World War II showed that not all air wars involve sleek fighters and bristling bombers like the Focke-Wulf, Spitfire, and Thunderbolt. The vital, unglamorous roles fell to aircraft like the C-47 Skytrain, a plane with a decades-long lifespan.

How Engineers Transformed a Civilian Airliner in Just Two Months

The C-47’s design came from the productive mind of Douglas Aircraft’s chief engineer, Ed Heinemann. Adapted by Heinemann from the civilian DC-3 airliner in October 1941, the military version took to the skies two months later. This showed the basic airframe’s adaptability. The C-47’s roots began in 1935 with the DC-3’s first flight. Heinemann modified the DC-3 to handle the rough life of military transport.

With production started, the C-47 immediately began showing its usefulness. Built with clever features like a large cargo door, winch, and hoist, the C-47 easily moved people and supplies. The plane was used in all World War II theaters, usually for cargo transport. It also towed gliders, transported troops, and performed medical evacuations. Its rugged airframe and reinforced landing gear meant the C-47 could land on unprepared airfields.

How C-47s Dropped Thousands of Paratroopers on D-Day and Beyond

On July 9, 1943, the C-47’s big debut came with Operation Husky. Flying from North African bases, 370 Skytrains dropped thousands of Allied paratroopers into Sicily. C-47s were also used on D-Day, dropping three divisions of paratroopers and towing gliders over the invasion beaches. 

The C-47’s finest moments came with the September 1944 Operation Market Garden and the March 1945 Operation Varsity. Few losses came from flak or enemy fighters. In fact, Operation Varsity deployed the greatest number of aircraft in an airborne operation. 1,500 Skytrains dropped 40,000 paratroopers over the Rhine into Germany.

How the Goony Bird Conquered the Himalayas and the Pacific

The C-47 also operated in Southeast Asia and the Pacific theaters. In Europe, planes needed performance and reliability; the range became equally important here. The India-China Airlift of 1942-1945 would show the C-47’s range. 

The Airlift resulted from Japan closing nearly all supply lines to China in World War II. The Allies organized the Airlift to keep Nationalist China supplied. Getting supplies there meant flying over the Himalayas’ 14,000-foot heights in awful weather. These trips got called “The Hump.” 

The C-47’s three-ton payload proved only adequate. By mid-1943, the C-46 Commando’s superior ceiling, power, and range made it the primary transport. Despite this, the C-46’s great complexity and the C-47’s great numbers kept the Skytrain more popular. The Skytrain, nicknamed the Goony Bird, contributed to all the major Pacific War campaigns in Guadalcanal, New Guinea, and Okinawa. 

How the C-47 Rescued Berlin and Served in the Cold War

The end of World War II didn’t mean the end for the C-47, and its versatility prolonged its service life even as four-engine transports like the C-130 Hercules emerged.

The 1948 Berlin Crisis happened when the Soviet Union blockaded all routes into and out of Berlin. Britain and America responded with an airlift, bringing in necessary supplies like coal or food. The C-47 Skytrain got there first, being readily available. As the Crisis leveled off, the Skytrain’s three-ton capacity hampered it. Four-engine models, like the C-54, replaced their smaller competitors to keep up. Nevertheless, the C-47 again showed its versatility. 

During the Korean War in 1950, the C-47 flew again. With United Nations air dominance, Skytrains flew at night over North Korean and Chinese lines, dropping leaflets and broadcasting propaganda. Others dropped illumination flares at night to help UN troops fighting.

How the Lethal “Puff the Magic Dragon” Reinvented the Aircraft for Vietnam

In 1964, the C-47 served again, 25 years after its debut. C-47s used in Vietnam received the nickname “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Needing fire support, C-47s carried three six-barreled miniguns out the side. These deadly guns spat up to 6,000 rounds a minute, which looked like a dragon’s fire. Again, the C-47 showed how it could be used in nearly any role. Officially dubbed the AC-47, American troops felt reassured when “Puff” flew overhead, ready to fight.

Why This World War II Legend Is Still Flying Today

The US sent hundreds of C-47s to its Allies during and after World War II; others were sold to civilians. They, too, used the Skytrain’s adaptability. In the final task, a number flew as water bombers into the 1980s. Some even fly today, upgraded with new engines or electronics. Not bad for an airplane that started life in 1940.

Historian Gordon S. Wood asserts that the American Revolution, “made the interests and prosperity of ordinary people—their pursuits of happiness—the goal of society and government.” Nonetheless, histories of this earth-shattering epoch often concentrate on the contributions of largely upper-class statesmen and generals, often ignoring the contributions of the ordinary people who made the American Revolution possible in the first place. Jonas Green was one of these ordinary people, rising from humble origins to become the official printer of Maryland, and igniting revolution in Maryland by opposing the Stamp Act.

The Rise to Printing Prominence

Jonas Green seemed destined to be a printer. His grandfather, Samuel Green, was once the lead newspaperman of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his father, Timothy Green, worked as a printer in Boston before becoming Connecticut’s public printer shortly after his son’s birth in 1712. Learning the printing business in his youth, Green worked for the Boston printing firm Kneeland and Green in the early 1730s, then as a journeyman printer for Andrew Bradford in Philadelphia from 1736 to 1737. Opportunity would soon call from Maryland, with Green beginning to print proclamations for the colony in November 1737 while he was still in Philadelphia. Maryland’s governor, Samuel Ogle, was impressed with Green’s skills, and the Maryland Assembly made Green the colony’s official printer in April 1738. Shortly after marrying Anne Catherine Hoof, he settled in Annapolis and began printing there.

Green soon became active in Annapolis cultural and civic affairs, reviving The Maryland Gazette in 1745. The weekly newspaper informed the public on civic, military, religious, and social affairs, served as a forum for political debate, and also added to Annapolis’s cultural scene through its inclusion of poems, essays, treatises, and literary criticism. Jonas Green’s aim was not mere profit, believing the press to be instrumental in informing the body politic, foreshadowing his principled stance against the Stamp Act.

Green explained his intentions with The Maryland Gazette in his first issue: “Our intent therefore is to give the public a weekly account of the most remarkable occurrences, foreign and  domestic, which  from time to time come to our Knowledge; having always a principal regard to such articles is nearest concern to the American plantations in general and the province of Maryland in particular, ever observing the strictest Justice and with in relation of facts and the utmost disinterestedness and impartiality in points of controversy.”

“Improver and Encourager of Wit”: What Made Jonas Green Unique

Green had several distinct advantages that set him apart from many of the printers of colonial America. Firstly, there was the business acumen of his spouse, Anne Catherine Hoof Green. Born in 1720 in the Netherlands, Anne had the business skills that supported their large family. Green’s social activities in the city drained his earnings, and it was Anne’s decision to sell raisins, chocolate, and coffee from their shop that kept the family afloat. Anne’s skill in business was further revealed after her husband’s death, beginning with a successful campaign to secure payment from over a thousand of her husband’s debtors, as well as relocating her supplies and printing shop closer to the Green home in order to fulfill both her domestic and business duties more easily. Succeeding her husband as Maryland’s official printer, Anne was one of the only female newspaper owners in the Thirteen Colonies.

Green also benefited from a charmingly extroverted personality, as evidenced by his membership in the Tuesday Club, an intellectual club for men of wit, where he was known as the life of the party. The club’s founder, Alexander Hamilton (a local physician, not to be confused with the 1st secretary of the treasury) described him: “This gentleman is of a middle stature inclinable to fat, round-faced, small lively eyes, from which from two oriental portals, incessantly dart the dawning rays of wit and humor with a considerable mixture of the amorous leer, in his countenance he wears a constant smile having never been once seen to frown.”

Describing Green as an “Improver and encourager of wit,” Hamilton also attested to Green’s social aptitude: “for were there 50 clubs in the place, he’d be a member of every one of them.” While Green was very active in the Tuesday Club, known as the official purveyor, punster, punchmaker, general printer and poet (P. P. P. P. P. for short), he was also an avid Freemason and active in politics, becoming a councilman in 1755 and rising to the rank of alderman in 1767.

