WEIRD HISTORY
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 …
Anglican Rev. James Blair secured Willam and Mary’s royal charter in 1693. – By Tom McSweeney, Katharine Ello and Elsbeth O’Brien 2021 Feb 07 – Thomas J. McSweeney is the Robert and Elizabeth Scott Research Professor of Law at William & Mary Law …
