1

"Hound Dog" , Elvis Presley

Elvis made this song his signature, and it's hard to imagine it belonging to anyone else. But "Hound Dog" was written in 1952 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and was first recorded by Big Mama Thornton, a blues singer from Alabama. Her version was a raw, powerful blues track, and it was a genuine hit.

Elvis recorded his version in 1956 and turned it into something faster, rockabilly, electrifying . For anyone who grew up in the '50s or '60s, it probably takes you right back to a specific moment: a sock hop, a drive-in, a transistor radio on a summer night. It carries a kind of pure rock-and-roll energy: rebellious, playful, unstoppable.

2

"Livin' on a Prayer" , Bon Jovi

Pumping fists, packed arenas, everyone screaming "Whooooa, we're halfway there!", it's the kind of energy that doesn't age. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora wrote it together in 1986, along with songwriter Desmond Child , pulling inspiration from the working-class New Jersey world around them.

The song hit number one in the U.S. and became an anthem for anyone who's ever had to scrape by and stay hopeful. It brings out something almost joyful in people: this defiant, communal "we're going to make it" spirit.

3

"I Will Always Love You" , Whitney Houston

Most people under 50 think this is a Whitney Houston song, but Dolly Parton wrote it back in 1973, sitting in Nashville. She was leaving her mentor and business partner, Porter Wagoner, to go solo, and the song was her way of saying goodbye: with love, but firmly.

Then Whitney came along in 1992 for The Bodyguard soundtrack and turned it into a stadium-sized emotional explosion. Where Dolly's version was warm and heartfelt, Whitney's was pure power. It connects to just about everyone, but especially to people who've ever had to let someone go. Which version do you like best?

4

"Respect" , Aretha Franklin

This is one of those cases where the cover so thoroughly eclipses the original that most people don't even know an original exists. Otis Redding wrote and recorded "Respect" in 1965, and it was a decent soul hit for him; a man asking his woman for a little respect when he comes home.

Then Aretha Franklin got hold of it in 1967, rewrote parts of it, added that now-iconic spelling-out of the word, and completely flipped the meaning . Suddenly, it was a woman demanding respect from men, from society, from everyone. It became an anthem of the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and basically every movement that involved people standing up and saying enough.

5

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" , Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper made this song her own so completely that it's almost shocking to learn she didn't write it. Robert Hazard, a Philadelphia-based musician, wrote it around 1979 as a kind of tongue-in-cheek song from a man's point of view, about his own desire to just have fun without commitment.

When Cyndi recorded it in 1983, she completely reframed it: it became a declaration of independence for young women who just wanted to live their lives on their own terms . If you had a daughter, a niece, or any teenage girl in your life in the '80s, you heard this song approximately ten thousand times.

6

"Nothing Compares 2 U" , Sinead O'Connor

Few music videos have hit people as hard as Sinead O'Connor, alone on screen, tears streaming down her face, singing this song in 1990. It felt impossibly raw and personal. But the song was written by Prince back in 1984, and was first recorded by a side project of his called The Family.

Sinead stripped it down and made it devastating. It became one of the most emotionally powerful recordings of the decade . You probably heard it on adult contemporary radio, or remember exactly where you were the first time you really listened to it. It's a song about grief and absence and not being able to fill a void someone left behind.

7

"I Love Rock 'n' Roll", Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

Few songs scream pure, unapologetic rock and roll like this one. But Joan Jett didn't write it: a British glam rock band called The Arrows did, back in 1975, in London. Lead singer Alan Merrill said he wrote it as a direct response to the Rolling Stones' "It's Only Rock 'n Roll," which he felt was a little too apologetic about loving the music.

Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform it on British TV in 1976 while touring the UK with The Runaways, and the song stuck with her . She recorded it in 1981, and it rocketed to number one, sitting there for seven weeks. You've heard it blasting from jukeboxes, at sports events, in movie montages, at pretty much every party where someone wanted to get the energy up fast.

8

"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" , Aerosmith

Tyler belting it out, that unmistakable raspy voice: it feels so Aerosmith. But the song was actually written by Diane Warren, one of the most prolific and successful songwriters in pop history , who penned it in 1998 specifically for the movie Armageddon. Warren has said she wrote it while watching her boyfriend sleep, thinking about not wanting to miss a single moment with someone you love.

Aerosmith recorded it, and it became their first number-one pop hit. It hits hard for anyone who's ever been deeply in love, or who's lost someone and wishes they'd paid more attention while they had the chance.

