Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

Located between China and India, Pakistan, Buthan, and Nepal is the world’s highest chain of mountains, The Himalayas.  The Himalayas aren’t just very tall, picturesque mountains that are the home of Mount Everest. They are perhaps the most important mountain range on Earth.  The Himalayas serve as the source of several of the world’s most important rivers. It is responsible for weather patterns t...

In September 1944, despite over half a year still remaining in World War II, the Allies began preparing for an eventual post-war world. One of the biggest questions being discussed was what to do with Germany. After two world wars with Germany in just a quarter century, no one wanted a third. One American official developed a plan that would basically destroy Germany as a modern country to prevent...

In the early 1960s, the United States was always a step behind the Soviet Union in the space race.  By the mid-1960s, the Americans had caught up. They didn’t have many glamorous firsts, but they were doing increasingly difficult things in space. All of that came crashing to a halt on January 27, 1967, when three astronauts died in what was a seemingly routine training exercise.  Learn more about...

In the mid-18th century, excavations in the ancient town of Herculaneum, just outside the city of Pompeii and destroyed by the same volcano, discovered something….interesting.  They found a villa that contained 1800 ancient scrolls. Unfortunately, the volcano's heat carbonized them, making them illegible and incredibly fragile. Still, for over 250 years, scholars have hoped that techniques would e...

In the early 19th century, the most abundant bird in North America, and perhaps the entire world, was the passenger pigeon. An estimated three billion of them would fly in flocks so large that they could blot out the sun.  However, within a century, the entire species had gone extinct.  It was one of the fastest and most disastrous turnarounds for any species in recorded history. Learn more about...

Depending on how you define it, there were somewhere between 70 to 100 Roman emperors between the ascension of Augustus to the fall of the western empire in 476. A period of about 500 years. Some of them managed to be just and competent rulers who ruled for extended periods of peace and prosperity.  Others….were not.  Learn more about the worst Roman emperors who ran the gamut from insane to incom...

Let me cut right to the chase. This episode is going to be a deep dive into the origin of some common idioms. I don’t want to dance around the subject or have to walk on eggshells, so I’m using this introduction to break the ice.  Whether you’re feeling under the weather or ready to burn the midnight oil with us, you’re in for a treat. I will spill the beans on their meanings and origins and expla...

One of the most famous lines in poetry comes from the poet Robert Burns, who spoke of ‘The best-laid schemes of mice and men.’ The line has been used in reference to the fact that no matter how good the plan or the intentions behind it, things will often not go according to plan.  Indeed, there have been times in history when plans have made things far worse than the problem they were trying to so...

The most popular sports league in the world in terms of the number of people who follow and watch is the English Premier League.  Unlike other sports leagues, the English Premier League is relatively new. It was only created in the early 90s in response to the poor condition of top-division football at the time.  Since then, it has brought in billions in revenue for the clubs that have played in t...

In February 1904, the Russian Empire found itself at war with the Empire of Japan over what was territory in the current nation of China.  The problem for Russia was that a big chunk of its navy was located in the Baltic Sea, and the war was in Asia.  The Baltic fleet was sent on an incredibly long and interesting voyage to get the ships into battle. Learn more about the disastrous voyage of the I...

Mark Twain once said, 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.' The reason why he placed statistics into its own category is because it is possible to use numbers to misrepresent the truth, distort reality, or outright lie.  However, if you know what to look for, you can catch misuses of statistics, and if really pay attention, you can find these misuses almost everywhere...

The month of July is named after Julius Caesar. In 44 BC, after his assassination, the Roman Senate renamed the month of Quintilis after him in honor of the month he was born. The fact that he was appointed dictator for life probably had something to do with it.  All the emperors that came later never changed it, so instead of Quintilis, we have July.  So stay tuned for the Quintilis episode of qu...

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress of the 13 British colonies in North America issued a document addressing their grievances with the British Crown and stated to the world why they considered themselves to be a free and independent country.  That document and its legacy have had a much bigger impact than its signatories could have ever imagined almost 250 years ago. Learn more about the Dec...

One of the leading destinations for live stage performances is Broadway.  The term Broadway, derived from the street in New York City, is not just a name. It's a rich history of notable theaters and a style of performance that has become synonymous with it.  But why did theater develop on that particular street in that particular city, what divides Broadway from off-Broaday, and how exactly does B...

Located in the 90th place on the periodic table is the element Thorium.  Thorium, as with every element, has unique properties, making it useful in certain applications.  However, Thorium’s best days might still be ahead of it and might move it to the front of the list of the world’s most important elements. Learn more about Thorium, how it was discovered, and its potential uses on this episode of...

In December 1936, the United Kingdom underwent its greatest constitutional crisis of the 20th century.  The king, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne to marry an American divorcee. This might not seem like a scandal today, but at the time, it threatened to collapse the entire British government when Europe was on the brink of war.  The aftermath of the abdication crisis saw the rise of a new king an...

In 1961, at the Green Bank observatory in West Virginia, a small conference was held for astrophysicists. The meeting was organized by Cornell University professor and astronomer Frank Drake. The subject of the conference was the search for extraterrestrial life.  In preparation for the conference, he jotted down his thoughts in the form of an equation. An equation that has changed how we think ab...

Before the Allied invasions of Normandy or Sicily in World War II, the ground war against Germany and Italy was first fought in North Africa. The reason why there was even a conflict in Africa was a combination of geography and history. Even though it doesn’t get the attention the war in Asia or Europe receives, the war in North Africa was pivotal to the ultimate resolution of the war in Europe. ...

The biggest agricultural crop in the world today, by total weight, is corn.  Also known as maize, corn is a crop of the New World. The ancients in China, India, Mesopotamia, and Rome never knew about corn. Yet, since the Columbian Exchange, it has become one of the world’s most important commodities as a source of food, animal feed, and the basis of many manufactured food products.  Learn more abo...

One of the most audacious scams in history took place in the early 19th century in Britain.  A man sold thousands of people a dream of land in the New World. His claims attracted large investments, encouraged hundreds of people to move around the world, and even suckered in members of the royal family.  However, his promises were empty, and in the end, shiploads of people were stranded in the midd...

The death of a British monarch is a very big event. Thousands of people may take part in the funeral and procession, with millions more lining up to pay their respects and billions more watching on television. This didn’t always use to be the case, however.  In particular, there was one English King who not only didn’t get an elaborate funeral, no one knew exactly where his body was for over 500 y...

One of the biggest problems that humanity has faced for thousands of years is heat.  Excessive heat made it difficult to work in the middle of the day. Heat was especially problematic in the tropics, where a shockingly large percentage of humanity lived.  As cities became more developed, excess heat, all year round, became a limiting factor in how tall buildings could get.  All of this was solved...

In the midst of the Second World War, the Allied powers began planning ahead for what the post-war world was going to look like.  The Legion of Nations had failed to prevent World War II. If they were to prevent another major war from breaking out in the 20th century, they needed something else.  Learning from the lessons from the past, they created a new organization that would ultimately be run...

In most academic disciplines, there is often a single idea or discovery which makes everything fall into place.  All of the things which didn’t make sense before suddenly do when looked through this new lens.  These eye-opening discoveries usually occur in the hard sciences, but one such advancement also took place in the field of economics. Learn more about the Marginal Revolution and how it chan...

A popular topic of films has been the French Foreign Legion.  The French Foreign Legion was supposed to be an organization where someone could get a new identity and a new start on life, even if they were criminals.  They were often stationed in hot, desolate places, where they served out their tour of duty before starting a new life.  But how much of the legend surrounding the French Foreign Legi...