Today in 1999, a news report about how Norm Michael was drafted by the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles. The catch? He'd been drafted in 1944. Plus: a new musical instrument Stacco uses marbles, magnets, a drum-like surface and artificial intelligence.

This day in sports history: The player who didn’t know he’d been drafted for 50 years (Yahoo! Sports) 

musical instrument ‘stacco’ produces chimes and sounds by moving magnetic marbles on it (designboom)

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Today in 1890, the birthday of Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder and public face of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and who, for a while, was also a pretty big critic of the fast food brand he started. Plus: back in 2020, KFC announced a movie featuring Mario Lopez playing the Colonel?!?

Colonel Sanders Once Competed Against KFC And Got Sued (Tasting Table)

Mario Lopez will play Colonel Sanders in KFC-Lifetime original movie ‘A Recipe for Seduction’ (FOX 2 Now)

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Today in 1919, the birthday of Wilson Greatbatch, who made implantable pacemakers a reality for millions of patients. A pretty big legacy for a guy who considered himself a “humble tinkerer.” Plus: today in 1954, a report on a guy who was supposed to a defend a beer drinking title but first had business to attend to at another bar.

Wilson Greatbatch (National Science and Technology Medals Foundation) 

Miscellany, Sep. 6, 1954 (TIME)

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This month in 1966, an extraordinary rescue of a group of students who had gotten stranded on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean and managed to live there successfully for over a year. Plus: starting this Saturday on Easdale Island in Scotland, it’s the World Stone Skimming Championships.

A real life Lord of the Flies: The 50-year-old story of a group of teens stranded on an island (CBS News)

The World Stone Skimming Championships 

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For decades Gerber has been the biggest name in baby food. In 1974, the company tried offering a line of ready-to-eat foods in glass jars for adults... which maybe didn't go so well. Plus: starting this Friday in Pennsylvania, it’s the Bowers Chile Pepper Festival.

Baby food for adults was just as sad as it sounds (The Hustle)

Bowers Chile Pepper Festival 

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Today in 1877, the birthday of Charles Downing Lay. He won the first American medal at the 1936 Olympics, for…. town planning? Plus: starting this Friday, it’s the South Carolina Apple Festival.

And the Medal Goes To... (Brooklyn Public Library)

South Carolina Apple Festival 

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For this Labor Day holiday we thought we should pay tribute to what may have been the strangest ways to make a living in its time: the so-called "department store scapegoat" who was kept on staff to be "fired" from time to time. Plus: today in 1903, Scott Perky applied for a patent for a bidirectional typeface.

Fact-Checking Steve Jobs: Was “The Customer Is Always Right” Really Coined by a Customer? (Slate)

Scott Perky’s Bi-Directional Text (Weird Universe)

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This week we’re replaying some of our favorite shows about planets and stars and galaxies and the people who have studied them. In this episode from May 2020, the story of an important if not technically perfect image: the first picture ever taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. Plus: an Irish bee enthusiast spends time at home building a beehive out of LEGO.

How Fixing the Hubble Spacecraft Works (How Stuff Works)

30 years of Hubble: Three decades of space wonder began with an underwhelming image that proved extremely important (Independent UK)

Un-bee-lievable! Beekeeper builds fully functioning beehive entirely out of LEGOs (Fox 6 Now)

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This week we’re replaying some of our favorite shows about planets and stars and galaxies and the people who have studied them. In this episode from July 2019, we look at one of the most prominent July 4th events before American independence, an astronomical event in 11th Century China. Plus: Oatman, Arizona's Sidewalk Egg Frying Challenge offers a different kind of July 4th celebration.

Supernova 1054 – Creation of the Crab Nebula (SEDS)

Sidewalk Egg Frying Challenge in Oatman, Arizona

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This week we’re replaying some of our favorite shows about planets and stars and galaxies and the people who have studied them. In this episode from November 2020, Cincinnati dedicates an observatory that was open to the public, the first of its kind in the U.S., one called the “birthplace of American astronomy.”

How Cincinnati became the ‘Birthplace of American Astronomy’ (Cincinnati Enquirer)

See Meteor Showers, a Lunar Eclipse & Bright Planets Throughout November (Thrillist)

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