In the Popotla neighborhood of Mexico City, there is an ancient cypress tree called Árbol de la Noche Victoriosa (Tree of the Victorious Night). Previously, it was known as the Árbol de la Noch...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/05/arbol-de-la-noche-victoriosa-mexico-city.html
These photographs of a mountain range in Anlong County, located in southwest China's Guizhou Province, have captivated netizens. Recently shared footage on social media reveals several mountain p...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/05/pyramids-of-anlong-county-china.html
In the hills outside the old capital of Nanjing in southeastern China lies the ancient stone quarry of Yangshan. Worked since the time of the Six Dynasties (from the early 3rd century AD to the l...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/05/the-stone-stele-of-yangshan-quarry.html
At the corner of Whitecross Street and Old Street in East London, on the walls above Jane Roe Kitchen, you’ll see a commemorative blue plaque dedicated to a certain Miss Priss Fotheringham, who...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/05/priss-fotheringham-londons-second-best.html
On March 6, 1915, a large crowd gathered at Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna for the unveiling of a new monument—a wooden depiction of a medieval knight dubbed “Wehrmann in Eisen,” or the “Wa...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/05/the-nail-men-of-world-war-1.html
A name that often gets sidelined when we talk about the history of automobiles is Siegfried Marcus, a pioneering Austrian inventor who built and operated a road vehicle powered by a four-stroke g...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/05/siegfried-marcus-forgotten-inventor-of.html
On June 29, 1892, in the town of Necochea, located in the southeast of Argentina in the province of Buenos Aires, two young children were discovered brutally murdered in their home. The victims w...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/04/francesca-rojas-first-murderer-to-be.html
Approximately 40 kilometers southwest of Leeds and 50 kilometers east of Manchester, nestled in the foothills of the Pennine Hills, you'll find the unfortunately named town of Penistone. The town...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/04/penistone-worst-accident-black-spot-on.html
The rugged terrains of North Caucasia, nestled within the Russian Federation, is dotted with ancient towers that stand as silent sentinels to an architectural tradition started centuries ago by t...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/04/the-ingush-towers-of-north-caucasia.html
On November 1, 1952, the U.S. detonated the world’s first hydrogen bomb, codenamed “Mike”, as part of Operation Ivy. It was the first full test of a breakthrough design created by Hungarian...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/04/the-nuclear-test-that-vaporized-island.html
English inventor Sir Henry Bessemer, renowned for his groundbreaking steel manufacturing process that still bears his name, once lamented, “Few persons have suffered more severely than I have f...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/04/the-swinging-cabin-of-ss-bessemer.html
Nestled within the textiles collection at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra lies a gem of historical significance and artistic prowess—the Rajah Quilt. Revered as one of the nation'...
Throughout history, weather has played a significant role in military campaigns, sometimes altering its course and reshaping the destiny of nations. From the icy depths of Russian winters thwarti...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/04/5-times-weather-played-foul-for.html
Fireworks have accompanied celebrations and festivities for at least a thousand years. They were first used in China during the Song dynasty (960–1279), and from there the knowledge of these ex...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/03/claude-ruggieri-master-of-pyrotechnic.html
In April 1815, Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa in present-day Indonesia, erupted with a violence never seen before in recorded history. A massive amount of pulverized rock, weighing an est...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/03/karl-von-drais-and-laufmaschine.html
In 1987, during a school trip to London, a watchmaker apprentice stumbled upon a rare find at an antique flea market. Concealed within a box filled with antiquated metal odds and ends there was a...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/03/watch-1505-worlds-first-watch.html
The tiny country of Nepal, nestled between India and Tibet, boasts of a very robust drinking water supply system that dates back to at least the 5th century. Among its most striking features are ...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/03/dhunge-dhara-nepals-1600-year-old.html
Between 1930 and 1932, Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard made more than two dozen trips to the upper atmosphere using a balloon of his design. These flights to the stratosphere ignited a renewed i...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/03/the-osoaviakhim-1-disaster.html
The historic D-Day landing by Allied forces on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, marked the beginning of a crucial phase in World War II—the liberation of France and the rest of Western ...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/03/horizontal-collaboration-sleeping-with.html
In 1842, British engineers William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow received a patent for a flying machine. Unlike previous attempts made with gliders and hot-air balloons, Henson’s and Stri...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/03/john-stringfellow-and-worlds-first.html
Antimony—the soft, lustrous gray metal—has many industrial uses such as in the preparation of flame-retarding compounds and in the manufacture of alloys. The metal and its compounds has also ...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/02/antimony-pill-everlasting-pill.html
The Nerodimka river in the Nerodime region of Kosovo is the only river in Europe that drains into two different seas, a phenomenon known as bifurcation. The left branch flows into the Black Sea, ...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/02/nerodimka-river-bifurcation.html
The Thaua people, who reside around Twofold Bay on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, share a special bond with killer whales or orcas, which they call beowas. “We consider beowas t...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/02/the-killer-whales-of-eden.html
The Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece, that juts into the Aegean Sea for some 50 kilometers, was once bisected by a canal a hundred feet wide. The canal was built by king Xerxes I of Persia ...
On the 7th of July 1730, the notorious French pirate, Olivier Levasseur, faced his final moments on the scaffold. His crimes, which had instilled fear across the high seas for over fifteen years,...
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2024/02/olivier-levasseurs-lost-treasure.html