9

"Bette Davis Eyes", Kim Carnes

This was the biggest song in America in 1981, and it spent nine weeks straight at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 . Kim Carnes' raspy, smoky delivery made it feel completely hers. But the song was written in 1974 by Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss, both inspired by a classic old Hollywood film . DeShannon recorded her own version, but it barely registered.

Seven years later, Carnes took it into a Los Angeles studio, added a driving synth arrangement that was pure early MTV, and transformed it into the sound of an era. The real-life Bette Davis, then 73 years old, wrote personal letters to the songwriters and to Carnes to thank them for making her "a part of modern times." The song connected with anyone who'd ever been dazzled by someone they couldn't quite figure out, which is pretty much everyone.

10

"Blame It on the Rain" , Milli Vanilli

You probably remember the Milli Vanilli scandal: in 1990, it came out that Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, the two beautiful, dreadlocked faces of the duo, hadn't actually sung a single note on their records . The real vocals were by studio singers. Their Grammy was revoked. It was a whole thing.

But before all that exploded, "Blame It on the Rain" was a legit #1 pop hit in 1989. It was written by Diane Warren (yes, the same woman who wrote "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"), and it's a smooth, sweet ballad about blaming the weather for a relationship going wrong. You probably heard it on pop radio, maybe slow-danced to it without knowing what you were slow-dancing to.

1

What are bills made of?

Unlike other currencies, dollar bills are not made of paper or plastic. U.S. dollar bills are made from a special fabric blend composed of 75% cotton and 25% linen. This mix makes the bills extremely durable and resistant, and they can be folded about 4000 times before tearing.

2

What bills are valid?

Any U.S. dollar bill that was legally printed is valid, no matter how old, as American currency does not have an expiration date. While some bills might not be accepted by businesses of foreign exchange services due to their condition or if they are a discontinued version of the bill, the bills themselves are still valid, and American banks will accept them, though they might take them out of circulation.

3

American leaders

Five bills have a depiction of an American president. The exceptions are the $10 bill, with Alexander Hamilton on the front, and the $100 bill, with Benjamin Franklin. The $1 bill, depicting George Washington, is extremely symbolic: several elements are repeated 13 times as a nod to the thirteen colonies, and it showcases the Bald Eagle and the Eye of Providence as a sign of God watching over America.

4

A change in size

Did you know that dollar bills used to be so big that they were nicknamed "horse blankets"? Original dollar bills were 7.4 × 3.1 inches. In 1929, the Treasury Department reduced the size of bills to 6.14 × 2.61 inches to reduce production costs and materials. Old bills, though still valid, are worth much more as collector items.

5

Uniformity

Besides their value and design, all dollar bills have the same size (6.14 × 2.61 inches), color, and weight (1 gram) , which sets American currency apart from other countries where bills of different values are differentiated by size, color, or both. Why doesn’t the U.S. implement differences among bills? The cost of adapting vending machines, bank drawers, and ATMs to new bill sizes would cost billions of dollars.

6

Hard to copy

Originally, dollars were not green, but black. As time passed, green ink was favored, as it was cheap and did not fade as much as black. The new color also prevented people from using black-and-white cameras to create counterfeit money. Currently, dollar bills are predominantly green, but newer versions also include extra colors, such as pink, orange, or purple.

7

A $100,000 bill?

Have you ever seen a $500 or 1,000 dollar bill? What about a $100,000? Up until 1945, the U.S. Treasury printed $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $100,000 notes , in addition to the values currently in use. These higher-value notes were mainly intended for bank and government use, but were sought by criminals as they made it easier to hide large amounts of money. Even though they were officially discontinued in 1969, these notes are still valid, though rare, and they have a high worth as collector's items.

8

No numbers

Unlike bills, American coins have different sizes and colors related to their value. Originally, gold, silver, and copper were used for coins, but modern coins are made of copper, zinc, or nickel. Besides their size and design, the value of each coin is printed in letters, not in numbers , alongside depictions of American presidents.

9

Liberty for all (the coins)

By law, all American coins must include six specific details : the word ‘Liberty’, the name of our country, the national motto "In God We Trust", the oldest American motto "E Pluribus Unum", the value of the coin, and the year. Each coin also includes a mint mark that shows where it was made: "P" for Philadelphia, "D" for Denver, "S" for San Francisco, and "W" for West Point.

10

A global currency

The American dollar is one of the most powerful currencies in the world, acting as a backbone for international trade and finances. It is estimated that two-thirds of the physical dollars in circulation are outside American territory. Besides the U.S. and its territories, eight sovereign nations have the U.S. dollar as their official currency, with several more accepting it as legal tender.

