It's time to rethink all the Mother Teresa facts you may know, because there's a lot more to Mother Teresa's biography than simply caring for the poor and sick. This is the unfortunate truth of Mother Teresa; a collection of well known Mother Teresa criticism that might make you reconsider just how good of a person she actually was. Was Mother Teresa evil? Was Mother Teresa bad? Check out these Mother Teresa facts and tell us what you think in the comments below!
Ever heard of the playwright Aeschylus? Well he is one of the most important playwrights of all-time -- but wait until you hear how the scribe died. Playwright Aeschylus is famous for being the father of greek tragedy. His plays were the first to have a main actor interact with a second actor, bearing the fruit for much of today’s dramatic work. Speaking of tragedy, he was killed by a turtle. That’s right, a turtle. A regular one. Not even a ninja one. How did it happen? Well as the legend tells it, Aeschylus was soul searching outside, when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head. That’ll teach you to look inward and contemplate life’s complexities. Apparently the eagle confused Aeschylus’ bald head for a flat rock, which the eagle thought would shatter the turtle’s shell the eagle could gobble him up. Instead, it killed a famous playwright. He was killed instantly while the dumb eagle went on to live an otherwise bland life. Maybe. Actually it was probably great. It’s probably awe
There are many Teddy Roosevelt facts out there, but perhaps, none as interesting as President Roosevelt delivering a speech moments after being shot! President Roosevelt was shot in the chest on his way to a speech. This is the story of the October of 1912 assassination attempt by John Schrank on President Theodore Roosevelt and the speech he gave right afterwards. In October of 1912, President Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest on his way to give a speech in Milwaukee. Instead of going to the hospital, Roosevelt went to give his speech anyway. He was saved by his heavy overcoat and two items in his breast pocket: his eye glass case and his 50-page speech. They slowed the bullet and prevented it from hitting his heart. Roosevelt still had a bullet hole in his chest, but he insisted that his driver take him to his speech, not the hospital. When he arrived, Roosevelt told the crowd he had just been shot, showed them the blood on his shirt, and said his speech would have to be
Did you know that Jesus Christ was NOT actually born on Christmas? Jesus Christ -- or Yeshua to Ancient Jews -- was born on some day. But if you thought it was Christmas … well, that’s weird, here’s something you should know. Popular culture says that Prominent Jewish preacher Jesus Christ was born on December 25th, which is almost certainly not true according to many historians. The first recorded celebration of Jesus’ birth a.k.a. Christmas was on December 25 in 336 A.D. over 300 years after Jesus’ death. Truth be told, very little is known about the timeline of Jesus’ birth. It’s estimated only a tiny percentage of the population who might have been familiar with Jesus knew how to read or write, thus making something like his birth difficult to track. Even the gospels (which means good news in greek) written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John offered very few references to the date of Jesus birth. So given all of this, where did December 25th come from? The Roman Emperor Aurelian, w
Here’s a completely bad ass Julius Caesar story you might not know. He was once kidnapped by Cilician pirates on the Aegean Sea. The pirates asked for a ransom of 20 talents of silver. Caesar’s response? … He laughed and said. “Make it 50!” Seriously. The pirates agreed and Caesar sent some of his associates to gather the silver, a trip that would take 38 days. During those 38 days, Caesar acted like he was the one in charge. He wrote poetry and speeches and performed them for his captors. He also Demanded silence from the pirates while he napped. Basically, Caesar became best buds with his kidnappers. But he also promised that he’d return to kill them. And that’s exactly what happened. Once the ransom was paid, Caesar gathered a small fleet, returned to the island where he was held, took it back from the pirates... And had them all crucified.
Even though we get a World War II movie EVERY year... there are still some stories yet to be told, and many are Unsolved Nazi mysteries and conspiracies! Whether it be Hitler hiding the Spear of Destiny in Antarctica or Heinrich Himmler possibly having a hand in Otto Rahn’s death. There are many Nazi mysteries that are still unsolved to this day. These WWII mysteries include the death of Gestapo Heinrich Muller, the Nazi ghost train, Hitler’s possession of the spear of destiny, the death of Otto Rahn, and the whereabouts of the pistol for Hitler’s suicide. 5) What happened to Heinrich Muller? What happened to Heinrich Müller? A senior Nazi Gestapo official, Müller played a big role as an intermediary between Extermination Camp bigwigs Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichmann. He attended the infamous Wannsee Conference where the Final Solution was formally implemented, and personally supervised the arrests and interrogations of the suspects involved in the July 20th 1944 plot to kill
The Rockefeller family’s industrial and political accomplishments have helped shape America as we know it, and that’s great... but real life isn’t sunshine and rainbows. Here are some surprisingly dark Rockefeller family facts and Rockefeller family history that you probably didn't know: 5) A good place to start is William A. Rockefeller, the father of John D. and William Jr.: his sons who would go on to become titans of industry and amass tremendous wealth. William A, however, was a con artist who used to pretend to be deaf and mute while he was working as a traveling salesman… selling completely useless miracle pills. If pretending to be deaf and mute and selling fake medicine to people isn’t enough for you, he also had a mistress, fathered several illegitimate children, and even pretended to be a doctor named William Livingston. Seems like he could have come up with a better fake name. OR William A. Rockefeller, where the A stands for asshole. 4) Nobody wants to be eaten by cann
Think dowries are a thing of the past? Think again! When you’re a big fancy rich person you gotta have a big fancy rich wedding, and a bride that brings big fancy rich stuff with her. That's where dowries come in. What's a dowry, you ask? Well, a dowry is any gift or monetary contribution that a bride's family provides to the newly wedded couple at their wedding. From historical figures to your average joe-millionaire; here are the most insane dowries in history: 5) To start, Eleanor of Aquitaine brought half of France with her. We need a blender, a kegerator, and half of France. It’s on our Williams Sonoma registry. Medieval France wasn't a united country; it was divided into a bunch little pieces ruled by dukes who answered to the king. One of those pieces was Aquitaine, which was most of southwestern France… SO, when Duke William X of Aquitaine named his eldest daughter Eleanor as his heiress, King Louis VI (AKA "Louis the Fat") said “you’ll be my son’s wife! Deal with it!” So th
Did you know that it's likely that Moses was stoned when he received the 10 Commandments? You know Moses, right? And the 10 commandments? Here’s something weird You should know. It turns out Moses might have been high on drugs when he received them. An Israeli researcher says that Moses was high on mushrooms when he received the 10 commandments and presented them before the people of Israel. How do we know … ? Well the same researcher says that he’s taken many of the drugs the bible alludes to, particularly from the acacia tree … which causes ayahuasca inebriation and “religious experiences” as a side effect. The story of the burning bush in exodus 3 is reason enough to suppose Moses did drugs, as the illusion of objects being on fire -- which Moses attributed to god -- would be a direct effect of doing mushrooms or a similar drug. It’s believed the people of Israel, who Moses presented the ten commandments to, would also have been on drug. After all, they reported Moses as having
Ella Harper was a circus performer who was born with a rare condition called congenital genu recurvatum … which caused her knees to bend backwards … like a camel. Her preference to walk on all fours, opposed to hanging in there and standing up like a champion, which earned her the nickname “The Camel Girl”… and her own circus act. Harper was the main act in W. H. Harris’s Nickel Plate Circus, earning 200 dollars a week in 1886, roughly 5 grand in today’s dollars. Her act became one of the most popular circus acts in its day, especially as she was just a teenager at the time. Harper hung up her cleats and retired some years later, reportedly moving to Tennessee where she married a man … and was never heard from again. She then died in 1921. One of the most memorable circus artists of the 19th century.
Joseph Merrick, aka The Elephant Man, was born on August 5, 1862 in Leicester, England, and he was born a completely healthy child with absolutely no indication that anything was, or would be wrong. There are differing accounts of exactly when Joseph’s disfigurements started to appear, but general consensus is that they didn’t become severe until he was about 5 years old. However he was affected by the disease before his fifth birthday. Accounts state that as early as 21 months, he began developing a swelling of his lips, followed by a bony lump on his forehead, which later grew, of course, to roughly resemble an elephant’s trunk. Merrick's condition gradually deteriorated during his final years, which were spent at London Hospital. He required a great deal of care from the nursing staff and spent much of his time in bed. His facial deformities continued to grow and his head became more and more dangerously enlarged. He died on April 11th 1890, at the age of 27. Merrick had to sleep
Many people regard Charles Manson as the boogie man -- one of the most terrifyingly evil men in history. But when you really delve deep into the history of Manson and how he ended up becoming the leader of a murderous cult of teenagers in the 1960s, you'll realize that he was just a lonely, dumb criminal that got way in over his head.
Think a teenager can't build a nuclear breeder reactor without getting caught? Think again. David Hahn, aka the Radioactive Boy Scout, was able to easily collect radioactive and highly dangerous materials to experiment with nuclear energy. Just when you think the story can't get crazier, it does.
Back in 1960, the US government began a series of horrifying experiments on black cancer patients who were just hoping for life-saving treatments. While the tests were started with good intentions, the amount of radiation pumped into the unknowing patients had catastrophic consequences.
President Andrew Jackson was known as a man of the people, so what was he supposed to do when he was gifted a giant block of cheese that weighed a whopping 1400 lbs? Keep it? Throw it out? How would he deal with the stench? We've got all the answers to this bonkers Presidential story.
When it comes to true bravery, there's no greater example than Deborah Sampson, a hero of the American Revolution who disguised herself as a man so she could join the Patriot forces. Not only was she the only woman to earn a full military pension for her participation in the Revolutionary army, but she continued to fight despite numerous injuries and difficulties. Her story is truly remarkable.
If you watched sports games between the 70s and 80s, there's no doubt Rollen Stewart, aka The Rainbow Man, serves as a familiar face. Often seen carrying his iconic "John 3:16" sign and wearing a rainbow colored wig, Rollen became a fixture in American sports culture. But the truth to his life, and where he is today, is far darker than his smiling face on the jumbotron would have you believe.
If you need a quick Bible refresher, in Exodus chapter 14, Moses helps the Israelites escape Egypt, and more importantly, slavery. But could there be actual proof this fantastic story was, in fact, true? Some experts claim that evidence now exists proving this miracle truly happened.
Western superstar John Wayne became the bizarre target of a murder plot by none other than communist leader, Joseph Stalin. Never shy with his criticisms and downright hatred of the Communist party, John Wayne quickly appeared on Stalin's radar and a plan to execute him was put in the works. But how did all this come to light? The story gets even crazier.
Rain Main is the 1988 American road comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. It tells the story of Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant with extraordinary abilities. But the real life Rain Man, Kim Peek - the man the film was inspired by - was even more incredible. Despite having an IQ that hovered around 87, Peek could read entire books under an hour. His memorization and ability to spout random facts was impressive, so impressive screenwriter Barry Morrow felt compelled to tell his story in the form of Rain Man.
First found in 2011, the Baltic Sea Anomaly is the bizarre, mysterious item that has baffled scientists since its discovery. Theories on the 60 foot long object have ranged from as normal as an old rock formation to a crashed UFO.
After being accused of arson and the grisly murder of his former boss, John "Babbacombe" Lee was sentenced to death in 1885. Lee, while maintaining his innocence, stood at the gallows with his neck in the noose prepared for his punishment, hanging. However, the trapdoor refused to open. By all accounts, it should have worked, but after three failed attempts, Lee's life was spared. Was it mechanical failure or divine intervention? Here's the crazy true story.
Half human, half bat, Bat Boy first came to prominence in the early 90s after appearing in the American supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. Both fascinated and disturbed, people found themselves drawn to Bat Boy and he soon become a pop culture phenomenon. But what's happened to Bat Boy since he first rose to fame? You might be surprised.
This grisly and tragic landmark has become a haunting reminder of danger in hiking Mount Everest. Known as Green Boots because of the body's bright, green boots, this frozen corpse still exists on the mountain today.
In the 2015 film 'The Revenant', we follow the harrowing journey of Hugh Glass in a semi-autobiographical story of incredible survival. The real Hugh Glass, an American frontiersman, fur trapper and trader, hunter, and explorer is even more extraordinary than the film portrays. The details of what he endured will blow your mind.
Conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton were born in the early 1900s and led incredibly tragic lives. Abandoned by their birth mother, they were forced at early ages to perform by their new caretakers, also known as their "controllers". As a result, fame found them. But at a price.
Rube Waddell was a Major League Baseball pitcher who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. But Waddell's impressive athleticism wasn't the only thing that made him fascinating. For example, during professional games, if a firetruck went by Waddell would immediately leave the field and chase after it. So what else made Waddell stand out? Find out as we explore this unique character.
10 cents for a beer at a baseball game might sound like a dream come true. But the reality of that scenario unfolded on June 4, 1974 during a Major League Baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers. What transpired was a night full of nudity, violence, and total chaos.
Of all things you'd expect to rain down from the sky, meat is probably not high on the list. But that's exactly what happened on March 3, 1867 in Kentucky. For several minutes, mysterious red chunks and flakes of what appeared to be beef fell from the sky.
On February 17th, 1974, Robert Preston, a maintenance worker, decided to take one of the helicopters for a joy ride and land at the White House. Because apparently that's what you do when you're bored and want to prove to the world your impeccable flying skills.
Today's story is one that's almost too twisted to believe. But believe it. Georgia Tann was a prolific human trafficker who ran the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an unlicensed home that served as a front for black market baby adoptions. Tann is estimated to have sold a whopping 5,000 babies and often threatened poor single mothers into handing over their children for her to profit from. Wouldn't have guessed all this from looking at her, would you? Looks can be deceiving.
One of the most famous Egyptian Pharaohs, King Tut, has become a worldwide phenomenon since the discovery of his tomb in 1922. But was he how ancient images and depictions portrayed him? A virtual autopsy says not so much, revealing King Tut had various physical disfigurements from the practice of incest. Previously, experts thought Tut died in a chariot accident, but this new evidence tells a different story.
The granddaughter of former slaves, Sarah Rector was born in 1902 in Oklahoma in the nearly all-black town of Taft. As a result of the Treaty of 1866, Sarah's family was entitled to land allotments. This land would eventually make Sarah Rector the first black millionaire, all at age 12. Her story is incredible.
To say Carry Nation wasn't a fan of alcohol would be the understatement of the century. Carry A. Nation was a member of the temperance movement and adamantly opposed alcohol before Prohibition was introduced. Seeing it as her Godly duty to rid the world of such an evil, Carry picked up a hatchet and got to work. Seriously. She started smashing things. Here's the wild story.
While Michael Rockefeller's disappearance in New Guinea remains an unsolved mystery, theories have emerged that he might have met an unpleasant end at the hands of Asmat people.
What at first appears to be an optical illusion, the Mirny Mine is in fact very real and one of the largest man-made holes in existence. But this open pit diamond mine located in the Siberian region of eastern Russia has an interesting ability -- the ability to suck aircrafts into it.
Emily Davison was a radical suffragette who tirelessly fought for women's right to vote up until her abrupt death in 1913. While attending the Derby, Davison unannounced walked out onto the field during a race and was immediately struck by King George's horse. The reasoning behind why she stepped out is still unclear, but many theories have emerged about what may have transpired.
French inventor Franz Reichelt, aka the Flying Tailor, took a major leap of faith and jumped off the Eiffel Tower in hopes of showing off the wearable parachute he designed. The result ended in tragedy...and ended up on camera.
A devastating solo expedition in Antarctica by explorer Henry Worsley led to tragedy. But even more haunting, he left behind a series of selfies documenting his final days.
Who would have thought that Coca Cola, the world's most popular soda, came into existence because of a morphine addiction? Well, that's exactly what happened when John Pemberton, a licensed pharmacist, began experimenting with recipes to hopefully shake his unhealthy habit.
Kaspar Hauser is one of history's most mysterious figures with a bizarre and conflicting past. Claiming to have grown up in a darkened cell, many of Hauser's claims sparked debate about his real identity. After dying due to stabbing, Hauser's bizarre life continues to leave historians with unanswered questions.
Bloodsport, the film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, was based on a real man, Frank Dux. The catch is, nothing about the story was actually real. The truth of Frank Dux's life and the elaborate lies he told are even more bananas than the film itself.
On January 28, 1986, tragedy struck the Space Shuttle Challenger when it broke apart 73 seconds into the flight, killing all seven crew members onboard. In a bizarre turn of events, the disastrous flight almost included one of Sesame Street's most beloved characters, Big Bird.
When NBC's "Today Show" first aired, it struggled to find its audience and ratings suffered. Through an interesting chain of events, J. Fred Muggs, a chimpanzee, joined the show as host Dave Garroway's right-hand monkey. The chimp was a hit, and ratings soared. But behind the scenes, jealousy and tension began to rise.
Long before the wildly popular Titanic movie with Kate and Leo, another film about the ill-fated ship was shot in 1912 only ONE month after the actual crash. Even crazier, the film starred a real life passenger who survived the tragic night.
While started with good intentions, Balloonfest '86 quickly became an absolute disaster. Hosted by United Way of Cleveland in Ohio, the premise of Balloonfest was simple, set the world record by releasing one and a half million balloons. Sounds fun, but it resulted in chaos, damage, and even two deaths.
Think film stunts today are insane? Just wait until you see what silent film era stars were doing. Prepare to be blown away.
If you're thinking that a car race from New York to Paris doesn't sound like a good idea because, you know, ocean and all, you'd be right. But that didn't stop the Great 1908 Automobile Race that started in New York and ended in Paris. The details of what went down are even crazier than the idea itself.
British engineer Barnes Wallis invented a bouncing bomb meant to bounce on water. As ridiculous as that may sound, this bouncing bomb was highly effective and became pivotal during WW2. Here's exactly why this technique was so innovative.
One of the most profitable and well-known horror films of all time, The Exorcist is a 1973 American supernatural thriller adapted from William Peter Blatty's novel of the same name. The film centers around the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother's attempts to rid her daughter of the evil spirit through an exorcism conducted by priests. A chilling and frightening film, the true story of Roland Doe, the young man the novel was based on, is even more haunting.
In a story of incredible survival, Juana Maria spent 18 years alone on an island after missionaries abducted every other person of her tribe. She lived on San Nicolas, part of the channel islands just off the coast of California. Her tale, both tragic and inspiring, fascinated so many and even served as inspiration for Scott O'Dell's children's novel, Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Agafia Lykov had no interaction with the outside world until she was 35 years old. Her story begins back in 1936 with her family belonging to a splinter sect of the Russian Orthodox church known as as "The Old Believers." Eventually, the Lykovs left Russian society and headed into the wilderness to live in isolation. What happens next is fascinating.
In the 1800s, the Vanderbilt family ruled supreme as the wealthiest family in America known for luxurious homes, lavish parties, and extreme philanthropy. Their riches in today's market would come out to be a stunning 185 billion net worth. But the money did not last. So how did such a prominent family lose it all? And in what way is Anderson Cooper connected to the famous Vanderbilt name? All that and more, in today's Weird History Explainer.
Krampus, the horned half-goat half-demon hybrid sent to torture naughty children and drag them to Hell isn't exactly the stuff of good holiday cheer. But this anti-Santa creature's history is as fascinating as it is terrifying. With roots in Paganism and Norse mythology, Krampus has been reminding children they better be good for ages. Remember, it's not just Santa who knows if you've been bad or good.
What are the Bible secret texts? What texts were cut out of the Bible? Over the course of the last 2 millennia, the church has systematically edited out of the Bible what historians refer to as the Gnostic Gospels, which contain some extremely explosive ideas—and were a part of the texts that originally comprised the Bible. For one, the Gnostic Gospels tells of two gods: the vengeful and scornful one of the Old Testament, and the benevolent father of Jesus Christ of the New Testament. Several traditional Bible stories are contradicted by the Gnostic Gospels: the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve is the hero in the Gnostic Bible; the Holy Spirit was a flesh and blood woman who lived and breathed on Earth; a baby Jesus struck people blind and killed them in wrathful vengeance.
From 1920 to 1933, the United States placed a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. But that didn't stop people from smuggling booze in a variety of creative ways. In today's Weird History explainer, we explore interesting facts about the prohibition era and how Americans snuck around the no booze rule.
On December 7, 1941, a military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service hit the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In 2001, the film 'Pearl Harbor' by Michael Bay was released. The drama follows American friends Rafe McCawley (played by Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (played by Josh Hartnett) as they enter World War II as pilots.Though roughly based on real events, the movie is full of historical inaccuracies. Issues like segregation, "the surprise" attack, and many other glaring errors have caused many historians to dismiss the film as wildly off base.
On October 20, 1977, three days after releasing their album Street Survivors, southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd performed at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium in Greenville, South Carolina, and boarded a Convair CV-240 airplane to take them to Baton Rouge, where they were to perform at Louisiana State University. The plane, known for having mechanical issues (a fact that terrified many of the band members), ran out of fuel nearing the end of the flight. The pilot attempted a crash landing, ending in a heartbreaking tragedy.
Braveheart, the 1995 award-winning epic war film is home to one of the most recognizable quotes of all time. Mel Gibson's iconic line, "they may take away our lives but they'll never take our freedom!" might ring a bell. However, the film is chock full of historical inaccuracies about the Scottish rebels and resistance against the English including timelines, actual characters, and a number of other details. Today, we take a deeper dive into the true story behind Braveheart.
Photos are snapshots of a moment. Sometimes these moments are intimate and precious, tiny to some but impactful to those within them. Others are historic and grand -- the kind of moments that will live on for years, for decades, for centuries to come. Every photograph tells an incredible story. They tell us about history, about relationships, about the world as a whole. Today's slideshow showcases 30 stunning and moving colorized photos from history that you won't want to miss.
After being brutally attacked in a hate crime outside of a club, Mark Hogancamp was left with brain damage that meant he had little memory of his previous life. In order to cope with the trauma he had experienced, Mark built a â…™-scale World War II-era Belgian town that he named "Marwencol". Both a documentary and upcoming film starring Steve Carell have explored Mark's story, but the truth of his fascinating, heartbreaking, and inspiring tale is even more incredible.
It's the most wonderful time of the year! But which Christmas myths are we being told that don't exactly ring true? From when Jesus was born, to evergreen trees in pagan rituals, there's quite a few details popularized Christmas legends have wrong. Today we're taking a deeper dive into true Christmas origins.
Sir Alfred Hitchcock was a film director and producer, and widely regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Known for his innovative film techniques and mastery of suspense, Hitchcock was often photographed looking rather serious. These photos from history show a side of Alfred Hitchcock you've never seen before.
Actress and ex-Scientologist Leah Remini is an outspoken critic of her former religion. In July 2013, Remini left the Church and started speaking out about church leader David Miscavige and reported abuse of members in the Sea Org religious order. Since then, she's exposed some of the most insane, wild, and unthinkable Scientologist practices.
Palm Springs, CA, has been a hideaway for celebrities since the 1920s; the desert location, with its unique microclimate and dry weather, was seen as a "tonic" for those looking to escape the stress and pressure of Hollywood. In the early and mid-1900s, there was a "two-hour rule," meaning stars couldn't live further than two hours away from set in case they were called back to work unexpectedly. Palm Springs became the perfect destination for celebrities who needed to stay close but desired privacy. There was no shortage of celebrities in Palm Springs, with Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Lauren Bacall, Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Sonny Bono, and briefly Elvis Presley as residents. Even Walt Disney owned a home in Palm Springs. Many of the famous residents lived in the Movie Colony neighborhood or had their own custom houses built. Futuristic then and nostalgic today, celebrity homes in Palm Springs stand apart from the usual mid-century modern look.
These historical events are things you've heard about -- whether you learned them in school or have taken a personal interest in them. But you might not have realized that they were actually happening at the exact same time. Take a look back into the archives at these rare and shocking images from unbelievable history and be stunned by the things that you never realized were going on at the same time.
Though his time on earth was short, Sid Vicious' life was full of controversy. And it was with this vigor that the bass player for the Sex Pistols light went out in a spectacular blaze.
In November of 1981, actress Natalie Wood took a trip to Santa Catalina Island on board her husband Robert Wagner's yacht, Splendour. Also on the boat, co-star and friend Christopher Walken and Splendour's captain, Dennis Davern. Her body was discovered by authorities the following morning with her death ruled as drowning. The details surrounding her death, including mysterious bruising which caused some to speculate she was actually murdered, continue to shock and fascinate the world. What did happen to Natalie Wood?
The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. This colorized series of historical photographs shows the reality of life for those struggling to survive during it.
Ever wonder how you'd fare in a different time period? Today, we're exploring the most lethal dangers people from around the world faced from 14th century Florence to 1st century ancient Rome. Brush up on your survival skills and let us know how well you think you'd do if alive way back when.
Back before everyone got all their news for free on the internet, people bought newspapers. And those newspapers were typically sold by kids called newsboys or newsies. But at the end of the 19th century, two of the wealthiest media tycoons in the country tried to fatten their wallets by unfairly cutting into the newsies' already meager earnings, which led to the newsboys' strike of 1899. Here's the crazy story of what really happened.
From logos to branding, to even philosophy, companies and huge corporations can change tremendously throughout the years. Today's photo series catalogs some of the world's most iconic companies and a glimpse into how they looked just starting out.
Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered The Middle Ages-- a time period characterized by the stifling of information aka "The Dark Ages". So what would it have been like during medieval battles? How did warfare unfold at the front lines? Today we're taking a closer look at history and recounting everything we know.
The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. The British army, with support from France, attacked the German army, which had just officially declared war a few weeks prior. It quickly became clear that the German army was much larger and after French forces retreated, the situation for the British didn't look promising. However, due to what some soldiers thought of as divine intervention - aka angels granting protection, a safe retreat was possible. But what really happened? On today's Weird History, we take a deeper dive.
When it comes to Hawaii, the average American pictures an idyllic paradise and ideal vacation spot. But what exactly happened when the United States took over the Hawaiian territory? And what happened to the culture? Today, we're taking a deep, and honest, dive into American history.
Marita Lorenz, the German-born American woman who had an affair with Fidel Castro in 1959, is a truly fascinating figure. From being in a concentration camp as a child to a fateful meeting with Fidel Castro on a boat, Marita's life is one that continues to intrigue historians. Her love affair with Fidel continued to complicate things, and it's still unknown how much of her story is factual. Let's take a deeper look at Marita Lorenz, the spy who fell for the infamous Fidel Castro.
Calling all dinosaur enthusiasts! Think you know everything there is to know about our dino friends? Think again! Today we're diving into all the insane, crazy, and shocking dinosaur facts that have been discovered since you were in school.
In an incredible true story of survival, Steve Callahan managed to stay alive for a shocking 76 days adrift on the Atlantic Ocean in just a liferaft. He later told his unbelievable story in the best-selling book, Adrift: 76 Days Lost At Sea. Today we're exploring just what happened.
Few stories have fascinated the Internet quite like the one of Lori Ruff -- the woman with a secret identity. Before she tragically took her own life in 2010, Lori was a wife and mother with an unsettling secret. So who was Lori Ruff? Here's everything we know about the mysterious woman.
Simo "Simuna" Häyhä was a Finnish sniper who earned the ominous nickname, "The White Death". He's credited as one of the most accurate snipers of all time with a reported 500+ kills under his belt while enlisted. Today we're learning more about the man behind the rifle.
On February 20th, 2003 in West Warick, Rhode Island, tragedy struck during a Great White headlined concert. The devastating accident, often referred to as The Station nightclub fire, killed 100 people and injured hundreds more. The pyrotechnics quickly became disastrous as materials caught on fire and the air became thick with toxic smoke. Today we're taking a look at what happened, who was involved, and where band members are today.
Anne Perry, an English author of historical detective fiction is a best-seller best known for her Thomas Pitt and William Monk series. But not all of it was fiction, turns out Perry was keeping a disturbingly dark secret. At the age of fifteen, she was convicted of participating in the murder of her friend's mother. After serving her five-year sentence, she changed her name and began a successful career as a crime novelist. Today in weird history, we're diving deep into a story that's almost stranger than fiction.
From drinking beer to practicing dentistry, there's quite a few strange facts that might surprise you about what ancient Egyptian civilization was actually like. Today we're taking a deeper look into what life was like amongst the pyramids.
This intriguing figure remains one of history's boldest con men. But how exactly did he get away scamming so many people, including swindling a whopping $1 million from Jay Gould, and where did he actually come from? Today, we're diving deep into the insane history of the legendary Lord Gordon Gordon.
Despite what pop culture might have you believe, living in a medieval castle wasn't all that glamorous. If you were one of the lucky ruling class, you got some wine or the occasional hot bath. But with the lack of plumbing, castles smelled pretty ripe. Not to mention rats. So many rats. Today we're getting real about what living in a medieval castle was like, and it's not that pretty.
Randall Rhoads was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne. His music and legacy landed him on multiple "Greatest Guitarists" lists. However, his talented life was tragically cut short after a devastating plane crash. Today, we're learning more about the life (and death) of guitar prodigy, Randy Rhoads.
Nothing better than an intense rivalry between scientists...right? Well, that's exactly what happened with paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh -- two men who really take the cake for petty feuds. This fight, also known as The Bone Wars or The Great Dinosaur Rush, was so heated that it devolved into bribery, theft, and destruction that almost ruined paleontology. Uh, yikes!
Located just outside Louisville, Kentucky, Fort Knox is a top-secret United States Army post surrounded in mystery and conspiracy theories. Not only does it house a majority of the nation's gold reserve, it's so exclusive that even U.S. Presidents don't get an invite. So what exactly goes on behind closed doors?
Christopher Lee had one of the most fascinating lives of all time - From fighting Nazis to holding not one but THREE Guinness World Records to playing some truly iconic film roles, beloved actor
The 1950s and '60s are often regarded as the golden age of airlines, offering luxurious seating, fancy meals, and beaming flight attendants. But while it was certainly roomier than today's modern sardine can technique of travel, there was also a fair share of less desirable details unseen in the black and white evidence left behind. So what was it really like to fly during the Elvis era? Let's take a trip through the many ups and downs of getting around in the olden days.