Green also benefited from an attribute shared by many other luminaries of the Enlightenment, an interest in science, noting the appearance of the Aurora Borealis in one of his first issues and covering topics including entomology in others. In the same months, Green reported on the bloody battles being fought in the ongoing Seven Years’ War. The 18th century was characterized by an enlightened pursuit of science as well as immense blood spilled around the world in the pursuit of imperial ambitions. Green reported on both with equal vigor.

Green also revealed his writing skill through poetry, presenting a number of poems in the Tuesday Club, including this section of an ode presented to the club’s president:

“Rejoice with me Rejoice

join with melodious voice

You jovial streams, you Mountain Hills and rocks

Ye fertile Plains, ye fountains, rills, ye  flocks

ye sweet and Flowery Lawns,

that when the morning dawns

With Orient pearly drops of dew,

Your odors on the day renew.”

Green also authored conundrums that would be read at each Tuesday Club meeting, and several of Green’s annual odes were put to music. Green even managed to have one of his poems, an ode for the year 1750, published in The Gentlemen’s Magazine of London—the capital of the colony and the capital of the empire were in agreement on Green’s literary talent.

Green’s membership in the Tuesday Club should not be construed as simply an extension of his extroverted personality, for the Tuesday Club was not merely a club for men about town, but an essential building block of the burgeoning American identity. The Tuesday Club was a uniquely American endeavor that mocked the pretensions of the European aristocracy and was open to all classes. The Club allowed a broader group to contribute to Annapolis’s cultural milieu, blurring class lines and reflecting the upward mobility of American society. Green’s membership in the club should be considered as revolutionary as his later opposition to the Stamp Act.

Jonas Green, Revolutionary

By the time of the Stamp Act, Green had run The Maryland Gazette for two decades, his beautiful prose, social aptitude, scientific interest, and wife’s business expertise serving him well. But he put it all on the line for the sake of political principle. Green was radicalized by a British levy passed on almost every item made from paper, including newspapers, passed in order to alleviate the debts incurred during the Seven Years’ War. He feared that the act would put his paper out of business and began to protest against it by reporting on opposition to the act throughout the colonies.

In August, Green reprinted a denunciation of the Stamp Act from the New York Gazette, written by an “unknown worthy writer” whom Green described as “a lover of Justice, and a friend to his Country.” Matters came to a head later that month when Maryland’s official stamp distributor, Zachariah Hood, arrived in Annapolis and was promptly burned in effigy in front of the state house. September would see Hood fall into greater danger when the frame house he was renting was torn down by an angry mob, prompting the frightened Hood to leave for New York. Green gave a short summary of the violence: “A number of people unknown assembled in this town and pulled down a house lately rented by a certain unwelcome officer.”

While Green had played a pivotal role in demonstrations against the Stamp Act, historian Jane Wilson McWilliams speculates that Green’s sparse retelling of the ransacking of Hood’s dwelling was due to a guilty realization that his months of lambasting the Act had indirectly caused the mob’s violence. Political violence motivated by opposition to the Stamp Act was becoming increasingly common in the Colonies. August saw the home of Andrew Oliver, Massachusetts’s official stamp distributor being ransacked in Boston. Deborah Franklin was forced to brandish a musket from the second story of her home in Philadelphia in response to an angry mob that blamed her husband, Benjamin Franklin, for failing to prevent the Stamp Act. However, while these protests were of a violent nature, they expanded the realm of political action beyond the propertied elite; it was Annapolis’s tradesmen who paraded through the streets burning the stamp collector in effigy, not its aristocrats.

Green’s words would turn into action, with the printer eventually shutting down his paper in protest. In early October 1765, Green printed on the Gazette’s first page: “The Maryland Gazette expiring in hopes of a Resurrection to life again.” Green went on to note “We are sorry, heartily sorry to quit the public in general and our good customers in particular but this Gazette will no longer be published (for some time) for reasons already given, which cannot be but known.” In the aftermath of the decision, Green continued to print the Gazette through several “supplements,” craftily avoiding the British tax by not publishing a new edition.

December saw Green bring the wit he had used in the Tuesday Club to political discourse, describing his paper as a ghost rising from the grave after being slain by British tyranny in An Apparition of the late Maryland Gazette. However, the Maryland Gazette would soon “resurrect” as Green had hoped, with the disappearance of the stamp collector, who was found destitute in the Caribbean, virtually nullifying the Stamp Act in Maryland. In January 1766, he made yet another name change, to The Maryland Gazette, Reviving. Green’s paper would revert to its old name and numbering in March.

News of the Stamp Act’s repeal would reach Maryland in late May, and Green joyously described the celebration: “After Breaking up of the Assembly, on Tuesday evening last, the several branches of the Legislature met in the Council House, where the Loyal and Patriotic toasts were Drank, the Guns at the Dock at the same Time Firing, and other demonstrations of Joy shown, on account of the IMPORTANT NEWS OF The STAMP ACT being Repealed.”

Green’s Legacy

Green would die less than a year after the Stamp Act’s repeal, with the Gazette containing a notice on April 16, 1767, that he had died the previous Saturday at the age of fifty-five. Succeeding her late husband as the colony’s official printer, Anne proved herself as much of an advocate of American liberty as Green, informing her readers of events such as the Boston Tea Party and the protests against the Intolerable Acts throughout 1774.

However, like her late husband, Anne would never see the revolution she helped ignite, dying a month before the battles of Lexington and Concord. The paper was then ably managed by her son Frederick, who continued the family’s support for the patriot cause, though production was suspended from 1777 to 1779 due to the shortage of paper caused by the British occupation of Philadelphia. Publication resumed on April 30, 1779, this time run by both Samuel and Frederick Green, who continued the paper’s publication until their deaths in 1811. Samuel’s son Jonas continued his grandfather’s legacy until the end of the paper in 1839.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote to a friend about the importance of the fourth estate to American life: “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. To the sacrifice, of time, labor, fortune, a public servant must count upon adding that of peace of mind and even reputation.” Green fit Jefferson’s ideal, a public servant dedicating his time, labor, and fortune to informing the public through The Maryland Gazette, with his social aptitude, writing ability, and interest in science serving him well.

But while Green was a man of many talents, frugality was not one of them. While his extroverted nature served him well as Maryland’s official printer, it was also a double-edged sword, often driving the Green family into debt. His business would have failed if not for his wife’s business savvy. Though The Maryland Gazette flourished for decades, Green put all of that success on the line by protesting the Stamp Act. Through this opposition to British taxes, Green helped light the flame of revolution in Maryland, though he would not live to see the result. Nonetheless, the efforts of Jonas Green and his successors show the importance of the press in shaping American politics and culture.

Further Reading

• Hamilton, Dr. Alexander. History of the Ancient and Honorable Tuesday Club. Vol. 1. University of North Carolina Press, 1990.
• Jane Wilson McWilliams. Annapolis, City on the Severn: A History. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
• Lemay, J. A. Leo. Men of Letters In Colonial Maryland. The University of Tennessee Press, 1972.
• Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Vintage Books, 1991.

The fight to end slavery was a centuries-long battle, and its location was primarily the Atlantic Ocean. With Great Britain outlawing the slave trade in 1807, it would go on to use its navy to end the crime for good.

Great Britain’s Heavy Expansion of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Beginning in the 15th century, the Transatlantic Slave Trade devastated an untold number of lives, with millions of West Africans being kidnapped and sold into slavery. With the 1619 arrival of enslaved Africans to the colony of Virginia, Great Britain began its own large-scale enslavement of Africans in the New World. 

