Space
Next month, Voyager 1 becomes the first human object one light-day from Earth
·4 min read
On November 18, 2026, a radio signal from Voyager 1 will need a full 24 hours to reach us. Here is how a 1977 probe got that far, and what it carries.
·4 min read
On November 18, 2026, a radio signal from Voyager 1 will need a full 24 hours to reach us. Here is how a 1977 probe got that far, and what it carries.
·3 min read
In 1932, soldiers armed with Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds went to war against 20,000 emus in Western Australia. The birds won on points.
·4 min read
Einstein asked to be cremated, but the pathologist at his autopsy kept his brain, cut it into 240 pieces and carried it around America for decades.
·4 min read
In 1997 Patrick Stewart starred in a race-reversed Othello in Washington, D.C., playing the Moor as the lone white man among an all-Black company.
·4 min read
On 1 November 1755 an earthquake, a tsunami and fires wiped out most of Lisbon. The survey Portugal ran afterwards helped launch modern seismology.
·4 min read
The giant squid fed sea monster legends for centuries, but the first photos of a living one in its deep sea home were only taken in 2004, off Japan.
A limestone Darth Vader sits near the top of Washington National Cathedral. It came from a 1985 children's design contest, and the cathedral approved it.
·4 min read
·4 min read
No eyewitness ever described Martin Luther hammering his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door. Here is what the documents actually show.
·4 min read
The Führerbunker survived Soviet explosives and East German demolition, ended up under a parking lot, and went unmarked until a single sign appeared in 2006.
·4 min read
Henry III of England kept a polar bear from Norway at the Tower of London, and a 1253 royal order gave it a long rope so it could fish in the Thames.
·4 min read
In 1789 more than 500 French deputies swore the Tennis Court Oath. Joseph Martin-Dauch refused, wrote 'opposant' by his name, and the Assembly kept it.
Chaser the border collie learned the names of 1,022 toys in three years of daily lessons, a record published in a peer-reviewed journal in 2011.
·4 min read
Did you know?
A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.
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