The post 4 Myths People Still Believe About Christopher Columbus appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>This is one of the biggest myths tied to Christopher Columbus. Many people believe he was the first explorer to discover America, but historical evidence shows that the Vikings actually did that well before him. Also, he never actually touched the ground of North America.
Christopher Columbus never set on his voyages to prove the Earth is round. Even in his time, this was a commonly accepted fact. What he wanted to do was to find a new sea route to India.
You’ll often find mentions of Christopher Columbus as an Italian. But this is actually quite wrong because Italy was only formed in the 19th century. Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa, which was an independent republic for centuries before it became part of Italy.
Christopher Columbus was a great explorer and navigator, but business wasn’t his strong side. He made quite a lot of management mistakes in setting up colonies, and his trade efforts never reached the levels he wanted. Still, he proved skillful in raising funds for his voyages.
The post 4 Myths People Still Believe About Christopher Columbus appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post There’s More to the Samurais Than You Think appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Samurais were the military nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan. Originally, they were provincial warriors or guards of the territories that were under the rule of a feudal lord. Over time, they evolved into one of the most well-recognized social castes in Japanese history. Samurais were known for their strict adherence to the bushido code.
Bushido, which literally means “the way of the warrior,” was the ethical code of the samurais. It was not written into a single document but rather evolved over time through the moral values and conduct of the samurais themselves. Key aspects of bushido include righteousness, polite courtesy, heroic courage, honor, and loyal duty.
The samurai class underwent significant changes in the 19th century. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 led to the abolition of feudalism and the samurai class. Many samurais became leaders in government and business. And while the samurai as a social class no longer exists, their legacy lives on in modern Japanese culture.
The post There’s More to the Samurais Than You Think appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 4 Interesting Facts About Genghis Khan appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>There are lots of paintings, drawings, and sculptures of Genghis Khan out there. However, it is highly unlikely they are accurate. There is no surviving artwork of Khan from his lifetime, and the descriptions of his appearance are often contradictory.
Despite stretching the borders of the Mongolian Empire from the Sea of Japan to Eastern Europe, Genghis Khan never looked to impose his religious beliefs on others. Under his rule, all residents of the Mongolian Empire could freely follow their religion while making places of worship exempt from tax.
Genghis Khan put in place a highly efficient postal system for the period. Called “Yam,” it consisted of a network of stations and checkpoints throughout the empire. This allowed messengers to take a rest or get a fresh horse, enabling them to cover great distances in a short amount of time.
Among the biggest mysteries surrounding Genghis Khan is the cause of his death and his final resting place. According to some accounts, he died after falling from a horse, while others attribute his death to illness or wounds from a fight. After his death, his trusted generals went through great effort to hide his grave, even murdering those whom they didn’t trust to keep the location secret.
The post 4 Interesting Facts About Genghis Khan appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 4 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Agatha Christie appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>While growing up, Christie didn’t receive early formal education and was instead home-schooled. She first went to school as a 12-year-old and later attended a series of boarding schools.
When she initially started her writing career, Christie didn’t find much success. As a matter of fact, her first novel was rejected by six publishers and one literary agent. Her second novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the first one to feature Hercule Poirot, was also rejected by several publishers before being picked up.
Wanting to explore other genres aside from detective works that made her famous, Christie published romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. These novels were well regarded among critics, although they never came close to matching the success of her Hercule Poirot books. Her pseudonym was detected after four novels, but she would go on to write two more under the same name.
In 1926, Christie disappeared from her home with her car found abandoned a few miles away. A massive manhunt ensued, but the author was nowhere to be found. Eleven days after her disappearance, Christie was spotted in a spa hotel. At the time, she claimed she had no recollection of events that happened between her disappearance and that moment.
The post 4 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Agatha Christie appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Colorized Footage Shows How the World Looked in 1896 appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Watching Lumière films doesn’t paint a full picture of the period, considering the technology was limited, and their works were shot in black and white. But that is changing thanks to history enthusiasts and modern advancements.
The YouTube channel Lost in Time recently shared a colorized compilation of Lumière films from 1896 that provides us with a much better idea of how the world and life of people looked back on them. It consists of footage recorded from all over the world, including France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Egypt, and even Japan.
