Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

Located at the southern end of the Iberian peninsula is the largest autonomous community in Spain by population and the second largest by area: Andalusia.  Andalusia is different from the other regions of Spain for a host of reasons. It has a unique history, a unique geography, and a unique culture.  Moreover, many of the things that people associate with Spain are actually things that come from A...

After several years of rising tensions, on May 13, 1846, the United States Congress declared war on the nation of Mexico.  The war lasted only two years, and the conduct of the war was decidedly one-sided.  The conclusion of the war resulted in changes to both countries, which can be seen on the map and felt on the ground today. Yet, despite being one of the most important conflicts in the history...

The Netherlands is unlike any other country on Earth.  What sets the Netherlands apart from every other country isn’t its size; it's the fact that 17% of the area of the country was once in the sea. Turning the sea into land is no easy feat, but it is something that the Dutch have been doing for centuries. Not only have they expanded the territory of the Netherlands, but they have also created a s...

In 1582, a Japanese nobleman by the name of Lord Otomo Sorin sent a group of envoys to Europe.  The entire round trip of their journey took eight years, and along the way, they visited several European countries and met multiple European heads of state, including two popes. It was hoped that their mission would revolutionize relations between Europe and Japan. Learn more about the Tensho Embassy a...

The ancient Greeks had a polytheistic religion and a pantheon of gods.  They didn’t just have many gods; they had a LOT of gods. Gods that ruled over many different aspects of human endeavor and the natural world. These gods had a mythology that bound them up together in a very dysfunctional and often disturbing family tree. You’re probably familiar with some of them, but others are pretty obscure...

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government.  It is presented to members of the U.S. Armed Forces who have displayed extraordinary bravery and valor in combat, often at great personal risk and beyond the call of duty.  The Medal of Honor has a rich history dating back to the American Civil War and has undergone various changes in its design, criter...

In the early 20th century, David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife Sydney Bowles had seven children, six girls and one boy.  The sisters all achieved notoriety for entirely different reasons. They were, how can I say, different from each other. Very different. Several of them found themselves associated with some of the most important individuals of the mid-20th century. Learn mor...

In 1970, one of the world’s largest infrastructure projects opened in Aswan, Egypt.  It was a dam that harnessed the power of the Nile River, the longest river in the world.  The dam provided electricity for half of the country and tamed the annual floods, a regular feature on the Nile.  But the project wasn’t without its drawbacks. It became a point of contention during the Cold War, displaced th...

In the year 331 BC, one of the most important battles in world history took place.  The vastly outnumbered forces of Alexander the Great lined up against those of Darius III, leader of the Persian Empire.  The outcome of the battle didn’t just change the map of the world in the 4th century BC; it changed the world in a way that can still be seen today.  Learn more about the Battle of Gaugamela and...

It is the most expensive substance in the world by a wide margin. When it was first proposed, it was actually proposed in jest. However, decades later, the joke turned out to have been true.  It is a fundamental part of the universe, and by all accounts, it should be everywhere, yet it can’t be found anywhere, and physicists aren’t really sure why.  Learn more about antimatter, how it was discover...

One of the most popular card games in the world is poker.  The game was played in the old west among cowboys, by dogs on velvet paintings, and by the crew of the Star Ship Enterprise.  Poker is played informally among friends and family, yet it is also a high-stakes competitive game where millions of dollars can be won or lost. It is a game that has origins that go back centuries, but in its moder...

Perhaps the most respected and feared soldiers in the world are those who belong to Special Forces.  Special Forces are considered to be the elite of the elite. Most nations have some sort of Special Forces units in their military.  Some of the best-known Special Forces units are household names and others are, how shall we say, more secret.  While Special Forces seem rather modern, the tradition...

On the morning of February 14, 1929, a horrific crime took place on the north side of Chicago. Seven men were lined up against the wall of an auto garage and gunned down in cold blood by machine gun fire.  The event marked the low point of the violent mob wars that took place in the city of Chicago. It also marked a turning point in attitudes towards prohibition in the United States and the war on...

A reconnaissance satellite, otherwise known as a spy satellite, is somewhere above your head right now, collecting images and gathering intelligence on whatever it sees below it.  Ten countries are currently believed to have at least one spy satellite.  While these satellites can gather an enormous amount of data, they do not have the superpowers that they are often depicted as having in films and...

In the 1960s, a New York clinical psychiatrist and an adoption agency conducted an experiment. They separated multiple sets of identical twins and one set of identical triplets into different families to test how much of personality is due to genetics or the environment.  None of the children or families were ever told about this.  The results of this experiment, and other cases like it, have prov...

Located off the coast of South America and in the Southern Atlantic Ocean is the Falkland Islands.  The Falklands are an almost treeless archipelago where sheep and penguins outnumber the people.  It has little in the way of natural resources beyond fish and grass for grazing.  Yet, these sparsely populated islands have been the subjects of international disputes and even war. Learn more about the...

Sometime about 3,200 years ago, one of the most famous wars in ancient history took place.  Maybe. It has been the subject of some of the greatest works of Western literature, and it has given us some of the most enduring cultural references.  It was also the subject of one of the greatest archeological finds of the 19th century. Learn more about the city of Troy and the Trojan War on this episode...

One of the most common and versatile forms of energy in the world is natural gas. Natural gas is used for cooking, heating, electrical production, and powering vehicles.  Entire economies are dependent on its consumption, and others are dependent on its production.  As such, it has become one of the most important commodities in the world. Learn more about natural gas what it is, where it comes fr...

Depending on how you define it, there are about 193 to 200 countries in the world today.  Over the last 100 years, that number has been constantly increasing. Sometimes, the number goes up a lot in short periods of time, and other times, there might be decades between the creation of a new country.  There hasn’t been a new country created since 2011, but it is entirely possible that we might make...

In the 1950s and 1960s, the British Intelligence community was shocked by a series of high-profile defections to the Soviet Union.  These defections proved to be devastating to British intelligence during the Cold War and may have led to the death or imprisonment of hundreds of undercover British operatives.  These defections changed Western intelligence gathering forever in ways that can still be...

In the early 20th century, as automobiles became more and more popular, the need for a national system of roads in the United States became more evident.  One of the suggested roads connected the city of Chicago, Illinois, on the Great Lakes, with the city of Los Angeles, California, on the Pacific Ocean.  In 1926 the route was established, following paths and trails which had been used for centur...

Located in East London is the Royal Greenwich Observatory.  Passing directly through the observatory is an imaginary line that extends from the North Pole to the South Pole.  This line is significant because it is the reference point for every other line of longitude in the world.  What is even more remarkable is that there is no objective reason for this particular line to be so important.  Learn...

From August 1942 to February 1943, the Germans and the Soviets engaged in what would become the most brutal and bloodiest battle in human history. The battle took place in a city that probably had greater psychological and propaganda value than it did actual strategic value. The battle, in many respects, was the high water mark of Nazi Germany and the turning point of the enter war in Europe. Lear...

The most significant event in American history was undoubtedly the Civil War.  The Civil War was, of course, the result of the institution of slavery, which had existed for generations by that time. By the same token, the opposition to slavery had existed for just as long.  The opposition to slavery began amongst devoutly religious people but eventually spread into a mass social and political move...

The United States consists of 50 states, each of which is represented by a star on the American flag.  Most of those states consist of some section of North America divided by lines on a map that separate them from other states, Canada, or Mexico. But there is one state that is not like the others. It isn’t located in North America. It doesn’t have a land border with anything, and its route to sta...