One knight consoling another knight on the ground

The Swooning Knights of Medieval Stories

In romantic literature of the fourteenth and fifteen centuries, fainting wasn’t just for ladies.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benedictus_Spinoza._Line_engraving_by_W._Pobuda_after_(A._P._Wellcome_V0005578.jpg

Nice Guy Spinoza Finishes…First?

The Dutch Jewish philosopher Spinoza died in 1677, which is when the battle to define his life—and work—began.
An illustration of Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis

Shakespeare’s First Published Work

Celebrated for his plays, Shakespeare actually opened his writing career with a derivative poem.
Tiburcio Parrott

Birth of the Corporate Person

The defining of corporations as legal “persons” entitled to Fourteenth Amendment rights got a leg up from the fight over a California anti-Chinese immigrant law.
Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Arctic circle, Norway

Svalbard: Seeds of Hope

The Arctic archipelago is a bellwether for global climate change, but it also offers a safety net in a planetary disaster scenario.
Total solar eclipse, May 29, 1919, at Sobral, Brazil

Total Solar Eclipse, 2024 Edition

A total solar eclipse crosses North America on Monday, April 8. Be prepared!
Continental Currency $20 banknote with marbled edge (May 10, 1775)

Marbled Money

Marbled paper was a way to make banknotes and checks unique—a critical characteristic for a nascent American Republic.
Astronomical diagram of the seasons and signs of the zodiac, c. 1860

Earth Isn’t the Only Planet With Seasons

But they can look wildly different on other worlds.
Up the Junction by Nell Dunn

Up the Junction: A Place, A Fiction, A Film, A Condition

In addition to a New Wave hit, Nell Dunn's 1963 book about young women in a poor London neighborhood inspired a Ken Loach adaption that helped shift British attitudes toward abortion.
Flag of the Chinese Empire under the Qing dynasty (1889-1912)

Dragon Swallows the Sun: Predicting Eclipses in China

China had a long history of astronomy before the arrival of Europeans, but the politics of absolute rule led to the eventual embrace of Western methods.