The video features a group of people throwing snowballs at a cyclist on the streets of an unnamed French city, a busy day on the streets of New York City, the pyramids and Sphinx in Giza, sword practice in Tokyo, and much more.
According to Lost in Time, the footage was colorized, upscaled, stabilized, and enhanced with the use of AI. The results are simply fantastic, so check them out below.
The post Colorized Footage Shows How the World Looked in 1896 appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post One of the World’s Oldest Books Will Be Offered for Sale at an Auction appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The Crosby-Schøyen Codex is part of The Schøyen Collection, which is one of the largest and most important collections of manuscripts in existence. It was written in a Christian monastery in Egypt over a period of 40 years and contains 52 papyrus leaves, or 104 pages, of two-column text.
The manuscript was written in Coptic using a modified form of the Greek alphabet and contains the earliest-known complete text of the Book of Jonah and the first epistle of Peter. It is kept in the form of single pages, which are protected by plexiglass.
The Crosby-Schøyen Codex was discovered in the 1950s as part of Bodmer Papyri, which contained early Christian texts. It was in the possession of the University of Mississippi until 1981, when it changed hands several times before being acquired by collector Martin Schøyen in 1988.
“It is one of the earliest examples of the book in the form that we still know it today, and as the earliest in private hands, it’s unlikely anything like this will ever come to auction again,” Eugenio Donadoni, senior specialist for books and manuscripts at Christie’s in London, told CNN.
The post One of the World’s Oldest Books Will Be Offered for Sale at an Auction appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Top 3 Facts About World War II That You Didn’t Learn in School appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>With this in mind, it is understandable that the history lessons you get in school leave a lot of stuff out when covering WWII. Here are some of the most interesting facts you might not have been taught.
Japan officially surrendered on September 2, 1945. However, this didn’t mark the end of the Japanese involvement in the war, at least for two soldiers. Hiroo Onoda and Teruo Nakamura didn’t surrender until 29 years after the war officially ended. Onoda was in hiding in the Philippines, while Nakamura lived in a small hut on Morotai Island, where he was originally stationed. They were both discovered and surrendered in 1974.
Two Polish doctors, Dr. Eugene Lazowski and Stanislav Matulewicz Lazowski, managed to save the lives of 8,000 Jews during World War II. The doctors discovered that the Nazis wouldn’t take anyone with a typhus diagnosis to concentration camps as they feared widespread infection and considered the disease deadly. This prompted the duo to inject Jews with dead Epidemic Typhus bacteria, which caused the person to test positive for typhus but had no negative effects of the disease itself.
On August 15, 1943, Allied forces arrived on the Pacific island of Kiska with the intention to recapture it from the Japanese army as part of Operation Cottage. More than 100 soldiers died during the operation, but none were killed by the enemy. It turned out that the Japanese soldiers had already left the island. Instead, the casualties were a result of friendly fire, booby traps, and other hazards.
The post Top 3 Facts About World War II That You Didn’t Learn in School appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 5 Quick Facts About the Taj Mahal appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>When the Taj Mahal was constructed in 1653, its cost was estimated to be 32 million Indian rupees. This amounts to 70 billion Indian rupees in today’s money, or $840 million.
Around 30 different kinds of precious stones were used to decorate the Taj Mahal. The list includes diamonds, pearls, sapphires, and emeralds.
Depending on the time of the day, the Taj Mahal will have a different color due to its white Makrana marble. The early sun causes the landmark to take on a pinkish color before it turns white during the day and golden during sunset.
Considering its complexity, you would expect that the Taj Mahal was built over a long period of time. However, it “only” took 22 years for the mausoleum to be completed thanks to 20,000 people who worked on it.
If you take a close look, you will see that minarets (towers) surrounding the Taj Mahal are tilted outwards. This was actually done on purpose to protect the building from additional damage in case of an earthquake.
The post 5 Quick Facts About the Taj Mahal appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Unsolved Historical Mysteries: Roanoke Colony appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Roanoke Colony was established by explorer and cartographer John White, under the instructions of English statesman Sir Walter Raleigh. The colony endured problems with the lack of supply, causing White to return to England with the goal of bringing additional resources and workforce to the island.
