The Origin Story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: How a 1939 Marketing Gimmick Launched a Beloved Christmas Character

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It’s time to for­get near­ly every­thing you know about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Rein­deer…at least as estab­lished by the 1964 Rankin/Bass stop motion ani­mat­ed tele­vi­sion spe­cial.

You can hang onto the source of Rudolph’s shame and even­tu­al tri­umph — the glow­ing red nose that got him bounced from his play­mates’ rein­deer games before…

The Ten Earliest Depictions of Jesus: How Art Visualized Jesus in the First Centuries After His Death

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Jesus Christ: as soon as you hear those words, assum­ing they’re not being used exclam­a­to­ri­ly, you see a face. In almost all cas­es, that face is beard­ed and framed by long brown hair. Usu­al­ly it has strong, some­what sharp fea­tures and an expres­sion of benev­o­lence, patience, faint expectan­cy, or (depend­ing on the rel­e­vant Chris­t­ian tra­di­tion)…

101 Hidden Gems: The Greatest Films You’ve Never Seen

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Last year, the British Film Insti­tute’s Sight and Sound mag­a­zine con­duct­ed its once-a-decade poll to deter­mine the great­est films of all time. As usu­al, the results were divid­ed into two sec­tions: one for the crit­ics’ votes, and the oth­er for the film­mak­ers’. The lat­ter put Stan­ley Kubrick­’s 2001: A Space Odyssey…

What the Romans Saw When They Reached New Parts of the World: Hear First-Hand Accounts by Appian, Pliny, Tacitus & Other Ancient Historians

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If you real­ly want to impress your fam­i­ly, friends, and social-media fol­low­ing with your next voy­age abroad, con­sid­er book­ing a trip to Thule. But where, exact­ly, is it? It could be Ice­land or Green­land with­in the Orkney arch­i­pel­ago of north­ern Scot­land; it could be the Eston­ian island of Saare­maa; it could be the Nor­we­gian island…

Winston Churchill Gets a Doctor’s Note to Drink Unlimited Alcohol While Visiting the U.S. During Prohibition (1932)

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In Decem­ber 1931, hav­ing just embarked on a 40-stop lec­ture tour of the Unit­ed States, Win­ston Churchill was run­ning late to dine with financier Bernard Baruch on New York City’s Upper East Side. He hadn’t both­ered to bring Baruch’s address, oper­at­ing under the incor­rect assump­tion that his friend was so dis­tin­guished…