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History
It has been 50 years since an American has claimed the title of World Chess Champion. Will it ever happen again?
We are generally taught that there is an arc of history — an inevitable path of progress that leads to modern society. Maybe it isn't true.
It is time to give the Russian cosmologist the credit he deserves.
It started with a 22-year-old woman, named in papers only as Mrs McK.
Death is the great and terrifying unknown, awaiting us all at the end of this life. Giving it a personality makes it easier to gaze upon.
Scientists used 3D scans to analyze the corpse of Amenhotep I. They discovered that his brain was never removed and that he was circumcised, among other curiosities.
Distinguishing fact from fiction can be tough, especially when it comes to people as controversial as Stalin.
Centuries ago, the plague forced people into quarantine for years. Isaac Newton and Galileo used the time to revolutionize the world.
From 1974 to 1978, the chimps of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania were at war with each other, the first time conservationists saw chimps engage in calculated, cold-blooded killing.
One player’s pawn is another’s farmer. And at one time, the queen was a rather powerless virgin.
If you put very fine black powder powder in a confined space it explodes in a cloud of heat, gas and noise.
Haters and disrespect aside, fruitcake is still a robust American tradition.
The gospels imply that Jesus became famous as much for his exorcisms as his ministry.
The German-American cartoonist introduced the idea that Santa Claus traveled with a sleigh and reindeer.
It's that time of year when the hours of meticulous wrapping of Christmas toys are viciously undone in seconds by tiny children.
Bears, chimps, or humans? A track of five poorly preserved footsteps at Laetoli has puzzled paleontologists for decades. Now, a research paper from Nature claims to have solved the mystery.
Cities overstimulate our senses and are full of people we don't know. Maybe humans were meant for this.
Far from acting as the conduits of a benevolent deity, these religious leaders threw the teachings of their own church out of the window.
Washington believed that particular Thanksgiving in 1789 was a crucial occasion.
The early colonists thought they were being pulled by God into a void left by plague.
We haven't seen a partial eclipse lasting this long since 1440, and won't again until 2669. North America is perfectly positioned for 2021's.
Although equal parts Hollywood blockbuster and Putinist propaganda, "Trotsky" still manages to capture the good, the bad, and the ugly of Russia’s revolutionary past.
Looking with lasers, researchers discovered that many Olmec and Mayan ruins seem to have been constructed from the same blueprint.
Our views from the red planet’s surface are more spectacular than ever. Ever since the earliest spaceflight, humanity has reached for Mars. This photo composite shows Meande Ring, a river on […]
The Crab Nebula goes back to 1054, opening a window into our cosmic past. On July 4, 1054, Chinese astronomers recorded a “guest star” in the Taurus constellation. A ‘guest star’ […]
After a wait of 397 years in orbit, we’re finally getting a truly ‘Great’ Conjunction. Recently, December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn finally met. Looking towards the southwest skies from […]
Known as the ‘North Star,’ Polaris won’t stay that way forever. Planet Earth spins a full 360°, about its axis, every 24 hours. The Earth in orbit around the Sun, with […]
It contains more water than all the Great Lakes combined, and the science of our planet explains why. Although practically all of Earth’s human population lives on dry land, our surface […]
This year’s June solstice coincides with a new Moon and an annular solar eclipse. Here’s how rare it truly is. As the Earth orbits the Sun, it rotates on its axis. […]
And if you have a friend at the same longitude, you can even measure its circumference. This year’s equinox, on March 19/20 of 2020 (longitude-dependent), is Earth’s earliest in 124 […]