Dhunge Dhara: Nepal’s 1,600-Year-Old Drinking Water Fountains

The tiny country of Nepal, nestled between India and Tibet, boasts of a very robust drinking water supply system that dates back to at least the 5th century. Among its most striking features are the intricate stone fountains known as dhunge dhara or hiti, fashioned in the likeness of the mythical makara—a legendary sea creature in Hindu mythology. While these dhunge dharas may lack the grandeur of the ancient Roman aqueducts, the ingenious technology that brings water to these spouts are no less impressive.

An 8th century hiti in Nagbahal. Photo credit: Ritesh Man Tamrakar/Flickr



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The Osoaviakhim-1 Disaster

Between 1930 and 1932, Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard made more than two dozen trips to the upper atmosphere using a balloon of his design. These flights to the stratosphere ignited a renewed interest in ballooning, which had been overshadowed by the emergence of a newer form of exploration—airplanes. Piccard’s accomplishment garnered international attention, prompting both the United States and the Soviet Union to prepare their own balloons and crews for similar high-altitude ventures.

The Soviet Air Force mobilized various experts from diverse fields, including designers, rubber technologists, and professors from the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, as well as personnel from the Air Forces Institute and the Zhukovsky Airforce Academy. The consolidation of practically all available expertise and military project management eventually resulted in a robust and safe design—the USSR-1. Similar projects were also afoot elsewhere.

Osoaviakhim-1 by Russian painter Georgy Bibikov.



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John Stringfellow And The World's First Powered Flight

In 1842, British engineers William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow received a patent for a flying machine. Unlike previous attempts made with gliders and hot-air balloons, Henson’s and Stringfellow’s invention was unique because it was the first attempt to move towards powered flight. Just six years later, the world’s first steam powered airplane took flight. Remarkably, this happened more than half a century before the historic flight by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.

A lithograph by Thomas Picken imagines “Ariel” flying over the Nile, with the pyramids in the background.



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John Stringfellow And The World's First Powered Flight

In 1842, British engineers William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow received a patent for a flying machine. Unlike previous attempts made with gliders and hot-air balloons, Henson’s and Stringfellow’s invention was unique because it was the first attempt to move towards powered flight. Just six years later, the world’s first steam powered airplane took flight. Remarkably, this happened more than half a century before the historic flight by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.

A lithograph by Thomas Picken imagines “Ariel” flying over the Nile, with the pyramids in the background.



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Antimony Pill: The Everlasting Pill

Antimony—the soft, lustrous gray metal—has many industrial uses such as in the preparation of flame-retarding compounds and in the manufacture of alloys. The metal and its compounds has also been used since ancient times for various medical treatment. The ancient Egyptians, for instance, used grounded stibnite, a mineral containing antimony, as eyeliner and mascara due to its blackish color. Over the centuries, many different cultures including the Romans and the Greeks have held many bizarre beliefs regarding antimony and its properties leading to its use and sometimes misuse in a variety of different ways.

Antimony crystal. Photo credit: Depositphotos



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Nerodimka River Bifurcation

The Nerodimka river in the Nerodime region of Kosovo is the only river in Europe that drains into two different seas, a phenomenon known as bifurcation. The left branch flows into the Black Sea, and the right branch flows into the Aegean Sea.

The Nerodimka River originates as Golema Reka in the Nerodimka mountain range, forming from two primary tributaries, Golema (Velika) Reka and Mala Reka, which converge near the village of Nerodime e Epërme. It then flows in a west-east direction, with its basin splitting on the outskirts of Ferizaj. The northern branch empties into the Sitnica River, which eventually connects to the Black Sea via the Iber, Morava, and Danube rivers. Meanwhile, the primary southern branch merges with another arm of the Nerodimka River, continuing its journey towards the Aegean Sea through the Lepenc and Vardar rivers.

The exact point where Nerodimka River bifurcates. Photo credit: Ottis/Wikimedia Commons



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The Killer Whales of Eden

The Thaua people, who reside around Twofold Bay on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, share a special bond with killer whales or orcas, which they call beowas. “We consider beowas to be our brothers,” writes Thaua historian Steven Holmes in a study published in Journal of Heredity in December 2023. According to Thaua beliefs, when a member of their community passes away, they are reincarnated as a beowa.

Holmes recounts a personal anecdote involving his great-great-grandfather, a blind man who would walk along the beach singing to the beowas. The beowas would follow him along the beach communicating back and forth with him. “It was a strong friendship between these beowas, and my people,” Holmes reflects.

“Whalers off Twofold Bay, New South Wales”, 1867 by Sir Oswald Brierly.



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Casimir Zeglen: The Priest Who Invented The Bulletproof Vest

On October 28, 1893, the tranquility of Chicago was shattered with the assassination of its mayor, Carter Harrison, who was shot on the doorstep of his own house. The crime shocked every American but the one who was shook the most was Polish immigrant Casimir Zeglen.