After the immediate worldwide success of Dark Side of the Moon and the lengthy tour that followed its release, Pink Floyd's album Harvest Records went on another chart-topping moneymaker and fast. But when the Dark Side tour ended in June of 1973, the band took a break and went their own ways for four months. By the time the members of Pink Floyd reconvened at Abbey Road Studios to record their next album, they realized they had no idea what to record next. How does a band top itself after they made one of the best selling albums of all time? If the band is Pink Floyd, they record an experimental concept piece without the use of any musical instruments. Today, we're going to take a closer look at Household Items, Pink Floyd's lost album that ended up being too weird even for them.
Mount Vesuvius was responsible for the destruction of the city of Pompeii in 79 AD. Nearly everyone has heard one story or another about arguably the most well-known volcanic eruption in history, but how many of you know what really happened on that fateful day in Pompeii? This mountain located on the west coast of Italy is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, but the Vesuvius eruption is just one part of the story of the Italian city. How much do you know about daily life before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius? Hopefully, these facts about Pompeii will shed some light on one of the most famous ancient catastrophes in recorded history, as well as the vibrant society that preceded it.
Who was Hiroo Onoda? Onoda was a Japanese soldier who refused to surrender long after the capitulation of Japan in WWII. For 29 extra years, Onoda continued to execute the mission that he was ordered to carry out in 1944. Stationed at Lubang Island, in the Philippines, he and his three-man team were the only survivors when the US attacked and recaptured the island in 1945. Onoda ordered the group to retreat to remote mountains, occasionally carrying out guerrilla missions against island installations, which was his original assignment. Despite the death or capture of all three of his subordinates, repeated attempts to inform him of the end of the war, and gun battles with Filipino authorities, Onoda fought on. When he was finally tracked down by a Japanese national and told that the war was over, he responded by saying he was continuing to follow orders and would not surrender until he received an appropriate command from his superior officer.
The origins of the War on Drugs in the US go back more than a century and are mired in complicated history. However, the story of the ban on cannabis in America can be easily traced to one individual: Harry J. Anslinger, who spent three decades as the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the forerunner of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Not only was Anslinger the loudest and most influential proponent of the ban in the 1930s, but he was also an architect of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 that federalized the ban. As the government’s number one anti-drug crusader, Anslinger led a vitriolic campaign against cannabis, promoting his proposed ban with a blend of sensationalism, racism, and propaganda. His tactics worked, and the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 kicked off nearly a century of persecution against pot smokers - one that still hasn’t ended in some parts of the country.
Some of the most awesome Harry Houdini facts center on his search for truth in everything he did. Harry Houdini was not a guy to half-ass things. If he was going to chase down so-called mystics and expose them as frauds, he canceled shows, wrangled a panel of scientists, and debunked you with fury. There are so many tales of badass Houdini exploits, you should just watch them for yourselves. Keep in mind, Houdini was a tough cookie - you shouldn’t try any of his feats of endurance or pissy note writing.
Ten-foot spears, three-foot shields, and a thousand raving warriors - Viking combat was brutal, bloody, and often deadly. Whether raiding a defenseless monastery to haul off gold and jewels or lining up to battle a rival army, Vikings took no prisoners on the battlefield. The life of a Viking warrior started in childhood when boys would train and hunt to learn the spear. But the warrior's life wasn't only for boys; shield-maidens fought alongside the men during Viking battles, throwing spears and fending off enemies. Sometimes Vikings also made love connections on the battlefield.
When David Bowie and Freddie Mercury came together to record "Under Pressure" in 1981, the result was one of the best duets of all time. Though the recording process managed to unite some of the most prolific musical geniuses of the 20th century, creating the masterpiece was no simple task. "Under Pressure" was a song that, like its namesake implies, was produced under pressure. Performed alongside Queen creative masterpieces like "Bohemian Rhapsody," the song became a staple at concerts and appeared on Queen and Bowie albums alike. Creative differences and clashing personalities tested the limits of music-making, but the tension between the singers also made "Under Pressure" a landmark collaboration
Chuck Norris was born Carlos Ray Norris in southern Oklahoma on March 10th, 1940. Truth be told, he wasn't the extraordinary kid you'd think Chuck Norris would be. In fact, Norris was a bit subpar all throughout his adolescence. Carlos was not athletic, painfully shy, and when it came to his studies, he barely slid by. The fact that his frequently unemployed father was a belligerent alcoholic and his family was always financially scraping by didn't help his depression or debilitating introversion. All that set Norris up for a childhood filled with insecurity and low self-esteem.
From engaging in trysts at the Louvre, to losing a leg in an adultery-driven accident, to vehemently opposing slavery, Gouverneur Morris is arguably one of the most fascinating figures in history. Bronx born, Gouverneur Morris was one of the founding fathers, but his personal life is one wild ride. Buckle up.
Ancient Romans loved their sports and entertainment, and the Colosseum put on the grandest games in all of ancient Rome. With its gladiators, interchangeable arenas, exotic animals, and the rare naval reenactment, being a spectator in the Roman Colosseum would have indeed been a spectacle. Crowds of 50,000 people, spanning every region and socioeconomic class of the empire, gathered at the stadium to watch shows and get away from the disgusting life of everyday Rome. They enjoyed food, wine, music, and theatrics in a large venue, all paid for by the emperor himself.
Ever wonder what happens when the President leaves office? What happens to the secret service? And how much money are they making post-White House? Today we're taking all the mystery out of it as we dive deep into life after being the commander-in-chief.
In one of the more ironic disasters of all time, the unit 4 reactor of the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine failed during an emergency shutdown safety test in 1986, belching nuclear waste and radioactive isotopes all over the nearby city of Pripyat. More than 30 years later, hundreds of stray dogs live in and around the power plant, along with the many wild animals that call Chernobyl home.
You may have scrolled past one of their haunting, crumbling pyramids in the background of your well-traveled friend's Instagram posts. But chances are, you have no idea what everyday life was really like for the ancient Mayans. From ballgames to body piercings to getting hopped up on chocolate, the ancient Mayan culture has a lot more in common with our world today than you'd probably ever think. Today, we're exploring what life was really like for the ancient Mayans.
Pale white skin was the signature look for the upper class in the Elizabethan era and Queen Elizabeth I's makeup was perhaps one of the most iconic examples. But what was IN all that caked on makeup? Turns out, there was quite a cost for that noble, porcelain skin as the makeup contained lead. The price for beauty? Slowly poisoning yourself. Yikes.
What was it like to live in the Tower of London? That depended on a prisoner's social position and personal wealth; however, even the most notable prisoners were subject to horrible fates. Many prisoners in the Tower of London faced torture and even death, but privileged inhabitants brought servants and threw feasts. The Tower of London didn't start off as a prison, but it certainly became one of the gnarliest places to send criminals and political enemies. The last executions at the Tower of London took place after World War II when Josef Jakobs was shot by firing squad. But between its origins and the final shot, the Tower of London offered a vast array of experiences for prisoners.
There's no denying that the movie Jaws definitely made some beach-goers scared to go into the water. However, the story that inspired Jaws was what really had people scared to have a day at the beach. The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were so unexpected, sudden, and violent that they stuck in the public's mind even up to the point that the movie hit theaters. The "Matawan man-eater," as the shark was called, took down at least three people before the killings finally stopped, and it forever changed the public's view of sharks. To be clear, great white shark attacks in the US are not very common. People are more likely to be killed by bees than they are by sharks, and most shark attacks that do happen do not result in death. What happens in the movie Jaws is not typical of shark attacks at all, and how one survives a real shark attack is quite a different story. For those wondering whether Jaws based on a true story, the Matawan man-eater wasn't the initial inspiration...
Born Lee Jun-Fan in San Francisco, CA, Bruce Lee would eventually become internationally famous as a film star and martial artist. Even if you put Lee's fighting and acting conquests aside, enough fun facts about Bruce Lee exist that reveal him to be a man of great talent and charisma. Even as a young man, Lee showed amazing resolve and dedication to every action he undertook. Responsible for propelling Hong Kong martial arts films into prominence in the West, he completely changed the stereotypical portrayals of Asians in film, especially in mainstream Hollywood films. When it comes down to it, there are likely many different things you didn't know about Bruce Lee.
Walter Jackson Freeman II was an evangelical neurosurgeon, vocal about his beliefs and touting a procedure of his own creation from the 1940s through the 1960s. It was called a lobotomy, an operation that involved inserting a sharp metal instrument through the eye socket of the patient and cutting brain tissue. But what does a lobotomy do? The cutting of connective tissue inside the brain was thought to ease the symptoms of mental illness, and was frequently used on patients who were severely depressed or experienced violent outbursts. Lobotomies were intended to lower levels of emotion, releasing patients from their internal struggles.
Life on the Oregon Trail was both incredibly boring and extremely dangerous. Pioneers had to exercise extreme caution and a lot of bravado to cross the 2,170 mile stretch of land starting in Missouri and ending in Oregon. Accidents and disease were just waiting around the corner, but a majority of the trip was just spent trudging along next to the wagon. To say daily life on the Oregon Trail was difficult is a vast understatement. It was hard work and required uprooting your entire family and deciding to venture West for new opportunities, but that didn't stop thousands of people from emigrating and making the long journey.
From the Bay of Pigs fiasco to the tall tale of Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction," the CIA is no stranger to expensive and embarrassing blunders. One such blunder occurred in the '60s and was known as Operation Acoustic Kitty, a real-life program to train a house cat to become a super-secret spy. Unfortunately, even the most deranged cat hoarder knows cats are un-trainable, a bit of info the CIA, despite their vast knowledge, failed to realize. Cats, who rarely listen to anybody, would rather be jerks than the next Puss 'N Boots.
Genghis Khan remains one of the most feared and respected conquerors of all time. His biography is shrouded in mystery and contradiction, but the facts about Genghis Khan are that he rose up from almost certain death on the Mongolian Steppe, united his people, and began a series of gruesome conquests that killed millions, and changed the entire course of human destiny.
Bob Ross was a prolific painter who created and starred in the popular PBS television show The Joy of Painting, where he taught viewers how to create landscapes using the wet-on-wet technique. While he was well-known as an optimistic, soft-spoken artist - the Mr. Rogers of painting, really - there is quite a bit of amazing Bob Ross information out there that the public may not know. For example, what did he do before he started painting? How many "happy trees" did he actually paint? And exactly how did he feel about his infamous perm?
When it came to who survived the Titanic and who died that night in April of 1912, social status and gender were staggeringly important. It's well known there weren't enough lifeboats on the Titanic, and the ones that were used could have held more passengers - but would they have been first class ticket-holders? The wealthy elite that traveled in style? Or men from the second or third class passengers - the groups with the largest number of individuals that died on the Titanic?
Andrew Jackson has a complicated legacy. On the one hand, he was a populist hero and a venerated war general. On the other hand, he enslaved persons, killed thousands of Native Americans, created an economic depression, and killed a man. "Old Hickory" lived a mad life — eventually leading to a presidency where he gave some very questionable orders, said some very unusual things, and took other actions many deem as messed up. Maybe that's why he's referred to by some as "America's worst 'great' president."
Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid slammed into the Earth's atmosphere, traveling 45,000 miles per hour. The asteroid ripped a hole 18 miles deep in the Earth's crust, triggering devastating winds, seismic waves, and tsunamis. For decades, scientists have hypothesized that the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. The debris thrown into the atmosphere blocked out the sun, wiping out plants, and then herbivores, and then carnivores. And now, recently uncovered evidence provides a snapshot of exactly what happened on the day of the impact.
The D.A.R.E. program, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, was a staple of childhood for millions of American children in the '80s and '90s. It set out to tell kids about the perils of alcohol and other substances, but there was a catch: it didn't work. The D.A.R.E. program's effectiveness was measured many times during the first decade it was introduced, and it was found to be both costly and ineffective. People became so passionate about the idea of D.A.R.E., however, that they were willing to overlook its many shortcomings. When you look at who started the D.A.R.E. program, its failures and continued use begin to make a little more sense. Los Angeles police officers founded it in conjunction with school teachers, rather than researchers and behavioral experts. The architects of the initiative believed that telling kids to just say "no" and showing them how substance use and alcohol could negatively affect the body would lead to lower rates of consumption.
Marguerite Alibert’s story is one of gritty survival followed by a lucrative life of sex work. Alibert was a formidable woman who pulled herself up from a world of poverty to mingle among France’s elite, accomplishing her goal of turning affairs into large sums of money in the process. Marguerite is also commonly remembered as Maggie Meller, a surname she took from the man she claimed was her husband at 17. Meller was one of four different surnames she would use throughout her exotic and exciting life.
Southern Rock can be linked back to March 26th, 1969 when Duane Allman, the founder and leader of the Allman Brothers Band, summoned his brother Gregg to join a band he patched together that was fusing blues, jazz, and country music -- a combination literally unheard of at the time.
The disappearance of the Roanoke colony remains one of the oldest unsolved mysteries in the United States. It all began back in 1587, when Sir Walter Raleigh financed the attempts of John White to establish a British colony on Roanoke Island, just off the coast of North Carolina. They landed that July and established themselves rather quickly. Everything seemed to be going well for the thriving colony of 115 people. In fact, John White’s daughter, Eleanor Dare, gave birth to a daughter while in Roanoke. Virginia Dare became the first English child born in the Americas.
Erik Satie was a French composer and pianist, born on May 17th, 1866 and by all accounts, he was thought of as a talentless musician in his formative years. At least that’s how Georges Mathias, his professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire described him. "Insignificant,” “laborious," and "worthless" were his exact words. Émile Decombes, another one of Satie’s piano professors called him "the laziest student in the Conservatoire." It’s true, Satie wasn’t much of an accomplished piano player -- he was a horrible sight reader -- but he was a master composer. His compositions have been featured on everything from The Simpsons and How I Met Your Mother to The Royal Tenenbaums, Dr. Who and The Benny Hill Show, not to mention hundreds of commercials.
The life of Cleopatra VII, the last Egyptian pharaoh, was infamous, but she was far more than just the lover of Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Born in 69 BC, she was the daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, a notoriously lackadaisical monarch, and rose to power as co-ruler with her brother in 51 BC. Who was Cleopatra, aside from a queen? Eventually, after her other siblings died or were killed, Cleopatra became sole ruler of Egypt, with Caesar's help. They conceived a secret love child, but after his death, she took up with his number one guy, Antony. They had a ton of fu together, but trouble was brewing in the form of Antony's brother-in-law and arch-rival, Octavian (later Emperor Augustus). Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in Greece in 31 BC, after which she and Antony committed suicide.
Imagine a town where everyone has run away to join the circus. That's what it's like to live in Gibsonton, Florida, home to all manner of circus sideshow performers since the 1940s. During the town's heyday, its population included some of the most renowned sideshow acts in history: Al "The Giant" Tomiani, and his wife, Jeanie, "The Half-Woman;" Melvin "The Rubber Faced Man" Burkhart; Grady "The Lobster Boy" Stiles; Percilla, "The Monkey Girl;" and the conjoined Hilton sisters. Even today, with the town's better days well in the past, Gibsonton is full of circus performers who are just going about their daily lives.
She may be the most famous person to ever get burned at the stake, but do you really know everything there is to know about Joan of Arc? Joan of Arc, or La Pucelle as she’d prefer to be called, was one of the most iconic and brilliant female soldiers of all time and there’s a whole lot more to the rags-to-riches-to-rags story than you’d probably ever realize.
Pirates have a reputation--admittedly earned--for being ruthless, bloodthirsty killers. Life on the high seas demanded so much of those willing to brave it that it became customary for new pirates to develop an honorable accord. Pirates had a surprisingly complex culture, and what’s crazier to us is that movies have barely scratched the surface of their traditions.
Contrary to Hollywood scripture, RL Cowboy Lyfe was less Rawhide and more A Million Ways to Die of Dysentery in the Desert. The life of a cowboy in the 1800s was a full plate of hard work, danger, and monotony with a heaping helping of dust, snakes, bugs, and beans on the side. Today we’re exploring what it was really like to be a cowboy in the wild west.
The Black Death is a plague that changed the world. As the most profound epidemic in human history, the plague claimed the lives of millions, with nearly half of Europe's population perishing from the disease. Some feared they were living through the apocalypse amidst the chaotic upheaval, while others turned to sinful pleasure during the plague to distract from the horror. And as for what happened to victims of the plague, well, it wasn't opportune. Surviving the Black Death wasn't easy. How did someone protect themselves from it and who did they blame when they got sick? What happened to their body as the infection spread? The only certainty was demise; after all, bubonic plague in the Middle Ages didn't spare anyone: monks and nuns perished alongside mothers and their children, rich men, and even royalty. Here's how plague victims lived day-to-day.
Slave labor was a huge aspect of Roman life and the Republic depended heavily on free work from human beings who had no rights, no possessions, and were left at the whims of their masters to be worked to death, starved, tortured, and sometimes even killed for the sake of enjoyment. Sure, you may have seen Russell Crowe play one in a movie, but chances are you have no idea just how brutal it really was. Today we’re exploring what it was really like to be a Roman slave.
The true story behind Escape at Dannemora - including the brutal histories of escapees Richard Matt and David Sweat - is much darker than the typical prison TV show. How did two inmates break out of a maximum-security prison and evade capture for close to a month? For starters, several prison guards were in on the plot to help the men escape. Instead of confiscating contraband from the inmates, guards actually smuggled in art supplies and hacksaws hidden in raw meat for the prisoners. The lack of security allowed Sweat to break out of his cell 85 times without anyone noticing. As he later told police, “Shawshank ain’t got sh*t on me.”
Medieval Europe had no shortages of plagues, super deadly disease outbreaks that could wipe out a chunk of the population without much effort. But none of them were quite as fun as the bizarre case of Frau Troffea and the dancing plague that had upwards of 400 people compulsively dancing in the streets, some even to their deaths. Today, we’re going to examine the Plague that Made People Dance Themselves to Death.
The Civil War was the bloodiest in US history: more Americans perished in five years than in all other conflicts combined. What was it like to fight? Soldiers faced new technology on the field, like rifle-muskets that could cut down dozens of men in a single volley. Military tactics didn't catch up with technology, men were ordered to line up and march toward gunfire, and even those who survived the field often succumbed to infected amputations or diseases.
The ultimate fate of Jimmy Hoffa remains one of the biggest mysteries and conspiracy theories in modern American history. What happened to him? How did he seemingly disappear into thin air one, never to be seen or heard from again? One person trying to answer this question is Martin Scorsese, in the film The Irishman. Today, we’re going to explore the real life of Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran.
When we think of knights during the medieval times, we think of valiant men who chose to defend their honor in feats of jousting, chivalry, and dragon slaying. But that’s not exactly how it was for the actual knights. Today, we’re exploring What It Was Actually Like to be a Knight During Medieval Times.
Yes, pun intended. In this, the age of the Internet, Nikola Tesla has enjoyed a posthumous surge in popularity that makes Einstein look like an old french fry. It took an entire David Bowie to fill his shoes in The Prestige. Our RL Iron Man makes electric cars with his name. You can buy “F--- Edison” t-shirts for $25. The renaissance is here, and it’s been a long time coming. Today, we’re looking at things you didn’t know about Nikola Tesla.
What was everyday life like for Egyptian royals? In a word: busy. Though they lived in the lap of luxury and enjoyed a standard of living that most other ancient Egyptians didn't, Egyptian royalty generally didn't have much downtime.
Joe Pesci is an odd guy. Not a freakish kind of odd. It’s just that he goes completely against the grain of the public’s perception of him. One day, he’s a guitarist whose dream is to become an east coast lounge singer -- a couple of years later, he’s playing opposite Robert De Niro, and Scorsese fans are instantly all in on this five-foot-three ball of energy. Today, we’re going to explore why Joe Pesci has led one of the most interesting lives of any actor.
Developed during the 1920s, the iron lung was invented to help individuals with polio breathe after their torso and abdominal muscles ceased to work. Improvements to the iron lung were made throughout the 20th century, but the almost-obsolete hospital device still looks a lot like a machine used in interrogations or a cruel medical tool. For many, the iron lung's lifesaving benefits were - and, for a few, still are - worth the trouble of living in a cylindrical breathing machine.
In this Weird History mini-documentary, Mark Takahashi talks about his family’s experience with Japanese Internment Camps during World War II. After Pearl Harbor and the issuing of Executive Order 9066, Mark's paternal and maternal grandparents, Toyo and Seytsu, were sent to Japanese internment camps. Mark tells the story of both of their experiences before, during and after the war.
WWI was one of the most catastrophic events in human history. But soldiers at the front lines who spent life in the trenches lived through a particularly harrowing war experience. Their stories reveal an experience that was often bleak, but also movingly human.
How did Baldassarre Cossa, the pirate pope, become the pope and leader of the Catholic Church? From 1410-1415, Cossa reigned as Pope John XXIII, but he wasn't the only pope at the time. In fact, Cossa was one of three popes who struggled to rule over the church. Known as the Western Schism, the split lasted from 1378-1417, and multiple popes declared supremacy but refused to step down. In the chaos, the former pirate seized power, literally placing the stole of Peter on his own shoulders.
Although cleanliness in the Middle Ages was primitive compared to what modern people enjoy, it doesn't mean medieval hygiene didn't exist. Despite living in an era long before indoor plumbing, shampoo, and nail salons, people used the best hygiene practices they could. Unfortunately, they didn't have a lot to work with. Peasants had it especially bad and weren't often able to afford luxuries like more than one set of clothing. For the lower classes, personal hygiene in the Middle Ages meant keeping clean however you could, even if it wasn't easy.
You may have seen the 2007 movie, or even read the 1997 book, but the real story of the man behind ‘Into The Wild’ and his untimely death in the Alaskan Wilderness is a lot more twisted and confusing than you’d probably ever think. Chris McCandless’ death was far from straight-forward.
The ‘70s were a big decade for Lucifer. The Exorcist came out in late ‘73, Anton LaVey was really feeling himself with the growing popularity of his Church of Satan, and his book, The Satanic Bible, was really hitting its stride. This enigmatic mixture of Satanic hysteria was a perfect storm that set up one of the most horrific cases of child abuse by way of religious ceremony and tradition.
Ancient Rome was at its apex from the second century BC through the second century AD. During the Pax Romana of the first and second centuries AD, Rome benefited from the expansion of its empire, with vast amounts of wealth and diverse cultural influences flooding into its borders. What was Ancient Rome like? It had a little bit of everything. The city of Rome was a bustling urban center full of commoners, animals, and politicians - all running into each other on crowded streets, in public buildings, and at any number of sporting events. Life in Ancient Rome was full of excitement, with plenty of opportunities for entertainment and spectacle contributing to the cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Reservedly advocated as a humane killing device by Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin during the 18th century, the guillotine executed people en masse during the French Revolution; France discontinued its use after 1977. The mechanism of death evoked fear and altered public sentiment about execution. During that time, many viewed capital punishment as a grand, public spectacle, but death by guillotine was a quicker, less-involved process than hanging or traditional beheading at the blade of an ax. French Revolution participants and other crowds who witnessed guillotine executions had mixed reactions to what they saw when the blade fell. Some spectators questioned the so-called painless contraption of death, while others demanded the blood and gore of previous practices. Either way, the guillotine's widespread use became infamous as a historical instrument of allegedly merciful fatality.
King Henry VIII might be known as a bad husband with a hot temper who straight beheaded a couple of his wives. But he was also a surprisingly talented musician and was an animal lover. Henry was a complicated man. Today, we’re going to talk about some strange facts that you didn’t know about Henry VIII.
A tale as wild as the Seven Seas, the story of the Lady Juliana, a special convict ship full of prisoners sent to Australia, is one of the strangest in the continent's history. The Lady Juliana had a specific mission: carrying a cargo of female prisoners the British government hoped would help reform the struggling convict colony in New South Wales. This motley crew of British women ultimately had a lasting impact on the history of Australia.
Sparta had one of the most respected and fiercest fighting forces of their era. Daily life in ancient Sparta supported the military machine to the point where all other aspects of life revolved around it. From the time a Spartan was born to their death, they served the state and its armed forces. Spartans had to be perfect, both in society and on the battlefield. Their civilization worked as a military unit, preparing both men and women to be their best for whatever challenges they faced.
A highly-secretive program, the United States Federal Witness Protection Program protects witnesses before, during, and after a criminal trial. Also called the Witness Security Program (WITSEC), the program is a joint venture of the US Department of Justice and the United States Marshals Service. In movies and TV shows, it seems like people enter this program all the time. However, in real life, WITSEC is incredibly selective. Since anonymity is the goal, agents may also tailor protection procedures to be less conspicuous, meaning witnesses likely won't have full a protection detail at all times because it makes them stand out.
Wild West sheriffs kept law and order on the frontier alongside fellow lawmen and the local citizenry. They’ve been dramatized, glamorized, and exaggerated in films and literature for generations and yes, the life of a Wild West sheriff was dangerous, but it could also be... weird.
Queen Elizabeth the first may have been a virgin who can’t drive but what most people don’t know is that she was one of the most brutally cut-throat and significant rulers England has ever had. A badass to some, a merciless imperialist to others, it’s clear that our girl Liz stands out among the storied lineage of English monarchy.
The Industrial Revolution was a period in history where factory work was beginning to claim dominance over the workforce, beginning in England and eventually spreading over the pond into America. But lacking in regulation, oversight and, in some cases, basic knowledge of disease and how it’s spread, the lower class citizens and factory workers of this time lived in literal squalor.
You may have heard of their calendars, seen their temples, or admired one of their cool looking sculptural artifacts in a museum, but chances are you have no idea what life was really like for the Aztecs.
For centuries, many have called gout "the disease of kings" because it affected men who ate rich diets and drank heavily. As early as the ancient Greeks, doctors wrote about gout, claiming that only wealthy men could become afflicted with it. And when royals like Henry VIII came down with gout, it transformed into a fashionable condition. Just like the French imitated the royals at Versailles, Europeans aimed to get gout as a status symbol. In the 16th century, men claimed that gout prevented other maladies and even called it an aphrodisiac.
During its heyday from 1682 to 1789, Versailles wasn’t just a palace - it was the center of France’s royal world. French royals, nobles, and state officials lived together in the sprawling palace complex. But despite the regal setting, everyday life for courtiers at Versailles was often stressful, regimented, and surprisingly unsanitary.
The Black Death was the plague that changed the world. As the most profound epidemic in human history, the plague claimed the lives of millions, with nearly half of Europe's population perishing from the disease. Some feared they were living through the apocalypse amidst the chaotic upheaval, while others turned to sinful pleasure during the plague to distract from the horror. And as for what happened to victims of the plague, well, it wasn't opportune.
Lipstick has been linked with royalty and the devil. It's been called a sign of female emancipation and female oppression. Lipstick history dates back thousands of years, to ancient lipstick made from crushed gemstones and lead. In ancient Greece, harlots legally had to wear lipstick, while 18th century Britain declared lipstick a sign of witchcraft. And the origin of red lipstick, still a trendy look today, involves some downright disgusting ingredients.
The people who undertake Secret Service training keep presidents, vice presidents, first families, and even candidates safe. But their own lives can be incredibly dangerous. The Secret Service agent job description includes both protection and investigation. Being an agent may seem glamorous, but it's often anything but. Agents spend long hours watching crowds for suspicious behavior, constantly functioning on high alert. They carry weapons, investigate crimes, secure locations, and keep some of the most powerful people in the world safe.
The history of alcohol in America, from colonial cider drinkers to prohibition hooch smugglers, shows the lengths Americans went for their booze. Some cowboys were said to be so desperate at the saloons they threw back a mixture of gin and strychnine, while some speculate that the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in winter because they ran out of beer. In the late 19th century, Americans flocked to bars to try new, exciting cocktails, while German immigrants popularized a new style of beer.
Interspersed throughout the vast, open landscape of the Wild West were settlements, towns, and cities full of saloons, brothels, boarding houses, and other establishments where pleasure was for sale. Adult pleasure in the Wild West went along with drinking, fighting, and crime, contributing to less-than-luxurious lives for Wild West saloon girls. Conversely, madams could hold a large amount of wealth and influence. Madams managed their staff who serviced men visiting the boarding houses, parlors, and saloons where they set up shop.
Hedy Lamarr lead a pretty non-conventional life for a Hollywood Starlet. From fleeing a life in Nazi-occupied Austria and a Nazi-loving husband, to helping create technology for the U.S. Military, Hedy was more than just a pretty face. Today, we’re exploring the badass life of Hedy LaMarr.
In December 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke and her mother were traveling to see her father on LANSA Flight 508 when the plane was felled by lightning and broke apart. Considered the worst lightning strike in history, the crash ultimately led to the loss of every passenger on board - except Koepcke. The teenager plunged two miles through the air to the floor of a Peruvian jungle, still strapped to her seat. Despite this harrowing experience, she lived to tell the tale. Koepcke, who miraculously suffered only minimal harm, ventured through the forest for 11 days seeking help.
Are ninjas real? While they seem like a part of Japanese folklore, they are, in fact, real. While most people think of the ancient shinobi mercenaries as nothing but stealth assassins, in reality, they were a lot more James Bond than Sonny Chiba's Hattori Hanzo. Espionage was the name of the game. Cloaked in a variety of disguises, they infiltrated enemy territory to learn building layouts, swipe secret passwords, and spread misinformation. If need be, they were also up for sabotage, mainly in the form of arson.
There’s been at least one time in your life when you’ve been out at a music festival and thought about whether or not you should miss your favorite band. After all, you'd rather drive home to use the facilities you know and love than use the coffins of crap that are located on the festival grounds. But when you gotta go, and you’ve got to do what it takes to make yourself pure again. Remember, it can always be worse. If you don’t think so, take a look at this primer on porta potty history and revel in your modern ability to not have to squat over a pit.
