Antimony Pill: The Everlasting Pill
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 29, 2024
Antimony—the soft, lustrous gray metal—has many industrial uses such as in the preparation of flame-retarding compounds and in the manufactu...
Showing posts with the label History
The Killer Whales of Eden
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 26, 2024
The Thaua people, who reside around Twofold Bay on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, share a special bond with killer whales or...
Xerxes Canal
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 21, 2024
The Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece, that juts into the Aegean Sea for some 50 kilometers, was once bisected by a canal a hundred fee...
Olivier Levasseur’s Lost Treasure
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 20, 2024
On the 7th of July 1730, the notorious French pirate, Olivier Levasseur, faced his final moments on the scaffold. His crimes, which had inst...
Casimir Zeglen: The Priest Who Invented The Bulletproof Vest
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 14, 2024
On October 28, 1893, the tranquility of Chicago was shattered with the assassination of its mayor, Carter Harrison, who was shot on the door...
The Ransom Room
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 9, 2024
In the northern highlands of Peru lies the historic city of Cajamarca, where the great Inca empire met its demise. It was on this soil that ...
Bedford Level Experiment: The 19th Century Experiment That Laid The Foundation of The Flat Earth Society
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 31, 2024
In 1838, English writer and socialist, Samuel Rowbotham, set out to disprove what the ancient Greeks as well as modern scientists had long e...
Bob The Railway Dog
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 29, 2024
In the heart of South Australia's railway history, a charming and loyal canine companion left an indelible paw print on the tracks – Bob...
The Braamfontein Explosion
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 25, 2024
The city of Johannesburg in South Africa was founded on gold after the precious metal was discovered on the Witwatersrand by Jan Gerrit Bant...
Ernest Bazin: The Ship That Rolled on Wheels
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 23, 2024
Between 1892 and 1893, French inventor Ernest Bazin filed patent for an unusual ship design. Instead of gliding through water, which had hit...
Eulogy of The Dog: The Story of ‘Old Drum’
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 19, 2024
George Graham Vest spent twenty-four years in the United States Senate, serving from 1879 to 1903. However, his most notable legacy stems fr...
The L'Aigle Meteorite Shower And The Birth of Meteoritics
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 17, 2024
Prior to the 1800s, scientists were skeptical about the existence of meteorites. Despite historical reports of meteorite sightings dating ba...
The Ill-fated Jeannette Expedition to The Arctic
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 13, 2024
In the mid-19th century, explorers and geographers were seized by an idea that was first floated in the 16th century by the English cartogra...
Pratt And Smith: The Last Men To Be Executed For Sodomy in England
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 8, 2024
On the morning of November 27, 1835, two men—James Pratt and John Smith—were publicly hanged in front of Newgate Prison in London. Just thre...
Paul-Félix Armand-Delille: Europe’s Rabbit Killer
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 3, 2024
In the 1950s, Australian sheep and cattle farmers decided to tackle the country’s rabbit problem by unleashing a biological weapon—the myxom...
Mobro 4000: The Infamous Garbage Barge
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 22, 2023
Americans generate an enormous amount of trash. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA, the average U.S. residen...
Bottle Kicking in Hallaton
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 18, 2023
In the village of Hallaton in Leicestershire, England, a unique tradition unfolds every Easter Monday. The residents of Hallaton and the nea...
Bloody Island: Missouri’s Infamous Dueling Ground
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 14, 2023
In the late 1790s, a large sandy island emerged in the middle of the Mississippi River, across from St. Louis, Missouri, as a result of the ...
Talking Gravestones of Amrum and Föhr
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 11, 2023
About 60 km north of Heligoland in the North Sea, off the western coast of Germany, lies the islands of Amrun and Föhr. Part of the North F...
Dejima: The Island That Was Once Japan’s Only Connection To The Outside World
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 7, 2023
For over two centuries, spanning from the 16th to the 19th centuries, Japan adopted a strict policy that prohibited foreigners, particularly...
