WEIRD HISTORY
On the brink of nuclear war, America’s bold response to the Soviet Union depended on an unknown spy agency operative whose story can at last be told. In the background, a photograph taken by an American U-2 spy plane over Cuba on October …
Detail of The Slave Ship by J.M.W. Turner. (Barney Burstein / Corbis / VCG via Getty Images) – By Gerald Horne 2021 Feb 24 – In the middle of 1856, the soon-to-be-celebrated poet Walt Whitman visited an impounded slave ship in Brooklyn. The …
ENIAC was built to compute gunnery tables. US Army – By David Szondy 2021 Feb 25 – Seventy five years ago, the world was introduced to ENIAC, the first ever electronic, programmable, general purpose, digital computer, in a demonstration that not only ushered in …
It was a spring afternoon in 1955 when a teenager’s spontaneous act of defiance changed US history. Why did it take 40 years for her to get any credit? Claudette Colvin: ‘It felt as if Harriet Tubman’s hand was pushing me down on …
During this time, Earth’s inhabitants would have been subjected to some dazzling displays — northern and southern lights, caused by solar winds hitting the Earth’s atmosphere, would have been frequent. – By Amy Woodyatt, CNN Updated 2021 Feb 19 – The reversal of …
What can be known about Perú’s pre-Incan civilisation? Chachapoya sarcophagi, Perú. Alamy. – By Brendan Sainsbury | Published in History Today Volume 71 Issue 2 February 2021 – Recent archaeological discoveries have shed new light on the history of Perú’s Chachapoya people. Until …
Chien-Shiung Wu’s experiment in 1956 helped her colleagues win the Nobel Prize while her role was only mentioned in the acceptance speech. Chien-Shiung Wu received numerous awards and honors throughout her life, including having an asteroid named after her in 1973 and receiving …
Traders likely transported the small spheres from Italy to northern Alaska in the mid-15th century. Crafted in Venice, these blue beads traveled all the way to northern Alaska in the mid-15th century. (M. L. Kunz et al. / American Antiquity) – By Nora …
Take a peek at the mysterious black briefcase that has accompanied every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy. From the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the nuclear “Football.” (Jamie Chung) – By Michael Dobbs Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe 2014 Oct – It …
JohnTyler – Image 179070 – By Stan M. Haynes 2021 Feb 07 – Stan M. Haynes, a Baltimore attorney and historian, is currently working on a book of historical fiction set during the Tyler presidency. – An angry mob marches up Pennsylvania Avenue …
