Timeline

The world is a big place, and the scope of history is even bigger. It's pretty difficult to know every single event in history, but it's also possible to lose sight of how historical happenings from around the globe line up with one another.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-timeline-comparisons-history/melissa-sartore">Looking at a timeline</a> can be pretty mind-blowing when you realize Uranus was discovered before Antarctica and the Founding Fathers of the United States<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-but-true-historical-date-comparisons/melissa-sartore"> never knew about dinosaurs</a>.&nbsp;Even when you condense time into a period like the Middle Ages, it isn't always intuitive to match up something that happened in Western Europe with an event or person in Africa, Asia, or the Americas. We got to thinking about what was happening outside of Western Europe during the medieval period and found some&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/more-weird-but-true-historical-date-comparisons/melissa-sartore">fascinating historical comparisons</a>.&nbsp;While it helped us put time and history into perspective, it also made us realize there's a whole lot about the past that deserves more attention. Take a look and let us know which events you agree have been unfairly overlooked.&nbsp; &nbsp;

11 Timeline Facts About The Middle Ages That Prove Western Europe Wasn't The Center Of The Universe

General

11 Facts That Prove Western Europe Wasn't The Center Of The Middle Ages

Melissa Sartore

Military

The 2021 military coup in Myanmar is just the tip of the iceberg when it to comes to examples of armed forces seizing power in countries around the world.&nbsp;From the French for &quot;stroke of state,&quot; coup d&#39;etats&nbsp;are much more prevalent than residents of stable nations may realize. Unlike democratic coups, military coups usually result in dictatorships or tyrannical, repressive autocracies.

Why do these military coups continue to happen with some frequency? Why are they most common&nbsp;in Africa, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-happened-on-chilean-september-11th/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">the Americas</a>, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East? The reasons are complex and myriad, but countries that experience coup d&#39;&eacute;tats&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/m/Military_dictatorship.htm" target="_blank">tend to share</a> common conditions. Whether it&#39;s economic strife, destabilizing outside influences, a legacy of colonialism, or ethnic tensions,&nbsp;the factors that spawn military coups perpetuate cycles of violence, war, and hardship for citizens.

The Actual Reasons Why Military Coups Historically Happen

Megan Summers

Lists for the the ~history nerd~ on your virtual trivia team.

History Buff Stuff

World History

It probably doesn't come as news to anyone that markets will occasionally run short of something, and not just the staples like food, water, and toilet paper - sometimes it’s a lot stranger than that. Whether it's due to supply chain issues or something more nefarious, the 21st century has already witnessed a kimchi shortage, a hazelnut shortage, and the brief disappearance of all Twinkies, and that’s just a sampling of the many items humanity has temporarily run out of in the wake of recent mitigating circumstances.These shortages can come in many forms and be incited by wildly different events - not to mention how different the impact of the shortages can be depending on what's getting shorted. The <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/things-the-world-is-running-out-of-090915/mike-rothschild">world is simply running out of certain products</a>, like helium for party balloons, which has led to an ongoing dwindling of availability that will probably never be reversed. Other shortages, however - like a memorable incident in which <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/stories-from-the-day-russia-ran-out-of-vodka/lyra-radford">Russia ran out of vodka for an entire day</a> - are a lot sillier, though not without their own degree of seriousness.

The Most Unexpected Shortages In History

The Most Bizarre Shortages In History

Stephan Roget

Lists about Saturday Night Live cast members, hosts, musical acts, and backstage antics of America's favorite sketch comedy series, airing from 30 Rockefeller Plaza since 1975.

Live from New York!

Interesting

Saturday Night Live has been on NBC since 1975, entertaining the masses while offering weekly commentary and interpretations of current, past, and even future events.

During the show&#39;s&nbsp;tenure, SNL skits have highlighted&nbsp;the inconsistencies, injustices, or contradictions of major events - and provided much-needed comic relief in the process. Sometimes SNL sketches are ridiculous to the point of absurdity. On other occasions, SNL manages to&nbsp;depict&nbsp;historical events with an uncanny sense of realism.

On SNL,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-political-figures-feel-about-snl-impressions/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">impressions of politicians</a> and celebrities accompany pokes at everyday actions, behaviors, and attitudes. A healthy mix of these can be found in countless sketches about historical events, some of which you can find discussed below.&nbsp;

How SNL Has Handled 21 Historical Events

Lists about social, medical, scientific, and questionable experiments by humans on willing participants, unwitting victims, and even innocent animals.