No one will deny that Ireland has had its share of hard times. From adverse policies implemented by Britain to inequality abroad, the Irish have weathered countless struggles and horrors. Despite their often tragic history, the Irish have created a unique culture that has profoundly impacted the world at large.
If you've ever been to the restaurant Medieval Times or eaten at a Renaissance Faire, then you've been horribly misled about medieval diets. The real story of medieval foods and cooking is actually simultaneously a lot more disgusting and a lot more boring, depending on who was doing the eating.
Nothing epitomizes the disastrous Cuba policy of the United States better than the abortive, three-day, failed Bay of Pigs invasion conducted by anti-Castro Cuban exiles in April 1962. In the annals of half-assed CIA operations, this debacle ranks close to the top of the list of Agency disasters. Although he had no personal involvement in the snafu, Che Guevara eventually thanked an American government official at a South American diplomatic affair for providing such a colossally unifying blunder.
Samurai dominated the country of Japan from the 12th to the 19th century. The fierce, disciplined warriors lived according to the bushido code, an unwritten set of rules and norms based in loyalty, sacrifice, bravery, and honor, remembered popularly as samurai code. Along with the code came samurai traditions and customs that defined their physical appearance, sexual relationships, how they killed and how they died. Just like pirates cherished their earrings and Vikings dyed their hair, samurai demonstrated their dedication to the code and to their lifestyle in some unique ways.
Most people know what happened to the Donner Party, a group of settlers led by George Donner and James F. Reed, once they reached Alder Creek, California, in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Members of the party resorted to cannibalism in order to survive after they became trapped by a massive snowfall.
The Old West wasn't all cowboys, saloons, and shootouts. Pioneers living on the American frontier also relied on doctors for all kinds of medical treatments. Epidemics, accidents, and STDs kept doctors busy. But unfortunately for patients, the majority of frontier doctors lacked a medical degree. In the Wild West, anyone could pretend to be a doctor and promote treatments like drinking sulfur or applying leeches.
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. Much has been written about Booth's motivations: that he was a Confederate sympathizer, or suffering from professional jealousy, or simply wanted attention. Regardless, when Booth left Ford's Theatre that night, he had indelibly changed the course of history, slaying a man now considered one of the nation's greatest presidents. In the weeks, months, and years following the event, the nation grappled with the consequences of Booth's actions. But for Booth himself, the results were much more immediate. In John Wilkes Booth's final days, he ran. He ran for 13 days, from Ford's Theatre all the way to a small farm near Port Royal, VA. The search to find him was one of the biggest manhunts in history, with 10,000 federal troops involved.
On September 2, 1666, 80% of medieval London burned to the ground in the largest fire in the city's history. The fire raged for more than three days, consuming huge swaths of the city, but the Great Fire of London story often leaves out what happened after the fire. What happened to London after the Great Fire destroyed over 13,000 buildings? The country was amid war with the French and Dutch, so many Englishman first blamed foreigners, and while the city smoldered, mobs attacked immigrant populations. Others feared it may have been a Catholic plot. Preachers blamed the fire on London's gluttony, while the government hanged a man who falsely confessed to starting the fire.
What was it like to live at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project? As thousands worked to build a top-secret atomic device, the US military tried to keep the entire city secret. All mail was screened and sent through a fake address at the University of California. The security team warned residents to never use their real names, and to cancel all their magazine subscriptions. And the FBI even investigated the head librarian, suspecting that she was sharing secrets with the communists.
Who was Al Capone? For some, his name stirs up images of a cigar-chomping folk-hero-mobster involved in everything from racketeering to murder and drug-running (and what would ultimately put him behind bars, tax evasion). For others, maybe there's a desire to know the truth about the man who inspired Scarface. It's also possible you're just curious as his syphilitic dementia.
Making mummies in ancient Egypt wasn't for the faint of heart. Mummification was developed thousands of years ago but didn't become standard practice in Egypt until the Old Kingdom (c. 2600-2150 BCE). Embalmers were sacred individuals tasked with making sure the bodies of loved ones were appropriately prepared to make the journey to the afterlife. Ancient Egyptians approached mummification according to a detailed process tied up in myth, preservation techniques, and religious offerings.
The Great Pyramid – the largest of several Egyptian pyramids found at Giza – is the only surviving wonder of the ancient world. With such a fantastical past, it has long been debated how those pyramids were built without the help of modern technology. Over the years, it has been conjectured that ancient Egyptians carried large hand-carved rocks up massive ramps to set them in place, but that doesn’t explain how these enormous limestone blocks were transported to the Giza plateau in the first place. However, in 2017, archaeologists made a fascinating new discovery: a papyrus scroll that finally explains how the building materials for the pyramids were brought from far away.
One of the most interesting misconceptions about the Salem witch trials is that they were the first and only witch hunts that took place. What is significant about the Salem trials is they were some of the last to take place; they came just as the ones in Europe were dwindling - as something that European colonists brought with them to America. Although other trials took place in North America in the 1600s, notably the Connecticut Witch Trials, no witch had been tried and executed since 1663. It was thought to be behind everyone, so when the hysteria in Salem began, it shocked and continues to shock people. As you’ll see in these witch hunt facts, no one was safe - not men, not women, not even the family pet.
Camp Sumter, also known as Andersonville prison, housed 45,000 captured Union soldiers during the Civil War. Conditions at Andersonville were so horrific that 13,000 soldiers perished, many from overcrowding, starvation, and exposure. After the conflict, the Andersonville commander was put on trial for war crimes.
As draining as the 40 hour work week can be, we should really count our blessings for labor laws and HR departments. Picture yourself in the daily life of a serf: You work as much as your boss insists, you live in your boss’s house, and you can’t leave your boss’s house - even if they decide to sell it to someone else. You will live there forever, and your children will, as well.
Whether your name was Snorri or Erik, your daily life as a Viking was a meat-filled, chess-playing, human-sacrificing experience. Contrary to what you might think, daily life for Vikings didn't always involve going out to sea or violently conquering new lands. In fact, these Nordic seamen and their families had to keep up a certain lifestyle back at home. What was it like to be a Viking? If you were a man, you would farm by day, sleep in one big room with your entire family (and your goats) at night, and occasionally pop over to the local chieftan's longhouse for a feast with some lovely honey mead. If you were a woman, you were in charge of keeping the domestic side of things running smoothly. But don't worry if your marriage didn't work out - you were probably able to divorce your husband, even if the practice wasn't common.
Was the year 536 AD the worst ever? The 6th century boasted many exceptional events, people, and historical contributions. The exception, however, was one year that was particularly burdened with a level of tragedy and strife most historians say surpassed any other moment in history: 536 CE. This was the worst part of the Dark Ages.
Contrary to popular belief, Rome was not all crazy sex parties. In fact, ancient Roman parties were pretty tame by today’s standards. Most of the time, it consisted of noble families getting together, eating elaborate food dishes, and talking about everything from politics to the weather. These parties were beacons of status and networking opportunities, which is why they became a cornerstone in everyday Roman life. Partying in Rome was common, but racy Ancient Roman escapades weren't popping off on the daily.
The Death of Julius Caesar...What does the saying "Beware the Ides of March!" mean? It refers to the day - March 15, 44 BCE - on which Gaius Julius Caesar, a one-time dictator of ancient Rome, was murdered. His grisly assassination was legendary. But just as infamous were the conspirators behind one of the most well-known deaths in history. So just who had Julius Caesar killed?
In 1918 and 1919, the world took on a new, invisible enemy: the so-called "Spanish flu" pandemic sweeping the globe. The pandemic left tens of millions of casualties in its wake as it devastated one community after another. Given the scale of the disease, what was it like to live through the influenza pandemic? A particularly aggressive strain of influenza began infecting WWI troops in 1918. Though there isn't a consensus on where it came from, it's likely the strain originated in Kansas and spread to the rest of the world via troop movements.
There are plenty of conspiracy theories out there about the CIA and, in particular, CIA mind control. When it comes to Project MKUltra, however, the conspiracies are frighteningly accurate. The public doesn’t have to rely on hearsay and rumors to judge the project, as there are still MKUltra survivors alive and willing to share their stories, as well as a host of highly redacted documents somewhat detailing the experiments of the program.
In the chorus of the song 'American Pie' by Don McLean, we hear the line "the day the music died" which refers to February 3, 1959, when rising music stars Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP Richardson, AKA The Big Bopper, perished when their private airplane impacted into a snowy field. Holly, Valens and The Big Bopper were on the verge of success and were touring the upper Midwest on the Winter Dance Party tour when they made the fateful decision to skip a bus ride to their next destination and take a plane instead.
The medieval Catholic church was a mixed bag of corruption, persuasion, and fear-mongering. There are a number of scary historical facts about the Catholic church, many involving the use of intimidation and coercion against the faithful in an effort to - oddly enough - keep them faithful. Plus, this was a time when the majority of people were illiterate and highly superstitious, making it that much easier for the church to manipulate the population and make them ever dependent upon the church.
When most people picture a dictator, the first thought that comes to mind is usually of a strongman in military regalia. Seldom does one picture a dictator as a woman, and for good reason. There really hasn't been a female dictator in the modern sense of the word, but that doesn't mean that powerful women throughout history have never ruled with an iron fist. In fact, some of the most famous queens and female rulers in history have committed cruelties on par with their male counterparts.
Jesters, also known as court jesters or fools, are a big part of the history of the Middle Ages - but what was the role of a court jester and what was life like for him? It wasn't all fun and games; sure, the jester played a large role in medieval entertainment, but he also played the part of a trusted advisor, took part in household chores, and even followed his master into battle. He was also the unfortunate soul that was tasked with delivering bad news to his noble ruler.
Benjamin Franklin was one of America's founding fathers as well as a scientist, statesman, author, printer, activist, postmaster, and diplomat. He is renowned for his discoveries and theories on electricity and is credited with inventing swimming fins, bifocals, the lightning rod, a flexible catheter, and many other inventions we use today. Franklin was born in 1706, and was a middle child. His parents, who were soap and candle makers, could not afford to send him to school longer than two years so, by the age of 10, young Benjamin began working alongside his father. By the age of 12, he had became his brother James's apprentice at a printing shop. Franklin did not let his lack of access to a formal education prevent him from becoming one of America's most influential and famous figures.
So who was the original Cassius Clay? The simple answer is that he was a prominent abolitionist politician in the mid-1800s. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives and was appointed ambassador to Russia by Abraham Lincoln. But that's not the whole story. Known as the Lion of White Hall - Cassius Clay was named after the estate and plantation he owned and grew up on - he was also one of the toughest politicians ever to walk the halls of Congress. He won duel after duel, and his physical exploits are legendary. Not only that, but he was also an open and vocal advocate for the abolition of slavery in the 1840s, in Kentucky of all places.
The story of the real Typhoid Mary - In the early 1900s, germ theory was a relatively new concept, and many – including doctors – were unaware of how diseases spread. At the time, bacterial diseases like typhoid and dysentery could still wipe out an entire family. Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant who worked as a cook for affluent New York families. In her wake, she unknowingly left an outburst of typhoid fever, earning her the epithet "Typhoid Mary." By that time, doctors knew the disease was most commonly spread through excrement, and they were able to trace outbreaks by locating the start of an epidemic and following its spread.
American history is full of wild tales of adventure, genuinely ludicrous achievements, and no small amount of super depressing things. Caught in this tawdry tangle of sometimes violent and horrific, sometimes glorious and heroic history are Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, whose 19th century US Army unit Corps of Discovery embarked on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which stands as a singular triumph of the American spirit and will.
The world is swarming with deadly pandemics, epidemics, diseases, and the history of humanity can certainly attest to this fact. There have been many instances spanning our existence of historic epidemics that threatened humanity. While we are typically alarmed by more modern diseases and viruses such as AIDS or influenza, many scary health epidemics have been known to resurface over time. These illnesses that almost wiped out humans seem like something that could only happen in the distant past, but be warned: if we're not careful, future diseases could threaten to end humanity as we know it.
Tintin is one of the world’s most beloved comic book characters. However, his creator Herge has a dark secret no one wants to talk about. During World War Two he was accused of being a nazi collaborator. From his time in the Boy Scouts to working for a conservative catholic run newspaper, Herge’s past has always been haunted with accusations of racism and xenophobia. However, his time working for the French newspaper Le Soir, which was being run by the Germans during WWII, is a moral quandary on another level.
The younger crowd, and those in the older crowd who don’t remember high school history, might suspect that Black Tuesday was some sort of holiday-shopping event of yesteryear. Most people, however, recognize Black Tuesday—the day when the stock market crashed in 1929—as the start of the Great Depression. While the reality was not quite so simple and myths about the Great Depression abounded, there were multiple identifiable factors that led to the massive economic decline of the 1930s. October 29, 1929, stands out as such a clear and definitive beginning of the financial end.
Rock & roll was under attack during the mid-’80s. As the music got more theatrical and provocative and MTV gave it a national platform, America’s youth screamed for more. It was obvious that pop music was experiencing a revolution it hadn’t seen since Elvis swiveled his hips on The Ed Sullivan Show. Enter Dee Snider and his band, Twisted Sister.
You've likely heard tales of Anne Boleyn, the alluring woman who convinced King Henry VIII of England to give up his wife and child, break from the Catholic Church, and marry her. And she was the mother of one of the most renowned monarchs in British history, Elizabeth I. But there's a lot more to Anne than just her personal affairs, many of which were magnified or inaccurately portrayed by those with a political agenda after her death. So, who was Anne Boleyn really?
Ever since its debut on McDonald’s menus in 1981, the McRib has been a popular Golden Arches staple. Throughout its sticky existence, the McRib has garnered adoration from fans so strong that they’ll drive hundreds of miles for their favorite sandwich. The “McFib” has also earned its share of revulsion, confusion, and most of all, curiosity.
In 1942, a band of Polish soldiers freshly released from prisons and work camps stumbled upon an unlikely mascot when they traded goods for a Syrian brown bear cub. Drawn to his friendly demeanor and his outspoken antics, the Polish troops who adopted the young cub came to think of him as one of their own. As the war progressed and the men strode into combat, the cub who would grow up to become Wojtek the military bear was right by their side.
Even before Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift, rock and roll feuds tore both bands and fans apart. The transition from big hair in the late '80s to dirty hair in the early '90s created one of the most memorable rock beefs in history: Guns N' Roses (GNR) vs. Nirvana. Though the two bands shared many of the same fans, GNR and Axl Rose clung to excess in both lifestyle and performance, while Nirvana considered themselves the alternative, criticizing anything that seemed mainstream or aligned with corporate greed.
Personal hygiene in the 1700s was heavily maintained through a complicated balance of practicality, religious belief, and social position. Men and women living in colonial America washed their bodies and clothes with varying degrees of regularity, often falling victim to disease and disorder as a result. Despite the differing attributes of the original colonies, colonial hygiene in the earliest cities and rural settlements in America always left a lot to be desired, with odors, dirt, and waste being inescapable parts of daily life. Middle- and upper-class people tried to avoid or mask common nuisances like insects, usually to no avail, while lower classes simply struggled to survive.
Since filmmakers released A Cry In The Dark in 1988, dozens of sitcoms and reality shows over the years have referenced the phrase "A dingo ate my baby!" The expression is based on a true incident. The story of 2-month-old Azaria Chamberlain's death begins in August 1980, when a young Australian family lost their infant daughter during a camping trip. The Azaria Chamberlain death story gripped the world, as the public watched the Chamberlains endure a media trial. In 1982, Australian courts sentenced Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton to a life sentence in prison for killing her child. Azaria’s father, Michael Chamberlain, received an 18-month sentence as an accessory. Both parents adamantly maintained a dingo took Azaria from their tent. They also alleged the wild dog killed and devoured the infant.
Long before the phenomenon that was Amy Winehouse, whose mesmerizing voice captivated millions, there was Janis Joplin, to whom Winehouse was often compared. While Joplin only released three albums during her lifetime (and a few posthumously) and only one Top 40 hit, she still became one of the biggest American music stars of the 1960s, and her music continues to influence musicians today.
From 1485 through the latter part of the 16th century, a new plague – English "sweating sickness" – ravaged England and Europe, killing thousands of people. The fearsome disease had many names including, "Sudor Anglicus," "English Sweat," "the Sweat," "the Swat," "the New Acquaintance," and “Stoupe! Knave and know thy master." The dreaded sweat, which took its victims in fewer than 24 hours, was more or less localized in England, but it made its way to the European Continent in 1528.
Contrary to popular belief, not all pirates hobbled on peg-legs with talking parrots perched on their shoulders, patches covering their eyes, and broad West Country accents sharpening their vowels. One of the most important, fascinating, and relatively forgotten pirates was actually a woman, known to history as the so-called "Pirate Queen." There have been other lady pirates in history, but perhaps none as significant as Gráinne Ní Mháille, better known by the Anglicized version of her Irish name, Grace O'Malley. She was born in western Ireland around 1530. Though brought up in a life of relative privilege and wealth, she also faced limitations on her ambitions. The Ireland of her birth was one of eroding independence, as England sought to exert more and more influence over the island to its west.
No Edgar Allan Poe biography would be complete without examining the frequently bizarre circumstances surrounding his life. Although today Poe is universally admired and respected, his journey was a difficult and frequently depressing existence fraught with poverty, misfortune, and the death of numerous loved ones. Perhaps it is fitting that such an inventive writer who frequently created tales involving mystery, murder, and the macabre would endure such a haunted reality. Poe epitomized "the starving artist," a man who literally lived and died for his art. These weird, bizarre, and strange facts will help explain, "Who was Edgar Allan Poe?"
Every American who lived through the '80s remembers the Challenger explosion. But what happened to cause the famous national tragedy? How could such a catastrophe happen when NASA so meticulously checks and double checks all the equipment at their disposal? Even with all the risks, astronauts gladly put their lives on the line for decades in the pursuit of reaching for the stars. The Challenger tragedy was not the first or the last catastrophe to befall NASA. The exploratory organization has not forgotten the sacrifices of the seven crewmembers who died on January 28, 1986: Francis "Dick" Scobee, Mike Smith, Judy Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ron McNair, Greg Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.
Bold, brash, and just a little bit bonkers, Adrian Carton de Wiart was heralded as the "unkillable soldier" for good reason: Nothing slowed him down. As a veteran of some of the 20th century's deadliest conflicts, Carton de Wiart endured everything from serious head wounds to missing limbs but never seemed to consider the immense costs of war.
Featuring rock stars, singers, and musicians who died at 27, this list of 27 Club members includes some of the greatest musicians who died before 30. "The 27 Club" or "Club 27" is the colloquial name given to a group of influential rock musicians who died at the young age of 27. There are a few "members" who are always listed in "27 Club" groupings—such as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain—and members to come later like Amy Winehouse.
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Arguably the crime of the century, Kennedy's murder stunned the American people and set off an outpouring of grief around the world. But the days after JFK's assassination also involved additionally shocking events and dramatic moments. In the immediate aftermath of the JFK assassination, Kennedy's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot to death live on American television. Oswald's background as a former resident of the Soviet Union, his Russian wife, and connections to communist Cuba added a cold war component to the assassination. The sketchy background of Oswald's assassin, Jack Ruby, also quickly fomented numerous conspiracy theories that became an integral part of any future discussion of JFK's assassination - one of these even claims countless eerie coincidences between Kennedy's life and that of Abraham Lincoln. What happened following the assassination of John F. Kennedy - arguably one..
When Woody Harrelson first rose to fame on the sitcom Cheers in 1985, his father had already made headlines for a much more nefarious reason. Charles Voyde Harrelson was given two life sentences for the murder of Texas judge John H. Wood Jr. - the first assassination of a US federal judge in the 20th century. While Woody would go on to enjoy a long and successful career in Hollywood, Charles's conviction was the end of a decades-long stint as a professional hitman. Although he was only ever convicted of two contract killings, it's believed that he was involved in many more.
The 30th anniversary celebration of the Woodstock music festival took place in Rome, NY, from July 22-25, 1999. But what was originally conceived as a modern homage to the landmark hippie-fueled musical lovefest of the 1960s ended up mutating into a disaster marked by aggression and mayhem. By the end, Woodstock '99 was being referred to as "The Woodstock '99 Riots." What caused Woodstock '99 to become such a low point in music history? The major culprits were oppressive summer heat, jacked-up prices, violent party crashers, and a lack of logistical oversight. When more than 220,000 people arrived to Oneida County that weekend, no one - especially the festival's organizers - were prepared for what was about to happen.
Pirate ships were dirty - there's no way around it. The life of a pirate was fraught with danger and disease, but the pirates themselves did find ways to clean themselves and their surroundings - at times. Maintaining hygienic practices on a pirate ship was an uphill battle. Lack of access to clean water, combined with confined living spaces, led to the rapid spread of disease. Harsh elements and inadequate nutrition further contributed to generally poor health. Baths, laundry, and oral hygiene were at a minimum, even with a somewhat surprising amount of medical resources.
Imagine surfacing from an ocean dive only to discover your boat is gone and you're completely alone. This scary situation actually happened to Tom and Eileen Lonergan on January 25, 1998. Tom and Eileen Lonergan were experienced divers on a trip to Australia's Great Barrier Reef when their dive boat crew left them behind. Two days passed before anyone realized they were missing, and rescue teams searched for the married couple unsuccessfully for days. The two were never seen again, their bodies assumed to be lost at sea.
Sometimes, the words of politicians save lives. In the case of Teddy Roosevelt, "Bull Moose" Party presidential candidate in 1912, that was very literally true. Having already served as the 26th President of the United States, Roosevelt launched a third-party candidacy for a return to office in 1912. He was disenchanted with the political climate, especially with the sitting president, William Howard Taft, his chosen successor. As a result, Roosevelt started a third political party - the National Progressive Party - a group better known as the Bull Moose Party.
Long before Hugh Hefner and his guests in the Playboy Mansion graced television reality shows, women known as "Bunnies" served as the waitstaff in Hefner's clubs. Bunnies were distinct from Playmates, and clubs carefully vetted women for elite roles in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and London. Rare in the 1960s, Playboy Bunnies were afforded a largely unprecedented level of financial independence, and many were able to save enough money to purchase their own homes.
For decades, George Carlin was one of the most original and popular comedians to take the stage. His “Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV” routine is often hailed as a masterpiece of standup comedy and helped him get the title of one of the best standup comedians; it took society’s taboos and hangups to task while being flat-out hilarious. Carlin’s seven words are so notoriously profane they got tangled up in a court case, which took on the FCC’s power of censorship and landed in front of the Supreme Court.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was a homesteader and author, famous for her Little House on the Prairie book series. Like Juana Maria, who inspired the book, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Wilder actually existed. Laura Ingalls Wilder was a real woman who wrote books inspired by events that took place in her life. For example, she really grew up on rural farms in multiple states; her sister Mary actually went blind; and her husband, Almanzo, was not a work of fiction. Pictures of the real Laura Ingalls Wilder and family exist, and there is a museum dedicated to the family in Mansfield, Missouri, where visitors can at least see part of the real little house on the prairie.
Sultans in the Ottoman Empire loved to eat. In the 15th century, Topkapi Palace boasted a kitchen staff of 100 people, a number that grew to 500 during the 16th-century reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. Before 1600, the kitchen staff topped 1,000 people who were all dedicated to creating the confections, drinks, and elaborate meals eaten by the sultan. Ottoman sultans prized expensive luxuries that expanded beyond the Ottoman harems and into their kitchens as well. They stocked their pantries with ground orchid and other exotic spices, and imported ingredients from across their massive empire and from neighboring territories, including the Persian Empire and China.
On July 17, 1918, the House of Romanov came to an end when Nicholas II - the former tsar of imperial Russia - was gunned down alongside his wife and children in a surprise execution. The slaying of the Romanov family remains a gruesome chapter in modern history - and the whereabouts of their remains was one of history's greatest mysteries.
Everyone remembers 1939’s The Wizard of Oz, starring young Judy Garland; the classic tale that teaches you that there is no place like home, that the greatest weapon is water, and that we all have what we seek within ourselves. The popularity of the movie has, for decades, spawned all manner of spinoffs, merchandise, and even a creepy Wizard of Oz theme park. The kinds of lessons weaved throughout the movie are also present in the original Wizard of Oz books, on which the film is loosely based, but in the original stories, there are so many limbs being lost in any given chapter that the heartfelt message gets a little buried. The original Wizard of Oz stories were told through a series of 14 episodic novels by L. Frank Baum, who wrote them in the early 1900s.
Woodstock 1969 can be seen as the crowning event of the decade's free love movement, and its cultural impact spans generations. The shining star of the event turned out to be Jimi Hendrix's national anthem performance. His electric guitar rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" shocked and awed both those who saw it and those who heard about it. Placed within the larger context of the festival, Hendrix's set was seen as an act of protest against the ongoing conflict in Vietnam.
What happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921? A mob of 10,000 whites descended on Greenwood, the richest black neighborhood in America, after a black teenager on his way to a blacks-only bathroom stepped on the foot of a white elevator operator. The same flimsy pretext was used for a town's destruction, including the Florida Rosewood Massacre only two years later.
Polio reached its apex in the United States in 1952, with roughly 58,000 new cases of the disease reported. People spent their summers, also called "Polio Season," hiding inside, staying away from public swimming pools, movie theaters, and other communal spaces. Parents were so fearful of polio that they even purchased Infantile Paralysis insurance, the name for polio at the time, to protect themselves and their children. As a disease that afflicted thousands of children, adolescents, and adults each year, polio was devastating and incurable. Polio led to paralysis and, in many cases, death. With no cure available, vaccination was the only real hope.
Like any great conflict, the Crusades have been the subject of myths and misinformation for years. While few still believe the propaganda that justified the fighting, various false facts have proliferated over the years, concerning everything from the motivations of the Crusaders to their reception in Arab lands. It's easy to understand how both storytellers and audiences get swept up in the romance of the Crusades. The epic sweep, the clash of cultures, and the stunning aggression still thrill us today. But what was life actually like for a medieval crusader? Of course, the answer varies. The wars were radically different experiences for a noble knight than they would be for a common farmer.
For centuries, hemophilia was a dangerous genetic disorder with no treatment. Children with hemophilia often didn't make it to adulthood, since a bump or fall could cause massive internal bleeding. But why was hemophilia known as the royal disease? In the 19th century, royal intermarriage meant Europe's royal families shared a small gene pool. And Queen Victoria, the product of generations of cousin marriages, carried a rare genetic mutation that caused hemophilia. She passed it on to three of her children who went on to marry other royal families and spread the disorder.
The murder of John Lennon stands as one of the most significant events in music history. The death of the beloved songwriter and legendary member of the Beatles came just a decade after the band's breakup, well into his equally prolific solo career and new life as a parent with wife Yoko Ono. On December 8, 1980, Lennon was shot four times by Mark David Chapman, a crazed fan who waited for Lennon outside the singer's apartment at the Dakota in New York City. Arrested on the scene, Chapman later pleaded guilty and received a sentence of life in prison. Lennon's death remains so significant that most people old enough to remember it know exactly where they were when it occurred; the event serves as a cultural turning point.
Practically every book, movie, and TV show made in the last century that references the Victorian era romanticizes the time period. Beautiful gowns, lavish homes, and passionate romance are staples of the now bygone time. But in much of the media we consume about the seemingly sophisticated Victorians, no one talks about where they got their water or went to the bathroom, or when they last bathed. When you peel back all the layers of silk and lace, you'll discover that the Victorians were actually pretty gross.
Many think of the Victorian era as a time of tight-laced corsets and formal teas. And it was—but it was also the time of the Great Stink, a two-month stretch of 1858 in which London's primary water source, the River Thames, was so full of untreated sewage baking in the sun that the entire city took on an odious reek. The smell was so bad that it was blamed for illnesses among the upper class, reportedly caused citizens miles away to throw up whenever the wind changed, and eventually lead to the development of the London sewage system.
Nefertiti is one of the most fascinating Egyptian rulers in history. She was a queen, but also a priestess - and might have even been a pharaoh. She and her husband, Amenhotep IV (AKA Akhenaten), tossed out the old gods and set up the sun as god in the form of Aten. This didn’t go over well with everyone, but it did give the couple absolute power over their subjects. In her 14 years of rule, Queen Nefertiti was held in high regard by her husband, her royal subjects, and Thutmose, the sculptor who famously captured her face. Nefertiti was depicted as wearing the crown of a pharaoh, and may have ruled as one after her husband’s death while King Tut was preparing to rule.
In 1971, professor Philip Zimbardo put together one of the most intriguing and famous psychology experiments ever: the Stanford Prison Experiment, designed to study the effects of incarceration on prisoners and guards. Using an advertisement to recruit college-aged men in the area for a one-of-a-kind study, Zimbardo and his team hoped to remove volunteers predisposed to mental illness and those with existing records from their experiment. Nonetheless, the Stanford Prison Experiment brought out those qualities in its participants.
1980. The start of the decade. It was a totally rad decade that was filled with many changes to our culture. From the rise of Ronald Reagan to the tragic ending of John Lennon, the year 1980 would see many new, cool, and totally weird changes. Weird History is taking a look back at the year 1980. Part 1 of 10 of the 1980s Timeline.
As Britain's second-longest reigning monarch, Queen Victoria ruled Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901. If her would-be assassins had gotten their way, that reign would have been a lot shorter. Queen Victoria survived no fewer than seven - or technically eight - assassination attempts during her long tenure as ruler of England but was only injured once. Her husband, Prince Albert, supposedly threw himself in front of the Queen while protecting her. Somehow, all seven of her almost-assassins all escaped with their lives, but most were sent to Britain's felon-riddled penal colony, Australia.