Zeglen, a man of the cloth and profound spirituality, found himself deeply troubled by the recurring specter of anarchist violence targeting public figures since his arrival in America. Determined to confront this epidemic of chaos and bloodshed, he turned his inventive mind towards a solution that could potentially spare countless lives. His brainchild? A revolutionary, lightweight bulletproof vest designed to be discreetly worn beneath ordinary attire, thereby thwarting the designs of would-be assassins without drawing attention to its wearer's vulnerability.

A bulletproof vest being tested in 1923. Photo credit: Library of Congress



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Olivier Levasseur’s Lost Treasure

On the 7th of July 1730, the notorious French pirate, Olivier Levasseur, faced his final moments on the scaffold. His crimes, which had instilled fear across the high seas for over fifteen years, had finally caught up with him. However, it was his brazen looting of the Portuguese great galleon Nossa Senhora do Cabo that sealed his fate. The ship was carrying the Bishop of Goa and the Viceroy of Portugal, and was laden with treasures which Levasseur adamantly refused to relinquish. Instead, he boasted of having hidden it, taunting authorities and onlookers alike.

Moments before the hangman's noose tightened around his neck, Levasseur dramatically produced a necklace, within which lay a small piece of parchment bearing a cryptogram of clues to the treasure's whereabouts. With a defiant cry, he hurled it into the crowd, challenging, "Find my treasure, the one who may understand it!”. Thus began a legend that would echo through the ages, passed down through generations on the islands of the Seychelles and La Réunion.

The island Mahe, Seychelles, where Olivier Levasseur’s treasure is believed to lay hidden. Photo credit: Olivier Levasseur/Flickr



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Da Shuhua: Fireworks of Molten Iron

For five centuries, the inhabitants of Nuanquan village in Yu County, in the northwestern reaches of Hebei province, China, have marked the Lunar New Year with a remarkable pyrotechnic tradition. Adorned in wide-brimmed straw hats and sheepskin jackets, local blacksmiths engage in a mesmerizing spectacle, flinging ladle after ladle of molten iron against a towering brick wall. Upon impact, the molten metal erupts into a spectacular cascade of sparks, reminiscent of a dazzling fireworks display.

This age-old ritual, known as Da Shuhua, translates directly to "beating down the tree flowers," a name inspired by the agricultural custom of striking fruit trees to encourage blossoming. The resulting fireworks mimic the graceful descent of flower petals.



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Casimir Zeglen: The Priest Who Invented The Bulletproof Vest

On October 28, 1893, the tranquility of Chicago was shattered with the assassination of its mayor, Carter Harrison, who was shot on the doorstep of his own house. The crime shocked every American but the one who was shook the most was Polish immigrant Casimir Zeglen.

Zeglen, a man of the cloth and profound spirituality, found himself deeply troubled by the recurring specter of anarchist violence targeting public figures since his arrival in America. Determined to confront this epidemic of chaos and bloodshed, he turned his inventive mind towards a solution that could potentially spare countless lives. His brainchild? A revolutionary, lightweight bulletproof vest designed to be discreetly worn beneath ordinary attire, thereby thwarting the designs of would-be assassins without drawing attention to its wearer's vulnerability.

A bulletproof vest being tested in 1923. Photo credit: Library of Congress



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Bedford Level Experiment: The 19th Century Experiment That Laid The Foundation of The Flat Earth Society

In 1838, English writer and socialist, Samuel Rowbotham, set out to disprove what the ancient Greeks as well as modern scientists had long established—that the earth was round.

A flat-earther from his youth, Rowbotham saw that the ideal place to test out his stupid theory was on the Old Bedford River, an artificial canal dug in the early 17th century to partially divert the waters of the River Great Ouse in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. The canal runs perfectly straight and unobstructed for a distance of about six miles, making it an ideal location to directly measure the curvature of the Earth.

A "flat-Earth" map drawn by Orlando Ferguson in 1893.



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Bob The Railway Dog

In the heart of South Australia's railway history, a charming and loyal canine companion left an indelible paw print on the tracks – Bob the Railway Dog. A beloved icon, Bob's tale is one of love, friendship, and adventure, as he became a fixture among the steam engines and railway workers in the late 19th century.

Bob was born in 1883 at Macclesfield, South Australia. The scruffy, brown-and-white mixed-breed dog was fascinated with the railways from an early age. While still a pup, Bob would often wander away from home following railway tracks to watch workers lay the line. Several times he had to be brought back to his owner, until one day, when he was nine months old, Bob ran away.

Photo credit: State Library South Australia



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The Braamfontein Explosion

The city of Johannesburg in South Africa was founded on gold after the precious metal was discovered on the Witwatersrand by Jan Gerrit Bantjes in 1884. As with any industry, and especially mining, the city endured many disasters and accidents. However, the one that took place in 1896 in Braamfontein, a suburb of Johannesburg, remains etched in the memories of its residents, as evidenced by the granite memorial in Braamfontein Cemetery, erected in memory of those who lost their lives in the great dynamite explosion.

