Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level at more than 29 thousand feet tall. Split by the border of China and Nepal, nearly 7,000 summits have been recorded with more than 300 deaths.

The Middle Passage was a period from the 16th century until 1865, when 12.5 million Africans were forced into unbearable living conditions aboard slave ships destined for the Caribbean and the Americas.

The Puritans were a group of religious zealots as a response to King Henry VIII’s newly-formed Church of England. Puritans faced friction as their numbers multiplied, forcing them to emigrate to Holland and later New England.

For nearly 300 years, Vikings or Norsemen sailed from Scandinavia to Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East and even North America, acquiring slaves, concubines and culture along the way.

Beginning around 800 A.D., navigators set out from Southeast Asia in double-hulled sailing canoes across vast stretches of open ocean, using star maps, sea swells, current and drift to people Polynesia.

Laika the space dog was the commander of Sputnik 2 and the first living being to visit space. The program had no plan to safely return Laika, leading to the first death in the space race.

The Knights Templar was a protective order in France that established a dominant network of banks, allowing Christian pilgrims to access their money. The order spread throughout Europe, but was eventually dissolved by King Philip.