Showing posts with the label History

The Delft Tower Experiment

Oct 7, 2024

In 1654, twelve years after the death of the brilliant Italian astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei, Prince Leopold de' Medici, brot...

Le Pétomane: The Man Who Could Fart Melodies

Oct 1, 2024

In the vibrant world of Parisian cabaret, where extravagant performances captivated audiences every night, few acts were as peculiar or as u...

The Battle of Palmdale: How a Pilotless Drone Embarrassed The US Air Force

Sep 25, 2024

On the afternoon of August 16, 1956, 17-year-old Larry Kempton of Leona Valley was driving with his mother, Bernice, along Palmdale Boulevar...

Ernest Duchesne: The Forgotten Discoverer of Penicillin

Sep 19, 2024

In 1897, a young French medical student named Ernest Duchesne submitted a ground-breaking doctoral thesis titled Contribution to the Study o...

Paris Gun: World War One’s Greatest Weapon

Sep 11, 2024

At quarter past seven on the morning of March 23, 1918, the people of Paris were jolted by a powerful explosion near the Quai de la Seine. F...

José Meiffret’s 200km/h Bike Ride

Sep 6, 2024

This strange looking bike with an enormous chain wheel was designed for speed, and speed it did achieve. On July 19, 1962, French cyclist ...

Makaiko Kheti: Why a Book on Maize Cultivation Provoked The Nepalese Govt.

Sep 2, 2024

Nobody knows the true motive behind Krishna Lal Adhikari's writing of Makaiko Kheti ("The Cultivation of Maize"). Was it mere...

The Nuclear Flask Train Crash Test

Aug 21, 2024

Nuclear reactors in power stations use fissile radioactive isotopes to produce heat, which powers turbines to generate electricity. When the...

4 Odd Events That Appeared At The Olympics

Aug 19, 2024

Since the inception of the modern Olympic Games in 1896, this global sporting event has continuously evolved, introducing fresh and dynamic ...

5 Airline Crashes Resulting from Tomfoolery

Aug 12, 2024

Aviation is an industry that thrives on precision, discipline, and adherence to strict protocols. However, there have been tragic instances ...

Inês de Castro: Portugal’s Posthumous Queen

Aug 6, 2024

In European history, few love stories are as poignant and politically charged as that of Inês de Castro and King Pedro I of Portugal. Their ...

Prokop Diviš And The Lightning Rod

Jul 30, 2024

In 1754, Prokop Diviš, a Czech priest, attempted to control the weather but ended up inventing the lightning rod instead. Diviš was a past...

A Short History of Supernova Observations

Jul 25, 2024

The Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion is a fascinating star. It’s a red supergiant more than six hundred times the diameter of the Su...

The Largest Man-Made, Non-Nuclear Explosion in History

Jul 16, 2024

After the end of World War II in 1945, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, there was intense geopolitical tension between the...

Narcisse Pelletier: The French Boy Who Lived 17 Years With The Aboriginals

Jul 9, 2024

On April 11, 1875, a pearling schooner named John Bell anchored off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The captain, Joseph Frazer, sent so...

Panjandrum: A Wacky WW2-Era Failed Weapon

Jul 5, 2024

In 1941, the Government of the United Kingdom established a temporary wartime body called the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Developmen...

The Jews of Verteba Cave

Jul 3, 2024

In the early 1940s, when the Nazi government began systematically hunting down Jewish people, many Jews across Europe sought refuge to avoid...

Robert Cocking’s Fatal Parachute Jump

Jun 28, 2024

On October 22, 1797, a sizeable crowd gathered at Parc Monceau in Paris to witness a daring spectacle. Frenchman André-Jacques Garnerin was...

How The Soviets Stole And Copied The American Sidewinder Missile

Jun 24, 2024

After the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, which saw the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the banishment of the ...

The Bizarre Death of a Keeper at The Eddystone Lighthouse

Jun 19, 2024

Off the coast of Cornwall, on the English Channel, about 14 km south of Rame Head, lies a group of rocks, half submerged and half exposed, k...