history

Washington first took the oath of office of the president of the United States with just one natural tooth remaining.

Was this a moment when humans interbred with Neanderthals?

Take a look at the Times Square Totem, the Trafalgar Square Pyramid, and other landmarks that were never built.

After it became clear that the world wasn’t 6,000 years old, some proposed that northern peoples had emerged independently from others.

Long before the Wordle mania, there was the crossword puzzle craze. And newspapers around the world condemned them as an “invasive weed” that caused mental illnesses and even murder.

A study proposes that an ancient trading network, called the Hopewell tradition, may have been wiped out by what is known as a cosmic airburst.

One god stands for order, logic, and reason. The other stands for chaos, madness, and drunkenness. Nietzsche thinks you need both.

The quadratic formula isn’t just something that teachers use to torture algebra students. The Babylonians once used it to calculate taxes.

The ten greatest ideas in science form the bedrock of modern biology, chemistry, and physics. Everyone should be familiar with them.

America’s war in Southeast Asia is fading fast from memory. These maps offer a horrific reminder.

There are good historical reasons why Germans are suspicious of surveillance.

Historically, periods of mass flourishing are underpinned by technological revolutions. Currently, we are undergoing a technological revolution unlike anything the world has ever seen.

Although saying the wrong thing could often get you killed in ancient civilizations, history shows that the ideal of free speech has deep roots.

When Saint Ambrose of Milan was venerated, his life became public property, its meaning expanding with the unique interpretations of each new generation.

With this unique opportunity to create a totally new world, why does the metaverse already feature such old-world concepts?

Many first-hand accounts from the golden age of piracy were grossly embellished, meaning it’s extremely difficult to separate Blackbeard the legend from Edward Thatch the person.

Einstein’s theories of relativity faced fierce opposition. One critic claimed he was attempting to subvert the scientific method.

One hundred years ago, a Ukrainian flag flew over Vladivostok and other parts of the “Russian” Far East.

For a long time, important events could only be visualized retroactively through paintings. Photography allowed us to capture history as — or sometimes even before — it happened. 

A new analysis of an ancient hominin fossil sheds light on the “Out of Africa” dispersal events that occurred more than one million years ago.

From physics and alchemy to theology and eschatology, Isaac Newton’s research was rooted in a personal pursuit of the Divine.

Is hope more realistic than despair? Aquinas thinks so.

Math offers good evidence that humans can solve any problem — as long as there’s money in it.

Ages 30 to 45 are now “the rush hour of life.”

The Siege of Leningrad lasted over two years and claimed nearly a million lives. It also inspired writers to record the bleak conditions in which they lived.

Behind the scenes, Hitler had at least three disastrous relationships, including a short-lived marriage.

Solitude, by itself, does not predict feelings of loneliness.

Despite losing most of his extended family to the guillotine, Tocqueville grew up to become a fervent supporter of democratic revolution.

Since Ukraine originally meant “borderland,” the territory was already a target for several kingdoms.

The most feared sexually transmitted disease (STD) of the last half-millennium was usually named after foreigners, often the French.