The Korean turtle ship, or “geobukseon,” is sometimes considered the world’s first ironclad ship. It was a giant wooden ship with iron spikes covering the deck. Now, to call it a true ironclad – that is, to suggest that it was covered in plates of metal – would be an exaggeration. But even so, the […]
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The 108-foot bronze statue known as the Colossus of Rhodes was both an ancient wonder and a proud monument. It was a tribute to the god Helios. It was destroyed in an earthquake just five decades after it was built. To see it standing over the harbors of Rhodes as ships sailed beneath it would
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Dogs are known to be man’s best friend. But in the case of Spanish war dogs, they became vicious enemies of the people they hunted. They were bred for size, strength, and even for the taste of human flesh. They were true beasts that the Spanish employed with appalling success against the native peoples of
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Judas Iscariot is infamously known as being the guy who ratted out Jesus and sent him to his death on the cross. He’s so well-known that even people who know nothing about the biblical story still know that anyone who’s a traitor can be called a “Judas.” But if Judas is so notorious, then why
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On April 10, 1834, a fire started in the kitchen of the mansion of Madame Lalaurie. It quickly spread throughout the rest of the elegant two-story building, eating through walls and destroying paintings and exquisite pieces of art. As soon as they smelled the fire, Madame Lalaurie and her husband, Dr. Lalaurie, scrambled from room
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For centuries, the Gallic tribes of what is now France aided Rome’s enemies and threatened Roman expansion. Gauls fought with the Carthaginians in the Punic Wars. They were part of Hannibal’s army at Cannae which annihilated a Roman army in 217 BC. The Romans attempted to work around the Mediterranean through Spain. They were trying
Romano-Gallic War: A Clash of Empires in Ancient Times Read More »
Along with UFOs, Bigfoot, and werewolves, the Mothman just seems like pure imagination. According to residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, he was a six to seven-foot tall humanoid with giant, angel-like wings that spanned ten feet in length. Perhaps most disturbing of all, he had two glowing red eyes that seemed to burn in
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The Iron Curtain was an impenetrable ideological barrier. It divided Europe into capitalist and communist groups. It emerged at the end of World War II in 1945 and continued to exist until the Cold War, around 1989-1990. The term symbolizes the intention and efforts of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to block itself
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Can a gentleman be a pirate? There was one man who went against these seemingly opposite stereotypes and became both: Stede Bonnet. Born a gentleman, he turned to piracy in his later years. Bonnet was born to moderately wealthy English landowners in Barbados in 1688. He was educated like most English scions and was even
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A Trade War Turns Hot China is running a massive trade balance with a Western power based on consumer goods. What was the logical economic and political solution? Require China to accept more imports from that power to level the imbalance. Sounds a lot like 2023, but we’re talking about 1839. The Western power was
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