Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, hopes for democracy gradually gave way to decades of instability and dictatorship.  By the early 20th century, frustration with the long rule of Porfirio Díaz finally erupted into revolution.  What followed was a decade of coups, assassinations, shifting alliances, and civil war involving figures like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.  The confl...

If you look at the Internet Movie Database, one of the most prolific directors over the last 70 years has been Alan Smithee.  He has been credited with directing over 156 feature films, shorts, and music videos, with several more projects in the works.  Despite his prodigious output, Alan Smithee has never been nominated for an award, appeared on a red carpet, or conducted an interview. This is be...

Most people are familiar with the transatlantic slave trade, which enslaved over ten million people over a period of centuries. Fewer people are aware of the other African slave trade, which was centered in Eastern Africa along the Indian Ocean. It was centuries older, lasted decades longer than the Atlantic slave trade. While the systems differed, the human costs were equally staggering. Learn mo...

The 1876 plot to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln is one of the strangest and most audacious crimes in American history. The scheme aimed to ransom the corpse of the assassinated president in exchange for the release of a jailed criminal and a huge sum of money.  Although the attempt ultimately failed, it triggered years of secrecy, multiple reburials of Lincoln’s remains, and the creation of a p...

The Inca Empire was the largest and most sophisticated state ever created in the pre-Columbian Americas, stretching along the Andes from present-day southern Colombia to central Chile and Argentina by the early 16th century.  What makes it historically significant is that the Inca managed to build and administer this enormous realm without many technologies that Eurasian civilizations relied on, s...

When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, members of his crew observed the Taíno people offering them dried leaves as gifts. They had no clue why, but they soon found out that native people smoked the burning leaves, and when they brought these leaves back to Europe, it became a sensation.  It created a demand for the product, which lasted for centuries and defined entire economies, until...

The 19th-century Ottoman Empire was in decline and was called the “sick man of Europe”. The Ottoman Empire, like Qing China and Imperial Russia, failed to implement the forces driving European nations toward dominance. A group known as the Young Turks developed a strong admiration for the west were determined to modernize their country.  Learn more about the Young Turks and how they changed Turkey...

March is upon us. Here in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting longer, temperatures are getting warmer, and people are about to go nuts over college basketball for several weeks.  There is an old saying that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. That might be true, but I tend to think that March comes in like a question and goes out like an Answer.  Stay tuned for the 40th...

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most influential and haunting voices in American literature, a writer whose imagination reshaped horror, detective fiction, science fiction, and the modern short story Poe lived a life marked by poverty, personal loss, and professional struggle, yet from that turbulence he forged works of enduring power such as The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Fall of the Hous...

One of the most compelling stories in American professional sports is the rise of the American Basketball Association or the ABA. Founded in 1967, the ABA emerged as a rival to the NBA, which had become predictable and stale. The ABA emerged as a flamboyant contrast.  Fans packed tiny gyms to watch the ABA shatter NBA norms, showcasing epic afros, brilliant dunks, a three-point shot, and an iconic...

Marvel Comics has been one of the most prolific comics publishers over the last century. Not only have they been one of the biggest comic publishers, but they have also created some oft he most famous fictional characters in the modern world.  Popular superheroes like Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Avengers have cemented Marvel’s place in popular consciousness and built a brand worth billions. Lea...

Almost everyone knows that the first people to climb Mount Everest were Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, who reached the summit and returned in 1953. However, some believe another group might have reached the summit nineteen years before they did.  It is a debate which had raged for decades, and recently discovered evidence on the slopes of Everest hasn’t quieted the discussion. Learn more about...

As Germany conquered countries in WWII, in many nations, they found willing volunteers to help them identify Jews to send to concentration camps. However, not every country did. Finland, Bulgaria, and Albania engaged in a spirited defense of their Jewish communities in the face of Nazi oppression.  However, no country did more to save its Jewish population than Denmark. Learn more about Denmark’s...

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a problem that stumped even the best minds in physics. Eventually, one man, Max Planck, solved the problem, but his solution was one that was out of left field. While the math worked, he didn’t actually believe that the mathematics explained reality. It turned out his discovery was more true than he realized and it ushed in a revolution in t...

Every four years, we are captivated by the remarkable athletes who compete at the Olympics.  But while most Olympic events inspire a sort of awe because of their athleticism, curling feels different. It feels accessible, something that anyone could do, even if you’ve been drinking. From its medieval origins on the frozen marshes of Scotland to its spread across the globe through centuries of migra...

Over 99.9% of the world’s population is a citizen of some country. However, approximately 0.06% lack citizenship in any country.  The United Nations estimates that 4.4 million people worldwide are stateless. They have fallen through the cracks in the system, either by mistake or by malicious intent.  For that small minority of people, life can be exceptionally difficult and dangerous. Learn more a...

In the evening of October 4, 1997, a large cash haul of about $17.3 million was stolen from the Loomis Fargo & Co. vault in Charlotte, North Carolina.  It was one of the largest cash robberies in history. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the work of criminal masterminds. The plot was quickly discovered, and the perpetrators were quickly apprehended because they made absolutely no attempt to hide their sud...

In February 1943, the United States Army saw its first major battle of World War II.They confronted the German Afrika Korps in the mountains of Tunisia at Kasserine Pass. It was, to put it bluntly, a disaster and one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of the American Military. However, in the aftermath of the defeat, the Americans shocked everyone by completely turning things around in...

During the 17th century, European nations dominated the world by aggressively establishing colonies across the globe.  Late that century, Scotland sought to join the ranks of these colonial powers with an ambitious effort to seize control of the Darien region in Panama. This attempt to gain a colonial foothold in the Americas began with tremendous national optimism and unified the country as no pr...

During the American Civil War, numerous camps were established to hold prisoners of war from both sides.  Of these, the most notorious was Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville Prison.  Andersonville, as with all prisons in the conflict, were some of the first dedicated prisoner of war facilities in history, and in the case of Andersonville, it was one of the worst.  Learn more about Anderson...

One of the most dramatic events in sports is the home run. In a single instant, leads can change hands and games can be won or lost.  Yet the home run hasn’t always been what it is today. The rules surrounding home runs have changed, in some cases dramatically. Perhaps the biggest change has been the strategy surrounding home runs. Advanced statistical analysis has changed the approach to home run...

From the outside, the Chinese Communist Party appears to be a unified entity, devoid of external dissent.  However, history suggests that the machinations of power at the top of the communist party can often take on Shakespearean turns. Few figures illuminate the shadows and secrets of the party’s organization as completely as Lin Biao, who had experienced one of the greatest rises and falls in Ch...

When you think of animals that have impacted history, your first thought may be of dogs, cows, pigs, or horses. Yet another animal has played an oversized role in history, and it was never domesticated: beavers.  Beavers have been among the most important animals in history because of the value of their pelts and their impact on the landscape. Beaver pelts were regarded as a durable, luxurious mat...

was born. By the time he was 25, he was the ruler of the Roman Empire and the most powerful man in the world.  As with other young people who achieve absolute power at an early age, he went completely nuts and became one of the worst rulers in history. His reign of insanity resulted in him becoming the first Roman emperor to be assassinated. Learn more about Emperor Caligula and how he changed the...

The Great Depression inflicted an apocalyptic financial struggle on American cities, driving unemployment to a staggering 25%.  While urban areas faced widespread unemployment, poverty, and food scarcity, the Great Plains were grappling with an equally devastating crisis: the Dust Bowl, a disaster of epic proportions. Short-sighted farming practices and historic droughts led to a decade of soil er...