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1) Gunpowder and the Printing Press: The History and Legacy of the Inventions that Modernized Europe
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In addition to the wheelbarrow, the seismograph, the waterwheel, deep drilling, suspension bridges, and ship rudders, among countless other life-changing contraptions, the Chinese developed what were later dubbed the "Four Great Inventions of China." Two of those were gunpowder and printing, which both spread through South Asia and the Middle East before making it to Europe.
For a time, gunpowder was a mere curiosity, but its destructive power and...
2) Greco-Roman Technology: The History of Inventions and Improvements Made by the Ancient Greeks and
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In virtually all fields of human endeavor Athens was so much at the forefront of dynamism and innovation that the products of its most brilliant minds remain not only influential but entirely relevant to this day. In the field of medicine, the great physician Hippocrates not only advanced the practical knowledge of human anatomy and care-giving but changed the entire face of the medical profession. The great philosophers of Athens, men like Aristotle,...
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The history of printing was for ancient Asia an advancement in culture and communication, but for Europe in the 15th century, it was much more, plunging the continent into a new paradigm and aligning it for the modern world. Its importance is often overlooked, but the timeliness of the printing machine was equivalent to the invention of alphabets in antiquity and ranks up there with the digital revolution and the introduction of the internet. Put...
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By the time weapons industrialist Samuel Colt was born, the Lewis and Clark Expedition sent to the Pacific by Thomas Jefferson had only recently returned with their report on the first overland continental journey. Outside of a small group of mountain men trapping and trading fur for European fashion magnates, few white settlers had found their way across the Great Plains. The firearms of the Revolution demonstrated little difference between a soldier's...
5) Early Balloons and Airships: The History and Legacy of Dirigibles Before the Invention of Airplanes
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The Wright Brothers initially underestimated the difficulties involved in flying, and they were apparently surprised by the fact that so many others were working on solving the "problem of human flight" already. Decades before their own historic plane would end up in the National Air & Space Museum, Wilbur and Orville asked the Smithsonian for reading materials and brushed up on everything from the works of their contemporaries to Leonardo Da Vinci....
6) Forgotten Terrorist Bombings in America: The History of Some of the Earliest Attacks in the United S
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Bombs have been around for centuries. The military units called "Grenadiers" in European armies used throwable black powder bombs, early versions of what today are called grenades. They were heavy, so Grenadiers were tall, strong soldiers able to throw grenades for a distance. Terrorism has been around for many centuries, most infamously the period called The Terror (1793-94) in the French Revolution. However, the combination of bombs and terrorism...
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Perhaps not surprisingly given how advanced they were in comparison to contemporaries, the Egyptians invented one of the first writing systems ever, and for centuries, people thought these ancient texts held some sort of secret, be it aliens, advanced technology lost to the world, or mystical cures for all of the world's ills. Even the ancient Egyptians saw their writing systems as full of mystery and hidden knowledge - according to Egyptian mythology,...
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In the 1600s, cotton and silk fabrics that bore colorful and exotic printed patterns, known as "calico," were flying off the shelves of the East India Company's stores. The rapidly escalating demand for calico had taken a visible toll on the European textile businesses. The trend spread across Europe and North America, and picking cotton was such an arduous task that even when relying almost entirely on slave labor, it was hard to make cotton a profitable...
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The crucial importance of education in China, a prized virtue instilled in the population among all classes by the beloved teacher and philosopher Confucius in the 6th century BCE, generated an unprecedented and long-lived golden age of literature and art. It also gave rise to a cornucopia of transformative innovations and groundbreaking technology, particularly following the dawn of the Common Era.
In addition to the wheelbarrow, the seismograph,...
10) The Weird Middle Ages: A Collection of Mysterious Stories, Odd Customs, and Strange Superstition
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In the time period between the fall of Rome and the spread of the Renaissance across the European continent, many of today's European nations were formed, the Catholic Church rose to great prominence, some of history's most famous wars occurred, and a social class system was instituted that lasted over 1,000 years. A lot of activity took place during a period frequently labeled derogatively as the "Dark Ages," and while that period of time is mostly...