White intended to return to the colony in 1588 but events of the Anglo-Spanish War delayed his journey until 1590. Once he reached Roanoke Island again, White discovered that there was not a single colonist present including his wife, child, and grandchild. The settlement looked like it was abandoned a while ago with buildings in a state of collapse.
The only clue that White managed to discover was the letters “CRO” carved on a tree and the word “CROATOAN” carved on a fort’s post. Under the previous agreement with the colonists, they would carve a message in the tree in case of moving elsewhere while also carving an image of a Maltese Cross in case they were taken with the use of force. Considering that there was a nearby island called Croatoan, White held hope that colonists, including his family, were there.
White and his fleet planned a search of adjacent islands but severe weather forced them to give up and return to England. He never returned to America and there were no further searches for the missing colonists.
Various theories have been proposed to explain the abandonment of Roanoke Colony. The most popular one is that colonists indeed moved to another island, where they joined Native Americans in attempts to overcome the difficulties they had encountered in their original settlement. The less optimistic theories include that the colonists were massacred by hostile Native Americans or died due to a disease or famine.
The post Unsolved Historical Mysteries: Roanoke Colony appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Persian Plateau Served as a Hub for Homo Sapiens in the Early Stages of Their Migration From Africa appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Earlier studies have shown that humans started migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago. However, it wasn’t before 45,000 years ago that they would go on to spread across Europe and Asia. Using a combination of genetic evidence and palaeoecological models, a team of researchers now concluded that Homo Sapiens reached Persian Plateau, an area that includes modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and remained there for 20,000 years before moving on.
According to the study, the Persian Plateau provided environmental conditions that were able to support large populations.
“With the paleoclimatic data available to date, we built ecological models showing that the Persian Plateau was suitable for human occupation and that it could sustain a larger population compared to other West Asian regions, strengthening this claim,” it says in the study.
The authors of the study point out that further research on fossils and climate during that period is needed in order to fortify their theory. However, if proven correct, it would provide a groundbreaking insight into the history of humans and pinpoint the Persian Plateau as a key location for further research.
The post Persian Plateau Served as a Hub for Homo Sapiens in the Early Stages of Their Migration From Africa appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 4 Myths People Still Believe About Christopher Columbus appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>This is one of the biggest myths tied to Christopher Columbus. Many people believe he was the first explorer to discover America, but historical evidence shows that the Vikings actually did that well before him. Also, he never actually touched the ground of North America.
Christopher Columbus never set on his voyages to prove the Earth is round. Even in his time, this was a commonly accepted fact. What he wanted to do was to find a new sea route to India.
You’ll often find mentions of Christopher Columbus as an Italian. But this is actually quite wrong because Italy was only formed in the 19th century. Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa, which was an independent republic for centuries before it became part of Italy.
Christopher Columbus was a great explorer and navigator, but business wasn’t his strong side. He made quite a lot of management mistakes in setting up colonies, and his trade efforts never reached the levels he wanted. Still, he proved skillful in raising funds for his voyages.
The post 4 Myths People Still Believe About Christopher Columbus appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post There’s More to the Samurais Than You Think appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Samurais were the military nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan. Originally, they were provincial warriors or guards of the territories that were under the rule of a feudal lord. Over time, they evolved into one of the most well-recognized social castes in Japanese history. Samurais were known for their strict adherence to the bushido code.
Bushido, which literally means “the way of the warrior,” was the ethical code of the samurais. It was not written into a single document but rather evolved over time through the moral values and conduct of the samurais themselves. Key aspects of bushido include righteousness, polite courtesy, heroic courage, honor, and loyal duty.
The samurai class underwent significant changes in the 19th century. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 led to the abolition of feudalism and the samurai class. Many samurais became leaders in government and business. And while the samurai as a social class no longer exists, their legacy lives on in modern Japanese culture.
The post There’s More to the Samurais Than You Think appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 4 Interesting Facts About Genghis Khan appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>There are lots of paintings, drawings, and sculptures of Genghis Khan out there. However, it is highly unlikely they are accurate. There is no surviving artwork of Khan from his lifetime, and the descriptions of his appearance are often contradictory.
Despite stretching the borders of the Mongolian Empire from the Sea of Japan to Eastern Europe, Genghis Khan never looked to impose his religious beliefs on others. Under his rule, all residents of the Mongolian Empire could freely follow their religion while making places of worship exempt from tax.
