Today in 1959, Alaska became the 49th state in the Union. It’s unique in so many ways, like how a large part of one Alaskan community lives in a single 14 story building. Plus: a town in Romania is offering free bus passes to those who do a little exercise.

Begich Towers, home to about half the population of Whittier, gets a much-needed overhaul (Anchorage Daily News)

Can You Get a Free Bus Ticket by Doing 20 Squats in Romania? (Snopes)

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For the first six days of the year in a small city in Ecuador, it's the Diablada de Píllaro, with people dancing in the streets in very colorful devil costumes. Plus: the website CryOnceAWeek.com wants to help you feel better by getting the tears flowing.

Dancing With Devils: Latin American Mask Traditions (Ohio State University Libraries)

In Píllaro, the Year Begins with Dancing Devils (Neatorama)

cry once a week

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You may know about Pisa's world-famous leaning tower, but the city of Bologna has one too - and officials are planning to spend some big money to keep it from leaning too far and falling over. Plus: a year marks one Earth trip around the Sun. But then there's the Great Year or Platonic Year, which is... a whole lot more. 

‘Leaning tower’ in Italy on ‘high alert’ for collapse (CNN)

The Platonic Year (Oxford University Press)

Each year New York City hosts huge crowds hoping to see the famous ball drop. But once the giant party is done and the revelers have headed home, the giant cleanup effort begins. Plus: the story of an Alabama man who quietly helped his neighbors in need for years.

HOW DOES NYC CLEAN UP AFTER THE NEW YEAR'S EVE BALL DROP IN TIMES SQUARE? (Untapped New York)

Farmer dies; town learns he secretly paid strangers’ pharmacy bills (Washington Post)

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This is our very last episode of 2023, so we’re telling the story of the final stop in our 26 letter alphabet: here’s where Z came from. Plus: the oldest known developed photo has been developed, but there's still a lot of mystery around it.

Why Was Z Once Removed From The Alphabet? (Dictionary.com)

Why Do Americans Say “Zee” but the British Say “Zed”? (Readers Digest)

World’s Oldest Known Photo to Ever Be Developed Reveals Two Mysterious Figures (My Modern Met)

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If this time of year is a little too drab and grey for your tastes, head to Puerto Rico’s northern coast for Festival de las Máscaras de Hatillo: the Festival of Masks. Plus: today in 1894, the birth of Burnita Matthews, the first woman to serve as a federal district judge in the US. In 1919 she managed to make silence speak volumes.

Festival de las Máscaras de Hatillo (Discovering Puerto Rico) 

Burnita S. Matthews Dies at 93; First Woman on U.S. Trial Courts (New York Times)

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Today in 1935, a military mission you sure don’t see every day: at the direction of then-Lieutenant Colonel George S. Patton, American planes carried out a series of bombing runs in Hawaii to stop a volcano. Plus: this week in 2015, Vogue Magazine published a correction for the record books.

27 December 1935 (This Day In Aviation)

Miscues That Made News (Robert Rector on Blogspot) 

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Today in 2004, a 10 year old managed to save a lot of people from a massive tsunami because she remembered a lesson she’d learned in school about what happens right before a tsunami hits. Good thing she was listening. Plus: Asheville, NC's Omni Grove Park Inn is displaying the very fancy entries from the 32nd Annual National Gingerbread House Competition. 

How Paying Attention in Elementary School Can Save Lives (Now I Know)

THE NATIONAL GINGERBREAD HOUSE COMPETITION DISPLAY (Omni Hotels)

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Santa Claus may be the man with the bag in the US today, but in other parts of the world there are some very different gift givers. We'll ride with a few of them to celebrate the many ways people celebrate December 25. Merry Christmas!

Around the world, kids’ Christmas gifts include KFC, books and ‘pooping logs’  (CNN)

Christmas gift-bringers of Europe (JakubMarian.com)

Winter is officially here in the Northern Hemisphere. If it doesn't feel like it yet, grab a snow globe - we'll tell you how they got their start. Plus: in Newburgh in Fife, Scotland, they turn sketches by local kids into a set of holiday light sculptures.

Was the Snow Globe Invented by Accident? (Snopes)

A Scottish Town’s Annual Competition Invites Its Youngest Artists to Design ‘Wonky’ Holiday Lights (Colossal) 

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