Month: January 2017

Monday, January 16, marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the federal date of recognition for one of the most important figures in the civil rights movement. Signed by President Reagan in 1983, the holiday marked the culmination of efforts that started just four days after King’s assassination in 1968, when Representative John Conyers of Michigan began 15 years of introducing and reintroducing a bill to establish the holiday. (Stevie Wonder joined the chorus of Americans backing Conyers’ efforts; in 1980 he wrote the song “Happy Birthday” to help create a groundswell of support.)

While it would be impossible to encompass everything King accomplished in a mere list, we’ve compiled a few intriguing facts that may pique your interest in finding out more about the man who helped unite a divided nation.

1. MARTIN LUTHER KING WAS NOT HIS GIVEN NAME.

One of the most recognizable proper names of the 20th century wasn’t actually what was on the birth certificate. The future civil rights leader was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, named after his father Michael King. When the younger King was 5 years old, his father decided to change both their names after learning more about 16th century theologian Martin Luther, who was one of the key figures of the Protestant Reformation. Inspired by that battle, Michael King soon began referring to himself and his son as Martin Luther King.

2. HE WAS A DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY.

Using the prefix “doctor” to refer to King has become a reflex, but not everyone is aware of the origin of King’s Ph.D. He attended Boston University and graduated in 1955 with a doctorate in systematic theology. King also had a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Morehouse College and a Bachelor of Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary.

3. HE TOOK 30 TRIPS TO JAIL.

A powerful voice for an ignored and suppressed minority, opponents tried to silence King the old-fashioned way: incarceration. In the 12 years he spent as the recognized leader of the civil rights movement, King was arrested and jailed 30 times. Rather than brood, King used the unsolicited downtime to further his cause. Jailed in Birmingham for eight days in 1963, he penned “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a long treatise responding to the oppression supported by white religious leaders in the South.

“I’m afraid that it is much too long to take your precious time,” he wrote. “I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers?”

4. THE FBI TRIED TO COERCE HIM INTO SUICIDE.

King’s increasing prominence and influence agitated many of his enemies, but few were more powerful than FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. For years, Hoover kept King under surveillance, worried that this subversive could sway public opinion against the bureau and fretting that King might have Communist ties. While there’s still debate about how independently Hoover’s deputy William Sullivan was acting, an anonymous letter was sent to King in 1964 accusing him of extramarital affairs and threatening to disclose his indiscretions. The only solution, the letter suggested, would be for King to exit the civil rights movement, either willingly or by taking his own life. King ignored the threat and continued his work.

5. A SINGLE SNEEZE COULD HAVE ALTERED HISTORY FOREVER.

Our collective memory of King always has an unfortunate addendum: his 1968 assassination that brought an end to his personal crusade against social injustice. But if Izola Ware Curry had her way, King’s mission would have ended 10 years earlier. At a Harlem book signing in 1958, Ware approached King and plunged a seven-inch letter opener into his chest, nearly puncturing his aorta. Surgery was needed to remove it. Had King so much as sneezed, doctors said, the wound was so close to his heart that it would have been fatal.  Curry, a 42-year-old black woman, was having paranoid delusions about the NAACP that soon crystallized around King. She was committed to an institution and died in 2015.

6. HE GOT A “C” IN PUBLIC SPEAKING.

King’s promise as one of the great orators of his time was late in coming. While attending Crozer Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1951, King’s marks were diluted by C and C+ grades in two terms of public speaking.

7. HE WON A GRAMMY.

At the 13th annual Grammy Awards in 1971, a recording of King’s 1967 address, “Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam,” took home a posthumous award for Best Spoken Word recording. In 2012, his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (it was included decades later because its 1969 nomination was beaten for the Spoken Word prize by Rod McKuen’s “Lonesome Cities”).

8. HE LOVED STAR TREK.

It’s not easy to imagine King having the time or inclination to sit down and watch primetime sci-fi on television, but according to actress Nichelle Nichols, King and his family made an exception for Star Trek. In 1967, the actress met King, who told her he was a big fan and urged her to reconsider her decision to leave the show to perform on Broadway. “My family are your greatest fans,” Nichols recalled King telling her, and said he continued with, “As a matter of fact, this is the only show on television that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to watch, to stay up and watch because it’s on past their bedtime.” Nichols’ character of Lt. Uhura, he said, was important because she was a strong, professional black woman. If Nichols left, King noted, the character could be replaced by anyone, since “[Uhura] is not a black role. And it’s not a female role.” Based on their talk, Nichols decided to remain on the show for the duration of its three-season original run.

