
Pirates of the Galapagos
Thanks to Johnny Depp, we tend to associate pirates with the Caribbean, but pirates operated all around the world’s oceans, including the Galapagos Islands. This group of isolated volcanic is...

The History of Chess: The Original Game of Thrones
A hand moves a piece across the chess board during the Werner Ott Open of the Kreuzberg Summer at the Berlin Kreuzberg Chess Club. The International Day of Chess will t...

The Longest Election For Speaker Of The House
Most of the time, the selection of the Speaker of the House is straightforward, being settled with a single vote. Historically, prior to the 118th Congress, there were on...

The First FBI’s Most Wanted Criminal
The FBI’s list of the Ten Most Wanted fugitives has been an important tool in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s fight against crime for more than 70 years. With the goal of ...

The Ancient Roots of New Year’s Resolutions
Detail from the limestone Stela of Marduk. Babylonian civilisation, 10th Century BC. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images) With the start of each new year, many of us resolve...

That Time Teddy Roosevelt Battled Racism in a Small Mississippi Post Office
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919), the 26th President of the United States (1901-09) sitting at his desk working. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty...

Chumley’s: The Speakeasy For The Literary Crowd
Prohibition took effect on January 17, 1920, which meant that if you wanted to drink, you had to obtain your alcohol from druggists for “medicinal” purposes or clergy...

“Poor Richard’s Almanack”: The Repository for Ben Franklin’s Witty Sayings and Dad Jokes
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by David Martin (oil on canvas on panel from the White House collection, Washington DC), 176...

Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin And The Transformation Of Magic
The first reliable documentation of magic tricks dates to 50 BCE, with the mention of a group of magicians, called the Acetabularii, who had performed the Cu...