Let's Just See What Happens

Nowadays, the ambitious and wild Biosphere&nbsp;2 experiment is only remembered&nbsp;as a footnote to the Pauly Shore film&nbsp;Bio-Dome, which is a shame. The Biosphere 2 project was ambitious, idealistic, and apocalyptic; it was some <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/funny-ig-nobel-prize-winners/rylee_en">pretty crazy science</a>&nbsp;wrought with drama, intrigue, cults, and billionaires. There&nbsp;are many&nbsp;wild Biosphere 2 stories as a testament to this fact. In short, its movie should have been a David Fincher thriller instead of a low-budget comedy.

The Biosphere 2 experiment was a closed&nbsp;artificial ecological system.&nbsp;It was three acres and five ecosystems - ocean, rainforest, desert, mangrove wetlands, and savannah grasslands - the world&#39;s largest formal experiment.&nbsp;The plan for Biosphere&nbsp;2&nbsp;was to test human interaction with the environment by sealing eight&nbsp;people in the closed Biosphere for two&nbsp;years, from September 26, 1991 to September 26, 1993. <a href="http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/41/turner.php">Wearing outfits designed by Marilyn Monroe&#39;s former dressmaker</a>, the participants - called Bionauts&nbsp;- stepped into the&nbsp;closed ecosystem where they&nbsp;would be closely monitored by Mission Control. The whole project was undertaken&nbsp;in&nbsp;the hopes of proving biomes were sustainable environments that could potentially lead to Martian colonization.&nbsp;Read on to discover some crazy things you didn&#39;t know about Biosphere 2.

10 Insane Facts About Biosphere 2, The Largest Contained Experiment Ever

10 Insane Facts About Biosphere 2, The World's Largest Experiment

Andy Miller

Since the dawn of civilization, a lot of important things have happened. Here are lists of about the many winding routes we took to get where we are today.

Historical Contexts

Lists about times real people around the world and throughout history who have suited up, taken up arms, and fought to the end in the name of whomever's side they were on.

Military Engagements

Many of the most impactful armistices in history are still celebrated as world holidays. But for every well-known declaration of peace, there are dozens of truces about which no one knows. Most recountings of military truce facts are rather dull. Every so often, though, the past surprises us with a ceasefire tale worth telling.

Shared holidays, mutual threats, and strange circumstances all play a part in making enemies agree to a ceasefire&nbsp;during combat. On certain occasions, opposing armies find themselves working together - even if arrangements don&#39;t last for long.

Indeed, war stories aren&#39;t always defined by <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/world-war-2-heroes/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">heroic generals</a> or <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/world-war-2-pictures/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">harrowing combat visuals</a>; sometimes, it&rsquo;s all about getting along.&nbsp;

The Strangest Reasons For Truces In Military History

Fun facts and fascinating trivia about historical, bygone, and modern foods for people who love eating food.

Chew on This

For centuries, troops have marched off to fight, risking their lives in combat. But what did soldiers eat in different eras? And which conflict offered the tastiest military foods? From blood soup to fermented horse milk, soldiers&#39; rations throughout history have contained some unappetizing options. There have even been military provisions so disgusting that they actually took the lives of soldiers.

Some armies would have been happy to get any food. George Washington&#39;s army was forced to go days without rations, and Confederate soldiers stopped to dig up vegetables as they marched. For centuries, soldiers survived on hardtack, tasteless dried crackers that sometimes only contained flour and water. By the 20th century, soldiers complained about mushy canned food but also received smokes and chewing gum in their rations.

While rare <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/world-war-2-pictures/ashley-reign" target="_blank">WWII photos</a> capture the trauma of combat, they often leave out daily life for soldiers. Even the most <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/accurate-war-movies/justin-andress" target="_blank">accurate movies</a> sometimes forget that soldiers had to eat multiple times a day. And nations that struggled to feed their troops could lose everything, like Napoleon&#39;s humiliating march into Russia. After all, military rations could be the difference between victory and defeat.