As Great Britain’s territory increased, so too did its need for slave labor. The slave trade in West Africa worsened as more and more slaves were needed to work on colonial plantations 

British Abolitionists Forced Parliament to Outlaw the Slave Trade

While slavery had become an ingrained way of life in Great Britain and its colonies, there were still those who stood against it. Beginning in the early 18th century, numerous religious groups such as the Quakers and Evangelical denominations opposed slavery on moral grounds. They were not alone in their stance, as the institution of slavery began to be attacked more and more as the 18th century progressed.

The Christian convert John Newton famously condemned his past profession as a slave trader and spoke out against the cruelty of the practice. The formerly enslaved individuals Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano helped form the Abolitionist ‘Sons of Africa’ group in 1787. Composed of Black Britons, the group worked to begin the process of ending the enslavement of Africans. The writer Ignatius Sancho, the businessman Josiah Wedgwood, and the politician Thomas Clarkson all stood as fierce opponents to slavery and worked to spread awareness of the inhumanity of the institution.

By the dawn of the 19th century, the British abolitionist movement began to achieve successes. Organizations such as the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade had begun to turn public opinion against slavery. Where politicians were once able to outright ignore the issue of slavery, they were now forced to confront the matter head-on due to the abolitionist movement’s relentless pressure on the issue. On February 23, 1807, after many attempts to take on the issue of slavery had been shot down in Parliament, success was finally achieved. William Wilberforce’s Slave Trade Act passed, outlawing slave trading in the Atlantic.

The Royal Navy Deployed Ships to Blockade Atlantic Slavers

While passing the bill was a major achievement, it did not immediately change the global landscape. Even though it was now illegal to import new slaves, slavery was still legal in British colonies in the Caribbean. Furthermore, slave traders from neighboring countries continued to trade unhindered. To enforce its ban on the slave trade, Great Britain turned to its renowned navy. The recent victors at Trafalgar would now be tasked with taking on slave traders.

Dubbed the West Africa Squadron, a detachment of ships was sent to the Atlantic to patrol for slave traders. Composed mostly of British sailors, its members also included Kran and Kru tribesmen who worked as freemen on board the ships. The Kru people were known for their excellent maritime ability, while the Kran had a reputation as being among the finest traders in West Africa. Both of their skill sets would be needed to help British sailors prevent slave traders from reaching their goals. While the West Africa Squadron’s initial task was to apprehend British merchants who were ignoring the law, their role soon evolved into putting a stop to the slave trade as a whole. 

The West Africa Squadron faced a daunting task. Sailors had to patrol incredible distances in the Atlantic and faced exposure to deadly tropical diseases. Furthermore, the slave traders that they pursued had no problems with skirting the law to avoid detection. They planned routes to break through the squadron undetected; they often flew an American flag in the hopes of deterring an inspection, and would resort to dumping their slaves in the ocean if boarding was imminent. Oftentimes, slave traders had the support of their home governments, who refused to crack down on their actions, and would even support them legally if they were caught. The great distance they had to cover, along with a lack of cooperation, made the West Africa Squadron ineffective in its early years. For the most part, they were unable to significantly disrupt the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Despite these challenges, the Royal Navy did not give up. It continued with its mission, aggressively pursuing slave trading ships regardless of what flag they flew. By the mid-19th century, the situation began to improve. The Royal Navy’s introduction of steamships made its patrols more effective. Furthermore, the British government could pressure foreign governments to cease these activities. With the start of the American Civil War in 1861, and the cooperation of the American Navy in enforcing the ban on slave trading, it was clear that victory was finally at hand.

The West Africa Squadron Seized 1,600 Ships and Freed 100,000 Captives

In 1867, the West Africa Squadron retired from its mission. Although it could not completely combat the slave trade during its time, it still made a difference. During its almost 60 years on patrol, the squadron seized 1,600 ships and helped to liberate an estimated 100,000 Africans.

In October 732 AD, Charles Martel confronted the advancing armies of the Umayyad Caliphate near Tours and Poitiers in a battle with far-reaching consequences for Western Europe. Facing experienced cavalry forces moving north from Iberia, Martel relied on disciplined Frankish infantry formations which could withstand sustained assaults. Martel’s victory checked further Umayyad expansion into Frankish territory while simultaneously strengthening his political authority, laying the foundations for the emergence of the Carolingian empire.

The Fracture of Post-Roman Western Europe

The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD created a power vacuum that was filled by various Germanic speaking tribes such as the Franks, Goths, Vandals, and Anglo-Saxons who claimed suzerainty over the former provinces of Gaul, Hispania, and Britannia.

Hailing from the lower Rhine in the present-day Netherlands, the Franks had gradually been coalescing to become the preeminent power in the former Roman province of Gaul, expanding their territorial acquisitions under powerful Merovingian kings such as Childeric and his son Clovis I, who subsequently converted to Christianity.

The Merovingians unified most of northern and western Gaul, but stability remained a major issue as various factions typically led by royal offspring or rebellious dukes constantly battled over their various inheritances and territorial claims.

The Merovingian Franks emerged as the prevailing power in western Europe, whose warlike nature forged some of the finest warriors in Europe, constantly combating Visigoths, Burgundians, Lombards, and subduing various other tribes. They would soon be embroiled in conflict with another ascendent power to their south on the opposite side of the Pyrenees.

Islamic armies had been spreading rapidly across three continents in the decades following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 AD. By 711, armies from North Africa had crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into the Iberian peninsula and defeated the Visigothic kingdom of Spain.

The larger Umayyad Caliphate absorbed Iberia and utilized its strategic geography as a springboard to conduct further raids and incursions into Francia. The independent duchy of Aquitaine across the border remained particularly vulnerable and beset by Muslim infiltrations, as it was at the nexus of two expansive empires. In the face of the seemingly unstoppable Islamic armies, Duke Odo the Great of Aquitaine sought military assistance from his Frankish rivals.

How Charles Martel Built a Formidable Medieval Army

Charles Martel was previously mayor of the palace to the king, a powerful political office in the Merovingian court that enabled its occupant to control the royal treasury and manage military campaigns. Charles emerged as the real authority behind the throne who leveraged his position to become the most powerful official in Francia and an exceptional military commander.

Cognizant of the growing Umayyad threat, Charles proposed crucial reforms that recognized the shortcomings of the existing system of temporary customary Frankish levies in confronting the highly mobile Muslim armies. He would first need to unify the incessantly warring Frankish factions.

Charles consolidated his power base in Austrasia in northeastern Gaul, confiscating and redistributing ecclesiastical property in order to finance his ambitious reforms. He made several improvements to the army such as by outfitting his infantry with high-quality armor and emphasizing stronger discipline through the defensive tactics of the shield wall. Every free Frankish household was to provide at least one male for Charles’ army. Charles successfully managed to unite the Franks into a cohesive and deadly European force ready to resist the onslaught of Islamic armies.

The Clash at Tours and the Triumph of Heavy Infantry

In October 732 the Governor of Umayyad Spain Abd Rahman Al-Ghafiqi led a large force estimated at 25,000 men into the Frankish lands consisting mostly of cavalry north from Iberia and across the Pyrenees. Rather than an army of conquest, modern historians now believe that this was a large raiding force intent on plundering wealthy monasteries and churches across the country.

His soldiers consisted of Berbers, Syrian Arabs, and recent Visigothic converts to Islam. Many were familiar with the terrain having raided Aquitaine for years and returning with valuable plunder and slaves. This was a battle-hardened force as Muslim armies of the 8th century fought against one another as frequently as they clashed with European Christians.

The Muslim army proceeded north toward the River Loire as Charles gathered his force to intercept them, moving rapidly via the old Roman roads which still traversed Gaul.

Charles established a defensive position on a hillside near the junction of the rivers Clain and Vienne somewhere between the cities of Tours and Poitiers in northern Aquitaine, positioning themselves directly in the path of the advancing Umayyads who appeared to be taken by surprise by such a large force. The armies roughly maintained numeric parity with the key distinction being the horse versus foot composition between the Muslims and the Franks.

