History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
The fungus that erased billions of chestnut trees
The American chestnut tree once heavily dominated eastern forests until a devastating fungal blight was accidentally introduced in the early twentieth…
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Massive waterfalls divide two countries
Iguazu Falls stretches incredibly wide across the border of Argentina and Brazil, splitting into hundreds of separate cascading drops. The deafening roar of…
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The earthquake that spawned tornadoes of fire
As if the ground violently shaking wasn't offensive enough, the 1923 Great Kanto event triggered massive blazes that merged with high winds. This horrifying…
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Giant Canadian valley spans a long distance
The Rocky Mountain Trench is a massively long, completely straight geological depression stretching nearly a thousand miles through British Columbia. Visible…
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The invisible line that divides Indonesia's wildlife
Running strictly between certain Indonesian islands is the Wallace Line, a completely invisible biological boundary where the local fauna drastically changes.…
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The world's tallest tree is being kept secret
Somewhere deep in a national park stands Hyperion, a coast redwood so absurdly tall it makes towering skyscrapers look utterly pathetic. To prevent eager…
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An invasive snake made Guam's forests go silent
Accidentally arriving on cargo ships, the brown tree snake found an island completely unprepared for a climbing, venomous predator. The snakes wildly…
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The last passenger pigeon died alone in a zoo
Once boasting flocks so massive they darkened the skies for days, the passenger pigeon was hunted relentlessly until only one remained. Named Martha, she…
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Mauna Kea is taller than Everest from base to summit
If measured strictly from its base on the dark ocean floor to its snowy summit, Mauna Kea is significantly taller than anything in the Himalayas.…
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Thin clay layer marks a mass extinction
Scattered across the globe is a remarkably thin boundary of sediment packed with rare iridium, cleanly separating the age of giant terrestrial reptiles from…
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A 5,000-year-old tree was cut down by accident
In 1964, a researcher trying to date a bristlecone pine got his drill stuck and decided the logical solution was to just cut the whole thing down. He…
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Why Methuselah's location is a secret
Methuselah is a bristlecone pine that has been silently judging the planet for almost five thousand years. Because humans have a terrible track record of…
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Aggressive ants invaded the United States
Sometime in the 1930s, red imported fire ants discreetly hitched a ride to a port in Alabama and subsequently declared war on the local ecosystem. Building…
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Argentina holds highest non-Asian peak
Aconcagua towers over the Andes, firmly establishing itself as the tallest landmass anywhere in the western hemisphere. Despite its imposing altitude, it is…
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A volcano suddenly grew in a Mexican farmer's field
Because our planet apparently despises stationary landscapes, a crack opened in a Mexican pasture in 1943 and began spitting fire. A local farmer was just…
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Highest active volcano sits in the Andes
Ojos del Salado aggressively claims the title of the tallest active stratovolcano on the planet, looming right on the border of Chile and Argentina. Because…
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The tree with naturally rainbow-colored bark
While most trees settle for boring brown exteriors, the rainbow eucalyptus sheds its bark in strips to aggressively reveal a vibrant neon palette of green,…
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The island that existed only on maps
Sandy Island sat confidently on digital maps for years, tricking modern navigational systems into routing ships around a totally fictional piece of land near…
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The tsunami that surged 1,700 feet uphill
Forget everything disaster movies taught you about tidal waves, because reality is vastly more terrifying. In 1958, a massive rockslide dropped into Alaska's…
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Yucatan peninsula hides underwater caves
Instead of normal surface rivers, this region of Mexico features a massive interconnected network of flooded limestone sinkholes known as cenotes. When the…
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How scientists accidentally created aggressive bees
Biologists attempting to increase tropical pollination yields in Brazil accidentally unleashed a highly aggressive strain of honeybee that quickly escaped…
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The lake that released a deadly invisible cloud
Lake Nyos looks perfectly peaceful, but in 1986 it suddenly released a massive invisible bubble of carbon dioxide from deep volcanic vents. The dense gas…
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The world's highest unclimbed peak is in Bhutan
While every other peak on the globe is swarming with tourists, Gangkhar Puensum remains blissfully untouched. Bhutan completely banned mountaineering on peaks…
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The president whose grandsons lived into the 21st century
Clearly lacking a robust schedule of presidential duties, Tyler decided to focus his energy on population growth. He had eight children with his first wife…
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