History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
Tutankhamun's dagger blade was made from meteoritic iron.
Tutankhamun's dagger blade was made from meteoritic iron. Researchers used X-ray fluorescence to measure the blade without cutting it apart. Its high nickel…
Discover more
Catherine the Great paid a doctor to give her smallpox protection—and made him a baron.
Catherine the Great paid a doctor to give her smallpox protection—and made him a baron. In 1768, Thomas Dimsdale inoculated the empress and her son Paul. This…
Discover more
General Santa Anna held a massive, lavish state funeral with full military honors for his amputated leg after it was destroyed in battle by French cannon fire.
General Santa Anna held a massive, lavish state funeral with full military honors for his amputated leg after it was destroyed in battle by French cannon…
Discover more
United States intelligence officials seriously considered dropping enormous, extra-large condoms labeled medium onto the Soviet Union as a bizarre psychological warfare tactic.
United States intelligence officials seriously considered dropping enormous, extra-large condoms labeled medium onto the Soviet Union as a bizarre…
Discover more
Alexander killed the commander who had saved him.
Alexander killed the commander who had saved him. Cleitus had saved Alexander's life at the Granicus. Years later, in 328 BC, their argument at a drinking…
Discover more
An SS newspaper attacked Superman's Jewish creator.
An SS newspaper attacked Superman's Jewish creator. In 1940, Das Schwarze Korps responded to a comic in which Superman seized Hitler and Stalin. Its attack…
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.
A medieval chronicler gave William's funeral a gruesome ending.
A medieval chronicler gave William's funeral a gruesome ending. Orderic Vitalis wrote that William the Conqueror's swollen body would not fit its stone tomb.…
Discover more
The Spartans made red cloaks part of their military image.
The Spartans made red cloaks part of their military image. Ancient writers associated the clothing with a formidable appearance, and later explanations often…
Discover more
Mary Shelley kept a relic believed to be her husband's heart.
Mary Shelley kept a relic believed to be her husband's heart. After Percy Shelley drowned in 1822, his body was cremated on an Italian beach. Edward Trelawny…
Discover more
Benjamin Franklin's morning bath contained no water.
Benjamin Franklin's morning bath contained no water. In a 1768 letter, Franklin described sitting naked in his room for half an hour to an hour while reading…
Discover more
Hong Xiuquan failed his imperial civil service examinations so many times in nineteenth-century China that he had a nervous breakdown and hallucinated that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ.
Hong Xiuquan failed his imperial civil service examinations so many times in nineteenth-century China that he had a nervous breakdown and hallucinated that he…
Discover more
An early treadmill made prisoners climb without getting anywhere.
An early treadmill made prisoners climb without getting anywhere. William Cubitt’s 1818 design used a large rotating wheel that inmates stepped on, sometimes…
Discover more
A brewery vat failure sent a deadly beer flood through London.
A brewery vat failure sent a deadly beer flood through London. In 1814, a vat at the Horse Shoe Brewery failed, releasing a huge volume of porter into…
Discover more
A doctor helped sell Americans on tomatoes by calling them medicine.
A doctor helped sell Americans on tomatoes by calling them medicine. In the 1830s, John Cook Bennett promoted tomatoes for digestive complaints, including…
Discover more
A Roman historian gave Rome's enemy a devastating line.
A Roman historian gave Rome's enemy a devastating line. In Agricola, Tacitus puts the accusation that conquerors make a desert and call it peace into a speech…
Discover more
Oliver Cromwell was exhumed for a posthumous execution in 1661.
Oliver Cromwell was exhumed for a posthumous execution in 1661. After the monarchy returned, his body was taken from Westminster Abbey, hanged at Tyburn, and…
Discover more
The Voynich Manuscript has pages you can see but still can't read.
The Voynich Manuscript has pages you can see but still can't read. Its parchment dates to the early 1400s, yet the writing has resisted an accepted…
Discover more
A WWII commando took a sword into a prisoner raid.
A WWII commando took a sword into a prisoner raid. Jack Churchill described using a captured sentry to approach other German posts near Salerno in 1943, with…
Discover more
German physician Athanasius Kircher designed a horrific musical instrument in the 17th century that was entirely powered by the screams of tortured cats.
German physician Athanasius Kircher designed a horrific musical instrument in the 17th century that was entirely powered by the screams of tortured cats. A…
Discover more
New Englanders in the 19th century were so terrified of tuberculosis that they began digging up their dead relatives and burning their hearts to stop vampires.
New Englanders in the 19th century were so terrified of tuberculosis that they began digging up their dead relatives and burning their hearts to stop…
Discover more
A 2,500-year-old sword emerged with its shine intact.
A 2,500-year-old sword emerged with its shine intact. The Sword of Goujian was found in a Chinese tomb in 1965, still inside a lacquered wooden scabbard. Its…
Discover more
Kellogg's cereal grew out of a sanitarium kitchen.
Kellogg's cereal grew out of a sanitarium kitchen. Experiments in making digestible grain foods produced flakes that could be baked and served to patients.…
Discover more
A wartime weapons test closed an island for decades.
A wartime weapons test closed an island for decades. Britain tested anthrax weapons on Scotland's Gruinard Island during World War II. Contamination outlasted…
Discover more
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, insisted that the games should feature competitions in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture,…
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, insisted that the games should feature competitions in architecture, literature, music,…
Discover more