Snippets of History

At the tender age of 15, Pablo Picasso unveiled this remarkable artwork to the world.

Dr. James Naismith, the visionary behind basketball, engaged in practice with his wife back in 1928. In the year 1891, the 31-year-old Canadian graduate student found himself facing a challenge in Springfield, MA, where he held the role of a gym teacher at what is now known as Springfield College. The harsh winter had driven his students indoors, leading to unruly behavior and a pressing need for a way to keep them active. They possessed abundant energy but lacked an outlet. Playing football and baseball was out of the question due to the weather, and conducting these sports within the confines of the gym posed safety concerns.

Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, stands tall at the podium during the 1960 Rome Olympics. As Cassius Clay, Ali journeyed to the 1960 Rome Games, competing in the light heavyweight division at the tender age of 18. Remarkably, he triumphed in all four of his matches with ease. In the championship bout, he faced off against the heavily favored three-time European champion, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, and emerged victorious, claiming the coveted gold medal.

The anchor chain of the Titanic held a pivotal role in the ship's equipment. It formed a robust link between the vessel's anchor and the ship itself, ensuring stability during anchoring and safeguarding the Titanic throughout its voyage.

Blue Babe, a mummified steppe bison dating back 50,000 years, surfaced in 1979 when gold miners stumbled upon it north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

On October 3, 42 BC, the inaugural clash of Philippi commenced, marking a pivotal moment in history. Here, Mark Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus ultimately emerged victorious over Brutus and Cassius, thereby bringing the Liberators' Civil War to a close.

Mount Rushmore's history is intertwined with the story of the Six Grandfathers, which existed before the iconic monument took shape. In the 1868 Treaty, the U.S. government pledged to grant the Lakota Sioux tribe all the land in South Dakota west of the Missouri River, encompassing the sacred Black Hills.

The Michelin Man made his debut in 1894 at the Lyon Exhibition in France, thanks to the creative minds of the Michelin brothers, André and Édouard, who founded the Michelin tire company.

In 19th-century England, affluent farmers commissioned paintings of their cows, pigs, and sheep as a display of their wealth and social status. These extravagant paintings portrayed animals with exaggerated shapes - pigs resembling overinflated footballs, cows stretched into rectangular forms, and sheep elongated into ovals. During this era, farmers engaged in selective breeding and embraced new feeding techniques to cultivate larger livestock, in response to a national effort to secure a stable food supply for a growing population.

Wrestling took place in the historic Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine during the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. This particular Games are well-remembered for being one of the first to receive extensive worldwide broadcasting coverage. CBS broadcast taped footage of the Games in New York City, while Eurovision provided live broadcasts across Europe.

One of the most remarkable indicators of the world's transformation lies in our methods of measurement. In the past, we relied on rough approximations when gauging length and time.

October 1, 1975, marked an iconic moment in boxing history, as Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier faced off in the unforgettable Thrilla in Manila. This epic showdown, their third and final bout, broke their previous 1-1 tie, leaving the world on the edge of their seats. The grueling battle extended over 14 intense rounds before Frazier's corner made the difficult decision to end the fight before the 15th round, handing Ali a hard-fought victory. 

Ancient Egyptian rock crystal ring carved in the shape of a sphinx dates back to 1295-1069 BC. The age and origins of the Great Sphinx of Giza remain a subject of debate among experts. While many Egyptologists believe it was constructed during the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2181 BC), there are no inscriptions from that era mentioning the Sphinx.

There was once a time when being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes was a death sentence. The ancient Egyptians first described the disease more than 3,000 years ago. During the many centuries that followed, parents would helplessly watch as their diabetic children slipped into comas and died.

This is Vesna Vulović. She holds the Guinness World Record for the highest fall without a parachute and surviving. She is reported to have fallen 6.3 miles (33,330 ft; 10,160 m) from the sky when a briefcase bomb exploded onboard JAT Flight 367 and crashed into what was then Czechoslovakia in 1972.