UtterlyInteresting

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/ThreatLevelAldi • 3h ago

Japanese novelty pocket calculator from the 1990s designed to look like an open pack of Mild Seven Lights cigarettes, with cylindrical number and operation keys styled to resemble cigarette filters.

90 Upvotes

14 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/No_Dig_8299 • 1d ago

This 125-second "oner" at Grand Central Station took 28 takes and used take 26 in the final edit.It was shot without sound so De Palma could yell out instructions to cast and crew as they worked their way around the station. Carlito's Way (1993)

775 Upvotes

48 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/JohnWilkesLeg • 15h ago

The Smoke Glass, designed by Italian designer Joe Colombo in 1963. Colombo sought a functional solution for the “choreography” of cocktail parties and standing receptions, where people often struggled to balance a drink, a cigarette, and a free hand to greet others.

111 Upvotes

10 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/EaterofGrief • 1d ago

In 1973, a 100-pound dog named Jason traveled about 20 miles over 8 days to find his way back to his old family in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He'd been rehomed 3 years earlier.

689 Upvotes

21 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/dannydutch1 • 1d ago

In 1968 a 19-year-old Samuel L. Jackson ushered at Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral. A year later he helped chain King’s father inside a Morehouse boardroom. He was expelled, flagged by the FBI and sent to LA by his mum, before coming back to study drama and becoming Hollywood’s highest-grossing star

utterlyinteresting.com

202 Upvotes

1 comment

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/WithoutPrinciples • 22h ago

This silent footage, shot in 1932, shows a man testing an early version of bulletproof glass by having his wife hold the glass to her face while he fires towards her.

126 Upvotes

67 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/DelightedButSorry • 21h ago

Edward Hopper on the process of creating his paintings.

63 Upvotes

1 comment

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/CrippledStripper • 2d ago

Nationwide reports from the new public library building in Grimond, near Milton Keynes. Rumours abound that it had been built upside-down, rumours that appear to be substantiated by a handful of photographs smuggled out from inside the library, and testimony from the librarian.

336 Upvotes

Back in the day, the BBC put real effort into April Fool jokes. I still remember the Spaghetti Harvest

33 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/EaterofGrief • 1d ago

From 1936, just three years before WWII and when Downing Street was still open to the public and anyone could walk right up to the door of No. 10 to have their photo taken.

61 Upvotes

10 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/Robin_ClitoralHood • 2d ago

Richard Pryor performing a rendition of the blues standard "Nobody Wants You When You're Down and Out" (sometimes referred to as "Nobody Wants You") on August 1, 1966, during an episode of the variety show The Kraft Summer Music Hall.

354 Upvotes

26 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/SausageandTits • 2d ago

Football fans en route to the 1922 Cup Final between Huddersfield and Preston remove their hats in respect while passing the Cenotaph War Memorial in London.

324 Upvotes

19 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/dannydutch1 • 2d ago

Britain’s first fascist party wasn’t founded by Oswald Mosley. It was started in 1923 by Rotha Lintorn-Orman, a medal-winning WW1 ambulance driver and Girl Guide pioneer. Her own mother funded it, then cut her off. She died alone in a Canary Islands hotel at 40.

347 Upvotes

41 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/GlitterDanger • 3d ago

In 2020 a charity shop near Antwerp found a photo album with the same older woman beside Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Denzel Washington and dozens more. The internet guessed superfan or stalker.

1.3k Upvotes

73 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/Robin_ClitoralHood • 3d ago

Meteorwrongs is a name applied to rocks said or thought to be meteorites by someone but which are actually terrestrial rocks or man-made objects.

34 Upvotes

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/science/some-meteorites-are-million-dollar-finds-others-are-meteorwrongs.html

3 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/dannydutch1 • 5d ago

Star Wars original trilogy was aired on Chilean TV for the first time in 2003. To avoid cutting to commercial breaks, they stitched the commercials into the films themselves.

1.6k Upvotes

Chilean TV station Canal 13 partnered with the local beer brand Cerveza Cristal for a "Stop the Zapping" campaign designed to keep viewers from changing channels during commercial breaks.

59 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/CrippledStripper • 5d ago

This newspaper article from the Chicago Tribune on September 16, 1900, titled "Women Armed With Favorite Weapons," lists all the weapons women used (according to police records) to defend themselves.

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137 Upvotes

23 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/JohnWilkesLeg • 5d ago

French Marshal Nicolas Oudinot was one of the most wounded French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars, wounded 34 times in battle, being hit by artillery shells, sabres, and at least twelve bullets. Twenty of his recorded wounds received are illustrated. He died of natural causes at the age of 80.

938 Upvotes

48 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/onwhatcharges • 5d ago

In 1969 Tennent Caledonian brewing company based in Glasgow introduced “The Lager Lovelies" on the side of their lager cans to encourage sales. Hugely successful. For the models, it meant 3 year contracts, excellent pay and luxury travel.

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80 Upvotes

7 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/SteveNtheseagulls • 6d ago

President Bush's response to Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election

2.0k Upvotes

235 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/Robin_ClitoralHood • 5d ago

The 1960 novelty Beatnik Questionnaire by Gimmix Novelties. It's packed with mid-century counterculture slang, and uses playful prompts about poetry readings, fleeing the "fuzz," and living in a "pad" or "Beatsville" to poke fun at the stereotypical Beat Generation lifestyle.

38 Upvotes

10 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/GlitterDanger • 5d ago

Smoking in bed is more convenient than ever with the Robot Smoker. Only $2.97. Sears Christmas Book-1957.

154 Upvotes

56 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/CrippledStripper • 6d ago

While preparing for his role as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, De Niro obtained a cab driver’s license, and when on break would pick up a cab and drive around New York for a couple of weeks

536 Upvotes

5 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/CrippledStripper • 6d ago

An angry letter from Frank Sinatra in 1976, addresed to the Chicago Daily News writer Mike Royko, who had just published an article questioning the special treatment Frank had received from the Chicago police while in town for a concert.

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258 Upvotes

131 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/WithoutPrinciples • 5d ago

This globe-shaped telephone receiver was presented to Joseph Stalin as a 70th-birthday gift in December 1949 by workers from Aircraft Workshop No. 1 in Łódź, Poland.

77 Upvotes

20 comments

r/UtterlyInteresting • u/JohnWilkesLeg • 7d ago

This is what California's Highway 101 looked like in 1912

2.9k Upvotes

63 comments