WEIRD HISTORY
By Mike Rothschild – It’s time to find the real stories behind Christmas legends and holiday myths. With over 2,000 years of history, the Christmas holiday comes with a host of myths, legends, lies, misconceptions, and commonly believed things that are just …
By Anthony Wood – A reconstruction of the ancient female, based on DNA extracted from ancient birch pitch. Illustration by Tom Björklund. – Scientists have successfully extracted a complete human genome from a 5,700-year-old piece of “chewing gum” that was discovered in southern …
The mythical holiday beast is once again on the prowl, but beware, he’s making his way across the Atlantic A man dressed in a traditional Perchten costume and mask performs during a Perchten festival in the western Austrian village of Kappl, November 13, …
The finding bolsters the idea that even 44,000 years ago, artistic ingenuity was shaping cultures across the Eurasian continent. Six humanoid figures with animal features surround an anoa, a small type of buffalo, in a 44,000-year-old Indonesian cave mural. (Ratno Sardi). By Katherine …
Archaeologists now can more closely date when the religion spread to the Aksumite Empire. At an archaeological site in Ethiopia, researchers are uncovering the oldest Christian basilica in sub-Saharan Africa. (Ioana Dumitru). By Andrew Lawler Smithsonian.Com – In the dusty highlands of northern …
During World War II, the stalls served as rendezvous points for French Resistance fighters. Photographer Charles Marville captured this snapshot of an open-air urinal with three stalls in 1865. Public domain. By Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian.Com – To keep precious military intel …
“Faceless” Indus Valley City Puzzles Archaeologists. Mohenjo Daro 101 By John Roach – A well-planned street grid and an elaborate drainage system hint that the occupants of the ancient Indus civilization city of Mohenjo Daro were skilled urban planners with a reverence for …
Photo: Unknown/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0. Was the real Lone Ranger African American? Most likely, yes – and his name was Bass Reeves. By Melissa Sartore – Bass Reeves was born into slavery in 1838 in Arkansas but later became one of the most successful and …
By Genevieve Carlton – On September 29, 1929, the USSR had its last Sunday for 11 years. In an effort to boost productivity and eliminate religion, Josef Stalin instituted a new Soviet calendar, known as the Soviet Eternal Calendar. Under the Soviet Union’s …
Dubbed “America’s Cowboy Philosopher,” Rogers was a vaudeville, newspaper, radio and movie star By Sarah Wells – In today’s media landscape, we’re used to seeing Jacks and Janes of all trades — celebrities writing memoirs, starring in movies or expressing their 2 a.m. thoughts …
