history
Meet the masterful con-men who impressed the great and the good despite the astonishing fiction of their very existence.
Almost all royal lines try to legitimize their rule with legendary origin stories. Here are five of the strangest examples.
The Te’omim Cave in the Jerusalem Hills is filled with skulls and oil lamps — objects a new study says may have been used in dark rituals.
Fossil Cycad National Monument held America’s richest deposit of petrified cycadeoid plants, until it didn’t.
From the laying out of the body plan to the organization and functioning of our nervous system, cells rule gene expression and make us who and what we are.
What better explains the prevalence of heavy metal in Scandinavian countries: culture or economy?
Alchemy had its golden age in the 17th century, when it counted Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle among its adherents.
Opponents of America’s entry into the looming Second World War believed the U.S. would be dismembered.
These clocks burn powdered incense along a pre-measured paths, each representing a different amount of time.
Those white, marble statues you see in museums all over the world were originally painted with bright colors.
Probability, lacking solid theoretical foundations and burdened with paradoxes, was jokingly called the “theory of misfortune.”
Our state of extreme social interconnectedness has rapidly accelerated the rollercoaster pace at which societal confidence may collapse.
Mounted on horses and armed with unique, powerful bows, the archers of Genghis Khan inspired terror wherever they rode.
A classical equivalent to Chanel No. 5.
The carnival spirit was in full swing when the priests got wasted and made indecent gestures while dressed like pimps.
Science fiction met nuclear fission when Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd pondered the explosive potential of nuclear energy.
Hybrid animals emerge when two different species from the same family reproduce. For many years, the kunga’s lineage was just another genetic mystery.
In numerous cultures worldwide, women were just as involved in bringing home the prehistoric bacon as their male counterparts.
Throughout history, hundreds — sometimes thousands — of people have been spontaneously compelled to dance until collapsing or dying from exhaustion. What explains this bizarre phenomenon?
No, Gandhi did not single-handedly bring about Indian independence. Pacifism alone usually gets you killed.
The biggest nuclear blast in history came courtesy of Tsar Bomba. We could make something at least 100 times more powerful.
Roosevelt had become president but not in the way he wanted. Still, he understood that he had been given the rare opportunity to make history.
A 2020 study revived a longstanding controversy over Christopher Columbus’ claims of marauding cannibals in the Caribbean.
Perhaps there was something theatrically satisfying about a learned man waving around a flask of pee, looking at it from all angles, sniffing it, and making bold proclamations.
People discovered prehistoric fossils long before Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species.” The remains of these unknown creatures often puzzled their discoverers.
Debate is a verbal sport with winners and losers. As such, it is less about the truth and more about who looks and sounds the best.