Uninhabited US Territories: America's Crumbs
In 1856, the United States passed a law allowing American citizens to claim islands in the country’s name, provided that no other country claimed them and that no one lived there. The result was a h...
21 Mar 14min
Maori Settlement of New Zealand: How Polynesians Reached Aotearoa
For millions of years, the islands of New Zealand remained a pristine wilderness, untouched by human footsteps. That changed in the 13th century when the world’s most elite mariners executed one of h...
20 Mar 14min
The Chicxulub Impact: The Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs
Sometime around 66 million years ago, a meteor smashed into what is today the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The impact of that event changed life on Earth in ways that are still evident today. Evid...
19 Mar 16min
The Persian Gulf Explained: History, Oil, and Global Importance
For thousands of years, a narrow body of water between Arabia and Persia has shaped the fate of empires, economies, and the modern world. The Persian Gulf has been a crossroads of trade, a cradle of...
18 Mar 15min
Vincent van Gogh Explained: Life, Art, and Rise to Fame After Death
Few artists are as instantly recognizable as Vincent van Gogh. In just a single decade of work, he created some of the most famous paintings in history, filled with bold color, swirling movement, an...
17 Mar 15min
The Globalization of Baseball
Today, baseball is played at the highest levels on nearly every continent. Stars come from the United States, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Korea, and far beyond. Yet for most of its his...
16 Mar 14min
The Greatest Oscar Snubs
Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosts the biggest celebration of movies and moviemaking: The Oscars. Thousands of members vote in multiple categories to honor the best fil...
15 Mar 13min
The North American Bison
For thousands of years, one animal shaped the ecology, culture, and history of an entire continent. In vast herds that once numbered in the tens of millions, the North American bison dominated the G...
14 Mar 15min
