Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography, & More

I’ve done several episodes on close and interesting US presidential elections throughout history. Mainly they were to put current events into perspective, so you can realize that the controversies of today are really not all that new. However, there was one election that might be considered the closest and most interesting in history, but the lessons for today are much less, simply because they changed the rules after the election, and there was never another one like it again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many communities around the world hold local festivals. They might have some food stalls, a stage for musical acts, and some rides for the kids. Pretty standard stuff. But in Spain, they do things differently. Really different. Learn more about the unique Spanish festivals which aren’t like those anywhere else in the world, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every so often, adults may be asked to perform a civic duty by sitting on a jury. Usually, the commitment might be nothing more than a few hours or a few days. Occasionally, some juries might get a case that lasts years. Why do we have juries, and where did this notion come from? Do most countries have juries? What does “a jury of your peers” really mean? Learn more about the history of the jury system on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes you might sit down to watch a sporting match and it is over before you know it. However, there are some games that seem to take forever. A rare few games last an extraordinarily long time, as no one can seem to win. Learn more about the longest games in history, in almost every sport, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 27th, 1865, just weeks after the end of the American Civil War, a steamboat carrying former Union prisoners of war sailed up the Mississippi River from Vicksburg. At 2 am, the boilers on the steamship exploded, killing 1800 people in what is still the largest maritime disaster in US history. Learn more about the largest forgotten Sultana Steamboat Disaster on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professional sports have become a multibillion-dollar industry with millions of fans who will live and die based on their favorite team’s performance. Occasionally, soccer hooligans and Raiders fans will take their exuberance a bit too far. Rioting after a team wins a championship happens more often than not. However, nothing in the world of modern sports can compare to the levels of devotion and street violence which chariot racing commanded in ancient Rome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists have coined a term called the Butterfly Effect, where small changes in one thing can lead to enormous changes in systems later on. Nothing in history exemplifies this more than the series of unfortunate coincidences that occurred on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo. The repercussions of those events can still be felt around the world today. Learn more about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the dawn of time, humans have looked up at the night sky to watch the stars. ...and then nothing happened for hundreds of thousands of years until a guy by the name of Galileo Galilei point a telescope at the stars and saw a bunch of stuff that everyone had missed. Since then, we’ve increased the size of our telescopes so we can see more and more, further and further away. Learn more about the ever-increasing size of astronomical telescopes on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every year, more than three million visitors will line up and buy a ticket to visit the most popular attraction in all of Spain: The Sagrada Familia. It is a stunning modernist architectural achievement and the crowning design of local architect Antoni Gaudí. Even though it gets millions of visitors, the church has been under construction for almost 150 years and still isn’t finished. Learn more about the Sagrada Familia, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1913, a young man from the city of Madras in British India sent a letter to one of the world’s preeminent mathematicians, G.H. Hardy, in Cambridge Univerisity in England. The young man had no formal education in advanced mathematics, yet that letter would end up changing the landscape of mathematics for the rest of the 20th century. Learn more about the legendary Srinivasa Ramanujan, one of the world’s most gifted natural mathematicians, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bread is one of the most important, most commonly consumed, and oldest food products in the world. It’s been called the Staff of Life. It even gets a prominent mention in the Lord’s Prayer. But how did this fundamental food, which ultimately comes from wild grass, get developed? And perhaps more importantly, why did this grass-based food become so important? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the course of history, humans have fought over land, honor, wealth, and religion. But perhaps the oddest, and dumbest war which almost ever broke out between two major world powers….was over a pig. A single pig. Learn more about the British-American conflict known as the Pig War, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Presidential elections in the United States are a very big deal. The entire process can take over a year with all the primaries, campaigning, debates, and finally the election itself. Once the election is over and the votes are counted, most people’s attention will turn elsewhere. However, there is a formal process for the election of the president which continues once the election is over. Learn more about what happens after election day on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democracies have elections, and when you have elections sometimes you have close elections. Sometimes very close elections. Sometimes very very very close elections. I’m not talking about vote differences of a tenth of a percent, I’m talking about vote differences you can count on one hand…..if you are missing a few fingers. Learn more about the history of extremely close elections on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff Bezos, the founder, and CEO of Amazon was recently named the richest person in the world. This is primarily a function of the stock he owns in the company and the company’s valuation in the stock market. How would Jeff Bezos stack up against other wealthy figures from history? Are business titans of today in the same league as the famously wealthy from antiquity? Learn more about who the richest person in history was on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Camino de Santiago is one of the most significant and popular pilgrimage routes in the World. For over 1,000 years pilgrims have traveled to the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Some do it for religious reasons and some just to have an adventure. Today, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims