The Past
All Stories
Almost all royal lines try to legitimize their rule with legendary origin stories. Here are five of the strangest examples.
There were at least eight other human species, some of whom existed for far longer than we have. Who were they?
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.
Giambattista della Porta's contributions to codebreaking changed the course of communication.
These clocks burn powdered incense along a pre-measured paths, each representing a different amount of time.
Probability, lacking solid theoretical foundations and burdened with paradoxes, was jokingly called the “theory of misfortune.”
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?
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.
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.
A marine reptile fossil from Svalbard challenges ideas about evolution and Earth’s greatest mass extinction.
They had the technology. So why didn't they use it?
Due to export controls from China, the Europeans had to invent their own forms of porcelain. One type involves dead cows.
On the menu: stews, cheese, and fermented drinks.
More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The documents that convicted the infamous traitor were all kept in this unassuming leather pouch.
Pessimism reigned supreme.
Centuries ago, the typical British coffeehouse was more like a "school without a master" than a place to grab a quick boost of caffeine.
At the turn of the millennium, a physicist fooled the global scientific community with the greatest discovery that never existed.