circa 3400 BCE — The Sahara Desert assumes its modern form
It wasn’t always a desert. The Saharan plain was once open grassland with occasional forests. As late as the time...
August 1, 2023
Science & Technology
August 24, 79 — Mount Vesuvius erupts, destroying Pompeii and Herculaneum
You probably know this one: Mt Vesuvius erupted, not entirely without warning, but far more violently than anticipated, in the...
June 19, 2022
May 18, 1048 — Omar Khayyám is born
One of the most well-known Middle Eastern poets in the West, largely due to an apparently never-ending series of translations...
April 29, 2022
October 12, 1492 — Christopher Columbus’ expedition sights land in the Americas
Columbus’ expedition to the Far East was going well. He left Spain on August 3, and by October 7, the...
February 27, 2022
May 24, 1543 — Copernicus publishes ‘De revolutionibus orbium coelestium’
Technically, this is actually the date of Copernicus’ death, however, since no authoritative dating other than ‘shortly before his death’...
February 2, 2022
1689 — Pompeii is rediscovered
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, it did so with considerable force. The very shape of the mountain was...
September 14, 2021
November 7, 1728 — James Cook born
James Cook, better known to history as Captain Cook, was born in Yorkshire, the second of eight children. After a...
September 4, 2021
October 18, 1767 — Mason and Dixon complete the surveying of the Line between Maryland and Pennsylvania
Charles Mason, a fellow of the Royal Society and noted astronomer, and his sometime assistant, land surveyor and amateur astronomer,...
August 14, 2021
April 29, 1770 — Captain James Cook is the first European to make contact with Australian Natives
It was on his first voyage of discovery that Captain James Cook’s ship the Endeavour, sighted the eastern coast of...
August 9, 2021
December 24, 1801 — The “Puffing Devil” is first demonstrated
Constructed by Richard Trevithick in Camborne, Cornwall, the Puffing Devil holds the distinction of being the world’s first steam rail...
May 19, 2021
Search