still make the journey every year. Learn more about the Camino de Santiago, aka Way of Saint James, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On January 15, 1919, the city of Boston suffered its greatest disaster when a storage tank filled with over 2 million gallons of molasses burst and killed 21 people and injured 150 more. Researchers have been studying the unique circumstances surrounding this industrial accident ever since. Learn more about the Great Boston Molasses Flood on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On October 31 every year, we celebrate Halloween. It is especially popular in the United States where we use the holiday as an excuse for kids to dress up and ask for candy, and for adults to dress up and drink. But why do we dress up, and what’s the deal with pumpkins, how does this have anything to do with monsters and bats? Learn more about the history of Halloween and how so many unrelated things got lumped together on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone knows that Neil Armstrong was the first person to step foot on the moon. But who was the last person on the moon? And why haven’t we ever sent anyone back to the moon? Learn more about the last person to set foot on the moon and the future of lunar exploration, or the lack thereof, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Antarctica has been an object of fascination since it was first discovered by explorers in the early 19th century. Despite never having had a permanent human population, or as far as we know even a temporary population, Antarctica does have a history. Perhaps not as long and rich a history as Africa or Asia, but a history nonetheless Learn more about the history of the seventh continent at the bottom world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the year 2000, people in Japan were polled and asked what the greatest Japanese creation of the 20th century was. They didn’t pick the walkman, digital cameras, or the compact disc. Nor did they pick any even any cultural achievements like the works of Akira Kurosawa, anime, or Pokemon. What they selected as the greatest Japanese accomplishment of the 20th century was…….instant noodles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1970, scientists in the Soviet Union set out to drill the deepest hole in the world. They weren’t drilling for oil or gas, they were just drilling for the sake of drilling to see what they could find. They actually found out quite a lot. Learn about the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole on Planet Earth, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How many continents are there? That sounds like a really easy question. After all, there are only so many giant landmasses on the planet and we can easily count them with our fingers. Yet, for something seemingly so simple, the answer to the question can be surprisingly complicated. Learn more about the continents on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the word outlaw. It mostly used as a synonym for “criminal”. However, if I can paraphrase Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, “that word does not mean what you think it means.”. Learn about the ancient punishment of outlawry, and how it was used throughout the world and throughout history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the largest explosion the world had ever seen, before or since. The explosion was so large, that it permanently changed the course of nuclear weapons development. Learn more about the Tsar Bomba, the world’s largest nuclear explosion, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you have ever taken out a loan, you are probably familiar with the details of taking on debt. You have an amount that is borrowed, an interest rate, and a term over which the debt is paid back. However, sometimes, a term might be extremely long. In a few cases, the debts can be served in perpetuity. Learn more about the extremely old debts which took forever to pay off on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every four years, citizens of the United States sit down for one or more nights to watch something which is called the Presidential Debates. The debates have become a centerpiece of US Presidential elections, but it wasn’t always that way. Learn more about the history of presidential debates, or the lack thereof, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a previous episode, I talked about how you can win by not losing. That is called the Fabian Strategy named after Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus. However, the opposite is true as well. You can lose by winning. Here too, ancient history has examples for us, this time in the case of King Pyrrhus, who defeated the Romans but ultimately lost without losing a battle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you think the current American political climate is contentious, then you need to take a step back and take a close look at American history. The most controversial, divisive, and probably corrupt election in US history was the election of 1876. It’s an event that has been largely forgotten by most Americans today. Learn more about the election of 1876, and why we never had a President Tilden, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1867, United States Secretary of State William Seward signed a treaty with the Empire of Russia to purchase the territory of what would be called Alaska. The United States purchased it for 2 cents an acre. At the time it was called one of the worst deals in American History. Today, it is considered the greatest bargain of all-time. Learn more about the purchase of Alaska on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 30, 1943, a Spanish fisherman came across the floating body of Major William Martin of the Royal Marines. Handcuffed to the corpse was a satchel with top-secret plans for the Allied invasions of Greece and Sardinia. With the information gathered from this intelligence, the Germans moved their troops into position to counter the planned landing. ...and Allies couldn’t have been happier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 28, 1828, a 16-year-old boy mysteriously appeared in Nuremberg, Bavaria. He had a letter in his hand and could only speak a few words. No one knew where he came from, who his parents were, or why he was there. Five years later, just as mysteriously as he appeared, he was found murdered. His tale made him one of the most talked-about celebrities in 19th century Europe. Learn more about the curious case of Kaspar Hauser on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It the one of the world’s most commonly used condiments. Even though it is most often associated with the United States, it has a pedigree that is extremely ancient and global. I am of course talking about ketchup. Learn more about this common condiment, and its extremely ancient and interesting history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

