6 Otherworldly Facts About the Space Race

Astronauts and cosmonauts

Author Bennett Kleinman

September 14, 2023

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As tensions rose on Earth during the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union also vied for celestial supremacy. The space race between the two superpowers began shortly after World War II, and captivated the public until tensions finally eased in the 1970s. With the help of top scientists and talented pilots, Americans, Soviets, and other nations sought to do the seemingly impossible by conquering the final frontier. These decades were marked by scientific achievements and setbacks that make this space-obsessed era one of the most fascinating periods in the 20th century. Here are six facts about the space race.

Fruit Flies Became the First Animal Sent Into Space in 1947

Long before humans reached the stars, fruit flies became the first living organisms to be intentionally blasted into space. Beginning in 1946, the U.S. military conducted a series of experiments in New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range with future space flight in mind. Utilizing V-2 ballistic missiles — which had been seized from Germany by the U.S. after World War II — the government propelled biological samples such as corn and rye seeds as far as 80 miles into the sky — well beyond the 66-mile distance that NASA now considers the limits of outer space. On February 20, 1947, a capsule containing fruit flies was affixed to one of said missiles and launched to a height of 67 miles above the ground. The flies were chosen to test the effects of cosmic radiation on living beings, and were the perfect candidate for a number of reasons, including their small size, minimal weight, and a genetic code analogous to that of humans, containing similar disease-causing genes. As the rocket began its descent, the capsule detached and drifted back down to Earth using a parachute, and the flies remained alive and unaffected.

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Apollo 12 Was Struck by Lightning

In November 1969, just four months after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, the Apollo 12 mission took to the skies. But what was scheduled to be a standard launch experienced near-disaster just 36.5 seconds into the flight, as lightning struck the Saturn V rocket. The unexpected event disrupted the onboard control panels, causing astronaut Dick Gordon to confusedly exclaim, “What the hell was that?” before yet another bolt struck at the 52-second mark. With alarms blaring and equipment malfunctioning, the puzzled astronauts continued to troubleshoot the spacecraft while not fully understanding what had happened. Ultimately, the crew shifted the craft to an auxiliary power supply that allowed the mission to continue as planned. Around three minutes into the flight, astronaut Pete Conrad wondered aloud if they’d been struck by lightning, and by the 11-minute-and-34-second mark, the crew was successfully floating in space. With disaster averted, the Apollo 12 astronauts became the second group of individuals to walk on the moon.

Alan Shepard Played Golf on the Moon

While the harrowing stories of Apollo 12 and Apollo 13 are widely known, the Apollo 14 mission produced one of the more lighthearted moments of the space race. On February 6, 1971, during a live broadcast of the Apollo 14 spacewalk, astronaut Alan Shepard produced a retractable six-iron golf club and took four swings on the moon’s surface. Given his bulky spacesuit, Shepard couldn’t grip the club with both hands and swung it solely with his right, causing him to miss the golf ball and connect directly with the lunar surface on both of his first two swings. Shepard hit the ball with his third swing, though it only traveled 24 yards. With his fourth and final shot, Shepard made flush contact and claimed the ball traveled “miles and miles and miles”; in reality, it only reached a distance of about 40 yards, though it remained airborne for longer than here on Earth given the moon’s lack of gravity. After returning to Earth in 1974, Shepard donated the golf club to the USGA Golf Museum in New Jersey, where it remains a popular artifact.

The First Joint U.S.-Soviet Space Mission Occurred in 1975

Despite a heated rivalry that lasted more than two decades, the United States and U.S.S.R. worked together on a joint space mission in 1975. The space race had been in full swing since at least 1955, when the two global powers announced their intention to launch satellites into orbit. The Soviets made history by sending the first man into space in 1961, and America landed the first man on the moon in 1969. After years of one-upmanship, tensions began easing in 1972 with the signing of a space cooperation agreement. On July 15, 1975, the nations jointly embarked on the Apollo-Soyuz mission, which served as a symbolic end to the decades-long space race. This mission included two separate spaceflights led by American astronaut Tom Stafford and Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who later docked their crafts together in space and exchanged an international handshake. In the 1980s, talk of an International Space Station jointly managed by the United States and Soviet Union began, and assembly of the spacecraft began in 1998.

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Nations Around the World Joined the Space Race

While the history of the space race largely focuses on the United States and Soviet Union, other nations joined the fray in the late 1970s. The first non-American and non-Soviet pilot to reach outer space was Czech cosmonaut Vladimír Remek, who studied flight in Moscow. On March 2, 1978, Remek took off aboard the Soviet’s Soyuz 28 spacecraft and headed for the Salyut 6 space station, where he and his co-pilot conducted research for eight days before returning to Earth. Upon his return, Remek was heralded as a hero by his native Czechoslovakia (now Czechia and Slovakia), paving the way for other nations to send humans into space shortly thereafter. Later that year, Polish pilot Mirosław Hermaszewski and East Germany’s Sigmund Jähn both boarded Soyuz missions of their own. In 1980, the Soyuz program also sent the first pilots from Latin America (Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez of Cuba) and Southeast Asia (Phạm Tuân of Vietnam) into outer space.

Nobody Has Walked on the Moon Since 1972

If you were alive at the time, it’s hard to forget where you were when humans first walked on the moon. While those vivid memories remain, it’s actually been more than 50 years since someone last set foot on the lunar surface. In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first of the 12 people (all Americans) who have set foot on the moon. The final moon walk to date occurred just three years later as part of the Apollo 17 mission, with astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt. They landed their spacecraft in the Taurus-Littrow valley, a narrow lunar opening deeper than the Grand Canyon. The pair explored the region for seven hours a day over the course of three straight days, and even suffered a minor accident in the process after Cernan accidentally dropped a hammer on their lunar rover. The astronauts also discovered orange soil as evidence of lunar volcanic activity, which proved to be one of the most important discoveries of any Apollo mission. Before leaving, they left behind a plaque that reads, “Here man completed his first explorations of the moon.” Nobody has returned to the moon since.

5 Myths and Misconceptions About Ancient Rome

The Roman Senate

Author Kristina Wright

September 13, 2023

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Despite what popular culture would have us believe, ancient Rome was not a single historical period when everyone wore togas and overindulged at decadent feasts. The rise and subsequent fall of ancient Rome encompassed several distinct time frames, from the founding of the city of Rome in 753 BCE to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE. These periods included the Roman Kingdom from 753 BCE to 509 BCE, denoting Rome’s first political model (a monarchal government); the Roman Republic from 509 BCE to 27 BCE, when the Romans switched from a monarchy to elected magistrates; and the Roman Empire from 27 BCE to 476 CE, which combined elements from both the republic and the monarchy.

The Roman Empire, which began with the rise of Augustus as the first emperor in 27 BCE, is often considered the peak of ancient Roman civilization. It was during this time that Rome expanded its territory across three continents and became a dominant world power. Today, much of what we think we know about ancient Rome has been blurred to encompass hundreds of years of history and thousands of miles of geography. Here are five common myths and misconceptions about this ancient superpower.

