Myths, Folktales, and Legends
This creature is sometimes interpreted by scholars as a symbol of Crete’s dominance over Athens during the Bronze Age, rather than a purely fictional monster.
Minotaur
He achieved major commercial success in 1974 with a novel about a telekinetic teenager bullied in high school, later adapted into multiple films and a Broadway musical.
Stephen King
Despite its heavy association with French culture, the croissant was actually invented in this country.
Austria
This physician became known as the "Father of Medicine" for emphasizing observation over superstition.
Hippocrates
This emperor's restoration in 1868 marked Japan's rapid modernization and the end of the shogunate.
Emperor Meiji
In The Arabian Nights, this narrator tells 1,001 tales to the Shah to postpone her execution at dawn
Scheherazade
This writer famously challenged Mary Shelley to a ghost-writing competition, leading to Shelley's "Frankenstein".
Lord Byron
The invention of this method of preserving food, developed to supply Napoleon's armies, eventually transformed global food storage.
Canning
The first vaccine created to treat Smallpox. It was created after observing some women rarely contracted the disease after interacting with this animal.
Cows.
Enraged by the French military's false accusations and attempted cover up, this French novelist published the open letter "J'Accuse...!" defending a Jewish army officer wrongly convicted of treason.
Émilie Zola
Adam’s rebellious first wife who refused subjugation, left the Garden of Eden, and was transformed into a demon
Lilith
This Mesopotamian epic, rediscovered on clay tablets in the 19th century, contains a flood story that closely parallels later accounts in the Hebrew Bible and is one of the oldest known works of literature.
Epic of Gilgamesh
The famous literary "Proustian moment" comes from the narrator unexpectedly recalling his childhood after tasting this small tea cake.
Madeleine
A scientist returned from vacation to find that mold growing on one of his laboratory dishes had killed nearby bacteria. This accident led to the discovery of what medication?
Penicilin
This Venetian merchant's book describing his travels through Asia was so influential that later explorers, including Christopher Columbus, carried copies.
Marco Polo
According to the Quran, God created angels from light, humans from clay, and these creatures from a smokeless flame.
Jinn
This Russian poet, often considered the father of modern Russian literature, died at age 37 after fighting a duel over rumors involving his wife.
Alexander Pushkin
Before becoming one of France's most famous vegetables, many Europeans believed this New World food was poisonous because it belonged to the nightshade family.
Potatoes
This disease has been called "the great imitator" because its symptoms resemble many other illnesses. Before antibiotics, it affected artists, kings, and composers across Europe.
Syphilis
Although often compared to Napoleon for his military brilliance, this South American revolutionary named George Washington—not Napoleon—as his greatest political model.
Simón Bolívar
What you'll find at Mount Chimera in Turkey, the birth place of the same Ancient Greek monster.
Fires.
This French philosopher and novelist became the first person to voluntarily decline the Nobel Prize in Literature, arguing that a writer should not become an institution.
Jean-Paul Sartre
In medieval Europe, this seasoning was so valuable that it could be used as a form of payment and became a symbol of wealth at elite French tables.
Black pepper
This infectious disease led to the creation of the world's first international public health treaties in the 19th century because of repeated pandemics.
Cholera
When offered Israel's presidency in 1952, he politely declined, explaining that he lacked "the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people."
Albert Einstein