This month, we cover everything from the discovery of a hidden chapter of the Bible to the archaeologists who found a 6,000-year-old shark-hunting hook in Israel.
It’s the end of April 2023 and we’ve handpicked a few of our favorite history stories from this month along with several historic anniversaries for the month.
We covered several fascinating — and sometimes strange — historical news stories in April, including a story about mummies in Mexico that might be spreading a dangerous fungus. The so-called Guanajuato Mummies are famous for their eerie, open-mouthed visages, and Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History warned that they have shown “signs of a proliferation of possible fungus colony.” The mummies are displayed in glass cases, but the cases may not be airtight — which means that people visiting the mummies may be exposed to the fungal spores.
Other news stories we covered this month included the discovery of a hidden Bible chapter, a shark-hunting hook found in Israel that was used 6,000 years ago in 4000 B.C.E, and new evidence which suggests that humans ate giant snails 70,000 to 170,000 years ago.
Emil Aladjem/Israel Antiquities AuthorityResearchers found the copper hook in an ancient village in modern-day Israel.
In addition to these news stories, we also delved into a couple of historic anniversaries from the month of April.
We all of course live in a phone-centric, Internet-centric culture today, and two of our April anniversaries have to do with the origins of these ubiquitous technologies. On April 3, 1973, the first cell phone call took place between a Motorola employee and an AT&T employee. Motorola had beaten AT&T to the punch, and the Motorola employee said: “Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cell phone, a real, handheld, portable cell phone.” Twenty years later, in April 1993, the World Wide Web was also launched, introducing the modern-day Internet that we recognize today.
Another April anniversary is the sinking of the RMS Titanic between April 14 and April 15 in 1912. We’ve covered this topic extensively for our Titanic series, and there’s no doubt that it continues to fascinate even more than 100 years later. The doomed ship’s final moments are as compelling as ever, as are the incredible artifacts that have been recovered from the wreck.
The Titanic also inspired this month’s history cocktail, Punch á la Romaine, Punch Romaine, or Roman Punch, which first-class passengers had during their final dinner on April 14. It’s complex — but sounds delicious.
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