The two armies engaged in a weeklong standoff, with only brief skirmishing occurring. The Umayyads waited for their full strength to materialize as their speedy foray into Francia had overstretched their forces. The cooling autumn weather was beginning to negatively affect the Muslim soldiers, many of whom were accustomed to living and fighting in warmer regions.

As the Umayyads advanced northward, Charles arrayed his force in a static phalanx formation blocking the main road to Tours. The strength of the Franks lay in their tactical cohesiveness and ability to endure cavalry charges by elite Muslim cavalrymen.

Finally, on Saturday October 10, Abd Rahman Al-Ghafiqi ordered his cavalry to charge the Frankish lines. The Frankish infantry resolutely fended off their repeated attacks. One Arab chronicler described the Frankish shield wall “as a sea which could not be moved.” Charles’ armor-clad disciplined force successfully absorbed the shock of cavalry charges and proved superior in close quarter combat.

The Umayyad forces wheeled in retreat when news arose that Frankish forces were threatening their camp, and Abd Rahman Al-Ghafiqi was killed during the ensuing rout. The Muslims withdrew that night stunned but remained in good order and withdrew beyond the Pyrenees.

Why the Victory at Tours Reshaped European History

Following the Battle of Tours, Charles earned the sobriquet Martel from Martellus, the Latin word for hammer. His triumph against the Umayyads limited the Islamic forces to the Iberian peninsula, though smaller scale raids would continue. While the significance of Martel’s victory has been questioned by modern historians, it has traditionally been considered a decisive turning point in European history, halting the relentless advance of Islam and affirming the Christian identity of Europe.

The duchy of Aquitaine retained its independence and gradually established closer ties with the Franks. Charles continued to further integrate the Frankish kingdom, laying the groundwork for his son Pepin to overthrow the Merovingians and become the first Carolingian king of Francia.

Charles Martel’s grandson Charlemagne would reach new heights by conquering the Lombard kingdom of northern Italy and becoming crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, ruling over a vast stretch of Western Europe that had been disunited since the end of the Roman Empire. As a result, Charlemagne left behind an even greater legacy than his grandfather as the “Father of Europe.”

Horoscopes were more than an amusing pastime in post-medieval Europe. They were seen as true testaments of science and God’s will. The problem with horoscopes is that while they were used to predict auspicious dates or the sex of a child, they could also be used as loaded weapons. If horoscopes were taken as fact, they would justify political coups, economic upheavals, and give assassins whatever clearance they needed to murder a monarch.

To cast a horoscope to predict a ruler’s death was considered treasonous, so during the reign of Elizabeth I, she made a law making it a capital offense to cast a horoscope to find the death date of herself. Later English monarchs passed laws to make it illegal to do the same.

The Weaponization of Celestial Mechanics

Medieval astronomy and astrology were one and the same. They were a married science that believed the universe was a clean, predictable geocentric system controlled by God’s will. It was deeply interwoven with mathematics to divine the future. However, when there was political upheaval in the land, astrology was used as a means to predict the monarch’s death.

These horoscopes encouraged domestic rebellions and political coups under the belief that they were acting on God’s will. It was also bad economically to predict a monarch’s demise, because merchants would hoard goods, raise prices, international trade would stop, and peasants would be forced to bear the brunt of fallout. Unhappy peasants meant they would augment rebellion.

How Predicting a Royal Death Became High Treason

A well-known example of horoscopes being used to divine a monarch’s death was during the reign of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth was a Protestant queen, which rankled the ire of British Catholics. Catholic factions wanted a sympathetic sovereign, so they cast horoscopes for Elizabeth’s death so they could replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. These horoscopes would be used as justification for assassination plots or political coups against the queen.

As a result, Elizabeth I enacted the 1581 Statute that criminalized casting a monarch’s horoscopes for nativity and death, making it go from heresy to a high-level felony. Elizabeth’s successor, James I, was so paranoid about the occult that he actually instituted the hunting of astrologers who were bold enough to cast the astrological charts of anyone in the royal family.

Why Roman Emperors Set the Precedent for Banning Horoscopes

While Elizabeth I is a more modern example of how astrology was outlawed, in 11 CE Emperor Augustus was the first to ban using the stars to predict death when his rivals were casting his horoscope to determine when he would die. Emperor Tiberius was another great believer in astrology, but instead of worrying about assassination attempts, he used horoscopes to justify the murder of his political opponents. It wasn’t a surprise when Roman laws were enacted that banned the prediction of a ruler’s horoscope because it was seen as plotting his assassination.  

The Papal Crusade Against Political Divination

Italy was its own bastion of horoscope horrors. Astrologers were keen on predicting the death of cardinals and determining the outcomes of papal elections. They were master manipulators who crashed the Italian economy more than once. Pope Sixtus V was so fed up with Italian astrologers that he made the Coeli et Terrae decree that stripped astrologers of their protections and made judicial astrology heretical. 

Judicial astrology is used to predict the future, while other forms of astrology are used to study how celestial bodies move. It was viewed as demonic to predict the future because it went against God’s doctrine of free will. It became very wild when, in 1631, an astrologer accurately predicted the death of Pope Urban VIII. He wasn’t happy about that.

The Shift From Court Science to State Threat

Johannes Kepler was a firm believer in astrology and set out to prove that it was a true science, but as he studied the skies and used rational mathematics, he learned that the universe was a chaotic place with elliptical orbits. He published his findings in the Rudolphine Tables, which brought physics and astronomy together, and it was one of the beginnings of scientific rationalism against spiritual occultism.

This gave rise to the Enlightenment in the 17th century, when King Louis XIV of France made an edict in 1682 that stopped the prosecution of astrologers. Instead, they were decreed charlatans who would be punished with lighter sentences. Monarchs’ fear of death was one of the reasons, teamed with Johannes Kepler and the Vatican’s Inquisition, that ended astrology’s reign as a science.

Born in the ancient Middle East in the 3rd century AD, monasticism played a crucial role in the development of Christianity in the Western world. By the 4th century, it had become an established institution within the church, attracting those who sought an ascetic life. A similar rejection of worldliness prompted St. Benedict of Nursia, the “father of Western monasticism,” to found the Benedictine Rule in the 6th century. Six centuries later, a reformed monastic movement sought to revive the austerity of St. Benedict’s Rule, leading to the establishment of abbeys throughout Europe. Born to inspire spiritual renewal, they became cultural, economic, and political centers.

1. Cluny, France

Founded in 910 by William “the Pious,” duke of Aquitaine and count of Mâcon, the abbey of Cluny (Burgundy, France) soon emerged as the leading force behind the 12th-century monastic movement. By the 10th century, Western monasticism had lost much of its initial rigor and credibility, displaying a general laxity. The newly founded Cluny Abbey, subject to no authority but that of the pope, was, however, independent of the “corrupting” influences of the local laity.

Indeed, the charter of Cluny specified that the monastery’s role was to restore the spiritual austerity of the original Benedictine Rule. Thanks to its independence and the generous donations of William “the Pious,” the abbey grew in size and prominence, filling the power vacuum in Europe and contributing to the centralization of the Roman Church.

Under the leadership of its first abbots, freely chosen by the monks and well connected to the nobility, Cluny Abbey became a leading center of 12th-century Europe. The monastery even influenced the papacy’s policy. Indeed, the pope who is credited with launching the First Crusade in 1095, Urban II, was a former great prior of Cluny.

Over the course of the 11th century, the abbey gradually developed a centralized, wide network of priories that adopted the “mother house’s” observance of a stricter rule. By the mid-12th century, the ecclesia Cluniacensis (Latin for Cluniac church) comprised 700 communities.

A new church, built between 1088 and 1130 in the Romanesque style, embodied Cluny’s leading role in Western Christianity. The largest church in Latin Christendom until the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the building’s grandiosity contrasted with the monks’ emphasis on poverty and simplicity.

