HistorIQly Blog | Movie Accuracy, Mysteries & History Guides

Featured Stories

Declassified: Acoustic Kitty, the CIA's Spy Cat

The CIA reportedly spent millions surgically wiring a cat into a listening device. Here is what the declassified record actually documents about Acoustic Kitty.

By HistorIQly EditorsJul 16, 2026 9 min read

Disasters
The Indian Ocean Tsunami: The Morning the Sea Vanished First
Jul 16, 20267 min read
Heists & Hoaxes
Han van Meegeren, the Forger Who Fooled the Nazis
Jul 16, 20267 min read
Royal Scandals
The Affair of the Poisons: What Really Happened at Louis XIV's Court
Jul 16, 20267 min read

Sixteen Collections, Four Desks

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Four editorial desks. Sixteen ways into the past.

01 / 04

Crime & Secrets

196 stories

Cold CasesUnsolved mysteries, missing people, and crimes history can't explain.163 Heists & HoaxesHistory's boldest robberies, cons, and forgeries, told blow by blow.11 DeclassifiedWhat secret government files actually reveal once the documents are finally released.11 Royal ScandalsAffairs, poisonings, and succession plots from royal courts across every dynasty.11

02 / 04

Catastrophe & Fate

30 stories

DisastersWhat failed, who decided, and who survived — history's catastrophes minute by minute.11 Final HoursHow history's most famous lives and eras actually ended, hour by hour.10 Plagues & CuresHistory's deadliest outbreaks — and the strange, desperate medicine that finally worked.9

03 / 04

Legends & Rivals

198 stories

vs HollywoodHow accurate is that movie? We fact-check the films you love.165 Great RivalriesThe feuds that drove invention, politics, exploration, and war.10 What IfRigorous counterfactuals: how history could have gone, argued from the evidence.12 Myths, DebunkedThe "facts" everyone believes that never happened, traced back to whoever invented them.11

04 / 04

Living History

391 stories

Time TravelSurvival guides for visiting history's most extraordinary places.163 OriginsWhere coffee, money, writing, the internet, and other familiar things actually began.67 ArsenalThe history and evolution of the weapons that shaped civilizations.82 If They Lived TodayHistorical figures reimagined as modern people. Their job, family, and place in 2026.70 Ancient TechMachines from the ancient world that modern engineers still study and cannot always replicate.9

Declassified

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History is full of mysteries. We explore the ones that matter.

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Declassified: MKUltra, the CIA's Secret Mind Control Program

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The Anastasia Romanov Mystery: A Case Closed by DNA, but Never by the Public

Black Death Florence 1348: How a City of 100,000 Buried Half Its People

Featured Stories

Declassified: Acoustic Kitty, the CIA's Spy Cat

The Indian Ocean Tsunami: The Morning the Sea Vanished First

Han van Meegeren, the Forger Who Fooled the Nazis

The Affair of the Poisons: What Really Happened at Louis XIV's Court

Explore by Pillar

Crime & Secrets

Catastrophe & Fate

Legends & Rivals

Living History

Latest Stories

Declassified: Acoustic Kitty, the CIA's Spy Cat

The Indian Ocean Tsunami: The Morning the Sea Vanished First

Han van Meegeren, the Forger Who Fooled the Nazis

The Affair of the Poisons: What Really Happened at Louis XIV's Court

Get smarter about the past.