How Benjamin Franklin’s Stove Invention Kept Early America From Freezing
The biggest revolution in Benjamin Franklin’s lifetime was made to fit in a fireplace. Assembled from iron plates like a piece of flatpack furniture, the Franklin stove became one of the era's most ic...
8 Apr 202541min
Roman Churches Had No Involvement in Marriage. How Did It Become a Holy Sacrament by the Middle Ages?
For much of Christian history, the Church had little involvement in marriage, which was primarily a contract between families. It wasn’t until the fourth century that church weddings emerged, and even...
3 Apr 202538min
How a Mess Cook Saved Dozens of Sailors from Shark Infested Waters Off the Coast of Guadalcanal
On the night of September 5, 1942, the USS Gregory (APD-3), a converted destroyer turned high-speed transport, was caught in a deadly ambush near Guadalcanal. The ship had been supporting U.S. Marine ...
1 Apr 202528min
Humanity’s Past Suggests We Only Have 10,000 Years to Change or Go Extinct
We are living through a period that is unique in human history. For the first time in more than ten thousand years, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. In the middle of this century p...
27 Mar 202553min
The 16th Century Ottomans Nearly Conquered Europe. Why Did European Kingdoms Make So Many Alliances With Them?
The determined attempt to thwart Ottoman dominance was fought by Muslims and Christians across five theaters from the Balkans to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, from Persia to Russia. But this...
25 Mar 202551min
Fort Stanwix and the Forgotten Revolutionary War Siege That Convinced France to Help the US
After a series of military defeats over the winter of 1776–1777, British military leaders developed a bold plan to gain control of the Hudson River and divide New England from the rest of the colonies...
20 Mar 202542min
Enough is Enuf, Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell
No language is as inconsistent in spelling and pronunciation as English. Kernel and colonel rhyme, but read changes based on past or present tense. Ough has many pronunciations: ‘aw’ (thought), ‘ow’ (...
18 Mar 202539min
Did Haiti’s First and Last King Squander the Revolution or Succeed in Underappreciated Ways?
Slave, revolutionary, king, Henry Christophe was, in his time, popular and famous the world over. Born to an enslaved mother on the Caribbean island of Grenada, Christophe first fought to overthrow th...
13 Mar 202551min