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Myth: The Roman Empire Fell in 476 CE

Often, when people talk about the fall of the Roman Empire, they’re speaking only about the Western Roman Empire. The fall of Western Rome — which ushered in the period in Europe known as the Middle Ages — is traditionally noted as 476 CE, when Romulus Augustulus, the last Roman emperor of the West, was deposed by the Germanic leader Odoacer. The Eastern Roman Empire, meanwhile, was formed in 330 CE by Constantine I at the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium. Also known as the Byzantine Empire, it continued to exist for nearly a thousand years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, until the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman army in 1453. The Eastern Roman Empire developed a more diverse culture that flourished during the early medieval period. After the fall, the influence of Byzantine culture continued in countries that practiced its Eastern Orthodox religion, including Greece, Romania, and Russia.

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Myth: Togas Were Always White, and They Were Worn by Everyone

The epic poem “Aeneid,” written by the Roman poet Virgil sometime around 30 BCE to 19 BCE, refers to Romans as “masters of the world, and people of the toga.” The most commonly reproduced image of the Roman toga is a long, white piece of fabric draped over the shoulder, but toga styles were more complex throughout the ancient Roman era. While any Roman citizen could wear the natural, undyed wool toga, togas in other colors, including purple and red, as well as togas with stripes and designs, signified a specific status in Roman society. Over time, the toga became a ceremonial garment rarely worn by the average Roman citizen. The enduring association between Rome and the toga may have something to do with the fact that Virgil was commissioned by Emperor Augustus to write the “Aeneid.” Under Augustus, all Roman citizens who conducted business in the forum or attended the theater were required to wear a toga to distinguish themselves from noncitizens and identify their social class.

Myth: Gladiator Battles Were Always Deadly

Hollywood has glorified the violence and brutality of gladiator battles in films from Ben-Hur to Gladiator, but the reality was likely quite different. That’s not to say that arena battles weren’t dangerous or that fighters didn’t die, but historians believe the risk to life and limb wasn’t nearly as extreme as has been portrayed in the movies, in part because trained gladiators were too valuable. Over the course of the Roman Empire, around 100 gladiator schools, comparable to prisons, were built to train and house fighters. During the earlier Roman Republic era, gladiators were most often convicted criminals, prisoners of war, or enslaved people, but under the empire, gladiators included free men, noblemen, and even women. Gladiators were not only trained and housed, but also provided with the best medical care and treated like celebrities. Gladiator fights were governed by rules and a referee and, though the details of how the battles were conducted have been lost to history, historians believe only one in nine arena battles ended in death.

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Myth: The Marble Statues of Ancient Rome Were White

One of the most enduring myths about ancient Rome is reflected in the stark white statuary associated with the era. When these relics of classical antiquity were rediscovered during the Renaissance era, they had been buried for more than a thousand years, and stripped of their original decoration. The ravages of time had largely erased the vibrant embellishments known as polychromy. Used in both ancient Greece and Rome, polychromy involved decorating a piece of three-dimensional art with vibrant paints, gilding, silvering, and inlay. Today, special imaging can detect the polychromy of an ancient sculpture, allowing art historians to reconstruct the piece as it once appeared. For instance, a 490 BCE equestrian statue known as Persian Rider, excavated in the late 19th century bore enough traces of pigment for researchers to reconstruct the horseman’s intricately patterned clothing in contrasting hues of red, yellow, blue, green, and brown. Restoring these statues to their original colors has given historians new insights into Roman culture.

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Myth: The Salute Associated With Fascism Comes From Ancient Rome

The raised-arm salute associated with fascism, most notably the Nazi Party, has long been linked to ancient Rome, and is even known as the “Roman salute.” However, there is no actual record of the salute being used in ancient Rome. The origin of the myth can be traced to a 1784 painting by French artist Jacques-Louis David entitled “Oath of the Horatii.” The painting depicts the three Horatii brothers of Rome swearing an oath to their father with their arms, hands, and fingers extended. Over the next century, other artists and playwrights went on to use similar poses in their portrayals of the ancient Romans. The “Roman salute” appeared in silent films in Europe and America, including Italy’s Cabiria in 1914 and MGM’s Ben-Hur in 1925, and was even implemented as a salute to the Olympics before being adopted by Italy’s National Fascist Party and the Nazi Party in Germany.

6 Little-Known Facts About Greek Mythology

Statue of Athena

Author Paul Chang

September 13, 2023

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From Theseus’ battle with the minotaur to the epic siege of Troy, tales from Greek mythology have gripped humanity’s imagination for millennia. Likely originating with the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete (around 3000 to 1100 BCE), these stories portray the adventures and foibles of gods and heroes. The ancient Greeks looked to these myths — which were passed down orally for centuries before being transcribed — to explain everything from earthquakes to the creation of the universe. Though our scientific understanding of the world has progressed since ancient times, Greek mythology continues to shape and inspire many aspects of our culture to this day, from business to entertainment to sports. For a quick look at the history of this fascinating body of stories, here are six facts about Greek mythology.

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The Amazons Were Based on the Real Warrior Women of the Steppe

The Greek myth of the Amazons — a race of warrior women descended from Ares, the god of war — has inspired countless works of art, including the character of Wonder Woman. According to the myths, these warriors lived in a city called Themiskyra composed entirely of women, located on the Black Sea. Until recently, scholars believed that the Amazons were the stuff of fiction — but a growing body of evidence suggests that the stories were inspired by real-life female warriors who roamed the grasslands of the Eurasian Steppe on horseback and wielded bows and arrows. While these women differed from the Amazons of legend in some specifics (for example, they lived alongside men), leading experts now believe that ancient Greek encounters with these warriors gave rise to the legend that spread across the world.

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Greek Mythology’s Most Famous Author May Have Never Existed

Credited as the author of theIliadand theOdyssey — two of Greek mythology’s most important texts — Homer has been viewed as a towering literary figure for much of history. Traditionally, he was thought to have lived in the eighth or ninth century BCE, and was described as being blind and, by some accounts, illiterate (dictating his poems to a literate assistant for transcription). However, since the 18th century, scholars have questioned whether Homer even existed. Some academics, such as the American classicist Milman Parry, have suggested that Homer’s epic poems were the result of oral stories told by various poets and folk singers being compiled into singular texts. Other scholars have questioned historical inconsistencies throughout the poems that could imply parts of the text were written in different time periods. This debate has inspired an entire field of study around Homer’s identity, known as the “Homeric Question.” While Homer’s existence is uncertain, one thing is for sure: The Iliad and the Odyssey continue to transfix and entertain readers to this day.

The Myth of Demeter and Persephone Gave Rise to a Secretive Cult

According to Greek myth, Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, had a daughter named Persephone who was kidnapped by Hades and brought to the underworld, leaving a heartbroken Demeter to roam the earth looking for her. Persephone was eventually released by Hades, but forced to return to the underworld for four months out of every year, during which Demeter, in her grief, would cause crops to wither and die — thus explaining the winter season.

