A 2020 article in the magazine Naval History describes "Frankenships" -- ships that, like Fran...

As we have noted in the past, President John Tyler (1790-1862) left the White House in 1845. He had many children, the last of which, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, was born in 1853 when former President Tyler was 63 years old. Ly...

The Bishop of Rome had significant temporal power from at least Pope Miltiades, a trend that generally accelerated (with interruptions, Byzantine and otherwise) until the papal domains assembled its own navy to combat Mu...

The American aircraft carrier Yorktown (CV-5, as distinguished from CV-10, which is now a museum ship) fought the Japanese at Coral Sea and Midway. It was in the latter engagement that she sank to the Pacific Ocean floor...

Weird Universe tells us that in 1932, the Lincoln Electric Company (which is apparently still in business) conducted a national essay writing competition about arc welding. The winners received a total of $17,500 in priz...

In 1777, John Brand, an English folklorist, publis...  ...aphrodisiac.As with previous viral stories about history , my librarian spidey senses alerted to a potentia...

X user @Msamlam shares this map owned by the National Library of Australia. It dates back to 1932, when Japan felt quite confident of its ability to be a major power in the world and the dominant power in eastern Asia. T...

The 1947 Treaty of Paris ended the war between Italy and the Allied powers. Articles 64-66 placed severe limitations upon the Italian Air Force, which the Italians hoped to circumvent.For this purpose, the postwar Italia...

The U.S. Naval Institute posted on X that, in earlier days, ship flagbags sometimes contained a pennant that would express frustration and/or confusion at other vessels. I traced the origin story down to Vice Admiral Mil...

Last year, Valkyrie Historical Auctions, a seller of World War II memorabilia, offered a copy of this paper pamphlet attributed to the occupied Netherlands during World War II. The Dutch inscription says, "Where is the f...