Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

The world as we know it is made up of 193 countries, Antarctica, and a host of territories. However, between all of those places are the high seas or international waters, which are not controlled by anyone.  But where do international waters begin? What can you do in international waters? And how close can you actually sail to another country? Learn more about the Law of the Sea, how it was creat...

On December 8, 1941, as the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor, they were simultaneously attacking other Allied positions around Asia.  One of the biggest attacks was on Manila in the Philippines and the Filipino and American forces that were entrenched on the Bataan Peninsula. Filipino and American forces ended up surrendering, which began one of the most brutal and horrifying episodes of the ent...

When Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, there was a rush of people who moved west to claim the free land that was offered.  However, there was a problem. Creating physical divisions for plots of land on the prairie was difficult when there was no stone or wood.  Eventually, there was a solution to the problem, which offered a cheap way to divide land…and created a whole host of new...

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...

On May 11, 1960, an auto worker who went by Ricardo Klement stepped off the bus after his shift at a Mercedes-Benz automotive plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  As he was walking home, he was abducted by several men and thrown into a vehicle. This was no ordinary kidnapping, however. There was no demand for ransom. That was because this was no ordinary autoworker. This was actually Adolf Eichmann,...

From 1929 to 1992, several governments ruled over the Balkans, all of whom used the name “Yugoslavia.” Yugoslavia was a country that began with a dream but was born out of war and ultimately ended in war.  While the nation of Yugoslavia no longer exists, Its legacy can still be felt in the countries that formerly compromised it.  Learn more about Yugoslavia, its rise, and its fall on this episode...

Most of our major divisions of time are based on some sort of natural event.  A year is one orbit of the Earth around the sun. A month is one orbit of the Moon around the Earth. A day is one rotation of the Earth about its axis.  However, one of the most commonly used units of time has no natural analog whatsoever. Learn more about why there are seven days in a week and where the names for the day...

Inside you right now are most probably millions of, possibly even trillions of viruses.  Some viruses are extremely deadly, but the vast majority are completely benign. They can be found in almost every type of life, including plants, animals, and bacteria.  Yet viruses are completely different from any other type of life form. In fact, it is debatable whether they are even life forms at all.  Lea...

On August 9, 378, one of the most important battles in history took place.  While largely forgotten today, it was a critical battle that contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire.  It wasn’t just a loss for the Roman army; it also resulted in the death of an emperor, and it also contributed to the rise of a group known as the Visigoths, who would go on to spread throughout much of Europe ove...

There was no product more important to the economy of the ancient world than silk.  Silk was transported thousands of miles to be purchased by people so far away from its source that they had no clue where it came from.  The source of silk, however, was China, and for centuries, they had a monopoly, which brought them tremendous wealth.  That was until they didn’t.  Learn more about how the secret...

When the United States entered the Civil War, the Union needed a plan for conducting the war.  Its senior military commander, General Windfield Scott, devised a strategy that would play to the Union's strengths and exploit the Confederacy's weaknesses. He hoped that it would bring about a swift end to the war and minimize the loss of human life.  The plan didn’t bring about a swift end to the war,...

Psychologists have identified hundreds of different psychological disorders and conditions.  Some of them are rather common conditions that affect large segments of the population at one time or another. Others are quite rare and only come up in certain circumstances or even in certain places.  Within that, there is a rare subset of psychological conditions that only tend to appear in certain citi...

Sometime around 3,200 years ago, a new civilization became ascendent on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.  This group wasn’t like the Empires that surrounded them. They weren’t focused so much on land acquisition and conquest so much as they were focused on commerce and trade.  For centuries they ruled over trade and commerce in the Mediterranean until they finally succumbed to their mor...

During the Second World War, the United States established the highly secret Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb based on nuclear fission. While the Manhattan Project was ultimately successful, some in the program were thinking bigger. They felt that the explosion from an uncontrolled fission reaction could be used to create an even larger explosion using nuclear fusion.  One man, in parti...

In 1788, the son of the leader of the Confederation of Futa Jallon in West Africa was commanding his 2,000 troops against a neighboring military force and was captured.  He was sold into slavery and spent the next 40 years of his life living as a slave in Mississippi. That was until a chance meeting revealed his true identity, which eventually led to his freedom and the involvement of the Presiden...

If you are listening to me speak these words and can understand what I’m saying, then you are a human being. If you are a human being, you are also a mammal, and if you are a mammal, you have hair….or at least the biological capability to produce hair. But why exactly do we have hair? What function does it serve? Why do we have less than other animals? And why do people have different types of hai...

In the last year of the Second World War, things were not going well for the Imperial Japanese military.  They had lost several major naval battles against the United States, they were losing territory, and they had no capability to rebuild the ships that they were losing. They were desperate to find something to turn the tide of the war. What they settled on was one of the most terrifying tactics...

In 1956, one of the most important geopolitical events of the post-war period took place in Egypt.  Egypt 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 about the Suez Crisis and how it sha...

We are all familiar with camping, and many of us go camping or camp regularly. Enjoying the great outdoors with friends and family can be an enjoyable experience. However, camping has a history that is unlike most things in humanity. The path from the ancient world to luxury glamping was not straight.  Despite having very ancient roots, what we know today as camping is a relatively modern phenomen...

At the 1862 London International Exhibition, an inventor by the name of Andrew Parkes introduced a new product based on cellulose that he called Parkesine. Little did he know that this material which could be made elastic when heated and molded into almost any shape imaginable would be the basis for an enormous percentage of the materials in common use in the 21st century.  Learn more about plasti...

In June of 1314, Scottish forces under the command of Robert the Bruce squared off against an English army led by King Edward II. The battle was the culmination of years of English intervention in Scotland after a succession crisis. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Scots won the day, earned their independence, and firmly established Robert the Bruce as king of Scotland. Learn more about the B...

In 1940, much of the world was at war, but the United States wasn’t. A strong isolationist sentiment kept the US on the sidelines while Germany and Japan ran roughshod over their neighbors.  While the US wasn’t in the war, many people in the US military knew that it was only a matter of time before we got sucked in.  Over a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, a plan was developed for just that...

In 1903, the Ontario Rugby Football Union adopted a set of rules for their sport which were codified by Thrift Burnside, the captain of the University of Toronto football team. The rules were major changes to the game of rugby and were largely based on the rules created by Walter Camp for use in American football in the 1880s. However, with those rules, a new game developed that was neither rugby...

In the year 73 BC, Rome faced one of its greatest threats to its existence. An army of over 100,000 liberated slaves rose up in revolt and threatened the very fabric of the Roman Republic.  The revolt was led by a gladiator slave who lead his motley army and, to the astonishment of Rome, managed to defeat many Roman legions.  The end of this rebellion resulted in one of the most horrific displays...

In 1912, a discovery was announced that shocked the world. A British paleontologist announced what was perhaps the most important find in the history of paleontology.  The announcement was about the discovery of a fossil, which was claimed to be the missing link between apes and humans.  It was a groundbreaking discovery that, if true, would rewrite what we knew about early humanity. Unfortunately...