The Evolution Of Military Rations Throughout History

What Soldiers Ate Throughout History

Genevieve Carlton

History

History has a funny way of tarnishing even the most sterling of reputations.&nbsp;While society still deifies our heroes of the past, we are by now quite used to finding out awful things about the people we revere. Gandhi and Churchill were racist, everyone was sexist, and Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, didn&rsquo;t even think Black people were people!&nbsp;

Still, it&rsquo;s generally assumed that these character flaws are products of the time periods these historical figures lived in, and that the paragons of history more or less followed their prescribed paths to heroics (or villainy). That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s so surprising to discover cases where some of history&rsquo;s biggest names fought for causes completely contrary to their reputation.

The history books seem to prefer a simplified version of events and characters, which often results in some of this contradictory material being left out. However, historical figures, like most people, are much more complex than&nbsp;the two-dimensional beings we remember them as. From <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-famous-disability-rights-activists/reference?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">famous disability advocates</a> who touted eugenics&nbsp;to brutal dictators who battled illiteracy, this list of historical figures who supported surprising causes&nbsp;will shake up your image of history.

12 Historical Figures Who Campaigned for Very Surprising Causes

Person

12 Historical Figures Who Campaigned for Surprising Causes

Exploring the strange and fascinating lives of rulers, royals, and royalty all around the world and throughout history.

We Will Never Be Royals

Royalty

For as long as it's been in existence,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/unflattering-royal-portraits/danielle-ownbey" target="_blank">the royal world</a> has been special, elevated above the mediocrity of regular life and filled with the pleasures and privileges of divine power and influence. And even though the practical function&nbsp;of the monarchy has become mostly symbolic, the public fascination with its office certainly has not. So, for example, when&nbsp;Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge,&nbsp;gave birth to the newest members of the English monarchy, public curiosity&nbsp;about her experience was boundless. But alas, the details were not so thrilling, as she and William apparently greeted their precious new bundles much like any average citizen –&nbsp;in the privacy of a clean and well-lit room with just a few medical attendants nearby.And so it seems the<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weird-royals-in-history/danielle-ownbey" target="_blank"> royal rituals</a> for labor nowadays are a far cry from the darkened, smoky bedrooms of the past, when the birth of a monarch was steeped in endless tradition, superstition, and more than a little fear. The age-old practice of bringing life into the world has always varied&nbsp;widely between cultures, but when it came to the secrets of the royal bedchamber, there were none quite as strange and disturbing as those created for new mothers.

Eye-Opening Details About What Giving Birth Was Like For Royal Mothers

14 Bizarre And Insane Royal Birth Rituals Throughout History

Jen Jeffers

You've no doubt heard the saying, &quot;The sun never sets on the British Empire.&quot; This was true,&nbsp;until the 1920s when colonialism fell out of favor and the Brits&nbsp;lost a good number of their territories. Such was the case with <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-global-empires/mike-rothschild">many an empire throughout the ages</a>, from the ancient Roman Empire to the Brazilian Empire of the 1800s.&nbsp;Though largely a product of the past now found mainly in history books, colonialism's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/current-political-issues-british-colonialism/kellen-perry">effects still linger today</a>.Assembled below are&nbsp;maps of historical empires, some of which rivaled the British as far as sheer land mass. Though you may not be familiar with every&nbsp;power&nbsp;listed here, many are among&nbsp;the largest empires in history. Had they not fallen, Russia would own Alaska, saving Sarah Palin the effort of looking out&nbsp;her window to see what they're up to.

Maps Comparing The Size Of Historical Empires

15 Fascinating Maps Comparing the Size of Historical Empires

Amanda Sedlak-Hevener

US History

The United States condoned slavery for centuries, and the institution, which forced thousands&nbsp;of African Diaspora descendants to work under inhumane conditions for free, was considered just. In fact,&nbsp;many people refused to accept abolition because they feared economic and personal losses. While America struggled with abolition, though, other nations embraced revolution. Some individuals produced outstanding works of art; others invented. There was&nbsp;even a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/mount-tambora-volcano-effects/quinn-armstrong" target="_blank">mighty volcanic eruption</a>&nbsp;that affected almost every nation.

These historical events aren&#39;t less significant because they occurred during the same time period as American slavery; instead, they present a much more complete picture of the world.

Historical Events You Didn't Realize Were Happening Around The Globe While Slavery Existed In The US

World History Events That Happened While Slavery Existed In The US

Ryan Sargent

Old Stuff

In popular culture, the Romanovs are probably best remembered for their tragic demise. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate his throne, and he and his family were held under house arrest for more than a year. Then, in July 1918, the entire <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/romanov-family-mystery-solved/setareh-janda" target="_blank">Romanov family</a> was executed by the Bolsheviks.