1

There's an unexplained billion-year gap

Look closely at the canyon walls, and you'll notice something strange: a clean, sharp line where ancient rock simply stops, and a much younger layer begins directly above it.

This geological puzzle is called the "Great Unconformity," and it represents over a billion years of rock layers that are simply absent , as though that stretch of time never happened. In some spots, rock dated 1.8 billion years old sits directly beneath rock that is only 520 million years old. Where did the missing billion years go?

The leading theory involves the violent breakup of an ancient supercontinent, but scientists are still piecing it together.

2

During the Cold War, it hid a nuclear fallout shelter

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the U.S. government converted part of the Grand Canyon Caverns into a fallout shelter. This dry cave system, more than 200 feet underground, was stocked with enough food and water to sustain 2,000 people. Naturally, it was never occupied, and the supplies were never used.

The caverns have since been transformed into a tourist attraction, with organized tours winding through the same underground chambers that were once intended as a refuge from nuclear war. You can even book a night's stay there.

3

The Federal Aviation Administration was founded after a crash over the canyon

In 1956, two commercial passenger planes collided in midair over the eastern Grand Canyon, killing all 128 people on board both crafts. Rescue teams struggled to reach the wreckage deep inside the canyon, and the extreme heat of the crash had caused the planes' aluminum to fuse with the bedrock. There were no survivors.

The disaster exposed a terrifying truth: the U.S. air traffic control system was dangerously outdated, relying on pilots' visual estimates and rough guesswork from controllers , with no way to separate fast-moving aircraft from slow ones, or instrument-flying planes from those navigating by sight. Congress responded by passing legislation that created both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board.

4

A hoax suggested that an Egyptian civilization had lived there

In 1909, the Arizona Gazette reported that an explorer named G. E. Kinkaid had discovered a vast underground citadel inside the canyon, filled with artifacts linked to ancient Egyptian civilization. He even claimed the expedition had been funded by the Smithsonian.

This story described hieroglyphics on the walls, mummies in the chambers, and relics pointing to a direct connection with the Egypt of the pharaohs. It was incredibly detailed, and it was, of course, a hoax. No evidence for any of Kinkaid's claims ever surfaced.

5

Fewer than 100 people have ever hiked its full length

Among the few people who have completed the through-hike of the Grand Canyon is Jen Hogan, the first woman to accomplish it, finishing her journey in 2021–2022.

It’s a full 800-mile length below the rim. The route involves extreme heat, flash floods, near-impassable areas, and stretches with no water or trail whatsoever. Around 60 or 70 people have reportedly accomplished it. This makes it one of the most exclusive feats on Earth.

6

The Grand Canyon's rocks predate dinosaurs entirely

Visitors scanning the canyon walls for fossils are often surprised to learn they won't find any dinosaur bones here. The rock layers of the Grand Canyon are simply older than dinosaurs. This fact alone can be shocking: staring at its walls means staring at marine fossils from as far back as 1.2 billion years ago. Some of its caves hold the remains of ancient mammals. The canyon is a window into a world that existed long before the dinosaurs, when the land that is now Arizona lay beneath a shallow sea.

7

The park is bigger than Rhode Island

Numbers alone rarely capture the Grand Canyon's scale, so here's a different approach. Rhode Island covers about 1,214 square miles, and the Grand Canyon National Park spans 1,904 square miles.

The canyon's depth exceeds four Empire State Buildings (which is 1,454 feet) stacked on top of one another. That’s 6,093 feet at its deepest point.

8

But it's not the deepest canyon on Earth

For all its grandeur, the Grand Canyon does not hold the depth record. Pictured above, the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet, China, plunges to 17,567 feet, which is nearly three times deeper. Carved by the Yarlung Tsangpo River as it cuts through the eastern Himalayas, that canyon is so remote and extreme that it remained largely uncharted until the late 20th century.

9

It is home to a pink rattlesnake found nowhere else on Earth

The Grand Canyon Pink Rattlesnake has a pinkish-red coloring that matches the canyon's own distinctive rock walls so closely that it's nearly invisible. It is found nowhere else in the world. Officially classified as Crotalus oreganus abyssus , it has darker diamond-shaped markings along its back that deepen the camouflage further.

10

There's a village at the bottom: Supai Village

For over 1,000 years, the remote village of Supai has been home to the Havasupai Tribe, the People of the Blue-Green Waters. It is located an eight-mile hike from the rim, but sits roughly 3,000 feet deep inside the Grand Canyon.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has called it the most remote community in the contiguous United States, and it has no automobiles and no road access. The only ways in are on foot, by mule, or by helicopter. It is also the only place in the United States where the postal service still delivers mail by mule train.