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It came over with the Mayflower and stayed on to be the unchallenged drink of democracy. by Max Rudin Related Stories: When the micros got macro 10 Great American beers (below) In the history of American beer, the modern period begins on the spring day in 1882 when the short-lived American Association of baseball teams opened for business. The establishment-leaning National League, aiming for a tonier clientele, had recently doubled ticket prices and banned gambling, Sunday playing, and—most important—beer. Franchise owners in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and other brewing centers refused to accept the new rules and seceded from...

['Civ sez: I call this one the ADHD house sleuth video.] Man Finds Secret Passage In His 500 Year Old Home's Library | 5:01 Zenger | 19.7K subscribers | 2,164,200 views | October 28, 2021

In early September, when the Academy of Natural Sciences announced it would close its natural history museum, the oldest in the country, scientists, teachers, passionate fans and elected officials were shocked and outraged. Leadership cited declining visitor numbers post-pandemic and rising costs. They said they had to close the museum to protect the financial future of the scientific research and collections. Longtime staffers say there’s more to the story. They agree that attendance did drop and that it’s always been expensive to run and maintain its century-old building. However, they also argue that missteps from the museum and Drexel leaders,...

Pubs are fertile ground for tall tales, with many claiming to be the oldest pub in England. What Is the Oldest Pub in England? | 7:58 | Historic England | 30.9K subscribers | 203,944 views | October 1, 2026

The ancient city of Phaselis, a short distance from Antalya, is picturesquely poised between the Mediterranean and the hills of Lycia. Phaselis: Between Mountains and Sea | 7:11 Scenic Routes to the Past | 62.5K subscribers | 21,635 views | September 18, 2026 Chapters 0:00 Introduction 1:07 Central Harbor 2:04 Main street and agoras 4:47 Theater 6:26 Gate of Hadrian

The Wuppertal Suspension Railway, which opened on 1 March 1901 has glided above the Wupper River for 125 years and now carries over 80,000 passengers every day, according to Mayor Miriam Scherff. She says its suspended technology offers a fast, environmentally friendly link between districts along a 13-kilometre stretch of narrow valley.

...Barry Cunliffe here marshals this vast array of evidence -- both archaeological and textual -- in a masterful reconstruction of the lost world of the Scythians, allowing them to emerge in all their considerable vigour and splendour for the first time in over two millennia. Author Talk | The Scythians | Barry Cunliffe | 39:29 Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press) 173K subscribers | 131,877 views | March 25, 2020

Parts of a medieval ship have been discovered in an unlikely place: forming the ceiling of a 13th-century cellar in southern Germany. Researchers say the unusually well-preserved timbers could provide new insights into medieval shipbuilding on Lake Constance. The discovery was made during an architectural investigation of a building on Konradigasse in Konstanz, a southern German city on the shores of Lake Constance. Researchers from the State Office for Monument Preservation (LAD) found that timbers reused to construct the ceiling of a cellar dating to 1244 had originally belonged to a ship... Once the vessel was no longer needed for...

Today we cover the Indictment of Madduwatta: a 3,400-year-old Hittite legal complaint that happens to contain the oldest named Greek warrior in the historical record. Long before Homer ever put pen to paper on the Iliad or the Odyssey, a warlord named Attarissiya crossed the Aegean with a hundred chariots, tore through western Anatolia, unseated a Hittite-backed ruler, and fought the empire's own army to a standstill before sailing home. We also trace the wider collapse-era: the Hittite Empire at Hattusa, the Lukka coastal peoples, the Assuwa confederation, and Ahhiyawa. The Invasion That Inspired Homer's Iliad | 18:55 Bronze to...

Nine-year-old Olivia Smith had plenty to choose from as she walked through the Academy of Natural Sciences on Friday, surrounded by dinosaurs, wildlife and exhibits that have fascinated generations of children. The fourth grader knew exactly what she liked best. “We have seen a lot of exhibits. My favorites were the pandas. Oh, and the rabbits!” Olivia said as she toured the museum with her teacher, Sandy Debies. But Olivia was among the young visitors getting what could be one of their final looks at the museum before its doors close permanently. The Academy of Natural Sciences, the 200-year-old institution...

