Lists and Stories

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  Cheating Death on Everest Mount Everest—the highest point in the world—goes by many names. In Sanskrit and Nepali, it is called Sagarmatha; Tibetans call it Chomolungma; and Chinese call it Qomolangma Feng. The summit, with its elevation of just over 29,000 feet (nearly 8,850 meters), is the pinnacle of mountaineering...
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  FIRE! On October 8, 1871, what came to be known as the Great Chicago Fire was sparked on the city’s West side. Many eyewitness accounts of the fire are readily available online, and they make for an absorbing read. We herewith offer a unique perspective on that event—that of our forebears, the editors of...
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  A Brief Overview of China’s Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution (in full, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution) took place from 1966 to 1976 in China. The benign-sounding moniker belies the destruction it unleashed upon the country’s population. It was launched under the direction of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Mao...
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  Cinco de Mayo Cinco de Mayo (”Fifth of May”) is a Mexican national holiday that celebrates the country’s victory over the French forces of Napoleon III in 1862’s Battle of Puebla. Although the war continued for several years afterward, the Battle of Puebla became a symbol of Mexican resistance to foreign...
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  Citizen Journalists The concept of journalism—the gathering and reporting of news and information for public edification—has changed dramatically in recent decades. Traditional print and broadcast outlets remain, but an explosion of alternative news sources has diminished their influence. Among the most important new...
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  Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act remains one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history. The act, signed into law on July 2, 1964, by Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, was a major breakthrough in the fight against discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin. spotlight, united...
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  Columbus Day and Its Discontents On October 12, 1492, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus landed on a small island in the Caribbean, which he named San Salvador (in the modern-day Bahamas) and claimed for Spain (the country that had sponsored his voyage). Although Columbus was not actually the first European to reach the...
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  Columbus Day Columbus Day commemorates the landing of Italian-born navigator Christopher Columbus in the New World—i.e., the Americas—on October 12, 1492. It is a federal holiday in the United States, observed on the second Monday in October. The day typically involves parades, ceremonies, and celebrations for...
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  Coral Bleaching: A Threat to Our Reefs Coral reef ecosystems, second only to tropical rainforests in terms of biodiversity (or the number of species they contain), are home to approximately 25 percent of all marine species. Corals are animals that have a polyp, with one end being a mouth surrounded by tentacles with which it gathers...
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  Could We Lose All the Soil on Earth? Soil—a complicated medium, formed slowly by both biological and geological processes—exists as a thin barrier on the uppermost layer of Earth’s crust on land. Given that soil is found nearly everywhere on the surface of the continents (with the exception of very rocky areas), it is unlikely that we...
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  COVID-19 in 20 Questions These questions and answers have been provided to Britannica by the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a Britannica partner. They originally appeared on HudsonAlpha’s Shareable Science blog. Because the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, some of this information may have changed since...
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  COVID-19 Terminology Explained COVID-19 has become a household term. But what does COVID-19 mean? And why does the virus that causes COVID-19 have a different name? In February 2020, as the novel coronavirus disease was beginning to spread beyond China and the surrounding regions, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced an...
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  Cruel and Unusual Punishments: 15 Types of Torture The human mind has long been capable of dreaming up new and terrible ways to punish alleged transgressors, villains, witches, and anyone else who was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We’re all familiar with the old standbys: hanging, burning, stoning. Yawn. What if someone...
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  Current and Historical Droughts Around the World Drought is an extended period of rainless weather that causes a considerable water imbalance. This infographic features a map showing current droughts (as of August 2022) by continent: The map also shows major historical droughts by continent: Some of the visible signs of drought are crop damage,...
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  Dada at 100 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the Dada movement’s founding in Zürich, Switzerland. Dadaism arose as a radical, anti-aesthetic, and antiestablishment movement that was founded in its members’ profound revulsion for bourgeois elitism and for the destruction and tragic loss of life taking place...
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  Deadliest Wars of the 21st Century Political theorist Francis Fukuyama famously proclaimed that the end of the Cold War marked “the end of history,” a triumph of capitalist, liberal Western democracy over competing ideologies. It was believed that 21st-century humanity would be a globalized post-conflict society moving in...
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  Deepwater Horizon Disaster: Five Years Later The Deepwater Horizon oil rig—located approximately 41 miles (66 km) off the coast of Louisiana—suffered a catastrophic explosion on April 20, 2010, that caused the rig to sink two days later. Over the subsequent months it released nearly five million barrels of oil into the gulf. spotlight,...
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  Defenestration: Prague’s History of Literally Throwing Authority Out the Window Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is famous for its rich heritage and variety of architectural styles. But did you know that an integral part of the city’s history involves people being thrown out of windows? Prague’s past is home to a series of defenestrations, a term that refers to the...
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  Defying Gravity: 7 of the Biggest Things That Ever Flew From modern planes to prehistoric animals, these are some of the biggest things that ever managed to get off the ground. list, dinosaur, plane, insect, biggest ever, flies, flew, helicopter, spruce goose, flying Officially designated the H-4 Hercules, the massive eight-engine flying boat known as...
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  Deviously Darwinian: 6 Strange Evolutionary Phenomena Like the laws of human society, the laws of natural selection are ripe for exploitation. It isn’t just survival of the fittest out there. It’s survival of the sneakiest. It’s survival of the prettiest. It’s survival of the most…developmentally arrested. Check out some of the weirder ways that...