We’re wrapping up our theme week on 5 People Who Shaped Christmas! Today we’re talking about Robert L. May, who is best known for creating Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer! He was working as a copywriter at

We’re continuing our theme week on 5 People Who Shaped Christmas! Today we’re talking about another author, an American this time – Washington Irving. He’s best known for his short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But

We’re halfway through our theme week on 5 People Who Shaped Christmas! Today we’re talking about Charles Dickens and his story A Christmas Carol, first published in 1843. This wasn’t his first Christmas story, but Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to

We’re continuing our theme week on 5 People Who Shaped Christmas. Today we’re talking about Thomas Nast, who is best known for his political cartoons, but is also responsible for giving us our modern image of Santa Claus!

That’s right, it’s back to back theme weeks on the Wiki Corner! With Christmas next week, we’re doing another festive theme week, this time on 5 People who Shaped Christmas!  We’re kicking it off with Queen Charlotte. She

We’re wrapping up our theme week on Christmas Firsts today. Before the 19th century, Santa had no reindeer! That all changed with the publication of Clement C. Moore’s 1823 poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas, also known as Twas the

We continue our theme week on Christmas Firsts today with the first televised Yule Log! It was first broadcast on New York City TV station WPIX on Christmas Eve 1966. Station president and CEO Fred Thrower was inspired to

We’re halfway through our Christmas Firsts theme week! Today we’re talking about the first White House Christmas tree, which was placed in the second floor Oval Room in 1889, during the Benjamin Harrison administration. Before this, White House Christmases

We’re continuing our theme week on Christmas Firsts! Today we’re talking about the first Christmas song to hit the top of the Billboard singles chart, “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)”. It was written and recorded by

We’re kicking off a theme week on Christmas Firsts! Today we’re talking about the first Christmas card. The first commercially available card was commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843. Cole received stacks of holiday

For the first time since it was nearly destroyed by a fire in 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is set to reopen tomorrow! Notre Dame is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture,

Happy Throwback Thursday! Our throwback year this week is 1979, the year This Old House premiered on PBS! It was one of the original home improvement shows on national TV and is now in its 45th season. It began

The iconic Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be lit tonight in New York City. This year’s tree is a 74-foot tall fir from West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the first tree from that state since 1959! It’ll be lit

On this day in 1818, Illinois became our 21st state! Indigenous cultures lived in present-day Illinois for centuries before French explorers arrived in the 17th century. The opening of the Erie Canal brought an increase in commercial

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, we had a coyote hanging around our neighborhood. So of course, I went straight to Wikipedia to find out how concerned I should be about it. It turns out we have 20,000-30,000

We’ve come to the end of our mini theme week on Thanksgiving dinner. So far, we’ve talked about the main dish and a side, so today we’re talking about everyone’s favorite Thanksgiving dessert – pumpkin pie! It

We’re right in the middle of our mini-theme week all about Thanksgiving Dinner! We talked about the main course yesterday, so today we’re talking about a divisive Thanksgiving side – cranberry sauce! According to numerous surveys, cranberry

We’re kicking off a mini theme week all about Thanksgiving Dinner! We’re starting with the star of the show – the turkey! An estimated 46 million turkeys are eaten each year for Thanksgiving. However, it’s very unlikely

Happy Throwback Thursday! Today our throwback year is 1987. One of the biggest movies that year was Dirty Dancing! The movie is largely based on screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein’s own childhood. It had a relatively low budget of $5 million

101 years ago today, Garrett Morgan from Cleveland, Ohio was granted a patent for his three-position light signal. It wasn’t the first traffic signal (one had been installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London in 1868),

On this day in 1620, pilgrims aboard the Mayflower finally spot land in present-day Cape Cod. After 10 weeks at sea, the ship dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, in what is now Provincetown Harbor.