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  Original photo by Grethe Ulgjell/ Alamy Stock Photo Bagpipes were invented in the Middle East, not Scotland. The reedy hum of bagpipes calls to mind tartan attire and the loch-filled lands of Scotland, which is why it might be surprising to learn that the wind-powered instruments weren’t created there. Music historians believe bagpipes likely originated in the Middle East, where they were first played by pipers thousands of years ago. The  earliest bagpipe-like instruments  have been linked to the Egyptians around 400 BCE, though a sculpture from the ancient Hittites — a former  empire set in present-day Turkey  — from around 1000 BCE may also resemble bagpipes. Bagpipes slowly made their way throughout Europe, occasionally played by notable names in history like Roman Emperor Nero, and becoming widespread enough to be depicted in medieval art and literature. By the 15th century they had  made their way to Scotland , where Highland musicians add...

  Why Does Spicy Food Make Your Nose Run? Individuals' tolerance of spicy food can vary due to genetic differences, cultural exposure to different food, and learned adaptation over time. Image credit: FotoCuisinette/Shutterstock.com E ating spicy food can spark a variety of reactions: a euphoric buzz, a racing heart, a tingling tongue, gastrointestinal apocalypse, existential dread, and tears of pain/joy. A gullet full of chili-loaded foods can also, unusually, cause a runny nose. What makes food spicy? A chemical called  capsaicin  is usually the culprit when we feel the burn from spicy food. The compound is the active ingredient in chili peppers, which are fruits belonging to the genus  Capsicum , including everything from the timid bell pepper to the infamous Carolina Reaper chili. It's primarily found in the thin membrane that holds the seeds, although it can be found in the flesh of some chili peppers.  There are some other chemicals that trigger a similar ...

  4 The longest wedding veil was longer than 63 football fields. If you thought  Meghan Markle's wedding veil  was long, get this: there's a woman in Cyprus who set the  Guinness World Record  for the longest wedding veil. How long was it, you ask? Nearly 23,000 feet, which is the same length as about 63.5 football fields. Note:  The above comes directly from their website. Click here to learn more.

  3 The most streamed Spotify single is Harry Styles' "Girl Crush." The solo star's  Spotify  single has the most streams at 154 million. Such a win for the One Direction alum. Note:  The above comes directly from their website.  

  Original photo by Dino Reichmuth/ Unsplash The first cross-country road trip in a car took 63.5 days. On May 23, 1903, Vermont doctor Horatio Nelson Jackson, along with his mechanic Sewall Crocker, drove down San Francisco’s Market Street, hopped on the  Oakland ferry , and traveled east into the history books — the  first U.S. cross-country road trip  was officially underway. This historical moment was born from a $50 wager to see if Jackson could travel from San Francisco to New York in under 90 days. It’s a wager easily won on today’s  164,000 miles of paved highway , but in the early 20th century, most byways west of Nebraska were little more than dirt roads. The challenge was daunting, but Jackson accepted. He didn’t head due east, which would have sent him straight into California’s unforgiving desert, but instead traveled north into Oregon before making a sharp right turn into Idaho, where he picked up his second passenger — a pit bull named “Bud.” Aver...

  'The Great Race of Mercy' This weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the  Nome Serum Run , a historic dog sled relay that saved the remote town of Nome, Alaska, from a diphtheria outbreak in 1925. Twenty mushers and more than 150 sled dogs transported an  antitoxin  674 miles across harsh terrain in just 127.5 hours, battling temperatures as low as minus 85 degrees.   In January, Nome's only doctor diagnosed diphtheria, a highly contagious and often fatal disease, in several children. With the town inaccessible by boat and air travel deemed too dangerous, sled dogs were the only viable option for transporting the serum across the Alaskan wilderness to prevent a potential epidemic.   While lead dog Balto gained international fame—and a Disney animated film—for completing the final 55-mile leg, another dog  named Togo  and his team actually covered the most treacherous 264-mile stretch. The serum run utilized parts of what is now known as the Idi...

  The 100 folds in a chef's hat represent 100 ways to cook an egg. Yes, that tall, pleated white hat that chefs wear — technically called a  toque —  has 100 folds for a reason! According to  Reclutant Gourmet , the pleats used to signify a chef's level of experience, like the number of ways he or she knew how to prepare eggs. Note:  The above comes directly from their website.  Click here to read more.

