Costly Costume Party

During the Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16, 1773, patriots, dressed as Indians, dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The tea was valued at more than £10,000, which would now be worth about $1.8 million.

Charles H. Dow and Edward D. Jones worked together in 1876 as financial reporters for “The Providence Star.” In 1882, the two writers teamed up to create there own newspaper that would eventually be known as “The Wall Street Journal.” But the stock-watching duo remains best-known today for their creation of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It appeared in the journal as a daily feature, starting in October 1896.

In the region of Auvergne in France, legend has it that young men, recently returned from military service would walk along the country lanes, looking for the farmhouse that had the largest number of Gaperon cheeses drying on the windowsills. The number of Gaperons was directly correlated to the size of a farmer’s herd and thence a good indication of his wealth: the richer the farmer, the more desirable his daughter.

A 1980s survey of 70,000 homemakers found that vacuuming was America’s most popular housecleaning task while dusting and polishing took second place, followed in third place by washing clothes. The least-enjoyed task? Washing dishes.