The “Eleusinian Mysteries” were secret religious rituals practiced in the ancient Greek city of Eleusis from 1600 BCE to 392 CE that celebrated the myth of Demeter and Persephone. These rituals promised to remove initiates’ fear of death, and despite virtually every important thinker in antiquity — including Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, and Cicero — participating, what actually happened during the ceremony remains a mystery. And for good reason: Initiates were sworn to secrecy on pain of death. While some have speculated that the rituals may have involved a symbolic reenactment of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, and that hallucinogens may have been involved, we may never know the truth of what happened at Eleusis.

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The Ancient City of Troy Actually Existed

Homer’s Iliad tells the story of the 10-year siege of Troy, and centers on the mythical hero Achilles. Until the 19th century, it was widely believed that, like the gods and heroes that inhabit the Iliad, the city of Troy itself was a piece of fiction. But archaeological excavation has revealed that Troy was a real city located in modern-day Turkey at a site called Hisarlik. To date, 10 archaeological layers of Troy have been discovered, spanning at least 4,000 years. However, while modern scholars agree that Troy did exist, the size, population, and stature of the ancient city continue to be a source of debate.

The Olympic Games Have Roots in Greek Mythology

Historians agree that the ancient Olympic Games began in 776 BCE, as part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus. But the ancient Greeks believed that the Games themselves had mythological origins. According to one myth, Zeus created the Games to celebrate his victory over Cronus in their struggle for the throne. More than a thousand years later, the same mythology led to the ancient Olympics’ demise. In 393 CE, the Roman Emperor Theodosius (Greece lost its independence to Rome in the second century BCE) abolished the Games due to their association with the pagan worship of Zeus. The Olympics remained inactive until a French educator named Pierre de Coubertin launched a plan to revive the tournament in 1894, leading to the first Games of the modern era in 1896.

The Most Famous Temple to Athena Exploded in the 17th Century

Every year, tourists from around the world flock to see the Parthenon, an ancient Greek temple to the goddess Athena. Built in the fifth century BCE and located atop the Acropolis in Athens, the Parthenon once housed a 40-foot statue of Athena made of ivory and gold, as well as stunning sculptures depicting scenes from Greek mythology. It stood intact until the 17th century, during which Athens was occupied by the Ottoman Empire, which was at war with several European countries. As part of the war effort, the Turks used the Parthenon to store gunpowder. During a Venetian attack on Athens in 1687, the Parthenon was struck by a mortar shell, causing a massive explosion that blew up the center of the building. Thankfully, parts of the Parthenon remained standing, and modern efforts to restore and preserve the architectural marvel continue today.

6 Illuminating Facts About Secret Societies

Illuminatus initiation

Author Kristina Wright

September 13, 2023

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The term “secret society” encompasses a wide variety of exclusive and clandestine organizations, many of which have been in existence for centuries and count some of history’s most influential figures among their members. Secret societies pique our curiosity because they often keep their activities and objectives concealed from nonmembers and the public. Though there are exceptions, the intentions of these exclusive groups are generally not nefarious; for instance, some college clubs can be considered secret societies because they have private rituals and traditions whose symbolism and mystique serve to create a sense of belonging and shared purpose.

The most prominent secret societies have left their mark on history, from wielding their influence over governments to shaping the course of labor and religious movements. Because of the secretive nature of these organizations, their historical origins can be complex to track down, and are often debated by historians and scholars. From the medieval beginnings of the Freemasons to the puzzling origins of Cicada 3301, here are six unusual facts about these mysterious groups.

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One of the World’s Oldest Secret Societies Still Flourishes Today

The history of the Freemasons dates back to the Middle Ages and the guilds of skilled stonemasons who regulated the qualifications of the stoneworkers. Their work required stonemasons to travel, encouraging a more open-minded worldview. The modern Freemasonry society was founded in England in 1717 and quickly spread throughout Europe and the American colonies. The organization established guidelines not only for stonework, but also for the moral and spiritual values of its members. Today, there are over 6 million Freemasons around the world. They still use the same system of secret rituals — including handshakes, passwords, and symbols — that have been used since the 18th century, but in recent years the group has begun making moves toward modernization and transparency. In 2021, the Freemasons issued the first annual report in their 300-year history.

The Real Illuminati Was Interested in Enlightenment for All

The name “Illuminati” has been used to refer to various groups, both real and fictional, since the 15th century. But the group most closely linked to the name dates back almost 250 years to the Bavarian Illuminati, formally known as the Order of the Illuminati. The short-lived secret society was founded in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, in 1776 by German professor Adam Weishaupt, who wanted to create “a state of liberty and moral equality, freed from the obstacles which subordination, rank, and riches, continually throw in our way.” Taking inspiration from the Freemasons and French Enlightenment philosophers, Weishaupt formed a secret society that climbed to more than 2,000 members in Bavaria, France, Hungary, Italy, and other regions where Enlightenment ideas were taking hold. The Bavarian government eventually shut down the Illuminati in 1784, prohibiting the creation of any groups not authorized by law. But there were those who believed the society went underground, spawning a number of conspiracy theories that linked the group to world events, from the French Revolution to the 9/11 terror attacks.

Enslaved Women Founded America’s Oldest Secret Society of Black Women

The annals of history are filled with the names of secret societies whose membership was exclusive to men, but women have also had a role in creating these clandestine groups. The United Order of Tents is the oldest organization of Black women in the United States, founded by two formerly enslaved women, Annetta M. Lane and Harriet R. Taylor, in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1867. The organization, which still maintains chapters throughout the United States, is believed to have supported operations of the Underground Railroad. During the turbulence of the Reconstruction era, the group provided mutual aid and support to the Black community, serving as a “tent of salvation” turning their time of need.

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An Ancient Secret Society Inspired a Video Game Franchise

In the 11th century, the Nizari Ismailis were a group of powerful medieval Shiite Muslims in Persia and Syria. The group used guerilla tactics to outwit their enemies, including Christian Crusaders arriving in the Holy Land. Hated by other Muslim groups, they were given the name Hashishin, a pejorative Arabic word meaning “hashish user,” which was later westernized by Crusaders as “Assassins” and the English word came to mean a paid killer. The group fell to the Mongols in the 13th century, but the legend of the Nizari Ismailis lives on. The video game “Assassin’s Creed” creates a fictionalized world based around the Assassins and another ancient secret society, the Knights Templar, a military order established in the 12th century and endorsed by the Catholic Church. The Knights Templar served as protectors of Christian pilgrims and Crusader states in the Holy Land, but their objectives differed from those of the Nizari Ismailis. Though the timelines of the two groups overlap, there is no historical evidence to support that the two groups fought each other.

