Underwater archaeology, a branch of maritime archaeology, is the study of past human life, behaviors, and cultures using the physical remains found in bodies of water or buried beneath water-logged sediment. Researchers in this field generally examine the sites of shipwrecks, submerged airplanes, structures created by humans in water bodies, and places where people once […]
A ziggurat is a pyramidal structure built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform with a shrine at its summit. Access to the shrine is provided by a series of ramps located on one side of the temple or by a continuous spiral ramp. These temples—the earliest examples of which date to […]
In 1965, archeologists excavating ancient tombs in Hubei, China, discovered a bronze sword sheathed tightly in a wooden scabbard. The weapon had been in a wet, underground tomb for over 2,000 years, yet the blade remained untarnished and sharp. Scientists, amazed by the sword's resilience, tested it to determine its chemical composition and found it […]
After moving to Paris in 1778, Pinel, a French physician, was appointed director of the BicĂŞtre and SalpĂŞtrière hospitals. His experiences there prompted him to advocate for the humane treatment of mentally ill persons—then called the insane—and for the empirical study of mental disease. He further contributed to the development of psychiatry by establishing the […]
Ricardo was a British economist who made a fortune in the stock market before turning to the study of political economy, publishing his major work, The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, in 1817. According to his labor theory of value, the value of almost any good is a function of the labor needed to […]
Darrow was an American lawyer and a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union. He worked to free anarchists charged with murder in the Haymarket Riot, and his defense of Eugene V. Debs established his reputation as a union lawyer. Later came sensational criminal cases that displayed his eminence as a defense lawyer, especially […]
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were seniors at Colorado's Columbine High School when they carried out one of the deadliest school shootings in US history, killing 12 students and one teacher and injuring 21 others before taking their own lives. The incident, widely covered by the media, stirred debate about the pair's motivation for the […]
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the opening engagements of the American Revolution. While marching from Boston to Concord to seize colonists' military stores, a British force of 700 was met at Lexington by 77 local minutemen. After a brief exchange of shots, the outnumbered colonists fell back. The British continued on to Concord, […]
With a capacity of over 60,000 people, St. Peter's Basilica is the one of the world's largest churches as well as one of the world's holiest Catholic sites. Begun by Pope Julius II in 1506 and completed more than a century later, it was built to replace Old St. Peter's, erected by Constantine over Peter's […]