Mercury: Did you mean...?

Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687) was a Polish astronomer based in Danzig (Gdańsk). He worked from his own privately funded observatory, creating maps of the Moon's surface, discovering the first variable star, and spotting several new comets...

Philolaus (l. c. 470 to c. 385 BCE) was a Pythagorean philosopher who claimed that fire was the first cause of existence and heat the underlying source of human life. He is best known for his pyrocentric model of the universe, which replaced...

Chrocus (Crocus) was a king of the Alemanni who invaded Roman Gaul c. 256 CE until he was defeated by the Roman legions at Arles and then executed. Conversely, he was a king of the Alemanni who served Rome and supported Constantine the Great...

Phillis Wheatley (l. c. 1753-1784) was the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry and become recognized as a poet, overcoming the prevailing understanding of the time that a Black person was incapable of writing, much less...

A replica model of the barometer designed by Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) in 1643 which used mercury in a thin glass tube stood in a container of mercury to measure air pressure. (Science Museum, London)

This curse tablet is engraved with with an appeal to Mars and Mercury regarding a theft. The inscription reads: "To the god Mars/Mercury... gold ring from... and iron fetter... who did wrong...let the god discover". Circa 100-200 CE...

The gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt were an integral part of the people's everyday lives for over 3,000 years. There were over 2,000 deities in the Egyptian pantheon, many whose names are well known - Isis, Osiris, Horus, Amun, Ra, Hathor...

The Black Death is the 19th-century CE term for the plague epidemic that ravaged Europe between 1347-1352 CE, killing an estimated 30 million people there and many more worldwide as it reached pandemic proportions. The name comes from the...

The gods of the Mesopotamian region were not uniform in name, power, provenance or status in the hierarchy. Mesopotamian culture varied from region to region and, because of this, Marduk should not be regarded as King of the Gods in the same...

The English East India Company (EIC) was founded in 1600, and it came to control both trade and territories in India, as well as a trade monopoly with China. Goods the EIC traded included spices, cotton cloth, tea, and opium, all in such...