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When American archaeologists discovered a collection of cuneiform tablets in Iraq in the late 19th century, they were confronted with a language and a people who were at the time only scarcely known to even the most knowledgeable scholars of ancient Mesopotamia: the Sumerians.
The exploits and achievements of other Mesopotamian peoples, such as the Assyrians and Babylonians, were already known to a large segment of the population through the Old...
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For millennia, people considered dragons to be real, and the vivid lore of dragons has touched societies from Central America to Europe, and from Egypt to China. The popularity of dragons can easily be assessed by the number of motion pictures that include them as an integral part of their narrative, from the friendly dragons of children's cartoons to the monsters being bred underground to unleash their horrors on humanity. Indeed, some of humanity's...
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Since the invention of the Internet, the amount of information that we are exposed to on a daily basis has grown exponentially. This constant barrage of information has led to a decrease in productivity, an increase in stress, and a decline in our mental well-being. With a few simple techniques and willpower, you can overcome information overload to live a happier and healthier life. You can learn how to turn off the noise, declutter your environment,...
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By the late 19th century, the nature of war weaponry, new naval paradigms and the first imaginings of aviation as a primary component of battle required yet another leap in technology. One single artisan arose from among many talents to meet the new challenge at a high level, far from the prestigious pistol and rifle factories of Connecticut. John Moses Browning was raised in what was at the time the "Wild West" of the Utah Country. His educational...
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During the first half of the 20th century, American crowds developed a fascination with foreign actors whose native accents lent an enhanced air of mystery to their on-screen personae. Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and Marlene Dietrich, all European-born, ruled at the box office. Amid their prolific careers stood the curious case of Hedy Lamarr, acclaimed as the most beautiful star of her time, and living with a professional pastime that looms large...
16) Sumer: The History of the Cities and Culture that Established Ancient Mesopotamia's First Civilizati
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When American archaeologists discovered a collection of cuneiform tablets in Iraq in the late 19th century, they were confronted with a language and a people who were at the time only scarcely known to even the most knowledgeable scholars of ancient Mesopotamia: the Sumerians. The exploits and achievements of other Mesopotamian peoples, such as the Assyrians and Babylonians, were already known to a large segment of the population through the Old Testament...
17) The Moors: The History of the Muslims Who Lived in North Africa and Europe during the Middle Ages
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The term Moor is a historical rather than an ethnic name. It is an invention of European Christians for the Islamic inhabitants of Maghreb (North Africa), Andalusia (Spain), Sicily and Malta, and was sometimes use to designate all Muslims. It is derived from Mauri, the Latin name for the Berbers who lived in the Roman province of Mauretania, which ranged across modern Algeria and Morocco. Saracen was another European term used to designate Muslims,...
18) Samuel Colt and Oliver Winchester: The Lives and Careers of America's Most Influential Gunsmiths
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Gunsmiths in early 19th century America were helped along by noted artisans from Germany, Switzerland, and other European powers, but despite advances made in the European and American musket, the requirement of an exterior spark and percussion to ignite powder for a single-shot discharge remained the paradigm. Similarly, the era was unable to move past the cumbersome weapon that required at least half a minute to reload. The military compensation...
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The term Moor is a historical rather than an ethnic name. It is an invention of European Christians for the Islamic inhabitants of Maghreb (North Africa), Andalusia (Spain), Sicily and Malta, and was sometimes use to designate all Muslims. It is derived from Mauri, the Latin name for the Berbers who lived in the Roman province of Mauretania.
The Berbers established several powerful and prosperous states on the south Mediterranean coast. They ruled...
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Among those who championed free markets, perhaps no economist has written so forcefully as Frédéric Bastiat, whose seminal work The Law is still widely read today, over 150 years after his death. Bastiat's work vigorously opposed government interference in matters affecting economies, and as socialism became more popular in the mid-19th century, he struck back at it, writing in The Law, "Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses...