History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
How ancient engineers hid rivers underground
When the sun relentlessly vaporizes every drop of surface water, you have to hide your plumbing. Ancient engineers constructed Qanats, gently sloping…
Discover more
Public bakeries were heavily used to cook private dinners
Because average citizens completely lacked proper home ovens, everyone literally dropped off their raw meat at the breadmaker to be roasted over the weekend.
Discover more
Halley's comet was famous long before Halley
Edmond Halley gets all the credit, but he was incredibly late to the party. The glowing comet had been meticulously documented by skywatchers for over two…
Discover more
Why Aztec priests wore flayed human skin
Buffalo Bill could never match the bespoke tailoring of Mesoamerican priests. During festivals honoring Xipe Totec, the god of agriculture, Aztec priests…
Discover more
Aztecs buried Xolo dogs as guides to the afterlife
The Xoloitzcuintli was an entirely bald, heavily wrinkled dog breed tasked with a massive spiritual burden. Aztecs believed these deeply weird-looking pets…
Discover more
Sailboats existed before the wheel
Because catching the wind is vastly easier than making a perfect circle. Humanity had already mastered the incredibly complex art of nautical navigation long…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
First test tube baby revolutionized reproduction
Bypassing standard human biology entirely was once considered pure science fiction. In 1978, Louise Brown was born in the UK, becoming the world's very first…
Discover more
When anesthesia could set the operating room on fire
Going under the knife used to involve a severe risk of spontaneous combustion. Before modern sedatives, doctors used ether to knock patients unconscious,…
Discover more
A dog was once allegedly given a life sentence
Some pets are simply too undeniably bad for a normal time-out. A black retriever allegedly murdered the governor's beloved cat, so it was absurdly formally…
Discover more
Peruvian geoglyphs were created by scraping red pebbles
Creating massive, miles-long ground drawings didn't require advanced lasers. Locals just rigorously scraped away the dark top layer of rocky desert to reveal…
Discover more
The secret passages built to hide persecuted priests
Hide-and-seek gets incredibly intense when your religious affiliation is suddenly outlawed. Mansions were retrofitted with hollow walls and trapdoors strictly…
Discover more
Ukiyo-e woodblocks mass produced masterpieces
Because elitist art hoarding is no fun. Japanese artisans figured out how to churn out incredibly complex, multi-colored prints of waves and actors by the…
Discover more
Space suits for the Apollo missions were expertly sewn together by a company that manufactured ladies bras
When NASA needed an airtight, temperature-controlled, bulletproof garment to protect men on the harsh surface of the moon, they didn't rely on rugged military…
Discover more
Why brides started throwing bouquets
Brides originally threw their flowers strictly as a decoy because the attendees used to aggressively rush them to tear off pieces of their dress for good luck.
Discover more
The grass bridges rebuilt every year
Building a sturdy bridge out of steel is an achievement, but suspending a heavily trafficked walkway over a deadly gorge using literally nothing but woven…
Discover more
Yams were historically cultivated in West Africa
True yams are massive, heavily textured tubers that require serious manual labor to dig out of West African soils. Early farmers spent massive amounts of…
Discover more
The horrifying ancient remedy for nerve damage
The Greeks had a horrific remedy for nerve damage that involved boiling newborn dogs alive in oil. It didn't cure anything, but it definitely ruined…
Discover more
Microscopes revealed organisms nobody believed existed
Ignorance is bliss until you look at a drop of pond water. When the first microscopes were developed, scientists were utterly horrified to discover thousands…
Discover more
Mahler tried to outsmart the curse of the ninth
Nothing screams intellectual brilliance quite like being paralyzed by a completely arbitrary number. Mahler was so terrified of the 'curse of the ninth'—a…
Discover more
The performers who leap from a towering pole
Standard choreography is for people afraid of heights. The Danza de los Voladores involves five men climbing a massive, hundred-foot pole. While one plays a…
Discover more
Why holy babies look like tiny old men in paintings
Forget soft chubby cheeks; early religious artists actively wanted infants to heavily resemble highly stressed old men. Believing that holy children were born…
Discover more
Japanese homes used sliding paper doors
Solid heavy doors are incredibly dangerous during constant earthquakes, so architects opted for lightweight wooden frames covered in sheer paper. Sure,…
Discover more
Ancient Chinese brickmakers stamped their names into clay
Achieving massive scale production quality control was a serious problem, so supervisors implemented an incredibly ruthless accountability system. Every…
Discover more
Incan administrators mandated physical labor for taxation
Instead of demanding a cut of your income, the state simply demanded a cut of your sweat. Through a system known as 'mit'a', citizens were required to spend a…
Discover more