Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

In the early 20th century, the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, welcomed a homeless monk into their home.  As this scruff, unkempt-looking man became closer to the royal family, he seemingly performed miracles, predicted the future, and cured illnesses.  He starts to gain influence over the Imperial Family, too much influence for comfort.  So, a group of nobles decided...

One of the most important and least understood sources of energy in the world today is nuclear power.  Nuclear power has an energy density tens of millions of times greater than fossil fuels and has one of the most impressive safety records of any energy source.  Yet, for decades, controversy has surrounded it and has hindered its adoption. Learn more about nuclear power and how it works on this e...

Between 1830 and 1850, the United States forcibly displaced 60,000 Native Americans living in the Southern United States under the ‘Indian Removal Act.’ While being moved, thousands would die due to starvation, disease, and exposure.  Its impact has led some scholars to classify the event as a genocide. Regardless of how it is classified, it remains one of the greatest tragedies in American histor...

In 1956, one of the most important geopolitical events of the post-war period took place in Egypt.  The Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, one of the most important waterways in the world. In response, a coalition of several countries tried to take it back. However, it didn’t go as planned, and it signaled a major reshuffling of the geopolitical order.  Learn more a...

In 1428, a young girl from the village of Domrémy, France, audaciously set out to meet the heir apparent to the French throne, the Dauphin, and told him what he had to do to defeat the English occupying her country.  She claimed that she was told what to do by God.  Against all odds, the Dauphin took her advice, and it worked. After a series of military victories, the Dauphin was crowned king, and...

In the late 18th century, the newly independent United States of America faced its first major domestic crisis.  Settlers in its westernmost regions rose up in open armed rebellion against the government. The cause of the rebellion had to do with taxes, which was the very thing that the American Revolution was about in the first place. The rebellion was seen by some as a threat to the very existen...

One of the things that almost every airline has in common is frequent flyer programs.  Frequent flyer programs were initially designed for loyal customers who flew frequently. However, they eventually branched out to people who used certain credit cards and earned miles by making everyday purchases. These programs have become so popular that many airlines now make a considerable amount of their mo...

Two of the most important concepts in the world of mathematics and nature are the Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratio. These two concepts seem separate, but they are actually tightly intertwined.  While they have been known since the ancient world, they are still highly relevant today and can be found all over nature.  Best of all, despite being important mathematical concepts, they are also a...

The early days of radio were like the wild west. There were no rules, and that lack of rules often led to problems.  Eventually, frequency regulations were put into place, which left a large swatch of spectrum available to amateur radio operators.  Over time, these operators created a worldwide community that predated the internet by decades. It is still a community that exists today with thousand...

In the late 17th century, King William III of England was facing a problem.  He was in the middle of a prolonged war with France. He was in desperate need of money, and he had exhausted most of the traditional sources for funding a war. A proposal came forward for a new bank that could lend the crown money at favorable interest rates, and also solve several problems for merchants in the country. ...

Located in the state of Wyoming and a little bit of Montana and Idaho lies one of the greatest national parks on Earth: Yellowstone.  In the 19th century, Yellowstone was declared the first national park in the world. However, what makes Yellowstone special actually dates back millions of years.  The geologic circumstances that led to the creation of Yellowstone today make it one of the most visit...

On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first atomic bomb. The announcement shocked the world, especially the United States, which predicted the Soviets wouldn’t have Nuclear Weapons until the mid-1950s. The big question was, how did the Soviets make the bomb so fast? Well, the Americans inadvertently helped them, as did the resources they captured in Eastern Europe.  Learn mo...

In 1958, the People’s Republic of China instituted its second five-year plan since the revolution.  Its goal was to rapidly industrialize China and boost agriculture to levels on par with the advanced economies of the Western world. China was going to become a modern country, not through the widespread adoption of machinery, but through the mass mobilization of labor. It didn’t work. Not only didn...

When you think of evil, characters like Hannibal Lecter, the Joker, and Michael Myers probably come to mind.  But what is evil really? Evil can take different forms: sadistic and brutal, but it can also be boring and normalized.  During the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, political philosopher Hannah Arendt reported on the trial for the New Yorker Magazine. Her journalism became incredibly controver...

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, France was shaken by a crisis that shook French society. An army officer was wrongly convicted in a sham trial. Then over the next several years, the French military doubled down, refusing to acknowledge what they had done, and punished everyone who attempted to prove them wrong, and even letting the guilty party go. The long-term results of the controver...

Today, cookbooks are ubiquitous. Go to any bookstore and you can find dozens, if not hundreds, of different cookbooks.  Search online, and you can find tens of thousands of websites that provide recipes.  The story of cookbooks is fascinating because it mirrors the entire evolution of human civilization. Not just how we cook and prepare food, but also how we organize knowledge, and what we deem to...

One of the most legendary legions in the history of the Roman military was the Legio IX (nonam) Hispana, or the Ninth Spanish Legion. They served under Pompey the Great and later with Julius Caesar in Gaul. They later served Augustus and were pivotal in the conquest of Britain under Emperor Claudius.  Then at some point, they simply disappeared. There was never a mention of them again in the histo...

After the American War of Independence, Britain recognized the United States, but it didn’t necessarily make them close allies.  Each country had its own agendas, and a generation later, they were butting heads again over a host of issues.  The result was another war, but unlike the Revolutionary War, everyone claimed victory, and no one really won anything.  Learn more about the War of 1812, its...

The month of August was named in honor of the emperor Augustus Caesar by the Roman Senate. Originally called Sextilis, the sixth month in the early Roman calendar, it was renamed in 8 BC to recognize Augustus’s achievements, particularly his victories and consolidation of power.  According to Roman tradition, the month was chosen because several of his significant accomplishments occurred during S...

In 1970, the United States passed the Organized Crime Control Act, which established the Witness Security Program or WITSEC.  Since being enacted, WITSEC has had thousands of witnesses and family members enter the program, none of whom, to date, have been killed under their protection. The program is a key weapon in the fight against organized crime and has been a subject of public fascination. Le...

For centuries, food preservation was a significant challenge for humanity.  Even if you were successful in hunting or gathering food, if you could not preserve it, it would be difficult to keep enough for survival.  One of the most important advancements in human history was the development of canning, allowing for food to be preserved for significantly longer periods of time.  Sometimes, very lon...

The year 1850 was the mid-point of the 19th century, one of the most transformative centuries in human history.  The first half of the 19th century saw wars, revolutions, and rapid technical and social changes.  In fact, there was arguably more technical and social change in the world during those fifty years than there had been in the last thousand years….and it was only just the beginning. Learn...

Captain James Cook was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy whose three major voyages of exploration between 1768 and 1779 greatly expanded European knowledge of the Pacific region.  His detailed maps, scientific observations, and interactions with indigenous peoples left a profound impact on geography, ethnography, and natural history.  He left an indelible m...

Sometime between the 7th century and 13th century BC, a man was born in Eastern Persia who had a revolutionary idea.  He claimed that there wasn’t a multiple gods, but rather just one god.  He established a religion which, at various times, was one of the most followed in the world. Thousands of years later, it still has adherents, although only a fraction of what it once was. Learn more about Zor...

In 259 BC, a boy named Ying Zheng was born in the state of Qin in modern-day China.  He was born into the royal family of the kingdom and ascended to the throne at the age of 13.  For most people, becoming king would be the pinnacle of their achievements. However, this was not to be the case with the King of Qin. He would go on to achieve a status that there wasn’t even a word for. Learn more abou...