Before Pumpkins People Carved Turnips on Halloween
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 18, 2021
The yearly Halloween tradition of carving pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns was originally an Irish ritual, but instead of pumpkins, the folks a...
Bertha Benz’s Historic Car Ride
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 17, 2021
In the early morning hours of August 5, 1888, the 39-year-old Bertha Benz, wife of automobile pioneer Karl Benz, sneaked out of the house, a...
Codex Gigas, The Devil's Bible
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 15, 2021
At the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm, there is on display a gigantic bible, 36 inches long, 20 inches wide and nearly 9 inches thi...
The Village Where Girls Turn Into Boys
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 15, 2021
Johnny was a brought up a girl. There was no reason not to. He had what appeared to be a vagina. So he wore little red dresses and went to s...
Henry Howard Holmes’s Murder Castle
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 13, 2021
At the corner of South Lowe Avenue and West 63rd Street in Englewood, Chicago, where now stands a drab, two story building of the United Sta...
John Brinkley: The Doctor Who Transplanted Goat Testicles Into Humans
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 11, 2021
The morning of September 15, 1930, was undeniably warm in Kansas. That summer had been the hottest ever recorded in the state. The heat had ...
Vladimir Komarov: The Cosmonaut Who Fell From Space
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 9, 2021
The year 1967 held special significance for Soviet Union—it was the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, as well as the 10th annivers...
Leonardo da Vinci’s Ostrich Egg Globe
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 8, 2021
If the first map to represent the American continent is that of Juan de la Cosa, made in the year 1500, and the first in which the name Amer...
How Air Raids in Britain Led to Shortage of Sausages in Germany
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 4, 2021
“It is far better to face the bullets than to be killed at home by a bomb,” proclaimed a British Army recruitment poster publicized during W...
Why Matchmaking Was a Dangerous Profession in The 19th Century
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 2, 2021
Before the invention of matches, making fire was a tedious business, so people often shared fires from already existing flames. Whenever a n...
