History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
European Union legislation requires thousands of translators
Because the EU refuses to pick just one language, it operates with two dozen official working languages to appease everyone's national pride. This linguistic…
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Why medieval homes were filled with smoke
Without any proper ventilation, just cooking a basic dinner guaranteed you would be weeping profusely and coughing up black soot all night long.
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Peter the Great kept his wife’s lover’s head in a jar
The most aggressively toxic relationship counseling tactic ever conceived. When Peter the Great discovered his wife Catherine was having an affair with…
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People told time solely by listening to local church bells
You didn't own a pocket watch; you literally just waited for the neighborhood monks to yank a giant rope so you knew it was finally time for lunch.
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Italian mayor strictly banned public dice rolling
Gambling in the shadows was fine, but doing it on the pavement was crossing a line. A 14th-century official grew so utterly sick of tripping over citizens…
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Why old households kept fires burning all night
Reigniting a hearth without matches was such a tedious, miserable nightmare that peasants just let logs dangerously smolder 24/7 inside their homes.
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Incas believed their creator god emerged from a lake
Forget dramatic descent from the clouds; the supreme Inca deity preferred a damp entrance. They believed Viracocha, the creator of the universe, simply walked…
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Napoleon wasn’t actually as short as history says
Napoleon was actually an entirely respectable 5 foot 6 inches, which was the average height for a Frenchman at the time. The iconic 'short king' myth was…
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The aristocrat who threw an entirely black dinner
When you have infinite wealth and severe depression, throwing an elaborate goth banquet is the only logical step. The French aristocrat Grimod de La Reynière…
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The Titanic's sister ship sank after hitting a mine
Building massive, supposedly unsinkable ocean liners was apparently a cursed endeavor for the White Star Line. The Britannic, built with extra safety features…
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Roman politics ran on vicious personal attacks
If you think modern political attack ads are toxic, the Romans practically invented the genre. Politicians heavily utilized graffiti and public poetry to…
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Michelangelo painted his critic in Hell with donkey ears
When you're a Renaissance master, petty revenge is just another day at the office. The Pope's master of ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, openly complained that…
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International copyright protected intellectual monopolies
Before the Berne Convention, publishers freely pirated foreign books because local laws didn't apply across borders. To stop this glorious era of cheap…
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Value added tax was invented by an accountant
In a stroke of bureaucratic sadism, a French tax official in 1954 conjured up the Value Added Tax. Instead of taxing just the final sale, this masterpiece of…
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How Columbus used a lunar eclipse to get food
When you're stranded, starving, and out of goodwill, a little astronomical manipulation goes a long way. Stranded in Jamaica with a mutinous crew, Columbus…
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Time zones were created to keep trains on schedule
Before this arbitrary system, catching a ride meant desperately guessing your town's localized high noon compared to the destination's wildly different noon.
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When European nobles feared that bathing could cause disease
The sensory experience of attending a European royal court must have been absolutely lethal. Convinced that hot water opened the pores and allowed the plague…
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The samurai law that allowed killing for disrespect
In a society deeply obsessed with strict hierarchy, bad manners were a literal death sentence. The legal right known as 'Kiri-sute gomen' permitted samurai to…
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Five nations hold a permanent global veto power
When constructing the United Nations, the winning powers ensured they could never be told what to do by granting themselves permanent security council seats…
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The parrot whose words were used in court
If a bird mimics a sound, it is obviously a highly reliable eyewitness. Legal officials seriously attempted to use a squawking parrot's random repeated…
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Why a grown man could once be called a boy
Age was completely irrelevant to this word. In early texts, you could be a gray-haired sixty-year-old man, but if you were sweeping the floors of a castle,…
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Indian mathematicians conceptualized zero as a proper number
It takes a staggering amount of intellectual confidence to invent a symbol that explicitly represents absolutely nothing. Before the fifth century, zero was…
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When naturalists deliberately tested venomous snakes
The fierce dedication to categorizing intense pain was utterly unparalleled. Driven by raw scientific curiosity, early biologists would purposely infuriate…
Discover moreRichard Feynman played bongos in a samba band
Theoretical physics wasn't quite enough to occupy the frantic mind of a Nobel laureate. Richard Feynman spent a significant amount of his free time…
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