history

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

Non-Western thought is vast and ancient, so why don’t some consider it philosophy?

Admit it: you have no idea why a group of crows is called a murder. Here’s why.

Once numbering just 27 birds, the global population of California condors is now in the hundreds.

Stockholm Syndrome is the most famous of 10 psychological disorders named after world cities. Most relate to tourism or hostage-taking.

It has been 50 years since an American has claimed the title of World Chess Champion. Will it ever happen again?

We are generally taught that there is an arc of history — an inevitable path of progress that leads to modern society. Maybe it isn’t true.

It is time to give the Russian cosmologist the credit he deserves.

For the fewer than 50 people with this blood type, finding a blood transfusion could be extremely difficult.

A study describes how researchers conducted the first successful DNA sequencing on ancient Egyptian mummies.

It started with a 22-year-old woman, named in papers only as Mrs McK.

Death is the great and terrifying unknown, awaiting us all at the end of this life. Giving it a personality makes it easier to gaze upon.

Many key inventions were unique: one-offs.

Frank Lloyd Wright captured serenity in his masterpiece, Fallingwater, but his egotistical tendencies made life for others anything but serene.

Unlike the first Roaring Twenties, these won’t end with a Great Depression.

Scientists used 3D scans to analyze the corpse of Amenhotep I. They discovered that his brain was never removed and that he was circumcised, among other curiosities.

Distinguishing fact from fiction can be tough, especially when it comes to people as controversial as Stalin. 

Famished, not famous: retrace Orwell’s hunger days, when he was one of the city’s legion of poor foreigners.

Centuries ago, the plague forced people into quarantine for years. Isaac Newton and Galileo used the time to revolutionize the world.

From 1974 to 1978, the chimps of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania were at war with each other, the first time conservationists saw chimps engage in calculated, cold-blooded killing.

One player’s pawn is another’s farmer. And at one time, the queen was a rather powerless virgin.

The majority of countries are democracies. But how many people enjoy democratic rights?

If you put very fine black powder powder in a confined space it explodes in a cloud of heat, gas and noise.

In determining what qualifies as solid science, controversy is inevitable.

Haters and disrespect aside, fruitcake is still a robust American tradition.

The gospels imply that Jesus became famous as much for his exorcisms as his ministry.

For consumers of festive beverages, the news is bad: this holiday season, Guinness may not be on tap and glass for bottling wine is scarce. Climate disasters, like British Columbia’s floods, have further weakened already […]

The German-American cartoonist introduced the idea that Santa Claus traveled with a sleigh and reindeer.

Just don’t expect the apocalypse to look like it does in the movies.

For relatives who live far apart, holiday rituals may be the glue that holds the family together.