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Home Archive by category "History"

Category: History

Nazis Pressed Ham Radio Hobbyists to Serve the Third Reich – but Surviving Came at a Price

History

The Nazi party knew that German hams had a history of illegal transmission and were likely to have unsupervised radio contacts with foreigners,

Four Amazing Astronomical Discoveries From Ancient Greece

History

The world’s oldest surviving mechanical calculator is the Antikythera Mechanism. The amazing device was discovered in an ancient shipwreck.

During the Second World War, BBC Listeners Kept Calm and Listened to an Unlikely Star

History

“Sandy Macpherson’s quiet (BBC) voice is very reassuring at a time when our ears are on the alert for warning sirens” one family wrote in 1939. An image of the popular Sandy Macpherson from circa

Who Killed Sweden’s Prime Minister? 1986 Assassination of Olof Palme Is Finally Solved – Maybe

History
olof palme sweden prime minister before murder

It took 34 years, 10,000 interviews and 134 murder confessions, but the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme has now been solved.

Inside the Beatles’ Messy Breakup, 50 Years Ago

History
john lennon

Fifty years ago, when Paul McCartney announced he had left the Beatles, the news dashed the hopes of millions of fans, while fueling false reunion rumors.

We Are Living in the Bizarre World That Flaubert Envisioned

History
Gustave Flaubert

Are we all trapped in a live-action version of Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary”?

The Jan. 3 assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was followed by a torrent of contradictory narratives.

A Conservative Activist’s Quest To Preserve All Network News Broadcasts

History
nixon news broadcast

While the entire collection was digitized in the early 2000s, the Vanderbilt Television News Archive is only allowed to stream NBC and CNN to researchers.

From Their Balloons, the First Aeronauts Transformed Our View of the World

History

Before the balloon, philosophers speculated that the skies went on forever. Then came the aeronauts who changed our view of the world.

The Journalist Who Exposed the Jeffrey Epstein of Victorian London

History

A newspaper exposé written by British journalist W.T. Stead, “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon” sounds just like the sordid sex ring of Jeffrey Epstein.

Ancient Greek Music: Now We Finally Know What It Sounded Like

History
ancient greek monument

A project to investigate ancient Greek music has generated stunning insights into how ancient Greeks made music; the songs of Homer, Sappho, and others.

If I Can Dream: The Elvis Tribute To Martin Luther King

History

Elvis Presley recorded the song “If I Can Dream” just two months after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. Both were born and raised in the Deep South.

The Song That Had One British Politician Wishing for the Sex Pistols’ Sudden Death

History
sex pistols

When the Sex Pistols came out with “God Save the Queen” 40 years ago, on May 27, 1977, it was instantly greeted with widespread, visceral condemnation.

Policing the Berlin Wall: The Ghostly Photos Taken by the Stasi’s Hidden Cameras

History
stasi hidden cameras photos

Surveillance occurred through the collection of documents, audio, video, human odors – and around two million photographs now held in the Stasi archive.

Not One but Two Aussie Dishes Were Used To Get the TV Signals Back From the Apollo 11 Moonwalk

History, Technology
apollo moon dish broadcast

When Neil Armstrong stepped on to the Moon, Australians saw the images first. They used a second Aussie dish to bring the historic images to the world.

The Battle Between NBC and CBS To Be the First To Film a Berlin Wall Tunnel

History
berlin wall crisis

In 1962, NBC and CBS were at work on two separate, secret documentaries on escape tunnels being dug under the Berlin Wall.

Older posts
  • Would you deposit one pound with a bank today if it was going to give you back less than one pound tomorrow?

  • NATO Declares Outer Space an ‘Operational Domain’

    After declaring space a war zone, NATO could start using space weapons that can destroy satellites or incoming enemy missiles.

  • How the Third Reich Managed Ham Radio Hobbyists

    The Nazis were especially interested in ham radio operators, who were part of a worldwide community of hobbyists.

  • Nixon Played a Major Diplomatic Role from 1986 to 1991

    In April 1991, few months before the fall of the USSR, he had a curious visit to Lithuania, Georgia, the Kremlin and the K.G.B.

  • How Gambling Built Baseball – and Then Almost Destroyed It

    Imagine if, after watching the thrilling victory of the Chicago Cubs you learned that the Indians had collaborated with gamblers to intentionally throw the series.

  • Neoliberalism Has Tricked Us Into Believing a Fairytale About Where Money Comes From

    There is nothing natural about money. There is no link to some scarce essential form of it that sets a limit to its creation.

     

  • FCC Orders Phone Companies to End Robocalls

    The FCC released new rules aiming to combat spoofed robocalls. They require phone companies to implement a new protocol.

  • Reddit Co-founder Resigns in Support of Black Community

    Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit

  • Antarctica Blood Falls Mystery Solved

    At first, scientists attributed the color to red algae. But in 2017, a study found that it was rather due to oxidized iron.

  • The Ghostly Photos Taken by the Stasi’s Buttonhole Cameras

    Cameras were even invented so small they could be sewn with the lens behind a buttonhole, the shutter release kept in a pocket.

  • Drinking alcohol isn’t the only cause of high blood alcohol levels.

    Imagine that you’re a police officer. You spot a car ahead that is swerving all over the road. You pull the driver over and she’s clearly intoxicated. With slurred speech, she swears that she hasn’t had a drop of alcohol all day. Would you believe her?

  • Arrests of 6-Year-Olds Show the Perils of Putting Police in Primary Schools

    Instead of being protected, these very young students were placed in handcuffs and arrested. Each one faced misdemeanor battery charges as a result of behavioral outbursts at school, including one instance in which one of the children kicked a school staffer.

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