The National Statuary Hall is a semicircular room in the U.S. Capitol originally built to host sessions of the House of Representatives (the lower chamber of Congress) but repurposed in 1864 to house statues of prominent historical figures from the country. There are over a hundred statues, including one of Spanish friar Junípero Serra, but […]
Modern Era
Posted inArt, Modern Era
Bismarck Towers: A Monumental Phenomenon Spanning Four Continents
The construction of 184 monuments in honor of Otto von Bismarck between 1869 and 1934 in Germany seems logical. After all, the “Iron Chancellor” was the architect of German unification, culminating in the creation of the German Empire in 1871. However, during the same period, similar monuments were erected in countries such as Poland (40 […]
Posted inAge of Exploration, Archaeology
Nature of the Enigmatic “Armas de la tierra” of the Coronado Expedition in the 16th Century Revealed
Recent research has unveiled the nature of the weaponry used by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition (which crossed the present-day U.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas), referred to as Armas de la tierra (weapons of the earth), which had until now remained an enigma. This study, led by Deni J. Seymour, […]
Posted inAge of Exploration, Culture
Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, the chronicles of the Korean kingdom spanning five centuries, are the longest uninterrupted ones of a single dynasty in history
In 2006, the Seoul government announced that the Guksa Pyeonchan Wiwonhoe (National Institute of Korean History) had undertaken the digitization of the Joseon Wangjo Sillok, that is, the “Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty”, 1,893 books distributed across 888 volumes written in Chinese characters. These chronicles document the successive reigns of the monarchs of that […]
Posted inModern Era, Science
Deutsche Physik: The Germanized and Aryan Physics Some Nazi Scientists Opposed to Einstein’s Relativity
What does physics have to do with politics? Or racism? The answer is nothing… unless we are talking about Germany in the first half of the 20th century. In that case, we must highlight the emergence of a pseudo-scientific movement embodied in the so-called Deutsche Physik, or German Physics, also known as Arische Physik, or […]
Posted inModern Era
Mesmerism, the Theory of Animal Magnetism That Believed in the Existence of an Inner Force in All Living Beings
On August 11, 1784, a report was delivered to Louis XVI, King of France, by the so-called Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism, consisting of two independent committees of physicians and scientists (including Benjamin Franklin), tasked with clarifying the existence or non-existence of an invisible magnetic fluid that surrounded living beings and whose alterations were thought […]
Posted inModern Era
Schienenzeppelin, the Strange Experimental German Train Powered by a Propeller That Held the Speed Record Until 1954
Although looking at the images might suggest a Japanese bullet train, this was actually an experimental German railcar named the Schienenzeppelin—“Zeppelin on Rails”—due to its resemblance to airships. Propelled by an airplane propeller mounted at the rear, it set a speed record in the year it was invented, 1929. However, the inability to add carriages […]
Posted inAge of Exploration
When France Evacuated Toulon and Converted the Cathedral into a Mosque to Temporarily Cede It to the Ottomans
Hayreddin Barbarossa, the famed admiral of the Ottoman Empire, effectively became the master of the Mediterranean during the first half of the 16th century. Between 1543 and 1544, he raided numerous towns along the Spanish coast as well as the Genoese coast. This was nothing new, as he had been doing so for years; what […]
Posted inModern Era
The Curious Connection Between Edison and a Japanese Shrine Through Bamboo
In 1964, Madeleine Edison Sloane traveled to Japan and visited Iwashimizu Hachimangu, a Shinto shrine located in Kyoto Prefecture near the city of Yawata. The purpose of her visit was not tourism but rather to personally see a memorial within its walls and take part in one of the two festivals held there in memory […]
Posted inModern Era
The Story of the “White Woman” Captive of the Australian Aboriginals and Her Subsequent Liberation
From the myth of Prester John to the character of Tarzan, the idea of a Western white person living among jungle natives has always been intriguing. Thus, the legend that emerged in mid-19th-century Australia isn’t surprising. It began when a Scottish shepherd emigrant wrote a letter to the press reporting the discovery of several European-origin […]
