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The Suez Canal is the busiest shipping channel in the world: every second of its downtime costs the global economy about $111,000.  Unsurprisingly, countries and governments have vied to control the strategic waterway connecting the Red and the Mediterranean Seas throughout its existence.  

In the new episode of HOW IT WAS, you will find out about numerous international conflicts that the Suez Canal provoked throughout its history. We will also tell you about how and when the channel first appeared, why it was buried for a thousand years, why Napoleon's attempt to restore it had failed, and what caused the longest Suez Canal blockage.

During the Vietnam War, the Americans faced fierce resistance, which neither the napalm-burning tactics nor the use of chemical weapons like Agent Orange helped to break. The Viet Cong army skillfully waged guerrilla warfare, taking full advantage of the familiar terrain. One of these advantages was the extensive network of underground tunnels, allowing the Vietnamese to hide and attack the enemy unexpectedly.   

To solve this problem, a special unit called the Tunnel Rats was formed. In the new episode of ‘How It Was,’ we will tell you what tasks the underground fighters performed, what kind of dangers awaited them in the darkness of the stuffy Vietnamese tunnels, and why the bayonet knife was their favorite weapon.

Imagine walking into a store and buying radium whitening toothpaste, radioactive anti-aging creams, and radium condoms. The pharmacy offers you radium-based medicines that treat everything from hypertension and diabetes to impotence and depression. At home, you drink radioactive water and go on vacation to resorts with radon baths. No, this is not a nightmare or a horror movie script: less than a hundred years ago, people willingly did all this of their own free will.  

In the new episode of ‘How It Was,’ we will tell you about the fortunately short era of the use of radium in the manufacture of medicines, cosmetics, and other products. You will learn what diseases they tried to treat with radium, why counterfeit medicines are sometimes more helpful than real ones, who the radium girls were, and what will happen if you take three bottles of a radioactive drug a day.

Chukchi vs. Maori - WHO will WIN the battle? | HOW IT WAS: Popular History Chukchi people — fierce warriors of the North who mastered survival in cold tundra climate, kept their neighbours in fear and resisted Russian colonizers for more than a century. Maori people — skilled New Zealandian seafarers who made warfare the centre of their life and didn't let English to force them into reservations.  

Chukchi and Maori never met on a battlefield. But what if they did? Who would prevail in combat — tundra's most skilled archers or Oceania's fiercest warriors? What do you think?

It may seem that in this age of space satellites and aircraft carriers, maritime piracy became a thing of the past. But at the beginning of the 21st century, pirates once again became a threat for merchant ships passing the coast of East Africa. From 2005 to 2015, maritime piracy cost the world economy billions of dollars. The threat has reached such proportions that the major powers had to join forces to fight the sea robbers.  

In this episode of ‘How It Was,’ we'll explore how an entire pirate empire grew up on Somalia’s desolate shores, how piracy changed the local economy, and whether Somalia has a chance for peaceful growth.

A Brief History of Drugs. 7 Ways Our Ancestors Got High. 

Shocking Facts  Drug use is almost as old as humanity itself. Perhaps, seeking for a buzz is at the heart of our nature. In this episode, we will tell you what exactly shamans smoked, why Egypt was the main exporter of opium in the world and what drug made you braver on the battlefield.

Pandemics That Changed History. How Many People Did They Kill? | HOW IT WAS: Popular History  

In this episode of HOW IT WAS, we are going to talk about the most devastating of them.  How did a beaked mask become a symbol of plague, what did John Snow know about cholera and why is the Spanish flu not really Spanish

In this episode of HOW IT WAS, we are going to tell you about sinful popes in the history of the Catholic Church. You'll find out which of them arranged the loudest orgies, what is Pornocracy, and whether one pope managed to leave a lover for the sake of the Church.

Myths about masturbation. How the attitude to onanism was changed in the 18th century  

We’re telling you a story of attitudes to masturbation in different periods of history. Our ancestors started to masturbate millions of years ago, as soon as they could reach genitals with their hands. It was nice and pleasant until homo insanus started complicating everything. In the Middle Ages, masturbation was fought on a spiritual level, but the real war on masturbation was declared in the 18th century by doctors. Their methods were cruel and inhumane.

In this episode of HOW IT WAS, we will tell you about the oldest mafia groups in Italy. How did the Mafia emerge, where do the most dangerous clans operate, and how does the Mafia help regular Italians during pandemics?

In this episode of HOW IT WAS, we will tell you what vaccination looked like in the 16th century, who taught doctors to wash their hands, to whom we owe painkillers and how Wilhelm Roentgen showed death to his wife.