Who were the Phoenicians, really? Let’s look at the civilization behind the ancient Mediterranean’s most mysterious seafaring culture. The Phoenicians Were Stranger Than You Think (No AI) | 41:12 Nils | 47.6K subscribers | 353,198 views | September 21, 2026

Archaeologists have unearthed a monumental 2,700-year-old tomb at Vulci, an important ancient Etruscan town north of Rome. Despite repeated attempts by tomb robbers to loot this burial over the centuries, the tomb still contained a massive collection of grave goods, including weapons, gold and bronze plates, chariot parts, a rare pair of women's shoes, and a complete banquet set. The burial, nicknamed the Tomb of the Stone Chamber, was excavated this summer, according to a translated statement from the Italian Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria (SABAP-VT-EM). But the discovery builds...

Analyzing the teeth of a 25,000-year-old skeleton from Sulawesi, Indonesia, researchers have deduced that this individual habitually sucked on betel nuts, and probably developed an addiction to this popular stimulant. Widely consumed across southeast Asia and the Pacific, betel nuts are the world's fourth most popular drug, behind alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. These days, the nuts are typically mixed with slaked lime and chewed as a "quid" in order to release the psychoactive compound arecoline, triggering mild euphoria and heightened alertness. Although the roots of this practice are poorly understood, it is generally assumed that betel chewing does not pre-date...

Where was Cleopatra buried? In this National Geographic documentary special, lawyer-turned-archaeologist Kathleen Martinez searches for Cleopatra’s lost tomb. After over 20 years of searching, her excavations now lead in an unexpected new direction, a submerged site miles offshore in the Mediterranean. She has enlisted Titanic discoverer Bob Ballard, the Egyptian Navy, and a team of archaeologists and divers to help her explore this mysterious location that may finally answer over a thousand year old secrets. Cleopatra's Final Secret (Full Episode) Documentary Special | National Geographic | 1:06:19 National Geographic | 26.5M subscribers | 717,495 views | September 24, 2026

Archaeologists have uncovered a 4,000–year–old tomb that belonged to one of ancient Egypt's most powerful officials – with a mysterious 'portal to the afterlife'. The discovery was made at the Bubasteion Necropolis in Saqqara, one of Egypt's most important archaeological sites. Hieroglyphs reveal the tomb belonged to a senior official named Sakhnetio-Btah, who lived during the time of the Old Kingdom.

Strong crashing waves from the violent nor’easter uncovered a 19th-century shipwreck buried under Nantucket sand as the storm battered the East Coast with heavy rain, gale-force winds and coastal flooding. A pallet of waterlogged timber held together by rusted nails and strands of seaweed was discovered on a beach on the south shore of the famed Massachusetts Island Saturday, according to video shared by the Nantucket Current on Saturday. The wooden segment is believed to be from the Warren Sawyer, a New Orleans-bound schooner that crashed on nearby Miacomet Beach in 1884. The ship, carrying cargo consisting of cotton and...

Street names in the Middle Ages tended to be functional and descriptive. Across England, it's still common to find yourself on the likes of Tanners Lane, Brewer Street and Butcher Row, and not having to think too hard about which trades used to flourish on those. Likewise, it won't come as a shock that a Steep Hill promises your lungs and leg muscles a good workout. Ranked as the fourth steepest street in England, this cobbled beauty rises through the heart of Lincoln, which was one of Europe's wealthiest medieval cities, but is now a relatively unsung gem, two hours...

According to the message of Titus Calpurnius Siculus, a Roman poet from the 3rd century CE, in ancient Rome, in the arenas of amphitheatres, bears were supposed to appear hunting for seals. The writer specifically mentions here an event during the reign of Emperor Nero (54-68 CE). The author does not specifically mention a polar bear or a bear living in a cold climate. As we know, however, only polar bears hunt seals. If this was true, it would confirm how far the Roman merchants could reach or how far they cooperated. Finally, let us not forget that the Romans...

We all have that one mysterious object in our kitchen drawer that we’ve kept because it looks “important.” You don’t really know what it attaches to or what it does exactly, and, of course, nobody in the house remembers buying it. But throwing it away feels like a decision you’ll somehow regret, so it just continues to sit in the drawer, eminating mystery. This is basically the same feeling archeologists and historians have when looking at the Roman dodecahedron. It’s a little metal object from Ancient Rome, and it’s so simple with so many deliberate features that you expect an...

I'm working family genealogy tonight and researching my First Cousin twice removed. She was born in February 1898 in Fleming, Saskatchewan, Canada. She died at age 102 in 2000 in Vancouver, British Cloumbia, Canada. I never met her. I found that she passed her high school entrance examination in July 1912 when she was 14 years old. That got me to thinking "How odd...no automatic advancement to high school in Manitoba in 1912? How did entrance exams work in Canada back then?"Sure enough, the entrance exams were tough! (see below) I had no idea how hard it was to get...