AOSU GM

As the International Space Station (ISS) has modules and operations in Russian, all astronauts going to the ISS must know how to speak Russian. Some astronauts have claimed that learning this new language was the biggest challenge of their training. According to the U.S. State Departm

They don't call it a "good cry" for nothing. Studies suggest that crying stimulates the production of endorphins, our body's natural painkiller, and feel-good hormones, like oxytocin. In short, crying more will ultimately lead to smiling more.

The blue whale is the largest living creature—it's even larger than most dinosaurs. The biggest blue whales can be over 100 feet in length and weigh more than 100 tons. Their hearts alone can weigh 1,300 pounds, and are the size of a small car. Unsurprisingly, blue whales have enormo

They say if it ain't broke, don't fix it—and that turned out to be the case for a very early design of the mousetrap. In the mid-1800s, inventor Colin Pullinger unveiled his Perpetual Mousetrap and claimed that it would last a lifetime

While most parents do what they can to prevent or stop their babies from crying, that's not always the case in Japan. That's because it's a 400-year-old Japanese tradition that if a sumo wrestler can make your baby cry, it means he or she will live a healthy life. During a special ceremony, parents hand over their infants to sumo wrestlers who bounce their precious tots up and down and sometimes even roar in their little fac

This handheld digital pet was seen everywhere in the latter part of the decade. Caring for digital pets eventually became so fashionable (and, well, sort of practical, at least in a training-for-a-real-pet purpose), that more than 76 million Tamagotchis were sold around the world during the '90s.

In 1999, when more than two million children in America owned at least one of these talking toys, the NSA declared the Furby an international threat and actually banned people from carrying them. According to CBS News, they were trying to prevent the Chinese government from installing secret listening devices into the Furbys that they were manufacturing at the time.

Before the days of streaming—and before even DVDs—viewers viewed their favorite films on clunky VHS tapes. (Who recalls the perils of rewinding?) During the VHS tapes' final days of popularity, Aladdin, undoubtedly one of the most popular films of the decade, sold a staggering $1,058,376,296 worth of VHS tapes.

In the late '90s and early '00s, the Backstreet Boys dominated the charts, ending the decade strong with their incredibly popular "Millennium" album, playing on nearly radio station in the country and outselling every other record that year with sales that topped 9,446,000.

Throughout the course of this sitcom's 11-season run, it won 48 Emmys and was nominated a record 117 times. When the popular show finally came to an end in 1993, 93 million tuned in to send off their favorite characters—a record-breaking number that would cement its place as the most popular television episode in the 1990s.

At the height of their popularity in 1994, pagers—now considered an entirely obsolete piece of technology—were used by 61 million people. Today, the only people you'll see using this vintage device are those working in the medical field

Before the days of lightning-speed Internet, users had to endure the painful process of connecting to the Internet through dial-up, a process that seemed to take forever. Just ask Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in You've Got Mail. ("F… O… X…")

n 1995, more than a third of the American population tuned in to catch the verdict in the incredibly dramatic court case involving former NFL running back O.J. Simpson, and the turn of events that led to the deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman. In the end (spoiler!), Simpson was acquitted of the murder charges

In 2002, VH1 dubbed "Macarena" the greatest one-hit wonder of all time—mostly because it's impossible to escape the song, no matter where you are. During the height of its popularity in the '90s (the song was released by Los del Río in 1993), the former U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, busted a few of his own Macarena moves at a

Throughout the 1990s, gas prices remained around $1.30 a gallon—though it is important to consider that the overall cost of living was also cheaper than it is today: compared to the average consumer expenditures in 2016, $57,311, consumers in 1995 spent an average of $32,26