Author: Gary Arndt

The Earth takes a year to go around the sun, and a day to turn on its axis. It is tilted 23.5 degrees which is what causes the seasons. All of these facts which you learned in school are true, but they are not permanent. They change, very slowly, over time. One astrophysicist in the 1920s figured out that all of these cycles could interact with each other, affecting the long term climate of the Earth. Learn more about Milankovitch Cycles on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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After the end of World War II, the newly created Central Intelligence Agency investigated anything and everything which could give the US an advantage in the Cold War. They looked into anything and everything which might possibly give their side an edge, even if it might have seemed ridiculous on face. One such idea was mind control. Learn more about Project MK Ulta on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Every so often, the series Dr. Who would have a special episode where multiple versions of the time-traveling Doctor would appear on the same episode. I think they probably ripped the idea off from the Roman empire, where they had several years with multiple emperors. So, fresh off talking about the year of four emperors, we might as well go straight into the year it was even worse. Learn more about the year 193, the Year of the Five Emperors on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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As long as the Roman empire lasted, they never created a set method of choosing successors to emperors. This inability to have an idea of who would be next in line caused numbers problems during the history of the empire. The first major succession crisis occurred in the year 69. One emperor died, and there was no clear replacement. The result was chaos. Learn more about the Year of the Four Emperors on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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In 1844, the Philological Society of London began investigating the creation of a new English dictionary. This initial foray would lead to a dictionary that would be unlike any other dictionary ever created. It would not just give the definition and spelling of a word, but a complete history of each word and where it came from. It would be one of the most ambitious literary projects in history. Learn more about the Oxford English Dictionary on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Normally, if a foreign country has you totally surrounded, that isn’t a good thing. However, in some parts of the world, it is a normal, everyday occurrence. Due to historical quirks in drawing maps, there are parts of some countries which are separate from the mainland and are totally surrounded by another country. Learn more about exclaves and enclaves on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Every four years on January 20th, the United States holds a ceremony for the inauguration of the President of the United States. There are traditions for the inauguration, some of which have been passed down since the very first. Why do we use January 20th as the date, and how did many of these traditions get started? Learn more about the history and traditions of the Presidential Inauguration on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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In 1896, the United States was experiencing what we now call a recession. The Panic of 1896 had made life tough on everyone, and many of the companies in the highly competitive railroad business were looking for new ways to make money. One man, William George Crush, came up with a smashing idea. His idea was so popular that it drew enough people to create the second-largest city in Texas for a single day, and then subsequently got him fired.

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Humans and rats have lived in an uneasy relationship for millennia. Rats have spread diseases like the bubonic plague, destroyed grain harvests, and stolen our pizzas. In return, rats have given humans…...pretty much nothing. As such, humans have waged a relentless war against rats which for the most part has gone nowhere. However, there are some fronts where we have had amazing success. Learn more about humanity’s war on rats on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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If you visit a different country you might need to get some of the local currency. You might get Ringgit in Malaysia, Pesos in Mexico, Kip in Laos, or Tala in Samoa.  However, there is one country where you have to be careful what currency you get because there are different notes produced in different parts of the country, and the different notes aren’t accepted everywhere in the country.  Learn more about the various British Pounds on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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