Tag: history

(recommend audio) The Athenian Revolution (508–507 BCE) was a revolt by the people of Athens that overthrew the ruling aristocratic oligarchy,  establishing the almost century-long self-governance of Athens in the form of a participatory democracy – open to all free…

The last soldier surrendered. During World War II around 450,000 German soldiers were imprisoned in 700 camps across the United States. After the war ended, these prisoners were repatriated to Germany.  But seven of them escaped and disappeared into the…

Fanta for Nazi Germany. It’s February 1944 and Berlin is attempting to recover from American aerial bombing. But life and industry continues on the city’s outskirts. In farmhouses, bottles clang and a mix of ex-convicts, Chinese laborers, and other workers…

Peter Stumpp (alternately spelled Stumpf, Stubbe or Stuppe) was a mid-16th century German farmer who was executed on Halloween in 1589. Unfortunately, we only have one surviving account of what happened in the town of Bedburg that autumn, but it’s…

Mysterious shipwrecks. We are fascinated by shipwrecks, and it’s easy to see why. First, there’s the idea of sunken treasure, which has a pretty universal appeal in any culture that admires shiny things (all of them). Then, there’s the uber-creepiness…

Ancient leaders. To say that some ancient leaders were really weird is probably a bit of an understatement. Being really weird was almost a prerequisite for being an ancient leader. Ancient leaders in particular were under a lot of pressure…

Time travel is the one that we want to be real of all mysterious phenomena. The possibilities are endless, and some people claimed they’ve already experienced them. Of course, it’s easy to dismiss all these people as nuts or liars,…

Atlantis! The name alone is enough to invoke images of mermaids, bubble cities, sunken ruins, and an ancient, technologically advanced situation that suffered ruin at the whims of the gods or their own hubris. But where did the idea of…

Entire countries embarrassed. These mistakes made entire countries blush. If countries were capable of vasodilation, of course. The truth is, while countries can be large or small, they’re run by people. And people are capable of some pretty interesting kerfuffles….

There are things about ancient Egypt that still can’t be explained. Few civilizations have a more mysterious reputation than ancient Egypt. But the point of a mystery is to solve it, and over the years we’ve researched and studied our way…

The Doomsday Clock. It’s two minutes to midnight. Those words probably make you shiver, just a little bit, because bad things always happen at midnight. And midnight on the Doomsday Clock is the baddest of the bad, the hour of the…

The city of Danzig was home to a lengthy territorial dispute between the Germans and Poles who inhabited it and had been declared a free city by the League of Nations. In late August 1939, the Schleswig-Holstein, a German World War I–era battleship,…

Bomber plane captures U-Boat. On August 27, 1941, U-boat U-570, captained by Kapitanleutnant Hans-Joachim Rahmlow, surfaced off the coast of Iceland. Almost immediately, it was spotted by James Thompson, the acting leader of a British squadron based in Iceland who was on an anti-submarine…

WW2 German Ace escorts crippled B-17 home. Warfare is not really a place for humanity, ethics and morals, but the Christmas Truce of WWII was a true example of a moment of humanity. The heroic actions of a German Luftwaffe…

Operation Jericho was an air raid conducted by the RAF with the goal of freeing the captives of the Nazi-held Amiens prison in France. The raid happened on 18 February 1944, and though it wasn’t a large-scale operation, its precision…

Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy parallels. Abraham Lincoln Predicts His Own Death This story is hotly debated as there is no direct written account by the President himself, but stories from his advisors and close friends. This particular instance…

South Korean provocations sparked Korean War. History teachers say that the Korean War began due to the North’s unprovoked invasion of the South. However, they conveniently forget to mention the that South Korea had an equal role in building up the conflict. In…

The Six-Day-War.  We have previously discussed how the Soviet Union almost invaded Israel during the Six-Day War. We also briefly mentioned that the war was just one big ruse by the Soviets to destroy Israel’s nuclear capability. According to historians Isabella Ginor…

The US Provoked Japan Into War. We have all heard this question a million times: Did the US have advance knowledge of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor? Similarly, why on earth would Japan attack the US—an economic and military giant that even…

Hitler feared French admired British. Hitler was no peacenik, but he actually exhibited a very healthy fear of the Anglo-French alliance. In fact, during the re-occupation of the Rhine, Hitler famously ordered his generals to sound a retreat at the faintest sign of…

The ancient Romans were prudes. Popular belief says the ancient Romans indulged in all manner of sexual depravities, but they were one of the most prudish societies ever. It was actually very offensive for couples to engage in open displays…

This cultist was the father of modern rocketry. On June 17, 1952, a boom rocked Pasadena, California – an explosion at a coach house on the old Cruikshank estate, a plot of land on Millionaires Row where a large manor…

The Codex Gigas is the largest medieval manuscript in the world. However, it’s what inside that’s remarkable and not the size. It is on display at the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm. This leather-bound book is the largest surviving European…

Did Colorado Kill Doc Holliday? John Henry “Doc” Holliday’s final words, spoken as he lay dying in the Hotel Glenwood in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, were “this is funny”. We’ll never know, of course, exactly what the Wild West legend meant…

New theory: Man nearly caused human extinction 7,000 years ago. Genetics can reveal many buried secrets. An extramarital dalliance. The origins of our ancestors. In this case, it may have revealed that men almost exterminated themselves some 7,000 years ago….

War Stories: Albert Goering, The Anti-Nazi Brother Of Hermann Albert Goering was born on 9 March 1895 in the Berlin suburb of Friedenau. He was the fifth child of the former Reichskommissar to German South-West Africa and German Consul General to Haiti, Heinrich Ernst Göring, and his wife Franziska “Fanny”…

The Soham Rail Disaster On June 2, 1944, just before D-Day, driver Benjamin Gimbert and his fireman, James Nightall, were in charge of a freight train delivering bombs to the USAF in White Colne, Essex, UK. As they approached the village of Soham…

The Secret Tomb Of St. Nicholas Researchers believe they may have found the final resting place of St. Nick. A recent scan of the ground beneath St. Nicholas Church in the Turkish province of Antalya has revealed what local officials say…

Vampires in history. While there are many strange and mysterious creatures in the darkest corners of the world, there are also humans with a whole range of psychological problems and some of these can manifest to appear like creatures such…

Second World War Two bombers. The Lancaster is probably the most famous of all the bombers of the Second World War. According to Capt. Donald Macintosh (ex-Second-World-War bomber pilot and author) it was a lot smoother to fly than the…