When the Mona Lisa was stolen by a museum worker back in 1911, the global attention it got turned it into one of the most famous works of art in history. While it was recovered barely two years later, many other masterpieces by renowned artists remain missing to this day. Quite a few of them…
Author: Himanshu Sharma
From Rome to Cairo to Beijing, some of the oldest settlements in the world are still in a perpetual state of change, where the remnants of the past continue to be replaced by parts of the present to give them their unique historic look. Then, there are these places that seem stuck in time due…
While we have no research to back this up, espionage would have easily been one of the most dangerous occupations one could have chosen during the Cold War. Regardless, countless espionage operatives worked on both sides of the Iron Curtain, driven by ideology, cash, or a bit of both. These notable Cold War spies regularly…
‘Colonial War’ loosely refers to the many conflicts that erupted around the world in the backdrop of European colonization. While there’s no academic consensus on how long this period lasted, some sources place it between the Early Modern Period in the 15th century to the global wave of decolonization after the Second World War. While…
In a nutshell, biology is the branch of science that deals with living beings and the vital processes that drive them. Modern sub branches of biology have been a long time in the making, with many important scientists and thinkers throughout history contributing towards them in more ways than one. While we can’t make a…
While there’s no official definition of the term ‘Bronze Age’, it generally refers to the period between the Stone and Iron ages. It was a pivotal era in human history, as most early advances crucial for civilization – like writing and the wheel – were made during this time, thanks to prominent civilizations and cultures…
You’d think that cases of art theft and robbery in real life are as interesting as they’re portrayed on the big screen, and you’d be absolutely right! The most fascinating art heists in history can easily rival their fictional counterparts in suspense and storytelling, complete with eccentric thieves whose motives go well beyond money, stone-cold…
The Wild West, or the Old West, refers to the period of western expansion in United States history, roughly from the late 19th century and early 20th century. While most of us today only know it as a fictional aesthetic, the period was full of real violence and lawlessness, especially along the frontier regions. The…
The 20th century featured some of the deadliest battles and wars in history, and we’re not even including the world wars here. Some of them – like the Nigerian Civil War – would result in the deaths of millions of people, many of them civilians that had nothing to do with the many underlying causes…
According to the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948, a genocide is defined as a ‘crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part’. While many genocides of the past few hundred years are still remembered and commemorated around the world, some have been completely…
If adventure video games and movies like Indiana Jones are accurate, there are artifacts and stashes of valuables from ancient times just waiting to be discovered around the world, but is that really the case? While ‘treasure hunter’ is still not categorized as a worthwhile occupation by most career experts, some of those treasures do…
In the past few years, climate change has gone from a threat of the future to a disaster unfolding right in front of our eyes. Its effects are now being felt around the world, from shifting patterns of food production to natural disasters that are now more frequent and intense than any other time in…
While big guns and large armies are an important part of modern warfare, they’re ineffective without a network of highly-specialized covert operatives working behind the scenes to support their objectives. Some of the most successful military missions in history have been carried out by small, nameless groups of individuals that could be classified as both…
While there’s no official definition of ‘ancient history’, modern historians tend to define it as the period from the beginning of human civilization up until the early Middle Ages, usually until the fall of the Roman empire in 476 AD. From Europe to China to Africa, it was a period of intense violence among countless…
We all love a good fictional rescue story, as it blends adventure, suspense, drama, and all the other good stuff that makes up a good story. Real-life rescues are, however, rarely that exciting, as they often involve real risks for not only the victims, but also the rescuers. These are some of the most daring…
The development of modern artificial intelligence systems has been a long time in the making, dating back to the earliest days of automated machine algorithms and robotics. Here are 10 of the most critical moments in the advancement of robotics, and in giving those robots the ability to think… 10. Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine -…
Mathematics is the study of structure, order, and relation based on the basic concepts of counting and measuring. We’ve come a long way from just using it to count and measure things, however, as math now forms the basis for many advanced fields of scientific study, from thermodynamics to rocket science to bionanotechnology. All of…
The Second World War featured some of the deadliest battles in history, with casualty figures far surpassing anything we’ve seen at any other time of conflict in history. While we still remember many of them – like the infamous urban struggle at Stalingrad, or the daring amphibious Allied landings on the Normandy beach – most…
We think of human evolution as a natural, step-by-step feature of life on Earth, even if all evidence suggests that it’s not the case. Over the eons, life on Earth had to go through many different, unique steps to lead to the evolution of modern humans, including our decision to stand up on two feet…
One would think that serial killers are a uniquely-American thing, thanks to ‘true crime’ podcasts and TV shows that tend to overstate that phenomenon. Look at some of the most gruesome serial killers of the past few centuries or so, however, and you’d realize that serial murder is a shockingly-common occurrence throughout the world, from…
If video games and movies like Indiana Jones are to be believed, the world is teeming with hidden treasures and caches of valuable items just waiting to be found. While that’s obviously not true, many fabled items and artifacts from history still remain missing. Many of them were looted or stolen by petty soldiers during…
Women have often played a pivotal role in most rebellions and revolutions throughout history, though many of those names have been largely erased from the records – deliberately or otherwise. From the legendary Zenobia of Palmyra to Qiu Jin to the Vietnamese Trung sisters that fought against Chinese rule back in the first century AD,…
Throughout history, many mercenary groups and armies have played a decisive role in major wars, sometimes far surpassing their regular counterparts on the battlefield. While none of them survive today – as the development of modern warfare and weapons made them obsolete – they’re still remembered as some of the most successful fighting units ever…
Wars are tragic, devastating affairs, which is why no one wants to fight them longer than it takes to resolve the issue. That’s not always the case, however, as we know of quite a few conflicts in history that went on for tens or hundreds of years. Some of the longest wars of the past…