During the Mount Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD, clouds of superheated gas enveloped the ancient city of Pompeii and its surrounding areas, instantly vaporizing bodily fluids and soft tissues, according to new research. Sounds grim, but this mode of death was actually a blessing in disguise, given the alternatives.
Mmmm, nutmeg. It’s the spice that adds a certain something to pumpkin pies, custards, and hot cups of coffee. We love our nutmeg to an embarrassing degree, but as a recent archaeological discovery shows, its origins date back to a very different time—and far longer ago than we realized.
The Earth does not forget. Meteor impacts, nuclear detonations, Ice Ages, earthquakes: The memories of them all are imprinted in the muck at the bottom of the ocean.
As if the devastating effects of bombs dropped on European cities during the Second World War weren’t terrible enough, a surprising new study shows that the shockwaves produced by these bombing raids reached the edge of space, temporarily weakening the Earth’s ionosphere.
Fritz Kuhn was a despicable man. But he and his fellow Nazi followers in the United States thought he had a valuable reputation to protect. Which is why Kuhn sued Warner Bros. for libel in 1939 after the Hollywood studio released a film called Confessions of a Nazi Spy.
11,000 years’ worth of artifacts went up in smoke as the 200-year-old National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro—one of the largest collections in the Americas—burned down in a massive firestorm on Sunday night.
In August 1943, the USS Abner Read struck a Japanese naval mine while conducting patrols in the Bering Sea. The explosion sheared the ship’s entire stern section, sending it and 71 U.S. sailors to the bottom of the Bering Sea. Lost for 75 years, the World War II destroyer’s severed stern has finally been found off a…
The indigenous people of Easter Island, the Rapa Nui, experienced a societal collapse after the 17th century because they stripped the island clean of its natural resources. Or at least, that’s the leading theory. An analysis of the tools used by the Rapa Nui to build their iconic stone statues suggests a very…
For a while, the History channel has focused its extraterrestrial coverage on that guy with weird hair who throws his hands into the sky and shouts: “Aliens!” Now, they’re getting into sci-fi, but sci-fi inspired by supposedly real UFO cases. We’re here to open up those case files—and see if aliens are interested in…
A missing Russian Imperial Navy cruiser said to contain 200 tons of gold bullion worth an estimated $133 billion has been discovered after being lost at sea for 113 years.
In Project Blue Book, Game of Thrones’ Aiden Gillen plays a skeptical investigator of all things alien. But as this first trailer for the Hstory Channel’s new drama series shows, it turns out that deep down, he wants to believe.
The first real film based on a Marvel/DC character was 1966's Batman: The Movie, starring Adam West’s campy version of the Caped Crusader. In the ‘40s and ‘50s, Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel (now known as Shazam), and Captain America all had weekly, live-action serials shown in theaters, while the first Zorro movie…
Something is toxic in the state of Denmark, as a pair of researchers recently discovered while archiving books at a university library.
Last month, archaeologists in Italy found the skeletal remains of a Pompeii resident who apparently had his head crushed by a giant rock while fleeing the eruption some 2,000 years ago. The victim’s skull has now been recovered, and its surprisingly pristine condition suggests an alternative cause of death.
There’s a new docudrama coming out tomorrow about the life of Ulugh Beg, an obscure medieval astronomer who made Samarkand, now Uzbekistan, a thriving center of culture and science in the 15th century.
Are you dying to find out why most TV shows, comic books, novels, and even some movies end on cliffhangers? Tune in next week! Or now—that works too. io9's Beth Elderkin dives into the thousand-year history behind cliffhanger endings, from the early days of Persian folklore to Charles Dickens, The Perils of Pauline,…
It was 50 years ago this month that Senator Robert F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin. In what is now the first study of its kind, a team of specialists has conducted a systematic review of the medical care he received during the critical hours following the shooting. Their findings offer unprecedented details about…
You’ve seen video of the Hindenburg disaster in New Jersey from that flame-filled day in 1937. But what about the zeppelins that didn’t crash? How did they work and what did people imagine they would do to revolutionize air travel?
Solo: A Star Wars Story is about a young man lured into a life of smuggling and thievery. Deadpool 2 stars an actual murderer. Why do we admire heroes who commit crimes? On the latest episode of That Looks Familiar, Beth Elderkin shares the stories of real-life “Lovable Rogues” from history and looks at what happens…
To the victor go the spoils, or in some cases, the bodies of a vanquished enemy, as the discovery of remnants from an Iron Age battle in Denmark demonstrates.
