Pilgrimages Involved Penitent Marches, Visiting Holy Places, and Watching Drunken Emperors Go on Chariot Rides
Pilgrimages are a universal phenomenon, from China’s bustling Tai Shan to the ancient Jewish treks to Jerusalem. But why? What is it about a grueling penitent march to an isolated temple that has beco...
24 Apr 202544min
Britain Learned How to Set Up Its Global Empire on a Tiny Bermudan Island
Years before Jamestown planters made New World farming profitable by growing tobacco, and years before their countrymen up north in Plymouth Colony managed to overcome their starvation conditions and ...
22 Apr 202544min
The Hatfield-McCoy Feud Started Over a Pig and Nearly Escalated Into a Regional War
The origins of the Hatfield-McCoy conflict (between the Hatfield family of West Virginia, led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield, and the McCoy family of Kentucky, led by Randolph "Old Randall"...
17 Apr 202545min
The 1845 Potato Blight Struck Across Northern Europe. Why Did Only Ireland Starve?
In 1845, a novel pathogen attacked potato fields across Europe, from Spain to Scandinavia—but only in Ireland were the effects apocalyptic. At least one million Irish people died, and millions more sc...
15 Apr 202548min
A Simple Tennessee Preacher Transformed Abolitionism from a Deeply Unpopular Radical Movement to a Centrist Cause
Sitting high above the small community of Ripley, Ohio, a lantern shone in the front window of a small, red brick home at night. It was a signal to slaves just across the Ohio River. Anyone fleeing bo...
10 Apr 202551min
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
