Disaster
The Yakuza’s Surprising Role in Japan’s 2011 Tsunami Relief
On March 11, 2011, Japan faced one of the most devastating natural disasters in its history—a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that…
27 Cassandras of History: Warnings That Could Have Changed Everything
Throughout time, countless voices have shouted warnings into the wind, only to watch disaster unfold exactly as they predicted. These…
40 Days and 40 Nights of Rain: The Significance of the Biblical Flood Narrative and Other Universal Flood Accounts From Around the World
Universal flood stories are widespread throughout the world, found on every inhabited continent. They often describe a cataclysmic deluge sent…
Oh, The Humanity! The Stupidest Community Decisions That Led to Catastrophe
Throughout history, communities have made decisions that seemed reasonable, even brilliant, at the moment, only to watch them unravel into…
Catastrophe: History’s Most Disastrous Defeats
Catastrophe ensued when a first century BC Roman plutocrat decided that the one thing he wanted – and that money…
The Black Death and Justinian’s Plague: History’s Worst Pestilences
Conventional wisdom has it that the medieval era’s Black Death was history’s worst plague. However, it might have been rivaled…
Floods, Earthquakes, and Volcanoes: History’s Most Consequential Natural Catastrophes
Mother Nature – and she can be a real mean mommy at times – sometimes acts up in extremely violent…
10 of the Deadliest Global Pandemics of All Time
The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa caught the global medical communities completely by surprise. From March 2014 until about…
Mount Everest: The Harsh Reality Of Life In The Death Zone
As of June 2017, 288 people have died attempting to scale the highest mountain in the world. And in a…
10 Things We Owe to the French Revolution of 1789
The French Revolution of 1789 had a greater political, intellectual, and cultural impact, than any other revolution in history. It…