Who's all on this list of rock stars and bands that died in plane crashes? Aviation accidents have been the cause of many famous fatalities. In the music profession, especially, many young lives have been lost to accidents in the air. Over the decades several bands have died in airplane accidents as the world mourned.
Let's look back at 1981 - In this video Weird History is going to talk about the news, culture, sports, and entertainment, and all that was weird in the year 1981. 1981 would be a year filled with deadly events, including attempts on Ronald Reagan as well as Pope John Paul II, we would also see high-profile marriages, Lady Di and Prince Charles as well as General Hospital's Luke and Laura and the emergence of the video game with the debut of Donkey Kong.
Though Marie Antoinette may not have actually said, “Let them eat cake,” the French monarchy and aristocracy displayed an almost laughable disconnection from common people in the decades leading up to the French Revolution. Though historians have been right to point to a variety of French Revolution causes - ranging from economic and social issues to questions of political representation - it is also true that French royal excess played no small role in driving a wedge between commoners and royals. Considering the decadence, cluelessness, and outrageous choices of the monarchy, it almost seems like the French were begging for revolution.
Today, pop culture includes vampires of all shapes and sizes, from the lovelorn teenagers of the Twilight and True Blood franchises to the bloodthirsty antagonists of the Blade series to the militant version of Dracula found in Castlevania. All modern vampires can trace their origins to Bram Stoker's Dracula, which was published in 1897, but the aristocratic shapeshifter in Stoker's novel can trace his origins to diseases that ravaged North America and Europe. In the 18th and 19th centuries, epidemics like tuberculosis and rabies swept across populations almost unchecked. Since disease and its causes were poorly understood, contemporary medicine offered little help. Facing the very real possibility of a fatal illness, many people turned to superstition for something to blame: vampires.
The year 1982, America would see new changes to the culture, sports, and entertainment landscape. In 1982, we would see the emergence of David Letterman, Michael Jordan's first shot on the big stage, and the move E.T. take the country by storm. Take a look back at the year 1982, part III in Weird History's retro look at the 80's.
Marie Antoinette faced tragedy as the queen of France - but what was life like for Marie Antoinette's kids? As queen, Marie Antoinette gave birth to four children, but only one of them survived the French Revolution. Although the queen's children grew up in luxury, living in the lavish palace of Versailles, two spent years locked in a tower during the Revolution.
George Washington's second inauguration took place in Philadelphia in March 1793. Six months later, yellow fever had ripped through America's capital city, taking 5,000 lives. How did the Founding Fathers react when the epidemic called "American plague" struck Philadelphia? Yellow fever, spread by mosquitos, causes internal bleeding and insanity before claiming patients' lives. When the disease struck in August 1793, fear spread through the city. Eyewitnesses reported "universal terror" as conditions worsened. By October, a hundred people were succumbing to the illness each day. Surprisingly, many Founding Fathers simply fled the city, leaving behind the poor to suffer in the streets. Both President George Washington and Thomas Jefferson abandoned Philadelphia. Two prominent Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Rush, stayed behind. Hamilton and Rush argued over the cause of yellow fever and how to treat it - and both men even caught the disease. Here's how Philadelphia su
In the year 1983, we saw many firsts; Michael Jackson's first moonwalk, Sally Ride becoming the first woman in space to the release of Madonna's "Lucky Star." The early 80s were starting to take shape. Join Weird History's Timeline as we dive into some 1983 nostalgia as we explore the hit songs, popular movies, the news, culture, and significant events in America and the world in the year 1983.
When Napoleon Bonaparte returned to France in 1815, he brought with him a Hundred Days campaign to recapture his power and glory. Napoleon emerged from the French Revolution as a military hero and, during the last decade of the 18th century, seized control of the French government. He consolidated his authority in France while embarking on military campaigns throughout Europe, establishing himself as consul for life in 1802 and emperor two years later. By 1812, Napoleon fought against nearly every European country, attempting to take over lands from Britain to Russia. A series of losses, including a failed campaign into Russia, led to his downfall and, when a coalition of Austrian, Prussian, Russian, and Swedish troops marched into Paris in 1814, Napoleon was forced to abdicate. As a condition of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, he went into exile on the Isle of Elba in the Mediterranean. He retreated to the small parcel of land, only to return to Europe in early 1815.
Today, we think of 1700s-era France as a period of unwashed and unparalleled squalor. While this is partially a misconception, it does contain some truth. During the 18th century, people's attitudes towards personal hygiene were laxer than they are today, for a variety of reasons. In a world without the hundreds of modern conveniences we take for granted, personal hygiene was expensive and logistically difficult to maintain. Besides that, experts of the time believed that being too clean was unhealthy. Towards the end of the century, medical and scientific advances showed the benefits of cleanliness, and hygiene was gradually understood to be beneficial. Despite this, cleanliness was still a luxury reserved for the elite.
In the year 1984, long synonymous with the George Orwell novel "1984" - the world was wondering what year it would be? Los Angeles was hosting the 1984 Summer Olympics gave us a reason for optimism, while Apple's commercial "1984" boldly landed during the Super Bowl. Weird History is going back to the 80s, this notalgic look at the news, culture, sports, entertainment, and all that was weird in the year 1984.
The release of Netflix's The Highwaymen begs an important question: What is the true story of Bonnie and Clyde? Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow truly did live a fast and wild life on the wrong side of the law. A timeline of Bonnie and Clyde's spree offers a play-by-play of the critical events in the couple's short-lived lawbreaking career. Bonnie and Clyde's spree occurred against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Both Texas natives, Bonnie and Clyde were close in age - Clyde was born in 1909 and Bonnie in 1910 - and united in circumstance, since both came from families that often struggled to make ends meet. Their attraction quickly turned into a relationship, no doubt heightened by their shared ambition for fortune and fame. Holding up stores and banks became a means for the pair to gain wealth and excitement in down-and-out America.
On October 1st, 1993, standup comedian Bill Hicks performed on David Letterman’s new late night talk show for the first time -- it was a classic Hicks set that everyone had come to expect. In less than seven minutes, Hicks delivered some of his most stinging commentary on America to date. Unfortunately, the only people who saw Hicks’ set saw it live during the show’s afternoon taping in the Ed Sullivan Theater. The comedian’s performance never made it to air that night. Letterman edited Hicks out of that night’s episode...
Perhaps you've heard stories of the mythical Atari landfill in New Mexico full of unsold E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial games. Well, there's actually nothing mythical about it: the E.T. game landfill is very much real. In fact, it's not just the universally panned game based on the beloved Spielberg film that's hidden beneath the earth in Alamogordo, NM. Atari dumped a number of their garbage games in this infamous spot, and they tried to cover it up - literally. Much like the question "What happened to the G4 network?," people are still wondering what happened to Atari. For years, the company was at the forefront of arcade and in-home gaming innovation. They're responsible for Pong and the first video game Easter egg. Plus, they were one of the first consoles to play Tetris, even if they technically didn't have the real rights. But the early '80s got ugly in a hurry for the once-legendary creators of Pac-Man.
The life and legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots, remains intriguing more than 400 years after her passing. Her political scheming and personal hardships were colorful enough to inspire several films, including 2018's Mary Queen of Scots, but the fictionalized version can't compete with the actual events leading to her execution. After becoming Queen of Scotland when she was just days old, Mary was married into the French royal family. Widowed as a teenager and a stranger to her homeland, Mary seized her birthright and actively ruled Scotland from the early 1560s until she was deposed in 1567. Mary's love life was fodder for Protestant naysayers and political rivals alike, and her relationship with her cousin and fellow female monarch, Elizabeth I, was fraught with tension.
During the mid-19th century in China, a series of revolts against the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) raged, devastating the landscape and claiming millions of lives. The Nian Rebellion (1851-1869) in the east and north of China had ties to a Buddhist sect, while the Taiping Rebellion in the south was led by a man who claimed to be the recipient of divine revelations. Hong Xiuquan (b. 1814), a schoolteacher from a small village in the Guangzhou province, led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, nearly toppling the government and establishing himself as ruler. In the context of economic strife and religious fervor, Xiuquan blended public need and radical spirituality into an appealing movement for change. Chinese commoners flocked to support Xiuquan, and once he established his Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the country descended into civil strife that altered China's path in immeasurable ways.
Neil Armstrong made history on July 20, 1969, by becoming the first man on the moon, but he didn't brag about his experiences on Apollo 11. Facts surrounding the historic mission are more well-known than the story of the man who took that first step. Armstrong was such a soft-spoken and levelheaded guy - he might have been forgotten if it weren't for his accomplishments in space travel. Unlike his outspoken crewmate Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong refused to become a celebrity or take advantage of his fame. Neil Armstrong facts reveal a lifelong commitment to flying and acting for the greater good that earned him an opportunity as an astronaut.
The practice of blood feuding was a fundamental aspect of the Icelandic judicial system during the Middle Ages. A feud, something so complex that it lacks an agreed-upon definition, involved vengeance and hatred among groups - animosities that played themselves out through acts of aggression, compromise, or dishonor. In Iceland, blood feuds were not only part of the Viking justice system, but also social and political in nature. According to the Icelandic sagas and other historical sources, blood feuding involved specific guidelines and processes.
One of the world's most notable feats of architecture is the Colosseum in Rome. Opened in 80 CE by Emperor Titus, this massive structure existed solely to entertain the masses with gladiator fights, animal skirmishes, and, at some point, miniature naval conflicts. While it only took the Romans less than a decade to construct the Colosseum, careful calculation and planning were required. Architects and workers put extensive thought into every detail, from the amphitheater's architectural symmetry to its complex underground maze of corridors and capstans. For centuries, we have tried to imagine what occurred in the Colosseum, fleshing out a gory fantasy in film and media. For instance, the movie Gladiator, for all its inaccuracies, attempts to create an image of how Romans lived and fought. What we don't see is the grueling work - typically done by enslaved people - it took to put on one of the Colosseum's gruesome shows. Like sex in Ancient Rome, gladiator fights were about power...
Weird History is taking you back to the year 1985. We are mid-80s, the middle of the decade would be the catalyst for such great movies as Back to the Future and Rambo: First Blood Part II, Mike Tyson's first professional fight, and the start of such great 80s TV hits like MacGyver. Take a trip back to 1985 with us as we cover the news, culture, sports, entertainment, and all that was weird in the year 1985.
What happened right after the Revolutionary War ended? It's easy to think the United States of America was born immediately after the British surrendered at Yorktown, but in truth it was a long, arduous process to transform the idealistic embryonic state to a fully formed nation. Only after many years of challenging diplomatic talks was a peace treaty with Great Britain established. Not even the most insanely cool Revolutionary War hero could help speed up the process. It also took a long time for the British soldiers to actually leave American soil, taking loyalists and slaves with them back to England. The real work began after the British left, however. History rarely plays out easily for anyone.
Marvin Gaye was one of twentieth century Motown's brightest and most romantic crooners, and his short-lived singing career was full of range, promise, and tragedy. As a young church singer, Gaye demonstrated his talent and soon branched out to mainstream music and played or sang alongside The Supremes with Diana Ross before launching into his own success. Marvin Gaye songs include duets like "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" with Tammi Terrell and political anthems like "What's Going On," but his death brought all of that to an end. The murder of Marvin Gaye by his own father in 1984 was a shocking event, rife with psychological and substance abuse backstories that clarify - but don't necessarily explain - how he died. Ultimately, Marvin Gaye's life was full of ups and downs that brought him back to his parents' house and into the line of his father's fire one day before his 45th birthday.
Weird History presents Timeline 1986 - we're going back to '86, prime 80s, when we would see terrible tragedies such as the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion and Chernobyl meltdown. But it wouldn't be all bad news, 1986 would also see such highlights as the inception of Pixar, Clint Eastwood became mayor and great movies like Top Gun and James Cameron's Aliens. Check out the news, sports, culture, and entertainment in the year 1986.
The people of ancient Rome may have lived thousands of years ago, but their diets were anything but old-fashioned. In fact, they chowed down on many foods we would shudder to even consider consuming today. The rich and famous, ranging from studs like Caesar and Antony to leading ladies like Livia, loved nothing more than sampling the oddest dishes our modern brains can imagine.
The US government seems to know far too much about its citizens, so it's disturbing to realize how little citizens know about the governing body. Learning what happens inside presidential bunkers and where the president would go during a nuclear attack is useful information, though. These bunkers were built in the middle of the 20th century, largely as a response to the mounting nuclear panic that accompanied the Cold War. Raven Rock, built in 1951, was one of the predominant shelters. From the underground city at the Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania, to the Greenbrier Bunker that's hidden in plain sight under a luxury resort in West Virginia, to the top-secret NORAD lair at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, these bunkers are incredibly secure.
Welcome to Weird History's Timeline 1987. We're taking a look at the news, culture, sports, and entertainment during the year 1987. Going back to '87, the materialistic 80s would see a slew of corruption, from PTL to Ivan Boesky to the Iran-Contra Affair. But there would be some uplifting moments - rescuing Jessica McClure from a well, the release of "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles", as well as the signing of the Nuclear Arms Treaty. Sit back and enjoy a recap of 1987, one of the most exciting years of the 80s!
Gladiators were the rock stars of the Roman Empire. But what was gladiator combat like? How did the slaves of the arena fight and survive over centuries worth of matches? Gladiator combat was a little different than movies would have you believe. Since myth is often more entertaining than reality, it can be hard to differentiate between fact and fiction, especially with history as distant as that of Ancient Rome. Lucky for you, here's a list explaining the real deal with what went on in the arena. It's pretty crazy.
Infants in medieval art all have one thing in common: They don't look like babies. Instead, they resemble miniature versions of middle-aged men, sometimes complete with receding hairlines and ripped muscles. Depictions of weird, prematurely aged babies appeared throughout the medieval era and into the Renaissance when the trend (thankfully) started to fade away. The Renaissance, in particular, may have spawned some of the best paintings of all time, but what's up with all those ugly babies in old paintings?
Weird History presents Timeline and the year 1988. In 1988, we would see one of the largest oil spills ever with the Exxon Valdez, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson, take one an undefeated opponent in one of the biggest boxing matches of the century and the release of Eddie Murphy's iconic "Coming to America." Check out Timeline 1988 for the news, sports, culture, and all that was weird. Weird History's Timeline: The 80s.
One of the most important battles in US history was the Battle of the Alamo. While most people know about the outcome of the battle, do you know what happened before the Alamo? Thanks to the glamour of Hollywood cinema, everyone envisions the Alamo as one of the most incredible sieges. The battle is seen as a romanticized epic war between Mexico and some of America's most legendary figures, such as Colonel James Bowie and Davy Crockett. While the battle was a significant and pivotal moment in American history, the hard facts of the Battle of the Alamo are not as glorious as many people believe.
It’s hard for those of us in the modern era to grasp the true horror of the Chernobyl disaster. Even a deep dive into the Chernobyl meltdown timeline can only reveal so much about the very real, visceral consequences of the event. Putting the sequence of events that led to Chernobyl into context takes an event that American history books casually summarize as a horrible accident and paints the incident for what it really was: a series of compounding mistakes that produced one of the greatest environmental tragedies in human history.
It is 1989! Weird History presents Timeline: 1989, the last year in the decade of the 1980s. ’89 would see the liberty prevail when the Berlin Wall fell, along with several other countries in Eastern and Central Europe - From Czechoslovakia to Romania, communism took a severe blow. Weird History and Timeline are going to show you the news, culture, sports, entertainment of 1989.
Most people have never heard of the Cerrejón coal mine, located in Colombia. The mine pumps out over 30 million tons of coal each year, and it's also become a critical site for scientists. In fact, the coal mine ranks as one of the best fossil sites in the world, providing a window into a tropical rain forest from 60 million years ago. Scientists almost missed the fossils at Cerrejón - until an undergraduate noticed a surprising number of sandstone impressions of fossil leaves. His discovery led to an expedition that found multiple new species, including the largest snake in history.
When you think of the stereotypical Wild West individual, what comes to mind? Does your mind conjure images of dirty, gruff men as mean as rabid coyotes, spitting large chunks of tobacco into metal spittoons? The type of men who would shoot you over a card game and spend their days riding through the vast Western frontier with a revolver firmly attached to their hip? Well, those men certainly did exist, but not many people remember how many tough women and Wild West heroines made their marks upon history.
Hygiene in the American Wild West was probably about what you'd expect - unhygienic. Men and women who made their way west across the North American landscape contended with harsh weather and difficult terrain - a less-than-ideal situation for finding a place to bathe. With the journey to new lands came a perpetual quest to find clean water, something that could be a matter of vital importance.
More than almost any other ancient ruler, facts about King Tut, the boy who led an empire and was buried in a tomb stuffed with gold and artifacts, have been hard to deduce. Who was this young man given the responsibility of carrying on a line descended from the gods? How did he live? And how did he die? Since Tut's tomb was found in 1922, these questions have slowly been answered. Thanks to advanced technology in DNA analysis, we've found some surprising things about his heritage and his physical stature.
A pearly-white smile wasn't always the status symbol it is today. In fact, people in the past frequently blackened or filed their teeth - some even replaced their teeth with gold as an indication of their wealth. Throughout history, teeth have been linked to status, and as such, dental fashion has changed over time.
Who was Catherine the Great? You definitely know the name but probably not the life of the fascinating woman behind it. In reality, the Russian empress truly earned her "The Great" epithet, though her achievements weren't necessarily "good." Born a minor German princess, Catherine married the heir to the Russian throne, tossed him out of power, and became a powerful ruler in her own right. Many Catherine the Great biographies mention her vigorous foreign and domestic policies as well as her tyrannical tendencies. But when she wasn't ruling, what did Catherine the Great do?
You know you’ve truly become a historical villain when your very name becomes a negative epithet. That’s definitely the case for Benedict Arnold – a man whose name has become synonymous with betrayal and treachery. The history of Benedict Arnold is actually far more complex and grey than most people realize, but all of the great things accomplished by the man will forever be overshadowed by the fateful decision he made late in America’s Revolutionary War. By betraying his fellow Revolutionaries to their hated British rivals, Arnold ensured that he’d forever remain a villain in the minds of American history books and guaranteed that the lighter side of his personal story would forever be obscured.
The daily life of a medieval executioner was not easy. They did more than simply chop off heads and break prisoners on the wheel. Trying to uphold justice and set an example for their community was only one part of an executioner's duties; they also served as medical professionals and sometimes as spiritual guides, helping the condemned accept their fate and beg forgiveness before God. Occasionally, other villagers ostracized executioners for having a grim job, and yet, as they say, “It’s a job and somebody has to do it.”
Dating in the Victorian era in America and in Britain meant navigating through a fog of modesty, prudence, ritual, corsets, top hats, calling cards, and your inner voice feverishly whispering etiquette book platitudes: "There is no propriety in voluntarily prolonging your ride, with a young gentleman, till after dark!" "Nothing can take the place of true genuine manhood!" Etiquette books were all the rage at the time, advising men and women on Victorian courtship rituals and what it means to be a proper lady or manly gentleman.
During the Revolutionary War, food was often at the center of the clash between the American colonists and the British. From the Boston Tea Party to coffee riots, Americans used food to express their anger at the British. Others stocked up on rum and Madeira wine, including George Washington, who ordered 1,900 bottles of wine after taking over the Continental forces. The conflict created food shortages, which some enlisted men combated by eating unusual foods. Troops fried up flour mixed with water, which they called firecake, and ate unappetizing foods like ox liver and sheep's head.
One of the worst movie set accidents ever occurred during the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie. The film is now mainly remembered for its tragic behind the scenes story. Steven Spielberg decided to make the hit television show into a motion picture and he enlisted three other directors to create segments of the film. John Landis, who was a hot commodity after Animal House and The Blues Brothers, was given "Time Out." In this segment, a man tries to make up for past sins by becoming a hero.
Humanity has lived through some horrific periods in history, including natural disasters, plagues, and man-made crises. Plagues have threatened to wipe out civilization more than once, while famine, floods, and fires have brought devastation and destruction. Wars, depressions, and atomic weapons have also contributed to the darkest times in human history. How did the world recover from calamities like the Black Death, the Great Depression, and the Spanish flu?
The Tower of London is one of the most historic places in England; it's also considered one of the most haunted. As the site of numerous executions, torture, and imprisonment, the bloody Tower of London story makes it an obvious site for ghost sightings. It may appear on every tourist's "must see" list, but for paranormal enthusiasts, especially those who love history, the Tower of London should be at the very top.
If you came of age in the pre-streaming era of the '90s, you remember having to buy your CDs from stores. Or, maybe you took advantage of the Columbia House music club and its eight-CDs-for-a-penny deal, a discount that was too good to be true. How could they sell products for next to nothing and still make a profit? With a business model that’s downright Kafka-esque, music clubs managed to make money hand over fist by maintaining a low overhead, a high markup, and an ever-changing set of confusing rules. The following slice of music industry history lets you in on how music clubs made money, what customers were paying for, and how exactly they were being screwed.
During the American Revolution, newspapers printed sensational stories about George Washington's affairs. An enslaved woman named Venus claimed George fathered her son. And years after his passing, a racy love letter written to a married woman threatened to destroy George's sterling reputation. But what was Washington's private life really like? Was he as virtuous as his reputation? And what about George Washington's children - is it true the man died without ever fathering one?
Ancient Rome was the greatest empire in the world - until it collapsed. Did lead exposure doom the empire? Recent research uncovered high levels of lead in Imperial Rome's drinking water, but that wasn't the most dangerous source of lead in the ancient civilization. The Romans used an artificial sweetener called sapa, a grape syrup, to preserve wine and sweeten foods. And sapa, boiled in lead vessels, carried a highly toxic level of the heavy metal. The artificial sweetener contained lead levels 200 times higher than the EPA allows. One single teaspoon of sapa could cause chronic lead poisoning.
Few exploits of the 20th century could match the courage and perseverance of the Shackleton expedition. Ernest Shackleton became the ultimate model for crisis management when his ill-fated 1914 Antarctic expedition met with disaster. His ship, the Endurance, was stranded amidst the expanding ice floes of the South Atlantic. Initially forced to abandon the vessel (which would eventually sink as a result of the hull being crushed by pack ice), Shackleton established a series of temporary camps on the ice, in the hopes that his party would eventually drift closer to civilization. When this failed, Shackleton was forced to abandon most of his group on remote Elephant Island and attempt a 700-nautical mile journey to the populated outpost of South Georgia Island.
Ever wonder what living in the White House is like? That's easy: It's weird! Life in the White House for the first family (its only permanent residents) is like a cross between living in a fortress, a resort, and a museum - but somehow more unusual. From not being able to drive to having weak Wi-Fi, the country's leader has several liberties taken away while living in the White House. The truth about what it's like to live in the White House is stranger than fiction.
If you've seen Jaws, then you know the basics about the tragic descent of the USS Indianapolis. Considered one of the most grievous disasters in the history of the American Navy, it saw the sinking of a US heavy cruiser towards the end of WWII and the gruesome loss of a majority of its crew. If the Japanese strike had been carried out just a few days earlier, the crew might not have been able to deliver materials for the first working atomic bomb, Little Boy.
Out on the frontier, hangings were more than just a method of executing the guilty, they were a form of entertainment that offered spectators an escape from their everyday lives. Like many modern forms of entertainment, hangings weren’t just empty spectacle -- they also conveyed important messages to onlookers. Hangings were a stark reminder that while the west may have been wild, law and order still existed there.
American schoolchildren are taught that the slaves in confederate states were freed when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. However, while that may be true in a technical sense, the reality of actually freeing those slaves was far more complicated.
The Victorian era saw the advent of numerous political reforms, social changes and the world’s first industrial revolution. However, the Victorians had some other, stranger customs whose common observance died out long ago. These weird bits of etiquette range from the mostly harmless to the straight-up appalling and they paint a pretty clear picture about how far the Victorians were willing to go in the name of what they considered decorum.
David Lee Roth is a legend. He's one of the greatest lead singers of all time, for one of the greatest rock bands of all time: Van Halen. Diamond Dave led VH from its initial success in 1978 through the coked-out, Spandex days of the 1980s, fronting the band 11 years and running with the devil every single day. A consummate rock star, Dave's over-the-top persona and insane stage antics often overshadowed the genius of the band's music, which more or less conjured the entire genre of hair metal from thin air. David Lee Roth and Van Halen had quite a run together, as these crazy David Lee Roth stories attest.
The jaunty image of the Victorian child chimney sweep is indelibly romantic, evoking the picturesque London glamorized in Mary Poppins. But the truth is that chimney sweep kids – and children living in Dickensian squalor, in general – usually led lives that were "nasty, brutish, and short," to quote the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. The history of chimney sweeps is, in many ways, the history of London itself. After the Great Fire of London gutted half the city in 1666, chimneys were rebuilt to minimize the risk of inferno. Their new, narrow, winding structures meant that children were the only humans small enough to fit through them. The horrors of child labor were, of course, legion; and the repercussions were dire for these small workers.
The Druids were either an intellectual class or priestly class of Celts living in Gaul (a region that encompassed the majority of Western Europe and the British isles) around 1200-600 BCE and beyond. While modern neo-Druids have a tree-hugging, pagan, hippie vibe, the reality is that the original, historical Druids are sort of a mystery. Scholarly research and historical accounts suggest, though, that the Druids were more intellectual than they were religious, and that they spent more time establishing a socially just society than they did worshipping at places like Stonehenge, which, spoiler, wasn't even theirs. But what little we do know about Druid history and Druid beliefs is pretty fascinating.
There are countless debates out there surrounding Ernest Hemingway, including whether or not he’s the greatest American novelist of all-time, as well as about the themes of misogyny in his writing (and his life). But, there’s another, less literature-based question lingering about the author – was Ernest Hemingway a spy? Specifically, was there a direct connection between Hemingway and the KGB? The notion might seen ridiculous, but enough evidence has come to light in recent years that it’s now a historical certainty – Hemingway: a Soviet spy. One J. Edgar Hoover and his CIA were on to, at that.
Richard Milhous Nixon's presidency was full of excitement, intrigue, grievously bad judgment, and booze – which is why so many drunk Richard Nixon stories have lived on long past the man. Tales about the end of his tenure as president are no different. In the wake of Watergate – as his removal from the Oval Office became imminent in the late summer of 1974 – it was clear to Nixon that he had to do the unthinkable. He had to resign. As he slowly accepted his fate, he turned increasingly inward, brooded, drank, swore, and took out his frustrations in alarming ways. Nixon didn't handle his liquor well, and with the end of his presidency in sight, Watergate, depression, and scotch got the better of him as his time in office drew to a close.
On Oct. 13, 1972, a plane carrying 45 passengers, including the Old Christians Uruguayan rugby team, crashed in the Andes between Chile and Argentina. The Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 survivors believed they would be rescued within days. They could not have predicted how long their ordeal would last or that they would become famous as the "Andes mountains cannibals." Of the 27 passengers who survived the impact, only 16 returned home alive when they were finally rescued over two months after the crash. In order to survive on an Andes mountainside, the rugby team crash survivors were forced to consume the flesh of fellow passengers who passed away.
On May 6, 1937, the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg, a type of rigid aircraft known as a Zeppelin, was making its final approach to Manchester Township, New Jersey, when it caught fire and crash landed. In total, 35 of the 97 people on board died in the disaster along with one ground crewman. Once ignited, the ship crashed quickly, with some reporting the entire incident took as little as 32 seconds from the first sign of distress to the airship hitting the ground. The disaster captured the public's attention thanks to the eyewitness testimony of a reporter who was present and the fascinating and disturbing footage filmed during the disaster. There have been many theories about what went wrong during the fateful flight of the Hindenburg.
What do Queen Victoria, the Pied Piper, and a children’s book have in common? Rats, of course – more specifically, the art of catching them. The history of rat-catching is a lot more fascinating than you might expect, but it's probably just as gross. From sewers to disease to lucrative rat-fighting businesses, rat-catching is definitely the kind of dirty and disgusting job that deserves more recognition.
For as long as it's been in existence, the royal world has been special, elevated above the mediocrity of regular life and filled with the pleasures and privileges of divine power and influence. And even though the practical function of the monarchy has become mostly symbolic, the public fascination with its office certainly has not. So, for example, when Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to the newest members of the English monarchy, public curiosity about her experience was boundless. But alas, the details were not so thrilling, as she and William apparently greeted their precious new bundles much like any average citizen – in the privacy of a clean and well-lit room with just a few medical attendants nearby.
Western civilization, descended from the Greeks, has always been fascinated by the powerful and mysterious Egyptian culture and their seemingly strange behaviors. One of the things the Greeks were particularly interested in was the Egyptian diet. In fact, the Greek historian Herodotus spent an inordinate amount of time in his writings on Egypt tracing the exact dietary patterns of the ancient empire. So what did these people eat? What gave them the strength to build the pyramids, to spread out from the Nile, to forge one of the most influential empires the world has ever seen? The answers might surprise you.
Rarely have women in history played a more deliciously mysterious role than that of the 600 years of the Ottoman Empire, when what is modern-day Turkey and lands from the Balkans to Syria sat at the center of a great Empire. These were the days of the harem, when women - and girls as young as seven years old - were held in a secret world where they could be governed, educated, and primarily enjoyed by the sultan and his court.
The start of a new decade and this year would turn out to be a real dumpster fire. Or more specifically, actual fires, metaphorical wildfires spreading like, well wildfire...2020 was a year of Fauci, UFOs and a basket case named Baskin. The year was so crazy that we had to make it an instant history.
The Vikings - a group of exploring and raiding seafarers from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway - traversed the world from the eighth to the 11th centuries. As warriors, traders, and eventual settlers, the Vikings disrupted the lives of those groups they encountered while simultaneously facilitating cultural exchange and making an impression that was often less than positive. This is how they managed to keep it clean.
