Saint Napoleon: The Catholic Saint Likely Made Up for an Emperor
For eight years, every church in the French Empire honoured a martyr who had been tortured to death …
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HistoryNathan Hale: The Young Schoolteacher Who Became America's Most Famous Spy
Nathan Hale spent barely two weeks as a spy, gathered no usable intelligence, and was hanged by the …
HistoryYemeni Civil War: How Yemen Became the World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis
Yemen's civil war began as a power struggle between the Houthi movement and the internationally reco…
HistoryZeus: King of the Greek Gods and Ruler of Mount Olympus
A father who tried to eat him. Two wars against his own relatives. Dozens of children born from thun…
HistoryAncient Mesopotamia: How the Land Between Two Rivers Invented Civilization
Before there were nations, there was a stretch of mud between two rivers. Ancient Mesopotamia gave t…
HistoryWho Are the Houthis? Yemen's Rebel Group History
They began as a Zaydi youth group running summer camps in Yemen's mountains. Three decades later, th…
HistoryTyphon: The Biggest and Scariest Monster in Greek Mythology
Before Zeus could rule the cosmos for good, he had to face one last enemy: a sky-scraping giant with…
HistoryAnglo-Saxons: From Pagan Britain to the Norman Conquest
Most incoming peoples adopt the culture they conquer. The Anglo-Saxons did the opposite, keeping the…
HistoryInside the Roman Empire: Borders, Cities, Roads, and Trade
Emperors and gladiators are the headline, but the Roman Empire actually ran on sea lanes, paved road…
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
— George Santayana