Technology
Outlandish and Extravagant Facts from the Gilded Age
The Gilded Age, an 1873 Mark Twain novel that caricatured greedy businessmen and dirty politicians, lent its name to an…
Tobacco has Made the World What it is Today
Ancient Greeks and Romans smoked, though the plant nicotiana tabacum – tobacco – was unknown to them. Instead, they smoked…
Hyman G. Rickover: The Cantankerous Engineer Who Built the United States Nuclear Navy
Born in the then Kingdom of Poland, Hyman Rickover eventually served 63 years in the United States Navy. The length…
How Lies Surrounding the Alamo took Root and Other Historic Myths
Many historic account has been widely disseminated for generations, only to get exposed as a myth when examined carefully. Take…
Archaeological Facts that Could Change the Way We See History
Professor Indiana Jones made archaeology a cool, nonstop barrel of action on screen. In real life, archaeological discoveries are seldom…
Failed Double-Barrel Cannon and Other Weapons That Absolutely Flopped
A sad fact about human nature is that few things get the creative juices to flow more copiously than plans…
The Boeing B-52 Was the Greatest Fighting Airplane of Them All
Officially it is known as the Stratofortress, following the styling assigned to its predecessors, the B-17 Flying Fortress and the…
Absurd Cold War Stories That Just Don’t Make Sense
Cold War tensions brought humanity to the brink of extinction more than once. For decades, two superpowers with enough nuclear…
Unexplained Phenomenon Files from the FBI’s Vault
The size and scope of the files kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation is of no surprise to anyone…
These are the Oldest Surviving Photographs in the World
Photography has been an integral part of society for longer than people know. At its conception, humankind did not realize…