Crinolines put the hoop in the Victorian-era skirt. For two decades, women wore crinolines - lightweight cages attached to their waists - under their clothing to create a wide, bell-shaped silhouette. Thanks to crinolines, hoop skirts may be the most iconic and defining piece of fashion from the 1800s.
Before the early 2010s, scientists were conflicted on the question of Homo sapiens interbreeding with Neanderthals, but since then, multiple studies have shown the incredible overlap between Neanderthal and human DNA - enough that approximately 1%-4% of modern human DNA traces directly back to Neanderthal ancestry. Neanderthals coexisted with modern humans for tens of thousands of years, and the two groups certainly met. Evidence shows that Homo sapiens not only procreated with Neanderthals - they also slew and ate them.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a fascinating history. From its founding in the 1820s by Joseph Smith to the its modern-day prevalence in Utah, the religion continues to intrigue believers and skeptics alike. Aspects of Mormonism are shrouded in mystery to outsiders - but would you believe that there are rumored ties between the mob and the LDS church? Before your imagination goes into overdrive, know that the Mormon church isn't rife with organized crime. True, there are bizarre tales of Mormons and Howard Hughes; the eccentric billionaire's business holdings were controlled by the so-called "Mormon Mafia." And then there's the religion's roots in Las Vegas...
Timothy Treadwell, the Grizzly Man who spent 13 summers living with the bears, was part activist, part actor, and mostly mystery. His dreams of Hollywood stardom never panned out, but you could argue that his life story is something straight out of a movie. Actually, he's been the subject of a few documentaries, the most famous being Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man.
Easter Island is a Chilean island located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. It's most widely known for the incredible stone statues - called moai - that were created and scattered across the island by its early inhabitants, the Rapa Nui. When the Polynesians first settled on the island between 700 and 1100 CE, they developed a thriving society of nearly 15,000 people. But it wasn't until the first Europeans visited the island, under the direction of a Dutch explorer named Jacob Roggeveen, that the name Easter Island was adopted, as he first happened upon the mysterious island on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722.
When American Parcel Post services launched on January 1, 1913, citizens suddenly found themselves with a revelatory new way of getting objects from point A to point B. And back in those days, "objects" often meant parcels in the form of unlikely entities like live chickens, bizarre medical supplies (such as cadavers), and even flesh-and-blood tots themselves. Yes, children were sent through the mail.
When you hear the name "Captain Morgan," images of bros posing with a handle of spiced rum with one foot danging precariously in the air probably come to mind. While there were plenty of pirates whose reputations were built on boozin' it up with bar wenches à la modern rum-guzzling frat bros, the real Captain Morgan is not one of them. Sir Henry Morgan doesn't sound like the name one of the most terrifying pirates in the Caribbean - but the ruthless Captain Henry Morgan propelled himself to fame and riches by terrorizing his enemies and seizing a fortune in gold from the Spanish. The history of piracy is full of surprises, and these Henry Morgan facts are no exception.
From the hulls of ships to the sides of trucks to the walls of bathroom stalls across the world - and even engraved into national monuments - one iconic phrase has appeared in seemingly every place across the globe: "Kilroy was here." Along with a cartoon of a bald man with a big nose peering over a wall, the famous declaration took root during WWII and remained popular among soldiers through the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and up to today.
Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, was more than the man behind the Panama Canal and the inspiration for the teddy bear. He was a cowboy. A soldier. An explorer. A badass.When Teddy Roosevelt, or T.R. as he was commonly known, was a child, he had health issues. He overcame these by living what he called a "strenuous life." That's putting it lightly.
The Elizabethan ruff is easily identified - a large, stiff, upright, usually lace collar that, in all honesty, looks uncomfortable and awkward. The Elizabethan collar that dominated fashion during the late 16th and 17th centuries, however, was an indicator of wealth, prestige, and social status. Ruffs became increasingly large and elaborate as methods to create them advanced. Hours were spent looping, ironing, and starching lace and linen into place. Embroidery, jewels, and precious metals were added to heighten the glamour of the ruff. By the late 16th century, what was once a simple collar had transitioned to become the ultimate display of excess.
In the 19th century, physicians argued that Victorian hospitals offered modern, scientific care. But in Vienna, one doctor realized physicians were inadvertently ending the lives of their patients. That's because 19th-century medical practices did not include handwashing. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis spent years trying to convince other doctors to wash their hands after performing post-mortems. He proved that handwashing could save thousands of lives, and yet most doctors ignored his evidence. One stated it simply wasn't possible for doctors to harm their patients, as "a gentleman's hands are clean." Even after Semmelweis provided solid proof that washing hands and sanitized tools decreased the maternal mortality rate, doctors dismissed his findings.
Many believe that Dina Sanichar, the Indian wolf boy, was the inspiration behind Rudyard Kipling's famous work, The Jungle Book. Just like Mowgli, Dina was a feral boy raised by wolves, although his life was quite different from his fictional counterpart's. Mowgli the man-cub entranced readers with his fascinating upbringing. After wandering into an Indian forest, he was adopted by the animals who fed, protected, and sheltered him. Dina, too, was raised by wolves. But the boy who inspired Mowgli did not have such a fantastical life.
Civil Rights activist and Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr., is most remembered for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience to advance civil rights and pursue equal opportunities for African Americans. He opposed segregation and marched on Washington, DC, to deliver his famous "I Have A Dream" speech in 1963 and, the following year, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for opposing racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.
The Presidential Limousine, known officially as "Cadillac One" and called "the Beast" by the Secret Service, is a remarkable machine. The president's car is capable of transporting and protecting him, letting him work undisturbed, and if necessary, unleashing nuclear hell. President Obama's car is a unique vehicle built around a Cadillac DTS that almost everyone has seen, but almost nobody knows anything about. And that's on purpose - the details of its protection and weapons are closely guarded secrets.
He could barely eat because of his disfigured jaw. He suffered from rickets, hallucinations, and an oversized head. He was impotent and infertile. Charles II of Spain, king of one of the largest empires in the world, was barely able to talk or walk - all because his dynasty was so inbred. Royal inbreeding caused mutations and birth defects that could be even worse than the already estimable genetic mutations from incest. In fact, Charles II of Spain's inbred birth made him more inbred than the children born of a union between brother and sister. And that's what ultimately explains Charles II of Spain's cause of death: by 35 all his hair fell out and he could barely walk, and before he turned 39 he died without an heir, plunging Europe into a bloody war as various nations vied for his crown.
Picture a citizen of the Roman Empire. What are they wearing? Most likely, you imagined someone wearing a white toga, sandals, and maybe some kind of laurel on their head. But most ancient Romans didn't really dress that way in their day-to-day lives. Many of us get our ideas of how Romans dressed from pop culture - movies like Spartacus or Gladiator, or TV shows like Rome. But no movie or TV show can perfectly recreate a historical era no matter how big their budget, and many don't try very hard.
In the 1870s, rich Americans came up with a new scheme: they sold their daughters abroad, marrying them off to British aristocrats in exchange for a title. In a country without an aristocracy, suddenly every rich American wanted a duchess in the family. The young women, who often didn't have a choice, became known as the Dollar Princesses. Buying noble titles was an old practice, of course, but Americans took it to a new level with Gilded-Age marriages. American brides carried huge fortunes across the sea, including some of the most lavish dowries in history.
Wild West saloons have been portrayed in popular culture as dens of vice and violence. Located throughout the American frontier, Western saloons were part of the landscape, present in small camps and growing towns alike. Saloons in the Wild West served as repositories of information, houses of companionship, and refuge points amid isolation and loneliness. The activities that took place at saloons were emblematic of the American West itself; just as settlers gambled everything to embark into the unknown, saloon patrons could bet their earnings on a friendly game of faro or poker. Saloons provided a means of survival, even offering a chance at wealth and prosperity on the frontier.
The Aztecs thrived in the area corresponding to Mexico between the 14th and 15th centuries until they were overthrown by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés in 1521. This complex Mesoamerican culture revolved around growing and consuming food, particularly maize (what is now known as corn) - but what else did the Aztecs eat? What did they grow? What did they eat for dessert? How did they cook their food?
After Black voters helped elevate Black politicians to power in US politics, tensions over race started to flare up. Black men were called various disrespectful terms, and messages were put out in the media that stoked fear and guilt. In 1898, white citizens seized control of the government in North Carolina, and initiated the only successful American coup, by overthrowing the elected government in Wilmington, NC. In those days, the Democratic party openly promoted laws that benefited white citizens and wanted to take control and keep it. After the insurrection, the Democrats in power passed poll taxes and literacy tests to disenfranchise Black voters further.
Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, built the huge Terracotta Army to protect him in the afterlife. An elaborate tomb complex in Xi'an, the city-size compound came equipped with everything the emperor would require in the afterlife. Like the Egyptians, the ancient Chinese believed the items they took with them to the grave would accompany them into the afterlife. But instead of burying actual people with him underground, the emperor created clay reproductions of warriors, servants, horses, and other objects. An incredible feat of design, the army also features a number of ancient Chinese inventions, many of which no one realized dated back as far as the Qin dynasty.
Conjoined twins have long been the subject of great curiosity due in part to the rarity of the condition. Not to mention, many different ways exist for siblings to become anatomically connected to one another. Fueled by that curiosity, a Soviet physiologist named Pyotr Anokhin - who studied the development and structure of human circulatory and nervous systems - made Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova the focus of many of his science experiments - experiments that were conducted for the majority of their lives.
The Black Seminoles were a group of people that history, for the most part, forgot about. Their alliance with the native Seminole tribes resulted in a unique relationship that had never been seen before, and that changed the course of history for both the Seminoles and the State of Florida as a whole. The Black Seminoles, sometimes called Maroons, were a group of freed men and runaway slaves living in Florida during the mid-16th century. They settled the first free Black town in American history, attained their freedom by joining the Spanish and converting to Catholicism, and formed a tight cultural bond with the Seminole tribes.
All western schoolchildren have heard of Sacagawea, and even more know the story of Pocahontas either from class or the Disney movie. But who was the great – and comparatively unknown – Marie Dorion? No less than one of the most resilient, courageous, and frankly badass women in history. Dorion (1786 – 1850) was the daughter of a French Canadian father and a Native American mother. A seasoned survivalist, she would go on to become the only female member of John Jacob Astor’s legendary Astoria expedition, whose goal was to establish the first trading post at the mouth of the Columbia.
Presidents William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt battled it out in the election of 1912, even though Roosevelt had handpicked Taft as his successor just four years earlier. What made the Republicans turn on each other? And did the invention of the teddy bear play a role? In 1909, just after being elected president, Taft took on his biggest opponent yet: the teddy bear. In a year-long battle, Taft supporters tried to replace the beloved teddy bear with a new stuffed animal, Billy Possum, declaring, "Good-bye, Teddy Bear. Hello, Billy Possum."
If you've ever played the video game Nioh, you might have noticed a tall, ax-wielding, black samurai named Yasuke. Maybe you're a fan of the Afro Samurai anime. Perhaps you're a Hollywood insider all about Lionsgate's Black Samurai film, which was announced in spring 2017. All of these projects are based on a real person. Yasuke was an African samurai who arrived in Japan with Jesuits during the Sengoku period.
Although it resulted in some of the most remarkable artwork ever created, the life of Vincent van Gogh was marked by poverty, loneliness, rejection, and mental illness. Vincent van Gogh's biography is sad enough on its own; that his paintings would ultimately become the most sought after and expensive status symbols in the art world is an irony practically too cruel to comprehend. To an individual who frequently had to choose between purchasing food or canvas and paint, the idea that even a single Van Gogh would today fetch hundreds of millions of dollars would seem inconceivable. But in the context of the painter's life, it is only appropriate, considering these sad and bizarre facts about Vincent van Gogh.
On April 15, 1865, Lincoln was gunned down in Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth, a man sympathetic to the defeated Confederacy. In the years following the end of the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, his successor Andrew Johnson proved utterly incapable of unifying a fractured nation. Under Johnson, everyday life during the Reconstruction was a gauntlet of simmering hatred, short supplies, and an onslaught of new means for oppressing African Americans.
King Richard III of England is remembered as one of history’s most villainous royals: a cruel, calculating hunchback who did whatever it took to secure power for himself. But there’s a lot more to Richard than what the detractors want you to believe. So, who was the real Richard III?
Plenty of time periods evoke groans of regret when it comes to fashion, from the bullet bras of the 1950s to the Hammer pants of the 1990s. However, the towering wigs and frilly outfits of the Macaroni style of the 1760s and 1770s led to so many "what were they thinking" moments, entire industries developed to make fun of its followers. More than 200 years later, Macaronis are still the butt of fashion jokes. While the fashion term "Macaroni" may not be instantly recognizable, you've probably heard it if you've ever sung "Yankee Doodle." Although it would seem the rhyme is referring to pasta, the Yankee Doodle Macaroni in the song actually referred to this strange trend.
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack claimed more than 2,400 American lives and sank multiple navy ships. Firsthand accounts of the Pearl Harbor attack captured the devastation and trauma of the event. But what happened immediately afterward?
When the Russian submarine Kursk sank in 2000, it was a conspiracy theorist's dream come true. Immediately, conflicting stories started pouring in from official sources, ranging from a US submarine ramming the Kursk to a potential Russia-China torpedo sales plot. The Russian Kursk submarine disaster captured the attention of millions, and the families of the crew were left struggling to find out what really happened to their loved ones. So what really happened to the Kursk?
When you think of hygiene during the Great Depression, you might automatically assume the widespread unemployment and poverty resulted in a generally dirty and unkempt population. However, while many people were forced to live in unsanitary conditions, in truth, the Great Depression was as much a time of struggle as it was a period of innovation for keeping clean. During the 1930s, maintaining a clean body and home was a point of pride. With economic and social hardship all around, cleanliness was something that was relatively controllable.
Weird History Presents Timeline: 1990. Oh, 1990, the start of a new decade and it would be all that and a bag of chips. 1990 would be a year where the world would see the rise of the world wide web, civil unrest in the states, and a hairstyle called “The Rachel” dominate the landscape. Join Weird History as we explore the year that was 1990.
Have you ever wondered what people did in the Wild West for fun? Life on the American frontier was hard, without question, but cowboys, pioneers, settlers, miners, and the like also had a fair amount of time to enjoy their surroundings. At the very least, they needed some outlets to blow off steam. Many pastimes in the Wild West took place at well-known sites like saloons and brothels; however, as various sporting events and recreational activities spread across the country, people in the Wild West were also able to take part in some unique experiences as they came along. Entertainment in the Wild West might not be your idea of fun, but men, women, and children out on the frontier had a fair number of options for ways to spend their free time.
Providing a brief history of Australia is hardly possible, especially when you consider the nation's long and fraught history with Britain. Australia started as a penal colony - a place for lawbreakers to reside outside the confines of England's general population. Britain believed getting rid of responsible parties would end crime altogether, so it sent them across the ocean to the largest island in existence. While many penal colonies in Australia were known for their heinous conditions, other British colonies across the ocean offered a chance for people to start fresh, with little connection to their past life of misconduct. But why did the British send convicts over to Australia in the first place?
Those who trekked across the country to begin new lives in the Wild West were known for their resourcefulness, and it shows in many of the foods they ate. While pioneer cuisine may seem strange to us today, the settlers had no choice but to use what they had to survive - and they got pretty creative. Life in the Old West was harsh, journeys were long, and settlers had no guarantees the food they packed on a wagon train would last until their final destination. They hunted local wildlife, used replacement ingredients that traveled well (such as apple cider vinegar to make a passable pie), and preserved everything they could.
What was hygiene like during the Black Death? In the 14th century, the bubonic plague swept through Europe, wiping out as many as 50 million people - or more than half the continent. During this time, it was common for people to dump their chamber pots in the streets and sleep on dirty straw. These unsanitary practices attracted rodents and spread disease. Could better hygiene have prevented the black plague?
Samuel Clemens (the real name of author Mark Twain), is one of the most well-loved writers of all time, certainly up there with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charles Dickens. But for most, the details of his most famous works (The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn) are more memorable than his biography. In truth, Mark Twain's life story was in many ways as dynamic as the adventures in his books: he traveled widely, underwent his share of tragedy, collaborated with Nikola Tesla, and was even said to be a dead-on-the-money psychic.
Timeline 1991 - Weird History is going back to the year 1991 to explore the news, culture, sports and entertainment in year two of the 90s. From the premiere of Beavis and Butthead to the Gulf War, to the Chicago Bulls winning their first championship. Sit back, relax and enjoy 25 minutes of 1991 memories.
As a frequent flyer, the president of the United States deserves relief from typical travel nuisances like baggage fees and shoe removal in security lines. Access to the Air Force One plane, however, is the ultimate travel perk, based on facts we know about this flying fortress of freedom. The president's life is far from normal, from ordering at a restaurant to remaining under the watchful eye of the Secret Service, but the way the commander-in-chief travels is especially removed from the rest of the public's experiences.
Before 2015, it was common to hear that Alexander Hamilton was, by far, the most undervalued of all the American Founding Fathers. But with the explosive popularity of the Broadway musical Hamilton, that statement is no longer accurate. Hamilton fever swept America, and he became one of the most popular Founding Fathers, as fans of the musical flocked to historic sites and bought out shelves of books associated with him. Hamilton was not just important in the founding of America. He was also a fascinating historical figure and tireless public servant.
In a time before smartphones, social media, and binge-watching, the Victorians were remarkably creative in finding ways to spend their free time. A culture obsessed with the afterlife, the Victorians would spend the day enjoying a meal next to a grave and then the evening trying to contact a lost loved one. Fascinated by the teachings of Charles Darwin and the scientific revolution, they paid fortunes to collect rare plants and witness medical anomalies firsthand. Even expired animals could be grouped into entertaining tableaux for audiences to wonder at.
What’s better than regular Coke? Clear Coke, of course! Or, at least that’s what a majority of the top soda brands in the US thought back in the early '90s. Leading the "Clear Cola Craze" was PepsiCo., which released the first of many clear cola beverages, with their aspirational hit Crystal Pepsi. Anyone who grew up in the 1990s is likely to recall the suspiciously pure-looking soda, and its just-as-curious departure from stock shelves nationwide. So, what really happened to Crystal Pepsi, and the clear-cola movement that succeeded it?
Giacomo Casanova is remembered today for his many illicit affairs. After all, the word "Casanova" still denotes a cad who knows his way around women. But however legendary or unbelievable the stories about his life seem to be, the vast majority of them were at least partly true. Who was Casanova, the living legend?
Weird History presents Timeline: 1992 - We're going back to the early nineties and explore some of the highlights of 1992. From the 'Olympic Dream Team', to the Rodney King trial, to Joey Buttafuoco, Timeline 1992 will relive some of the most iconic 90s memories. Weird History is going to talk about the news, culture, sports, entertainment and all that was weird in the year 1992.
The 1932 kidnapping and death of the then almost-two-year-old Charles "Charlie" Lindbergh was the stuff of tragic melodrama. The case of what happened to the Lindbergh baby drew worldwide attention. After all, aviator Charles Lindbergh, Sr. was the most famous man in the world, having been the first person to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic. Everyone loved handsome and daring "Lucky Lindy," and the world rejoiced when he married the lovely Anne Morrow and produced the adorably blond and chubby "Baby Lindy." But on a cold March night in 1932, the child was mysteriously taken from his crib. Within just a few hours, the Hopewell, New Jersey crime scene was hopelessly contaminated, muddying the evidence forever, and further clouding the strange circumstances discovered by case investigators.
Corsets became popular in the 16th century allegedly because Catherine de' Medici, wife of French King Henry II, banned women with thick waists from attending court. She was a tyrannical monarch, but the Italian-born woman created beauty standards that held up exceptionally well. Corsets remained incredibly common during the Renaissance, up until the 20th century. Certain historians, however, suggested the restrictive undergarments contributed to the patriarchal system of female oppression.
Let’s bust one Great Depression myth right off the bat, courtesy of Megan McArdle: “even at the height of the Depression, when a quarter of the workforce was unemployed, most people were not on relief, and most were not suffering malnutrition.” Even if it wasn’t all hobos sharing beans on a garbage can lid, the American diet during the Great Depression did change dramatically, thanks to the rise of the refrigerator, and, of course, the prioritization of thrift.
The ancient Egyptians were one of the first great civilizations on the planet. A foundationally well-structured society, the Egyptians had a sophisticated agricultural economy, a highly organized government, and proper law enforcement which created a sense of stability in their everyday lives that nurtured research and documentation. Through trial and error, the ancient Egyptians were able to discover medical treatments that were far ahead of their time - many of which are still employed today.
Over centuries, the Roman Empire conquered almost the entirety of Europe, giving generation after generation the chance to spill blood on the Roman battlefield. From the cold marshes of Britannia to the burning deserts of Carthage, the infamous Roman army invaded, conquered, and occupied massive tracts of land. As a civilization, Rome remains an impressive chapter in the history books.
Weird History presents Timeline 1993. We are going back to the middle part of the 90s and check the news, culture, sports, entertainment, and all that was weird with the 1990s. From the raid on the Branch Davidians to the attack of Monica Seles to Lorena Bobbitt becoming a household name, 1993 would have plenty of memorable moments.
If you're interested in knowing about the origins of government agencies like the FBI, the Secret Service, and the CIA, look no further than Pinkerton Agency history. It may seem like the vestige of a bygone era, but it's still around. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, founded by Allan Pinkerton, established itself as a surveillance and intelligence body during the second half of the 19th century. The agency created the foundation for the "alphabet soup" of US security existing today.
If you've heard of General Hannibal (247-183 BCE), you're probably thinking of the guy who rode several elephants into Italy, and that would be correct. In reality, though, there's more to Hannibal Barca's life story than his fabled crossing of the Alps with war elephants. This general made it a habit of outright embarrassing the Roman Army, defeating them by a landslide on multiple occasions. It wasn't until Rome drew upon the skills of another name from the list of notable generals—Scipio Aemilianus Africanus (AKA Scipio Africanus the Younger)—that they were finally able to defeat Hannibal.
What did it mean to eat like a Victorian? There was no single culinary experience in the 19th century. Just like the era itself, Victorian Britons had diverse tastes and habits, and the food they consumed often reflected their ingenuity. The Victorian era was a long period of time filled with shifting trends, attitudes, and innovations. Food was no exception.
In October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire nearly wiped out one of America's leading cities. But what happened after the Great Chicago Fire? In the wake of a blaze that claimed hundreds of lives and left more than $200 million in damages, some feared Chicago would never recover.
The Mongols created the largest contiguous land empire to have ever existed. Founded by Genghis Khan in 1206, the Mongol Empire spanned across Asia, extended into Eastern Europe, and reached into the Middle East. As warriors and rulers, the Mongols facilitated the integration of language, populations, and belief systems and, while their accomplishments have long been acknowledged, so, too, have their unique hygienic practices.
Weird History presents Timeline 1994. We're going back to the mid-90s to show you the news, culture, sports, entertainment, and all that was weird in the year 1994. This year would have some seminal moments - from OJ in the White Bronco, to Nancy Kerrigan getting whacked, to Michael Jordan stepping up to the plate. Join us as we look back at the 90s decade and focus in on 1994.
There are so many ways beer changed history, you have to wonders what kind of world we would live in if the vital, hoppy nectar had never been invented. From the earliest civilizations to the modern day, beer has had a major impact on the trajectory of history. Read on for a deeper understanding of how and why the carbonated delight changed the world.
Nobody saw comedy genius Sam Kinison’s death coming - at least not the way it happened. Most people assumed he’d succumb to substance abuse, but Kinison said he had that under control. Things actually looked good for Kinison leading up to his death: He just got married days earlier, and he was experiencing a career resurgence. Then an intoxicated teenage driver in a pick-up truck came along...
When the US government passed the Anti-Hijacking Act of 1974, it was a direct response to the "Golden Age" of skyjackings. The act mandated that all airline passengers and their carry-on bags be screened before getting on the plane because, in the early '70s, hijackings from the US were out of control. Between 1960 and 1974, there were 240 hijackings or attempted hijackings between the US and Cuba alone.
The Reign of Terror destroyed thousands of lives, but in the scientific community, Antoine Lavoisier's death was arguably the most devastating. Known for revolutionizing chemistry and conducting groundbreaking experiments during the Enlightenment, Lavoisier's aristocratic status eventually condemned him. Lavoisier and his wife, Marie-Anne, worked together as the father and mother of modern chemistry, designing and carrying out experiments. Together, they built an international reputation.
Abraham Lincoln was possibly our greatest president, and you would think his body would be treated with respect after he was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre on April 15, 1865. And in a way, it was: Lincoln became one of the first people in America to be embalmed. Seeing a well-preserved body drastically changed how people thought about death and funerals. Instead of seeing the ravages of time, they were able to look at a corpse that hardly seemed to have altered at all. People were comforted by the idea that death didn’t change anything, and decided embalming was the best way to go. Soon this process became a normal part of American death rituals.
'Roar' is the most dangerous movie ever made. Does that sound like hyperbole? It’s not. The 1981 film follows a man who lives peacefully among wild animals in Africa – until his family visits and all hell breaks loose. But the real hell happened behind the scenes; 70 members of the cast and crew were injured on set. And that’s just the beginning of the wild tales about filming 'Roar'.
Alan Turing was one of the world’s greatest geniuses. He basically invented the modern computer and was instrumental in helping end WWII, even though he never set foot on a battlefield. The Germans had invented the ultimate message coding device, the Enigma machine, and if the Allies wanted to take down Hitler, they were going to need to figure it out. Fortunately, there was Alan Turing’s code breaking park, Bletchley, where he and others achieved movie-worthy feats. In fact, it did make a great film, The Imitation Game, released in 2014 and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the man himself.
Just as the Victorian era is incorrectly portrayed as a period of demureness, misconceptions about the British monarchy – specifically, Queen Victoria – are equally persistent. In reality, crazy stories about the royal family abound from Victoria's court, the most well-known of which typically have to do with the standards Victoria set for Victorian mourning customs. However, despite accounts of her puritanical tendencies, Victoria was actually quite fond of sex and had a deep appreciation for the naked human form. Even the contents of her grave – the things she wanted to be interred with for eternity – had some highly sexual overtones that spoke to the question of what sex was like during the Victorian era.
Survival during war is often about more than just time spent on the front lines. During the Civil War, finding sufficient, edible food was challenging on account of a devastated landscape, insufficient labor after farmers went off to fight, as well as blockades and barricades preventing access to much-needed provisions. Much like settlers headed out West during the expansion of the United States or millions of poverty-stricken individuals impacted by the Great Depression, Civil War soldiers and their civilian counterparts resorted to whatever they could find to eat.
As you pour milk in your cereal bowl every morning, you might not even be fully awake yet, and you probably haven't thought much about the origins of corn flakes. After all, it's a pretty simple, unassuming cereal as far as the modern plethora of sugar-coated options go — some might even call them bland. But the question “Why were corn flakes invented?” actually leads to some shocking (and disturbing) answers.
Mel Blanc was nicknamed "The Man Of 1,000 Voices" and that moniker was not far off. The man thought of as America's greatest voice-over artist created hundreds of unique voices for radio, TV, movies, and some of the most beloved cartoon characters of all time. Blanc is perhaps best known for his work with Warner Bros. on their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.
There were a lot of lessons that came out of WWI, including many related to hygiene during armed conflicts. Those who served in WWII benefited from post-WWI research and concern for personal hygiene, sanitation, and overall cleanliness, allowing for a cleaner wartime experience. WWII hygiene involved a lot of innovation, including everything from chemicals to prevent infestation to footwear designed to keep feet dry and clean.
In 1970, there were few - if any - people in America more famous than Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon. Both the King of Rock and Roll and the president of the United States were at the top of the world, and only a few years away from their dramatic falls from grace - which is part of what makes their December 21, 1970, meeting at the White House so fascinating.
The Soviet Union took shape after a series of revolutions during the early 20th century. Characterized by some of its best-known leaders, namely Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin, the Soviet Union spanned thousands of miles and was made up of hundreds of ethnic groups. As the administrative and cultural hub of the Soviet Union, Russia was the largest socialist republic. After WWII, Soviet Russia and the whole of the Soviet Union found itself under the authoritarian rule of Josef Stalin, the dictator who implemented collectivist policies, gulags, and other repressive tactics to maintain his power. Standards of living declined and people struggled to survive, often scrounging for whatever food they could find.
Weird History presents Timeline 1995. We're taking you back to the year 1995 to check out the news, culture, sports, entertainment, and all that was weird in the mid-90s. Timeline will look back at some of the major events, including Mike Tyson getting out of prison, Michael Jordan's un-retirement, the Oklahoma City bombing, and more. Join Weird History as we look back at the 90s.
The man in the iron mask is a centuries-old tale that has been passed down through stories, art, and even movies starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It all began in the 1680s, when a mysterious prisoner, locked up by order of King Louis XIV of France, was spotted wearing a mask made of iron. No one ever saw his face, and the age old question lingered for hundreds of years: who was the man in the iron mask?
Sure, you might know the famous movie quote "I am Spartacus!," but who was the real gladiator Spartacus? He was a Thracian-born mercenary-turned-probable deserter who was sold into slavery in the first century BCE, becoming a gladiator at a famed school in Italy. In 73 BCE, Spartacus and about 70 of his pals fled their bondage; over the next few years, they gathered tens of thousands of slaves in a conflict against Rome.
Well-heeled aristocrats, gilded halls, manicured gardens - the Court of Versailles is remembered for its opulence. But the reality of French court hygiene revealed that life at Versailles was likely dirtier and smellier than most people imagine. After all, thousands of people lived cheek by jowl in a 17th-century palace without the convenience of modern plumbing.
