Past minutes
Previously published Curious Minute questions, answers, and context.
The answer page publishes after the day closes. Start with today's live question, then come back for the deeper dive.
One new question tomorrow morning. No spoilers.
What did Nintendo's founder begin manufacturing in 1889?
In what year did the United States introduce the five-digit ZIP Code?
What product became the first item scanned with a UPC at a supermarket checkout?
What causes the Eiffel Tower to become slightly taller in warm weather?
Which president signed the Social Security Act into law in 1935?
What color typically appears around the Sun during a Martian sunset?
How many water jumps are included in a standard 3,000-meter steeplechase?
Which Great Lake lies entirely within the United States?
Whose bequest supplied the funds used to establish the Smithsonian Institution?
Which character fronts America's longest-running public-service advertising campaign?
Which marine mammal may live for more than 200 years?
Which decoration did George Washington establish in 1782 and was later revived as the Purple Heart?
Which voting barrier did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaw?
What is the official marathon distance?
What was the original mission of the cutters that became the earliest predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard?
Which vessel became the first to reach the geographic North Pole?
Why is potassium represented by the chemical symbol K?
Which animal is the largest known to have ever lived?
Which Apollo mission was the first to use a lunar rover?
Which former U.S. president received Medicare card number one in 1965?
Which federal aeronautics organization became the foundation for NASA in 1958?
How many hearts does an octopus have?
What color is a polar bear's skin beneath its fur?
What is the grooved edge found on many U.S. dimes and quarters called?
Which mammal is covered in overlapping scales and curls into a ball when threatened?
Which Shoshone woman appears on the golden U.S. dollar coin first issued in 2000?
Which country has more surviving ancient pyramids than Egypt?
What was the name of the Lockheed Vega airplane Wiley Post flew around the world solo in 1933?
Which Tennessee teacher was convicted in 1925 for teaching evolution in the trial often nicknamed the Monkey Trial?
Which city hosted the first International Special Olympics Summer Games on July 20, 1968?
Which 1848 gathering in New York is widely remembered as the first women's rights convention in the United States?
What document served as the United States' first constitution before the current Constitution took effect?
Which theme park opened in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955, after Walt Disney dedicated it on live television?
Which Apollo mission launched on July 16, 1969, and became the first to land humans on the Moon?
Which scale rates hurricanes from Category 1 to Category 5 based only on maximum sustained wind speed?
Which Paris fortress-prison was stormed on July 14, 1789, becoming a symbol of the French Revolution?
In Yosemite National Park, what is the name of the iconic granite formation that rises more than 3,000 feet above its meadow?
Which powerful Atlantic current carries warm water northward along the eastern U.S. coast and toward Europe?
What was the name of the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957?
Which NASA space telescope, launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, is still observing the universe from Earth orbit?
Which toy line launched in 1982 featured heroes battling Cobra?
What does the "QR" in QR code stand for?
Who is most famously associated with the phrase "taxation without representation is tyranny"?
What is the boundary around a black hole beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape?
Which amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery?
What toy introduced in 1960 uses two knobs to draw on a screen that you erase by shaking?
What name is given to the 1908 Siberian explosion that flattened forests without leaving a large impact crater?
What was the name of the handheld electronic game released by Nintendo in 1989 that became the best-selling portable console of its era?
Which ancient civilization built Machu Picchu, the citadel perched high in the Andes Mountains of Peru?
Which Sony music-player brand began as a stereo adaptation of the Pressman recorder?