Technology
The Jonestown Radio Network: How Jim Jones Spread His Message Of Death
“There’s no way we can survive.” It was November 18, 1978, and cult leader Jim Jones needed to convince over 900 of his followers that they needed to die. As he pressured members of the Peoples Temple to drink cyanide-laced punch, they screamed, wept and argued. Slowly, they ...read more
Why It Took 17 Years to Catch the Unabomber
By the time federal authorities arrested Theodore J. Kaczynski (aka the “Unabomber”) at his primitive log cabin in Montana in April 1996, he had managed to outwit the law for more than 17 years. From 1978 to 1995, the former math professor with a genius-level IQ and a massive ...read more
Steve Jobs Originally Envisioned the iPhone as Mostly a Phone
As Apple's iPhones and other smartphones feature increasingly sophisticated cameras, processors and touch screens, the rise of the super-stocked device shows that even the inimitable Steve Jobs couldn’t predict the future. The popular mythology around Jobs was that he was always ...read more
Zachary Quinto Breaks Down Aliens, Superhumans and Artificial Intelligence
In the new series In Search Of, host Zachary Quinto travels around the world to shed light on both ancient and modern-day mysteries that have plagued society for centuries. In this exclusive interview, get a glimpse into Quinto’s thoughts, experiences and beliefs on all things ...read more
How America Jump-Started Iran’s Nuclear Program
For several decades, the U.S. has sought to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons. But ironically, the reason Iran has the technology to build these weapons in the first place is because the U.S. gave it to Iran between 1957 and 1979. This nuclear assistance was part of a ...read more
Printing Press
The printing press is a device that allows for the mass production of uniform printed matter, mainly text in the form of books, pamphlets and newspapers. Created in China, the printing press revolutionized society there before being further developed in Europe in the 15th ...read more
A Smoking Robot Ruled the 1939 World’s Fair
History Flashback takes a look at historical “found footage” of all kinds—newsreels, instructional films, even cartoons—to give us a glimpse into how much things have changed, and how much has remained the same. Nearly 80 years ago this month, President Roosevelt took the dais in ...read more
Communications Companies Have Been Spying on You Since the 19th Century
The revelation that a shady political consulting firm called Cambridge Analytica accessed data from 50 million Facebook users without their consent has rekindled debates about privacy and surveillance. Shortly after this news broke in March 2018, Americans also learned that ...read more
Why Do Humans Sleep in 8-Hour Cycles?
Get your eight hours. A command so familiar it feels timeless: humans just need their eight hours of sleep. It’s natural. But our past sleep schedules challenge the idea that anything, even our biological needs, truly transcends historical boundaries. For much of recorded ...read more
Video Game History
Today, video games make up a $100 billion global industry, and nearly two-thirds of American homes have household members who play video games regularly. And it’s really no wonder: Video games have been around for decades and span the gamut of platforms, from arcade systems, to ...read more
10 Years of iPhone Photos Deposing Leaders and Inciting Protests
It’s rare that you go to an event these days where a person doesn’t take out their smartphone. In the 10 years since the iPhone was first released, smartphone images posted to social media have sparked protests and provided crucial evidence to the authorities, as well as allowed ...read more
10 Things You May Not Know About Ada Lovelace
1. Lord Byron was her father. Although Ada Lovelace was English poet Lord George Gordon Byron’s only legitimate child, he was hardly an exemplary father. The first words he spoke to his newly born daughter were, “Oh! What an implement of torture have I acquired in you!” The ...read more
Amazon opens for business
On July 16, 1995, Amazon officially opens for business as an online bookseller. Within a month, the fledgling retailer had shipped books to all 50 U.S. states and to 45 countries. Founder Jeff Bezos’s motto was “get big fast,” and Seattle-based Amazon eventually morphed into an ...read more
Microsoft founded
On April 4, 1975, at a time when most Americans used typewriters, childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft, a company that makes computer software. Originally based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Microsoft relocated to Washington State in 1979 and eventually grew ...read more
7 Early Robots and Automatons
1. Da Vinci’s Knight Leonardo Da Vinci wrote extensively about automatons, and his personal notebooks are littered with ideas for mechanical creations ranging from a hydraulic water clock to a robotic lion. Perhaps most extraordinary of all is his plan for an artificial man in ...read more
First ATM opens for business
On September 2, 1969, America’s first automatic teller machine (ATM) makes its public debut, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Centre, New York. ATMs went on to revolutionize the banking industry, eliminating the need to visit a bank to conduct basic ...read more
President Bill Clinton signs the Digital Millennium Copyright Act into law
According to an ABC news report, it was none other than the pop icon Prince himself who happened upon a 29-second home video of a toddler cavorting to a barely audible background soundtrack of his 1984 hit “Let’s Go Crazy” and subsequently instigated a high-profile legal showdown ...read more