Professional wrestling is a unique blend of sports and theater, athleticism and entertainment, in which larger than life characters face each other in staged and dramatized matches, under the pretense of actual competition, creating a form of suspension of disbelief similar to that employed with works of fiction. While now professional wrestling is a global…
All over the world, April 1 is a day in which pranks and hoaxes are common, a custom known as April Fools’ Day. While this celebration only originated in modern times in the Western world, similar customs can be found since ancient times, mostly in Europe. Maybe the oldest instance of a similar tradition is…
The island of Tortuga appears in several books, movies, and other pieces of modern media in which pirates are featured, often depicted as a safe place for bandits and outlaws. This island really exists, it is located off the northwestern coast of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, and forms part of the country of Haiti. But…
According to the traditional Chinese calendar, 2024 is the year of the dragon, which is one of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. While very prominent in Chinese tradition, dragons appear in many different forms in several cultures across the world. From the serpentine creatures of East Asia to the fire-breathing flying reptiles of…
While a few elements are known since ancient history, most have been discovered since the 17th century, and the first list of elements was compiled by French chemist Antoine Lavoisier in 1789. The development of the atomic theory, and new techniques using electricity and spectroscopy, led to the discovery of several new elements in the…
Starting in the late 8th century, a group of seafaring people from Scandinavia, now known as Vikings, expanded their influence throughout Europe, often raiding and looting the cities of the continent. From their homeland in modern-day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, the Vikings used their characteristic longships to sail along the coasts and rivers of Europe…
Before the Romans expanded their territory to dominate the entire Mediterranean region, a large portion of Italy was inhabited by the Etruscans. At the height of their power, the Etruscans occupied a territory extending between the Po Valley and the Gulf of Naples, while their most important city states were located in Central Italy, between…
After a long time of being a peripheral and minor kingdom in Northern Europe, Sweden developed into one of the major powers in the continent in the 17th century. The country rose to prominence during the reign of king Gustavus Adolphus (1611-1632), seizing territories from neighboring states and becoming the dominant power in the Baltic…
If you know European history, you might be familiar with the phrase “defenestration of Prague”, as the event that sparked the Thirty Years’ War in 1618. However, there were curiously multiple similar incidents that happened in the same city throughout the centuries. First of all, let’s define what a “defenestration” is. The term means “throwing…
Zombies are one of the most popular and common creatures in the modern horror genre, being featured in countless movies, series, and novels. While now the characteristics of zombies are pretty well defined and uniform across different works of fiction, their features have changed and evolved since their first appearance in popular culture in the…