History

First Kiss Dates Back 21 Million Years, Study Finds Neanderthals Also Kissed

New research suggests kissing began with ancient apes, long before Homo sapiens evolved – and that Neanderthals almost certainly locked lips too. A 21‑Million‑Year‑Old Love Story Your “first kiss” suddenly feels very recent. A new evolutionary study has traced the origins of kissing back at least 16.9–21.5 million years, to the common ancestor of today’s great apes. That means the behavior predates Homo sapiens by tens of millions of years and likely appeared when our lineage was still a tree‑dwelling ape somewhere in the Miocene. Sci.News: Breaking Science News+1 The work, led by Matilda Brindle of the University of Oxford

20 November 2025

Tariff Trouble: 169‑Year‑Old Orvis Slashes Stores as It Returns to Its Outdoor Roots

An Iconic Outfitter Scales Down Founded in 1856, Orvis is among America’s oldest outdoor retailers – a name synonymous with fly fishing rods, tackle, and rustic New England sporting tradition. Over nearly 170 years, the family-run company grew from a small Vermont tackle shop into a national premium brand with dozens of stores selling not just fishing gear and hunting shotguns, but apparel, home furnishings, dog beds, luggage, and more. By the mid-2010s, Orvis operated around 80 stores and had a thriving catalog business mailing out millions of catalogs annually. But in recent years, the retailer’s footprint and focus have

11 October 2025

Business · Company News · History · Outdoor · Retail

Historic Splashdowns, Lunar Leaps & Billion-Dollar Space Deals (Aug 8–9, 2025)

NASA’s Crew-10 astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov completed a 146-day mission with a splashdown off the California coast at 11:33 a.m. ET on Aug. 9, 2025, the first crewed West Coast splashdown under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. China completed the first full-scale test of the Lanyue (“Embrace the Moon”) crewed lunar lander in Hebei on Aug. 6, 2025, validating its ascent and descent engines ahead of a 2030 lunar mission. ULA’s Vulcan rocket is slated for its first national-security launch with mission USSF-106 as early as Aug. 12, 2025, marking Vulcan’s inaugural national-security and Post-Certification

9 August 2025

History · Moon Missions · NASDAQ:AMZN · Space · Space Deals · Space Exploration · Splashdowns

Apollo 13’s “Successful Failure”: The Epic Journey of Jim Lovell, NASA’s Legendary Commander

Apollo 13, commanded by Jim Lovell, launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970 at 2:13 PM EST with Jack Swigert replacing Ken Mattingly 48 hours before launch due to measles exposure, suffered an oxygen-tank explosion on April 13, and splashed down in the Pacific near Samoa on April 17. Aquarius, the Lunar Module designed for two men for 2 days on the Moon, was pressed into service as a lifeboat for three astronauts for four days. Oxygen Tank 2 exploded and Tank 1 began leaking in the Service Module, knocking out two of Apollo 13’s three fuel cells

8 August 2025

Apollo Missions · Biographies · History · NASA · Space Exploration

Mach 2 Marvels: The Epic Saga of Dassault’s Mirage Fighter Jets

In 1958, the Mirage III became the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in level flight. The Mirage IIIC entered French service by 1961. The Mirage F1 first flew in 1966 and could land about 60 knots slower than the Mirage III. The Mirage 2000 first flew in 1978 and introduced fly-by-wire control with the Snecma M53-P2 engine delivering 64 kN dry and 95 kN with afterburner. The Mirage 4000 first flew in 1979 as a twin-engine “Super Mirage” with canards and a potential load up to 8 tons, but only one prototype was built and it

25 July 2025

Aviation · Engineering · Fighter Jets · History · Military Technology

Unbreakable Military Signals: The Untold Story of Secure Military Communications

At Bletchley Park in the 1940s, Alan Turing and colleagues decrypted Enigma messages, providing ULTRA intelligence that aided Allied victory. The United States began launching military communications satellites in the 1960s, and by 1982 the second- and third-generation DSCS satellites offered nuclear-hardened, anti-jamming, high-data-rate links worldwide. In 1976, Diffie–Hellman introduced public-key cryptography, and DES was adopted by the United States in the late 1970s. Link-16, a NATO-standard data link, exchanges encrypted sensor data—such as tracks and coordinates—between aircraft, ships, and ground units in real time. Since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, SpaceX Starlink terminals have become a critical backbone

20 July 2025

Communications · Defense · History · Military Technology · Signal Security

Internet Access in Vatican City: History, Infrastructure, Providers, and Modern Challenges

The Holy See published its first website, www.vatican.va, on December 25, 1995, marking Vatican City’s online debut and the creation of the Vatican Internet Service. By the late 1990s the Vatican established the Internet Office of the Holy See as its ISP, connected Vatican City to the global internet, and secured the .va domain for the state. In 2010 a contract with Telecom Italia deployed a fiber-optic network linking Vatican sites and extraterritorial properties such as Castel Gandolfo and the Vatican Radio transmission center. By 2020 about 5,000 Vatican telephone lines were connected through an IMS digital exchange, with fiber

18 July 2025

History · Infrastructure · Internet · Technology · Vatican City

Nebula Awards 1965–2025: History, Winners, Categories, and Latest News

The Nebula Awards were established in 1965 by SFWA founder Damon Knight, with the first ceremony in 1966 when Frank Herbert’s Dune won Best Novel. The Nebula trophy, unveiled in 1966, is a block of clear Lucite embedding a spiral galaxy made of glitter and a crystalline landscape. In 1966 fantasy works were officially included alongside science fiction after members broadened Nebula eligibility. The Nebulas are decided by SFWA’s professional author members, making them a peer award rather than fan-voted. The Damon Knight Grand Master lifetime achievement award began in 1975, with Robert Heinlein as the first recipient. The Andre

29 June 2025

Award Winners · History · Literature · Nebula Awards · Science Fiction

From Field Phones to 5G: The Evolution of Military Radio and Telecommunications

Field telephones were standard on the battlefield from the 1910s through the 1980s, with the EE-8 field telephone (1930s–Vietnam) offering a 7-mile range. The SCR-300 Walkie-Talkie, developed by Galvin Manufacturing (Motorola) in 1940, was the first backpack FM radio with about a 3-mile range. SINCGARS, fielded by the U.S. Army in the late 1980s, has 2320 channels in the 30–87.975 MHz range and introduced frequency hopping to defeat jammers. The AN/PRC-148 MBITR multiband SDR is a widely deployed handheld radio, covering 30–512 MHz and with over 22,000 units deployed since 2009. The Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) system, deployed in the

20 June 2025

5G · History · Military Communications · NYSE:MSI · Radio Technology · Telecommunications

Satellite Radio Revolution: 14 Things You Need to Know About Its History, Technology, and Future

WorldSpace, founded in 1990, launched the first satellite radio broadcasts in October 1999 over Africa and the Middle East, with India accounting for 90% of its subscribers before filing for bankruptcy in 2008 and ceasing broadcasts in 2009. XM Satellite Radio launched its first satellite in March 2001 and began broadcasting to U.S. customers on September 25, 2001. Sirius Satellite Radio rolled out in February 2002 in select U.S. cities and reached nationwide service by July 2002. Sirius signed Howard Stern in 2004 in what it described as “the most important deal in radio history.” XM secured a $650 million

20 June 2025

Broadcasting · History · Innovation · NASDAQ:SIRI · NASDAQ:WRSP · NASDAQ:XMSR · Satellite Radio · Technology

History News 20 June 2025 - 20 November 2025