In 1937, American ocean liner, the SS President Hoover, ran aground on the coral reefs off the coast of Lüdao (Green Island), Taiwan, which was under Japanese colonial possession. Local islanders who saw the wreck motored out on fishing boats to help the crew and passengers ashore. To thank them, the American Red Cross funded the construction of an...

They never saw it coming. For the small bands of hunter-gatherers across Africa and Eurasia, the day was like any other. Some tracked great herds of migrating animals across expansive grasslands; others moved through dense rainforests, or along the banks of turgid rivers and ephemeral streambeds. Survival—finding food and water, avoiding predators,...

THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE APRIL 27, 2024, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURA’S FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. Shortly before it closed and relocated to its more modern Toyosu digs, I spent the better part of a day wandering through the chaos of Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market. At the time, the world’s most famous fish market was selling around...

William the Conqueror's Dining Stone is a large stone that overlooks the beach of St Leonards. Legend says that William, Duke of Normandy, used this ancient stone as a dining table after landing his Norman invasion of England in 1066. However, some suggest that this stone may have instead been part of King Harold Godwinson's tomb, who was killed by...

The beast-fish was terrifying. It stretched at least 14 feet long—or maybe 18. Its enormous head was shaped like a leopard, or a dog, or an otter, depending on who you asked and when. It used its strong, wide tail to steer through the currents of East Africa’s rivers. Some reported it had the long, white tusks of a walrus and an armadillo’s impenetrable...

In the heart of Colchester stands the Jumbo Water Tower, considered a striking architectural wonder. The tower reaches 131 feet high and is made up of 1.2 million red bricks. The structure earned the nickname "Jumbo," after an elephant at the London Zoo. In 1883, surveyor and engineer Charles Clegg built the water tower in a Romanesque Revival campanile...