Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

In the late 19th century, bananas, a fruit that had been popular for thousands of years, suddenly became a mass-market sensation. However, just a few decades after it was popularized, the industry had to completely change what was grown due to a pestilence.  As a result, the bananas that most people eat today are very different than the bananas that everyone ate before the second world war. Learn...

In 1961, Michael Rockefeller, an heir to one of the greatest fortunes in the world, disappeared on an art-collecting trip off the coast of the island of New Guinea.  For decades, the family simply assumed that he accidentally drowned off the coast in an attempt to rescue his anthropologist colleague.  However, in the decades since he disappeared, more information may have come forward about exactl...

If there is one song almost everyone knows it is Happy Birthday to You (yes, that is the actual title of the song, even though everyone just calls it Happy Birthday). Not only has the song been sung at countless children’s birthday parties, but it has also been mentioned in Supreme Court decisions and was the subject of one of the most important copyright cases in history.  Learn more about the mo...

All around you, in the air and the ground, is the most common element on Earth: Oxygen. As you are certainly well aware, Oxygen is required for life on Earth as we know it. But you might realize that the Earth didn’t always have oxygen in its atmosphere.  Oxygen has been responsible for everything from the rise of multicellular life to the space program. Learn more about the element oxygen, what i...

We are all familiar with tattoos. All of you have at least seen someone with one, most of you know someone with one, and many of you have at least one of your own.  The act of putting permanent illustrations on skin is actually one that goes back thousands of years and is something that has been practiced by cultures around the world.  Learn more about tattoos, where they came from, and how they h...

Many places on Earth have extreme climates. However, there is one place on Earth that has a climate so extreme that it is the closest thing to it might be on another planet.  Despite having the most inhospitable and unforgiving climate on the planet, researchers have been shocked at what they’ve found there. Their discoveries might help pave the way to finding life outside of Earth. Learn more abo...

In the Indiana Jones movies, Indiana is usually searching for a rare artifact with mystical powers while some other nefarious archeologist, usually a Nazi, is trying to find the artifact before Indy. Believe it or not, that trope of a Nazi archeologist looking for an item of incredible power actually has a kernel of truth to it.  Sort of. Learn more about Otto Rahn and the real-life Nazi search fo...

You’ve probably seen a movie or a TV show that took place in ancient Rome where gladiators fought in the coliseum or an amphitheater. At the end of the fight, the emperor or some other official would extend their thumb to see if the defeated gladiator would live or would die. But how accurate is that depiction of gladiatorial contests? Did gladiators always die in the arena? Did the emperor determ...

Despite having very different cultures and being separated by thousands of kilometers, Asia and Europe have been connected for thousands of years.  Through a series of overland and sea trade routes, goods, ideas, and people were able to move from east to west and vice versa.  These routes were responsible for some of history’s greatest cultural exchanges as well as some of its greatest disasters. ...

All three of the holy books from great monotheistic faiths share a similar story about a Queen from a land in the south who traveled to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon.  This queen, who is said to have come from a land called Sheba, held not only the fascination of Solomon but of people for almost 3000 years. But did she really exist, and if she did, where exactly did she come from? Learn more abou...

It is the most expensive substance in the world by a wide margin. When it was first proposed, it was actually done as a joke. 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 discovered...

Located in the South Pacific, squarely within the Polynesian Triangle, lies the Kingdom of Tonga.  While there are many islands and several countries within that region, Tonga has a unique history among them. The Tongans were one of the most dominant cultures in the Pacific, ruled an extensive sea-based empire, and were one of the only people in the Pacific who were never technically colonized by...

In the years immediately following the end of the Second World War, several of the scientists who took part in the Manhattan Project had an explosive idea.  They wondered if we could harness the incredible power of atomic bombs and put them to use for peaceful purposes.  In particular, what if we could use atomic bombs to literally blast ships into space?  This idea went far further than you proba...

In the middle ages, a legend persisted among Europeans that there was a Christian ruler in Asia, or Africa, who would come to join with European Christians to help fight Muslims in the Crusades. The only problem was that this distant Christian ruler didn’t exist. Yet, while the ruler was a fable, the story was actually based on some facts.  Learn more about the legendary Prester John and how Europ...

One of the most popular board games in the world is Monopoly.  Millions of copies of the game have been sold over thousands of different versions which have been published.  However, the origins of the game are not what most people think. In fact, the game was originally designed not as a way for people to win by amassing properties but rather to demonstrate why that was a bad idea. Learn more abo...

Gnaeus Pompeius was one of the most significant personalities during the late Roman Republic.  He was considered a military wunderkind who, at an early age, was given great responsibilities and never failed to deliver victory.  However, history remembers him not as the greatest Roman of his era but rather as a side player in the events which brought down the republic and, in the end, a loser on th...

In the Dialogues written by Plato in the year 360 BC, he wrote of a place called Atlantis. Atlantis was a land where the citizens were half-gods and half-men, yet it was destroyed in a cataclysmic event.  Ever since then people have been speculating about where Atlantis was and who the Atlantians were.  Learn more about the history of Atlantis and the various theories of where it was and if it eve...

In 1944, several months before the D-Day invasion, a group of Allied prisoners of war hatched one of the most audacious prison escapes in military history.  Their prison camp was thought to be escape-proof, yet for almost a year, prisoners worked on tunnels right under the noses of their German guards.  Then on the appointed night, a large group of men escaped in the largest prison break of the wa...

Sometimes over 3000 years ago, somewhere in Southwestern China, a leaf from the Camellia sinensis plant accidentally found its way into a pot of boiling water.  Noticing that the leaf had turned the water a different color, some person unknown to history drank the concoction and found that it was good.  That was the start of something which is today a globe-spanning multi-billion dollar industry t...

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...

On August 15, 1977, for a period of 72 seconds, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence had its greatest moment.  A signal was received like none other before or since.  However, in the over 45 years since the signal was recorded, astronomers have been unable to relocate it or even figure out what it was.  Learn more about the WOW! Signal, why it was important, and what it could have been, on...

As I do every month, I went to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus to meet with the Augurs. I met an old priest, and I asked him, “Quo die est felicissimum?” He looked at a flock of birds that appeared to be flying in a circle. He saw a cloud float past the sun, and he noticed that the sacred chickens had paused in their eating.  Having read the signs, he turned to me and said, “Primo Saturni in Aug...

When people from prehistory created the first works of art on the walls of caves, they used the colors that they found around them. Almost all of the early cave art is drawn in black or dark red.  As time progressed, humans figured out how to create more colors and they began using them in more and different ways. However, some colors were very difficult to create and those who could do it became...

Located at the narrowest point in the Strait of Malacca, one of the most strategically important points on Earth is the nation of Singapore. Singapore is unlike most other countries in the world for a host of reasons, including how it was created and the fact that it is one of the few remaining city-states.  Since its founding as an independent country, they have experienced one of the greatest ec...

Whenever there is a lottery, the odds of winning are given.  If you go to a pizzeria, they might tell you the number of possible pizzas that can be made, given their toppings.  If you have a combination lock, it is secured because of the number of different solutions that are possible. All of these things might seem different, but they are all part of the same branch of mathematics.  Learn more ab...