All articles tagged with #history
Quanta previews a special series on the evolving foundations of mathematics, highlighting newly unearthed letters that suggest Cantor’s 1874 proof of different-sized infinities may have involved plagiarism, underscoring ongoing efforts to rethink math’s core ideas.
Astronaut John Glenn reported thousands of tiny, luminescent particles swirling around his Friendship 7 capsule during the 1962 Earth orbit, prompting NASA concern about potential impact. The “fireflies” were later explained as sun-illuminated ice particles, a phenomenon confirmed on later flights.
A Lifehacker guide compiling 10 practical YouTube tricks, including how to search transcripts with Ctrl-F, set sleep timers, create precise timestamp links, navigate with keyboard shortcuts and frame-by-frame controls, temporarily speed up playback on mobile, set video quality defaults, use incognito to curb recommendations, and remove videos from your history to keep recommendations clean.
This piece catalogs ten cars noted for notably poor aerodynamics, listing their drag coefficients (0.4–1.05 Cd) and explaining how design choices—ranging from early brick-like shapes to modern high-downforce track cars—made them wind-inefficient. Examples span the Ford Model T (0.79 Cd) and Mercedes Simplex (1.05 Cd) to the Plymouth Prowler (0.49 Cd), Citroën 2CV (0.52 Cd), VW Beetle variants (0.48–0.40 Cd), Dodge Viper ACR (0.541 Cd), Caterham Seven (0.60 Cd), and others, noting data limits and exclusions (no SUVs/trucks) and highlighting aero evolution toward contemporary efficiency.
The first-ever transoceanic fiber-optic cable is being ripped from the ocean floor, signaling a major renewal of the global internet backbone and highlighting the vast network of subsea cables that carry most intercontinental traffic.
New York City is bracing for a weekend storm forecast to drop 12–20 inches (potentially 24+), with a blizzard warning—the first since 2017—while the piece recalls the five largest NYC snowstorms since 1869: 2016’s 27.5 inches; 2006’s 26.9 inches; 1947’s 26.4 inches; 1888’s 21 inches; and 2010’s 20.9 inches, noting mass outages, travel disruptions, and fatalities in several storms.
BuzzFeed’s community-curated collection spotlights 29 unsolved mysteries, ranging from disappearances like Nyleen Marshall, Bianca Lebron, and Summer Wells to historic cases such as the Mary Celeste and Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Organized into sections—Disappearances That Defy Explanation, Brutal Crimes With No Arrests, Cases That Sparked Legal Controversy, Historic Mysteries Still Unsolved, and A Personal Story That Needs Answers—the piece blends reader submissions with media reporting to show why these cases linger in the public imagination.
The Trump administration plans to appeal a federal judge’s order to restore the slavery panels at Philadelphia’s President’s House Site, arguing the Interior has authority to alter exhibits nationwide; Philadelphia officials celebrate the ruling, while broader legal challenges over removals of historic displays in national parks continue.
Victorian aristocrat Lord Henry Stanley converted to Islam in 1859 and became Britain’s first Muslim member of the House of Lords in 1869; his private letters hint at spiritual doubt and disillusionment with imperial aims, he married under Islamic law in Algeria, funded Islamic-inspired church windows in Anglesey, and died in 1903 during Ramadan, with historians now reassessing his legacy.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen wins Brazil’s first Winter Olympic gold in the men’s giant slalom, earning South America’s first Winter Olympic medal and delivering a historic, emotional victory for Brazil.
A thoroughly fact-checked BuzzFeed list presents 29 astonishing history facts — from the Boston molasses flood to Malta’s George Cross, assassination attempts, quirky wartime exchanges, and more — each with context and sources, proving truth can be stranger than fiction.
This Sports Illustrated piece ranks all 59 teams that lost a Super Bowl by how dominant they were (regular-season record, points per game, yards per play) and how strong their playoff runs and star power were, aiming to separate the greatest heartbreaks from the most inconsequential exits. The list starts with the 2008 Arizona Cardinals as the lowest-ranked loser and ends with the 2007 New England Patriots—the greatest team to lose—while highlighting famous cases like the 1968 Baltimore Colts and the Bills’ near-misses to illustrate how a brilliant season can still end in heartbreak.
A retrospective ranking of eight Super Bowl halftime performances—from Michael Jackson (1993) through Kendrick Lamar (2025—that is already the most-watched halftime show)—showcases how each act helped redefine the spectacle, with Rihanna’s 2023 daring, JLo and Shakira’s 2020 Latin celebration, and Beyoncé (2013) and Prince (2007) highlighted for iconic production and resilience across decades.
A Leeds exhibition, Beneath the Sheets: Anatomy, Art and Power, reveals how centuries of anatomical illustration fused science with display, often using unconsenting cadavers and shaped by class, race and gender biases—from Rembrandt and Vesalius to 19th‑century atlases and the necropolitics of bodysnatching—asking who profits, who is depicted, and how social context has steered medical knowledge.
Wikipedia maintains a growing tally of inventors who died from their own inventions, from early experiments like Franz Reichelt’s parachute coat to modern tragedies such as Stockton Rush’s Titan submersible; notable names include Marie Curie, William Bullock, and Thomas Midgley Jr., illustrating how innovation has historically carried fatal risks.