Items tagged history

Study considers linguistic diversity of California

Previously, scientists and linguists thought that Uto-Aztecan languages spread into California through the spread of maize farming, but a new study questions that idea.

Tags: america, language, history, science

Stunning Codex Documenting Aztec Culture Now Fully Digitized

The 16th-century “Florentine Codex” offers a Mexican Indigenous perspective that is often missing from historical accounts of the period.

Tags: history, books

What Does ‘Shiver Me Timbers’ Mean — And Did Pirates Really Say It?

The expression "shiver me timbers" was first recorded in print in 1795, and since then, it's appeared everywhere from Treasure Island to SpongeBob SquarePants. But it's unclear whether this phrase was ever truly part of the pirate vernacular.

Tags: language, history

Until, Till, 'Til, or 'Till?

Tags: language, history

Unearthing a Long Ignored African Writing System, One Researcher Finds African History, by Africans

BU anthropologist Fallou Ngom discovered Ajami, a modified Arabic script, in a box of his late father’s old papers

Tags: africa, language, history

History of Ecuador

Tags: america, history

The History of Creepy Clowns, Explained

Before the 20th century, clowns in American circuses were largely considered a form of adult entertainment, writes this historian.

Tags: culture, history

Revisiting the Playground

Tags: youth, cities, history

Tale of the Jackalope

Tags: culture, history, science, america

The word “condom”

For a long time, the word "condom" was unprintable. Neither the original OED nor The Century Dictionary featured the word. Several venues for discovering the origin of "condom" have been tried. It surfaced in texts at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but we cannot be sure that the word was coined in England.

Tags: language, history, humor

The driving force: the story of The Electrical Power Storage Company

Tags: energy, business, history

'Magic mirror': Hidden image revealed in reflection of centuries-old artifact

Tags: art, history

An A-Z of the Languages and Loanwords of the English Lexicon – from Arabic to Zulu!

Tags: cool, language, history

Blackbeard's No Kill Rule In Our Flag Means Death Might've Been Real

Despite his fearsome reputation, the real life Blackbeard had a surprising record of not killing his victims, which Our Flag Means Death explains.

Tags: movies, history

1930s Flour Sacks Featured Colorful Patterns For Women To Make Dresses

Tags: fashion, history, media

Experts pull documents, money from Lee statue time capsule

Tags: america, history

Research: Wreck of last US slave ship mostly intact on coast

Tags: america, history

The Great Offline

The concept of “offline” is built on the earlier concept of “wilderness,” inheriting its flaws and hazards

Tags: tech, culture, history

The Magician and the Suffragette: The Strange History of Sawing a Woman in Half

Tags: gender, politics, culture, history

Five Centuries of Jerusalem Soup

Tags: islam, food, history

This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. They still regret it 400 years later.

Tags: america, history

When Cities Die

Tags: cities, history, games

Colonial Williamsburg is Uncovering America’s Hidden Queer History

Tags: cities, america, sexuality, history

Increased Hate Against Sweden’s Indigenous People

Tags: culture, history, politics

Roleplaying games were around hundreds of years before Dungeons & Dragons

The seminal tabletop RPG drew from generations of wargaming, storytelling and parlour games.

Tags: games, history

1988: P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A. - 50 Years of Text Games

Tags: games, history

The “Deviant” African Genders That Colonialism Condemned

European travellers and anthropologists found that their gendered worldview didn’t easily map onto the societies they encountered.

Tags: africa, gender, history

Sequoyah and the Almost-Forgotten History of Cherokee Numerals

Tags: america, language, history

6 Gay or Bi Historical Figures Who Are Straight-Washed by History

From Gandhi to Alexander the Great, history is filled with queer folks who had to conceal their identity

Tags: sexuality, history

The US Empire Is Crumbling Before Our Eyes

With unprecedented economic inequality and massive overspending on military expansion, America now looks a lot like 476 CE Rome.

Tags: america, politics, history

How Scientists Use and Abuse Portraiture

Many scientific studies assume that the features of painted faces are the facts of the flesh-and-blood countenances to which they refer. This assumption is not only false; it is preposterous.

Tags: art, history, science

It’s incorrect to say there was no resistance to safety measures around the Blitz

Tags: pandemic, war, history

Imperial Wars Always Come Home

Tags: history, politics

A history of FLICC: the 5 techniques of science denial

Tags: science, education, history

Life and Works of Sofonisba Anguissola, Noblewoman, Portraitist of Philip II

Tags: cool, art, history

Collections: The Fremen Mirage, Part I: War at the Dawn of Civilization

Discussing bad historical takes through the lens of sci-fi literature.

