World History

Egyptians embalming a corpse.

The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine

The question was not “Should you eat human flesh?” says one historian, but, “What sort of flesh should you eat?”

Marilyn Monroe getting ready for her close-up in a movie of the future

Resurrecting the Dead With Computer Graphics

Rufus Choate

The Case of the Sleepwalking Killer

The evidence against Albert Tirrell was lurid and damning—until Rufus Choate, a protegé of the great Daniel Webster, agreed to come to the defense

Digital billboard in 2019 Los Angeles from the film Blade Runner (1982)

Billboard Advertising in the City of Blade Runner

Are Angelenos destined to be perpetually surrounded by super-sized advertisements?

Editor John Henson of The New Aladdin floppy disk magazine

The Magazine of the Future (on floppy disk!)

More than 20 years before the iPad, an entrepreneur saw the potential of interactive, digital magazines

In 1882, years after an Apache encampment was massacred by Mexican troops, the tribe's legendary leader Geronimo and his men came to avenge the killings on a grassy hill just north of the town of Galeana in Mexico.

Geronimo’s Decades-Long Hunt for Vengeance

Close by the Mormon colony of Colonia Dublan is an unlikely tourist attraction: the small hilltop where the legendary Apache leader exacted his revenge

The British pigeon known as Crisp VC brought back news of the sinking of an armed trawler by a German U boat and the heroic death of her captain, Thomas Crisp, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

World War I: 100 Years Later

Closing the Pigeon Gap

During the First World War, Allied birds outperformed their rivals and saved thousands of lives–all thanks to the efforts of one London pigeon fancier

The Potala Palace, Lhasa: home to nine successive Dalai Lamas, a number of them suspiciously short-lived.

Murder in Tibet’s High Places

The Dalai Lama is one of the world's most revered religious leaders, but that didn't prevent four holders of the office from mysteriously dying

Polio patients in iron lungs in 1952

Salk, Sabin and the Race Against Polio

As polio ravaged patients worldwide, two gifted American researchers developed distinct vaccines against it. Then the question was: Which one to use?

1950 depiction of a smoldering New York after a nuclear attack

Hiroshima, U.S.A.

In 1950, a popular magazine depicted what an atomic bomb would do to New York City—in gruesome detail

A German mint hard at work producing debased coinage designed to be palmed off on the nearest neighboring state, c.1620

“Kipper und Wipper”: Rogue Traders, Rogue Princes, Rogue Bishops and the German Financial Meltdown of 1621-23

It is tempting to think of the German hyperinflation of 1923 as a uniquely awful event, but it pales in comparison to what happened in the 17th century

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Document Deep Dive

Document Deep Dive: What Does the Magna Carta Really Say?

A curator from the National Archives takes us through what the governing charter means

The rolling home of the future from the September, 1934 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics

Tomorrow’s Mobile Home

Moving is a lot easier if you live inside a giant ball

The Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, site of the deadly race run between condemned grand viziers and their executioners.

The Ottoman Empire’s Life-or-Death Race

Custom in the Ottoman Empire mandated that a condemned grand vizier could save his neck if he won a sprint against his executioner

Soldiers and police officers respond to a terrorist attack at an airport of the future (1981)

Fighting Terrorism in the Future

A 1981 book predicted that the soldiers of the future could be more like heavily armed policemen than a fighting force

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On Heroic Self-Sacrifice: a London Park Devoted to Those Most Worth Remembering

In 1887, a painter was inspired by an idea: commemorate the everyday heroism of men, women and children who had lost their lives trying to save another's

A doctor's diagnosis "by radio" on the cover of the February, 1925 issue of Science and Invention magazine

Telemedicine Predicted in 1925

With video screens and remote control arms, any doctor could make a virtual housecall

A Roman chariot race, showing men from two of the four color-themed demes, or associations, that produced the Blues and the Greens. From a poster advertising the 1925 film version of Ben-Hur.

Blue versus Green: Rocking the Byzantine Empire

The sinking of the world's most famous ship on April 15, 1912 generated waves of Titanic mania.

Why the Titanic Still Fascinates Us

One hundred years after the ocean liner struck an iceberg and sank, the tragedy still looms large in the popular psyche

The solar powered house of the future from 1959

The World Will Be Wonderful In The Year 2000!

The secret formula for predicting a fantastical yet credible future

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