History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
The king who barked at his royal guests
It's hard to command respect when you communicate exclusively in yips. The profoundly eccentric monarch was quietly removed from power by his exasperated…
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How Ottoman drums terrified European armies
Forget silent stealth tactics; the Ottomans believed in giving their enemies an anxiety attack through aggressive percussion. The Janissary bands would march…
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Indian metalworkers inlay silver wire onto dark zinc
A plain metal vase is fundamentally tragic without highly contrasting accents. Bidriware artists take blackened alloys of zinc and copper and meticulously…
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Why the Mongols killed a ruler without spilling blood
Because shedding royal blood on the earth was considered profoundly bad luck, the Mongols found a spectacular technical loophole. When they captured the…
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Egyptian scribes wrote on papyrus because stone was heavy
Carving official decrees into massive chunks of limestone looks fantastic, but it is a terrible way to send a quick memo. Administrators quickly realized that…
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When Coca-Cola contained cocaine
That refreshing 3 PM energy boost used to hit a whole lot harder. When John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886, he marketed it as a patent medicine and…
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The fish market discovery that rewrote evolution
The coelacanth was fully believed to have died out with the dinosaurs over sixty million years ago. That was until a museum curator casually spotted one dead…
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When bathing meant gossiping in a giant tub
You didn't just quickly hop in the shower; you sat in a giant wooden vat with ten of your neighbors to heavily gossip about the village.
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Botticelli may have burned his own masterpieces
Even the greatest artists are highly susceptible to terrifying cults of personality. Sandro Botticelli, famous for painting the gorgeous 'Birth of Venus,'…
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Lego derives its name from a Danish phrase meaning play well
Because 'step on this in the dark and cry' was entirely too long for a corporate logo. The iconic brick company perfectly encapsulated childhood joy with a…
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Why a king banned soccer in medieval England
The sport known globally for heavily theatrical dives used to be heavily scrutinized as basically organized street combat. In the 1300s, 'mob football' was so…
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How God be with ye became goodbye
Centuries of humans being too lazy to enunciate gave us our standard farewell. It originally started as the lengthy blessing 'God be with ye,' which people…
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Prehistoric ovens were just giant holes dug in the earth
The original slow cooker literally just consisted of throwing a bunch of hot rocks and raw meat into a dirt pit and completely burying it for hours.
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Pipa lutes slice through musical ensembles
Because acoustic instruments shouldn't get lost in the background. With its aggressive fret layout and rapid-fire plucking technique, this pear-shaped lute…
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The periodic table was supposedly born in a dream
The ultimate proof that sleeping on the job is productive. Dmitri Mendeleev struggled for months to organize the known elements. Exhausted, he fell asleep at…
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Mass literacy is an incredibly recent historical anomaly
For thousands of years, the ability to read was fiercely guarded by a tiny elite class who used it to maintain power over the illiterate masses. The idea that…
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Why some Maya stretched their earlobes with jade
Standard earrings are terribly uninventive. To properly display their aesthetic superiority, individuals inserted massive, deeply carved jade spools…
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The king who ate himself to death on lampreys
His doctors begged him to stop eating terrifying, parasitic blood-sucking eels. Henry ignored them, ate a massive mountain of them, and promptly died of food…
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Holy Grail legends inspired countless doomed quests
A fictional cup from a famous dinner party became the ultimate obsession for extremely bored knights. The idea of drinking from magical tableware sent…
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Lemongrass was heavily farmed in maritime Asia
Rather than settling for standard leafy greens, early maritime farmers decided to cultivate a plant that looks like aggressive weeds but smells vaguely like…
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Tamarind pods provided severe tartness in Africa
Before becoming a staple paste across global cuisines, tamarind originated as a wildly sour pod hanging off massive trees in tropical Africa. Early foragers…
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The researcher who drank vomit to study yellow fever
To prove yellow fever wasn't contagious, this researcher rubbed fresh patient vomit into open wounds and drank it like a smoothie. He was actually right, but…
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When fashionable wigs attracted live mice
High fashion used to smell exactly like a rotting slaughterhouse. To achieve those impossibly high powdered hairstyles, women used animal lard as a styling…
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How Romans fought war elephants with flaming pigs
Forget deploying sophisticated spear formations; absolutely nothing stops an armored elephant like a shrieking, fiery bacon missile. When enemies deployed…
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