The U.S. Civil War ended in 1865 after four grueling years of conflict, but the Confederacy’s surrender at Appomattox Court House didn’t instantly bring closure to a tattered nation. Instead, it marked the beginning of the laborious task of rebuilding a divided country, one that had more than 2 million newly minted veterans. Many were injured from battle or suffered war-related illnesses, and those who didn’t survive the war often left behind families with few ways to support themselves. As a solution to a growing health care and social crisis, the U.S. government created a pension system to financially aid Union soldiers and their widows for the rest of their lives. (Confederate soldiers did not qualify, though some Southern states funded their pensions.) By 1956, the last surviving Civil War veteran had died, but the Department of Veterans Affairs continued issuing pension payments for decades to come — up until 2020.

Only one female Civil War veteran received a pension for her service.

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Historians will never know how many women fought in the Civil War, since women were banned from enlisting — yet many assumed male identities and signed up anyway. Only one, Sarah Edmonds, successfully obtained a pension for her service. (By then, she had revealed her true identity.)

Irene Triplett, a 90-year-old North Carolina woman, was the last person to receive a Civil War pension, thanks to her father’s service in the Union Army. Mose Triplett was originally a Confederate soldier who deserted in 1863 and later joined a Union regiment, a move that kept him out of the fight at Gettysburg, where 90% of his former infantry was killed. Switching sides also guaranteed Mose a pension for the remainder of his life, which would later play a role in him remarrying after the death of his first wife. At age 78, Mose married the 27-year-old Elida Hall — a move historians say was common during the Great Depression, when aging veterans needing care could provide financial security to younger women. The couple had two children, including Irene, who was diagnosed with cognitive impairments that allowed her to qualify for her father’s pension after both parents’ deaths. By the time of Irene’s own passing in 2020, the U.S. government had held up its duty, paying out Mose Triplett’s pension for more than 100 years.

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For reasons that no one has been able to discern, the Earth has been spinning faster since roughly 2020, after decades of slowing down (starting in the mid-1970s). The vast majority of us won’t notice the effects, but scientists do — especially since that increase in speed resulted in August 5, 2025, being one of the shortest days ever recorded. 

That recent Tuesday was 1.25 milliseconds shorter than a usual day, which may seem infinitesimal, but is actually quite a landmark event. There’s a distinction between a solar day, which is how long it takes Earth to rotate on its axis relative to the sun (exactly 24 hours), and sidereal days, which are the planet’s true rotation period relative to distant stars (23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds); in this case, both were slightly shorter than usual.

A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.

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It takes Venus 243 days to complete a full rotation on its axis and 225 days to rotate around the sun, meaning one day on the planet is indeed longer than one year there.

Three other dates in 2025 were notably short: July 9 (1.23 milliseconds less than 24 hours), July 10 (1.36 milliseconds less), and July 22 (1.34 milliseconds less). The shortest day ever recorded was July 5, 2024, which was 1.66 milliseconds under the usual 24 hours. Short-term fluctuations in Earth’s rotation speed are caused by the moon’s gravitational effects on our humble planet, but the long-term increase in speed in recent years is less understood. Should it continue for four more years, however, a “leap second” may be subtracted from a single day in 2029.

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On Inauguration Day in 1913, mustachioed President William Howard Taft passed the presidential baton to clean-shaven Woodrow Wilson. What Taft couldn’t have known at the time was that his departure began a long streak of clean-shaven faces occupying the Oval Office. 

The New York Yankees ban beards on coaches and players.

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In 1973, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner noticed that his players’ hair was longer than he wished, so he created a policy that all players must have short hair and be clean-shaven (mustaches are allowed). The policy is still enforced, but a player can be exempt for religious reasons.

In fact, out of the 45 people who have served as president in U.S. history so far, only 13 have had any facial hair whatsoever. Although John Quincy Adams (the sixth president), Martin Van Buren (the eighth), and Zachary Taylor (the 12th) sported impressive mutton chops, the first serious presidential facial fuzz belonged to Abraham Lincoln — thanks to an 11-year-old girl whose 1860 letter convinced him to grow out his whiskers. After Lincoln, eight of the next 10 presidents sported some sort of facial hair.

The mid-to-late 19th century saw an explosion of beard-wearing in both Europe and America. Whether it was scientists such as Charles Darwin or poets like Walt Whitman, many influential men sported impressive beards, mustaches, or newly popular sideburns. The reasons for this sudden popularity are as varied as the styles of facial hair themselves: Scholars have argued that it might have been a reaction to first-wave feminism, or simply reflected the rise of romantic (or naturalistic) thought. In the early 20th century, facial hair suffered some serious PR issues as medical experts began to see it as unhygienic, and the introduction of the disposable razor in 1901 encouraged its demise. Although facial hair’s cultural fortunes have ebbed and flowed in the ensuing century, a fuzzy face has yet to return to the Oval Office.

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Three decades ago, Texas was facing an enormous problem: trash, as far as the eye could see, piled up along its scenic and city roadways. The cleanup was arduous and costly — by the mid-1980s, the Texas Department of Transportation (aka TxDOT) was spending nearly $20 million each year in rubbish removal along highways alone. To save money (and the environment), leaders of the Lone Star State knew they had to get trash under control, which they decided to do with a series of public service announcements. But little did TxDOT know that its cleanliness campaign would become larger than life. 

Plastic bottles are the most commonly littered item.

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While the number of U.S. smokers has reached an all-time low, cigarette butts remain the most common type of litter, making up about 20% of all trash. Because they’re made from plastic fibers, not paper, the filters can take 10 years to decompose — but can also be recycled.

The iconic line, dreamed up by an Austin-based ad agency, initially launched on bumper stickers deposited at truck stops and fast-food restaurants. The first “Don’t Mess With Texas” commercial, which aired at the 1986 Cotton Bowl, honed in on Texans’ love for their land, telling viewers that littering was not only a crime but “an insult” to the state’s landscape. The phrase — spoken in that first commercial by Dallas-born guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan amid a bluesy version of “The Eyes of Texas” — soon became a rallying cry for Texans. The spot was so popular that TV stations around the state received calls asking for it to be aired again. Within a year, TxDOT estimated that roadside litter had dropped by 29%. The ad campaign continued — featuring celebrities such as Willie Nelson, George Foreman, and LeAnn Rimes — and is credited with reducing highway trash by 72% in its first four years. The slogan has become only more popular over time, used at protests, declared by presidential candidates, and chanted at football games — all proof that state pride is held deep in the hearts of Texans.

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