Why fun-size Halloween candy exists

Plus: Etiquette and lessons for leaders |

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. SUBSCRIBE to TIME Magazine October 31, 2019 By Lily Rothman Happy Halloween! It should come as no surprise that Halloween, a holiday with centuries-old roots and traditions that have evolved over the decades, comes with plenty of history to unpack. This year, we took a look at medieval fascination with skeletons and the surprising story of how "fun-size" candy became a thing. And of course, not everyone celebrates, so we also examined how anti-Halloween backlash from Evangelical Christians picked up steam in the 1960s and during the decades that followed. Find other holiday reads at time.com/history, and here's more of the history that made news this week: HISTORY ON TIME.COM 10 Lessons From History About What Makes a Great Leader Historian Andrew Roberts on 10 great values that leaders need to have to thrive and succeed America's 'Public Charge' Immigration Rule During WWII The Nazis prohibited most German Jews from taking assets out of the country, which meant they would be potential public charges unless they had close relatives in the U.S. with ample resources The Surprising History Lesson in Emily Post's Etiquette A society's norms reflect the values it treasures, so manners manuals are a window into its ideals. What does Emily Post say about America? The Forgotten Women Who Shaped China in the 20th Century The Soong sisters had a huge impact on 20th century China, but their history was not well known — until now How the Meaning of the Crucifixion of Jesus Has Changed By 400 AD the cross was ceasing to be viewed as something shameful. Crucifixion had come to serve as an emblem of triumph over sin and death FROM THE TIME VAULT Today in 1960: Candidate Nixon “Republican party chieftains were staggered by the effect of the first debate. Knowing that Nixon had been a champion debater in high school and college, recalling his easy platform conquests in his California campaigns for House and Senate, Nixon men had confidently expected their man to give Kennedy a decisive trouncing. Nixon himself was less cocky. He had debated with Kennedy on a public platform back in 1947, when they were both freshman Congressmen, and recalled him as a tough antagonist. ‘Everyone expects me to wipe up the floor with this guy,’ Nixon said before the first debate. ‘But it's not going to be easy to do.’" (Oct. 31, 1960) Read the full story Today in 1955: Heart Disease “Long before President Eisenhower's attack, heart disease became a major American worry. Other diseases were being triumphantly conquered with wonder drugs and new surgical techniques, but one result of keeping people alive longer, it seemed, was to make all the surer that they would eventually have heart attacks. Heart-and-artery disease was pinpointed as the nation's No. 1 killer—with ample statistical reason. It now accounts for 800,000 deaths a year, half the U.S. total. To many foreign visitors, and some Americans, heart disease has become the typical American illness. ” (Oct. 31, 1955) Read the full story This Week in 1949: Industrial Design “As the biggest industrial designer in the U.S., Raymond Fernand Loewy, at 56, is the dominant figure in a field which in less than a quarter-century has mushroomed from a groping, uncertain experiment into a major phenomenon of U.S. business. Design has existed since man made the first wheel, but the Machine Age, concerned at first only with spewing forth its myriad products in increasing quantity, was slow in discovering the need for form." (Oct. 31, 1949) Read the full story HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB Personal History As the latest step in the New York Times 1619 Project, Nicole Phillip has compiled a moving collection of family stories from readers whose ancestors were enslaved. City Limits At Nature, Davide Castelvecchi has the story on the dispute that has scuttled, at least temporarily, a project meant to digitize records from the history of Venice—even though eight terabytes of information have already been gathered. Latin Lesson With the phrase “quid pro quo” so much in the news, NPR’s Rachel Martin talks to language expert Ben Zimmer about the evolution of the term. In Frame Farhana Haider at BBC News examines the photography of Moneta Sleet, the first African-American winner of the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Survey Course For the November issue of Smithsonian, Greg Miller has the gripping tale of the American mission to hunt down Nazi maps and geographic data during World War II. To Unsubscribe Unsubscribe here if you do not want to receive this newsletter. Update Email Click here to update your email address. Privacy Policy Please read our Privacy Policy. TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. 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