Neanderthals existed from roughly 400,000 years ago until 40,000 years ago. Though they lived in the Stone Age, they didn't have rocks for brains. Here's what life was like for our Stone Age relatives.
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Gum is generally a one and done piece of entertainment. So it's surprising that a 5,700 year-old form of 'chewing gum' remembers its owner well enough that scientists were able to recreate her entire genome, and also see what she had just eaten. You deserve an explanation.
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Mar-a-Lago is President Donald Trump's primary residence, a resort club for the extremely wealthy, and an estate with more history than you might expect.
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Long before the word "branding" was used to describe the click-boosting tactics of Instacelebs, it was used by cowherds to keep track of field-roaming cattle (a funny comparison, to be sure). And we mean "long before," as in pre-written language scrawled on cave walls thousands of years ago.
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Frau Perchta's role in Christmas, though, has changed over the years. It turns out that she tends to be most active between Christmas and the Epiphany, so people believed she's more of a holiday thing. Frau Perchta preyed on lazy people year-'round before becoming a general threat against children.
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Julius Caesar is the most famous Roman who ever lived, but he tends to be more famous for some things than others. Caesar is remembered as a general and a politician, but not as a priest, a title that Caesar held multiple times. Let's look inside Julius Caesar's connection to priesthood.
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We know they brought gifts, but most people aren't too familiar with the characters beyond that. When you hear the visitors mentioned in Christmas carols -- for instance, "We Three Kings," posted on YouTube -- they're often described as being, well, kings who follow a star from far off lands.
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The tradition had very humble beginnings. Pre-20th century presidential administrations didn't officially observe Christmas. The president and his family traditionally decorated "modestly with greens and privately celebrated the Yuletide with family and friends."
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Christmas is still celebrated by soldiers during times of war. That doesn't stop the conflict that's going on, and the stress of combat doesn't dissipate for the holidays. The celebrations that are typical to the military are nothing like they are stateside, but there's still some holiday cheer.
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The San Juan County Sheriff's Office shared a joke "Most Wanted" poster with nine alien faces and posted it to Facebook for a laugh, but it didn't seem like anyone had any idea who put the monolith there and no one reported any stolen property.
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The mystique of the Orient Express has been tantalizing travelers since 1883. Read on for an enjoyable trip along the history of this magnificent train.
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America's sixth president, John Quincy Adams, was known for his intellectual mind and passion for science and exploration. During his presidency, explorers were charting the western frontier like never before, and revolutionary scientific findings were being examined and documented.
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The earliest evidence of people skating on ice was 5,000 years ago. Archaeologists found evidence of ice skating around that time in areas surrounding Scandinavia and Russia. They believe the Finns made the earliest skates in order to move across frozen water and away from predators efficiently.
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Being a teenager is tough, from all the changes teens go through to the fact that adults have complained about them in every period of history. But at least the Renaissance era was an interesting time to annoy adults and become one yourself. This is how teens during the Renaissance really lived.
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If you've ever seen a nativity scene outside of a church during Christmas service, then you no doubt know what it looks like, but nativity scenes are actually much older than you may think. The first-ever nativity scene was put together by St. Francis of Assisi in 1233.
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We all know that Santa Claus has supernatural abilities, and the origin of Santa Claus' powers are explained by the Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum in his story The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. This is the surprising connection between Oz and Santa.
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In the final month of 1988, Armenia was struck by an earthquake that absolutely devastated the northern region of the country and displaced thousands of people.
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Whether it be at the dawn of the Roman empire in the B.C. era or the heights of the Cold War a few generations back, powerful states have attempted and failed many times to conquer land. The reasons vary on why these invasions may have failed. Here is a list of invasions that went horribly wrong.
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While modern Christmas traditions are nearly universal thanks to pop culture, they used to be very different. If you look back at the 19th and early 20th centuries, you'll see unexpected holiday celebrations. Here are some strange Christmas traditions that were considered normal 100 years ago.
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The history of how nutmeg came to be a staple in our kitchens is not really in line with the whole "Peace on Earth, good will to men" business we like to tell ourselves. The notions of reunion, comfort, and human connection we now get from a hint of nutmeg actually came at a terrible human cost.
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All in all, being a president has to be rough, and some of the rules surrounding the job make it even more so. At least the silly rules end when a president's time in office is up, right? Actually, only some of them do.
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it makes sense why a teenage, Jewish Mary who visited her cousin and husband-to-be Joseph for a few months, and then became pregnant, would have been in quite a lot of trouble. In fact, Jewish law was quite brutal and strict in this regard.
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The Yule Goat can fly, and it often carries Santa on his yearly journey to deliver his sack of goodies around the world.
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The city, founded in 315 BCE and named after Alexander the Great's half-sister Thessaloniki, was a major thoroughfare in the Macedonian Empire, and became a center of trade between east and west under the Byzantine Empire.
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Despite its long affiliation with the Christian holiday of Christmas, the Yule log actually has its roots in pagan Norse mythology. The tradition originated in Scandinavia, then spread to the Celtic Brits and Gaelic Europeans, who believed that burning a yule log would bring good luck.
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Women have dipped their blades in the fires of battle all around the world for millennia. This is the forgotten history of women in combat.
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President Franklin Roosevelt was reportedly concerned that his administrations' records would be lost, destroyed, or sold, which had been the case for past presidents. He also wanted a place in which to write his memoirs and to "burnish his image as a defender of democracy."
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