converging on that small building at the same time every day.

Soviet intelligence reportedly concluded the structure must be the entrance to some underground bunker in America. In reality, all it did was sell lunch. In 2006, the original stand was torn down, and a sandwich shop was built in its place.

3

Its construction began on September 11th, exactly 60 years before the attack

Builders broke ground on the Pentagon on September 11, 1941. That was exactly 60 years to the day before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that would strike the same building.

Construction had been ordered by Army Brigadier General Brehon Somervell, who wanted a permanent headquarters for the Defense Department to replace its then-17 scattered offices across Washington, D.C.

The project was extraordinarily ambitious: plans called for the world’s largest office building to be completed in just 16 months. In the end, the conception, design, and construction of the entire Pentagon building took a total of 15 months.

4

The same person oversaw its construction and the Manhattan Project

Colonel Leslie Groves of the Army Corps of Engineers took charge of Pentagon construction in August 1941. He worked six days a week and drove his team relentlessly, at one point employing more than 15,000 workers around the clock.

When the Pentagon was finished in January 1943, Groves was assigned to lead the Manhattan Project, America’s secret program to build the atomic bomb . His deputy, Captain Robert Furman, followed him into the Manhattan Project as chief of foreign intelligence. Together, the men who built the world’s largest office building went on to produce the weapon that ended World War II.

5

Why is it shaped like that?

The Pentagon’s iconic five-sided shape was the consequence of a geographic accident. The original site selected for the building, near Arlington Cemetery, **happened to be bordered on five sides by roads. **Architects designed the structure to fit those boundaries, producing a pentagonal floor plan. Then President Franklin D. Roosevelt intervened: worried the massive building would obstruct the view of Washington, D.C. from Arlington, he ordered the site moved to its current location along the Potomac River. But the five-sided design had already been drawn up, and nobody changed it.

6

It was the first desegregated building in Virginia

When the Pentagon was designed in 1941, segregation was the law in Virginia. Original plans called for doubled bathroom facilities: separate ones for Black and white employees, as required by Virginia statute. But President Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 8802 in June 1941, prohibiting racial discrimination in federal employment and government contracting.

As a federal building, the Pentagon was exempt from Virginia law. It became the only building in the state where segregation was not enforced. A fully desegregated federal workplace that opened in 1943. The doubled bathrooms were built anyway, as the plans were too far along to revise, but were never used as separately designated spaces.

7

Its construction was surprisingly frugal and incredibly fast

Ground broke on September 11, 1941, and construction finished on January 15, 1943, just 16 months later. More than 15,000 workers were on site around the clock. Wartime office shortages were so severe that employees moved into completed wings before the rest of the building was finished. Steel was too scarce to use extensively, so builders relied almost entirely on reinforced concrete. The 689,000 tons of sand and gravel required came directly from the nearby Potomac River, cutting transportation costs. The project was budgeted at $35 million, but the final bill was $63 million, which would translate to over $900 million in today’s dollars.

8

You can walk between its farthest points in only 7 minutes

The Pentagon is the world’s largest low-rise office building: 6.5 million square feet of space, which is three times the total floor area of the Empire State Building. Each of its five outer walls is 921 feet long. It has 7,754 windows and 17.5 miles of corridors. Approximately 26,000 military and civilian employees report for work there every day.

Despite that scale, the building’s concentric ring design is so efficient that it takes only about seven minutes to walk between its two farthest points.

9

The man who secretly lived inside its walls

During construction, Colonel Groves drove his deputy, Captain Robert Furman, so relentlessly that Furman rarely left the building. To cope, Furman had contractors build him a small, windowless apartment hidden inside the walls of the Army’s Ordnance Division. In this private room, he could sleep and shower without leaving the premises.

When construction ended and personnel dispersed, knowledge of the hidden room was never passed on to building management. Months later, when Furman returned to Washington on Manhattan Project intelligence business, he found the apartment undiscovered and exactly as he’d left it.

For over a year, he would slip back to the Pentagon, pop open a wall panel, spend the night, and emerge in the morning with his suitcase. He was finally caught in 1943 and forced to surrender the keys. It was never disclosed whether the secret apartment was maintained or eventually absorbed back into the official floor plans.

10

It houses over 30 restaurants, including everyone's favorite chains

The Pentagon feeds roughly 26,000 people a day, and its dining options read less like a military headquarters and more like a mall food court. The main Concourse Food Court, which opened in September 2009 and seats 875 people, is the largest of several dining areas.

Confirmed chains currently inside the building include McDonald’s, Five Guys, Subway, Popeyes, Starbucks (multiple locations), Dunkin’ (two locations), Panera Bread, Taco Bell, Panda Express, Baskin-Robbins, Potbelly, Jamba Juice, and Moe’s Southwest Grill, among others. The building also houses a CVS pharmacy, a florist, a jeweler, and a dry cleaner. In the summer of 2024, Potbelly became the first restaurant to open in the center courtyard. Yes, the very spot where the legendary Cold War hot dog stand once stood.