A locomotive topples over due to the explosion.



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Ernest Bazin: The Ship That Rolled on Wheels

Between 1892 and 1893, French inventor Ernest Bazin filed patent for an unusual ship design. Instead of gliding through water, which had hitherto been used, Bazin sought to minimize contact with water and thus overcome friction by proposing a design that incorporated rotating wheels. After long years of experimentation with a model roller ship in a scale of 1 :25, Bazin was ready to take his invention to the seas.

In December 1893, Bazin, in collaboration with his brother Marcel, established the Societe en Participation du Navire-Express-Rouleurs Bazin, a shareholding association dedicated to the development and financing of the roller ship. Two years later, the Societe d'Etudes et d'Exploitation des Navires Rouleurs Bazin Societe Anonyme was officially incorporated in Paris to further advance Bazin's roller ship concept. Simultaneously, construction of the first roller ship commenced at the Cail shipyard in Saint-Denis.



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Eulogy of The Dog: The Story of ‘Old Drum’

George Graham Vest spent twenty-four years in the United States Senate, serving from 1879 to 1903. However, his most notable legacy stems from a speech he gave during a seemingly inconspicuous court case when he was practicing law in rural Missouri. The case that would eternally link his name involved the shooting of "Old Drum," the hunting dog owned by a local farmer named Charles Burden.

State historical marker in Owensboro, Kentucky. Photo credit: Carldaniel/Wikimedia Commons



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The L'Aigle Meteorite Shower And The Birth of Meteoritics

Prior to the 1800s, scientists were skeptical about the existence of meteorites. Despite historical reports of meteorite sightings dating back to Roman times, the idea of rocks falling from the heavens seemed implausible to scientists of that era. The prevailing belief was that meteorites were of terrestrial origin, possibly originating from volcanic activity or, as suggested by René Descartes in the 17th century, formed by the fusion of atmospheric dust particles due to lightning.

A meteor shower in 1783. Image credit: Wellcome Collection



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The Ill-fated Jeannette Expedition to The Arctic

In the mid-19th century, explorers and geographers were seized by an idea that was first floated in the 16th century by the English cartographer Robert Thorne, that there was a vast ocean free of ice surrounding the North Pole. The idea was intriguing because it meant that a more direct route between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans was possible rather than going around the Cape of Horn. Many explorers such as Elisha Kane, Isaac Israel Hayes, Charles Francis Hall, and George Nares reported to have seen the fabled ocean, fueling optimism in the theory.

Abandoning the Arctic exploration ship Jeanette on June 12th 1891. Illustration by James Gale Tyler.



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Musée des Plans-Reliefs

In the Hôtel des Invalides in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, is a museum dedicated to detailed military models of important towns and fortified cities across Europe. These models were created over the course of one hundred years during the 17th and 18th centuries so that French emperors could make strategic decisions on how to proceed with an attack on foreign land, or how to defend their own cities against foreign attack. These scale models are known as plans-relief and they were an important tool for military strategists of the Renaissance era, especially in France and Italy. Today, they stand as irreplaceable documentation of the represented sites and serve as valuable educational tools.

Mont-Saint-Michel in Musée des Plans-Reliefs. Photo credit: Joe Shlabotnik/Flickr



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Pratt And Smith: The Last Men To Be Executed For Sodomy in England

On the morning of November 27, 1835, two men—James Pratt and John Smith—were publicly hanged in front of Newgate Prison in London. Just three months earlier they had been arrested and convicted for the crime of sodomy, which was considered the most detestable and abominable offense at the time.

Homosexuality, or rather “buggery”, has been a crime in Great Britain since the Buggery Act of 1533. This legislation aimed to restrict any sexual activity not directly linked to procreation, irrespective of the genders involved. While the intent was to punish those engaged in non-consensual sexual crimes, the lack of a clear definition for "buggery" in the law led courts to interpret it narrowly, focusing solely on anal penetration. Consequently, numerous men, including those of high standing, fell under the purview of the act, facing severe penalties such as death, imprisonment, or public humiliation on the pillory.

Execution outside Newgate Prison, early 19th century.



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Paul-Félix Armand-Delille: Europe’s Rabbit Killer

In the 1950s, Australian sheep and cattle farmers decided to tackle the country’s rabbit problem by unleashing a biological weapon—the myxoma virus. This poxvirus causes only mild symptoms in its natural hosts, the cottontail rabbits, but is usually fatal on European rabbits abundant in Australia. The introduction of the virus dramatically reduced Australia’s rabbit population, resulting in a rapid economic recovery for the wool and meat industries, generating millions of dollars within two years. Unfortunately, efforts to implement similar biological measures in Europe ended in a catastrophe.

Rabbits around a waterhole at the myxomatosis trial enclosure on Wardang Island in 1938. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons



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