9. HE SPENT HIS WEDDING NIGHT IN A FUNERAL PARLOR.

When King married his wife, Coretta, in her father’s backyard in 1953, there was virtually no hotel in Marion, Alabama that would welcome a newlywed black couple. A friend of Coretta’s happened to be an undertaker, and invited the Kings into one of the guest rooms at his funeral parlor.

10. RONALD REAGAN WAS OPPOSED TO A KING HOLIDAY.

Despite King’s undeniable worthiness, MLK Day was not a foregone conclusion. In the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan largely ignored pleas to pass legislation making the holiday official out of the concern it would open the door for other minority groups to demand their own holidays; Senator Jesse Helms complained that the missed workday could cost the country $12 billion in lost productivity, and both were concerned about King’s possible Communist sympathies. Common sense prevailed, and the bill was signed into law on November 2, 1983. The holiday officially began being recognized in January 1986.

11. WE’LL SOON SEE HIM ON THE $5 BILL.

In 2016, the U.S. Treasury announced plans to overhaul major denominations of currency beginning in 2020. Along with Harriet Tubman adorning the $20 bill, plans call for the reverse side of the $5 Lincoln-stamped bill to commemorate “historic events that occurred at the Lincoln Memorial” including King’s famous 1963 speech..

12. ONE OF KING’S VOLUNTEERS WALKED AWAY WITH A PIECE OF HISTORY.

King’s 1963 oration from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, will always be remembered as one of the most provocative public addresses ever given. George Raveling, who was 26 at the time, had volunteered to help King and his team during the event. When it was over, Raveling sheepishly asked King for the copy of the three-page speech. King handed it over without hesitation; Raveling kept it for the next 20 years before he fully understood its historical significance and removed it from the book he had been storing it in.

He’s turned down offers of up to $3.5 million, insisting that the document will remain in his family—always noting that the most famous passage, where King details his dream of a united nation, isn’t on the sheet. It was improvised.

Though Chewbacca has spent the bulk of his screen time in the Star Wars universe playing a loveable “fuzzball,” Han Solo warned us that his sidekick has a dark side. Forty years ago, in the midst of a heated game of holographic chess in A New Hope, Han urged R2-D2 to let Chewbacca win—warning the droid that “it’s not wise to upset a Wookiee.”

When C-3PO protested on his buddy’s behalf, Han let them in on a little secret: that Wookiees are known to “pull people’s arms out of their sockets when they lose.” But, as Cinema Blend reports, a deleted scene from The Force Awakens reveals that it’s not only board games that can bring out a Wookiee’s violent tendencies.

In the scene below, Chewbacca intercedes in an altercation between Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Unkar Plutt (Simon Pegg), and clearly doesn’t take kindly to Unkar’s attitude. In one swift move, Chewbacca rips the Crolute’s arm clean off and hurls it across the room. One can only surmise that the scene was cut as it cast the beloved ball of fur in a whole different light. The lesson learned? Let the Wookiee win!

[h/t Cinema Blend]

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How to make any pancakes fluffier. Plus recipes to dress them up fancy.
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The Lasting Gifts of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was make-work at the time, but we still enjoy what they built.

Since the days of yore, tales of imaginary creatures have been spread by storytellers, myth-makers, and drunk guys lost in the woods. But not all are as literary as the Bandersnatch or as hairy as the Yeti—some non-existent creatures, like the ones mentioned below, are nearly nonexistent in language as well.

1. HIPPOCENTAUR

Though one would hope this term referred to a creature one part horse, one part person, and one part hippopotamus, alas: this is simply a synonym for centaur. There’s also an amusing variation that popped up in the early 1600s, described by clergyman Thomas Jackson as “A monstrous Hippocentaurique combination.”

2. YOWIE

This is an Australian term for a shaggy creature familiar to cryptozoology enthusiasts around the world. A 1980 use from Brisbane’s Courier-Journal suggests a lengthy history: “The ‘yowie’, a large hairy animal similar to the Himalayan yeti and American Big Foot, has existed in Aboriginal folklore for thousands of years.”