2. Monte Cassino, Italy

Between the late 5th and 6th centuries, Benedict of Nursia, the son of a well-off Roman family from present-day Umbria, observed with concern the increasing licentiousness of Rome as the imperial capital fell into decline. After a period spent in solitude in a grotto in Subiaco, where Emperor Nero had built a lavish villa, he founded 12 monasteries in the area.

Targeted by the intrigues of a neighboring priest, Benedict moved to an area south of Rome, eventually settling at the top of Monte Cassino, a hill near the town of Cassino (present-day Lazio). There, he soon began to convert the largely pagan district to Christianity and established a monastery in 529. According to Benedict’s biography by Pope Gregory the Great, the site previously housed a temple dedicated to Apollo.

It was in Monte Cassino that Benedict wrote his rule (later named after him) to regulate the abbey’s monastic life, which became the norm for monastic conduct in Europe. After his death in Monte Cassino in about 547, the abbey multiplied in size and wealth as the Benedictine Rule spread across Europe.

During the early Middle Ages, Monte Cassino’s abbots tried to mediate between the three main actors vying for power in the Italian peninsula: the papacy, the Lombards, and the Franks. Sacked by the Lombards in 580, it was later rebuilt only to be sacked again in 884, this time by the Saracens. Largely reconstructed in the 11th century, Monte Cassino experienced a spiritual and cultural “golden age,” housing an impressive collection of classical and medieval works.

Dissolved by the newly founded Italian Kingdom in 1866, the abbey of Monte Cassino was destroyed in 1944 during the Battle of Monte Cassino, when the Allies repeatedly bombed it. It was later rebuilt by the Italian government. Today, it is home to a community of 13 monks.

3. Fountains Abbey, England

In 1132, thirteen Benedictine monks seeking a more secluded and rigorous life left their community at St. Mary’s Abbey in York. The Archbishop of York granted them permission to found a new monastery in the Skell Valley, a remote area with easy access to natural resources, including water. Indeed, Fountains Abbey may have been named after the water springs flowing in the valley. In 1135, the newly founded abbey left the Benedictine Rule to join the Cistercian order.

Joining the long tradition of monasticism in northern England, Fountains Abbey struggled to survive in its early years. However, the arrival of a group of monks from wealthy families saved the community from disbanding. In a complete reversal of fortune, by the late 12th century, Fountains Abbey became one of the largest and wealthiest monasteries in England. For the following 400 years, the abbey’s influence and prosperity grew, acquiring vast swaths of land across Yorkshire.

Fountains Abbey’s fortunes changed abruptly in the 16th century, when it was closed during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. The previously prestigious center was then used as a stone quarry. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986, Fountains Abbey is the largest monastic ruin in Britain.

4. Clairvaux Abbey, France

As the reformed monastic movement spread throughout Europe, Bernard of Clairvaux (canonized in 1174), deeply affected by the death of his mother, was among those who sought a more austere life. After a meeting with St. Stephen Harding, the abbot of Cîteaux Abbey, St. Bernard joined the Cistercian community of like-minded monks seeking to return the Benedictine Rule to its original austerity.

In 1115, Harding tasked St. Bernard with the establishment of a new Cistercian monastery in Clairvaux, a village on the borders between Champagne and Burgundy. In the 12th century, during the Cistercian order’s “golden age,” the newly founded Clairvaux Abbey grew rapidly, becoming the largest Cistercian center in Europe.

After the death of St. Bernard in 1153, Clairvaux Abbey remained an influential religious and economic center. In the 13th century, its abbot, Stephen Lexington, opened the Cistercian college at the University of Paris, one of Europe’s leading centers of higher learning.

Clairvaux Abbey remained active until 1808, when Napoleon turned it into a prison.

5. St. Gallen, Switzerland

Located in northeastern Switzerland in the Sankt Gallen canton, the origins of St. Gallen Abbey can be traced back to 612, when the Celtic missionary monk Gall founded a hermitage in the Steinach Valley. About a century later, around 720, Gall’s refuge from the world became a Benedictine abbey under the leadership of Abbot Otmar. By the 9th century, the small community had grown, and a new complex had been built.

Around the same time, St. Gallen became the leading educational center north of the Alps. Its fame as a cultural hub stemmed from its extensive library, which contained about 2000 manuscripts, as well as books from the Carolingian era and the Ottonian empire. Its hall, constructed in the 18th century, was designed in a Rococo style. Today, the library houses around 160,000 volumes.

As the abbey’s influence and wealth grew, a town (Sankt Gallen) developed around the monastic community. The abbots acted as rulers of the urban center and, in 1206, became princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Their rule ended only in 1524 with the spread of the Reformation in Switzerland. In 1803, Sankt Gallen became the capital of the newly established Swiss canton. In 1983, St Gall Abbey, along with its library, was designated a World Heritage Site.

6. Reichenau, Germany

The island of Reichenau in Lake Constance (Baden-Württemberg) is a perfect spot for those seeking to leave all worldliness behind and find refuge. It is not surprising, then, that Saint Pirmin founded an abbey in Reichenau in 724, possibly fleeing Spain ahead of the Moorish invasion.

By the 9th century, Reichenau Abbey had become the most influential literary and artistic center in southern Germany. Excelling in the field of book illustration, the monks residing on the island were also renowned for their teaching skills, with many bishops and archbishops receiving their formal education in the abbey’s school.

At the time of the Carolingian Empire, Reichenau gained further importance as a learning center for imperial clerks. The abbey remained open until 1803, when Napoleon disbanded the monks and permanently secularized their land.

7. St. Augustine’s Abbey, England

St. Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury was founded in 598 by St. Augustine of Canterbury. The abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew in Rome, St. Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory the Great to England on a mission to convert it to Christianity.

Landing on the Isle of Thanet in 597, St. Augustine and his entourage were received by King Aethelbert of Kent. The Anglo-Saxon monarch allowed them to settle in Canterbury, where they began to preach in the old St. Martin’s Church. St. Augustine’s evangelization efforts were successful, and he even converted King Aethelbert, who then appointed him bishop of the English.

In the following years, St. Augustine’s Abbey became the leading center of English Christianity and an important cultural hub. Raided by the Vikings in 1011, the abbey remained active after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The monks were even allowed to keep the majority of their lands. Their Anglo-Saxon abbot, however, was replaced by one from Normandy.

Rebuilt in the Romanesque style introduced by the Normans, St. Augustine’s Abbey remained active until 1538, when it was closed on Henry VIII’s order. In 1988, UNESCO added the abbey to its World Heritage List.

The ninja is one of the most recognizable icons in international pop culture. However, the ninja is also one of history’s most misunderstood figures. Popular media stereotyped ninjas since the early 1900s as hooded assassins dressed in black outfits, who used straight blades and performed superhuman acrobatic movements. In reality, these stealth warriors were espionage agents, unconventional soldiers, and deception specialists who operated outside the feudal hierarchy.

Shinobi-no-mono is the more accurate term for these agents who emerged and peaked during the Sengoku Period, which lasted from 1467 to 1600. While the word ninja became the standard term during the 1960s, it also appeared in Sino-Japanese texts written in earlier times.

How Iga and Koka Created the First Shinobi

Pop culture often suggests that ninjas were legendary warriors operating within society, but that was not actually the case. Ninjas were, in fact, established in very specific regions. Two major areas of shinobi development were Iga Province and the Koka District. Rugged mountains bordered these lands to keep outsiders away, meaning that for much of the Muromachi and Sengoku periods, these areas operated as self-governing confederacies that existed outside the decentralized shogunate ruling Japan during this time. 

People living in these regions were considered to be ji-samurai, meaning rural warriors who were also working farmers. They created their own unique covert tactics, espionage, sabotage, survival skills, and unconventional guerrilla methods in order to repel their enemies.

What Real Shinobi Wore Instead of Black Hoods?

