🌍 History

• 🏯Who Built the Great Wall of China?

  The most massive symbol of Chinese culture hasn’t always taken the same route, or served the same purpose—and no single person can take the credit.

• 💡It's All Printing

  Semiconductor fabrication continues the age-old tradition of lithography at the bleeding edge of physics

• 🎤Is it ethical to clone FDR's voice? What if it's really, really funny?

  Or, a joke that shall live in infamy...

• 🚽Who Invented the Flush Toilet?

  Explore the flush toilet's journey from ancient sanitation innovation to modern necessity, tracing its evolution through history and technology.

• 📜Rediscovering the Greek Revolution’s Roots in Classical Liberalism

  Explore the classical liberal roots of the Greek Revolution as KEFiM illuminates the ideals that shaped modern Greece through a dynamic bicentennial campaign.

• 🧬Hidden Depths - The ancestry of our most human emotions

  Many of the social virtues we think of as unique to modern humans may have developed far earlier than previously thought.

• 🏺Consciousness and creativity in the Neolithic at Çatalhöyük, Turkey

  Searching one of the world’s oldest settlements for clues about the development of human cognition

• 📚Eight Things You Might Not Know about Booker T. Washington

  For starters, he chose his own last name.

• 🗺️Portfolio | History Here 3.0

  In an exciting update to the History HERE app, I've contributed to the launch of version 3.0, which includes seven new historical tours.

• 📜Articles | Lists, Questions and Culinary Delights

  Over the past few months, I've been diving into the fun facts and intriguing stories of history for the History Channel's website.

• 🎄The History of Christmas Pudding

  Dive into the fiery history of Christmas pudding, from medieval savories to Dickens' festive table centerpiece.

• 👑Eight Things You May Not Know About Henry VIII

  Defender of the faith? Yes. Of his wives? Not so much.

• 🥧The History of Pumpkin Pie

  Discover the rich history of pumpkin pie, a staple that dates back to 5,500 B.C. and symbolizes American tradition and celebration.

• 🧱How Long Was the Berlin Wall?

  Explore the history and impact of the Berlin Wall, a stark Cold War symbol that split a city and its people for three decades.

• 🏛️What is the world’s oldest democracy?

  Explore the roots and debates surrounding the world’s oldest democracies, from ancient Athens to Viking-led parliaments.

• 🏛️Six Modern Capitals With Ancient Roots

  Explore how six capitals, including Athens and Beirut, have evolved from ancient roots to modern metropolises, blending rich histories with contemporary life.

• 🀄Seven Things You May Not Know About the Ming Dynasty

  “Zijin Cheng,” means “Purple Forbidden City,” a colorful reference not to the city’s walls but to the night sky.

• 🐘Ten Famous Elephants From History

  Explore the colossal impact of 10 historic elephants, from war behemoths to symbols of regal diplomacy.

• 📏Who invented the metric system?

  Discover how French revolutionaries standardized measurements and gave us the metric system, simplifying everything from science to daily life.

• 📜Six Things You May Not Know About Magna Carta

  Discover six intriguing aspects of Magna Carta, a charter that shaped modern democracy, forged under duress and rich historical negotiation.

• 🗺️Articles | History Here

  Exploring the vast narrative of American history, as detailed in the development of the History Here app, which allows users to uncover over 6,000 historical points of interest across the nation.

• 🏛️Articles | Ancient History for History.com

  Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Near Eastern cultures, oh my!

• 📜Articles | European History for History.com

  I had quite a bit of fun writing these pieces on European topics for History.com, exploring figures and events that shaped the continent.

• 📜Articles | American topics for History.com

  Capsule bios of Guglielmo Marconi, Lucky Luciano and more.

• ⚗️Six or more glasses daily!

  The curious legacy of radium and the fascinating misconceptions surrounding its early discovery.

• 📖Citation Needed

  Reflecting on the quirks and community-driven nature of Wikipedia's content and editing processes.

• 🖼️Every Painting in the MoMA on 10 April 2010

  In a reflective commentary on art and nostalgia, the author explores the duality of modernity and timelessness showcased in MoMA's renowned collection.

• ⛪An archipelago of churches, one pebble at a time

  An incredible account of a unique tradition in Montenegro's Bay of Kotor, where devotion and geology intertwine through the art of throwing stones into the sea.

• 🍂Agate snuff bottle, China, 19th century

  Reflecting on the intriguing history and artistry of antique Chinese snuff bottles.

• 🏛️Life and taxes

  How colonial tax policies have left lasting impacts on governance in Nigeria.

• 🏚️The generative richness of ruins

  Exploring the intertwined nature of creation and destruction, Rebecca Solnit reflects on the cyclical history of San Francisco’s transformations.

• 🏙️Old cities, still kicking

  A critique of the overview of Varanasi's tourist influx, along with a reference to a more reliable list of ancient cities.

• 🌜Le voyage dans la Lune, by George Méliès

  Celebrating the 107th anniversary of Georges Méliès' iconic film, Le voyage dans la Lune, and its intriguing connections to the 1969 moon landing.

• 🎶“The Boy in the Bubble,” live from Zimbabwe, by Paul Simon

  An exploration of Paul Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble" and its reflections on technology and politics.

• 🪨Fighting time with marble

  A reflection on the timeless struggle against oblivion and the enduring power of art.

• 🍽️A timeline of food

  When certain dishes first came to be enjoyed.

• 🌾Between common and professional

  An insightful exploration of the interplay between tradition and innovation in the shaping of North America's landscape by early European settlers.

• 🎭Follies

  Reflecting on the cultural impact of Florenz Ziegfeld and his legacy in entertainment.

• 🖌️William Blake, life mask

  Exploring the enduring legacy and artistry of William Blake through his life mask.

• 🪦The dead among us

  A reflection on how North America lacks the same cultural coexistence with the dead that can be found in European cities, particularly regarding London’s plague pits.

• ⛪Worship first, then farm

  This excerpt explores the revolutionary idea that religious structures may have prompted the formation of early Neolithic societies before the advent of agriculture.

• 🍊Seed and feed store, Lincoln, Nebraska

  An intriguing snapshot from 1942 captures the economic landscape of Nebraska, reflecting on the significant price disparity between oranges and grapefruit, and the association of grass with Sudan.

• 📖Visualizing the Bible

  An intricate visualization of Biblical cross-references created by a Carnegie-Mellon Ph.D student and a Lutheran pastor, highlighting the complexity of the data. The multicolored arc diagram displays 63,779 connections between chapters, with a bar graph illustrating the number of verses in each chapter.

• 🍃Turf-cutting

  A reflection on the contrasts between the art of turf-cutting and its poetic representation in Seamus Heaney's work.

• 🌊Chand Baori (stepwell), India, by Doron

  Here’s a glimpse into the architectural marvel of Chand Baori, a 9th-century stepwell that beautifully illustrates community access to water.

• 📖The Gulag Archipelago’s first readers

  The tangible experience of reading _Gulag Archipelago_ resonates deeply in the memories of its first readers.

• 🐍Victorian leeches to the rescue!

  The modern uses of an leech ancient therapy for serious medical conditions.

• ⏰Einstein’s day job

  Exploring how Einstein's work at the patent office intertwined with his revolutionary theories on time and simultaneity.

• 📇Edge-notched cards

  An exploration of the forgotten art of organizing knowledge through edge-notched cards, a precursor to modern data sorting methods.