The Great Meteor of 1783
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 8, 2021
On the night of 18 August 1783, four gentlemen and their two lady companions were on the terrace of the Windsor Castle, enjoying the warm su...
The Great Vine of Hampton Court Palace
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 6, 2021
The Great Vine of Hampton Court Palace, on the River Thames in London, is the largest and the oldest vine in the world, having being planted...
Why The Romans Punished Dogs And Honored Geese
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 6, 2021
On a warm summer day in August in ancient Rome, a brilliantly decorated litter is carried solemnly in the direction of Circus Maximum. Its o...
Ida Lewis: The Bravest Woman in America
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 3, 2021
In the Newport harbor in Rhode Island, America’s smallest state, stands a small, squat lighthouse named after Ida Lewis, the fearless lighth...
Paper Railway Wheels
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 2, 2021
Paper has multitude of uses—from the newspaper that we read in the morning to the teabags that infuses our morning cup, from the toilet pape...
Daniel Lambert: England’s Most Famous Fat Man
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 31, 2021
For most of human history, mankind struggled with food scarcity. The poor and the working class were seldom well fed, and only the wealthy a...
Mansa Musa: The Richest Man in History
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 26, 2021
In 1324, Mansa Musa, the legendary ruler of the vast West African empire of Mali, set off for a pilgrimage to Mecca. Like many other devout ...
Tzompantli: The Gruesome Skull Racks of The Aztecs
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 25, 2021
When Spanish explorers first arrived in Mexico in the early 16th century and made contact with the Aztecs, they were taken aback by the cult...
Chicago River: The River That Runs Backward
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 23, 2021
From the mid to the late-19th century, Chicago was in the midst of a period of rapid growth, and as the city grew it placed enormous strain ...
Ascension Island’s Remarkable Ecological Transformation
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 18, 2021
In the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, thousands of miles from practically anywhere, lies an isolated volcanic island called Ascension. ...
Mount Tambora And The Year Without a Summer
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 16, 2021
Volcanic eruptions can change the planet’s climate. During major eruptions, huge amount of volcanic ash are released into the upper atmosphe...
The World’s Largest Sailing Ship
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 12, 2021
On December 14, 1907, a large sailing ship wrecked off the coast of Annet, in the Isles of Scilly, killing all but two of her eighteen crew ...
The World’s First Automatic Machine Gun
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 11, 2021
In an article in Nature in 1885, the renowned science journal published a description of a new type of gun developed by the well-known Amer...
Afghanistan’s War Rugs
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 9, 2021
Turkmen weavers in northern Afghanistan have been weaving rugs for thousands of years. This heavy textile, made for a wide variety of utilit...
Whiffling: The Art of Flying Upside Down
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 6, 2021
This image of a goose flying upside down captured by photographer Vincent Cornelissen has created a buzz online. In the viral photo, the g...
The Fabled Diamonds of Golconda
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 5, 2021
Before the discovery of the diamond mines in Brazil and South Africa in the early 18th century, India was the sole supplier of the world’s d...
Bobbie, The Wonder Dog Who Walked 2,500 Miles to Home
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 4, 2021
In August 1923, Bobbie—an average-looking collie puppy—accompanied his owners, the Braizer family, on a cross-country summer road trip from ...
The Arrow Stork
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 3, 2021
Many birds fly extraordinarily great distances in search of warmer climate, food and favorable breeding grounds, a seasonal phenomenon we no...
Moving a Courthouse by Rail
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 2, 2021
Perhaps the strangest thing to be ever moved by rail was a house—more precisely, the courthouse at Hemingford, which was at the time the cou...
The World’s Oldest Operating Company is 1,400 Years Old
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 2, 2021
Kongō Gumi Co., Ltd., a Japanese company that was then acquired by Takamatsu Construction Group, for which it continued to operate as a subs...