Perhaps the most infamous ninja myth in modern pop culture is the costume these warriors wore. Popular media portrays ninjas as wrapped in black hoods and tunics as they sneak around unseen during the night. In actuality, a man in all black would stick out like a sore thumb against the moonlit sky or in the earth-toned forest surrounding him. Documented history and ninja manuals, such as the Shoninki, advised the shinobi to wear colors that would best suit the brightness of the moon and the surrounding area when moving around at night. While most Japanese work clothes were tinted with indigo dye to ward off insects because it acted as a natural insect repellent, there was no defined “ninja uniform.” At the end of the day, the best ninja uniform was a great disguise, and the deadliest ninja was one who went unnoticed. 

Ninjas utilized the shichihode, or seven disguises, to appear as many different types of people such as priests, merchants, and farmers. By disguising themselves as ordinary civilians, they could travel between provinces and into enemy territory without raising suspicion. That said, the all-black ninja costume popularized today stemmed from the theater. Stagehands called kuroko in the Kabuki style of theater wore all black to represent artistic invisibility while they moved props on stage. Playwrights then adopted this style to stage surprise ninja attacks. This stage trend turned into an international historical misconception with 20th-century films and media.

The Actual Weapons and Tools Used by Shinobi

Pop culture often depicts shinobi as using a fictional sword called a ninjatō, which translates directly to “ninja sword.” However, the ninjatō is actually a modern fictional weapon, typically characterized by a straight blade and a square guard. In reality, historians have found no evidence of its existence during the Japanese feudal era. Shinobi used standard curved swords like the katana or the shorter wakizashi to ensure that they looked like regular samurai. Carrying a specialized sword would immediately expose them as shinobi agents.

Real shinobi also often modified tools that civilians would use in their everyday lives. They used folding ladders to climb high walls and used adapted masonry tools commonly referred to as kunai that functioned primarily as small spades or trowels. Kunai doubled as multi-functional tools for prying things and digging. Besides this, shinobi adapted to cutting-edge technology quicker than most. They were experts in gunpowder and used early grenades, smoke bombs, and incendiary fire arrows to create havoc when attacking castles.

Why Shinobi Were Spies First and Assassins Second

Some skills ninja learned included meteorology, pharmacy, and linguistics. They also used cryptography to communicate in order to keep secret messages safe from enemies. Understanding pharmacy allowed them to prepare medicine or poisons, while meteorology was important when preparing for night attacks. Additionally, learning various dialects and linguistics was crucial, as speaking with an unfamiliar accent would instantly expose a spy operating in foreign territory.

As Japan unified under Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, active warfare came to a lull during the relatively peaceful Tokugawa Era (1603 to 1868). While there were no major wars, the government still needed spies to keep an eye on regional lords. Soon, many ninja clans found work as hereditary bodyguards or government security guards. While their era of scaling castle walls had come to an end, their secret techniques and philosophies lived on in written manuals. As years passed, ninja lore was dramatized by theater and literature, developing into what popular culture depicts today.

The pioneering efforts of NASA scientists to expand the frontiers of human exploration go far beyond technological breakthroughs in rockets and spacecraft. A number of key innovations invented for missions to space have been applied to daily life on Earth. They have transformed industries and improved the comfort, safety, and health of regular people, not just astronauts. From memory foam mattresses to ingenious water purification systems, here are eight NASA inventions that have shaped the modern world.

1. Memory Foam: Out of This World Comfort

At the height of the space race in the 1960s, the Ames Research Center at NASA created memory foam, also known as temper foam, to increase astronaut comfort and safety during the takeoff and landing of the Saturn V rockets. Memory foam has a number of unique properties; it consists of a viscoelastic material that compresses under pressure and regains its original form after pressure has dissipated. This special property allows memory foam to absorb a great deal of impact energy while providing comfort and cushioning. Moreover, memory foam reduces uncomfortable pressure points that are found in conventional cushioning as it adapts to the shape of the person or object that is pressing against it.

While memory foam was initially used to send NASA astronauts into space in comfort and safety, it soon found commercial use in a number of sectors. Today, this unique material is indispensable for the medical industry as it is used in mattresses and cushions to provide medical patients with extra comfort during extended convalescence. Moreover, the adaptable nature and comfort of the material helped it gain popularity in the consumer market, where it is used in home furnishings, pillows, and mattresses. Memory foam’s ability to conform to the contours of the human body allows it to enhance spinal alignment and reduce joint tension, allowing those with joint pain to rest more easily.

2. Scratch-Resistant Lenses: See Like an Astronaut

To help protect its astronauts from the harsh environment of space, NASA scientists created a special scratch-resistant coating for space suit helmet visors. This scratch-resistant coating helps to mitigate the damage that dust particles, debris, and other environmental dangers may pose to an astronaut’s vision while in space. To tackle this problem, NASA scientists partnered with the Foster Grant Corporation during the 1970s to invent a transparent, long-lasting, scratch-resistant coating that utilizes diamond-like carbon elements. This remarkable technology not only improved the optical clarity of the helmet visor but increased resistance to abrasions and scratches that are created by space dust.

Not long after NASA invented this coating, it was modified and adapted for use in everyday eyewear. Today, scratch-resistant lenses are commonplace and can be found in the majority of sunglasses and prescription glasses, increasing their durability and optical clarity. The diamond-like coating has also been adopted by other industries and can be found as a screen protection for smartphones and car windscreens. The invention and widespread use of this coating is evidence that space research has had a wide influence on consumer goods, as materials that were once created for the exploration of space can now be found in most homes. The scratch-resistant coating has significantly improved the longevity of common optical lenses and allowed the vision care industry to further innovate, creating new types of coatings that block out harmful screen glare.

3. Water Purification Systems: Drinking Water From Waste

One of the most significant obstacles humanity faces when sending a rocket into orbit is the fact that the weight of simple resources such as drinking water impacts the rocket’s overall ability to send important instruments into space. To tackle this problem, NASA developed advanced water purification systems to provide drinking water to astronauts on long-duration space missions and save space during rocket supply missions. To eliminate any potential impurities from recycling wastewater NASA invented the Environmental Control and Life Support System. This complex mechanism uses a variety of ingenious filtration techniques, including ion exchange, carbon scrubbing, and electrolysis. As a result, NASA astronauts were able to harvest clean drinking water from a variety of otherwise hazardous sources, such as human urine.

The ideas that were set forth in NASA’s water filtration system eventually helped to improve similar systems here on Earth. These systems are especially important in developing countries where clean drinking water is scarce, and help provide hydration during emergency scenarios where there is a disruption to the water supply. During natural disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes, the techniques invented by NASA to filter waste water have been proven as a viable means to provide clean hydration.

4. The CMOS Image Sensor: Capturing the Stars

One of the most legendary engineering groups within NASA is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an elite group of the agency’s top minds that came together to tackle the biggest problems of space exploration. The JPL was largely responsible for the invention of the CMOS image sensor, a small digital semiconducting device that is now found in most cameras and smartphones.

The development of the CMOS sensor began during the 1990s when NASA engineers were tasked with developing a lightweight imaging system that could be sent into orbit and operate with a minimal power source. In comparison to the conventional digital image sensors, which were used in cameras at the time, the CMOS sensor provided a much more compact and energy-efficient solution for capturing images in space. The size and power consumption of the CMOS sensor is made possible due to the fact that both the image capturing and processing are conducted on the same silicon chip.

Today, the CMOS sensor is ubiquitous in consumer electronics, security systems, cell phones, digital cameras, and medical imaging equipment. Compared to the alternatives the CMOS sensor offers consumers faster image processing speeds, increased effectiveness in low-light environments as well as reduced energy consumption. The adoption of the CMOS sensor into consumer electronics has made small digital image systems widely available, thus making the cost of integrating a camera into any device much more affordable. CMOS sensors are also used by a number of private scientific and industrial companies for robotics, automatic vehicles, and even private space exploration.