3. HIPPOGRIFF

Part griffin, part horse, this is one of many hybrid beasts. People have been talking about hippogriffs since the 1600s, and much to my amusement, the term has been used figuratively, like when anything unique is described as a unicorn. In 1837, poet Thomas Carlyle referred to “that wild Hippogryff of a Democracy.” More recently, they’ve been featured in the Harry Potter novels and movies.

4. JERSEY DEVIL

At least as old as the early 1900s, this critter—who inspired the name of the NHL team—was memorably discussed in John McPhee’s 1968 book The Pine Barrens: “This creature has been feared in the woods—on a somewhat diminishing scale—from the seventeen–thirties to the present. It is known as Leeds’ Devil, or the Jersey Devil.” As to the origin, McPhee claimed, “A woman named Leeds … had her thirteenth child, and it growed, and one day it flew away. It’s haunted the earth ever since. It’s took pigs right out of pens. And little lambs … The Leeds Devil is a crooked-faced thing, with wings.”

5. OPINICUS

Since the 1500s, this beast has captured the fevered imaginations of anyone with a dangerously high fever. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines it as “An imaginary creature, freq. represented as having the head and wings of an eagle or griffin, the body and legs of a lion, and the tail of a camel.”

6. TRICORN

You didn’t think the unicorn was immune to the variations of nature, did you? Among other uses, tricorn has applied to a unicorn times three in the horn department. The OED also records bicorn and millecorns, suggesting an infinity of fanciful horned animals.

7. BATSQUATCH

We’ve all heard of the Sasquatch, but a different hairy beast was first spotted near Mount St. Helens in 1980. As described by the National Paranormal Society: “The creature has been reported as having yellow eyes and a wolf-like muzzle, bluish fur, sharp pointy teeth, bird-like feet and leather bat-like wings that possibly span up to 50 feet. The creature is reported as about 9 feet tall and has the ability to affect car engines.”

8. PUSHMI-PULLYU

Read the OED’s definition and weep: “An imaginary creature resembling a llama or antelope, but with a head at either end of the body, pointing away from the torso, so that the creature always faces in two directions at once.” Double yikes. Often, this word refers to something a bit less fanciful: wishy-washy-ness, as seen in a 2001 use from London’s Daily Telegraph: “Ever since the election, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have been engaged in a sort of pushmi-pullyu struggle over the euro.”

9. DUNGAVENHOOTER

Henry H. Tyron’s 1939 book Fearsome Critters detailed a full kookload of imaginary creatures, including the ludicrously named dungavenhooter. Tyron describes the beast as alligator-like but mouthless and paints a freaky picture: “… behind a whiffle bush, the Dungavenhooter awaits the passing logger. On coming within reach of the dreadful tail, the victim is knocked senseless and then pounded steadily until he becomes entirely gaseous, whereat he is greedily inhaled through the wide nostrils.”

10. ICE WORM

One would think the ice worm is quite annoying to the Abominable Snowman and the frost giants of Jotunheim. Fortunately, it’s just as imaginary—or at least it was when first coined in the early 1800s. In the life imitating art department, it turns out there are some actual ice worms out there, particularly in the glaciers of Alaska.

Londoners are crazy for canines. Last year, a local restaurant launched a three-course pop-up brunch for dogs. One luxury hotel now has a special “Doggy Afternoon Tea,” and boasts a “pet concierge.” Keeping with the trend, Time Out London reports that England’s capital city will soon be home to the world’s first bus tour for pups, for four days only next week.

Pet insurers MORE TH>N DOGGYSSENTI>LS created the 90-minute tour, which runs three times a day from Monday, January 16 to Thursday, January 19. It takes dog owners and their furry friends to London’s best parks and urban dog walking spots, including Hyde Park, Kensington Palace Gardens, and Green Park. Four-legged passengers can hop off the bus for a quick stroll, if their human companions are so inclined.

When they’re not exploring the city’s dog parks, guests will visit canine-inspired cultural attractions, including Victoria Tower Garden (site of the Annual Parliament Dog Show), The Kennel Club of Great Britain (home to the Europe’s largest collection of dog paintings), and Buckingham Palace (the Queen’s corgis; need we say more?). When the tour’s all finished, a convenient map will help dog owners locate canine-friendly restaurants and watering holes.

Most of the doggy bus tours are already sold out, but you can check to see if tickets are still available online, or contact organizers about additional dates.

