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History

The initiation ceremony for a 19th century secret society, as imagined by an artist.

The Cannibal Club: Racism and Rabble-Rousing in Victorian England

These 19th-century gentlemen of good standing let their inner boors loose in secret London backrooms

The famous "Big Hole" in Kimberley, South Africa

Peering Into Some of the World’s Largest Mines

This interactive map will show you the sources of the planet’s precious metals

14 Fun Facts About Fireworks

Number three: Fireworks are just chemical reactions

The Gurranes — Moonlight, Castletownshend, Ireland, 2005

11 Photographs of Mysterious Megaliths

Photographer Barbara Yoshida traveled across the globe to capture prehistoric stone monuments shrouded in moonlight

A pre-war daguerrotype of James R. McClintock. Inventor, likely crook, possible spy.

The Amazing (If True) Story of the Submarine Mechanic Who Blew Himself Up Then Surfaced as a Secret Agent for Queen Victoria

The leading mechanic of the famed H.L. Hunley led quite the life, if we can believe any of it

Maunsell Sea & Air Forts in the U.K.

17 Amazing Photographs of Abandoned Places

Top places you should see before they die… or at least disappear

Les Braves war memorial sculpture on Omaha Beach.

Why a Walk Along the Beaches of Normandy Is the Ideal Way to Remember D-Day

Follow in the footsteps of legendary reporter Ernie Pyle to get a real feel for the events that took place 70 years ago

Rabbits around old military facilities on Okunoshima.

Cool Finds

This Once-Secret Island Now Hosts Hordes of Adorable Bunnies

Now home to hundreds of semi-tame bunnies, the island once housed poison gas facilities

A Swiss map at the printing office of the Federal Office of Topography in Wabern, Canton of Bern, Switzerland.

The Unlikely History of the Origins of Modern Maps

GIS technology has opened up new channels of understanding how the world works. But where did it begin?

Cool Finds

Take a Look at How Disney Got Investors for Disneyland

Boing Boing was given the original Disneyland prospectus, and now you can see it

A page from Traité des couleurs servant à la peinture à l’eau

Cool Finds

This 300 Year Old Book Is a Guide to Every Paint Color Imaginable

Browse through color swatches from the 17th Century

Members of Coxey's Army, 1894

Washington, D.C.

How a Ragtag Band of Reformers Organized the First Protest March on Washington, D.C.

The first March on Washington was a madcap affair, but in May of 1894, some 10,000 citizens descended on D.C., asking for a jobs bill

This is not the 101 year old message in a bottle.

Cool Finds

Message in a Bottle, Found in the Baltic Sea, Is 100 Years Old

While this new Baltic bottle will probably take the prize for oldest verified message in a bottle, it’s probably not actually the oldest

New Research

Here’s How Neuroscientists in the 1800s Studied Blood Flow in the Brain

New translations of early neuroscience reveal how in 1882 one Italian physiologist was able to measure blood flow changes in the brain

Crimean coastline

Trending Today

Here’s Your Visual Guide to the Conflict in Crimea

An interactive map that shows the current hotspots and points of interest in the political crisis

Genghis Khan attacked and captured the Jin capital of Zhongdu (now Beijing, China) in 1215, in one of many campaigns that expanded the Mongol Empire.

Anthropocene

Warm, Wet Times Spurred Medieval Mongol Rise

Genghis Khan—and his army of men on horseback—benefitted from boom in grasslands

Cool Finds

See the Last 40 Years of Cell Phones in One Animation

While the next big iPhone announcement might not blow you away, we’ve come pretty far since 1974

From the Editor

From the Editor

The Baliem Valley was a “magnificent vastness” in Rockefeller’s eyes, and its people were “emotionallly expressive.” But Asmat proved to be “more remote country than what I have ever seen.”

What Really Happened to Michael Rockefeller

A journey to the heart of New Guinea’s Asmat tribal homeland sheds new light on the mystery of the heir’s disappearance there in 1961

It's your birthday, eat all the honey you want.

Cool Finds

Happy Birthday Winnie-the-Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh’s entrance wasn’t loud or flashy, much like the bear himself it was simple and sweet: a short poem in a little magazine

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