In 1904 Clever Hans tapped out sums for Berlin crowds and stumped a panel of experts. Oskar Pfungst found the horse was reading questioners’ tiny head movements, and the Clever Hans effect still shapes dog research and AI.
In May 1962 a fire at a borough dump crept into the old coal mines under Centralia, Pennsylvania. It defeated every attempt to stop it, emptied the town, and is still burning.
Dug up by looters in 1999 and seized in a Swiss hotel bar in 2002, the Nebra sky disc may be the oldest known picture of the night sky.
An arrow is spinning on a row of compass tiles. It starts pointing North, and it always turns clockwise from
In July 1897 three Swedes lifted off from Svalbard in a leaking hydrogen balloon, bound for the North Pole. Their fate stayed a mystery for 33 years.
A great hair dryer is one of those gifts people use every single day and rarely buy for themselves. The
In 1940 four teenagers slid into a hole above Montignac and found Ice Age paintings. Within 23 years the crowds had nearly ruined them, and Lascaux was shut.
In September 1991 two hikers spotted a body in the melting ice of the Ötztal Alps. He turned out to be 5,300 years old, and he had been murdered.
For nearly 50 years the US military used the Hawaiian island of Kahoʻolawe as a target. In 1976, nine people landed on its beach and started the fight to win it back.
Seven wireless earbuds compared, from the $43 CMF Buds 2 Plus to AirPods Pro 3, Sony WF-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra, using expert lab tests and Amazon data.
In the summer of 1518, dozens of people in Strasbourg could not stop dancing. The city’s records tell a stranger, quieter story than the legend.
Sir Patrick Stewart, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation, has died at 86. A celebration of his life, his advocacy and his wit.
On May 22, 1960, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake struck southern Chile, the strongest ever recorded. Its tsunami crossed the Pacific, and a landslide lake nearly drowned Valdivia.
A new interactive 3D globe puts every Aglena history story on the map. Spin it, slide through time, and tap a pin to read the story.
Left behind on a remote Channel Island in 1835, a Nicoleño woman lived alone for 18 years. Here are the records, the rescue and the cave behind the novel.
Apples, pears and cherries are sitting on three old-fashioned balance scales. The first two are perfectly level. Every apple weighs
During World War II, B. F. Skinner trained pigeons to steer a glide bomb by pecking at an image of the target. The military said no, but the birds changed psychology.
Seven top-rated 8-inch chef’s knives compared, from the $36 Victorinox Fibrox Pro to the $160 Mac MTH-80, with expert test results and specs.
How a Mexican garrison on a remote French-claimed atoll was cut off by revolution, ruled by a murderous lighthouse keeper, and rescued by USS Yorktown in July 1917, and what pigs, boobies, crabs and rats did to Clipperton after.
How Aboriginal Australians, the Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, Maya, Inca and others pictured the Milky Way, and where the evidence runs out.