Straitjackets. Sedatives. Bars on the windows. In 1900, patients at mental hospitals in the United States faced inhumane treatment, often because doctors could not identify the cause of their melancholy or mania. Officials at psychiatric hospitals in the 1900s, known at the time as lunatic asylums or insane asylums, locked patients up against their will, with few ideas on how to properly treat their problems. As Nellie Bly witnessed when she went undercover at Bellevue Hospital in New York, patients were beaten and choked, and their living quarters often looked more like prison cells than hospital rooms.
Coors is a regional sector of the world's third-largest brewer, Molson Coors, and operates the largest single brewery facility in the world from its headquarters in Golden, Colorado. After the CEO of Coors – who was also heir to the Coors industry – tragically perished, however, the Coors family nearly lost its beer-brewing fortune. The crime received substantial international attention, but even after after the CEO's death was confirmed, the suspect remained at large.
Weird History presents Timeline 1996. We're taking you back the year 1996 and reliving the news, culture, sports, entertainment and all that was weird in '96. From the divorce of Princess Di, to Richard Jewel getting falsely accused of the Atlanta Olympics attack, to the Unabomber getting arrested, 1996 was filled with some of the most iconic moments in the 90s decade. Sit back and enjoy Timeline.
Joyce McKinney is a former beauty queen who made headlines in 1977 when she kidnapped Mormon missionary Kirk Anderson. McKinney alleged she turned him into her sex slave. At the time, the case of the “manacled Mormon” made headlines both in England and in the United States. After McKinney kidnapped and imprisoned Anderson, she continued to attract the public’s attention with her fame-seeking behavior and unusual backstory.
Maps have the power to change minds, as the 1861 map that convinced Lincoln to end slavery proves. Maps also have the power to save lives. One such map, the John Snow map, single handedly ended a cholera outbreak and revolutionized epidemiology. Dr. John Snow’s cholera map of London charted deaths in the Soho neighborhood during the 1854 cholera outbreak.
The Aztec, a collective of Mesoamericans who thrived from the 14th to the 16th centuries, were the inheritors of ancient cultural traditions from their Olmec, Mayan, and Toltec predecessors. Aztec hygiene practices reflected earlier practice, continuing a dedication to cleanliness and purity. When Spanish conquerors first encountered the Aztec peoples during the early 16th century, they were amazed by their techniques for keeping themselves and their surroundings clean. A stark contrast to European practices at the time, the Aztec empire went to great lengths to provide clean water to the masses, rid the air of perceived pollutants, and use natural ingredients to promote health and hygiene.
Chances are, you've heard the saying "don't drink the Kool-Aid" - which, contrary to popular belief, is technically incorrect since the victims actually drank Flavor Aid. The adage refers to Jim Jones, a cult leader who gave his followers cyanide-laced punch, resulting in the mass murder-suicide of more than 900 people. The Jonestown cult started as the Peoples Temple, in which Jim Jones preached racial equality and an end to segregation, and even won awards for his civil rights work. However, as Jones's teachings got out of hand, by including fake healings and violent outbursts, the Peoples Temple took a different turn.
The incredible details of the cat-and-mouse game between war criminal Adolf Eichmann and those who spent years chasing him seem like they could be ripped from the pages of a Hollywood script. The decades-long hunt for Eichmann is among the most infamous fugitive pursuits in history. Eichmann managed to evade capture until 1960, when Israeli agents seized him in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Eichmann was quickly smuggled out of the country -- unbeknownst to Argentine authorities.
Weird History presents Timeline 1997 - We're going back to the late 90s and talking about the news, culture, sports, entertainment, and all that was weird in '97. From the tragic passing of Princess Diana, to the emergence of a young golfer named Tiger Woods, to Mike Tyson taking a bite out of Evander Holyfield during their heavyweight rematch, Timeline is bringing nostalgia to your face.
The Atlantic Slave Trade saw millions of Africans removed from their homeland, shipped across an ocean, and forced to work in brutal conditions in the Americas. The trip itself, known as the Middle Passage, was a horrible, deadly, and inhumane experience. The conditions on slave ships were dirty, scary, and offered no amount of comfort to the enslaved passengers. With little understanding of what was to come and even less hope of ever being free again, captives on slave ships would resort to tears, acts of defiance, and even suicide to try escaping their plight. To this day, we are still uncovering evidence that attests to the horrible realities of slavery - but no amount of scholarship and understanding will change the scarring experiences of slave ship conditions.
The Brooklyn Bridge is not only one of the top attractions of New York City, but it is also one of the oldest suspension bridges in the world. It connects Manhattan to Brooklyn and crosses the East River. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. But building the bridge was a huge undertaking and fraught with tragedy. It took 14 years to complete and nearly 30 people died from various incidents during its construction.
The Great Depression was an era of financial toil for nearly everyone in the United States. But those in the Dust Bowl were hit particularly hard - the Southern plains region of the US experienced a drought that led to severe dust storms. Farming grew difficult because of the lack of rain, and people who lived in the Dust Bowl became desperate for food, even more so than others who lived during the Depression. Dust Bowl meals focused on nutrition over taste.
The small town of Bedford, VA, suffered greater losses than any other single location in the United States on D-Day. On June 6, 1944, out of the 30 men from Bedford who stormed the beaches of Normandy, 19 died. A handful more perished in the days following. The Bedford Boys served as the inspiration for Saving Private Ryan, but this unique group had its own distinct story. In the midst of the heroism and horror of World War II, the brave men from Bedford represented the patriotism and courage of thousands.
Death by molten gold isn’t just a grisly Game of Thrones invention. In the third century, a Roman emperor named Valerian is alleged to have died when his rival poured liquid gold down his throat. Valerian’s gruesome death was nearly as bad as the horrific executions in Henry VIII’s time, and that's really saying something. Unfortunately for Valerian, his execution was only one part of his humiliating captivity in the hands of the Persians. That is, if we're to believe the account of Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius, an early Christian author who was no fan of Valerian's.
The Japanese word kamikaze translates to "divine wind." It refers to the storms that saved Japan from the invading Mongol fleets under Kublai Khan, and thus it was the moniker given to the pilots of the Special Attack Force in World War II. The force, known in Japanese as Tokkotai, carried out suicide attacks on the American fleet by crashing their planes, loaded with explosives, into American ships. The life of a kamikaze pilot was as difficult as it was short.
The Black Death devastated Europe, claiming 25 million lives and up to 80% of the population in some cities. Survivors of the plague, which lasted from approximately 1347-1353, struggled with skyrocketing food prices, psychological torment, and survivor guilt. Even Renaissance scholar Petrarch wished he was never born. In spite of the many tragedies it caused, the Black Death also had ripple effects that improved conditions in Europe in its aftermath. The awful time period didn't only galvanize pub culture, it transformed Europe's feudal society, spurring the 14th-century Renaissance in Italy and shifting wealth from the aristocracy to workers and peasants.
Life for peasants in the Middle Ages was difficult, to say the least - Medieval peasant jobs could often involve long hours of back-breaking labor in less than sanitary conditions - but it wasn’t all bad. Peasants actually had a lot more free time than you might expect. They got every Sunday off, as well as special holidays mandated by the church, not to mention weeks off here and there for special events like weddings and births when they spent a lot of time getting drunk. One estimate is that during the 1300s, peasants might only have worked 150 days a year.
It's good to be the king - or the emperor. Pleasure, power, and extreme wealth often come with the job. The exploits of Caligula are legendary, and he even took those activities to the water when he built two luxurious party ships and parked them on Lake Nemi near Rome. The Lake Nemi ships were intentionally sunk during the second half of the first century and were finally recovered during the 1930s. Artifacts from the ships went to a museum in Italy but many items were destroyed in World War II. Recently, a mosaic from one of the ships turned up in New York City, proving all is not lost for Caligula's sex ships, but it does raise interesting questions as to how it got there.
There are about 100 uncontacted native groups around the world, but none of them are more isolated than the Sentinelese tribe. Located in the northern Andaman Islands of India, these indigenous people conscientiously separate themselves from the outside world. In fact, their isolation has likely saved lives, as nearby tribes have suffered losses at the hands of outsiders who carry diseases or create hostility. Explorers commonly exploit native people and kill the animals they hunt for food.
When George Washington died on December 14, 1799, the nation mourned the loss of its first President and the heroic general of the American Revolution, but one man didn't accept the President’s death. Instead of waiting for a divine presidential resurrection, Dr. William Thornton came up with his own plan to bring George Washington back to life.
France was a country torn apart by years of religious and civil wars when Marie de Medici married King Henri IV in 1600. It was one of the unhappiest royal marriages of all time. Desperate for power, she watched from behind the scenes for years while her husband tried to control a country that was intent on destroying itself from within - she watched, and waited for her moment to strike. After 10 years of marriage, she was finally crowned Queen of France in her own right. The very next day her husband was conveniently murdered by a fanatical priest and Marie took control of the kingdom for herself.
Weird History presents Timeline 1998. Timeline is going back to the 90s and showing you all the news, culture, sports, entertainment, and all that was weird in the year 1998. '98 will be remembered for Bill Clinton getting impeached, the Chicago Bulls winning their second three-peat, and Oprah getting sued by Texas cattlemen. Take a nostalgic trip back to 1998.
What if a secret society of rogues operated in plain sight, using code words to plot elaborate felonies and hoaxes? From the 16th to 19th centuries, Europeans believed exactly that. According to multiple authors, rogues spoke a secret dialect called thieves' cant, which even the police couldn't crack. Honest folks needed to learn the language quickly so they could avoid "priggers" and "badgers" - known in standard English as thieves and villains.
In the 19th century, child labor was legal, and thousands of children were sequestered into mines and factories. The life of a child worker was grueling, and often short. Many were forced to begin working before they were 10 years old, as jobs like chimney sweeping required children who could fit into small places. While working conditions left much to be desired, at least the children were making money on the up and up; the same cannot be said for the gangs of child criminals who plagued England.
The concept of hygiene was still emerging during Ellis Island's heyday, with healthcare workers doing their best to deal with the possibilities of new illness and disease. Despite millions of people coming through, there were fewer than 4,000 lives lost during the duration of Ellis Island's operations. Considering the resources available at the time, it is fascinating to look at the healthcare techniques that were used in order to not just keep the facility flowing, but keep it as clean as possible.
Necklaces, rings, bracelets, brooches, earrings - we usually associate jewelry with women, but in the past men wore way more jewelry. So why don't men wear jewelry today? Male beauty standards change over time, and the same is true for jewelry standards. In the past, kings had rubies sewn into their clothes and ropes of pearls draped around their necks, showing off their wealth and power. Male jewelry was especially popular during the Renaissance, when men with earrings became a fashion trend. Of course, earrings never went out of style for pirates, and pirates loved their hoop earrings for some strange reasons.
When did nose jobs become popular? The first cosmetic nose job didn't happen until the late 1800s, but the procedure dates back 2,500 years. Around the 6th century BCE, an Indian doctor wrote about a process for grafting a flap of cheek skin over the nose. Unlike other early medical practices causing more harm than good, such as leeching or rubbing animal dung into wounds, methods used by ancient plastic surgeons were surprisingly effective and modern (but incredibly painful).
Northern California and the Pacific Northwest were forever changed by gold rushes, from population increases to economic growth to the introduction of new foods. People from all over the country - even all over the world - were crammed together in overcrowded camps and settlements, mixing ideas and recipes. Supplies were often limited, and food rations had to last much longer than normal, especially in remote regions. Resourceful gold miners knew how to pack accordingly for long journeys and use the flora and fauna available to them. This list brings together some of the more interesting and unusual foods consumed by those who participated in these gold rushes, some of which have become staples of American cuisine, and some of which have not survived the passage of time.
Many people know George Washington owned slaves, but what was life like for the slaves at Washington's Mount Vernon plantation? Hundreds of enslaved people toiled on the estate, where Washington expected them to work all day, six days a week. Many saw Washington as a harsh slave owner, and dozens of his slaves attempted to escape.
Soon after the Ford Motor Company introduced the Pinto to the public in 1970, the inexpensive subcompact model became one of the most popular cars in the United States. However, by the end of the decade, the Pinto had earned a reputation as a "firetrap." The car's fuel tank could explode if the car was involved in a rear-end collision - a danger that Ford engineers were aware of but failed to address.
The Victorian Era, which spanned from 1837 to 1901, was a great time for not only industrialization, science, and economic prosperity, but also for the development of crime-solving techniques. While police tactics of the 1800s left much to be desired, the 19th century saw many important discoveries and developments in the world of criminal forensics that created a blueprint for modern day investigations. From fingerprinting to the development of crime scene photography, Victorian era detective work made considerable progress over 60 years.
Encounters with monarchs were not reserved for the rich and powerful alone, but did medieval peasants ever meet their lords? Surprisingly, they sometimes did. "Commoners" denotes a large group of men and women who didn't have noble titles. This included everyone from wealthy merchants to peasants who struggled to make ends meet. Surviving records reveal that medieval monarchs had encounters with these commoners - though it's hard to get a sense of what exactly commoners thought of these meetings. Were they cynical, excited, or indifferent about them?
On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Ulysses S. Grant at Virginia's Appomattox Court House, effectively ending The Civil War. During the final, decisive battles of the war, many men lost their lives as the Confederacy desperately tried to fight against the Union troops that overran them. But on that fateful day in 1865, General Lee's surrender set the precedent for other massive surrenders that led to the official end of the war.
Weird History presents Timeline 1999 - We are taking you back to the last year of the 90s. 1999 would end the decade, and the 20th Century, on a cliffhanger with the dreaded Y2K. The year '99 would feature infamous moments like Bill Clinton's impeachment trial and Columbine, but also, iconic ones like the release of "Livin' La Vida Loca" and "The Matrix" going to the big screen. Take a trip back to 1999 with Weird History.
There once was a Medieval land of plenty, known as "Cockaigne," where food literally fell from the sky. It was imaginary, of course, but it was the over-the-top inspiration for a very real type of festival that was popular in Italy in the 1700s. It was known as "cuccagna," and it represents an important if not slightly disturbing moment in Italian food culture. The aristocrats and royals would build temporary palaces and statues, which they covered with food and then - on their signal - allowed poor villagers to ransack.
In September 2017, archaeologists began excavation on an outhouse, or a privy, found behind the Pierce-Hichborn house, which sits next door to Paul Revere's family home in Boston. Revere, most known for warning the colonists that the British were coming during the Revolutionary War, is an important historical figure in American history — and apparently, a lot can be learned from his bathroom habits.
The Silk Road was a network of markets and trading posts throughout Asia and the Indian Ocean Basin that extended from the eastern Mediterranean to the interior of China, and it earned its name thanks to the most valued commodity on the route: silk. Because of the large number of travelers making their way down the road, the different cultures that came into contact on the route, and the luxury goods that were being exchanged, intimacy on the historical Silk Road was an interesting, complicated, and nuanced cluster of encounters.
Alexander the Great didn't enjoy a long life, but few people have had such a profound effect on the world. In an odd way, perishing so young was probably the best thing Alexander could have done for his legacy - he didn't grow old and frail, and he wasn't crushed by the unbearable weight of actually running such a vast and disparate empire. He perished almost as dramatically as he lived.
In July 1967, two separate groups of young men set out to climb Denali (Mount McKinley). Those groups ended up merging into what's now commonly called the Wilcox Expedition, named after group leader Joe Wilcox. His name is unfortunately associated with the deadliest climbing disaster in American history, as a lethal storm killed 7 of the 12 men who set out to summit the mountain.
The early 1800s proved to be an interesting time. This period experienced one of the earliest recorded instances of global climate change. In addition, the War of 1812 ended; Napoleon Bonaparte lost at Waterloo; and Otto von Bismarck was born. The year 1816, in particular, stands out as being almost as tragic as 536 CE. Known as the "Year Without a Summer," 1816 negatively impacted the entire world, from the most poverty-stricken farmer in China to Thomas Jefferson. In 1815, Mount Tambora erupted, and its aftermath spurred droughts, crop failure, and endless winter.
The Nobel Prize is one of the most prestigious awards a person can earn. Among its many recipients, it is an honor won by chemists, physicists, and authors who have contributed vast amounts of tireless work to shaping the world we live in, and for their efforts in paving the way for humanity to move forward. The prize is named after its benefactor, Alfred Nobel, who, among a great many other things, was noted for his revolutionary invention that oftentimes literally helps to shape our world: dynamite. Although it would eventually be used as a weapon, dynamite was commonly used to blast rock underwater or to carve away tunnels. That is, at least, until November 12, 1970, when local authorities in Florence, OR, realized Mr. Nobel's invention could be put to another use: blowing up the rotting carcass of a beached whale.
The Mummy franchise traces its roots to the 1930s, when Boris Karloff portrayed the historic embalmed character at the height of the Universal Classic Monsters heyday. The first film, made in 1932, framed Imhotep as a mummy carrying an ancient curse. But Imhotep was a real-life priest in ancient Egypt, and he wasn't anything like his character in The Mummy movies. So who was Imhotep? The real Imhotep lived around 2600 BCE and was one of the first recorded geniuses in world history. He was an engineer, a physician, a politician, and a priest. Over the course of his life, he worked his way through the Egyptian ranks to hold a key position in the governments of two different pharaohs. He was also the mastermind behind the first pyramid.
Throughout history, many societies have used tarring and feathering as both punishment and humiliation. The practice reaches as far back as the 12th century, and the last instance occurred as recently as 1981, despite most people associating the ritual with the late 18th century. Traditionally, the practice of tarring and feathering is seen as a form of protest as well as punishment.
There is an old saying: “Live every day like it’s your last.” We live in an unpredictable world and are threatened by everything from nuclear fallout to heart disease. But how many of us really live each day as if we’ll never get another? Late in the year 79 CE, the citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum would have found this question extremely pressing. When the nearby stratovolcano Mount Vesuvius erupted, it set off a cycle of chaos that wiped out both towns and their citizens.
Winston Churchill was much more than the British Bulldog who held Britain together during the Blitz. He was also a prisoner of war with a bounty on his head who secretly sold paintings from a Paris art gallery - and that's just the beginning when it comes to weird Winston Churchill facts. Did you know that Churchill once ordered firefighters to let a London building burn to the ground rather than try to save the people inside? Or that 50 years before the Blitz, a teenage Churchill predicted, "I tell you London will be in danger - London will be attacked and I shall be very prominent in the defense of London?" Or that Churchill once jumped up during a dinner party, told his kitchen staff to run for a shelter, and sat back down three minutes before a bomb destroyed his kitchen? These strange facts about Winston Churchill might seem like fiction, but they're all true.
What was the iron maiden, and how did the iron maiden work? The medieval torture device, a human-sized sarcophagus filled with spikes, seems almost too gruesome to be true. According to 19th-century scholars, the iron maiden caused a slow, painful end, as people bled from shallow wounds while their torturers opened and closed the contraption's doors to impale them. Sharp spikes lined up with the eyes, causing blinding pain. It might be featured in multiple torture museums, but did the iron maiden exist?
Born in 1748, Jeremy Bentham was a 19th-century English philosopher, economist, and social reformer. Bentham had interesting ideas about mortality and mourning, which shaped how he wanted his remains handled after his passing. By Bentham's request, his preserved body was on public display and used for instruction. Bentham adopted and followed a practical life philosophy - he aimed for usefulness even in the afterlife. The reality of what happened to his body after he passed in 1832, however, wasn't quite what he intended. Bentham's remains, especially his head, took on a fascinating, if not horrifying, transformation.
The story of Julia Brown stands today as one of the most well-known Louisiana voodoo legends. "Aunt Julia" was the community healer for the tiny town of Frenier, LA. Although she was their healer, many people believe she put a curse on the town. Frenier, located just east of New Orleans along the shores of Lake Ponchartrain, was completely wiped out by the Great Storm of 1915 on the day of Brown's funeral. It's rumored that Aunt Julia placed a voodoo curse on the town that leveled the community when she passed.
What is life like in Buckingham Palace? That continues to be a bit of a mystery. As a royal residence and an official state building, Buckingham Palace operates in both private and public spheres. Buckingham Palace on the inside contains rooms designated for official purposes, with private apartments nearby for the queen and members of her family. Living and working in Buckingham Palace comes with a variety of perks - staff enjoy everything from medical services to exercise facilities. Some of the challenges of the aging structure, including a leaking roof and falling detritus, may not seem like the ideal living situation, but as part of Buckingham Palace's history, these defects could just be considered part of the building's charm. The size and grandeur of Buckingham Palace exceeds general knowledge, and maybe even expectation, giving individuals living in Buckingham Palace access to much more than meets the eye.
Picture the amazing works of Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo – the Mona Lisa, David, the Sistine Chapel. Now picture a corpse. It's a jarring juxtaposition, but the master artists of the Italian Renaissance learned how to create such realistic, beautiful masterpieces by studying remains. Renaissance anatomy was a new field, and artists were at the forefront. Famous anatomical artists, including da Vinci and Michelangelo, knew more about the human body than most doctors.
In 1956, the world watched as American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco. It was one of the first major media events surrounding a celebrity marriage, comparable only to the hype of Queen Elizabeth II's marriage to Prince Philip. But Grace Kelly's marriage had far deeper implications than just a man marrying a woman. But joining her wealthy family with the royal family of Monaco, she essentially insured the tiny principality's future prosperity. And one man was responsible for the whole affair.
We should all be thankful the process of foot binding is finally over. But what is foot binding, exactly? Well, imagine bending (and occasionally, breaking) your feet to grotesque angles from the age of five - and that's just scratching the surface. So why would anyone want to mangle their own toes to look like a vacuum-sealed pack of cocktail sausage smokies?
If modern movie and TV versions of the world’s most famous detective have taught us anything, it’s that the popularity of Sherlock Holmes is forever ingrained in our collective pop-culture memory. Even Star Trek told tales of Holmes and Watson through the lens of the 24th century. But the man who brought Holmes to the world—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—was a bit of a detective in his own right. And in the early twentieth century, he became involved in a supernatural investigation of his own that would give Sherlock a run for his money.
On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was reentering Earth's atmosphere after a two-week routine mission when it exploded, killing all seven astronauts aboard and scattering debris across multiple states. It was a horrific tragedy, particularly considering that the shuttle was on its 28th mission and had been a solid vehicle for space exploration and research since the 1980s. What happened to the space shuttle Columbia effectively ended NASA's shuttle program. In 2011, NASA's space shuttle fleet was officially retired.
The Victorian Era - in tandem with the reign of Britain's Queen Victoria - lasted throughout most of the 19th century. The Victorian period isn't exactly known for its go-with-the-flow attitude about social convention, and it's probably no surprise that death and mourning were not exempt from a set of strict rules of decorum. During this time period, elaborate mourning rituals became the norm, to the point of socially shaming those who didn't follow these highly regimented grief practices. Some of these rituals, such as having meals after funerals and surrounding the body of the dead with flowers, are still practiced today; while other of the death practices, some quite odd indeed, faded away after the end of the era.
What ever happened to the children of the most evil men in history? Some of their stories may surprise you. While we all learn about history's worst villains in school, it's rare that we hear anything about their descendants. Some of the offspring of these hated men have followed in their famous fathers' footsteps to become brutal leaders and dictators, undoubtedly making their parents proud. Yet, there are also the tales of children who do whatever they can to separate themselves from their nefarious relatives...
Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring this video! Head to https://keeps.com/WeirdHistory to get 50% off your first order of Keeps hair loss treatment. Greek, Roman, and Renaissance art stands out for its beauty and its attention to the human form. But millions of art lovers want to know: Why do old statues have small penises? From Michelangelo's David to the ancient Greek Laocoön, many classic sculptures stand out for what's missing. Was David experiencing shrinkage before his battle with Goliath, or did something else convince Michelangelo to keep chiseling?
The Conjuring, directed by James Wan, is one of the best horror films of the 21st century. It looks amazing, it plays on the audience’s worst fears, and it is based on a true story. But how true is it? There are a lot of films that say they are based on a true story just to get in an extra scare, but those claims rarely add up to anything more than a disclaimer on a movie poster. Throughout the '70s, the Perron family claimed to have lived The Conjuring. The family members were thrown out of their beds, ghosts kissed them in the middle of the night, and they were preyed upon by the spirit of a witch named Bathsheba Thayer. Was The Conjuring a true story?
Though Vikings are known for pillaging the coasts of Europe, Viking facts reveal that the marauders were more than just bearded warriors filled with blood-thirsty rage. Analysis of what Vikings ate shows that the ancient Norse people had surprisingly modern appetites. The Viking diet went beyond slabs of meat and tankards of mead to include a healthy balance of vegetables and breakfast staples like yogurt. The perception of Vikings as crude, dirty troublemakers doesn't match up with the refined nature of their meals. Viking cuisine incorporated a range of food and drink options, creating the balanced diet that made Viking men such notorious bruisers.
Many a curious renaissance fair or historical park visitor has probably wondered: “What was it like to be in the stocks?” A lot of people picture having their head and neck restrained for a few minutes and being pelted by old tomatoes, but punishment on the stocks (and its cousin, the pillory) was rarely so pleasant. Today, the stocks and pillory are often confused with one another, but they were two different devices that had different effects. Stocks restrained the feet, with the offender sitting; the pillory restrained the head and hands, with the offender standing.
Americans who stayed home during WWII were asked to make sacrifices to support troops overseas. People changed jobs, took on new responsibilities at home, and even changed their diets. Food rationing was a must. The military got the best meat, coffee, and nonperishables, while everyone else tightened their belts and made do. Instead of grumbling about it, people got creative.
Common causes of death in ancient Greece and Rome had a lot to do with a lack of modern healthcare and wellness. In an urban society with no central plumbing, impure water supplies that transmitted bacteria, and insufficient medical knowledge and disease prevention, it's not surprising that life expectancy in the ancient world was low and health was precarious.
Medical science has come a long way in the last hundred years, but that doesn't mean every medical mystery has been solved. The cause of the mysterious sleeping sickness that struck New York in the 1920s, Encephalitis lethargica, remains unsolved to this day. Originally called "the sleeping sickness" because the first few cases involved active people spontaneously falling asleep, it had a wide variety of symptoms and presentations.
During the Golden Age of Piracy, the growing British Empire went to great lengths to prevent lawlessness on the high seas. For centuries, pirates, privateers, buccaneers, and corsairs had taken to the water to wreak havoc against fellow seafarers, taking whatever they could find of value regardless of who suffered along the way. By the 17th and 18th centuries, however, piracy threatened European empire-building, so to curb such behavior, Britain punished the marauders and put them on display. Unlike what you may see in the best pirate movies, the life of a pirate was hard - long months, even years, on a ship amid the elements made for dirty, treacherous days and nights - but doom for a pirate was even worse.
In the peace- and love-themed summer of '69, giant music festivals became a standard event for the younger generation to experience rock-and-roll, hallucinogens, and the predictable chaos from cramming thousands of intoxicated people into a relatively confined area. One of these festivals, the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, would be cemented as one of the most famous music festivals in history.
Arsenic: it’s been called the “king of poisons” and the “poison of kings.” And for good reason – it has a lengthy, storied history, one full of mysterious poisoners and sometimes less-than-sympathetic victims. It's been a tool for thousands of years, used to kill countless people by shutting down their cells; a pea-sized amount of the stuff is enough to cause excruciating death.
Alaska became the 49th state to join the United States in 1959. Far removed from the contiguous US, Alaska remains the "last frontier" in many ways - including in the kitchen. Alaska frontier food has always blended practicality and indigenous tradition, combining influences from Inuit populations, Russian fur trappers, Yukon gold prospectors, and other groups who have occupied - and cooked in - the area. The culinary contributions of each make for some unique pairings, surprisingly simple flavors, and ingenious recipes - all of which constitute some version of native Alaskan food.
For the healing of the nations there must be good will and charity, confidence and peace," President Calvin Coolidge declared at the end of 1923, as the shadow of WWI continued to loom over America. What was life actually like in the decade that came to be known as the Roaring Twenties? While most history textbooks emphasize the country's recovery from war, the 1920s were full of great change and progress for many Americans. During this decade, the economy doubled, meaning people bought more goods and had more time to invest in leisure activities. It was an era of seemingly endless prosperity, which came to a sudden halt when 1929's Wall Street crash triggered the Great Depression.
People come in all colors - to an extent. Still, you wouldn't expect to see a human with naturally blue skin, but that's the case for the Blue Fugates. Who are the Blue Fugates? The title refers to members of the Fugate family of eastern Kentucky, particularly those who lived in the early- to mid-20th century. And according to firsthand accounts, the title is no exaggeration. Why did the Fugates turn blue? The short answer has to do with a genetic mutation arising from inbreeding. The longer answer has to do with recessive genes and bizarre happenstance. If the Fugates hadn't lived in such a rural area, their condition might not have become so pronounced.
The period between WWI and WWII brought about major political changes in Italy, and yet it's fairly uncommon to discuss what actually went on in Benito Mussolini's fascist state during those years. Mussolini implemented policies and reforms that led to a wave of censorship, nationalist propaganda, and widespread militarism, making daily life under Mussolini a tenuous existence.
It’s a tale as old as time – or, at least as old as the 1500s. But the real couple that inspired Beauty and the Beast lived a tragic life. The real life Beauty and the Beast were Catherine and Petrus Gonsalvus, and they were treated like freaks of nature by Europe’s kings and queens. Although the tale of Petrus and Catherine Gonsalvus isn't the single inspiration of the tale – it has much deeper folkloric roots than that – its optics match those of the fictional couple.
Like most things aboard the Titanic, hygienic practices and resources were dictated by class. First-class passengers traveling on the Titanic enjoyed some of the most luxurious bathing, dining, and recreational facilities to have ever been found at sea, while third-class passengers had to prove themselves clean just to get on board. Passengers on the Titanic spent their days and nights on the magnificent vessel, enjoying food in abundance while being tended to around every turn. In first and second class, Titanic passengers had access to public and private spaces with state-of-the-art amenities. Even in steerage, travelers didn't have much to complain about, with regular meals, electricity, and other comforts they may never have experienced before. The Titanic was tidy, shiny, and almost everything it was advertised to be - a true Queen of the Ocean.
