WEIRD HISTORY

Historians Reveal History’s Best Kept Secrets

  By Genevieve Carlton – Updated 2019 Sep 20 – Though people pretend it’s written in stone, history features tons of famous mysteries – many of which remain unsolved. From the location of Genghis Khan’s tomb to the instructions for making a Byzantine weapon that …

The Most Bizarre Shortages In History

  By Stephan Roget  2020 Mar 30 – Amid the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020, it shouldn’t come as news to anyone that markets will occasionally run short of something, and not just the staples like food, water, and toilet paper – sometimes it’s …

 

The fashionable history of social distancing

Crinolines, by design, made physical contact nearly impossible. Hulton Archive/Stringer via Getty Images. – By Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, Visiting Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University – As the world grapples with the coronavirus outbreak, “social distancing” has become a buzzword of these strange times. …

How the Word “OK” Was Invented 175 Years Ago

OK is an editorial joke run wild. (Photo: ClassicStock/Corbis) – By Rachel Nuwer – SmithsonianMag.Com – “OK” is one of the most common words in the English language, but linguistically it’s a relative newbie. It’s just 150 years old, and traces its roots …