Genghis Khan put in place a highly efficient postal system for the period. Called “Yam,” it consisted of a network of stations and checkpoints throughout the empire. This allowed messengers to take a rest or get a fresh horse, enabling them to cover great distances in a short amount of time.
Among the biggest mysteries surrounding Genghis Khan is the cause of his death and his final resting place. According to some accounts, he died after falling from a horse, while others attribute his death to illness or wounds from a fight. After his death, his trusted generals went through great effort to hide his grave, even murdering those whom they didn’t trust to keep the location secret.
The post 4 Interesting Facts About Genghis Khan appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 4 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Agatha Christie appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>While growing up, Christie didn’t receive early formal education and was instead home-schooled. She first went to school as a 12-year-old and later attended a series of boarding schools.
When she initially started her writing career, Christie didn’t find much success. As a matter of fact, her first novel was rejected by six publishers and one literary agent. Her second novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the first one to feature Hercule Poirot, was also rejected by several publishers before being picked up.
Wanting to explore other genres aside from detective works that made her famous, Christie published romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. These novels were well regarded among critics, although they never came close to matching the success of her Hercule Poirot books. Her pseudonym was detected after four novels, but she would go on to write two more under the same name.
In 1926, Christie disappeared from her home with her car found abandoned a few miles away. A massive manhunt ensued, but the author was nowhere to be found. Eleven days after her disappearance, Christie was spotted in a spa hotel. At the time, she claimed she had no recollection of events that happened between her disappearance and that moment.
The post 4 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Agatha Christie appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Colorized Footage Shows How the World Looked in 1896 appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Watching Lumière films doesn’t paint a full picture of the period, considering the technology was limited, and their works were shot in black and white. But that is changing thanks to history enthusiasts and modern advancements.
The YouTube channel Lost in Time recently shared a colorized compilation of Lumière films from 1896 that provides us with a much better idea of how the world and life of people looked back on them. It consists of footage recorded from all over the world, including France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Egypt, and even Japan.
The video features a group of people throwing snowballs at a cyclist on the streets of an unnamed French city, a busy day on the streets of New York City, the pyramids and Sphinx in Giza, sword practice in Tokyo, and much more.
According to Lost in Time, the footage was colorized, upscaled, stabilized, and enhanced with the use of AI. The results are simply fantastic, so check them out below.
The post Colorized Footage Shows How the World Looked in 1896 appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post One of the World’s Oldest Books Will Be Offered for Sale at an Auction appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The Crosby-Schøyen Codex is part of The Schøyen Collection, which is one of the largest and most important collections of manuscripts in existence. It was written in a Christian monastery in Egypt over a period of 40 years and contains 52 papyrus leaves, or 104 pages, of two-column text.
The manuscript was written in Coptic using a modified form of the Greek alphabet and contains the earliest-known complete text of the Book of Jonah and the first epistle of Peter. It is kept in the form of single pages, which are protected by plexiglass.
The Crosby-Schøyen Codex was discovered in the 1950s as part of Bodmer Papyri, which contained early Christian texts. It was in the possession of the University of Mississippi until 1981, when it changed hands several times before being acquired by collector Martin Schøyen in 1988.
“It is one of the earliest examples of the book in the form that we still know it today, and as the earliest in private hands, it’s unlikely anything like this will ever come to auction again,” Eugenio Donadoni, senior specialist for books and manuscripts at Christie’s in London, told CNN.
The post One of the World’s Oldest Books Will Be Offered for Sale at an Auction appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Top 3 Facts About World War II That You Didn’t Learn in School appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>With this in mind, it is understandable that the history lessons you get in school leave a lot of stuff out when covering WWII. Here are some of the most interesting facts you might not have been taught.
Japan officially surrendered on September 2, 1945. However, this didn’t mark the end of the Japanese involvement in the war, at least for two soldiers. Hiroo Onoda and Teruo Nakamura didn’t surrender until 29 years after the war officially ended. Onoda was in hiding in the Philippines, while Nakamura lived in a small hut on Morotai Island, where he was originally stationed. They were both discovered and surrendered in 1974.