5. Cordless Power Tools: Power to the People

Another ingenious NASA invention that has become virtually essential in our modern world is the cordless power tool. For the Apollo space program, NASA engineers were tasked with creating a portable, battery-powered drill that would function in zero gravity so that astronauts could gather rock and soil samples while exploring the Moon. To solve this problem NASA scientists partnered with the private consumer goods manufacturers Black and Decker to create the world’s first cordless drill. The finished design incorporated an efficient motor design, which was powered by a lightweight rechargeable battery, allowing astronauts to operate the drill in space without the need for an external power source.

The ingenious design of this cordless drill soon found its way into myriad consumer devices, including saws, sanders, and other handheld tools. Moreover, the efficient motor design found in the cordless drill, which was used by astronauts on the Moon, was used as a direct inspiration for the DustBuster handheld vacuum cleaner. Due to their versatility and ease of use, these cordless power tools have enabled consumers to perform basic tasks in areas without an electricity outlet. Moreover, NASA’s invention transformed the power tool industry and completely changed the way consumers approached cordless technology in general.

6. Cochlear Implants: A Game Changer for the Hearing Impaired

While NASA did not directly invent the cochlear implant for use in space exploration, engineer Adam Kissah, while working at the space agency on miniature electronic devices during the 1970s, was inspired to invent the device. While at NASA, Adam Kissah worked to automate compact systems for space travel, and in 1977, after leaving the agency, he patented the cochlear implant, helping to pioneer this miraculous technology for the hearing impaired. The modern-day cochlear implant is a small medical device that allows people with hearing impairment to detect sound by stimulating the auditory nerve directly, avoiding the damaged ear tissue. Medical engineers designed the cochlear implant by basing the design on NASA’s efforts to develop small, low-energy electronic devices that are used to track the vital signs of astronauts.

The pioneering advances that NASA made in the field of microelectronics helped to pave the way for the creation of cochlear implants that are more compact, reliable, and long-lasting. Moreover, the lives of countless people with hearing impairment have been improved significantly by the advent of smaller cochlear implants.

7. Fire Safety Equipment: NASA Protection for Firefighters

The development of improved firefighting equipment has benefited considerably from NASA’s work in creating heat-resistant textiles for use in space suits. The creation of these lightweight, durable, and thermal-resistant materials was vital to protect astronauts during space missions, as temperatures in orbit can fluctuate massively. To tackle this problem, NASA invented entirely new materials, such as polybenzimidazole, a material that can tolerate extremely high temperatures without burning, melting, or falling apart.

The advances that NASA made in this field have made their way to civilian life, and the protective equipment that emergency service workers now wear every day has been greatly improved by these new materials. The materials that the space agency developed allow firefighters to perform their work with improved flexibility and increased flame resistance. This enables emergency workers to work for extended periods of time in hazardous environments, saving countless lives. Moreover, NASA helped firefighting personnel modify the breathing apparatus originally used to provide astronauts with a steady supply of oxygen.

8. LASIK: How Nasa Improved Eyesight

The significant advances that NASA engineers made to laser technology during the 1980s contributed to the development of laser eye surgery, or LASIK, to repair vision.

LASIK’s precision lasers and their accuracy were directly influenced by NASA’s own research into lasers for satellite tracking and communication. During the procedure, LASIK technology is used to track the eye movements of the patient while the cornea is reshaped with a precision laser, thus curing refractive problems that can commonly cause poor eyesight. Furthermore, NASA’s development of excimer lasers helped laser eye surgery become a common practice in the field of ophthalmology. The excimer is a type of laser that uses pressurized gasses under high pressure to create a type of particle called an excimer, which manifests as an incredibly precise laser beam in the ultraviolet spectrum.

In medieval European history, justice wasn’t always a humane endeavor. In the drafty, stone-cold courtrooms, the legal system operated on a basis of intervention by divine power. Innocence was determined by miracles because the authorities and commoners believed with conviction that a higher power would intervene whenever an innocent person was put on trial.

But when the religious and political landscape of the 13th century started to shift, suddenly the bridge between the divine and justice was severed. With no miracles to determine cases, the authorities were left with little choice but to develop a more evidence-based judicial process. To meet the strict requirements of the new system, they began to determine innocence or guilt through torture.

How Early Medieval Courts Used Divine Miracles to Prove Innocence

In medieval times, Europeans used supernatural ordeals to verify guilt or innocence. Called Trial by Ordeal, the rituals are believed to have begun in the early Middle Ages (476 AD to 1000 AD) as part of ancient Germanic tribal laws. They were also referred to as the Iudicium Dei or Judgment of God. Ordeals were used by judges when someone was accused of committing a crime, but other forms of proof were unavailable to legally satisfy the stringent requirements of proof. The tests were designed to manifest a miracle, as God was believed to supernaturally influence the laws of nature and protect the innocent, typically by preventing their wounds from becoming infected.

The judicial rituals relied heavily on local customs but were traditionally conducted in several distinct ways. During one of the trials known as the trial of hot iron, a judge would make the defendant walk nine feet while holding a heavy piece of iron heated in a fire. Immediately following the trial, the defendant’s hand was wrapped in linen. On the third day, the wound was examined. If the wound was healing cleanly, God had spoken, and the defendant went free. However, if the wound had become infected, a guilty verdict was reached, and punishment was administered as the judge saw fit.

In another trial referred to as the trial by cold water, judges would tie up the accused and plunge them into a consecrated pool, where they would either sink, which was viewed as being accepted by God and therefore innocent, or float, which was seen as being rejected by God, and so guilty. To ensure that the bodies of the accused could be recovered regardless of the result, all accused persons were lowered into the water using a rope attached to their torsos.

The 1215 Papal Decree That Accidentally Created a European Legal Crisis

Until the early 13th century, the tests were staples of European judicial procedure. However, in 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council, the most significant ecumenical council of the Middle Ages, convened by Pope Innocent III in Rome, stripped away crucial religious backing by forbidding priests from blessing the rituals. This caused the system to collapse. The changes prompted European continental courts to develop new legal systems that eventually utilized torture to get confessions.

With no priests to bless “God’s judgment,” the Trial by Ordeal justice system faced a legal crisis as judges had no way of obtaining a conviction without irrefutable eyewitnesses or a confession. And so, lawmakers turned to Roman-canonical law and looked toward an increasingly codified approach known as the inquisitorial system, which was a formal legal inquiry conducted by authorities. Unlike the legal system from centuries prior, authorities were now obligated to investigate the case on their own.

This practice was a major development in European legal systems. Soon, authorities developed extremely strict requirements for convictions, meaning that defendants were only guilty if caught in the act by two reputable witnesses or if they confessed. Since murder and theft rarely happened around two reputable witnesses, judges needed a way to creatively fill in the blanks. How did the court make someone confess to something they may or may not have done? The answer lay in pain.

Inside the Highly Regulated World of European Inquisitorial Law

By 1380, religious inquisitors consulted early copies of manuals like the Directorium Inquisitorum (1376) by the Catalan Inquisitor General Nicolau Aymerich, which detailed how and when someone should be punished. Without irrefutable evidence involving two eyewitnesses, judges could only torture someone if they had what was known as half-proof of their guilt or probatio semiplena. Catching someone with stolen goods or seeing a suspect fleeing the scene of a crime could fall under half-proof. Methods of torture were strictly limited to what was necessary to get a confession.

Medieval inquisitorial law was also highly regulated and dictated how long torture could be used and who needed to be in the room when the sessions occurred. Every statement and confession was recorded by an assistant whose sole job was to document the suspect’s testimony for legal reasons. Because these legally coerced statements were technically inadmissible due to their violent origins, victims were asked to repeat their “voluntary” confessions the next morning in front of a judge. Most courts limited torture sessions to one sitting.

