In terms of ideal career paths, being an astronaut is one of the coolest jobs you could imagine. NASA accepts around 12 astronauts into its training program every couple years, but there's another way to make it to the moon, and Eugene Shoemaker is proof.
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Abraham Lincoln was a great many things. And before he was president, he held a very different job dedicated to serving the people: that of bar owner.
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Was Herodotus the first Western historian, or "the father of lies?"
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The vice president makes roughly enough to buy 100 medium-range French bulldogs. Here's how much that is.
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To add to the list of things you'd never thought you'd see in your lifetime that happened in 2020, there is now a coin shortage. Here's why.
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Mount Rushmore could have looked very different.
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The Incan empire quickly grew during the 16th century CE to encompass nearly the entire western coast of South America. Here's what life was like for its women.
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One of the world's first superpowers, the Persian Empire was located in modern-day Iran, Syria and Turkey. Compared head-to-head with other ancient world civilizations, there's something oddly endearing about Persia.
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While song lyrics tend to stick to an unmistakable point — usually along the lines of "Oh, I love you" — they occasionally are just ambiguous enough to leave it up to the listener to decide what's happening. Bob Marley achieves this in "I Shot the Sheriff."
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If there's one thing we know about Shakespeare, it's -- well, practically nothing. But there's plenty to talk about, including the poem on his grave.
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Through extensive advertisements and daytime talk show segments, the History Channel announced that they had finally solved the big one: the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Boy were they wrong.
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If anybody knows anything about Ben-Hur, it's chariot races. Even the film version feels pretty ancient. So it may not be a surprise that almost every cast member is no longer alive. Save for one.
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The ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan is the source of a flood of fascinating history. Then again, it's also the source of many fascinating rumors and half-truths, thanks to repression after the Spanish conquest. This is the true story of the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.
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Everybody's familiar with demons. Conceptually, they are more or less universal. But what are their origins in Christianity?
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The life of a hospital Emergency Room staffer is never dull. And the unexpected can ratchet up the pressure even more. This was the experience of ER staffers at Riverside General Hospital one night in 1994. To this day, the mysterious Toxic Lady, Gloria Ramirez, still has not fully been explained.
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At the turn of the 19th century, slaves in the French colonies in Haiti pulled off an unprecedented feat.
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Vikings has been a truly massive success for the History Channel, and for the show's first four seasons, it was spearheaded by a larger-than-life main character.
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Solomon Northup's tale is unique because his account of slavery was from the lens of a free man. He was educated, married, and had children before he was stolen and forced into 12 years of cruel bondage. This is what Solomon Northup's 12 years as a slave were really like.
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The year is 1922... don't get caught wearing this kind of hat.
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It's not the cherriest of gigs, running the free world. Still, the office is nice, and you get your own bowling alley. Maybe that's why children across the United States dream of the day when they'll grow up to be president.
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Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847-1865, an 1895 book which collects anecdotes from Ward Hill Lamon about his presidential friend, included one particularly odd note about a dream.
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The griffin -- also gryphon (says Mythology), also grypes (says Theoi) -- traditionally is a blend of an eagle's front crafted onto the body of a lion. And it may have been based on a real animal.
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Recent history has not been kind to Thomas Edison. Once remembered as a titan of creative thought, today he's become more or less synonymous with the corrupt underpinnings of American industrialism and man's capacity to dash his rivals' dreams, or go to New Jersey and electrocute an elephant.
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Historically speaking, it's never been easy to convince Catholics and Protestants to agree on things. However, in the late 1400s, the two denominations put their differences aside and essentially started an interfaith book club.
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Vikings. The word conjures a host of images in popular imagination: brutal, burly savages wielding axes and howling their way through coastal raids, clad in equal parts dirt and animal skins, and sporting questionable hygiene. However, the Vikings were a far more nuanced society than many realize.
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The Roman Empire at its height spanned all the way through the tip of modern day Scotland, down to encompass all of Europe, out to Russia and into Turkey, and along the northern African coast. But did the Romans have any idea what that empire actually looked like?
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Kraken. "Nessy," the Loch Ness Monster. Soe Orm from Scandinavia. The Great American Sea Serpent. That shark from Jaws. Ancient myths and modern stories of water-bound monsters abound in human consciousness and across cultures.
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