6,788 articles
History of knitting
History of knitting: the looped-yarn textile technique, also called stocking knitting, traced from 12th-13th century Egyptian socks through European guilds, William Lee's 1589 stocking frame, and 19th-century mechanization to today's craft revival.
History of McDonald's
History of McDonald's: founded 1940 in San Bernardino by Richard and Maurice McDonald, franchised and expanded by Ray Kroc from 1955, bought out in 1961 for $2.7 million; now over 40,000 restaurants in 120+ countries serving about 70 million meals daily.
History of nudity
History of nudity: how societies treated the unclothed body. Covers Greek athletic nudity (after late 8th century BC), Roman modesty, Jewish ʿervā and Islamic ʿawra, the nude in Western art, and 20th-century naturism.
History of pizza
The history of pizza follows the dish from 18th-century Naples, where it was street food for the urban poor, to its global spread through Italian emigration and America.
History of sugar
History of sugar: how sucrose from sugarcane spread from South Asia through the Arab Mediterranean into Europe as a medieval medicine and spice, became the plantation commodity of the Atlantic slave trade, and a mass food after sugar beet.
History of sushi
History of sushi (寿司): from Southeast Asian fermented fish-and-rice preservation (narezushi) through vinegared hayazushi to Edo-period nigiri fast food by Hanaya Yohei (Bunsei era), then 1923 spread, 1939 counter shops, 1958 conveyor-belt sushi, and 2013 UNESCO washoku listing.
History of tattooing
History of tattooing: permanent skin marking documented for at least 5,000 years, from Ötzi the Iceman and Predynastic Egypt to Polynesian tatau, penal tattooing, and the 1891 electric tattoo machine.
History of tea
History of tea: how Camellia sinensis, originating in southwest China, spread from Han and Tang China and Lu Yu's Ch'a Ching to Japan, Europe, India, and a 35-country global industry.
History of tea in India
History of tea in India: from the 1820s discovery of indigenous Assam tea by Robert Bruce and the 1834 Tea Committee, through colonial plantations and indenture, to today's Tea Board-governed industry, the world's largest black tea producer.
History of the Armenian Church
The history of the Armenian Church spans Armenia's adoption of Christianity as state religion under King Trdat around 314 to the church's modern dispersed condition.
History of the bikini
The bikini, a two-piece swimsuit, was created in 1946 and became a symbol of the sexual revolution, evolving from a skimpy design to a staple of American fashion.
History of the British farthing
The British farthing was the smallest denomination of English and British coinage, worth one quarter of a penny, first struck as a coin in 1279 and withdrawn in 1961.
History of the hamburger
History of the hamburger: how Hamburg steak brought by German immigrants became an American sandwich in the 1880s-1890s, with competing claims (Louis' Lunch, Nagreen, Davis), the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, White Castle 1921, and McDonald's-led global spread.
History of the hippie movement
History of the hippie movement, also called the 1960s counterculture: a youth movement growing from the Beats, centered on Haight-Ashbury's Summer of Love, peaking at Woodstock, politicizing by 1970, and fading after 1973.
History of the kilt
History of the kilt: the Scottish Highland garment's development from the 16th-century belted plaid (feileadh mor) through the 18th-century little kilt, the 1747 proscription, George IV's 1822 visit, and modern reinvention.
History of the rupee
History of the rupee: South Asian currency family named from Sanskrit rupya, 'wrought silver'; begun with Sher Shah Suri's 1540s rupiya, uniform at 180 grains in 1835, decimalised mid-1950s, now fiat currencies of India, Pakistan, Nepal and others.
History of the tunic
The history of the tunic covers the closed, over-the-head garment that was the basic dress of men and women in antiquity and the European Middle Ages.
History of wine
History of wine: the record of grape winemaking from Neolithic Georgia (ca. 6000 BC, Gadachrili Gora) and Armenia's Areni-1 winery through Egypt, Greece, and Rome to today's OIV-tracked global sector.
Hitsumabushi
Hitsumabushi (ひつまぶし) is Nagoya's signature grilled eel rice dish: chopped kabayaki eel over rice in a wooden ohitsu, eaten in four ways, originating in the late Meiji era and trademarked by Atsuta Horaiken.
Hobble skirt
Hobble skirt: a woman's skirt cut so narrow below the knee that the wearer could only take mincing steps. Popularized by Paul Poiret in Paris around 1910–1914; hem under 36 inches, worn with leg tapes, slits, and tunics.
Hoegaarden Brewery
Hoegaarden Brewery (Brouwerij van Hoegaarden) is the Belgian AB InBev brewery whose witbier, revived by Pierre Celis in 1965–1966 after the last village brewery closed in 1957, restored the style of spiced white wheat beer; flagship beer is 4.9% ABV.
Hofbräuhaus am Platzl
Hofbräuhaus am Platzl (Staatliches Hofbräuhaus am Platzl), Munich's state-owned beer hall at Platzl 9, founded 1589 by Duke Wilhelm V, opened to the public 1828, rebuilt by Max Littmann 1897 and after wartime destruction by 1958.
Hogmanay
Hogmanay is the Scots word for New Year's Eve, 31 December, and the Scottish New Year celebrations, best known for first-footing and Edinburgh's festival, held since 1993.
Hoisin sauce (海鲜酱)
Hoisin sauce (海鲜酱, hǎixiān jiàng) is a thick, sweet-savory Cantonese condiment from Guangdong made of fermented soybeans, sugar, vinegar, garlic, and spices; despite its name meaning seafood, it contains none and stars with Peking duck, char siu, and pho.
Hōjicha (焙じ茶)
Hōjicha (焙じ茶, houjicha) is Japanese roasted green tea made by roasting bancha or sencha at about 170°C, giving pyrazine-based toasted aroma, low astringency, and 20 mg caffeine per 100 mL, distinct from unroasted bancha.
Holiday Baking Championship
Holiday Baking Championship is a Food Network holiday baking competition that premiered November 9, 2014, hosted since season 4 by Jesse Palmer, judged by Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller among others, with a $25,000 prize in recent seasons.
Hollandaise sauce
Hollandaise sauce is a warm French mother sauce, an oil-in-water emulsion of butter, egg yolk, and lemon juice or vinegar, served with eggs Benedict and asparagus; it breaks easily from overheating or cooling and is recovered by adding water.
Hollister Co.
Hollister Co. (HCo.), an American teen and young-adult clothing retailer founded by Abercrombie & Fitch in 2000, known for its Southern California surf branding, seagull logo, dark stores, Gilly Hicks line, and TikTok-led post-2023 turnaround.
Holly Hallstrom
Holly Anne Hallstrom (born 1952) is an American model and actress, a "Barker's Beauty" on The Price Is Right from 1977 to 1995. She was fired in 1995, ostensibly for weight gain, and fought Bob Barker in litigation settled in 2005.
Holodomor
Holodomor (Голодомор), the man-made famine of 1932–1933 in Soviet Ukraine under Stalin, caused by forced collectivization and grain requisition; killed at least 4 million; recognized as genocide by Ukraine, disputed internationally.