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8 weird Olympic events that no longer exist
Although the Olympic games have ancient roots in Greece, the modern Olympic Games started in 1896 in Athens. And what a wild first few decades it was. While the International Olympic Committee was...
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The entire history of the world in one chart
The Vault is Slate's history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here.This “Histomap,” created by John...
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A mysterious buried ship appears near Martha's Vineyard every couple years,...
Off the south coast of Massachusetts sits Chappaquiddick, a long, narrow strip of land that — depending on the tides — is either an island or a peninsula that's barely connected to Martha's Vineyard.A...
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19 robber barons who built and ruled America
America's 19th- and early-20th-century tycoons, pejoratively nicknamed "robber barons," built massive empires and accumulated unprecedented wealth.Many of these men gained their fortunes either at the...
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How women's Olympic leotards have evolved over the last 80 years
At the Rio Games, the only thing shining brighter than Team USA's gymnasts are their sparkly leotards. Crystal-drenched leos (as they're known in gymnastics shorthand) are a fixture of the sport. Why?...
View ArticleThe 1900 Paris Olympic Games had the most bizarre events imaginable
You probably wouldn't even realize you were watching the Olympics if you were to step back in time to watch the second modern Olympic Games held in Paris in 1900. The games were held to coincide with...
View ArticleWhat the abandoned stadiums from the Beijing Olympics look like today
The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics were just eight years ago, and in that short time the stadiums and facilities that cost billions of dollars to build have fallen in disrepair. Here's what they look...
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Before-and-after GIFs show how London has changed over the past 100 years
In 1940, a German bomb landed on the road above the Balham subway station in London. The roof collapsed and a bus ran into the resulting crater, killing at least 64 people.But today, the station is...
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Scientists just discovered a secret American manuscript that was hidden under...
Long before Wite-Out was invented, people still found ways to get a second chance at reusing a surface.Medieval scribes scraped the ink off sheets of animal hide to reuse the pages. Plenty of artists...
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8 beautiful places that have revealed the Earth's secrets
We measure our lives in minutes, days, years. And that works for most things. But looking at Earth's history can give us a whole new sense of time.The planet is about 4.5 billion years old— and there...
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The first selfie in all of history was taken 177 years ago
August 19 is World Photo Day, an international celebration of photography and the rich history of the art.Now, haters might say that photography these days is all about snapping selfies on your iPhone,...
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The first photograph ever taken was almost lost to history
Today is World Photo Day, a day to celebrate some of the best and most important photos of all time.This photo, simply titled, "View from the Window at Le Gras," is said to be the world's earliest...
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A magazine once polled millions on the presidential election — and got the...
Donald Trump's supporters have been looking for signs of hope in the polls. Even with a slight tightening of the race nationally this week, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has a...
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Humanity's first photos of Earth from the moon would have been thrown away if...
Before an Apollo-era NASA could launch a few humans on top of a rocket and plop them down on the moon, it needed to find safe places to land.So from 1966 through 1967, the space agency launched five...
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The 36 most beautiful museums in the world
Museums are houses for beautiful and historically significant objects, so it's only fitting that the building itself be gorgeous.They can be fascinating design challenges. How do you design something...
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The University of Texas quietly removed a Confederate inscription it...
Last year, the University of Texas at Austin announced plans to remove a statue of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, from a prominent place on campus, but that an inscription in a wall...
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These coders used 13,000 old photos to make a Google Street View map of San...
If you've ever wondered what it would feel like to travel back in time and walk the streets of San Francisco, this might be the closest you'll get.Two developers, Dan Vanderkam and Raven Keller, had...
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The 17 equations that changed the course of history
Mathematics is all around us, and it has shaped our understanding of the world in countless ways.In 2013, mathematician and science author Ian Stewart published a book on 17 Equations That Changed The...
View ArticleThe largest presidential poll ever got the results dead wrong
In 1936, a magazine called "Literary Digest"surveyed millions of people and predicted that Republican Alf Landon would handily defeat the Democratic incumbent, Franklin D. Roosevelt.Clearly, there was...
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The 12 mathematicians who unlocked the modern world
Mathematics is an increasingly central part of our world and an immensely fascinating realm of thought.But long before the development of the math that gave us computers, quantum mechanics, and GPS...
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