Saving Pere David’s Deer

The unusual Père David’s Deer was saved from extinction only by the presence of a single captive herd in the Emperor of China’s private garden.

Pere David’s Deer, Oklahoma City Zoo

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Baltimore’s Civil War Riot

The “First Bloodshed of the Civil War” did not happen at Fort Sumter: it happened in the streets of Baltimore.

President Street Train Station

England’s 1381 Peasant Revolt

In 14th century England, the largest political rebellion in the country’s history broke out in London. It had far-reaching consequences which can still be felt today.

The death of Wat Tyler. A contemporary manuscript.

The “Batavia” Mutiny

In 1628 a merchant ship from the East India Company, called Batavia, set sail from Holland to the Dutch East Indies. The voyage would end in mutiny, shipwreck, sexual slavery, mass murder, and executions.

The massacres. A contemporary engraving.

Akhenaton: The Heretic Pharaoh

In the 14th century BCE, the united Kingdoms of Egypt were the most powerful state in the Western world, ruled by Pharaohs who claimed divine descent from the gods. But then a Pharaoh named Akhenaton took the throne—and attempted to change the very fabric of Egyptian religion.

Akhenaton worshipping the Sun Disc

The Homestead Steel Strike

By the 1890s, the United States, which had been a largely agricultural society, had been transformed into a rapidly-expanding industrial powerhouse, with factories and mills sprouting up in every urban area. The US became a lopsided economy, with a small handful of super-rich making immense profits from a great mass of poorly-paid and ill-treated immigrant workers. The result was a series of strikes and industrial warfare, which came to a head in Pittsburgh PA.

Bost Building Museum, Pittsburgh PA

Ghosts of the Ice Age

The last Ice Age came to an end roughly 15,000 years ago. But today we can still see ghostly remnants of extinct Ice Age ecosystems, preserved in living plants.

Osage Orange