The creativity with which Native American groups brought ingredients together reflected an awareness of and respect for the environment. When it comes to what kind of foods Native Americans ate in the past, their meals were often about both sustenance and ceremony. Native American groups thrived on staple foods like corn, beans, and squash. When available, meat, fruit, and other vegetables were mixed in, not to mention roots and greens. Many foods Native Americans ate were high in fat, protein, and carbohydrates - intentionally loaded with nutrients in order to combat potential hardship and struggle. Food was also used for celebrating and bringing people together.
There were some pretty unusual Viking rituals practiced from the late 8th century into the late 11th century. It’s no secret that Vikings were fierce warriors with a reputation for raiding nations and brutalizing their inhabitants. These intense, seafaring Scandinavians would slaughter dozens and perform some pretty severe ritualistic executions. What’s known is that the Viking age is littered with some extreme rituals from the Norse religion but also a few oddball traditions that Vikings practiced exclusively.
Modern people often think of the Middle Ages as an unsophisticated period, when science and technology were almost unheard of. This is especially true of medieval weapons and warfare. Depictions of medieval warfare often portray it as chaotic and brutal, with two armies bashing away at each other with swords and shields. In reality, medieval warfare could be nearly as complex as it is today. Though medieval and early modern societies didn't have modern advantages like electricity, combustion engines, or industrial manufacturing, they were still capable of producing massive weapons that could devastate the battlefield.
The norms and conventions of the ancient Roman world largely dictated the hygiene practices of its emperors - as did their personal vanity, practicality, and access to luxury. Physical representations of these men on coins and in busts give us an idea of their appearance while surviving literature provides insight into just how clean they really were.
Europeans were creative when it came to torture. They developed some of the most excruciating and slowest methods of torture in history, including the horrific blood eagle torture method. But one of the worst forms of torture was not even considered torture by the court. It was an official sentence: pressing to death. The men and women who were sent to death by crushing in Britain had not been found guilty of any crime.
When Bitcoin came screaming back into the public consciousness in late 2017, there was a lot of talk about whether or not Bitcoin is an economic bubble. The crypto currency flew under the radar for several years and then all of a sudden it skyrocketed in market value. But what goes up must come down and nowhere was this more evident than the Tulip Mania which inflamed Europe in the 1630s.
Across all eras of human history, people have craved luxurious and extravagant foods not only to excite the palate, but also to show off social status. The aristocrats of the Middle Ages (the fifth to 15th centuries) may not have thought of themselves as "foodies," exactly, but they certainly were obsessed with exotic and delectable fare. Medieval banquets were grand affairs, and they promised a spectacle of strange, ostentatious dishes.
For decades, knowledge of America's role in the 1953 Iran coup, which led to the ejection of the country's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and the installation of a despotic shah, was fragmented and vague. However, when CIA documents were declassified in 2000 about what it called Operation Ajax, it became clear American and British agents played a central role in the Iran coup d'état.
In the years after WWII, Americans became more affluent than they had been in previous generations. Veterans were going to college and buying homes in droves, the population boomed, and cities around the country grew rapidly. As Americans enjoyed greater prosperity, their day-to-day habits changed due to new innovations and technologies. They wanted to be able to come home after a long day of work, put on their favorite 1950s TV show, and enjoy a quickly cooked meal with their families. Refrigerators were more accessible to the average family than ever before and they soon came to change the American palate.
Even the weirdest death row last meals make sense, because how do you limit yourself to small fare when you know it's the last food you'll ever eat? Serial killers like Steven Michael Woods order as much food as possible so they can make their last meals count. The prisoners last meals below contain everything from the best cuts of meat to heaps of ice cream. Would you choose a large lavish meal for your final dinner?
In 1859, Congressman Daniel Sickles shot and killed the man sleeping with his wife. After escaping a prison sentence, Sickles disobeyed orders in the Civil War and lost a leg. After the war, General Dan Sickles donated the leg to the Army Medical Museum. And that's just the start when it comes to the wildest general in the Civil War.
Today's alcoholic beverages range from canned Strawberritas to expertly crafted cocktails, but modern bartenders aren't the first people to invent adults-only drinks. In fact, there are plenty of types of weird ancient liquors that have survived in the historical and archaeological records. These ancient alcohols don't always sound appetizing, but they're definitely fascinating.
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is perhaps the most famous, and certainly the most controversial, scientific theory ever developed. First published in 1859 in a book titled, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, the theory proposed that human beings - and all living creatures for that matter - had arrived at their current state through a process called natural selection, which is the result of millions of years of adaptation. Darwin found his ideas solidified when on a trip to the Galapagos Islands where evolution had run rampant, and he later put those thoughts into words that almost anyone could understand.
World War II is inarguably one of the darkest periods of human history. It can be difficult to wrap your head around the sheer number of lives lost, families separated, and cities decimated. From the ashes of destruction rise heroes - some recognized, and others deserving of recognition they never receive. Freddie Oversteegen is one of those overlooked heroes from unknown WWII stories. Once you learn about her life, you'll never forget her, and you'll also wonder why no one has made a movie about this incredible woman.
Here's the standard high school history class summary of the Soviet Union: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a communist state from 1922 to 1991 and was a big rival of the US from WWII to the end of the '80s. But what was the Soviet Union really like? What was it like living in the Soviet Union? That same history class probably told you that it was awful, but it's a lot more complicated than that.
The crash of the Concorde in 2000 was a shock. Also known as the Air France 4590 crash, it resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people, and Concorde crash victims included several people who weren't even on the plane. It was the only fatal incident involving the supersonic jet, and, before the crash, the Concorde was considered a relatively safe aircraft – with a history of zero deaths. The crash that effectively ended its nearly three decades of commercial use was caused by tire debris, which hit the fuel tank and caused it to explode.
You likely know the name Commodus as the bad guy from Gladiator, the Best Picture winner from 2000. Played as a pervy psychotic by Joaquin Phoenix, Emperor Commodus is portrayed as a man with insecurities motivating his actions. And while that may be an accurate, historical understanding of the emperor's persona, there's a lot more to Commodus’ biography than the made-up bits starring Russell Crowe. But, who was Commodus?
Living like a royal means working like a royal. Though they enjoy unimaginable privileges - like getting to live in extravagant palaces - members of the British royal family have duties to perform. These various tasks and responsibilities keep Queen Elizabeth II's family busy. Ever since she became queen in 1952, Elizabeth II has been a royal workhorse. Unlike weird royals in history who may have ignored their responsibilities, she completes all of the duties expected of a British monarch on a daily basis and takes her work seriously. The queen isn't the only working royal.
As tragic as Richard Pryor's life story may appear at a glance, his struggles and misfortune helped create and fuel the comedy in his act. Not until Pryor played himself on stage did his rise to the top truly begin. Without the pain and heartbreak he experienced, he may not have gotten there. Richard Pryor began his career in the 1960s, a time of change for civil rights as well as comedy, which was previously all about jokes. When Pryor got on stage and shared his observations, especially about the experiences of Black Americans, he was forging a revolutionary path in comedy.
What is a molly boy? In the 18th century, Londoners began calling young gay men and male pros "molly boys," using the term as a derogatory term for those men they found effeminate or soft. Molly boys might walk the streets of London looking for johns (clients), while others visited molly houses - secret and discreet meeting places for gay men. In molly houses, men could dress in drag, have relations with other men, and even perform play marriages and pretend to give birth, all while avoiding society's condemnation. Molly house culture led to the flourishing of London's LGBTQ+ community - at least until the police raids started.
You many not be familiar with the name Vasili Arkhipov, but maybe you should be. He's the Soviet Navy man who stopped nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the '60s. Arkhipov, AKA the man who avoided nuclear war, somehow persuaded fellow officers not to fire at the United States during an extremely tense time. According to Thomas Blanton, former director of the National Security Archive, Arkhipov "saved the world."
The tragic romance between Inês de Castro and Dom Pedro of Portugal caused a civil war and ended with the nobility kissing the hand of a dead woman. In the 14th century, Inês de Castro's affair with and secret marriage to the heir to Portugal's throne enraged Dom Pedro's father, who hired men to slay her. When the hired blades struck, finishing de Castro in front of her children, Pedro went into a rage and declared war against his father. Years later, after he became King Peter I of Portugal, revenge was the only thing on Pedro's mind. He had his wife posthumously declared Queen of Portugal and propped her decaying body on a throne so the nobility could honor her.
In 1978, Gunter Wetzel and Peter Strelzyk decided they could no longer live in the communist state of East Germany. So, the two men proceeded to put together an epic project, creating a hot air balloon that would facilitate their flight to freedom over Germany's inner border – that's right; they were going to get their families out of the oppressive, communist state by flying over the border wall that separated East and West Germany. Of all the escape attempts made by East German citizens during the Cold War, the Wetzel and Strelzyk families have one of the most exciting stories.
The Trail of Tears, the forced migration of Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole tribe members, and many others, from their ancestral lands in the US Southeast to allowed territory in Oklahoma, resulted in the deaths of over 4,000 Native Americans along the way. What was everyday life on the Trail of Tears like? Thanks to many surviving first-hand accounts of the Trail, we have records of the harsh, brutal realities of daily life during over 1,000 miles of hard traveling.
Did you know that outlaw Jesse James's body was preserved on ice and people were able to look at his corpse before it was buried? A famous photo has made the rounds over the years showing the true, historical Jesse James body on ice, surrounded by a marshal and two deputies from St. Joseph, Missouri. There's nothing to debunk about this image - it's 100% what it seems like.
As China's only female emperor, Wu Zetian worked her way up to a position of power and prominence during the Tang Dynasty, establishing a legacy that would last thousands of years. One of history's most successful and controversial rulers, Wu Zetian married two emperors, birthed a couple more, and got rid of anyone that stood in her way. The line between fact and fiction with Wu Zetian is blurry, but stories about her life and rule are fascinating.
How did WWI soldiers keep clean in the trenches? The answer lies somewhere between "with great difficulty" and "they didn't." Although WWI was known as the Great War, trench hygiene was anything but great. Soldiers in the trenches spent their time in unsanitary conditions among open latrines, others who went days without bathing or changing their clothes, and the remains of many men who lost their lives. Although WWI hygiene and medical issues were notoriously inadequate, the lessons learned during WWI helped improve conditions and responses to sanitation and medicine for future generations, both on and off the battlefield.
So, who exactly were the Picts? They were a mysterious group of people who resided in what is now northern England and southern Scotland and popped up in the annals of Roman history in the first few centuries CE. Although not a great deal is known about the Picts, historians do know that they caused quite a bit of trouble for the Romans, who were trying to conquer every inch of land they could get their spears on. However, there are plenty of Pict facts aside from their Roman relationships.
Why do engagement rings exist? And why do engagement rings have diamonds? It turns out, betrothal rings are much older than diamond engagement rings. Before the late 19th century, diamond engagement rings were uncommon, even though royals sometimes exchanged diamond rings.
What are Soviet Gulags? What happened in Gulags? And what did they accomplish? The word "Gulag" is actually an acronym of its official bureaucratic name, Glavnoe Upravlenie Ispravitel'no-trudovykh LAGerei. When translated from Russian, it roughly means "the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps." The gut-wrenching system of forced labor camps was first established following the Russian Civil War. By the 1950s, the Gulags would stretch across the entirety of the Soviet Union's territory. It was arguably one of the darkest periods of 20th-century history.
Yo dawg, this may be painful to hear, but a lot of the Pimp My Ride episodes were actually a TV disaster. Of course, the show gave the audience many gifts, like rapper Xzibit memes that just keep giving. And while fans will treasure the show forever, Pimp My Ride car fails are alarmingly common. Many contestants still regard the auto body shop from Seasons One to Four, West Coast Customs, as garbage reality TV people who aren't the real deal.
Ken Rex McElroy was murdered on July 10, 1981, in one of the most bizarre cases authorities had ever encountered. It should have been open and shut - there were dozens of witnesses, and the shooting occurred in broad daylight - but it wound up being anything but. Despite the facts, the residents of Skidmore, MO, weren't so eager to talk and point fingers; in the end, no one came forward.
What was medieval junk food like? If you're picturing knights eating Big Macs and Twinkies, you're not far off from the truth. Just substitute a meat pie for the Big Mac and a funnel cake for the Twinkies, and you'll have a good idea of what medieval people bought on the street. But knights didn't ride their horses to medieval drive-throughs. Instead, medieval junk food usually catered to the poorest people and travelers.
Chain mail and suits of armor were some of the most recognizable parts of medieval warfare. Created in response to swordplay, the dominant form of combat at the time, they've become somewhat legendary for their striking appearance on the battlefield. A good suit of plate armor was considered invincible in many ways, but there were several tactics combatants could use to kill their opponent.
You're probably more likely to know Charles Lutwidge Dodgson as British author Lewis Carroll. He wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. But what you may not know is how close a relationship he forged with a young girl named Alice Liddell, the real Alice in Wonderland, and the inspiration behind his novels. This relationship has been heavily studied and scrutinized, with many believing it had Lolita-esque aspirations.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was Czar Nicholas II's youngest daughter and a member of the Russian Imperial Romanov family. The family was placed under house arrest during the Bolshevik Revolution, and Anastasia was brutally murdered alongside her family by the secret police in 1918. But Anastasia lived on after death in a very bizarre way: a few years later, a woman named Anna Anderson convinced many people that she was Anastasia, and had somehow survived the massacre.
The Ottoman Empire is one of the most important and influential major empires in history, though it is sometimes overlooked in the West (which may have something to do with the Christianity-versus-Islam bent of Western historical education). This lack of recognition extends to the empire's elite and unique military units known as the Janissaries.
Three hundred million years ago, the largest insect ever known to humankind hunted in fern jungles and boasted an enormous wingspan of nearly 2.5 feet. Different from modern dragonflies in its size and other attributes, the Meganeura earned the title "prehistoric griffinfly" from scientists. The first Meganeura fossil, discovered in 1880, eventually led researchers to a group of mega-insects, including Meganeuropsis permiana and other massive dragonflies. These creatures hunted prey using their enormous eyes, toothed mandibles, and sharp legs.
Buboes, black spots, and bloody froth: it was all in a day’s work for Black Death body collectors. The plague, which may have killed as many as 200 million people worldwide, changed everything—including body disposal. During the plague, millions of bodies piled up in Europe. Bubonic plague body collectors risked their lives to clear out the streets, all for a hefty paycheck—and sometimes the chance to extort people out of their money.
For hundreds of years, history left us wondering what disease killed the Aztecs in the mid-1500s. Many assumed the Aztecs were one of many Central American groups to be wiped out by European diseases like smallpox. However, DNA testing has unearthed new evidence about what really killed 80% of the Aztecs.
On September 1, 1939, nearly seven years after Hitler became chancellor, Germany invaded Poland. Over the next six years, Nazis invaded, occupied, and brutalized a considerable amount of Europe and Northern Africa. The German brand of military-industrial fascism imposed radical changes in the daily life of all those who came under its reign, though these changes were often specific to context. For instance, life in occupied France was very different from life in Poland under German occupation, which was different than the experiences of Norway or the Balkans. There were, however, some consistencies: food shortages, rape committed by German soldiers, the persecution of Jews, shipping Jews who weren't killed on the stop to concentration camps, and random acts of senseless violence.
The yakuza of Japan are often compared to other underground organizations like the Mafia or a Mexican drug cartel. With numerous organizations, syndicates, and participants, the yakuza are much more than that, with a history that goes back for centuries and extends throughout Japanese cultural, political, and economic foundations. Many of the details are relatively unknown to the Western world.
On March 13, 1973, photographer Slava 'Sal' Veder captured the moment that Vietnam war veteran and POW Lt. Col. Robert Stirm was reunited with his family. Stirm had been held in Vietnam for nearly six years, and this photograph came to represent not only his personal victory in returning home, but also the path to healing the United States needed to embark on after the Vietnam War. Yet the real story behind this photograph, titled "Burst of Joy," is far from the happy, joyful depiction Veder captured. The reality behind the photo was a very different story.
Perfume came a long way before Chanel N°5. These days, many people dab on a touch of perfume or cologne every morning, but perfume in the past was a luxury item associated with deities. Egyptians even called perfume the sweat of the sun god, and Romans believed perfume connected them to the divine. In truth, however, perfume history isn't all roses.
Three Mile Island is a nuclear power plant located in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on the eastern side of the state. It was the site of the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, which occurred on the morning of May 28, 1979. Although no one outside of the plant was harmed, the workers inside were exposed to high levels of radiation, and the public became worried that nuclear power was unsafe. The story of Three Mile Island shows that nuclear incidents can be prevented, as long as the right safety measures are in place and the employees are trained properly. What happened on Three Mile Island was small in comparison to the Fukushima Disaster in Japan or the Chernobyl Incident in Russia. However, it still serves as a cautionary tale about how small mistakes and errors in judgment can add up to major disasters.
The Templo Mayor excavation in present-day Mexico City has unearthed an exciting site; in March 2019, archaeologists found a cache of sacrifices and offerings that may indicate the burial of royalty. The trove was discovered near the holiest temple in the Aztec world, Templo Mayor, which has been described in historical accounts as the resting place of the Aztec kings. Archaeologists have never found an Aztec royal burial despite decades of excavations, but this recent discovery may lead to the first.
Everyone who's ever watched an MTV reality TV show probably knows that some of that so-called "reality" is a little bit unreal. For every celebrity that totally lied on MTV's Cribs, there's a producer or two who faked a scene on Pimp My Ride. Reality TV lies are a dime a dozen – but then there was Punk'd. Punk'd was arguably one of the realest reality shows on MTV. But producers had no qualms about cutting up their actual reactions and making it look like host Ashton Kutcher could not be beat.
Rich families of the Gilded Age lived lives nearly unimaginable today. How so? One need only look around one's hometown and see where the enormous, glorious mansions of the late 19th century have either been turned into private or public museums – or are peeling and rotting away – to get a glimpse. In most cases, it is simply too costly to maintain them as private residences anymore. So, imagine just how incredibly rich the handful of mid- to late 19th-century families had to be to keep up such lavish appearances. The Gilded Age wealth disparity was so extreme that people today often compare them to what modern society terms the "one-percent" class.
In Ottoman history, Sultan Ibrahim I is known as one of the most extravagant rulers. Though he only ruled for a period of roughly eight years, his reign was defined by decadence, nepotism, sensuality, and, according to some, outbursts. Like many of the most captivating historical figures and celebrities, Ibrahim's life was tragic and curious.
Courtship during the Regency period was serious business. Finding a partner involved a series of practical and romantic considerations as well as a strict adherence to Regency courting etiquette. The Regency era - which technically lasted in Great Britain from 1811 to 1820, but was part of the larger social and cultural era of the late 18th and early 19th centuries - might have had a reputation for licentiousness when it came to matters of the heart. But it also was an era of politeness and gentility, and rules governed how middle- and upper-class couples should interact with one another.
On October 23, 2002, militant Chechen separatists took over the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow, Russia. For three days, they held some 800 hostages, demanding their voices be heard. The Nord Ost Siege, as it is called on account of the show at the theater that night, was just another chapter in the long, violent relationship between Russia and Chechnya. During the 1990s, the separatist government of Chechnya, an Islamic state within the Russian Federation, called for Russia to withdraw its troops from Chechen borders. When the Chechen rebels entered the theater in 2002, they echoed this sentiment and brought about the wrath of the Russian government. To end the Moscow theater hostage crisis, Russian police piped gas into the Dubrovka Theater, but the end results were more devastating than the world – watching it live on television – could have imagined.
Vikings told the story of Ragnar Lothbrok, his first wife, Lagertha, and a host of other notable Scandinavians who lived, worked, and fought their way through the earliest part of the so-called Viking Age. The show depicted real men, women, and children with a mix of historical truth and fictional fodder through six seasons - but it only scratched the surface of the fascinating world of the Vikings.
In the violent and dramatic history of the English monarchy, the story of Lady Jane Grey stands out as one of the most tragic. She was a teenage Queen of England who ruled for only nine days before she was deposed and ultimately executed. But there is a lot more to Lady Jane’s story than the fact that she had the briefest reign in English history.
Young girls in America grew up with the squeaky-clean image of Barbie, but the truth is that the history of Barbie and Europe's Bild Lilli doll go hand in hand. Bild Lilli is a doll with heavy makeup, a fierce backstory, and a curvy body eerily similar to Barbie's and some have described her as "Barbie’s ballsy European precursor." Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler first encountered Bild Lilli in Switzerland in the mid-1950s, and saw the doll's potential for American consumers. But Lilli was a very different kind of doll than what Barbie eventually became.
Czar Peter the Great of Russia casts a long shadow over history. A giant of a man, with appetites for learning and adventure to match, he did more to modernize his country than pretty much any other ruler before or since. But who was Peter the Great as a man, a father, and a reformer?
Grigori Rasputin is one of the most notorious names in Russian history - and his piercing eyes, creepy gaze, greasy hair, and bushy beard only add to the mystique surrounding him. The Mad Monk, as he has been called, was a figure of both fascination and outrage in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution. And in the century since the revolution, time has done little to diminish interest in the Black Monk.
Americans know the Pledge of Allegiance very well – the great majority of US states require school children to recite it every single morning. But not many of us know the true history of the Pledge of Allegiance, or that of its author, Francis Bellamy. While it's true that the Pledge of Allegiance was created as a way to instill patriotism in American kids, it's also so much more than that. The Pledge has gone through several transformations, each of which provides a really interesting insight into the fears and desires of the United States at a particular point in history.
By the mid-1990s, Saturday Night Live was a mainstay of popular culture, one entering its third decade of programming. Despite some ups and downs over time, SNL introduced viewers to famous characters like Jake and Elwood Blues, Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar, and a host of others. The show's "Weekend Update" segment offered comedic takes on the news, infusing some laughs into current events.
Why didn't people smile in old photos? For one, early cameras sometimes required a 15-minute exposure time, and holding a smile for that long was no small feat. But that's not the only reason Victorians donned dour expressions in photographs. Some avoided smiling because they were frightened by the process, since photo studios were often called "operation rooms." Others kept their mouths closed to hide their rotting teeth. Instead of telling people to "say cheese," photographers quite literally instructed subjects to "say prunes" to make their mouths look smaller.
MTV Cribs was one of the most beloved and outrageous shows of the early '00s. From Mariah Carey's lavish, 11,000 square-foot penthouse to Redman's Staten Island shack, the show gave everyday people an inside glimpse of what it's really like to be a celebrity. Cribs was renowned for showing glamorous mansions and luxury cars, a trend standard for many past MTV shows that took the place of actual music. Without the show, the phrase "this is where the magic happens" would have never been used to describe a bedroom.
When it comes to vanity projects, there are bad ideas, and then there are catastrophes. Some stars open restaurants with their windfalls or even finance their own movies, but Bruce Willis isn't just some star. He's the action hero from Die Hard, and he doesn't do anything small. Throughout the '90s, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore lived in the small town of Hailey, ID, which they transformed into their idea of paradise. Willis invested in a diner, a club, and even his own theater. Moore filled a renovated Victorian mansion with her doll collection. The small town with a population of less than 10,000 became so flush with Willis's cash that people started calling it "Planet Haileywood."
Let's talk Cheese History. Weird History is taking you on an epic food journey as we reveal the History of Cheese. We're going from the very beginning and seeing where cheese began and what it is today. We'll make stops through various points in history and see some of the surprising origins of your favorite cheeses. Sit back and enjoy this cheesy history.
On April 15, 1912, one of the 20th century's most famous and state-of-the-art steamships hit an iceberg and sank in the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean, taking around 1,500 lives with it. Despite this tragic ending, the story of the Titanic captured the imaginations of many, inspiring myths, artwork, books, and movies. The story is always the same: An enormous ship thought to be the epitome of human accomplishment collides with an iceberg at sea and sinks in less than three hours. While this story is widely accepted, the nuances of why the Titanic hit the iceberg and exactly how this led to its rapid demise remains something of a mystery.
The rise and fall of the Joe Camel cartoon is a lesson in disastrous advertising. As a marketing ploy, Joe was allegedly created to draw smokers away from Camel's competitors. The Joe Camel advertising campaigns utilized a masculine camel, or “smooth character,” to create an association between the brand’s cigarettes and the high life. However, when suspicions arose concerning the true audience impacted by these campaigns, attitudes about the smoking ads quickly shifted.
When the Black Plague struck Europe in the 14th century, people didn't have much time to worry about their diets. Still, doctors warned that the most popular food and drinks in medieval England, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, could make people sick. Deemed healthy were items like meats, vinegar, and cooked fruit. For roughly three centuries afterward, millions of Europeans succumbed to sickness. The effects of the Black Plague influenced medieval food culture and directly shaped the way we live now.
Also known as the Great War, World War I was a horrific world conflict that lasted for roughly four years (1914-1918). You know a bit about WWI from history class: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, "the War to End All Wars," Allied powers vs. Central powers, trench warfare, Europe forever changed, millions upon millions of lives lost. But do you really know how World War I changed the world?
Life in the Middle Ages was dangerous. Whether living in a communal setting, fighting abroad, or simply tending a field, there were numerous challenges that could bring it all to an end. Life inside a castle or a monastery may have offered some protection, but you were just as exposed to horrible, contagious diseases as everyone else.
Across all eras of human history, people have craved luxurious and extravagant foods not only to excite the palate, but also to show off social status. The aristocrats of the Middle Ages (the fifth to 15th centuries) may not have thought of themselves as "foodies," exactly, but they certainly were obsessed with exotic and delectable fare.
For over a century, European men refused to go outside without first donning an enormous wig. At the time, the headpiece was better known as a peruke or periwig, and just like other bizarre fashion trends, the peruke wig has a fascinating history. It turns out that powdered wigs weren't as innocent as they look - there's a surprising secret hidden in peruke history.
To understand the Paul Getty kidnapping, you need to know a little bit about Getty family history. Paul, also known as John Paul Getty III, was the grandson of J. Paul Getty, the man who began making money from oil leases in the 1910s and became extremely wealthy. Despite his vast wealth, however, he was a very frugal man. He had all the money in the world but was very particular about how it was distributed among his children and grandchildren.
Barbers in the Middle Ages were excellent multi-taskers. It’s true: a lot of surgery in the Middle Ages was done by so-called barber-surgeons, a medieval precursor to the old dude with the combs in the blue water down the street. But they did a whole lot more than just cut people open. The list below features some of the surprising - and often disgusting - things that medieval barbers did besides just cut hair.
Many of us can probably remember hearing "Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?" playing in the background at some point while Cops was on TV for more than 30 seasons. The reality show was the first of its kind and captured the attention of millions of viewers as it portrayed crimes across the US from a different point of view.
Who were the real Peaky Blinders? On the BBC show, boss Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) violently dominates the streets of Birmingham, England, while wearing tailored, fashionable clothes. And in reality, the gang members did wear a signature dressy look, complete with silk scarves, to class up their extralegal enterprise. But they also sewed razor blades in their caps to injure the faces of their rivals and victims, causing a crime wave that infuriated the police. The Peaky Blinders were one of many groups in Birmingham that resorted to their enterprises because of the city's industrialized poverty, but their tactics made them the most feared gang in all of Britain
It was years in the making, but when it actually came, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 occurred suddenly. In the immediate aftermath, the Russian people hoped for blue jeans and other Western goods - and the freedom that came with them. Their hopes were not fulfilled as Russia underwent a dramatic transformation from a planned economy to the market economy via a highly controversial “shock therapy” process. Amid the wild fluctuations in currency value came a constitutional crisis, a widely condemned invasion of Chechnya, and the rise of a new breed of politician.
While many factors led to the fall of the Roman Empire, the Crisis of the 3rd Century embodied the turmoil that eventually ended Rome's centuries-long rule. More than 20 barracks emperors - men who came to power thanks to their military prowess and their troops' support - rose in quick succession to control imperial Rome. The first of those military emperors was Maximinus Thrax, Roman emperor from 235 to 238 CE.
What happened during the Crusades? What were the Crusades? This time is one of the most misunderstood periods of Western history. From 1095 to 1291, successive waves of Christian knights and royals, called to action by the Catholic Church, quested to the Holy Land in an effort to capture (or re-capture) it from Muslim armies. But facts about the Crusades are much more complicated than that. The Crusades weren't just one movement, but dozens, led by hundreds of knights, kings, and dukes, and not always bent on capturing Jerusalem. They tried to free Jerusalem, but also claimed a number of ancient cities, destroying priceless artifacts and culture.
There are approximately 2,900 prisoners currently experiencing life on death row. The death penalty is a legal option in 31 states, and it's also utilized in some cases by the U.S. military and government. People on death row are most likely to face lethal injection as their execution method, but there are plenty of ways to die on death row.
In 1961, Michael Rockefeller went missing on the island of New Guinea. The 23-year-old heir to the Rockefeller fortune was gone without a trace. While on a trip to document native New Guinea tribes and collect carvings for his father's art museum, the boat he was traveling in capsized. He tried to swim to shore for help, and that was the last time anyone saw him alive.
Most people put on their outfits every day without questioning the history of clothing as they do it. You're clearly not one of these people, since you've landed on this page! Here's a list of things we still wear today and why we started wearing them. The history of clothing is a very strange story with a lot of twists and turns.
The Holocaust was indisputably one of the most horrific events in human history. It also showcased moments of defiance, and inspirational stories about escaping the Holocaust affirm the endurance of the human spirit, even in the bleakest times. It wasn't easy to escape a concentration camp - they were prisons designed to detain and kill. Guards didn't hesitate to shoot prisoners who stood too close to fences or appeared to flee. They also interrogated, tortured, and executed people who they believed were plotting an escape. The decision to escape a camp was thus incredibly risky.
