The Olympic flame tradition was revived at the 1928 Amsterdam Games; the torch relay began at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

The word 'clue' originally referred to a ball of thread — in Greek mythology, Ariadne gave Theseus a thread to escape the labyrinth.

The first Olympic marathon winner, Spiridon Louis, was a Greek shepherd who had never trained formally.

The longest recorded rally in professional tennis lasted 643 shots in a match in 1984.

Extreme sports athlete Travis Pastrana became the first person to land a double backflip on a motorcycle at X Games 2006.

The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896 with 14 nations participating.

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s caused severe agricultural damage in the United States.

The Higgs boson, discovered in 2012, is the particle responsible for giving other particles their mass.

The Roman festival of Saturnalia — involving gift-giving, feasting, and role reversals — influenced Christmas traditions.