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One Secretive Club Has Its Own Elite Summer Camp

Among all of the exclusive societies, the Bohemian Club may be the only one with its own elite summer camp. Founded in 1872 in San Francisco as an exclusive gentlemen’s club for journalists, artists, and musicians, the Bohemian Club expanded to include international political and business leaders as well. Bohemian Grove, the club’s privately owned 2,700-acre campground in the redwood groves of Sonoma County, provides a gathering place for a two-week summer encampment that includes secret rituals, performances, and private discussions that have changed the course of history. At the 1967 Bohemian Grove encampment, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan reportedly decided which of them would pursue the Republican presidential nomination. At a September 1942 gathering at Bohemian Grove, physicist Robert Oppenheimer attended an S-1 Executive Committee planning meeting to finalize details for the Manhattan Project, leading to the development of the atomic bomb. Given the privileged and private membership and traditions, it’s not surprising that the group has been the subject of conspiracy theories and protests and, most recently, a lawsuit alleging wage theft and labor violations.

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New Secret Societies Are Finding a Home Online

Though secret organizations have existed for centuries, the internet has given rise to new ones in recent years. One of the most enigmatic is Cicada 3301, which appeared online in 2012. The group claimed to be searching for “highly intelligent individuals” by presenting a series of complex digital puzzles based on cryptographic techniques including ciphers, codes, and steganography. Solving the puzzles involved a wide range of knowledge about coding, programming, literature, art, and other disciplines. There was some speculation that the puzzles were being used as a recruitment tool for intelligence agencies, while others thought they might be part of the promotion of a new game, though no attempt was ever made to monetize the puzzles. Those who solved the early puzzles were presented with additional challenges and login credentials for a darknet site. The group’s identity remains unknown and they have been largely silent since 2014.

A Brief and Curious History of Pockets

Empty trouser pocket

Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

September 7, 2023

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You can never have too many pockets, but we used to not have them at all. As clothing evolved from simple to complex, pockets, some of them specialized, evolved right along with it, changing shape, size, and function through the years.

When did pockets go from external pouches to sewn-in features? How big were the pockets that 18th-century women hid under their skirts — and why are women’s pockets so small now? What role did jeans play in the progress of the pocket? This brief history of pockets shows just how deep they go.

Pocket Predecessors

Wearable pouches — such as fanny packs or, if you’re fancy, belt bags — date back thousands of years. Even Europe’s oldest known natural mummy, Otzi the Iceman, who lived in the Copper Age more than 5,000 years ago, was found wearing a belt with a small attached pouch, which contained some small tools.

Belt bags were a must-have accessory in medieval Europe, too; some were crude, some more ornate, and they were worn by all genders. One found in a particularly lavish grave in England had a decorative metal purse lid that would have been attached to a leather pouch.

The word “pocket” came into use in English around 1450 to describe a small sack worn on someone’s person, whether sewn into clothing or not. It evolved from the Anglo-French word poket or pouchet, a diminutive variation on poke or pochete, meaning “bag.”

The Rise of Men’s Pockets

The Renaissance was a time of great art, innovation, and exploration throughout Europe, and it’s during this era that the sewn-in pocket started to appear. The earliest true pockets were parts of men’s trunk hose — the poofy short breeches that you see in old portraits of royals and nobles — which became popular during the 16th century. The pockets hid themselves well among the folds, although sometimes they’re visible in paintings.

The extra space left plenty of room for storing necessary objects, particularly pocket watches. These pockets could be quite luxurious; one example of voluminous trunk hose from the early 17th century had leather pockets lined with yellow and blue silk. Eventually, sewn-in pockets were also added to men’s coats, jackets, waistcoats, and breeches, for both nobles and commoners. From that point forward, menswear typically included pockets. For women’s clothing, however, the path was not quite as straight.

The Extreme Practicality of Tie-On Pockets

In the mid-17th century, women had their own pocket revolution. Rather than wearing sewn-in pockets that would have to be emptied when changing into new clothes, many women started using tie-on pockets, which were detachable pouches that tied around the waist underneath skirts. Dresses would come with slits in them designed for reaching these modular pockets.

Tie-on pockets were typically very large — often more than 15 inches long and 10 inches wide — but they disappeared easily under the full skirts and petticoats of the era. They could be highly personalized, handmade, adorned with embroidery, made with extra interior pockets, and were often given as gifts.

These pockets offered a space that women had complete control over. They could carry cash and valuables nested inside, and sleep with them under their pillows. While women from all walks of life wore tie-on pockets, they were especially useful for working women who needed to carry keys and supplies, as well as people living in cramped conditions. Upper-class women carried large quantities of precious items such as snuff boxes, telescopes, almanacs, and purses. Sentimental items such as small portraits frequently found their way into tie-on pockets, too. With the extra storage space also came a large capacity for crime; in one case, a woman made off with two live ducks stashed inside her pockets.

Tie-on pockets stayed in use until the late 19th century — with a little break in the early 1800s when dresses briefly got less voluminous — even after handbags came into fashion. By the mid-19th century, some dresses even had small sewn-in pockets, although they were often impractical.

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The Pocket Regression of the Victorian Era

Menswear, both formal and informal, continued to have plentiful pockets into the 19th century (after all, the pocket watches!), but England’s Victorian era ushered in slimmer silhouettes for women, ushering out the massive tie-on pocket. The loss was felt acutely; as one woman wrote in the magazine The Decorator and Furnisher in 1890, “There is a touch of pathos as well as absurdity in the answer of a patient, enduring, long-suffering woman, who, in reply to her dressmaker’s question as to how she would have her gown made, said tragically, ‘all pockets.’”

In the early 19th century, tie-on pockets were temporarily eschewed in favor of reticules, also known as “indispensables,” a type of small handbag meant as a pocket replacement. These came back with a vengeance in the Victorian era, and were meant to be dainty.

Women Take Back the Pocket

The early 20th century brought many social upheavals for women, including the right to vote in the United States, increased representation in the workforce, and, yes, the return of the pocket. As women started doing jobs that had been traditionally held by men, women’s fashion started to draw inspiration from menswear, including ample pockets. By the late 1920s, tomboyish looks gained popularity, and soon trousers, pockets and all, started hitting the racks in earnest. Women’s jeans rose to prominence, albeit not quite in the mainstream, in the 1930s. By the 1940s, trousers and suits were staple wardrobe items for all genders. The pockets in these pants weren’t always particularly deep and functional, especially compared with the cavernous tie-on pockets of yesteryear, but they were there.

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The Pocket Gender Gap

Pockets are no longer unusual in women’s fashion, but there are still significant differences in size between men’s and women’s pockets; women’s jeans, for example, are still 48% shorter on average than men’s. When women’s jeans became mainstream in the 1950s and ’60s, fashion started ruling over form, and designers favored slimmer silhouettes over practical pockets. This even led to the fake pocket, which gives the illusion of a pocket where none exists.

