Nowe Ateny: Poland’s Eccentric First Encyclopedia

Aug 14, 2025

In 1745, a Polish parish priest named Benedykt Joachim Chmielowski published Nowe Ateny (New Athens), the first encyclopedia ever written...

The Invincible Bramah Lock

Aug 12, 2025

It is 1790, and you find yourself at 124 Piccadilly, London. As you stroll past the rows of shops, one window in particular catches your eye...

Project Diana: Bouncing Radio Waves Off The Moon

Aug 8, 2025

Around noon on January 10, 1946, a powerful pulse of radio waves shot skyward from a massive radar installation at Camp Evans in Wall Townsh...

The Phantom of Heilbronn: How Contaminated DNA Sent The German Police On A Wild Goose Chase

Aug 6, 2025

On the afternoon of April 25, 2007, Michele Kiesewetter , a 22-year-old police officer in the German city of Heilbronn, was shot dead in a p...

The Knife Makers of Thiers

Jul 31, 2025

In the Puy-de-Dôme department of Auvergne, in the heart of France, lies Thiers—a city renowned throughout the country as the historic capita...

Hua Tuo And The Mysterious Mafeisan

Jul 30, 2025

During the late Eastern Han dynasty, a brilliant Chinese physician named Hua Tuo —renowned for his pioneering medical techniques, surgical s...

St. Elizabeth's Flood of 1421

Jul 21, 2025

On the night of November 18–19, 1421, a powerful storm surge from the North Sea broke through poorly maintained dikes in the County of Holla...

Opiki Toll Bridge

Jul 16, 2025

The Opiki Toll Bridge is an abandoned bridge in Opiki, located in the Horowhenua district of New Zealand's North Island. Spanning the Ma...

Henry Gunther: The Last Soldier To Be Killed During World War 1

Jul 15, 2025

Just after 5 o’clock on the morning of 11 November 1918, British, French, and German officials gathered in a railway carriage in the Compièg...

Ictíneo II: The World’s First Powered Submarine That Ran On Chemicals

Jul 9, 2025

Before the age of steam, all early submarines relied on human muscle for propulsion. The first functional submarine, built by Dutch inventor...