The Steller’s Sea Cow was the largest member of the Manatee and Dugong family, reaching the incredible length of 30 feet and weighing over ten tons. It wasn’t discovered by science until 1741. And by 1768, in the space of less than 30 years, it had been utterly exterminated.
Steller’s Sea Cow. A contemporary engraving.
On March 27, 1977, two 747 jumbo jets collided on the runway at an airport on Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco. Of the 644 people on board the two planes, 583 were killed. The Tenerife collision still remains the deadliest aircraft accident in history.
A KLM Airlines Boeing 747. photo from WikiCommons
The British East India Company was one of the world’s first “corporations”. Chartered by the English Crown, it had its own Army, installed its own Governments, minted its own coins, and ruled entire countries. And it played a direct role in sparking the American Revolution.
One-rupee coin issued by the British East India Company photo from WikiCommons
Florida is the land of invasive species. Because of our status as a center for the importing of exotic pets and houseplants from overseas, and our neo-tropical climate, we have been invaded by everything from kudzu plants to Burmese pythons. And one of our invaders is a seeming impossibility–a fish that breathes air and walks on land.
Walking Catfish Photo from US Geological Survey
During the American Revolution, the city of New York was firmly in British hands. But here, in the very heart of the enemy, George Washington had his very own spy ring–which uncovered America’s greatest traitor.
Continue reading George Washington’s CIA: The Culper Spy Network
Most baseball fans have probably heard the story: as a young college student in Cuba, Fidel Castro was approached to play professional baseball in the United States, but never made it. It’s a story involving history, politics and ideology. But is it true?
Fidel Castro in 1959
Continue reading Did Fidel Castro Almost Play Baseball for the US Major Leagues?
At the end of the Second World War, the United States possessed one complete atomic bomb ready for use and was making enough plutonium to potentially produce two more bombs per month. But, President Truman thought, there was no need for that number—no country, he thought, could withstand an attack by more than five or six atomic bombs without being forced to surrender. One year after Hiroshima, the entire US nuclear stockpile stood at 9 weapons, and by July 1947 this had grown to only 13 bombs and 34 specially-modified B-29 bombers to deliver them.
In 1949, however, the Soviet Union test-detonated its own atomic weapon (a virtual copy of the Nagasaki bomb). The US, in a panic, ordered increased production of its own nuclear weapons, and a crash program to develop bigger and better bombs and delivery systems, eventually culminating in the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capable of delivering hydrogen thermonuclear weapons halfway around the world with over one-million tons of explosive power. The next forty years would see a nuclear arms race on a massive scale, which drained treasuries, hobbled economies, and threatened the entire planet with instant nuclear annihilation.
An iconic image of the Cold War–a Minuteman III nuclear missile in its silo.
Continue reading Massive Retaliation: A History of US Plans for Nuclear War
Most of us know that Washington DC was not the first Capitol of the US; indeed the city did not even exist until after George Washington’s term of office. Some people know that the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, but at that time the colonies had no formal government. It was not until the Articles of Confederation were written in 1778 that the colonies had an actual written constitution–but they were not ratified until 1781, and the US did not actually win its independence until 1783. During this time, the US actually had nine different capitol cities.
The original brick Capitol Building, Washington DC, 1800
Everyone “knows” that Charles Lindbergh in the Spirit of St Louis was the first person to make a nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1927.
And everyone is wrong.
William Alcock and Arthur Brown take off in their Vickers-Vimy airplane for the first nonstop transatlantic flight.
Continue reading Alcock and Brown: The First Transatlantic Flight
In February 1942, President Franklin D Roosevelt issued Executive Order 1066, authorizing the forcible relocation to detention camps of all people of Japanese descent who lived along the Pacific Coast. It was a shameful event in US history. But few people today remember the incident that sparked the internment policy, which involved a Japanese pilot who had been shot down during the Pearl Harbor attack.
Crashed Zero on Niihau Island. US Army Photo
It is the most famous scientific hoax in history, and fooled many paleontologists for several decades. Yet even today we do not definitively know who carried out the Piltdown Hoax, and the list of suspects includes some surprising people.
Scientists at the London Natural History Museum examine the Piltdown skull.
The Oaklawn Cemetery in downtown Tampa FL is the oldest cemetery in the city, dating back to 1850. It contains the graves of the victims of seven wars and five yellow fever epidemics. But there is one old gravestone in particular that I always look at every time I walk past the cemetery:
Ilona Staller, better-known under her stage name Cicciolina, is surely the most colorful political figure from any country. An actress who found her fame in porn films, she was elected to the Italian Parliament for a four-year term, delivered her campaign speeches topless, and after taking office she continued to make hardcore films while serving as an MP.
Italian Parliament Building. Photo from Wiki Commons
The story of the “Baghdad Battery” is a staple on many paranormal, “alternative history” and “ancient astronaut” websites. According to the lore, the “battery” indicates that ancient people in the Middle East knew about and used electricity some 2,000 years before the Europeans supposedly discovered it. But how solid is the evidence for this?
The pieces of the “Baghdad Battery”.
Built in the late 13th Century, the castle and fortress at Akershus stands sentinal over the port fjord of Oslo, Norway. It was never taken by force, and served as a residence for Scandinavian royalty for over 700 years. Today it is one of Oslo’s most popular tourist attractions.
Hidden History 