Tour de France was founded in 1903 by Henri Desgrange, editor of the daily sports paper L'Auto, to increase the newspaper's sales. Today it is regarded as the world’s most prestigious and challenging bicycle race. In this episode of ‘How It Was,’ we will show you the first Tour de France in 1903. You will find out about the crazy fans whose antics threatened to end the race and about dangerous routes for which the organizers were called "murderers." At the very end, we will tell you what doping substances cyclists used in the past, while those were still legal.

Billions of fans, huge stadiums and passion bordering on obsession. In this episode of HOW IT WAS we will talk about the history of football - the most popular sports game in the world. Why was football banned, how did English students brought football to the world? How did it happen that it became a religion in South America, but could not win the hearts of fans in North America?

Mariana Trench is the deepest and one of the most unexplored places on Earth. The water pressure here is so immense it can instantly crush almost any living organism. Only the brave few managed to go all the way down. How did they do it, and what did they find at the bottom?  

In this episode of HOW IT WAS, we will tell you about the Challenger Deep discovery, which is the world's deepest known point, at the southern end of the Mariana Trench. You will learn about the first manned descent to the Challenger Deep by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh and about journeys to the bottom by James Cameron and Victor Vescovo. You’ll also find out how deep-sea microorganisms and fish adapted to high pressure; and why Mariana Trench was proposed as a site for nuclear waste disposal

WW1 inventions that make our lives easier | HOW IT WAS: Popular History  In this episode we’ll tell you about the most important inventions of World War I that we can’t do without anymore. Why teabags used to be called “tea bombs,” how vegetarian sausages saved Germany from starvation, and why women only started using sanitary pads in the 20th century.

Henry McCarthy, aka Billy the Kid, died when he was only 21 years old but became one of the Wild West’s legends. A century and a half after his death, he still excites the minds of lovers of American history, and every find associated with him becomes a sensation.  

In this episode of ‘HOW IT WAS,’ we will tell you how a young cowboy became a famous gangster, what role he played in the bloody Lincoln County War, and why a close friend became his long-standing rival. You will find out why the seemingly banal death of Billy the Kid became a riddle and what is the real worth of a black-and-white photograph, accidentally discovered in a heap of old junk.

In 1909, the South Pole remained the last major geographic trophy to be won. Captain Robert Scott, who led the British expedition, was not going to rush: he developed a three-year program that involved extensive scientific research and systematic preparations for the trip to the Pole. He had no idea how much the Norwegians would interfere with his plans.

In this episode of ‘How It Was,’ we'll tell you about one of the most dramatic confrontations in the history of geographical discoveries - the rivalry between the British and Norwegians for the title of the first conquerors of the South Pole. Who coped better with the task: strong and hardy Norwegians, dressed in animal furs, or British scientists, equipped with the latest science supplies? What mistakes can cost lives in Antarctica, and how can a literary gift turn defeat into victory? These are the topics explored in our new episode.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s biography has been studied far and wide, yet many individual circumstances remain in the dark. There is still controversy among scientists and history buffs about what caused Napoleon's death in exile on the island of Saint Helena.

In the new episode of ‘How It Was,’ we will try to find out: did the emperor die of stomach cancer, or was he poisoned? You will also learn about what role Schweinfurt green pigment played in history, who was the most likely suspect for Napoleon’s poisoning, and what the green color has to do with all this.

What people wouldn’t do for the sake of victory and sports passion! If in professional sports it is usually forbidden to injure rivals, there are many less well-known competitions that now and then turn into bloody battles.   

In the new episode of ‘How It Was,’ we highlight five of the strangest - and bloodiest - sports that never became professional sports but are rather popular in their homeland. You will learn how Florentine football differs from the ordinary one, what is the alternative to bullfighting in Spain, why Turkish wrestlers rub themselves with olive oil before the competition, and what the Battle of the Oranges represents for Italians.

Today Manchester United is the most powerful football club in England. The most expensive football players in the world play for MU, and the fan base comprises millions of people. But in 1958, the very existence of this great football club was threatened.

In the new issue of “How It Was,” we will tell you about the Munich disaster: the plane crash at Munich airport that killed the Busby Babes - the golden squad of Manchester United. You will find out what led to the tragedy and whether the aircraft's commander, Captain James Thain could have prevented it. We will also recall what helped survive the star goal scorer Bobby Charlton and several other passengers and how Manchester United coach Jimmy Murphy managed to create a new team in a matter of days after the fateful crash.