  #1 The hashtag symbol is technically called an octothorpe.  According to the  Merriam-Webster dictionary , the "octo-" prefix refers to the eight points on the popular symbol, but the "thorpe" remains a mystery. One theory claims that it comes from the Old English word for "village," based on the idea that the symbol looks like a village surrounded by eight fields!

                      The first known vending           machine dispensed holy         water. Because vending machines are now automated, they can feel like a relatively modern invention. However, the basic contraption has actually been around for more than 2,000 years. Introduced around the first century CE by Greek engineer and mathematician Heron of Alexandria, the first vending machine didn’t deliver snacks — it  dispensed holy water . Similar to modern machines, Heron’s device required inserting a coin into a slot. The coin fell onto a pan that was connected to a lever, which opened a valve on the other end where the holy water flowed out. The pan continued to move under the weight of the coin until, eventually, the coin slid off. The lever would then raise back to its initial state and close the valve, stopping the flow of water. The machine — described by H...

  Air Force One is the name of any plane the president is on. U.S. History T he presidential airplane is iconic, decorated with an American flag on the tail, the seal of the President of the United States by the door, and the words “United States of America” along the side. It’s known as  Air Force One  — but that term actually refers not to any specific plane, but to  what is being transported . Air Force One is the radio name for any airplane that’s carrying the president of the United States. Usually, the president travels on a plane custom-designed to transport the commander in chief, nicknamed the “flying Oval Office.”  The first plane to bear the designation “Air Force One” was Columbine II, the aircraft that transported President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1954. In 1953, Eisenhower’s plane, then called Air Force 8610, almost collided with a passenger plane, Eastern Air Lines 8610. The Air Force One name was born to quickly communicate to air traffi...

   In 1932, Australia Declared a “War” Against Emus (and lost). Australia is known for its unique wildlife, not all of which is friendly. In  1932 , the country received a harsh reminder of that when a drought caused some 20,000 emus to move inland in search of water during their breeding season, disrupting farmers’ crops in the process. The ostrich-like birds had already had their classification downgraded from “native species” to “vermin” despite being endemic to Australia and appearing on its coat of arms alongside the kangaroo, and this mass migration made them public enemy No. 1. The government sent in World War I veterans to assist the beleaguered farmers, and though they were outfitted with machine guns, they soon found themselves overwhelmed by their flightless foes. Emus are fairly imposing, to be fair — among all bird species, only ostriches and cassowaries are larger.    “The machine-gunners’ dreams of point-blank fire into serried masses of Emus were...

  Original photo by charliebishop/ iStock The birds we call penguins aren’t technically penguins. We hate to break it to you penguin lovers, but those flightless birds we know and adore  aren’t actually penguins  — in fact, there are no true penguins left anymore. The term “penguin” was originally used as an alternative name for the  great auk , whose binomial name is  Pinguinus impennis , meaning “plump or fat without feathers.” Great auks sadly went extinct more than 180 years ago. The birds we call penguins today aren’t closely related to those original penguins at all. They belong to the  Spheniscidae  family rather than  Alcidae,  and the  Sphenisciformes  order rather than  Charadriiformes , which is to say that puffins, guillemots, and other auks are more closely related to actual penguins than today’s penguins are. It’s believed that everyone’s favorite Antarctica residents got their name from errant sailors who called ...

  A stretch of Route 66 once played "America the Beautiful" as you drove over it. While driving  Route 66  offers its share of thrills — or kicks, if you prefer — for motorists following the path of their California-dreamin' predecessors, a lengthy drive gets monotonous no matter how historic the thoroughfare. Which is why road-trippers rejoiced when a quarter-mile stretch of the famed  highway  outside Albuquerque, New Mexico,  was rebuilt in 2014  to play the uplifting notes of "America the Beautiful" for cars that rolled by. This bit of motor magic relied on the premise that sounds are recognized as musical notes if they vibrate at a specific frequency; a thump vibrating 330 times per second, for example, is a clear E note to our ears. With that in mind, a series of rumble strips — road indentations normally used to alert lane-drifting drivers — were pressed into the right side of this length of highway at  carefully calculated intervals  ...