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Inventions & Discoveries

The breakthroughs that built the modern world.

10 stories

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Ashurbanipal's Library
c. 668 BCE
Ashurbanipal's Library
A brutal Assyrian king collects every book in the known world. The first librarian was a war criminal.
Archimedes Yells Eureka
c. 250 BCE
Archimedes Yells Eureka
A Greek genius figures out displacement in the bath, runs naked through the streets shouting about it. Later dies because he's too busy doing math to notice the Romans invading.
The House of Wisdom
830 CE
The House of Wisdom
Baghdad becomes the brain of the world: algebra, astronomy, medicine, every Greek text translated and improved. Then the Mongols torch it.
Gutenberg Prints the Bible
1455 CE
Gutenberg Prints the Bible
A German tinkerer builds the printing press, mass-produces the Bible, and accidentally invents mass communication, science, and revolution.
Leonardo da Vinci
1503 CE
Leonardo da Vinci
Paints the Mona Lisa, designs flying machines, dissects corpses, writes backwards. One man casually invents the future in his spare time.
Galileo's Trial
1633 CE
Galileo's Trial
He says the Earth orbits the Sun. The Church says recant or die. He recants, mutters 'and yet it moves' on the way out, and gets house arrest forever.
Newton's Apple
1666 CE
Newton's Apple
A young Cambridge student goes home during plague lockdown and basically invents calculus, optics, and gravity in 18 months.
Darwin Publishes the Origin
1859 CE
Darwin Publishes the Origin
A quiet English naturalist publishes a book about finches and accidentally rewrites how humans understand themselves.
Sputnik Launches
1957 CE
Sputnik Launches
A beach ball-sized Soviet satellite goes 'beep' from orbit. America panics, dumps money into NASA, and the Space Race is on.
The Moon Landing
1969 CE
The Moon Landing
On July 20, Neil Armstrong steps off a ladder onto another world. 600 million people on Earth hold their breath. 'One small step…'

Frequently Asked Questions

What stories are in the Inventions & Discoveries collection?

The Inventions & Discoveries collection includes 10 stories: Ashurbanipal's Library, Archimedes Yells Eureka, The House of Wisdom, Gutenberg Prints the Bible, Leonardo da Vinci, and 5 more. All available as immersive audio on History Tea.

Can I listen to Inventions & Discoveries stories for free?

Yes! All 10 stories in the Inventions & Discoveries collection are completely free to listen to on the History Tea app. Download on iOS and start listening today.

What time periods does Inventions & Discoveries cover?

The Inventions & Discoveries collection spans c. 668 BCE, c. 250 BCE, 830 CE, 1455 CE and more. Each story is a fresh, cinematic retelling with immersive narration.

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