History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
The priest who secretly wrote an atheist manifesto
Jean Meslier spent 40 years as a quiet, unassuming Catholic priest in rural France, diligently serving communion and baptizing babies. But when he died in…
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How a tiny ship captured a Spanish frigate
Thomas Cochrane was the Royal Navy's absolute chaos merchant. Commanding a tiny sloop called the Speedy, he once encountered a massive Spanish frigate…
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The medieval surgeon who invented 200 instruments
Next time you're under anesthesia, thank an Andalusian genius from the year 1000. Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi basically wrote the ultimate medical cheat sheet, a…
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The Ming elites who bought property in the afterlife
You can't take your money with you when you die, but the Ming Dynasty figured out a way to take the bureaucracy. Wealthy Chinese elites were so obsessed with…
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The Syrian doctor who mapped blood flow centuries early
Western medicine loves to pat itself on the back for discovering how blood circulates in the 17th century, completely ignoring that a Syrian polymath beat…
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How one archbishop rescued thousands of medieval manuscripts
When Henry VIII threw a tantrum and dissolved the monasteries, centuries of irreplaceable historical records were destined for the medieval equivalent of the…
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Roman women took to the streets over a jewelry ban
In 195 BCE, Rome tried to pass off wartime austerity as a permanent ban on women looking fabulous. The Lex Oppia banned women from owning more than half an…
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How Joseph Fouché survived four French regimes
Loyalty is entirely overrated when you have everyone's search history. Joseph Fouché survived the Reign of Terror, the Directory, Napoleon, and the restored…
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Wealthy merchant became a street roaming poet
Imagine a billionaire CEO giving away his entire fortune just to play a tambourine in the subway. That was Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari, a wealthy 13th-century…
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The crown thief who got a royal pension
If you're going to commit high treason, make sure the king thinks you're hilarious. In 1671, Thomas Blood bludgeoned the Keeper of the Jewels, flattened the…
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How logistics defeated Britain's navy
You'd think the mightiest navy on earth could conquer a Spanish colonial port. You'd be wrong. In 1741, the British sent a massive armada to Cartagena, but…
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Paranoid locals murdered an accused witch
You'd think the Age of Enlightenment would have stopped people from blaming their bad luck on old ladies, but rural paranoia dies hard. Over half a century…
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The queen who turned a servant into a chair
Power moves don't get much colder than using a human being as living furniture. When the Portuguese governor refused to offer Queen Nzinga a chair during 1622…
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The pirate who raided Iceland for slaves
Geography was clearly optional for 17th-century pirates who lacked a moral compass. Jan Janszoon was a Dutchman who converted to Islam, became a Barbary…
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The skeletons that proved Galen wrong
For centuries, European and Middle Eastern doctors treated the ancient Greek physician Galen like an infallible god of medicine. Enter Abd al-Latif…
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Peasant riots were actually highly organized politics
History is written by the victors, which usually means rich guys with armies calling everyone else unhinged savages. Enter Ranajit Guha, who flipped the…
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How wine harvests revealed the Little Ice Age
Leave it to a French historian to figure out global climate patterns by analyzing when people were picking grapes. Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie pioneered climate…
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The historian who studied gossip and fought Nazis
Marc Bloch didn't just write about badasses; he was one. He co-founded the Annales School, totally disrupting the academic echo chamber by arguing that the…
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How storytelling could save a murder suspect's life
Getting out of a murder charge in 16th-century France required less legal prowess and more creative writing skills. Historian Natalie Zemon Davis uncovered…
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Sima Qian chose castration to finish his history
Talk about missing a deadline. Sima Qian, the granddaddy of Chinese history, managed to piss off Emperor Wu of Han by defending a disgraced general. Given the…
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The Bayeux Tapestry is stitched propaganda
The Middle Ages’ most famous infographic is built on a throne of lies. The Bayeux Tapestry isn't even a tapestry—it's technically an embroidery—and it serves…
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The ancient word square that reads every direction
Roman graffiti was way more sophisticated than drawing genitalia on tavern walls. The Sator Square is a mesmerizing 5x5 grid of Latin words (SATOR AREPO TENET…
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She won horses by beating suitors in wrestling
Tinder would have been an absolute nightmare for Khutulun. As the great-great-granddaughter of Genghis Khan, she issued a simple decree to potential suitors:…
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Why someone threw a priceless shield into the Thames
The Celts were so fiercely devoted to their river gods that they would forge absolute masterpieces of metallurgy just to chuck them into the mud. The…
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