History remembers the rulers and the leaders. We know of Napoleon, Caesar, Elizabeth, Ghengis Khan, and Captain Picard. However, for every one of the people I just listed, their success was due in large part to the people who worked underneath them. The ones who carried out their orders and made sure things got done. They had to have a competent number two. In this episode, I will put forward that the greatest number two in history was Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every so often you need to step back and take an assessment of where you’ve been and where you are going. This is the 100th episode of the podcast, so I figured now is a good time to take a one episode break from the normal content to give you the backstory of how the show came about and how it works. Learn more about Everything Everywhere Daily on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earth is a big place. Really big. And on it are mountains, deserts, rivers, and swamps. Some of those points are higher than others, some of the deserts are drier than others, and some of the rivers are longer than others. Learn more about the Earth’s most extreme points on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. https://Everything-Everywhere.com/scottevest -------------------------------- Executive Producer James Makkyla Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/EEDailyPodcast/ Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Lockheed SR-71, nicknamed the Blackbird, holds the record for the fastest airplane ever. A record which it set in 1976 and has held for 44 years. It also set a record for the highest altitude ever recorded for a sustained flight. Even though the plane hasn’t flown in over 20 years, it is still high in the consciousness of many aviation enthusiasts. Learn more about the SR-71 on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The US one-cent coin has been a part of American currency since the country started issuing money in 1793. As inflation has continued to creep up, the cost of making a one-cent coin is now more than it is worth. Unsurprisingly, people have been starting to question if we should continue using the penny. Learn more about the past, present, and future of the United States penny in this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the late 50s and early 60s, the US space program wasn’t doing great. The Soviets had beaten the US to almost every major first in space, and American rockets kept blowing up on the launchpad. According to declassified CIA documents, one night the American’s did their best to get back, even if it was a bit underhanded. Learn more about how the CIA managed to kidnap a Soviet Lunar probe on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes the best way to win is simply not to lose. This strategy is called the Fabian Strategy and was given its name from an ancient Roman General and has been used throughout history, not just in warfare, but in many other areas as well. Learn more about the Fabian Strategy on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest impact. There is no better example of this in the modern world than the Intermodal Container, aka the shipping container. You’ve probably seen them on ships, trains, and trucks, and believe it or not, these rectangular metal boxes are responsible for the entire modern economy. Learn more about shipping containers on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here is a question I’m pretty sure no one listening to this has ever bothered to ask: Who is the current Roman Emperor? Obviously, the Roman Empire doesn’t exist, but if it did, who would be the claimant to the Imperial throne? Explore with me the very convoluted answer to this very meaningless questions on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On March 23, 1989, two electrochemists from the University of Utah, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, took part in a press conference where they announced to the world that they had achieved sustainable, tabletop nuclear fusion. The events which followed were what is called in scientific circles: a dumpster fire. Yet, despite everything, thirty years later, there is a small but growing community in the world of physics who are sure that something happened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In most sports, there are always debates about who is the greatest of all-time. Baseball can argue about Babe Ruth vs Willie Mays. Basketball can argue about LeBron James vs Michael Jordan. However, there is one sport where there is absolutely, positively no doubt who is the greatest of all-time. When it came to Greco Roman wrestling, there is one name that unquestionably stands above all others: Aleksandr Karelin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you are from Hungary, you have probably heard the story of Károly Takács. If you aren’t from Hungary, you probably haven’t, but probably should. His story is remarkable not only for what he had to overcome but how he managed to overcome it. Learn more about this remarkable Olympic Medalist on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 8, 1980, officials from the World Health Organization announced that smallpox, the disease which had ravaged humanity across the world for millennia, had been eradicated. Over the last century before the eradication of smallpox, it is estimated to have killed half a billion people. Learn more about humanity’s deadliest disease and how it was eradicated on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1908, in the middle of the Siberian wilderness, near the Tunguska River, an explosion took place which was equivalent in size to the detonation of a 5 megaton nuclear bomb. But it wasn’t a nuclear bomb. Such things didn’t even exist then. It was a mystery that scientists are still trying to figure out today. Learn more about the Tunguska Event on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey is one of the largest, oldest, and most significant buildings in the world. It has served as a holy place for three different religions and has been the focal point for two different empires. Almost, 1,500 years after its construction, it is still making headlines today. Learn more about the Hagia Sophia on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Electoral College is a lot like figure skating. People only care about it every four years. Unlike figure skating, people tend to have a lot of opinions on the subject. Learn more about the past, present, and possible future of the Electoral College on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert Smalls was born a slave in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina. From that humble beginning, he went on to become a war hero, a ship captain, a presidential advisor, and a member of the US House of Representatives. However, he is best known for one of the most daring exploits of the entire Civil War. Learn more about Robert Smalls on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices