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Category: Military

By The Generalist Posted on July 10, 2022July 9, 2022

War hailstones

More than a thousand English soldiers were killed by hailstones during the Siege of Chartres in 1360.

Categories: Earth science, Europe, Medieval history, Military
By The Generalist Posted on July 5, 2022July 4, 2022

Broken arrow

In 1959, the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was one of the most sophisticated aircraft prototypes in the world. When the project was cancelled, the Canadian government ordered all Arrows, parts, production equipment, and technical data destroyed.

Categories: 20th century history, Military, North & Central America, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on May 29, 2022January 25, 2023

Plain of jars and bombs

The Xiangkhoang Plateau in northern Laos is covered in thousands of prehistoric burial jars… and many more unexploded bombs.

Categories: 20th century history, Military, Prehistory, Southeast Asia
By The Generalist Posted on May 9, 2022May 8, 2022

Man-lifting war kites

A large enough kite can lift someone off the ground. So, of course, several inventors and aeronauts tried to find a military application for such man-lifting kites.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Europe, Military, North & Central America, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on April 29, 2022April 27, 2022

Peaceful nukes

In the 1960s and 1970s, both the United States and the Soviet Union explored “peaceful” applications of nuclear weapons: excavating earth for lakes and canals, geological research, and extinguishing gas well fires.

Categories: 20th century history, Military, North & Central America, North & Central Asia, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on April 19, 2022April 18, 2022

Admirals of Nebraska

The US state of Nebraska is landlocked; all the states around it are also landlocked; and all the states around them are also landlocked. And yet, the Governor of Nebraska can grant residents the honorary title of Nebraska Admiral.

Categories: 20th century history, Military, North & Central America, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on March 1, 2022February 28, 2022

American samurai colony

In 1869, some samurai and their families set up a colony in California. Although it only lasted two years, it was the first permanent Japanese settlement in the United States.

Categories: 19th century history, East Asia, Food & agriculture, Military, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on January 26, 2022January 25, 2022

War elephants vs. bird army

The 105th surah of the Quran relates a battle outside Mecca between Yemeni war elephants and a flock of birds.

Categories: Animals, Medieval history, Middle East, Military, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on January 21, 2022January 20, 2022

The atom bomb memo

In March 1940 two physicists wrote a top secret memo describing, for the first time, just how to make an atom bomb.

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, Military, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on January 6, 2022January 25, 2023

Island explosion

In 1947, the British navy set off one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history in an attempt to destroy German military fortifications on Heligoland.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Europe, Military
By The Generalist Posted on November 25, 2021November 24, 2021

Napoleon in the Pacific

Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse led a French scientific expedition around the Pacific; in 1788 it disappeared without a trace. A young Napoléon Bonaparte almost went with him.

Categories: Early modern history, Europe, Military, Oceania, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on November 18, 2021November 17, 2021

Return to the Winter Palace

In 1917 Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Three years later, more than a thousand actors, circus performers, and ballet dancers stormed it again.

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, Military, North & Central Asia, Politics & law, Theatre
By The Generalist Posted on November 1, 2021October 31, 2021

Nose tomb

The Mimizuka monument in Kyoto, Japan, is full of Korean noses. It is a hanazuka, a nose tomb.

Categories: Architecture, Early modern history, East Asia, Military
By The Generalist Posted on October 27, 2021January 25, 2023

Town under one roof

Almost the entire population of Whittier, Alaska, lives in a single building.

Categories: 20th century history, Architecture, Military, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on October 25, 2021January 25, 2023

Solved by walking (Part 2)

During World War II, around 7000 Allied pilots and soldiers stranded behind enemy lines were smuggled back to the United Kingdom via a secret network of escape routes. [2 of 2]

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, Military
By The Generalist Posted on October 4, 2021January 25, 2023

Animal helmets

The Vikings may not have worn horned helmets, but the ancient Greeks had helmets covered in boar tusks and the Dayak of Borneo had helmets covered in fish or pangolin scales.

Categories: Ancient history, Animals, Europe, Fashion & design, Military, Southeast Asia

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