World History

Andrew Lawler is currently a freelancer living in the woods of Maine.

Andrew Lawler on "Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?"

The Waldseemüller map, printed in 1507, depicted the New World in a new way.

The Waldseemüller Map: Charting the New World

Two obscure 16th-century German scholars named the American continent and changed the way people thought about the world

None

December Anniversaries

The 2012 doomsday prophecy isn't the first to predict the end of civilization. Such warnings have been around for millenia.

Ten Notable Apocalypses That (Obviously) Didn’t Happen

Apocalyptic predictions are nothing new—they have been around for millennia

None

November Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

None

October Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Some 80 million "lost" pages include records of people and police assassination orders.

A Human Rights Breakthrough in Guatemala

A chance discovery of police archives may reveal the fate of tens of thousands of people who disappeared in Guatemala's civil war

None

September Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Joan Benoit

August Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Jack LaLanne (1914 - 2011)

Bodybuilders Through the Ages

Over the past 150 years, bodybuilders have gone from circus sideshows to celebrities, imparting fitness lessons along the way

Over the decades, archaeologists have turned up a great many artifacts from the Indus civilization, including stamp sealings, amulets and small tablets.

Can Computers Decipher a 5,000-Year-Old Language?

A computer scientist is helping to uncover the secrets of the inscribed symbols of the Indus

None

Burgess Shale's Weird Wonders

The fossils found in the Burgess Shale include the 500-million-year-old ancestors of most modern animals

None

This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Turkey, before 1656. Used by the czar during military processions and inspections, this saber of the Grand Attire is a remarkable work. The finest jewelers associated with the Ottoman court created the saber and scabbard. The blade contains an Arabic inscription, which reads, “May you pass your time in bliss.”

Czar Treasures From the East

A trove of spectacular objects from the Kremlin’s collection highlights Ottoman opulence

Located off Al-Amin Street in the old Jewish Quarter, Beit Farhi is the real power center in Old Damascus.

In Damascus, Restoring Beit Farhi and the City’s Jewish Past

An architect works to restore the grand palace of Raphael Farhi, one of the most powerful men in the Ottoman world

None

June Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

None

May Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

The "loyalty dance" was a fixture of China's Cultural Revolution, and Kang Wenjie's performance at a giant Maoist teach-in was boffo.

Dancing for Mao

A photograph of a 5-year-old girl made her famous in China—and haunted the man who took it

In the 1940s, the Soviet Union launched an all-out espionage effort to uncover military and defense secrets from the US and Britain (Klaus Fuchs, left, and David Greenglass, right).

Spies Who Spilled Atomic Bomb Secrets

As part of the Soviet Union's spy ring, these Americans and Britons leveraged their access to military secrets to help Russia become a nuclear power

The North Atlantic Treaty was signed by President Harry S. Truman in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949 and was ratified by the United States in August 1949.

April Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Page 59 of 73