Transcript In 1867, United States Secretary of State William Seward signed a treaty with the Empire of Russia to purchase the territory of what would be called Alaska. The United States purchased it for 2 cents an acre. At the time it was called one of the worst deals in American History. Today, it is …
Transcript On April 30, 1943, a Spanish fisherman came across the floating body of Major William Martin of the Royal Marines. Handcuffed to the corpse was a satchel with top-secret plans for the Allied invasions of Greece and Sardinia. With the information gathered from this intelligence, the Germans moved their troops into position to counter …
Transcript We are often told that schools are where you learn how to think, not what to think. Sadly, almost no school curriculum deals directly with logic and the closely related subject of logical fallacies. Fallacies are all around us. Just read something online or watch a few minutes of television and you’ll probably encounter …
Transcript Many people think that politics and elections in the United States are the most controversial they have ever been. History, however, begs to differ. Perhaps the oddest and most controversial presidential election in American history was the election of 1824. It is an election that doesn’t get a lot of attention given who won …
Transcript The Roman Catholic Papacy is one of the oldest institutions in the world, second only to the Chrysanthemum Throne in Japan. Since its inception, there have been 266 popes, and a couple of anti-popes as well. The pope is not only the head of a religion but also the leader of a sovereign, albeit …
Transcript Here is a question you’ve probably never bothered to think about before….What is the oldest man made object orbiting the earth? Which, if any, of the really early satellites are still whizzing around up in space? It turns out, the fourth satellite ever put in orbit is still there, 62 years after it was …
Transcript Our ability to measure time is one of the fundamental things which makes us human. We’ve gone from very crude and inexact measures of time to time measurements which are so accurate that it would take billions of years to lose a single second. This increased accuracy has allowed us to navigate the seas, …
Transcript People didn’t travel much in the ancient world. But, for those who did they developed the ancient equivalent of guidebooks. These were often lists of manmade sites and attractions which any traveler should take the time to see. Over time, one such Greek list was written down and it became known to us as …
Transcript On the fourth Thursday in November every year, American’s celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving. It is a holiday that originated in the Americas but has subsequently spread to many countries around the world. It is a holiday that is actually secular, but with some religious overtones, and has a unique set of traditions that …