THE English alphabet used to have extra letters that have been lost as centuries went by. While today our alphabet consists of 26 letters, the people of Middle Age Britain had an additional six ...

Magician Neil Henry was performing at a show, and his girlfriend in the audience. He downed a can of alphabet noodles, then invited her on stage to watch as he pulled the letters out of his mouth with ...

The Vault is Slate’s history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here. The strange 18th-century ...