One relatively recent social change has started encouraging more practical pockets: the ubiquity of smartphones. It’s hard to cart around a tiny computer all day without ample pocket space, especially as phones get larger in size. It’s made some fashion designers rethink the necessity of pockets in women’s clothing, and while nothing has changed overnight, a new chapter in the history of pockets may be on the horizon.

What Were the Crusades?

End of the Third Crusade

Author Tony Dunnell

September 7, 2023

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During the high medieval period in Europe — a time when the continent’s population increased rapidly, bringing about great social and political change — Pope Urban II sparked a religious war when he urged Christians to recapture the Holy Land, a region that lies between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and is held sacred among Christians, Jews and Muslims, particularly the holy city of Jerusalem. The result was a series of military campaigns that lasted from 1095 to 1291, known today as the Crusades.

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The Roots of Religious Conflict

By the end of the 11th century, about two-thirds of the ancient Christian world had been conquered by Muslims, including strategically and religiously important regions such as Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. When, around 1077, Muslim Turks took control of the Holy Land, religious and territorial frictions between the two religious groups reached a tipping point. Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus feared that his lands — the Eastern Roman Empire, which included the strategically important city of Constantinople (now Istanbul) — would be next, and he appealed to the pope for assistance. Pope Urban II responded in 1095, promising the knights of Europe that their sins would be forgiven if they recaptured the Holy Land and, more specifically, Jerusalem, for Christianity. With that fateful promise, the Crusades began.

Rallying to the Cause

Pope Urban’s plea was met with a massive response, not only among knights but also among ordinary citizens who chose to join the Crusades. Their reasons for joining the holy war were varied. Many knights sought to defend Christianity while earning forgiveness for their sins and eternal glory, as promised by Pope Urban II. But their motives weren’t always religious. Knights also believed firmly in chivalry and sought out adventures in which they might gain honor or renown. The campaigns also presented material opportunities, with conquered land up for grabs. European merchants, too, were typically in favor of the Crusades, as they sought to monopolize important trading centers that were under Muslim control. They could also earn good money shipping Crusaders to the Middle East — an estimated 90,000 men, women, and children of all classes joined the First Crusade alone, so there was wealth to be made in providing passage.

The First Crusade

The armies of the First Crusade set off for the Holy Land in 1096. Warriors had gathered from around Europe, and a force of about 60,000 soldiers (of which some 6,000 were knights) and at least 30,000 noncombatants was amassed, known as the “Princes’ Crusade.” By 1098, the campaigning forces had taken major cities including Nicaea and Antioch, but not without suffering significant losses. By the time the Crusader army reached its primary objective, Jerusalem, in June 1099, there were only around 1,300 knights and 12,000 infantry remaining. Undeterred, they laid siege to Jerusalem, breaching the walls on July 15. The Crusaders then spent two days massacring the inhabitants and pillaging the city. The First Crusade was a bloody victory for Europe, and Jerusalem returned to Christian rule.

The Second Crusade

Despite the outcome of the First Crusade, holding territory in the Holy Land was no easy task. So-called “Crusader states” were formed, but the first of them, the County of Edessa, was retaken in 1144 by Muslim forces. In response, Pope Eugene III called for a Second Crusade, this time to be led by European kings. A force of 60,000 people assembled and marched east. The campaign, however, was a failure. The Crusader armies became stretched out, and after numerous skirmishes and a handful of sieges, the whole endeavor fizzled away.

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Saladin and Richard the Lionheart

Next came the rise of Saladin, one of the most famous figures of the Crusades. The Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria brought forces from both nations under his own control and began attacking the Crusader states. Most importantly, Saladin recaptured Jerusalem — the prize of the First Crusade — in 1187, sending shockwaves around Europe. The pope soon called for a Third Crusade to recapture Jerusalem. The kings of Europe responded — most notably Richard I of England, known as Richard the Lionheart due to his reputation as a fearsome warrior. So began one of the greatest military rivalries not only of the Crusades, but of warfare in general. Richard and Saladin developed a mutual respect and admiration for each other through their conflicts, and became the defining figures of the Crusades. The Third Crusade ended in 1192 with the Crusader armies recapturing the vital cities of Acre and Jaffa. The Crusaders retook most of the territory captured by Saladin, but failed to recapture Jerusalem.

Photo credit: Hulton Archive via Getty Images

The End of the Crusades

The Crusades didn’t end there. There were at least eight Crusades in total, until the period finally ended with the fall of the city of Acre in 1291. This marked the end of any major European presence in the region, and no further large military campaigns were organized. Between 1095 and 1291, a number of popular campaigns also took place, but without papal approval, so they are not considered part of the Crusades. This includes the infamous and somewhat bizarre “Children's Crusade,” led by a 12-year-old shepherd named Stephen. The details of this unofficial quest are questionable and may well have been hugely exaggerated by contemporary sources, which claim that as many as 30,000 children set off toward Jerusalem. Whatever the actual numbers, the Children’s Crusade was a failure and never even reached the Holy Land — but it can lay claim to being the first European youth movement.

5 of the Most Famous Planes to Ever Take the Skies

Boeing 747

Author Tony Dunnell

September 7, 2023

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Humans have been fascinated with flight for a long, long time. The ancient Chinese built the first kites, mimicking the shapes of birds, as far back as 475 BCE. Around 300 BCE, the ancient Greek mathematician Archytas built a steam-propelled flying pigeon. And then there was Bladud, king of the Britons, who, according to legend, was so obsessed with the idea of flight that around 850 BCE he donned a pair of homemade wings, jumped off a building, and promptly fell to his death.

It’s safe to say that humans have progressed since the days of Bladud. Flight is now a fundamental part of human society, from the way we travel to the way we wage wars. Since the Wright brothers took the first and most famous powered flight in 1903, aviation has developed at breakneck speed, taking us across the sound barrier and even beyond our own atmosphere.

Here are five famous planes that have shaped the history of aviation and, in so doing, the history of human progress itself.

Photo credit: Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images

The Wright Flyer

At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, the Wright Flyer completed the world’s first successful flight of a powered, heavier-than-air flying machine. Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright had achieved sustained and controlled aviation, with the best flight of the day covering 838.5 feet in 59 seconds. The Wright Flyer — a biplane with a wingspan of 40 feet and one 12-horsepower four-cylinder engine driving two pusher propellers — should have instantly become the most famous flying machine in history, but it didn’t. The Wright brothers had achieved something so incredible that much of the public — including scientists — remained skeptical. It took time to convince them that the course of human flight had, indeed, been changed forever.

The Spitfire

The Supermarine Spitfire is the most famous British fighter aircraft in history, and it was an iconic symbol of freedom during — and after — World War II. It was a vital Allied aircraft in 1940, helping to defeat wave after wave of German air attacks during the pivotal Battle of Britain. It was also the only fighter plane capable of taking on the deadly Messerschmitt Bf-109E on equal terms. Even today, the sight and sound of a Spitfire in the skies above Britain is enough to send shivers down the spines of anyone watching from below. Special mention must also go to the Hawker Hurricane, which sometimes sits in the shadow of the more famous aircraft. The Hurricane, built 20 years earlier than the Spitfire, shot down more than half of all the enemy airplanes destroyed in the Battle of Britain.

