The Oldest Functioning Satellite

Apr 10, 2023

The Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1, or LCS-1, is a large, hollow, aluminum sphere with a precisely defined cross-section that has been on Eart...

Masabumi Hosono: The Disgraced Titanic Survivor

Apr 7, 2023

In 1997, on the eve of the release of James Cameroon’s blockbuster movie Titanic , a curious story from Japan came to light. It was about Ma...

The Telescope That Got Shot

Apr 4, 2023

In the early 1960s, as NASA geared up towards space exploration, engineers and astronomers at the federal organization felt the need for a l...

The 1956 Olympic Flame Hoax

Mar 31, 2023

The 1956 Summer Olympics was held in Australia. As was the custom, the Olympic flame was lighted in Olympia, months before the games started...

Dorothy Lawrence: The Woman Who Posed as a Soldier to be a War Correspondent

Mar 29, 2023

The First World War was reported from an almost exclusively male perspective, because few female war correspondents were given access to the...

The Ice Palace of Anna Ioannovna

Mar 28, 2023

The winter of 1739-40 was incredibly harsh all over Europe and especially brutal in Russia. Temperatures plummeted to forty degrees below ze...

Limes Arabicus, The Chain of Fortifications That Protected The Roman Territory From Desert Tribes

Mar 23, 2023

When we talk about "limes", we usually think of the limits of the Roman Empire in northern Europe, in Germania or Britain. But in ...

The Fishman of Liérganes

Mar 22, 2023

In the small town of Liérganes, in Cantabria, northern Spain, a legend has been around since the late 17th century about a young man who dro...

Edward Dando: The Celebrated Oyster Eater

Mar 21, 2023

There was time in 1820s London when the name of Edward Dando sent panic through the hearts of tavern and oyster shop owners. This young man,...

The 1967 Experiment That Proved Anyone Can Design a Nuclear Weapon

Mar 17, 2023

On 16 October 1964, China detonated a 22-kiloton nuclear weapon device at the Lop Nur test site, becoming the fifth nuclear power state in t...