Vladimir Komarov: The Cosmonaut Who Fell From Space

Nov 9, 2021

The year 1967 held special significance for Soviet Union—it was the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, as well as the 10th annivers...

Leonardo da Vinci’s Ostrich Egg Globe

Nov 8, 2021

If the first map to represent the American continent is that of Juan de la Cosa, made in the year 1500, and the first in which the name Amer...

How Air Raids in Britain Led to Shortage of Sausages in Germany

Nov 4, 2021

“It is far better to face the bullets than to be killed at home by a bomb,” proclaimed a British Army recruitment poster publicized during W...

Why Matchmaking Was a Dangerous Profession in The 19th Century

Nov 2, 2021

Before the invention of matches, making fire was a tedious business, so people often shared fires from already existing flames. Whenever a n...

Why Japan Made Human Sacrifices Before Building Bridges

Nov 1, 2021

Until the 16th century in Japan, major constructions like castles and bridges began with human sacrifices, with victims buried alive within ...

Arkadiko Bridge: The World’s Oldest Bridge

Oct 28, 2021

One of the oldest arch bridges still in use is the Arkadiko Bridge or Kazarma Bridge, located near the modern road from Tiryns to Epidauros ...

The 100 Ton TNT Test

Oct 28, 2021

By the spring of 1945, the United States had completed building the world’s first nuclear device, nicknamed The Gadget . It was an implosion...

One-Armed Versus One-Legged Cricket

Oct 27, 2021

In 1861, Charles Dickens reported, in his magazine All the Year Round , a rather eccentric cricket match being played at Peckham Rye in the ...

The Woman Who Was Hit by a Meteorite

Oct 26, 2021

At the Alabama Museum of Natural History located in the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, there is a small chunk of black space ro...

How Two Families Escaped East Germany in a Homemade Hot Air Balloon

Oct 22, 2021

At 2:40 a.m. on the morning of 15 September 1979, constables Walter Hamann and Rudolf Golkel of the Bavarian State Police were patrolling ...