The Spirit of St. Louis

On the morning of May 20, 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh took off from Long Island, New York, on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Thirty-three hours and 30 minutes later, he landed safely at Le Bourget Field near Paris, where a delighted crowd of some 100,000 people greeted the pioneering pilot. Lindbergh’s name went down in history, as did the name of his airplane: the Spirit of St. Louis. A single-engine, high-wing monoplane modified to Lindbergh’s specifications, it would normally have seated five people, but extra fuel tanks took up much of what would have been cabin space. Rather than retire the plane after this achievement in aviation, Lindbergh took the Spirit of St. Louis on a tour of the United States and parts of Central and South America, further cementing the aircraft’s fame.

The Concorde

The Concorde was the world’s first supersonic, passenger-carrying airplane, designed and built through the combined efforts of aircraft manufacturers in Great Britain and France. The aircraft made its first transatlantic crossing in 1973, with scheduled supersonic services — run by British Airways and Air France — beginning in 1976. A sleek, tailless aircraft with a distinctive droop nose for landing visibility, it could carry up to 128 passengers. With a cruising speed of 1,350 mph — more than twice the speed of sound — it could fly from London to New York in a little under three and a half hours. Flights, however, were incredibly expensive due to the airplane’s sky-high operating costs. In 1996, British Airways charged $7,574 (more than $15,000 today) for a round-trip flight from New York to London. This placed it way beyond the budget of most customers, and financial losses made the Concorde ultimately unsustainable. Despite its iconic status and breathtaking design, only 14 Concorde aircraft went into commercial service before it was retired in 2003.

The Boeing 747

Dubbed the “Queen of the Skies,” the Boeing 747 revolutionized air travel, allowing people to travel farther, faster, and more affordably than ever before. Taking its maiden flight in 1969, it was the first airplane referred to as a “jumbo jet.” Since then, more than 1,574 Boeing 747s have been purchased, logging a combined total of more than 118 million flight hours and nearly 23 million flight cycles. It has become a true icon of the skies, and one of the most famous planes in movie history, too, with appearances in hundreds of films including Airplane!, Air Force One, Die Hard 2, and Tenet. After more than half a century of faithful service, Boeing delivered its last 747 in January 2023, marking the end of an aviation era.

6 Facts About Ancient Navigation

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Author Sarah Anne Lloyd

September 7, 2023

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Thousands of years ago, the oceans seemed a lot wider, even unnavigable. Before mariners developed tried-and-true navigation techniques, sailing the seas involved a lot of guesswork — or, if you want it to sound cooler, “dead reckoning.”

Slowly, our ancestors moved beyond their initial stabs in the dark. Some looked to the sky, using their new knowledge about the cosmos to help them better understand life on Earth. Others took a keen interest in the seas, learning to intuitively navigate the vast expanses based on their currents and swells.

Nowadays, we have a relatively easy time getting around — thanks, GPS! — but it took a long time to get here. How were Polynesians able to cross thousands of miles of open ocean more than 3,000 years ago? Which seafaring society might have successfully used crystals to find their way? What persistent navigation myth just won’t die? Read on and get your sea legs with these six facts.

Polynesians Were Pioneers of the Open Ocean

In the early days of ocean navigation, explorers stayed pretty close to the shoreline and used visible landmarks to mark their position. However, Polynesians, the first developers of open ocean exploration, set off from New Guinea and moved eastward in about 1500 BCE. After first traveling to the adjacent Solomon Islands, they gradually journeyed farther and farther east. Their vessel of choice was a double canoe with two hulls connected by crossbeams, kind of like a catamaran.

Venturing out into the open ocean, these explorers eventually reached Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and Tahiti. They then traveled more than 2,600 miles north to Hawaii — longer than the distance across the U.S. from Portland, Maine, to Seattle, Washington. By roughly 1,000 or possibly 1,200 CE, the descendants of those early explorers populated the entire Polynesian Triangle, the three corners of which are Hawaii, Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island), and New Zealand.

The Polynesians didn’t have any navigational instruments that we know of, so how did they do it? Although their navigation techniques were passed down orally, historians think they navigated using stars, ocean swells, the sun, the moon, and migratory birds. Some Pacific Islanders navigated simply by using the waves themselves. In 1976, a group of Polynesian canoeing enthusiasts made the Tahiti-Hawaii trip using no navigational instruments and a traditional voyaging canoe — a feat that’s since been repeated several times.

Photo credit: Pictures from History/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Some Early Nautical Charts Were Made From Shells and Sticks

A nautical chart provides not only topographical information, but also details about the behavior of the sea, such as how tidal patterns interact. Today, we can easily read this data on screens and paper, but ancient Micronesian navigators called ri-metos recorded their knowledge using elaborate “stick charts” made from palm strips, coconut strips, and cowrie shells.

As you might imagine, these charts weren’t especially portable, so they were designed to be memorized before a voyage. The charts didn’t follow any kind of uniform style, and some of them were only designed to be read by the person who created them, so they can be hard for modern viewers to interpret. We do know, though, that some charts depicted general ocean patterns, while others contained precise piloting instructions.

Early Magnetic Compasses Bore Little Resemblance to Their Modern Counterparts

Today, magnetic compasses are so ubiquitous that we just call them “compasses.” They contain a magnetized needle that naturally lines up with the Earth’s magnetic field, so the ends point to magnetic north and magnetic south (moving targets that are fairly close to true north and true south, but that can lead to errors when traveling very far north or very far south).

Scientists don’t know for sure who made the first compass, but they believe the first compasses to be used for navigation came from 11th- or 12th-century China. The first European usage of a compass was recorded at the end of the 12th century. These early prototypes used lodestones (pieces of naturally-occurring magnetic ore) or needles magnetized with lodestones that were then attached to sticks or corks so they could float in water.

At first, magnetic compasses were used primarily as backup navigation aids, but as engineers got more savvy, compasses became more reliable. By the 13th century, the compass’s design had graduated to a magnetized needle mounted on a pin at the bottom of a bowl. In time, a directional card with the 32 principal points of direction began to be mounted beneath the needle. The design of the card itself evolved, too: The north point was first marked by a spearhead and a “T” for the Latin word Tramontana, meaning “the north wind.” Around 1490, these symbols were replaced with a fleur-de-lis, which is still commonly seen on compasses today.

Astrolabes Weren’t Just Used for Navigation

The concept of an astrolabe, a device used to measure the positions of celestial bodies, dates back to ancient Greece in the third or second century BCE — although its exact origin is unclear. By the ninth century CE, astrolabes were highly developed and utilized in Arabic cultures. The devices made their way back to Europe in the 12th century, and the mariner’s astrolabe was a standard piece of navigational equipment by the end of the 15th century, just in time for the Age of Exploration.

