Have you ever heard a word or phrase and wondered when people started saying it? And why? Language is constantly changing, and many of the common terms and phrases we use in everyday conversation have much deeper meanings than we realize. Numerous statements still in use have evoked controversy and […]
Links between holiday traditions and pagan culture are well established – and occasionally celebrated – but there are also a lot of misconceptions about paganism that make the word itself a bit taboo. Paganism isn’t something to be feared or shunned. In Latin, “pagan” was simply the word for villager […]
Ever wonder about the identity of the woman posing for the Mona Lisa, or think about the life of the “farmers” depicted in American Gothic? Check out who the people in these 12 famous paintings actually were. Artists Leonardo da Vinci, Andrew Wyeth, and Grant Wood get all the acclaim […]
If you want to play War Thunder, click the link to play here: https://playwt.link/weirdhistory We all wish we had a guardian angel. Some of us are even nice enough to wish everyone else had one, too. But maybe we should be careful what we wish for, because if guardian angels […]
Modern medicine has seen more development in the past 50 years than in all of human history combined. Many long-practiced medical treatments now seem completely bizarre in retrospect – things like putting animal dung on a wound, drinking urine, carving holes in your skull, or drinking medicinal potions made of […]
It’s a 1,200-year-old institution that has weathered wars, disease, and everything in between. But why has the British monarchy survived when so many others have faltered? The modern British monarchy can trace its roots back centuries, to the period when the island of Great Britain was a collection of disparate […]
Few professions in the world are as scrutinized and well-documented as the Presidency of the United States of America, so it might seem like every single aspect of all the former presidents’ lives has already been covered. But sometimes there’s just as much interesting material from before they were president […]
The first—and perhaps the most important—political rivalry in U.S. history was between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. The two Founding Fathers clashed over political differences, each trying to sway President George Washington to his side. But there’s more to the Hamilton and Jefferson feud than you thought. Why did Thomas […]
Anyone who has grown up with a sibling knows how easily rivalries can develop. The desire of brothers and sisters to outperform each other is a nearly universal emotion, one that transcends social class, culture, and time period. In other words, everyone is prone to this rivalry, even US presidents. […]
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini maintained relationships with several mistresses – as many as 14 at a time, according to some – but none stuck by him quite as ardently as Clara Petacci. Petacci, his preferred paramour, kept a diary about her time as Mussolini’s mistress that provides intimate insights into […]
