The Braamfontein Explosion
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 25, 2024
The city of Johannesburg in South Africa was founded on gold after the precious metal was discovered on the Witwatersrand by Jan Gerrit Bant...
Ernest Bazin: The Ship That Rolled on Wheels
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 23, 2024
Between 1892 and 1893, French inventor Ernest Bazin filed patent for an unusual ship design. Instead of gliding through water, which had hit...
Eulogy of The Dog: The Story of ‘Old Drum’
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 19, 2024
George Graham Vest spent twenty-four years in the United States Senate, serving from 1879 to 1903. However, his most notable legacy stems fr...
The L'Aigle Meteorite Shower And The Birth of Meteoritics
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 17, 2024
Prior to the 1800s, scientists were skeptical about the existence of meteorites. Despite historical reports of meteorite sightings dating ba...
The Ill-fated Jeannette Expedition to The Arctic
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 13, 2024
In the mid-19th century, explorers and geographers were seized by an idea that was first floated in the 16th century by the English cartogra...
Musée des Plans-Reliefs
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 9, 2024
In the Hôtel des Invalides in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, is a museum dedicated to detailed military models of important towns ...
Pratt And Smith: The Last Men To Be Executed For Sodomy in England
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 8, 2024
On the morning of November 27, 1835, two men—James Pratt and John Smith—were publicly hanged in front of Newgate Prison in London. Just thre...
Barkway Carriage Wash
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 3, 2024
What looks like a pool of stagnant water by the side of the road in Royston, in Hertfordshire, is really the oldest carriage wash in the wor...
Paul-Félix Armand-Delille: Europe’s Rabbit Killer
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 3, 2024
In the 1950s, Australian sheep and cattle farmers decided to tackle the country’s rabbit problem by unleashing a biological weapon—the myxom...
The Best Stories of 2023
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 26, 2023
As we bid farewell to 2023 and embark on the journey into a new year, it's the perfect time to look back on a year filled with incredibl...
Mobro 4000: The Infamous Garbage Barge
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 22, 2023
Americans generate an enormous amount of trash. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA, the average U.S. residen...
Glienicke Bridge: The Bridge Of Spies
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 19, 2023
In the Wannsee district of Berlin, Germany, there is a brief bridge spanning the Havel River, connecting the German capital to Potsdam. Hist...
Bottle Kicking in Hallaton
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 18, 2023
In the village of Hallaton in Leicestershire, England, a unique tradition unfolds every Easter Monday. The residents of Hallaton and the nea...
Bloody Island: Missouri’s Infamous Dueling Ground
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 14, 2023
In the late 1790s, a large sandy island emerged in the middle of the Mississippi River, across from St. Louis, Missouri, as a result of the ...
The Divided Church of Gmünd
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 12, 2023
Near the town of Gmünd in the Austrian state of Carinthia stands the Divided Church (Geteilte Kirche am Kreuzbichl), so called because it is...
Talking Gravestones of Amrum and Föhr
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 11, 2023
About 60 km north of Heligoland in the North Sea, off the western coast of Germany, lies the islands of Amrun and Föhr. Part of the North F...
Dejima: The Island That Was Once Japan’s Only Connection To The Outside World
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 7, 2023
For over two centuries, spanning from the 16th to the 19th centuries, Japan adopted a strict policy that prohibited foreigners, particularly...
The Logan Rock of Treen
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 5, 2023
On the edge of the cliffs overlooking the English Channel, on a headland one mile south of Treen, in Cornwall, England, is a famous rocking ...
The Mysterious Jerome of Sandy Cove
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 24, 2023
The story of a legless mystery man known as “Jerome” who turned up one day in 1863 in Sandy Cove is well-known in Nova Scotia. He was found ...
Tŷ Unnos: The One Night House
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 22, 2023
Near the village of Llanycefn, in Pembrokeshire, in south-west Wales, stands a small stone cottage. Legend has it that the cottage was built...
