History
Showing 31 results for articles tagged with History:
6 Real World Treasure Hunts That Could Make You Rich
Real-world treasure hunting isn't limited to the movies. There are enough local legends, ancient texts, and conspiratorial histories out there that it's surprising someone isn't tripping over a hidden chest of emeralds every other day. The mere thought of discovering a chest filled with gold, jewels, or ancient artifacts has…
The History of the Field Watch, the Military’s Most Trusted Timepiece
It's hard to beat the classic field watch. You can wear a field watch with nearly any outfit, they’ll survive anything your noncombatant life can throw at them, and they follow in a long tradition of civilian style that people adopted from the military. The field watch also might be…
How to Drink Like the Founding Fathers this 4th of July
It should be well-known that the Founding Fathers, as well as most early Americans, were fond of a drink. It wasn’t uncommon for citizens to start their day with a quart of hard cider and Benjamin Franklin himself noted some of his employees would take a pint in between each meal. He…
The History of the Whiskey Glass
(Image – James Hart) Just because a special shaped glass exists for whiskey drinking doesn’t mean anyone who drinks out of something else is wrong. We’re very much of the Ron Swanson mindset. There’s no wrong way to indulge in your favorite whiskey (unless it comes as some form of…
Meet Wassail, the One Drink You Should Make This Holiday
For those of us in colder climates, this time of year is the hot cocktail’s time to shine. It’s the perfect drink. The warmth gets you through the chill and the alcohol keeps you feeling loose, and that’s just on the surface. When it comes to making the drink, heating…
From Soapboxes to Scouts: The History of the Pinewood Derby
Even if most of you didn’t put in the time to become Eagle Scouts, you probably joined the Cub Scouts. If you did, there’s a significant chance you designed, built, carved, and painted your very own Pinewood Derby Car. In fact, some of you probably joined the Scouts just to…
Menswear Trends Stolen from the Military
Whether or not you’re conscious of it, your wardrobe has extremely deep military roots. People might have wanted to dress like their war heroes or soldiers brought back certain gear that adapted well to civilian life. Maybe soldiers also didn’t want to give up certain aspects of military life once…
The Turbulent History of Rye Whiskey: The Real American Spirit
For brewing and distilling, these are days of revival. Brewing was a macro-lager mess up until a few years ago, when craft brewing exploded, giving us roughly ten million choices in even the smallest liquor stores. Craft distilling is seeing a similar revitalization. Where we once had only a few…
History’s Most Dangerous Games
Sports today are tame by history’s standards. Ancient societies didn’t seem to think twice about spending blood and lives in the pursuit of great athletic entertainment. People have been hacked, poked, drowned, punched, cut, smashed, and skied to death, all in some of history’s greatest games. The good news, depending…
7 Alcoholic Punches Your Ancestors Would Want You to Drink
Alcoholic punch has suffered a bit of a dip in popularity, and by bit of a dip we mean its popularity almost completely evaporated since its peak in the 17th and 18th centuries. The invention of the cocktail eclipsed the punchbowl, although invention is a generous word, since cocktails are…
The Isle of Jura is the Perfect Quiet Vacation for Scotch Lovers
To orient you, the Isle of Jura’s next door neighbor is Islay, off the West Coast of Scotland. You probably recognize the latter’s name if you’re at all a fan of scotch whisky. For all of the popularity Islay enjoys, we preferred our time on Jura. It’s smaller, more soft-spoken,…
What Beer Was Like Before Hops
German beer purists would have you believe beer was divinely begotten from malt, water, hops, and nothing else. If it wasn’t divine, then it was at least bureaucratic, thanks to the Reinheitsgebot, a law that regulates beer production and has for more than 500 years. It’s a law so old…
6 Famous Watches and the Men Who Owned Them
You can tell a lot about a man by the kind of watch he wears, and it’s particularly helpful when it’s celebrities. Normally, we’d never have a chance to get to know people at that level of society, so learning more about the ways they accessorized gives us the rare…
The History of the Trench Lighter
The Western Front of the First World War was an unpleasant place, to say the very least. The chalky French soil would fall apart at the lightest rainfall, compromising trench integrity from the start. Belgian soil held water like a sponge, meaning you couldn’t dig without flooding everything with dark,…
This St. Patrick’s Day, Drink Poitín, the Irish Moonshine
Before you can be famous for great whiskey, you have to invent whatever comes before it. For the Irish, that was poitín (puu-tcheen). It means “little pot” in Gaelic, named for what early Irish distillers used to make the spirit. It’s been the subject of poetry, music, stories, fairy tales,…