Yet the Romanovs were more than the grisly tragedy that brought their dynasty to a close. A family friend, Anna Vyrubova, managed to escape Russia with the Romanov family albums. These rare Romanov family photos provide a glimpse into the lives of Nicholas II and his wife Aleksandra, as well as those of their children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei.

The following selections of Romanov family pictures show the royals in a distinctly ordinary light.&nbsp;

20 Rare Photos From The Romanov Family’s Personal Albums

Alby Thompson

Fascinating, beautiful, and enlightening photographs from history, in their original black-and-white forms, colorized, or even in sepia.

Life in Pictures

Historical Photos

Old photos capture the way the world looked long before anyone living now can remember. It&#39;s a thrill to go back and sift through them to see people from the late 1800s and early 1900s working, hanging out, or just exploring the world. But when color is added to these historic photos, it adds a whole new layer of depth. Below are 21 of the best <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/colorized-photos/ashley-reign?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">colorized historical photos</a> depicting people from all over the world. Be sure to vote up which ones you enjoy the most.

21 Beautiful Colorized Historical Photos Of People From Around The World

Beautiful Colorized Historical Photos Of People From Around The World

Samantha Dillinger

There is a lot of content and context left out of our history textbooks. They are often filled with blocks of academic text and the occasional <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-photos-from-history/mick-jacobs" target="_blank">weird photo</a>, but seldom do we see some of history&#39;s rarest photos.&nbsp;

Even if you consider yourself a history buff, there are still lots of historical photos you&#39;ve probably never seen before. Like <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/colorized-photos/ashley-reign" target="_blank">colorized photos from history</a>, these old pictures gathered by the folks of Reddit can give you a different perspective on the annals of the past.&nbsp;

Historical Photos Most People Have Probably Never Seen Before

Historical Photos You've Never Seen Before: Rare Photos From History

Maggie Clancy

Whoa Facts

The ancient world may not have had access to computers, indoor plumbing, or the most reliable healthcare, but it was populated by the same kinds of people that exist today. Some were good, some were strange, and some of them told the same dirty jokes we&#39;ve been telling for centuries.

Redditors interested in facts about the ancient world love to share what they&#39;ve learned, especially when it concerns topics History teachers usually don&#39;t touch on. For example, ever heard of the &quot;Osterby Head&quot;? It&#39;s&nbsp;a nearly 2,000-year-old skull with a perfectly preserved hairdo. Or how about this: ancient&nbsp;Persians living in the desert had a nifty refrigeration system already figured out by the year 400 BC.

Here are some other cool facts about the ancient world&nbsp;you may never have heard before. Want more? <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-ancient-greece-facts/mallory-weiler" target="_blank">Here are some remarkable facts just about Ancient Greece</a>.

Facts About The Ancient World We Just Learned Today That Made Us Say ‘Whoa’

Facts About The Ancient World We Just Learned That Made Us Say ‘Whoa’

As long as human beings have been alive, we have been doing bizarre things that barely make sense. Here are lists of a few thousand of them.

Weird History Around the World

Artifacts

Historical artifacts and photographs never fail to fascinate &ndash; they&#39;re like mysterious keys to other cultures &ndash;&nbsp;but this roundup of some of the strangest and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-historical-artifacts/pierce-nahigyan" target="_blank">most mesmerizing artifacts</a> from history might&nbsp;just take the cake. From a piece of bread that dates back to <a href="/list/facts-about-pompeii/theodoros-karasavvas" target="_blank">Pompeii</a>&nbsp;to some truly disturbing melted wax figures from a fire at Madame Tussauds wax museum in London, these images are sure to incite some reaction, be it delight or disgust.

Artifacts are objects made by human beings that &ndash; with the passage of time &ndash; come to represent a cultural or historical moment in the popular imagination. Which is why really weird artifacts are still so interesting;&nbsp;what do they reveal about the societies that created them?

For that matter, in the future, what will our cultural artifacts say about us?

Super Weird And Interesting Historical Artifacts That Will Mesmerize You

Weird And Interesting Historical Artifacts That Will Mesmerize You

Cleo Egnal

World History lists at Ranker - The ultimate source for hundreds of world history lists and rankings