[Time Out London]

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and gave a speech for the ages, delivering the oratorical masterpiece “I Have a Dream” to nearly 250,000 people.

When he was done, King stepped away from the podium, folded his speech, and found himself standing in front of George Raveling, a former Villanova basketball player who, along with his friend Warren Wilson, had been asked to provide extra security around Dr. King while he was speaking. “We were both tall, gangly guys,” Raveling told Time. “We didn’t know what we were doing but we certainly made for a good appearance.”

Moved by the speech, Raveling saw the folded papers in King’s hands and asked if he could have them. King gave the young volunteer the speech without hesitation, and that was that. “At no time do I remember thinking, ‘Wow, we got this historic document,’” Raveling told Sports Illustrated in 2015. Not realizing what a gem he had on his hand, Raveling went home and stuck the three sheets of paper into a Harry Truman biography for safekeeping. They sat there for nearly two decades while Raveling developed an impressive career coaching NCAA men’s basketball.

In 1984, he had recently taken over as the head coach at the University of Iowa and was chatting with Bob Denney of the Cedar Rapids Gazette when Denney brought up the March on Washington. That’s when Raveling dropped the bomb: “You know, I’ve got a copy of that speech,” he said, and dug it out of the Truman book. After writing an article about Raveling’s connection, the reporter had the speech professionally framed for the coach.

Though he displayed the framed speech in his house for a few years, Raveling began to realize the value of the piece and moved it to a bank vault in Los Angeles. Though he has received offers for King’s speech—one collector wanted to purchase the speech for $3 million in 2014—Raveling has turned them all down. He has been in talks with various museums and universities and hopes to put the speech on display in the future, but for now, he cherishes having it in his possession.

“That to me is something I’ll always be able to look back and say I was there,” Raveling said in the original Cedar Rapids Gazette article. “And not only out there in that arena of people, but to be within touching distance of him. That’s like when you’re 80 or 90 years old you can look back and say ‘I was in touching distance of Abraham Lincoln when he made the Gettysburg Address.’”

“I have no idea why I even asked him for the speech,” Raveling, who is currently serving as Nike’s Director of International Basketball, has said. “But I’m sure glad that I did.”

Don’t miss an episode—subscribe today! Images and footage provided by Shutterstock. Here’s a transcript courtesy of Nerdfighteria Wiki.

Hi I’m Elliott and this is Mental_Floss Video. Today I’m gonna talk about some misconceptions about various holidays and then I’m gonna go have a piña colada. I don’t know why I’m wearing this.

1. ST. PATRICK’S DAY IS AN IRISH HOLIDAY BECAUSE ST. PATRICK WAS IRISH.

Believe it or not, Saint Patrick was born in modern day Britain in 390 CE, and he didn’t even identify as a Christian until the age of 16, which was around the time that he was sent to Ireland. So why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day as an Irish holiday? Well, he is the patron saint of Ireland because he converted many Irish people to Christianity when he was a priest and Irish immigrants in America started celebrating the holiday as early as 1762. In fact, the holiday’s often associated more with America more than Ireland where the holiday was a pretty minor affair until the 1970s, when I’m assuming they invented green beer.

2. INDEPENDENCE DAY IS THE DAY THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WAS SIGNED.

John Adams once wrote to his wife, “I am apt to believe that [July 2, 1776], will be celebrated by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival.” And that was because July second was the day that the Second Continental Congress voted on the declaration, but it was officially approved on the fourth so that’s the day we celebrate, despite some founding fathers who preferred to celebrate on the second. If you want to celebrate when it was signed, you have to wait until August 2, and nobody wants to do that.

3. THANKSGIVING IS IN LATE NOVEMBER BECAUSE THAT’S WHEN THE FIRST THANKSGIVING WAS HELD.

Actually, it was probably celebrated some time between September 21 and November 11. We know this because it was inspired by English harvest festivals which were typically celebrated in late September. Abraham Lincoln actually suggested the late November Thanksgiving, it officially became the fourth Thursday of November in 1941.

