History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
The TurboGrafx-16 was powered by an 8-bit CPU
The “16” described the graphics chip, not the processor: the TurboGrafx-16’s CPU was 8-bit. The name went with the flashier number.
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How a winter fire turned Hakodate to ashes
In 1934, strong winter winds carried a small fire across Hakodate, spreading the blaze despite the freezing weather.
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The first chocolate bars were gritty and bitter
Before processing made chocolate smooth, early bars kept the coarse texture and sharp, slightly acidic taste of ground cocoa. They looked like a treat; the…
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Persia's 'Immortals' kept their headcount alive
Herodotus described an elite Persian force of 10,000 whose dead or sick members were replaced to keep the number constant. That was his explanation for their…
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New Jersey kept trial by combat on the books until 1818
New Jersey’s reliance on English common law left the right on the books. A British court case exposed the loophole in 1818, prompting lawmakers to remove it.
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The machine gun was meant to make armies smaller
Physician Richard Gatling hoped one soldier with a machine gun could do the work of a hundred, shrinking armies and saving lives. Instead, armies kept their…
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German chocolate cake is named after a man, not Germany
The “German” in German chocolate cake was Samuel German, an American baker—not the country. His baking chocolate went into the recipe, and his surname went…
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Why Janissaries overturned their cooking pots
An overturned cauldron was more than a complaint about pay: it signaled collective protest from the Janissaries, whose defiance could threaten the sultan’s…
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Ancient Greeks thought the uterus could wander
They imagined the uterus roaming in search of moisture, then blamed it for symptoms when it pressed on the lungs. A wandering organ gave ancient Greek…
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A colonial tavern bed could come with strangers already in it
Travelers often shared rooms and beds. Robert Hunter Jr. recorded a crowded tavern night near Williamsburg in which three men argued over who would sleep in…
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One Habsburg could have three burial places
For many members of the dynasty, the body went to Vienna's Capuchin Crypt, the heart to St. Augustine's Church, and the entrails to St. Stephen's Cathedral.…
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Foresters learned that a tidy plantation is not the whole forest
Early scientific forestry emphasized measurable timber production and uniform stands. Later critics argued that calculations and one-size-fits-all planting…
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One surgery acquired a legend of three deaths
A famous story about surgeon Robert Liston says he amputated a leg so fast that he also cut an assistant’s fingers and terrified a spectator. Later retellings…
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Why Egyptians feared erasing a name
A name was more than a label: speaking it could help keep a dead person present, in a sense. Erasing it from a monument threatened that memory—and the…
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Medieval London's gutters carried more than rain
Wastewater and household slops joined rain in open street channels. Narrow streets could have a gutter down the middle, putting drainage directly in the…
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Pasta dough once got its workout under workers' feet
Historical accounts of Neapolitan production describe dough being kneaded by trampling. Naples' King Ferdinand II objected to the practice and backed the…
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Doctors once tried tobacco-smoke enemas to revive the drowned
Eighteenth-century doctors thought tobacco smoke’s warmth might revive people pulled from the water, so they built bellows to pump it into the rectum. The…
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Original microscopes required direct natural sunlight
With no internal light source, the earliest single-lens microscopes had to be aimed at natural sunlight to illuminate specimens.
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How birth certificates turned birth into bureaucracy
Parish books could record a birth without giving officials a consistent way to identify the person later. Standardized certificates made people legible to…
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Medieval peasants had surprisingly many days off
The Church calendar gave peasants dozens of feast days and saint holidays away from work. Their time off came by religious decree, even as poor healthcare…
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How storms defeated the Spanish Armada
Fireships helped scatter the Spanish fleet, but severe storms battered it afterward and wrecked many ships. The Armada had survived the enemy’s attack only to…
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The rescue story attached to Sydney's Opera House
One famous account has judge Eero Saarinen arriving late and rescuing Jørn Utzon's design from the rejects. The Opera House itself presents this as a disputed…
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Babylonian observers charted Jupiter movements
They recorded Jupiter’s position on wet clay with reeds, building a series of observations they could compare over time. The tablets turned a slow-moving…
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The saint who reportedly excommunicated flies
A legend says Saint Bernard excommunicated a swarm of flies infesting a chapel; by the next morning, they were reportedly dead.
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