National Geographic History

The obelisks known as Cleopatra’s Needles have witnessed a multitude of changes since they were originally constructed. First erected by Thutmose III around 1450 b.c. at Heliopolis, a city of worship for the Egyptian sun god Re, they were moved in 12 b.c. by the Romans to the Caesareum of Alexandria, a temple built by Cleopatra. In the 19th century, the Egyptian government gifted the pair to Britain and the United States, necessitating more moves. The archival image above, from 1877, documents the massive engineering feat of relocating one of the obelisks from Alexandria to London. The transport was met with tragedy along the way: Six men died at sea. Ultimately, the obelisk, cased in a floating iron cylinder, made it to England, where it still stands sentinel over the Thames…

Unprecedented archaeological evidence that the Maya used tobacco infusions for rituals related to sacrifice, bathing, and childbirth has been uncovered in the Pacific lowlands of Guatemala. Scientists working on the pre-Columbian archaeological site of El Baúl at Cotzumalhuapa were looking for traces of cocoa in a sample of large ceramic vessels recovered from ritual deposits. The vessels, which date from the Maya Late Classic period (a.d. 600 to 900), were also tested for other residues, including tobacco. When the results came back from analysis, the team was surprised. “We didn’t expect to find traces of nicotine in cylindrical vases suited for drinking,” lead researcher Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos told History. Risky Ritual The roots of Maya culture can be traced to around 2600 b.c. Maya states later extended across Central America until their defeat and…

THE MAYA consumed various types of psychoactive substances to achieve a state of trance during ceremonies conducted by the priestly elite. As floating plants that mark the boundary between water and air, and the living and the dead, water lilies were prized for their symbolism. They also contained powerful psychoactive ingredients that induced trances when consumed. Maya mushroom stones testify to the hallucinogenic effects of another substance, magic mushrooms (Psilocybe cubensis), known to the Maya as k’aizalaj okox. These were consumed before battle or during religious rituals.…

1874 Ehrich Weiss is born in Budapest. At age four he immigrates with his family to Wisconsin, where they struggle to earn enough. 1894 Now known as Harry Houdini, he marries Bess Rahner, who works as his assistant in the precarious world of traveling circuses. 1899 Impresario Martin Beck hires Houdini, kick-starting years of fame and wealth. Houdini tours Europe in 1900 and Russia in 1903. 1908 Houdini first performs his escape, while manacled, in a water-filled milk can. The act will later evolve into the water torture stunt. 1926 Following a punch to the stomach delivered by a hapless student, Houdini dies in Detroit from peritonitis.…

His name is now synonymous with breaking out of impossible situations and surviving death-defying stunts, including one that came with the warning “Failure Means a Drowning Death.” To his audiences, Harry Houdini’s skills seemed almost supernatural. But to Houdini himself, an immigrant who embraced showmanship to escape grinding poverty, his abilities were built entirely on intelligence, reason, and meticulous preparation. Always looking over his shoulder at imitators, Houdini spent his career upping his game–and the stakes. In 1903, in Russia, he requested to be locked naked in a freezing prison van the tsarist police used to transport prisoners on a three-week trip to Siberia. To the astonishment of the guards, Houdini broke out after 45 minutes. From then on, his acts became riskier: He was locked into water-filled milk cans, thrown…

HOUDINI HAD FIRSTHAND experience when he set out to expose spiritualism as a fraud, since he himself had practiced as a medium. Early in his career, he pretended to contact the dead as a lucrative component of his performances. Later, feeling remorse at monetizing grief, Houdini aimed to debunk the practice. He sabotaged séances across the country and, shortly before he died, testified in Congress in support of legislation that would have prohibited the practice. But the First Amendment protected spiritualists. His 1924 book A Magician Among the Spirits detailed the many tricks that mediums used to hoodwink their paying clients.…