4. CHRISTMAS IS ON DECEMBER 25TH BECAUSE THAT’S THE DAY JESUS WAS BORN.

Nowadays it’s rare to find a scholar who will argue that Jesus was born on December 25, and many don’t even think he was born in the year 1 CE. It wasn’t until around 300 years after Jesus’s birth that people started celebrating Christmas in mid-winter, so it’s hard to believe that the date could be accurate. Plus, some scholars have pointed out that since there are shepherds in the story of Jesus’s birth in the Bible, it would make more sense if he was born in the spring. Even Pope Benedict the 16th wrote that Christmas is probably on the wrong date. December 25 might have been chosen because there was a Pagan celebration called Saturnalia that was celebrated around then. Others argue that it was chosen to be 9 months after Easter because there was a legend that Jesus was killed and conceived at the same time of year.

5. SUICIDES INCREASE DURING THE WINTER HOLIDAYS.

Actually this phenomenon has been studied extensively and the opposite was found to be true. Suicide rates are highest in the spring and summer according to studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Experts aren’t sure why this is, but some believe it has something to do with the fact that people tend to interact more with others during the warmer months causing increased stress. Others claim that sunlight itself makes people more suicidal—but regardless, suicides do not increase during the winter holidays.

6. BLACK FRIDAY IS THE BIGGEST SHOPPING DATE IN THE U.S.

This is a widely reported statistic, but the biggest shopping day actually changes from year to year. For several years in the late 2000s, Black Friday was the largest, but in 2013, the Saturday before Christmas retook the crown. It varies widely but currently the momentum seems to be with that Saturday.

7. THE DREIDEL WAS INVENTED FOR HANUKKAH.

Toys similar to the dreidel existed in many ancient cultures long before Hanukkah was a holiday. It’s been connected to the Babylonian empire, India, and parts of Europe, and many people used it to gamble rather than celebrate religion. The story goes that in the ancient Seleucid empire, Jewish people adapted the toy into a method for secretly studying the Torah, and that’s why it’s now associated with Hanukkah.

8. EASTER IS NAMED AFTER ISHTAR.

There’s a popular myth on the internet that Easter is named after Ishtar who was the Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. People say that the bunny was Ishtar’s symbol since they’re often associated with sex which is why we have an Easter bunny. Well, if you think about it, this makes no sense. The holiday of Easter has been around a lot longer than the English word Easter has, so really doesn’t make any sense at all. Experts claim that the word Easter probably comes from a Germanic goddess named Ostra and yes, the holiday of Easter was inspired by earlier pagan celebrations but there’s no evidence that Ishtar had anything to do with this, so stop bringing her into it.

9: CINCO DE MAYO IS MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY.

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the day of the Battle of Puebla which occurred in 1862 when France was occupying part of Mexico. On May 5 of that year the Mexican army defeated the French army in the city of Puebla. Within five years the French no longer occupied Mexico. Mexican Independence Day is on September 16, by the way. It celebrates the start of the Mexican War of Independence against Spain in 1810.

10. NEW YEAR’S DAY IS THE MOST UNSAFE DAY TO DRIVE.

A lot of people in the U.S. think that New Year’s is the most risky time to drive because there are more inebriated drivers on the road, and of course you should always be safe on the road and never drink and drive, but roads are typically more dangerous during summer holidays like the 4th of July and Memorial Day.

Thanks for watching Misconceptions on Mental_Floss video. If you have a topic for an upcoming Misconceptions episode that you would like to see, leave it in the comments. Also, apologies to the season of summer for giving it a bad rap in this video. And I’ll see you next week. I’m gonna go, uh, I’m gonna go change.

On January 15, 1975, Walt Disney World’s Space Mountain rollercoaster opened to the public. It was the key feature of Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom.

An enormous pageant was held to celebrate the event, featuring “thousands of flying doves, a pageant of nations, a 2000-member band, 50,000 balloons,” and red, white, and blue fireworks. Mercury 7 pilot Scott Carpenter and a handful of other astronauts were on hand.

Here’s the most exciting bit of the opening ceremony:

And if that’s not enough celebration for you, let’s put it in the larger 48-minute context of this groovy TV special:

For more, read 15 Out-Of-This-World Facts About Space Mountain (including how Neil Armonstrong helped re-launch the ride in 2005!). You might also enjoy video of Space Mountain With the Lights On.

(Space Mountain photo courtesy of Benjamin D. Esham / Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0 us], via Wikimedia Commons.)

One thing our ancestors knew how to do well was rock a stylish piece of headwear. From squat caps to towering toppers, history has produced a hat for every occasion. Here are 12 old styles that, with a healthy dose of fashion and confidence, could still look just as fabulous today.