Two Polish doctors, Dr. Eugene Lazowski and Stanislav Matulewicz Lazowski, managed to save the lives of 8,000 Jews during World War II. The doctors discovered that the Nazis wouldn’t take anyone with a typhus diagnosis to concentration camps as they feared widespread infection and considered the disease deadly. This prompted the duo to inject Jews with dead Epidemic Typhus bacteria, which caused the person to test positive for typhus but had no negative effects of the disease itself.
On August 15, 1943, Allied forces arrived on the Pacific island of Kiska with the intention to recapture it from the Japanese army as part of Operation Cottage. More than 100 soldiers died during the operation, but none were killed by the enemy. It turned out that the Japanese soldiers had already left the island. Instead, the casualties were a result of friendly fire, booby traps, and other hazards.
The post Top 3 Facts About World War II That You Didn’t Learn in School appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post 5 Quick Facts About the Taj Mahal appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>When the Taj Mahal was constructed in 1653, its cost was estimated to be 32 million Indian rupees. This amounts to 70 billion Indian rupees in today’s money, or $840 million.
Around 30 different kinds of precious stones were used to decorate the Taj Mahal. The list includes diamonds, pearls, sapphires, and emeralds.
Depending on the time of the day, the Taj Mahal will have a different color due to its white Makrana marble. The early sun causes the landmark to take on a pinkish color before it turns white during the day and golden during sunset.
Considering its complexity, you would expect that the Taj Mahal was built over a long period of time. However, it “only” took 22 years for the mausoleum to be completed thanks to 20,000 people who worked on it.
If you take a close look, you will see that minarets (towers) surrounding the Taj Mahal are tilted outwards. This was actually done on purpose to protect the building from additional damage in case of an earthquake.
The post 5 Quick Facts About the Taj Mahal appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Unsolved Historical Mysteries: Roanoke Colony appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Roanoke Colony was established by explorer and cartographer John White, under the instructions of English statesman Sir Walter Raleigh. The colony endured problems with the lack of supply, causing White to return to England with the goal of bringing additional resources and workforce to the island.
White intended to return to the colony in 1588 but events of the Anglo-Spanish War delayed his journey until 1590. Once he reached Roanoke Island again, White discovered that there was not a single colonist present including his wife, child, and grandchild. The settlement looked like it was abandoned a while ago with buildings in a state of collapse.
The only clue that White managed to discover was the letters “CRO” carved on a tree and the word “CROATOAN” carved on a fort’s post. Under the previous agreement with the colonists, they would carve a message in the tree in case of moving elsewhere while also carving an image of a Maltese Cross in case they were taken with the use of force. Considering that there was a nearby island called Croatoan, White held hope that colonists, including his family, were there.
White and his fleet planned a search of adjacent islands but severe weather forced them to give up and return to England. He never returned to America and there were no further searches for the missing colonists.
Various theories have been proposed to explain the abandonment of Roanoke Colony. The most popular one is that colonists indeed moved to another island, where they joined Native Americans in attempts to overcome the difficulties they had encountered in their original settlement. The less optimistic theories include that the colonists were massacred by hostile Native Americans or died due to a disease or famine.
The post Unsolved Historical Mysteries: Roanoke Colony appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>The post Persian Plateau Served as a Hub for Homo Sapiens in the Early Stages of Their Migration From Africa appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>Earlier studies have shown that humans started migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago. However, it wasn’t before 45,000 years ago that they would go on to spread across Europe and Asia. Using a combination of genetic evidence and palaeoecological models, a team of researchers now concluded that Homo Sapiens reached Persian Plateau, an area that includes modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and remained there for 20,000 years before moving on.
According to the study, the Persian Plateau provided environmental conditions that were able to support large populations.
“With the paleoclimatic data available to date, we built ecological models showing that the Persian Plateau was suitable for human occupation and that it could sustain a larger population compared to other West Asian regions, strengthening this claim,” it says in the study.
The authors of the study point out that further research on fossils and climate during that period is needed in order to fortify their theory. However, if proven correct, it would provide a groundbreaking insight into the history of humans and pinpoint the Persian Plateau as a key location for further research.
The post Persian Plateau Served as a Hub for Homo Sapiens in the Early Stages of Their Migration From Africa appeared first on History Chronicle.
]]>