Ida Lewis: The Bravest Woman in America

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...