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THINGS

From shag carpet rakes and telephone cord detanglers to VHS rewinders and electric carving knives, revisit household products from the 1970s and 1980s that solved everyday problems we've almost completely forgotten.

THINGS

Walk into a 1960s American pharmacy and you would be able to buy a lot of things that would be unthinkable to see there today.

THINGS

For much of history, medicine had a basic problem: doctors could see symptoms long before they understood what caused them. That gap produced treatments based on humors, purging00 , counter-irritation, sedation, and the belief that a dramatic physical reaction meant something useful was happening. Some remedies occasionally relieved symptoms, but others added dehydration, infection, dependency, or physical injury to illnesses patients already had. Here are some of history’s clearest examples of medicine moving decisively in the wrong direction.

PEOPLE

Henry “Box” Brown found one of history's most unusual—and riskiest—paths to freedom from slavery.

PEOPLE

From NASA’s metric mix-up to forgotten ship doors and a 1.3-millimeter telescope error, discover the small mistakes that triggered enormous historical disasters.

PEOPLE

Heck Thomas built a legend as one of the most formidable lawmen of the American frontier—one bandit at a time.


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