David Tollen, Author at Pints of History

Who Thought Up Dog Domestication, People or Dogs?

by David Tollen | Jan 11, 2020 | Human Origins & the Paleolithic

This post has been updated by a new version: “Did breeding or natural selection create the dog?” Scientists used to think Stone Age people domesticated the dog by adopting wolf pups and breeding the friendliest of them, or the most obedient. But more...

This week in history: Louis Braille

by David Tollen | Jan 10, 2020 | The Recent Modern Age, Linguistics & Philology

This week in 1809, Louis Braille was born in a small French town called Coupvray. He’s known for creating the braille reading and writing system for the visually impaired. Louis lost his eyesight at age 5. At age 10, he enrolled in one of the first schools for blind...

This week in history: Ceres

by David Tollen | Jan 3, 2020 | The Early Modern Age

Ceres This week in 1801, astronomer-priest Giuseppe Piazzi discovered a new astronomical body between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. He named it Ceres Ferdinandea. Ceres was the ancient Roman goddess of agriculture and motherhood – the Latin version of the Greeks’...

This week in history: Hagia Sophia

by David Tollen | Dec 23, 2019 | The Postclassical Age (Medieval History), The Early Modern Age, The Recent Modern Age

The Hagia Sophia This week in 537, eastern Roman emperor Justinian I finished construction of the Hagia Sophia: the great cathedral of his capital, Constantinople. Upon completion and for centuries thereafter, it was the largest building in the world....

This week in history: The Boston Tea Party

by David Tollen | Dec 17, 2019 | The Early Modern Age

“Americans throwing the cargoes of the Tea Ships into the River at Boston” from The History of North America by W.D. Cooper published in 1789 This week in 1773, the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Native Americans, boarded British ships in Boston...