World History

Over the course of more than 2,000 years, countless travel books have transformed little known places into popular destinations.

The Top Ten Most Influential Travel Books

Even before there were armchairs, voracious bookworms traveled the world just by reading

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The Vengeance of Ivarr the Boneless

Did he, and other Vikings, really use a brutal method of ritual execution called the "blood eagle"?

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Why the Department Store Brought Freedom for the Turn of the Century Woman

Harry Selfridge, a London department store owner, may have opened the doors to more than just his retail store when he gave women a chance to power shop

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The Most Audacious Australian Prison Break of 1876

An American whaling ship brought together an oddball crew with a dangerous mission: freeing six Irishmen from a jail in western Australia

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The Secret Plot to Rescue Napoleon by Submarine

In 1820, one of Britain's most notorious criminals hatched a plan to rescue the emperor from exile on the Atlantic isle of St Helena -- but did he try it?

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Top Ten Afterlife Journeys of Notable People

Why Beethoven, Galileo, Napoleon and others never truly rested in peace

An illustration of Moby Dick attacking a whaling ship.

The True-Life Horror That Inspired 'Moby-Dick'

The whaler <i>Essex</i> was indeed sunk by a whale—and that's only the beginning

Justice Robert Jackson, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1942.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Soviet Sniper

Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper credited with 309 kills—and an advocate for women's rights. On a U.S. tour in 1942, she found a friend in the first lady

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The Last Massive Exploding Meteor Hit Earth in 1908, Leveling 800 Square Miles of Forest

In 1908, a meteor exploding in mid-air released the energy equivalent to "185 Hiroshima bombs"

A facial reconstruction of King Richard III, based on an analysis of his recently identified remains and artist portrayals over the years, was unveiled by an eponymous historical society on Tuesday.

The Battle Over Richard III’s Bones…And His Reputation

Rival towns are vying for the king’s remains and his legacy now that his skeleton has been found 500 years after his death

Nikola Tesla

The Rise and Fall of Nikola Tesla and His Tower

The inventor's vision of a global wireless-transmission tower proved to be his undoing

“All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy.” – Carl Jung

The History of Rocket Science

When was the first-ever rocket built?

The Siberian taiga in the Abakan district. Six members of the Lykov family lived in this remote wilderness for more than 40 years&mdash;utterly isolated and more than 150 miles from the nearest human settlement.

For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II

In 1978, Soviet geologists prospecting in the wilds of Siberia discovered a family of six, lost in the taiga

The funeral of James Idle in the village of Hullavington, on August 29, 1914

“The Grave Looked So Miserable”

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Romans Did All Sorts of Weird Things in The Public Baths—Like Getting Their Teeth Cleaned

For ancient Romans enjoying a day at the bathhouse, the list of items lost to drains includes jewelry, scalpels, teeth, needles and plates

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The Candor and Lies of Nazi Officer Albert Speer

The minister of armaments was happy to tell his captors about the war machine he had built. But it was a different story when he was asked about the Holocaust

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The History of Foosball

How did the tabletop game get from parlor halls in 19th century Europe to the basements of American homes?

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What’s Inside a 2,000-Year-Old, Shipwreck-Preserved Roman Pill?

Ancient Roman pills, preserved in sealed tin containers on the seafloor, may have been used as eye medicine

A group of young Parisians playing foosball at a cafe in 1958.

The Murky History of Foosball

How did the tabletop game get from parlor halls in 19th-century Europe to the basements of American homes?

The burial ground to what some claim is Jesus' final resting place.

The Little-Known Legend of Jesus in Japan

A mountain hamlet in northern Japan claims Jesus Christ was buried there

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