WEIRD HISTORY
Created by a Russian engineer, the theremin has delighted and confounded audiences since 1920 Russian physicist and engineer Lev Sergeyevich Termen—who later came to be widely known as Léon Theremin—invented his namesake instrument around 1920. Here, he’s pictured in 1928. (Library of Congress) …
The Chumash people poked bits of psychoactive plants into cave ceilings next to their paintings. Datura wrightii – Credit: Rick Bury (art)/Melissa Dabulamanzi (Datura)/PNAS – By Robby Berman 2020 Nov 27 – Mysterious pinwheel paintings in a California cave are probably representations of …
Harrison Ruffin Tyler and President John Tyler – Illustration courtesy of BlackChristianNews.Com – By Gillian Brockell – These days Harrison Ruffin Tyler, 91, is allowed only one designated visitor. Those are the pandemic rules at the nursing home in Virginia where he lives. …
‘The Meeting of Two Worlds,’ a sculpture at L’Anse aux Meadows, commemorates the meeting of Vikings and Native Americans around the year 1000. D. Gordon E. Robertson/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA – Author Valerie Hansen Professor of History, Yale University 2020 Jun 11 – …
The archaeological site, now open to tourists, offers clues about the mysterious empire that built it and its more famous sister city of Petra in Jordan. Once a thriving international trade hub, the archeological site of Hegra (also known as Mada’in Saleh) has …
In truth, massacres, disease and American Indian tribal politics are what shaped the Pilgrim-Indian alliance at the root of the holiday. Chief Ousamequin shares a peace pipe with Plymouth Governor John Carver. (California State Library ) – By Claire Bugos SmithsonianMag.Com 2019 Nov …
His path to fame and notoriety began by exploiting an enslaved woman, in life and in death, as entertainment for the masses. Hugh Jackman in “The Greatest Showman.” (20th Century Fox) – By Jackie Mansky SmithsonianMag.Com 2017 Dec 22 – Some five decades …
Archaeologists think the vessel was likely a 19th-century merchant ship. Researchers will continue studying the timbers in an effort to determine their age and origin. (Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program) – By Livia Gershon SmithsonianMag.Com 2020 Nov 19 – Erosion on a Florida beach …
A couple in Alsace, France, stumbled onto a capsule containing a cryptic note dated to either 1910 or 1916. A couple hiking in the Alsace region of northeastern France spotted the tiny aluminum message capsule in a grassy field in September. The note, …
Disputed findings suggest some residents of the “Lost Colony” settled 50 miles west of their original home. Two new research ventures appear to support the idea that Roanoke’s colonists split into two or more groups after abandoning the North Carolina settlement. (Public domain …