Terrifying Tools and Psychological Tricks Used to Force Confessions

When it came to interrogating the suspects immediately after the Trial by Ordeal era, European courts had specific legal ways of obtaining information through torture. Judges were told to begin uncooperative interviews with what they called the territio, which was a scary show-and-tell of torture tools. Basically, judges outlined exactly what would happen to the prisoner’s body. Psychological torture like this convinced many suspects to talk without experiencing actual pain. Short of a confession, authorities graduated to physical torture methods using devices like the thumbscrew and techniques such as the strappado, in which victims would be lifted into the air by way of a rope tied around their wrists while their hands were tied behind their backs.

Suspension like this would forcefully dislocate shoulders. Pain was typically increased by heavy weights tied to a victim’s ankles, or by progressing to more painful torture methods that used the Spanish boot – metal plates and wedges used to crush the shins and feet. Torture was gruesome, especially when it came to water torture, or toca. Suspects were physically tied down to benches while water was forced through a linen cloth into their throats. Tribunals used these methods to press suspects for confessions, as well as the names of potential co-conspirators.

How the Frenzy of Witch Trials Sent Execution Numbers Soaring

Early modern judicial torture law reached new heights during witch trials. This was because when a person was accused of witchcraft, there was hardly any physical evidence on a judge’s investigative sheet for them to look at. Witchcraft was, at the time, categorized as a sin of the soul. As such, judges mostly needed confessions. To obtain these confessions, judges relied heavily on torture. As a result, tens of thousands of people, mostly women, were killed during Europe’s worst witch hunt.

During the 1620s, the Bamberg witch trials saw roughly 900 people executed in a single German city-state using what was called the Drudenhaus, basically a dedicated witch prison. Hundreds of miles away, thousands of people in the Basque region in Spain were forced to confess to flying to the Witches’ Sabbath on broomsticks and having sex with demons. Skeptical Inquisitors eventually halted trials after realizing that the confessions were coerced.

It is estimated that between 1450 and 1750, between 40,000 and 60,000 people were legally executed under these witchcraft statutes across Europe.

Why England Chose Crushing Stones Over Standard European Torture

Compared to continental European legal processes, English common law was accusatorial and relied on juries rather than the inquisitorial systems. The reliance on a jury, rather than an actively interrogating judge, meant there was very little structural incentive to torture suspects for confessions. Instead of torture, English judges employed a form of harsh judicial coercion: peine forte et dure or strong and forceful punishment. By law, a suspect’s trial could not begin until they entered a plea. Should a defendant choose to stand mute, no trial could take place. Without a trial, there could be no conviction, and without a conviction, the Crown was unable to legally confiscate the defendant’s family estate and holdings. At the time, when a person was convicted of a felony or high treason, their entire estate, both land and personal property, was seized. Their families also lost the right to inherit property.

Peine forte et dure was introduced to coerce suspects who refused to plead without abolishing the requirement of a voluntary plea. In essence, it was not considered a punishment for the alleged crime; rather, it was a penalty for refusing to allow the court to exercise its jurisdiction. Large stones were placed on a suspect’s chest, layer by layer, until they either chose to plead or were crushed to death. A disturbing number of the accused allowed themselves to be killed to avoid leaving their families destitute.

It was not until 1772 that peine forte et dure was outlawed. At that time, the default for refusing to plead was changed to a guilty plea, which was eventually changed to “not guilty” in 1827.

How Enlightenment Logic Finally Replaced Pain With Evidence

Eventually, logic and Enlightenment ideas caught up with early modern judicial processes. Among the main contributors to the change was Cesare Beccaria, an Italian jurist. He wrote a book in 1764 called On Crimes and Punishments (originally published in Italian as Dei delitti e delle pene), arguing that torture was not a reliable means of determining criminal guilt, and was merely a test of who could withstand the most pain. And so pain could not be used to reliably determine if someone was telling the truth or not.

Europeans eventually replaced their inefficient torture-based justice system with one requiring evidence. The change allowed judges to convict suspects using circumstantial evidence and rational thought. This legal shift was revolutionary because it moved the burden of proof away from supernatural events and forced confessions by tying judicial processes to evidence.

On a scorching summer day in July 1683, the course of European history changed forever as Europe’s “Golden Apple,” the historic Habsburg capital city of Vienna, shook behind fractured battlements. Endless rows of silk tents belonging to the vanguard of the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, surrounded the city. More was at stake than the survival of an empire, as this was no ordinary siege. It was the culmination of a centuries-old geopolitical and religious conflict. Inside Vienna’s walls, Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, the military governor of Vienna, led a frantic race against time with only 15,000 defenders. He faced a desperate situation because Emperor Leopold I, the ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy, had already fled the city to seek help from his allies.

The Ottoman Ambition and the Road to Vienna

The conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy, whose rulers also led the Holy Roman Empire, permanently altered the power dynamics of the continent. At that time, the Ottoman Empire dominated the Balkans and sought to capture Vienna, the capital city of the Habsburg lands.

The buildup to the conflict had begun nearly two centuries earlier as Habsburg and Ottoman forces vied for control of Central Europe following the 1526 Battle of Mohács. By 1683, the Ottomans controlled large parts of Hungary. Rebellion among Hungarian Protestants in the multi-ethnic region of Upper Hungary, which is modern-day Slovakia, had provided the Ottomans with the initial opening to invade under the leadership of the Kuruc king Imre Thököly. At the time, Protestants in the region felt oppressed by the Catholic Habsburgs and preferred Ottoman rule, as it provided more religious freedom.

Capitalizing on the moment, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha, the supreme commander of the Ottoman army, persuaded Sultan Mehmed IV, the ruling Ottoman emperor, that he could take Vienna. And so on July 14, 1683, Kara Mustafa Pasha arrived outside the city with an army numbering about 150,000 men and besieged Vienna. While sections of the main defenses were in ruins by September, the Holy Roman Empire, joined by a coalition of Polish and German troops, eventually defeated the Ottoman army on September 12, 1683.

The Battle of Vienna and the Holy League Victory

The victory was made possible by Pope Innocent XI, who, several months prior, had helped form an alliance called the Holy League in collaboration with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It ensured that when the Ottoman Army marched on Vienna, Poland would come to Austria’s aid. The alliance was vital because King Louis XIV of France, a rival to the Habsburgs, refused to help.

Due to the shift in the tide following the defeat of the Ottomans in September, the borders of Europe were changed such that the power of the Ottoman Empire would gradually decline. The transition marked the beginning of the Habsburg rise that would dominate Central European affairs for over 200 years. The war would rage on for another 16 years.

Treaty of Carlowitz and the New European Borders

The resulting Treaty of Carlowitz, signed on January 26, 1699, was one of the most significant treaties in European history, as for the first time, the Ottoman Empire ceded significant territories to European powers. Much of Hungary, Transylvania, and Slavonia fell to the Habsburgs. The addition of these territories and peoples made the empire more formidable. The new borders moved significantly to the south, making the Tisa and Sava rivers an important dividing line between the Ottoman Empire in the East and European Christian powers in the West, which severely limited Ottoman expansion.

Russia also played a role in reshaping the post-war situation. By joining the Holy League in 1686, Russia would launch the Crimean campaigns against the Ottoman vassal state of the Crimean Khanate. The wars began Russia’s quest for a warm-water port on the Black Sea, an objective it would seek for many years to come. By 1700, Russia had become a major player and would influence the region for years. By breaking Ottoman dominance, Russia began a long-term projection of power eastward that eventually led to the absorption of kingdoms like Georgia and several Muslim-ruled khanates in the 1800s.

Long-Term Impact on the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans

Ultimately, the 1683 Siege of Vienna completely reshaped the political map of Europe and stopped the Ottoman Empire’s westward expansion for good. Furthermore, the retreat of the Ottomans eventually allowed for the National Awakening of Balkan nations like Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria in the 1800s, which broke away from the Ottoman Empire and formed their own governments. Without the Ottoman defeat in 1683, the maps of those nations would look completely different today or would not even exist at all.