Astrolabes are used to determine the locations of celestial bodies relative to the user. A disk called a “mater” holds a series of smaller rotating and sliding disks — one with Earth’s latitude lines and another with well-known constellations and stars. A straight “rule,” or bar, spins around that, and a sight helps determine the altitude of the sun or another star that can then be used as an anchor point. Astrolabes often came with specific plates that corresponded to the different latitudes of certain large cities, because the sky’s geography is affected by one’s latitude.

While these devices were very useful for navigation, it wasn’t their only claim to fame: In the Islamic world, they helped determine prayer times and the direction of Mecca. During the Middle Ages in Europe, they were consulted to help with decision-making, much like modern horoscopes. And more mundanely, they could also be used for making topographical surveys.

Photo credit: Astrid Harrisson/ Alamy Stock Photo

Vikings May Have Used Crystals to Navigate

The Vikings, a group of seafaring Scandinavian warriors, were also skilled ocean navigators. They began to populate Iceland — around 500 miles from their native Norway — in about 900 CE, even eventually reaching North America. The specifics of their navigation techniques are somewhat mysterious, but recent research indicates they may have used crystals.

Because they sailed their longships in the far North Atlantic, Viking travelers benefitted from up to 24 hours of continuous daylight, but they encountered a lot of fog, too. Ancient Norse literature mentions “sunstones,” stones that helped their holders find the sun — and scientists now think these may have really existed. In 2011, researchers used calcite crystals to pinpoint the location of the sun within 1 degree. It’s not magic, although it sounds like it: Through polarization, crystals can show sunlight patterns that can’t be seen with the naked eye.

Another study from 2014 suggests these crystals may have been used in conjunction with a sun compass. Researchers simulated 3,600 trips between Norway and Greenland at the spring equinox and summer solstice, two dates marked on a disc believed to be a component of a sun compass. They found that by checking the crystals every few hours, the computer-generated voyages successfully reached Greenland 92% of the time.

That study hasn’t been replicated in the real world yet, but it offers some clues to how Viking navigators were able to navigate without the use of magnetic compasses or astrolabes.

Navigators Knew the Earth Was Round Earlier Than You Might Think

There’s a persistent myth that Christopher Columbus “proved” the Earth was round in the 15th century during his voyage from Europe to the Americas, but he was many centuries too late. In fact, formally educated people knew the world wasn’t flat starting way back in the third century BCE, while scientists and mathematicians may have known as early as the sixth century BCE. Columbus’ surprise landing in the Americas had nothing to do with thinking the Earth was flat — he just thought the global circumference to be smaller than it is and believed he’d end up in Asia. This tenacious myth comes from a highly embellished 1828 biography of Columbus written by Washington Irving, better known for fictional works such as “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.”

Like the aforementioned scientists and scholars, mariners were aware of the world’s roundness very early on. Sailors observed that when viewing distant ships, the tops of sails and masts were visible before the decks and hulls of the vessels to which they were attached. And as they traveled to different points of the Earth, they also noted being able to see different constellations. Celestial navigation would have been pretty difficult otherwise.

7 Innovations That Came Out of World War II

Penicillin vials

Author Tony Dunnell

August 31, 2023

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It’s often said that wars bring about a wave of innovation — necessity being the mother of invention, as the old adage goes. In reality, that’s not necessarily true. According to some studies, there tends to be a significant decline in inventiveness immediately after the outbreak of a war, followed by a marked surge, the net result being a fairly standard rate of innovation overall. Creation through necessity or even desperation certainly happens, but prosperous, peaceful, and free societies tend to be just as inventive, if not more so.

That said, plenty of technological innovation took place during World War II, especially in fields that had military applications. Here are some of the most pivotal, successful, and enduring inventions to come out of the war, from handy tools used by millions of people to miracle drugs that have saved countless lives.

Photo credit: valerii vysotkov/ Shutterstock

Duct Tape

In 1943, Vesta Stoudt, an Illinois woman with two sons serving in the U.S. Navy, was working in an ordnance plant when she noticed a problem with the ammunition boxes she was packing. The boxes were sealed with paper tape with a tab to open them, but this tab could easily tear off, leaving soldiers potentially scrambling to open the boxes in life-threatening situations. So, Stoudt came up with the idea of a waterproof fabric tape with which to seal the boxes — an idea she sent to none other than President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Impressed, the President sent her letter to the War Production Board, which soon came up with what we now know as duct tape. Not only was it easy to apply and remove on ammo boxes, but it also turned out to be endlessly handy for quickly repairing military equipment, including vehicles and weapons.

Radar

The fundamental principle underlying modern radar (which is actually an acronym for “radio detection and ranging”) was first observed in 1886 by physicist Heinrich Hertz, who found that electromagnetic waves could be reflected from various objects. It was during World War II, however, that modern, practical radar was developed. Britain had already established a chain of radar stations along its south and east coasts by the outbreak of the war, allowing for the detection of enemy aircraft at a range of 80 miles. The British then invented the cavity magnetron in 1940, paving the way for far more compact, powerful, and sensitive radar units (and, as it happens, microwave ovens).

Jet Engines

British engineer and RAF officer Frank Whittle first put forward his vision of jet propulsion in 1928, at which time he was roundly ridiculed. Undeterred, he did a successful test run of the first practical jet engine in 1937, albeit on the ground. Then, in August 1939 — a month before the outbreak of the war — the German-built Heinkel He 178 made the first jet-powered flight in history. The war ramped up the development of jet engines, and Whittle found himself with more funding than ever before. In May 1941, his jet-propelled Gloster E.28/39 took flight, achieving a top speed of 370 mph at 25,000 feet, faster than any other conventional propeller-driven aircraft. Though neither the Heinkel He 178 nor the Gloster E.28/39 ever flew combat missions during the war, the “jet age” had begun. The first jet aircraft used in the war were the Messerschmitt Me 262 and Gloster Meteor, starting in 1944.

Super Glue

During World War II, Harry Coover was part of a team at Eastman Kodak trying to find a way to make clear plastic gun sights for Allied soldiers. During his research, Coover accidentally created a new compound called cyanoacrylate. At the time, he and his team found the new compound to be incredibly durable but way too sticky to use, and they soon abandoned the substance. Nine years later, in 1951, Coover returned to cyanoacrylates, and this time he and his team recognized new potential in them. The sticky adhesive required no heat or pressure to bond, and the bond was incredibly strong. Coover had invented super glue, albeit by accident.

Photo credit: Apic/ Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Electronic Computers

It’s hard to say precisely when the first computer was invented. You could argue that it was the abacus of the ancient world, and there’s certainly a case to be made for Charles Babbage and his mechanical computer of the early 19th century. But when it comes to programmable, electronic computers, we can reliably trace the origin to the Second World War. First there was Colossus, a huge set of computers developed by British code breakers at Bletchley Park between 1943 and 1945. In its first test, Colossus successfully decoded a genuine coded message so quickly that 10 improved machines were ordered right away. Then there was ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), developed by the United States and completed in 1945, which lays claim to being the first programmable, general-purpose, electronic digital computer. (It was designed specifically for computing values for artillery range tables, but had other uses as well.) Together, they marked a turning point in the history of modern computers.

