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European History

Europe

Casanova Is Getting a Museum

The womanizer and Enlightenment polymath will be memorialized with an interactive museum in Venice opening April 2

Strong, medium and undeformed skulls, from left to right in this image, were first found in Germany around the 1960s. Now researchers think they know where the modified skulls came from.

Pointy-Headed Medieval Skulls in Germany May Have Been Bulgarian ‘Treaty Brides’

Researchers have wondered for years about the strangely shaped skulls found in Western Europe

Trending Today

How Conflict in the Balkans Is Screwing Up Europe’s Clocks

Kosovo and Serbia’s clash over energy dropped the oscillation of the Euro grid, making clocks run as much as six minutes behind

Battle of Clontarf, Hugh Frazer, 1826

New Research

Social Network Analysis Weighs in on Debate Surrounding One of Ireland’s Most Famous Battles

Researchers test it out on a medieval epic to investigate whether the Battle of Clontarf was fought against the Vikings or was part of an Irish civil war

The executioner Franz Schmidt executing Hans Fröschel on May 18, 1591. This drawing in the margins of a court record is the only surviving fully reliable portrait of Franz Schmidt.

The Executioners Who Inherited Their Jobs

For centuries, carrying out executions in France was a family affair

The Next Pandemic

Are Rats Innocent of Spreading the Black Plague?

Human pests like fleas and lice may be responsible for spreading the pandemic that devastated Medieval Europe

An etching of carts laden with corpses in the Piazza San Babila, Milan during the plague of 1630.

The Next Pandemic

How Proteins Helped Scientists Read Between the Lines of a 1630 Plague Death Registry

New tech reveals bacterial contamination, what scribes were eating and how many rats were around

Trending Today

York Minister’s Massive Medieval Stained-Glass Window Restored to Its Former Glory

Conservators spent some 92,400 hours cleaning and protecting the great east window’s 311 panels

Women grieving over the coffins of those killed in the Kielce pogrom as they are transported to the burial site in the Jewish cemetery.

Kielce: The Post-Holocaust Pogrom That Poland Is Still Fighting Over

After World War II, Jewish refugees found they could never return to their native land—a sentiment that some echo today

Madame Pompadour, by Francois Boucher

Madame de Pompadour Was Far More Than a ‘Mistress’

Even though she was a keen politicker and influential patron, she’s been historically overlooked

Frederick II was the first "modern" ornithologist, studying birds in detail in the 13th century to fuel his passion for falconry.

The Modern History of Ornithology Starts With This Inquisitive Medieval Emperor

Frederick II got up to a lot in his lifetime

Partridges, turtledoves, geese... you know the drill.

12 Facts About ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’

Amaze and astound your loved ones with these pieces of carol trivia

French wine became imperilled in the mid-1800s as twin pests from America swept through European agricultural regions.

How One Mycologist Saved France’s Wine (Among Other Things)

Bordeaux mixture saved many crops besides grapes from fungus

Cool Finds

Message From the Past Found Inside Spanish Statue of Jesus

A local chaplain wanted people from the future to know what crops his region grew, what games they played and what diseases they suffered

Madame Tussauds Berlin--one of the many Tussauds wax museums that bears Marie Tussaud's name--has a wax sculpture of Marie Tussaud herself. Here, she's portrayed sculpting the head of Ben Franklin (which is a thing she actually did).

How Marie Tussaud Created a Wax Empire

From France, to Britain, to the world, Tussaud’s waxworks endure

Aaron Elster's hologram answers questions from the audience.

An Exhibit in Illinois Allows Visitors to Talk with Holograms of 13 Holocaust Survivors

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Illinois, opened the new Survivor Stories Experience this fall

The accused "Angel Makers of Nagyrév" walk in the Szolnok prison yard in Hungary.

Is There Humanity to Be Found Within Serial Killers?

A new book tells the complex stories behind murderous women, the so-called “femmes fatales.”

Some of the Roman defenses at Pegwell Bay

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover Where Julius Caesar Landed in Britain

A large camp along Pegwell Bay is the likely spot where 20,000 Romans landed in 54 B.C.

A square dance on Skyline Farms in Alabama, circa 1937.

Square Dancing is Uniquely American

Like the culture it came from, square dance has roots in European, Native American and African practices

A CARE package intended for West Germany in 1948.

How WWII Created the Care Package

Technically, the innovation was originally trademarked

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