Modern contact lenses are made of plastic, using various high-tech polymers that allow oxygen to flow through and reach the cornea. But that hasn’t always been the case: The first usable contact lenses were made of regular ol’ glass. 

The basic concept of contact lenses can be traced all the way back to Leonardo da Vinci, who described a method of vision correction that involved wearing a water-filled glass hemisphere over the eye. Though highly impractical, the concept was similar to a modern contact lens. Centuries later, in 1801, the British polymath Thomas Young created a contact lens prototype made of glass and filled with water based on another theoretical idea posited in 1637 by the philosopher and scientist René Descartes.

The first dual-lens eyeglasses were invented by a monk in 1158 CE.

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It’s hard to say who invented glasses, as the development of corrective lenses was a gradual progression rather than a single aha moment. Evidence of optical lens use dates back as far as the ancient world, while modern reading glasses were likely developed in 13th-century Italy.

The true breakthroughs began in the 1880s, when new glass production technologies allowed for more precise cutting and shaping, making thin lenses possible for the first time. In the same decade, glass contact lenses that actually allowed the wearer to blink were independently invented by Adolf Fick, Louis J. Girard, Eugene Kalt, and August Mueller, making it hard to pinpoint who gets the credit for producing the first practical — albeit imperfect — contact lenses. 

Those early glass contact lenses were far from ideal; they were heavy and uncomfortable, and being made of glass posed a major problem. Unlike other organs in our bodies, which are oxygenated by the blood, our eyes get their oxygen directly from the air — so covering them with glass suffocates them, causing severe eye pain after a few hours. 

Nonetheless, glass lenses were the only option for at least a half-century after their creation. The next great leap forward came in the 1930s, when inventors Theodore Obrig and William Feinbloom began developing plastic lenses made from acrylic resin. Eventually, plastic lenses, which were safer and could be worn for much longer without discomfort, consigned their glass ancestors to the annals of optical history.

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It seems there’s an unwritten rule that history best remembers the biggest names, with everyday people’s stories lost to time. But some historians believe that the first recorded name may have belonged to an average person who was likely an accountant. Discovered in what is now Iraq, a 5,000-year-old clay tablet that once recorded barley storage appears to be signed by “Kushim,” who archaeologists believe may have been responsible for counting the crop. Some historians say it’s not surprising to see the name of an ordinary person predate references to royalty, artisans, or ancient celebrities, though not all agree that “Kushim” is the oldest such record; a few researchers believe the name could have been a job title. Other tablets dated to around 3100 BCE — which list the names of two enslaved people and the enslaver — also compete for the record of the world’s oldest known names.

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger attended accounting school.

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The singer was enrolled at the London School of Economics before his musical break, studying finance and accounting during the week and playing gigs on the weekend.

The region where Kushim’s tablet was found is also credited as the birthplace of written language, which emerged around 3500 BCE. The earliest known writings were scrawled in pictographs — images used for a word or phrase that generally resembled their meaning. Eventually, writing systems used more and more abstract symbols, evolving into cuneiform, which represented a word’s spoken sound and meaning. Surviving tablets have allowed historians to piece together how communication evolved, along with clues about daily life for people who lived thousands of years ago. Some extant tablets have included recipes, receipts for boat rentals, and recorded court disputes, suggesting ancient Sumerians may have been just like us.

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After spending eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, and 35 seconds in space — with 21 of those hours spent on the moon — Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins splashed down 920 miles southwest of Hawaii. The three NASA astronauts had achieved the seemingly impossible on a mission that was the very definition of “otherworldly.” But once back on Earth, they were back in the clutches of human bureaucracy — because after they landed, the Apollo 11 heroes had to fill out a U.S. customs form. 

During the BBC’s broadcast of the Apollo 11 landing, Pink Floyd performed a seven-minute jam.

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Known for its spacey vibes, Pink Floyd provided the atmospheric and meandering 12-bar jam for Apollo 11’s historic landing. “There was a panel of scientists on one side of the studio, with us on the other,” guitarist David Gilmour wrote in 2009. “The song was called ‘Moonhead.’”

Later posted on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website in honor of the flight’s 40th anniversary in 2009, the straight-laced form belies the very unearthly information written on the page. Flight number? Apollo 11. Layover? Moon. Cargo? Moon rock and moon dust samples. Anything that could lead to the spread of disease? TBD. NASA has confirmed that the form is authentic, though one spokesperson described it as “a little joke” played on the astronauts upon their return. Today, astronauts still go through customs on their way to and from the International Space Station. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield described passing through customs in Kazakhstan — after glimpsing the entire world through a small window only hours before — as “a funny but necessary detail of returning to Earth.”

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The act of high-fiving a friend in celebration may seem like it’s been around forever, but in fact, the gesture originated even more recently than cellphones or email. Lacking any earlier reputable reports, the most widely accepted origin story goes as follows: The high-five was first used during a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros on October 2, 1977. After hitting his 30th home run of the season, left fielder Dusty Baker was greeted by his teammate Glenn Burke, who excitedly offered a raised hand to celebrate, which Baker then slapped in return. Burke then hit a home run of his own, and the pair repeated the motion. 

The players celebrated another homer hit three days later with their new gesture, and that moment was photographed by the Los Angeles Times, which ran the image on the front page of the October 6 edition with the caption “GIVE HIM A HAND.” It wasn’t until 1980 that the term “high-five” was definitively coined and began appearing in print, with its first such appearance in a March 25 Boston Globe article, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The thumbs-up is considered offensive in certain cultures.

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Despite its positive connotation in Western culture, the thumbs-up gesture is akin to giving the middle finger in other parts of the world. It remains taboo in parts of West Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Greece, and elsewhere, though younger generations may not consider it as offensive.

Another oft-cited report attributes the creation of the high-five to the 1978-1979 University of Louisville men’s basketball team. During practice, Wiley Brown offered his teammate Derek Smith a low-five — a knee-level gesture that was commonly used by African Americans as a symbol of unity. At that moment, as reported in The Week, Smith responded, “No. Up high,” thus giving literal rise to a new gesture. This was cited as the origin of the high-five in a New York Times article on September 1, 1980. However, this event postdates the Baker-Burke story, which makes the NYT’s claim suspect (assuming the reported timelines are indeed accurate).

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