Today is Presidents Day (also known as Washington's Birthday, though the founding father was actually born Feb. 22). In addition to hopefully enjoying a day off of work for the federal holiday, take this opportunity to learn more about U.S. history by reading a roundup of surprising facts about every U.S. president. Who knew Martin Van Buren's first language was Dutch?
Must Reads
Think you want to exercise like an Olympian? Read this first
Teen Reimagines Emergency Shelter Through the Art of Origami
Miles Wu
When 14-year-old origami enthusiast Miles Wu saw headlines about 2024's Hurricane Helene and the wildfires in Southern California last year, a compelling idea started to unfold in his mind. "I thought maybe these origami patterns, which are strong and collapsible, could be used as emergency shelters in these natural disasters — kind of like a tent," the New York City teen recently told SmithsonianMagazine. This thought set Wu off on a lengthy project testing different folds and patterns to find shapes that were strong enough to withstand elements in emergencies while still being compact, affordable, and easily deployable. He focused on the Miura-ori pattern, and after 108 trials in his family's living room using heavy books and weights to test the paper's strength, he created a design that can hold more than 10,000 times its own weight. "I was really shocked by how much [weight] these simple pieces of paper could hold," Wu said. As were the judges for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, hosted by Society for Science. In the fall, Wu earned the top prize of $25,000 in the prestigious STEM competition for his rigorous and thoughtful design. "I just think it's just really wonderful to take the centuries-old art form of origami and use that in our everyday engineering," said Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of Society for Science. Looking ahead, Wu plans to develop an actual emergency shelter prototype and explore how origami could be useful in other scenarios as well. See photos of his design.
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Mary Ball Washington, George's Single Mother, Often Gets Overlooked — But She's Well Worth Saluting
Stock Montage/Archive Photos—Getty Images
This article was written by Martha Saxton, a professor emerita of history and sexuality, women's and gender studies at Amherst College, for The Conversation. It is important and poignant to recall the hard life of Mary Ball Washington, who struggled — mostly alone — to raise our founding father. Historians have left us with inaccurate and mostly unpleasant accounts of her long and laborious years. After George Washington's death, historians canonized him and his mother, too. But unlike George's enduring sainthood, praise for Mary was short-lived. In the late 19th century, George's biographers began interpreting the few shreds of evidence about Mary — almost all of it from George — to mean that she was overprotective, possessive, and greedy. By the 1950s she had become, in the word of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, a termagant, an ill-tempered shrew. The author, James Flexner, created a portrait of Mary as a woman insatiably hungry for money that she didn't need, and intent on keeping George by her side. Other nasty myths still circulate alongside these: that she was illiterate, pipe-smoking, uncouth, and slovenly. These poisonous portraits bear little resemblance to the industrious, worried, frugal, devoted, and self-reliant woman who emerges from my research as a professor of history and women's studies. In honor of Presidents Day, learn about how Mary's challenging life was very different from the myths that grew up around her.
Culture
Pet Parents Survey Points to How Much They Love (and Spend on) Their Furry Friends
Nevena1987/iStock
A look at the comments section of many an adorable dog or cat video will tell you that "there's no such thing as spoiled" when it comes to pets — and some new stats are backing that up. In a survey of 2,000 pet owners, 65% said they'd make budget cuts to their own lifestyles before interfering with their furry friends.' Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of MetLife Pet Insurance, the annual survey of U.S. dog and cat owners revealed that they spared no expense, splurging on high-quality food (66%), new toys (40%), and grooming sessions (24%). But you can't put a price tag on love: 85% of respondents said their pet was their main source of happiness throughout 2025. Thinking back on the year, pet parents recalled their companions being around through tough times like financial struggles (31%), mental health challenges (30%), and losing a loved one (24%). And 91% said their pet gives them something positive to focus on when things aren't going their way. Read more about the survey results.
In Other News
A massive star may have transformed into a black hole right before astronomers' eyes (read more)
An all-expenses-paid trip to Patagonia is up for grabs for 10 volunteers — find out how to apply (read more)
About20 bee species were photographed alive for the first time, thanks to a woman's pollinator project (read more)
Meet the model set to make history as the oldest contestant to compete in Miss Universe Australia (read more)
New baby news: An endangered (and adorable) white monkey was born at the U.K.'s Paignton Zoo (read more)
Inspiring Story
How romantic
This is a clutch-your-heart type of story. Over 200 letters were found in a Nashville home, chronicling a couple's courtship and eventual marriage during World War II. The love notes between William Raymond Whittaker and Jane Dean are now on display at the Nashville Public Library. One reads: "Darling you'll never know how much I love you. The only regret is that we didn't marry years ago ... As it is now things are so uncertain and we are not together but such a few happy hours. But maybe this old war will soon be over and we can be together for always." Swoon.
Eyes on Milano Cortina
Robert Michael—picture alliance/Getty Images
If you've been watching the Olympics, you've probably seen a fair share of athletes sliding down the same icy track at ridiculously fast speeds. We're talking about luge, skeleton, and bobsled. And while it can be hard to distinguish the nuances between the three sports, they're actually very different when it comes to sled design, team setup, and postures. Get the rundown here, and tune into the Games between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. ET today to catch women's bobsledding.
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