Tags: books, history, politics

Thaddeus Kosciusko: The Polish Engineer You Never Heard of who Saved America

Tags: america, engineering, history

The Mystery of Florida's Cannonball-Eating Spanish Fort

Tags: america, engineering, history

Getting to the Bottom of the Flat Earth

Tags: science, education, history

The Mind-Boggling Artistry of China’s Ivory Puzzle Balls

This traditional art from Guangzhou can never be produced legally again.

Tags: china, art, history

What the English of Shakespeare, Beowulf, and King Arthur actually sounded like

Tags: language, history

A Brief History of British and Irish Languages

Tags: language, history

5 Ways Grimm's Fairy Tales Changed After the First Edition

Tags: cool, books, history

A History of Creativity

Tags: culture, business, religion, history, politics

Peter Jackson Restored, Colorized 100 Hours of World War I Footage

Tags: movies, tech, history

A brief history of singular ‘they’

Tags: language, history

Black People in the US Were Enslaved Well into the 1960s

Tags: america, racism, history

The day Irish and Jewish joined forces against British fascists

Tags: uk, politics, history

How did Victorian Muslims celebrate Christmas?

Tags: uk, religion, history

Was Emily Brontё’s Heathcliff black?

Tags: books, history, racism

The History of the Ampersand

Tags: language, history

People in 1920s Berlin Nightclubs Flirted via Pneumatic Tubes

When real-world stuff is too implausible to put in a movie like Cabaret.

Tags: culture, tech, history

Cosmopolitanism on the Move: Port Said around 1900

Tags: cities, history

Stanford researcher sheds light on life of lesbians in Nazi Germany

Tags: sexuality, politics, history

Salt and salary: were Roman soldiers paid in salt?

Tags: language, history

The Improbable, Bold History of Space Concept Art

Tags: space, art, history

Words That Once Meant Something Different

Tags: language, history

Why A German Pilot Escorted An American Bomber To Safety During World War II

Tags: cool, war, history

Clothing from 1600s Shipwreck Shows How the One Percent Lived

First thought to belong to an English lady-in-waiting, the lavish silk clothing from a 17th-century Dutch vessel is just one of many mysteries surrounding the last voyage of the Palmwood Wreck.

Tags: fashion, history

No Wool, No Vikings

Tags: europe, history, education

An expansive photo record of Native American life in the early 1900s

I was lucky enough to see this exhibition on tour in Bucharest.

Tags: america, history, photos

The Bestseller Book That Didn’t Exist: how the author of a beloved Christmas classic pulled off the Hoax of the Century

Tags: books, history

Hōshi: A Short Film on the 1300-Year-Old Hotel Run by the Same Japanese Family for 46 Generations

Tags: japan, history, media

lcamtuf's blog: On journeys

Tags: culture, tech, history

The curious case of the disappearing Polish S

And this is why you never override browser shortcuts. I don't care what you think you're accomplishing. Just don't.

Tags: computers, language, history

Drawing the prophet: Islam’s hidden history of Muhammad images

Ban on depictions has not always been absolute – Islam has a rich heritage of images and icons dating back to the 13th century

Tags: islam, art, history

The Indiana Jones of collapsed cultures: Our Western civilization itself is a bubble

Tags: history, politics

The Role Of The Police Is Protecting Capitalism

Tags: law, history

Fool’s Journey: The Fascinating Life of Pamela Colman Smith

Tags: occultism, art, history

Lost Painting Found by Art Historian While Watching Stuart Little

Tags: movies, art, history

A Teenager’s Written Account of the Very First Thanksgiving, 1621

Tags: america, history, humor

How Pinocchio set the standard for feature animation

Tags: movies, history

The History Of The English Language In One Chart

Tags: language, history, science

Before the Great War, people travelled freely without passports or identification

Tags: travel, politics, history

5 Things You Only Know If You Grew Up in a Communist Regime

Tags: romania, history, humor

11 Remarkable Ways Detroit Changed The World For The Better

Tags: cities, history

The 1,500 year old schism fuelling the clash between Russia and the West

Tags: politics, history

500 New Fairy Tales Discovered in Germany

Tags: books, history

Check Out These Gorgeous Color Photos From World War II

Tags: war, history, photos

Using Metadata to find Paul Revere

Tags: america, history, science

What if people told European history like they told Native American history?

Tags: america, history

Reconstructing the Chelyabinsk meteor’s path, with Google Earth, YouTube and high-school math

Tags: space, science, history, internet

On Artifacts Future and Past

Tags: art, history, space, tech, culture