The Slinky

Not all the inventions that arose from World War II had military applications. In 1943, Richard James, a naval mechanical engineer stationed at the William Cramp & Sons shipyards in Philadelphia, was working to devise springs that could keep sensitive ship equipment steady at sea. While he was working, he accidentally knocked a coiled spring from a shelf. He watched, surprised and amused, as the spring seemingly walked its way end-over-end across the ground. That same day, he went home and told his wife, Betty James, about an idea he had for a new toy. They took out a $500 loan, co-founded James Industries, and in 1945 the Slinky hit shelves. By the end of the 20th century, around 250 million Slinkys had been sold.

Photo Credit: Anthony Potter Collection/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

Mass-Produced Penicillin

Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by the Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming, and it was later isolated and purified in the late 1930s. Making large amounts of penicillin, however, was difficult. In 1942, when the new antibiotic was first used to successfully treat a patient for sepsis, it used up half the available supply of penicillin in the United States. During the war, a combined effort between the U.S. and Great Britain saw scientists working around the clock to develop mass production techniques. They were successful, and managed to manufacture 2.3 million doses of penicillin in preparation for the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

9 Art Movements Everyone Should Know

Painter Salvador Dali

Author Tony Dunnell

August 31, 2023

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Around 45,500 years ago, one of our ancient ancestors stood in a cave in a remote valley enclosed by sheer limestone cliffs, in what is now Indonesia. This primate, likely a Homo sapiens just like us, held in their hands some kind of dark red ochre pigment, and stood in front of a bare rock wall. At some point, they reached out to the wall and began to draw a life-sized picture of a wild pig. In doing so, they created what is currently the world’s oldest known cave painting. They created art.

All over the world, archaeologists have discovered prehistoric images painted, drawn, or carved onto rocks and cave walls. It seems that we — as humans — have long been inspired to create art, whether for purely aesthetic reasons or as a form of communication. And as we progressed from prehistory to antiquity to the medieval period and beyond, new techniques and, more importantly, whole new ways of looking at the world gave rise to different artistic movements.

Here are some of the most important movements in the history of Western visual art, from the Renaissance period to the surrealism and pop art of the modern era.

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14th Century to 16th Century: Renaissance Art

Renaissance art takes its name from the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which began in Italy at the end of the 14th century and soon spread to much of Europe. This period saw a rediscovery of classical art and culture, leading to a move away from the abstract forms of the medieval period, toward more realistic and naturalistic representations of life and people. Its peak, known as the High Renaissance, was a short period from about 1500 to 1530, defined by great artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael.

Photo credit: Photo Josse/Leemage/ Corbis Historical via Getty Images

1600s to 1750s: Baroque

The next major art movement emerged in Italy around 1600 and flourished in Europe until the 1750s. Highly ornate, elaborate, and dynamic, Baroque took a realistic approach in its depictions — which included religious events, pivotal moments in history, still lifes, and mythological scenes — giving the viewer a sense of immediacy and the impression of witnessing an actual event. The greatest painters of the Baroque period include the famed Dutch painter Rembrandt, as well as Peter Paul Rubens, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Diego Velázquez, and Nicolas Poussin.

1720s to 1760s: Rococo

The rococo style took the ornateness of Baroque art to a whole new — and some would say excessive — level. Emerging in France in the 1720s, it was characterized by gaiety, curvaceousness, and sensuality, in stark contrast to the more serious classical style, which heavily references classical antiquity, specifically ancient Greek and Roman art. It certainly wasn’t to everyone’s liking; as London’s Victoria and Albert Museum points out, some found it “superficial, degenerate, and illogical.” Leading rococo artists included François Boucher, Jean-Antoine Watteau, and Thomas Gainsborough.

1800s to 1850s: Romanticism

Reaching its peak around 1800 to 1850, Romanticism marked a shift away from the dominant classical tradition. With an emphasis on the imagination, emotion, and individualism, it rejected the calm, ordered world of classicism and Enlightenment-era thought in Europe, and instead showed a far deeper appreciation of nature and a preference for emotion and the senses over reason. The movement included the likes of John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Eugène Delacroix, and the visionary artist William Blake.

Photo credit: Heritage Images/ Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images

1840s to 1870s: Realism

Realism as an artistic movement began in the mid-19th century, alongside the development of naturalism. Its focus was very much on subjects painted from everyday life and in a naturalistic manner: scenes of peasant laborers, working-class life, crowds in city streets, and people drinking in cafes and bars. It also brought about a more open and frank treatment of the body and romantic subjects. At the time, the work of realist artists such as Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, and Honoré Daumier caused a great deal of shock among the primarily upper- and middle-class audiences that typically viewed and purchased art.

1860s to 1900s: Impressionism

Impressionism developed in France from the early 1860s to the 1880s, spearheaded by artists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cézanne. The movement was based on spontaneity and painting outdoors, in contrast to the more traditional process of making sketches to work with later in the studio. Impressionist artists focused largely on landscapes and scenes of everyday life, often using small but easily visible brush strokes to emphasize movement and the shifting nature of light. The impressionists were ridiculed by the established art community in France, but today remain highly popular and widely celebrated. From around 1886, a group of artists — most famously Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent Van Gogh — began to expand and develop impressionism in distinctly different directions. They became known as the post-impressionists.

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1907 to 1920: Cubism

Cubism was a revolutionary artistic movement pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Beginning in 1907, the radical new style of painting transformed everyday objects, landscapes, and people into geometric shapes, as if seen from multiple points of view at the same time. This not only served to emphasize the three-dimensional form of the object portrayed, but also stressed the two-dimensional nature of the canvas. The groundbreaking shift in perspective and perception opened up entirely new ways for portraying visual realities in art, making cubism one of the most influential artistic styles of the 20th century.

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1920s to 1960s: Surrealism

While cubism sought to change our way of seeing things, surrealism sought to tear down our grasp of rational thought altogether. Led by the French poet André Breton, who defined the movement in 1924 with his Manifesto of Surrealism, it challenged society’s imposed values and norms, and brought to the forefront the power of the unconscious mind and dreams. Fundamentally, its aim was to revolutionize the human experience. Notable surrealist artists included Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst, and Joan Miró.

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1950s to 1970s: Pop Art

Pop art developed primarily in Britain and the United States from the 1950s to the 1970s. The movement’s name comes from the use of imagery and references from popular culture. It was partly a rebellion against what artists had been taught at art school and what was typically seen in museums — things the pop artists saw as having little to do with everyday life. Instead, pop artists used movies, popular music, comic books, advertising, and product packaging as their sources, and incorporated techniques and materials from the commercial world. Andy Warhol is arguably the most famous of all the pop artists, known for his iconic replication of brands such as Campbell’s Soup and images of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe.

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