Showing posts with the label History

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...

The Dozen Times Humans Have Tried to Communicate With Extraterrestrials

Jun 13, 2024

The question of whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe has intrigued humanity for centuries. As our technological capabil...