When President-Elect Rutherford B. Hayes raised his hand and took the oath of office on the East Portico of the Capitol on March 5, 1877, his supporters breathed a sigh of relief. The ceremony marked the end of a lengthy, acrimonious debate between his Republicans and the Democrats over the results of the previous year’s election. Some even believed the tension might threaten to spill over into another Civil War.

Democratic nominee Samuel Tilden had earned the popular vote, and 184 of the 185 votes he needed in the Electoral College. But allegations surfaced that Tilden’s seeming victory was thanks, in part, to voter intimidation and fraud in key states like Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. A special Congressional committee was formed to sift through the paper trail, leaving the outcome in doubt for months.

Hayes being sworn in ended all speculation. But only a handful of people observing the ceremony knew that the celebration taking place that Monday was merely for show: Hayes had been sworn in during a secret ceremony two days earlier, in the presence of outgoing president Ulysses S. Grant. And history still isn’t quite sure why.

In the years following the Civil War, Reconstruction and bitter feelings had created a state of discontent. For the 1876 election, both of the major political parties knew the country would be looking for a president who was tempered in his actions.

The Democrats sided with Samuel Tilden, who made his name as governor of New York by breaking up a corrupt political scene headed by “Boss” Tweed; Republicans backed Rutherford B. Hayes, a Civil War veteran and Ohio governor who was so moderate in every aspect of his life—he abstained from alcohol—that it would be virtually impossible for him to stir up any radical opposition.

Political pundits who predicted a tight race weren’t disappointed. As the results began trickling in on November 7, 1876, Democrats crowned Tilden as the victor, with a winning popular vote margin of 250,000. But four states—Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon—quickly became areas of contention. Democrats were plagued by allegations of intimidating newly empowered black voters to side with Tilden in three of those key territories; Democrats accused Republicans of foul play in Oregon.

Hayes needed 185 electoral votes. He had 184 to Hayes’s 165. Twenty electoral votes were in doubt. As the weeks went by, no one knew who the President-Elect was.

To break the logjam, Congress appointed a special Electoral Commission to investigate the results. Five Republican Congressmen joined five Democrats and five Supreme Court justices. It took them until February 1877 to come to a majority vote of 8-7 in favor of Hayes. He was President-Elect by one commission vote, possibly the narrowest margin of victory in any presidential election.

That decision did little to soothe the Democrats, who were incensed that their idea of the rightful winner was being denied his seat in the Oval Office. Extensive filibustering took place in the House that delayed acknowledgment of the commission’s decision. Rumors began to swirl that Tilden’s more ardent supporters might show up to Washington armed, with an eye on kidnapping Hayes so Tilden would be invited to take his place. One irate Tilden supporter shot a bullet into the window of Hayes’s home.

As Hayes and his wife, Lucy, began making the trip from Ohio to Washington, they had no idea if he was actually president. They were still traveling when they got the official announcement, which was made on March 2. The Democrats had finally ceded their point, albeit with concessions: They’d gain a Democrat postmaster general, as well as the removal of federal troops from government buildings, effectively ending Reconstruction.

When Hayes arrived in Washington on March 3, he was invited to dinner by outgoing president Ulysses S. Grant. At some point during the evening, Grant took Hayes to the Red Room in the White House and stood nearby as Supreme Court Justice Morrison B. White administered the oath of office. After the kidnapping rumors and the Democratic response, Grant may have desired a private and controlled inauguration that couldn’t be disrupted.

The two returned to dinner, their guests unaware of what had just taken place. As a result, March 3 was a day when the country had two commanders-in-chief.

Hayes had his official ceremony two days later. With Democrats appeased by the concessions, there were no disruptions. Still, Grant walked Hayes to the podium, protective of the President-Elect until his last moments as president were completed.

The U.S. Senate’s official reason for Hayes being sworn in early cites the calendar as the main issue. Inauguration day fell on a Sunday that year, and the Constitution contains no explicit protocol for what to do. To not swear in Hayes on Sunday and wait until Monday would technically mean the country would be without a president for a day. Dwight Eisenhower took similar dual oaths in 1957 for that reason.

But few elections had been as hotly contested as Hayes vs. Tilden, with the scars of the war still fresh. Grant may have seen potential for Democrats to disrupt the ceremony to the point where he felt it best to make Hayes’s appointment official as soon as possible. To delay might have meant Grant’s exit on March 4 would leave a void in office.

In the end, Hayes was as advertised, almost demure in his service—he and his wife even banned alcohol from the White House—and exited in 1881 just as quietly as he had come in.

It would’ve taken a true political historian to notice that his March 5 inauguration was a duplicate, but there was one clue for the observant. When Hayes arrived at the East Portico to be sworn in, he was sitting on the right of his carriage, a spot that was always reserved for just one person: the President of the United States.

