Billy A

In the winter of 1887, Parisian journalists gathered at a curious construction site on the Champ de Mars. There, amid wooden scaffolding and the rhythmic clang of hammers, they witnessed what one reporter would describe as men "reaping lightning bolts in the clouds."

The next time you find yourself composing an angry email to customer service, take comfort in knowing you're participating in a tradition nearly four millennia old. Long before Yelp reviews and Twitter rants, an irate customer named Nanni etched his frustrations into clay, creating what would become the world's oldest documented customer complaint. His target? A copper merchant named Ea-Nasir...

For centuries, the phrase "burning of the Library of Alexandria" has conjured an image of mankind's greatest collection of knowledge going up in flames. It's become a metaphor for the triumph of ignorance over learning, a cautionary tale passed down through generations.

Imagine a spot on Earth so remote that your closest human neighbors are astronauts. A place where the nearest land lies nearly 1,700 miles away in any direction, and the waters below harbor less life than almost anywhere else in the world's oceans

Coffee, is an aromatic, eye-opening beverage that millions of people worldwide can't seem to start their day without. But, imagine being ruled by a leader who believed that coffee was a threat to public morality, to the extent that he threatened to behead anyone caught drinking it publicly.

Picture a typical French scene in your mind's eye. Perhaps you envision the iconic Eiffel Tower piercing the Parisian skyline. You may also imagine strolling through the lavender fields of Provence. While these images are quintessentially French, they only scratch the surface of what truly constitutes the French Republic.