1. THE CLOCHE

The sleek, head-hugging cloche was the perfect companion to the bobbed hairstyle worn by flappers in the 1920s. The hats were typically left plain to emphasize their bell-shaped silhouette, though they also offered a blank canvas for embellishment. The cloche was most popular during the Jazz Age but it’s occasionally incorporated into retro fashion styles today.

2. THE OTTOMAN HEADDRESS

In Ottoman ceremonial costumes, hats played a starring role. The headgear often featured bright colors, feathery ornamentations, and elaborate designs that signified status. The wearer’s class, religion, gender, and clan could all be gleaned from the way the fabric in their headdress was layered.

3. THE BOWLER HAT

The top hat was popular in the 19th century but it wasn’t always the most practical choice for outdoor activities. When looking for a way to protect the heads of horseback riders from branches, brothers Thomas and William Bowler came up with their namesake cap. The bowler hat was sturdy, compact, and appropriate for most any occasion. Though the bowler hat largely fizzled out by the 1980s, the item’s original London manufacturers Lock & Co. still sell thousands each year.

4. THE PILLBOX HAT

Unlike some hats from history, this one was prized for its simplicity. It could be easily identified by its brimless, round shape evoking that of a pillbox. It began gaining steam in the 1930s before reaching peak popularity with First Lady Jackie Kennedy in the 1960s.

5. THE FASCINATOR

Depending on the look you’re going for, a fascinator can be worn as a subtle accent item or a show-stealing statement piece. The hat is defined as an ornamental headpiece that’s secured to the crown using a headband or comb. Once they fit that criteria, fascinators can take the form of flowers, feathers, fabric, or whatever else the wearer can engineer to stay on their head. And though they’re still popular in the U.K., Americans don’t tend to utilize fascinators outside of Derby Day attire.

6. THE TRI-CORNER HAT

In 17th century Europe and America, tri-cornered hats gave men the opportunity to show off their lustrous wigs poking out from beneath the upturned brim. It’s no surprise then that the hat style died out with the powdered wig fad, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fit for a comeback. Even if wearers don’t have wigs to flaunt, they could take a page from our forefathers’ book and upgrade the hat itself with feathers, brocades, and fabrics.

7. THE DEERSTALKER HAT

If you’ve seen this hat anywhere, it was most likely on the head of someone portraying Sherlock Holmes. The headpiece has been tied to the character since the books were published in the 19th century (it was the illustrations—not the story—that did it, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never mentions the cap in the text). It’s peculiar that an urban detective would be wearing a deerstalker hat in the first place, considering they were designed for hunting game and not tracking clues, but the smartly styled hat’s comeback should be … elementary.

8. THE HENNIN

These striking hats were a clear sign of royalty in the medieval era. Reinforced with wire or padding and draped in fine fabric, the cone-shaped hennin is still synonymous with the stereotypical princess today. English hennins were fairly modest in height, but the French version reached up to to three feet and the hat’s Mongolian predecessor towered five to seven feet high.

9. THE NEWSBOY CAP

This hat goes by many names (the big apple, the eight panel, the Gatsby), but its strongest association is with newsboys at the turn of the 20th century. The floppy, brimmed cap wasn’t just popular with the younger working class. It was worn by men across the social ladder and was a common sight on the golf course.

10. THE PEACH BASKET HAT

The origin of this hat name isn’t too hard to figure out: It resembles a bulky, over-turned fruit basket. The peach basket hat first appeared at the start of the 20th century, but it was shunned by many for being an “unpatriotic” display of vanity during the first world war. It was revived in the 1930s and experienced a popularity streak until the 1950s.

11. THE PORK PIE HAT

This hat is known for having a domed crown inside a pinched rim, creating a shape similar to that of a certain savory pastry. The style was originally worn by women in the 19th century and was later embraced by men’s fashion in the early 1900s (thanks in part to Buster Keaton). It’s not as popular as it was in the 1920s but it recently enjoyed a brief return to the spotlight by way of the Heisenberg character on Breaking Bad.

12. THE CARTWHEEL HAT

Out of context, a cartwheel hat could be mistaken for an hor d’oeuvres platter or a tiny landing pad. The hat was worn slightly askew for an eye-catching look and was often crafted from luxurious materials. But after catching on in the 1930s, the broad hats have since fallen out of fashion.