Stand-up comedy is more than just telling jokes on stage. It’s an art, and one that requires skills honed over years of practice. The way comedians perform their material is far different from how you tell that funny tale at your work holiday party. So what makes a great joke work? The YouTube video series The Nerdwriter took a look at how a joke from Louis C.K. is constructed. Here are some of the most important parts of a joke and its delivery, and why the comedian is so effective, according to the video:

1. PREMISE

That’s what the joke is about. So Louis C.K. might be talking about playing Monopoly with his kids, and how his 6-year-old doesn’t really get it. That’s the premise. And if that premise has its own joke embedded within it—like when he references his daughter’s inability to grapple with her “inevitable loss in every game”—even better.

2. TIMING

A great comedian knows when people are going to react to a bit, and what to emphasize, when to pause, etc. Louis C.K. knows when to continue the joke, hammering home the punch line with another few sentences along the same lines. In his joke about Monopoly, he repeats the idea of him taking his kid’s play money three different times: “That’s mine now. Gotta give it all to me. Give it to me, that’s right.” And the laughs continue with him.

3. DRAMATIZATION

Louis C.K. is great at painting a mental picture of what he’s describing. He uses gestures to emphasize certain parts of the joke, like touching his hand to his heart when he tells the punch line.

4. BROADER COMMENTARY

At the heart of it, Louis C.K.’s joke about destroying his kid in Monopoly and taking all of her hard-earned play money away could be seen as a commentary on what happens every day to adults in the real world, who often lose out to corporate interests. If you think about how a 6-year-old feels about losing her Monopoly money, it’s also an analogue of what happens to, for instance, a family losing its house to a bank.

5. TIGHT CONSTRUCTION

Every word of a great comedian’s joke matters, either to the story or to the rhythm of the bit. It has to be distilled to its most potent, condensed version, or the audience will get bored. When a joke is written well, there shouldn’t be any extraneous content. And when it’s really on-point, that’s when the audience keeps on laughing at every sentence.

[h/t Digg]

Employees often take pains to avoid saying “no” to their bosses and end up sacrificing work-life balance to tackle a crushing workload. Adopting time-management tools can help, but if the quality of your work is suffering or you’re practically living at the office, it might be time for you to start turning down new assignments. Learn when—and how—to do so in the infographic below, created by business financing provider The Business Backer (and spotted by Entrepreneur).

[h/t Entrepreneur]

For all the patents that end up going nowhere, a much smaller amount are destined to become cultural icons. The Game Boy, the iPhone, and the Kindle are all such success stories, and the team behind Retro Patents has found a way to make art from their humble beginnings.

According to TechCrunch, the newly launched online store offers prints of classic patents. Gaming enthusiasts can purchase posters of the patents for the Nintendo 64 or the Sony PlayStation to hang above their consoles at home. For designs that are even more old-school, there are patents for a photographic camera from 1962 and one of IBM’s first computing machines from 1942. The selection also includes concepts for contemporary apps like Uber and Airbnb.

In addition to making for interesting artwork, the pieces are meant to provide inspiration. Craig Watson and Aidan Sliney founded the social music app Soundwave together before collaborating again on Retro Patents. Watson told TechCrunch:

“When we set up Soundwave, we were always looking for motivational art to decorate our homes and offices[…]We used to find early screenshots of successful startups (Instagram, Evernote etc) and print these out and laminate them by hand! It was a good way of reminding us that every great company started out with a basic idea and not to get bogged down in all the other distractions that often get in the way of scaling out a startup.”

Retro Patents is the duo’s way of sharing this inspiration tool with a wider audience. Prints come in two sizes—12-by-18-inches for $25 and 24-by-36-inches for $40—and can be purchased from the company’s website. If you’re hesitant to commit to a poster, Retro Patents also provides links to all the original patents for your browsing pleasure.

[h/t TechCrunch]

All images courtesy of Retro Patents.

Modern prisons don’t usually serve as tourist attractions, but Denmark’s Horsens State Prison, which closed in 2006, should probably be on your list. It’s now home to the Horsens Prison Museum, one of the largest prison museums in the world. (The facility also houses a concert venue, in case you need a side of Metallica with your crime-related history.)

If you can’t make it to Denmark, Expedia created an interactive tour to let you roam the museum virtually. Based on Google Street View, the virtual experience includes descriptions of important features embedded into the photos. It’s a good way to experience the difference between Scandinavian and American criminal justice.

Though the museum labels do describe historical punishments like solitary confinement (considered a form of torture by many experts, but still in use in the United States), the walls of the prison are a bright lime green, the lounges have flatscreen televisions, and the modern cells include desks and large windows. Some portions of the prison look more like a hostel, while others look like the typical multi-story penitentiaries you’d see in movies like 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption.

It’s pretty easy to get lost while trying to wander the virtual halls, but if you click around long enough, you’re sure to end up somewhere interesting. Or you’ll get stuck in the gift shop.