Shutterstock Assigned Seats Start January 2026 Southwest Airlines is about to become a very different airline. Starting January 27, 2026, passengers will get assigned seats for the first time in the carrier’s 53-year history. The familiar A, B, and C boarding groups are going away. Premium seats are coming. And the free checked bags that … Read more
Shutterstock Earl Shaffer’s Healing Walk from Georgia to Maine In 1948, Earl Shaffer came home from war with ghosts. The 29-year-old had seen too much as a radioman in the South Pacific, and his best friend Walter died at Iwo Jima. Back in Pennsylvania, Shaffer felt lost until he found a crazy idea. No one … Read more
Shutterstock The Facility Opened Before Disney World On November 4, 2025, Frito-Lay shut down its Orlando manufacturing plant and laid off 454 workers on the spot. Another 46 employees at a nearby warehouse will lose their jobs by May 2026. The Silver Star Road facility had been making Lay’s, Doritos, and Cheetos since 1965, back … Read more
Shutterstock She Saw It Online in 2018 Kim Erick was browsing the internet in 2018 when she saw something that made her freeze. A news article showed photos from the Real Bodies exhibition in Las Vegas, where preserved human corpses stand behind glass for paying visitors. One figure, posed sitting with its skull opened, looked … Read more
Shutterstock Costa Rica Applications Surge 660 Percent For decades, wealthy Americans who wanted a backup passport looked to Europe. Portugal, Malta, and Greece offered golden visas through real estate investments, and the idea was simple: buy a vacation home, get a residency permit, and eventually qualify for an EU passport. But Europe has been slamming … Read more
Wikimedia Commons Fort Burnside’s Disguised Command Post at Beavertail Point Just three days before Pearl Harbor, the US Army set up Fort Burnside at Rhode Island’s Beavertail Point. They hid their command post as a large beach house, but inside sat 36-inch concrete walls and top-secret radar gear. From this spot, they guarded vital war … Read more
Wikimedia Commons/NPS The Stanley Mickelsen Complex’s Four-Month Cold War Lifespan North Dakota hides a $6 billion Cold War relic that lived for just one day. In 1970, workers began building the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex near Nekoma – a massive concrete pyramid with walls 25 feet thick. The site held 100 nuclear-tipped missiles ready … Read more
Wikimedia Commons/Henry Howe Wytheville’s Battle Against America’s Worst Polio Outbreak In summer 1950, polio hit tiny Wytheville, Virginia with brutal force. The first case struck 20-month-old Johnny Seccafico in late June. Soon after, the town of just 5,500 people had 184 cases—one in every 30 residents. The town quickly fought back. Churches moved Sunday school … Read more
Flickr/jwalsh Peter Jefferds’ Revolutionary Mussel Farm at Penn Cove In 1975, a retired military man named Peter Jefferds changed American food history on a small cove in Washington. After living abroad and falling for mussels, he picked Penn Cove on Whidbey Island to start a farm. The spot was perfect. Rich waters from nearby rivers … Read more
Shutterstock The Steamship Arrow Rescue at Sandusky’s Docks Sandusky’s dock turned into a battleground on October 20, 1852. Seven enslaved people from Kentucky had just reached Ohio, hoping to board the steamship Arrow to Canada. Then, slave catchers grabbed them, claiming them as “property.” At the Mayor’s office, attorney Rush Sloane found no legal papers … Read more