Historical events, figures, and fascinating stories from the past
19 articles found
To modern readers, this might sound bizarre. But in ancient Rome, urine was a valuable cleaning product. The reason lies in chemistry. Human urine contains...
In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. That’s about two cents per acre. At the time, many Americans mocked the...
When the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, chaos gradually unfolded over several hours. But amid the panic, the ship’s eight-member band...
In 1651, during the English Civil War, the Dutch Republic declared war on the Isles of Scilly, which were controlled by Royalist forces. And then…...
The Library of Alexandria, founded in the 3rd century BCE, was one of the greatest intellectual centers of the ancient world. At its height, it...
In one of history’s strangest military-adjacent incidents, Napoleon Bonaparte was reportedly overwhelmed by rabbits. After signing the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, Napoleon was gifted...
During the Cold War, soft drink company PepsiCo briefly became one of the largest naval powers in the world. Here’s how. In the 1970s and...
The shortest recorded war in history lasted somewhere between 38 and 45 minutes. It occurred in 1896 between the United Kingdom and the Sultanate of...
Cleopatra feels ancient. But chronologically, she’s much closer to us than to the earliest pharaohs. The Great Pyramid of Giza was completed around 2560 BCE....