By 1936, basketball was so popular around the world that it became an Olympic sport. NTB

One day a spring fell from the desk of Richard James, an engineer and a dreamer.  Its coils took a walk...and so did Richard’s imagination.  NTB

In the 1890s no one in the United States made milk chocolate. It was a luxury imported from Switzerland and sold in fancy stores. Most Americans couldn’t afford it until Milton Hershey came along. NTB 

Press Box: Women and Children Not Admitted…so read the press pass that Miss Garber had to wear as a reporter at sporting events.  It was embarrassing, even insulting, but in the 1940’s, sports was a man’s world. NTB

Every day brought a challenge for young Lonnie Johnson—the challenge of finding space for his stuff.  Six Johnson kids were squeezed into their parents’ small house in Mobile, Alabama. He would have loved a workshop of his own, but there just wasn’t room. NTB

For fifty-eight days and nights, Beach’s men tunneled beneath cobblestones, sewers, and pipes. . .until one night the workers ran straight into a stone wall. NTB

The Komodo dragon can weigh more than 300 pounds. It has dangling saliva that drips with venom and bacteria. Its bite can cause blood loss, shock, and infection. NTB 

These bizarre fish are made of a gelatinous goo, which is less dense than water.  This allows them to lazily drift through the ocean like bloated pink balloons.  NTB 

Abe lived on the frontier and received less than one year of schooling.  John attended elite boarding schools and had private tutors.  NTB