The Victorian era may be heavily represented in pop culture, through stately period dramas, rollicking novels, and gritty television series, but it's also one of the most misunderstood periods in history. From prudish queens to macabre mourners, myths about the Victorian era persist. These myths and inaccuracies oversimplify a ridiculously complex historical era, as well as its inhabitants.
LEGO history is almost as fascinating as the toys themselves - but the globally renowned, multi-billion-dollar company went through decades of setbacks in an attempt to preserve itself. Created by Ole Kirk Christiansen in Denmark in the 1930s, the toy company's evolution has been shaped by tragedy in many ways. Though LEGO sets are now beloved and ubiquitous toys - and sometimes incredible rare collectibles - they began humbly, as the product of one Danish carpenter who originally crafted items like ironing boards and ladders for a living.
In 1851, the US government passed the Indian Appropriations Act, creating reservation lands for Native Americans. For decades prior, the US government had forcefully moved and abused Native American tribes, most notably through the Indian Removal Act and subsequent Trail of Tears under President Andrew Jackson. In placing them on reservations, the US government often forced Native Americans to live on subpar lands under harsh conditions. Reservation rules were also oppressive and unfamiliar. By 1887, the government took further action with the Dawes Act. President Grover Cleveland signed the act, which aimed to assimilate Native Americans into white culture and improve their lives. It did the opposite. By taking more land away from Native Americans, splitting up land they already held, depriving them of productive and profitable farmland, and sending them into abject poverty, the US government only made matters worse.
Thanks to an unknown beast seemingly roaming the countryside and tearing innocent people limb from limb, the years 1764-1767 were not a great time to be a citizen of rural France. The Beast of Gévaudan, named after the southern province of France it dominated, terrorized small farming villages and, eventually, the entirety of France, even capturing the attention of King Louis XV.
As much as you may want to believe them, most rumors about famous celebrities are often completely false. Considering all the sex, drugs, and rock and roll in rock music, it's not surprising that almost every rock star has a few rumors that surround them. But, again, most of these simply aren't true. However, don't despair, because in the midst of the countless made-up or exaggerated tales out there, some of these rock star rumors are actually true!
The Milton Bradley corporation produced some of the most memorable family-friendly board games in history, like Operation, Candy Land, and Chutes and Ladders, before being purchased by Hasbro. Their games aren't as innocent and carefree as everyone believes, though; they have weird histories. In fact, there are strange stories behind many children’s games.
Wiping out large portions of populations in the areas affected, the worst droughts and famines in history date back several centuries and chronicle some of the worst natural disasters on record. Droughts and famines still occur to this day, with starvation and malnutrition an unfortunate reality in many parts of the world. Famine and droughts differ from other devastating natural disasters like the worst earthquakes and the most destructive tornadoes in the extent of suffering and loss of life. Tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are short-lived, while famine and drought can last years at a time. Most natural disasters cannot be prevented, however, some historical famines could have been.
In 1938, aliens attacked. Well, that's at least what Americans heard over the radio. Orson Welles and a group of actors interrupted a radio broadcast to warn the public that the planet had been invaded by aliens - really, they were just reading a script based off the novel, The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells. Unlike successful real-life alien hoaxes, this '38 fake news story spiraled the entire country into mass hysteria... Or did it?
US presidents and first ladies must often make important decisions. A White House staffer's 1988 memoir alleged that Nancy and Ronald Reagan used astrology in making many of these decisions. Though decades have passed since the Reagan administration, it is mystifying how the former leader of America used the location of the stars and planets to inform decisions that impacted millions of citizens. This only adds to the plethora of weird facts about Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
A strange child-eating statue stands in the center of the scenic Alpine city of Bern, Switzerland. Set between quaint sandstone buildings and the picturesque River Aare, the man in the statue stuffs a child into his gaping maw. He’s clearly ready to move on to more children once he’s finished his appetizer. Who is the mysterious child eater of Bern? He has been standing in Bern since the 1500s, creating a nearly 500-year-old mystery about the meaning of the statue. In Bern, they call him the Kindlifresser – literally “child eater.” He is also known as the ogre.
It's not every day that human appendages are found in animals. But in 1935, a 14-foot tiger shark regurgitated a human arm at an Australian aquarium and prompted a legal investigation. The shark was caught by a fisherman when it got tangled in his line, and the animal was brought it to the Coogee Aquarium Baths for show. And what a show it turned out to be. The mangled arm was vomited out along with a bird and a rat, and investigators were immediately called to the scene.
When thinking about World War II, it's really easy to focus solely on the fighting in the Atlantic or Pacific theaters. But there were other theaters of war that were just as harsh, and the Finnish warriors of the Winter War prove it. When faced with an overwhelming invasion from the Soviet Union, the Finns stayed and fought to defend their homeland with little more than grit and determination on their side. The Winter War lasted less than a year but resulted in more horrors than other entire regions saw during the duration of WWII. The Finns stopped at nothing to beat their enemies.
Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York was never meant to be a big deal. It was a lark, an afterthought, something recorded in roughly an hour that the band didn’t plan to release. It was ultimately Nirvana’s final album, giving fans one of the most unbelievable Kurt Cobain performances, as well as a strange foreshadowing of Cobain’s passing. In hindsight, the show mirrors Cobain’s life, one that was complicated by mental health issues and substance dependency. The performance, recorded on November 18, 1993, has been called “personal" and “raw,” but it’s just Nirvana doing what they do best.
On July 12, 1979, the term "disco inferno" took on a whole new meaning. As the "disco '70s" drew to a close, Chicago radio DJ Steve Dahl decided to speed up the process by promoting a Demolition Disco Night in between games at a White Sox double-header at Comiskey Park. He invited the listeners of his popular radio show to come out to the game and set some records on fire, and tens of thousands showed up to burn a farewell to disco. But during the event, things got seriously out of hand; after a sluggish baseball season, the stadium hadn't seen crowds like this for quite some time.
Weird History's Timeline is back and is taking you all the way back to 1970. Coming out of the hippie '60s, 1970 would immediately take a turn, quickly shaping into its own identity. From the rise of Black Sabbath to the Beatles breaking up, to the Apollo 13 mission, 1970 would have America (and the world) on its toes. Take a ride with Timeline as we go back to '70.
The Russian Revolution resulted in the establishment of the first Communist state in history and was the work of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin - that's the general story told to history students in textbooks, an incredibly simplified version of the events that took place between 1905 and 1925 in Russia. The revolutionary period actually comprised numerous uprisings, a deadly civil war, and brought about the end of a centuries-long dynasty. By the time the Russian Revolution was over, the government, economy, and social framework of Russia were under a new order that would lead to decades of global divisiveness.
The Bermuda Triangle isn't the only watery region with a reputation for unexplainable events and tragedies. For centuries, a triangular portion of Lake Michigan has been ground zero for sunken ships, disappearing crews, and vanishing aircraft. As if these incidents aren't creepy enough, what is now known as the Lake Michigan Triangle is also notorious for UFO sightings and strange lights appearing on the horizon.
Daily life for Chinese-American immigrants in the 1800s was made difficult by dangerous, low-paying jobs and discrimination from white Americans. Chinese-American immigrants first came to the States in the 1840s during the California Gold Rush, after which they settled into cities, creating the first American Chinatowns. Later on, they were recruited to help construct the railway system, during which Chinese workers faced hunger, death, and long working hours. Domestic conditions were also difficult, as very few Chinese women had immigrated to the US and those who did were often brought over as sex slaves and forced into prostitution. Nineteenth century Chinese immigrants played an important role in uniting the two coasts of the United States, even though the country itself, in many ways, turned its back on them.
Jamestown, Virginia, arose as the first permanent English settlement in the New World, largely thanks to the strength and resilience of the Jamestown colony brides. The initial group of settlers, all male, arrived and built James Fort in 1607, a private, corporate adventure. Much opportunity, along with much risk, lay waiting in the New World. But within a year, the men already complained about the lack of female company. To satisfy the colonial men, the Virginia Company sent over the bride ships of 1619, enticing the women with hopes for a better life while satiating the men's demands.
What was hygiene like during the Civil War? By contemporary standards, it was pretty grim for both Union and Confederate troops. Confronted by unsanitary living conditions and the ever-present risk of disease, many soldiers were unwittingly locked in a fight not only for the nation but their own health as well. The American Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865, before the advent of antiseptics or a full understanding of how diseases spread.
Weird History's Timeline is taking you back to 1971 to revisit all the crazy news, politics, culture, and sports events. From the Watergate scandal heating up, to DB Cooper's infamous disappearance, to the premiere of Soul Train, 1971 had its share of crazy happenings. Hop on and let's take a trip together back to the groovy 70s on the Timeline train.
Edward I (actually the fourth, but who's counting?) is familiar to most as the antagonist in the 1995 film Braveheart. Played to malevolent perfection by veteran Irish actor Patrick McGoohan, Edward is typically remembered as a tyrannical but brutally effective ruler. A more restrained portrayal of an aging ruler by Stephen Dillane can be seen in 2018's Outlaw King, but there have been no major portrayals of Edward's rule as a whole or of him in his prime. The real Edward I was one of the most influential monarchs to ever take the English throne. His lengthy reign shaped the course of not only English history, but also Scottish and Welsh history for years to come. He lived an eventful life full of adventure, intrigue, innovation, and savage cruelty against those who opposed him. This collection showcases some of the most interesting details of Edward's life that haven't been shown on screen. Yet.
Who was Mata Hari? Exotic dancer, courtesan, seductress, spy, and femme fatale: Mata Hari was many things to many different people. But she is perhaps best remembered for the fact that she was executed during World War I for espionage. “Mata Hari” was actually a stage name - and an invented persona. She was born Margaretha “Gertha” Zelle in the Netherlands in 1876 to a wealthy, if unexceptional, family. At the age of 18, she fled her boring life in the Netherlands for the Dutch East Indies where she became an officer’s wife. The new Mrs. MacLeod didn’t find happiness there, but she did develop an interest in Indonesian dance...
Perhaps nothing was more decadent about aristocrats before the French Revolution than their over-the-top meals; the things French aristocrats ate even make modern Americans looks like humble cuisine ascetics. Foods before the French Revolution were a dizzying array of savories and sweets. Aristocrats of the ancien regime - or "old order," the elite French world before the revolution - tended to have elaborate meals, thanks to the fact that they could afford it; they could buy expensive ingredients and hire master chefs to create mouth-watering dishes.
In the late 19th century, nefarious groups ruled the streets of London, but one stood out: the Forty Elephants, London's all-female organization. Contemporaries of the real Peaky Blinders, these women were the best shoplifters in London, able to hide multiple fur coats in their skirts and bloomers; and their queen, Diamond Annie, ran the outfit with ruthless precision in the 1910s and '20s. Dressed in expensive furs and arriving by limousine, Diamond Annie walked into high-end department stores and swiped fortunes' worth of merchandise in under an hour.
If you're ever visited London and caught a glimpse of the guards outside of Buckingham Palace, you know the uniformed men are all business. Life inside the royal residence is fascinating, but have you ever wondered what the guards protecting the queen see on a daily basis? What kind of rules do they have to follow? What's the craziest thing to happen on their watch? Some former members of the Queen's Guard shared their experiences on Reddit. Their stories may change your understanding of the stoic boys in red and black.
Weird History's Timeline is taking you back to 1972. '72 would be groovin' in about every topic; from the Watergate scandal heating up, to the release of Neil Young's most iconic album, to Franco Harris' immaculate reception. Take a trip on the Timeline train back to 1972 and experience the news, culture, sports, entertainment and all that was weird in the seventies.
Hollywood often paints a romanticized vision of space travel, but living in a gravity-free environment has dirty downsides. It takes a lot of extra work for an astronaut to tend to their personal hygiene in space. Sometimes, they're even instructed to do some not-so-sanitary things, like wear the same pair of underwear for a week. When thinking about hygiene in space, the first thing to consider is that there are no showers or sinks. Gravity makes common earthly devices like sinks totally impractical. Think about it: water falls down a faucet and into a drain. In space, the water would float away - and ultimately endanger both an astronaut’s health and a spacecraft’s expensive equipment.
The American West stirs up grand images from movies: daring escapades, shootouts at high noon, tough sheriffs and marshals keeping the peace, and the cavalry riding in to save the day. The history of the Wild West is full of myths and stereotypes, but the truth about justice in the West is often more complicated - and more unsettling. Violence plagued the American West. Settlers faced rising numbers of illegal acts as people poured into the frontier searching for new lives, and communities had to handle justice on their own.
Have you ever wondered what it would really be like to be inducted into one of the Five Families? In Hollywood, movies like The Godfather, Casino, Goodfellas, and Scarface make being affiliated with organized crime seem like a lucrative, adventurous, and glamorous endeavor. And while some depictions of La Cosa Nostra ("Our Thing") in these films are accurate, they also include many fallacies for the audience's entertainment. In reality, the day-to-day operations of the Mafia are often much duller than the action-filled dramas we see play out on the silver screen.
On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler took his life in his subterranean Berlin bunker. The impact of his suicide on the war was more emotional than strategic. He killed himself because he understood that surrender and capture were inevitable. Still, in the aftermath of Hitler's suicide, there were many consequences and reactions on an individual and a collective level. Individual German government figures and the German people had radical and diverse reactions to the news of his demise. Some officials rightfully anticipated that it was time to vanish to avoid arrest and responsibility for the unspeakable crimes of the Third Reich. Here are some of the causes of the things that happened immediately after.
As the original Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci did it all; the polymath was interested in everything from art to science to writing. The famous Renaissance artist's paintings, sculptures, and architectural achievements are as stunning as his intellectual contributions to history, anatomy, and mathematics. One of the areas where Leonardo truly excelled was inventing. While observing the world around him, Leonardo took copious notes and made sketches detailing his surroundings. In the process, he came up with practical and impractical mechanisms alike, many designed to be used as tools of destruction.
Weird History presents Timeline 1973. Hop back on the nostalgia train, because Weird History's Timeline is taking you back to 1973. It would be a year of Elvis in Hawaii, the sad demise of Bruce Lee, and Marlon Brando's refusal to accept an Oscar. Get your pet rock ready because Timeline: The '70s is going retro.
It can be a fascinating exercise to trace the final moments of historical figures' lives. Their final steps reveal an intimate look at what exactly happened during their last days, something only hindsight allows us to experience. Whether an individual died unexpectedly at a young age or met their end late in life, their lasts say a lot about them. When it comes to music legends, the sudden deaths of figures from drug overdoses, tragic accidents, and the like may compound the sense of loss. There's often a feeling of lost potential, a desire to know what work they may have left behind, and to understand exactly what went wrong. As part of the attempts we may make to wrap our heads around these deaths, learning about their last meals gives us an insight into their very human nature.
The 1930s were a time of great change that saw many milestones that would come to define the decade. The Great Depression affected millions across America, the Graf Zeppelin completed a historic journey, and the New Deal ushered in an era of social support programs we still use today. And pinball emerged as a popular new pastime, although it quickly drew the ire of New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who went to war with the Silverball because of its alleged ties to the underworld and illegal gambling.
In 1897, the US was at the tail end of an economic recession now known as the Panic of 1893. Many Americans were struggling to feed their families or keep a roof over their heads. So when news got out that gold has been found in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon, thousands of people hastily uprooted themselves and headed north to take part in rushing to remote northwestern Canada.
Led Zeppelin's legendary drummer John Bonham passed away from pulmonary aspiration on September 25th, 1980 after a day-long bout of binge drinking. Despite his reputation as a wild man, the rock star’s final days were full of anxiety, depression, and uncertainty that ultimately proved too much for him to bear.
When called to battle during the Middle Ages in Europe, soldiers expected to be surrounded by unpleasant, if not downright unspeakable, sights. Much like medieval executioners, medieval soldiers witnessed blood, carnage, and death on an up-close-and-personal level. Accounts of the great medieval battles not only detail soldiers' lives and the conditions they faced, but also reveal the damage they inflicted on their enemies and noncombatants alike.
Weird History presents Timeline 1974. Timeline is going back to the '70s and revisiting some of the most poignant news, sports, culture and entertainment stories from 1974. From the debut of the Six Million Dollar Man, to Richard Nixon's resignation to Hammerin' Hank Aaron breaking MLB's Home Run record, a little bit of everything happened in '74.
Emperor Elagabalus was the Roman emperor for a brief time from 218 to 222, but he packed a lot of scandal into those years. When it comes to the weirdest royals throughout history, Elagabalus might be the wildest of all. It's hard to separate the fact from the fiction in these legends about him, but with tales this eye-popping, who would want to?
What did people eat on Titanic? You know, before all that stuff went down? It all very literally depended on where you sat. First-class passengers had options that allowed for an array of flavor combinations. Second- and third-class passengers had fewer choices, but no one went hungry.... Not even the iceberg.
Let's set the scene. You're livid, you want to scream at someone. But for some reason, you can't speak. What gesture do you give them? That's right - the good ol' middle finger comes immediately to mind, right? The middle finger has been known as a way to display anger for a very long time - going all the way back to ancient Greece. In fact, it's "one of the most ancient insult gestures known,” according to anthropologist Desmond Morris.
From the empowering story of Rosie the Riveter to their pivotal role in manufacturing during World War 2, American women were a vital part of the war effort at home and abroad. Six million women joined the workforce during World War 2. They helped keep the country running and ultimately played a pivotal role in helping secure victory.
Romano Full was a well-known jazz musician in Italy during the second half of the twentieth century. But for a time, few people knew he was actually a son of one of the world's most infamous dictators, and he'd changed his name in order to protect himself and his career. Full's father, Benito Mussolini, created the Italian Fascist Party in 1915 and became prime minister of the country in 1922. He made sweeping social changes, reduced unemployment, and for a time, earned the respect of his countrymen who nicknamed him "Il Duce" (The Leader). Mussolini made a military pact with Adolf Hitler in 1939, forcing the country into World War II in 1941.
Although the Vietnam conflict lasted for 20 years - from 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in 1975 - the United States government never officially declared war. Over 3 million people perished in the conflict, and hundreds of American and Vietnamese citizens were held in prison camps as unofficial POWs. The North Vietnamese captured American troops and the South Vietnamese held hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers. These POWs were treated in different but perhaps equally awful ways. Americans suffered terrible treatment and years-long solitary confinement, while the South Vietnamese left their captives in miserable health conditions that ended many lives.
Since the first official state dinner was held in 1874, American presidents have hosted kings, queens, and heads of state from around the world at grand, elegant affairs. They've also brought together rulers and comparable government leaders for less-than-stunning meals. Presidential state dinner meals have ranged from plain and simple fare to gourmet entrees, often influenced by social and economic factors as much as who was in the executive office. State dinner dishes have included favorite presidential foods such as Harry S. Truman's beloved watermelon pickles, as well as personal creations like Mamie Eisenhower's gelatin mint desserts. What was served at state dinners often reflected the preferences of honored guests or sent a political message to diners about how Americans liked to eat, drink, and be merry.
The life of Henry "Box" Brown is so notable because he was an Antebellum-Era Virginia plantation slave who managed to mailed himself to freedom in a wooden box. The big question here is: how did he do it? Easy! He had the help of abolitionists on both ends of his journey. However, his story does not end there. What did Henry "Box" Brown do once he reached freedom? He spoke out against the institution of slavery, worked as a magician, and lived a very interesting life. Among other Henry "Box" Brown facts are his marriage to a white Englishwoman as well as the fact that Frederick Douglass didn't like him.
Weird History is hopping on the 1975 Timeline train and taking you on a trip. 1975 would be a crazy year with Gerald Ford narrowly missing a Manson Family Member, Wheel of Fortune's debut, and Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance. Hang on to your bell bottoms because '75 is gonna get funky. Timeline 1975 is going to fly over the cuckoo's nest.
There are many strange and fascinating facts buried in the long, bizarre history of the Olympics. The Summer Olympics of 2016 look almost nothing like those from a century ago, and it’s not just the slick presentation and technological advancements in the individual events. Everything about the Summer and Winter Olympics used to be a whole lot weirder and, well, pretty backwards. In many ways, the games have acted as a microcosm of what was happening in the world at the time, for better or for worse.
When we think of the evilest rulers in history, names like Joseph Stalin, and Benito Mussolini rush to mind. But it's important to remember that brutality existed in rulers well before the 1930s. Others, like Attila the Hun or Chinese Empress Wu, may seem like obvious choices. But after looking deeper at the effects of their rule and how they were perceived by those they reigned over, it becomes clear that they're not the worst rulers in history. Instead, they suffered from then-contemporary historians' ire (Attila because he wasn't Roman, and Wu because she was a woman).
Although settlements on the American frontier existed for hundreds of years prior to the Civil War, when historians talk about life in the Old West, they are generally referring to the period between 1865 and 1890. Outlaw activity in the “Wild West” extended into the early 20th century and the vocation - although not the actual term - of “bounty hunter” existed both prior to the Civil War and in other areas of the country.
Almost everyone has heard of Marilyn Monroe, but fewer people are familiar with the ambitious actress who once beat her in popularity polls. Jayne Mansfield left a lasting mark on the celebrity sphere, and used techniques to gain publicity that are still practiced by today's reality and social media stars. Born in 1933 as Vera Jayne Palmer, Mansfield grew up in Texas and was reportedly extremely intelligent. Stories claim she learned several languages as a child, took lessons in dancing and singing, and enjoyed playing the violin for strangers. As an actress and model, Mansfield oozed sexiness during a time when pinups were all the rage and curvaceous women were idolized. Over the course of her career, she leaned into the role of "blonde bombshell" like no other.
At the time of the Civil War, battlefield medicine was still in its infancy. This led to many injuries becoming severely infected and many of the injured receiving hasty, dangerous surgeries. In fact, Civil War battlefield surgery was a major cause of death during the war. Many surgeons cared for the wounded right on the battlefield, and many Civil War medics performed amputations and open surgeries during the heat of battle. Furthermore, because field doctors were under massive amounts stress, they had to perform speedy surgeries that would never meet today’s medical standards.
Both history and conventional wisdom hold that Scandinavians and their descendants adorned their bodies with symbols, sigils, and staves - all with specific meanings and importance. Runes were also used to convey information. The characters of the Younger Futhark system were prominent during the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries and are most closely connected with the so-called Viking Age. They have their origins in the aptly named Elder Futhark and gave way to derivatives like Anglo-Saxon runes. But what did these sigils and runes look like? And what did they mean?
The biography of Marco Polo tells the story of one of the most famous explorers of all time. Leaving Venice with his father and uncle, he spent 24 years going all the way from Israel to China, where he lived for 17 years. His life story involves working for the great Kublai Khan personally, surviving perilous journeys, and eventually writing one of the greatest travelogues of all time.
If you've heard of Pazuzu at all, it's because you paid attention while watching The Exorcist. Pazuzu was the demon that possessed young Regan in the film. However, this fascinating character has a long history that goes back several centuries, far before he ever appeared in a movie. Regardless of whether or not you think that demons are actually real, belief in Pazuzu has definitely influenced the actions of countless people. In conflict with the film's representation, some historians have pointed out that Pazuzu is a bit of a conundrum as he doesn't easily fit into the modern day interpretation of a demon.
Weird History's Timeline is taking you back to 1976. Sit back on your bean bag chair and take a trip back to the '70s. 1976 would be the debut of some famous TV shows, including "Charlie's Angels", "What's Happening", and "The Family Feud", as well as major events, including the election of Jimmy Carter to the White House. Grab your TV Dinner and dial your neighbor up on your rotary phone because we're getting groovin' on 1976.
When A League of Their Own was released in 1992, it brought attention to a women's professional baseball league that had disbanded nearly 40 years earlier. Based on the true story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which existed from 1943-1954, the film attempts to put the AAGPBL - which went from being a gimmick to save baseball from going extinct during WWII to a respected league that drew sizable crowds for years - in some sort of context.
Thank you to Wondrium for sponsoring today’s video! Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here: http://ow.ly/QeTT50L98aL What is now Greenwood Cemetery, in Decatur, Illinois, was first used as sacred burial grounds by Native Americans of the Illiniwek Confederation hundreds of years before any Europeans lived there. It is one of the most haunted places on Earth. Its dark and sordid history has helped make it one of the most infamous burial sites on the planet. But what did this humble boneyard do to earn such a spooky reputation?
Well, at one point in the early 19th century, everyone and their mother was taking opium (quite literally - mothers were specifically targeted by opium marketers). Over the decades, however, and through sensationalized media and literature, the Victorian era opium dens took on a life of their own.
The ancient hobbies of years gone by are fascinating and fraught with interesting facts that many of us might not know today. People of the past didn’t have the modern luxuries most of the developed world has now, so for entertainment, a fair amount of imagination had to be invoked. Bizarre and outrageous hobbies arose during the time of ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages, 19th-century Victorian England, and even during the 1950s in America.
After Christian Europeans successfully seized Jerusalem from Islamic infidels during the Crusades of the Middle Ages, various entities originated in the Holy Land to exert influence over this contested region. One of these was the Order of the Knights Templar, initially a group of only nine knights who were intent on protecting pilgrims making their way along the dangerous roads that led to Jerusalem.
Weird History presents Timeline 1977. We're going all the way back to the '70s and showing you all the weird stuff that happened in '77. From the debut of Star Wars to Fleetwood Mac taking over FM radio, the year would see some huge pop culture shifts. We're pretty sure Mikey will like this Life trip back to 1977.
Though the United States dollar was officially adopted in 1785, paper currency didn't fully enter circulation until the Civil War. The current appearance of modern US bills developed only after a long period of economic development based on commodities and coinage. The earliest form of currency used on the North American continent includes Native American beads and coins minted in Europe. Given the choice, which form of currency would you want to revisit? Does the barter-based wampum appeal to your sensibilities, or perhaps a gold and silver system that would literally weigh you down?
Mark Twain once said, "It is the prohibition that makes anything precious." The United States learned that lesson the hard way not long after January 17, 1920, when it made the nation’s fifth-largest industry largely illegal. Smuggling alcohol during Prohibition became its own industry, inciting the growth of illicit activity and organized crime. But necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and some of the ways people hid alcohol during Prohibition were very inventive. If it hadn’t all come to an end in 1933, hiding liquor might have become another major industry.
Throughout both its Republican and Imperial periods, Rome was one of the most dominant cultures in the history of the world. That dominance was mainly based on the military strength of Roman Legions -- but if the Legionnaires powered Rome, what powered the Legionnaires?
When most people think of the Spanish Inquisition, they typically think of torture (or Monty Python), and for good reason. Between 1478 and 1834, Catholic monarchs in Spain and Spanish territories used the tribunal to combat heretics, torturing and executing thousands. While modern historians say the Spanish Inquisition's reputation as a torture-fest is a bit exaggerated, the facts are clear: Some pretty gnarly stuff definitely went down.
For centuries, troops have marched off to fight, risking their lives in combat. But what did soldiers eat in different eras? And which conflict offered the tastiest military foods? From blood soup to fermented horse milk, soldiers' rations throughout history have contained some unappetizing options. There have even been military provisions so disgusting that they actually took the lives of soldiers. Some armies would have been happy to get any food.
Weird History presents Timeline 1978. We're going all the way back to 1978 to revisit the Blizzard of '78, you know the one that your uncle still talks about to this day. Timeline will also cover 1978 highlights such as Animal House, the death of Keith Moon and the debut of Scared Straight. Sit back on your Beanbag chair and enjoy this trip back to the '70s.
Before email, there was snail mail. And before snail mail, there was horse mail - the Pony Express. Yes, when it came to staying in touch with folks back east, residents of the wild west had to rely on a team of riders whose job was as dangerous as it was fascinating.
When the National Socialist German Workers’ Party assumed control of Germany, it immediately set out to spread its influence into every aspect of German society. And the lives of German children were no exception. And what better way to get kids excited about fascism than by turning it into a fun summer camp?
Let’s face it, it takes a pretty uncommon person to become president. That probably means that there are going to be more than a few US presidents with weird hobbies. Given that a good number of presidents didn’t have television or even radio, they had to find something to do with all their time. Some of the hobbies of US presidents were more ordinary, like playing piano or collecting stamps. But some great men just can’t have regular hobbies. No, those men have to do things to the extreme.
Long before the first Europeans set foot on American soil, the native people who lived there had spent centuries perfecting the art of combat. Even after visitors arrived from across the vast oceans with superior technology and weaponry, Native American guerilla tactics prevailed so thoroughly that the invaders were forced to adopt similar strategies. From the Mourning Wars tactics to the tactics of the French and Indian War, Native American soldiers and scouts proved themselves capable of immense cunning and incredible feats of military prowess.
Timeline is taking you back to 1979. We're going to jump into our decoupage time machine for a nostalgic trip back to '79. 1979 would be the last hurrah of the Seventies where we would see the decade setting the stage for the 1980s. From the rise of Reagan to the popularity of The Village People, 1979 would end on a cliffhanger. So sit back, grab yourself a Lite Beer and enjoy Timeline 1979
As a special bonus to our Timeline 1970s videos, we talked to some people who lived during the 1970s to get an idea of how life really was during that groovy time. Those '70s kids brought their younger relations to the talk about similarities and differences between the '70s and their generation.
The tradition of two people joining together in matrimony is a tale as old as time - you get married, you throw a party, and you live happily ever after (hopefully). But how did the customs of wedding cakes, bridesmaids, bouquet tosses, and white wedding dresses come to be? Some are closely related to wedding superstitions, while others have surprisingly deep historical roots. Nevertheless, weddings are still as popular today as they were thousands of years ago, as are the wedding traditions that we still carry on.
The holidays are a time for friends, family, festivities, and food. Lots and lots of food. Before the days of vegan eggnog, gluten-free gingerbread houses, and sugar-free sugar cookies, holiday foods from yesteryear included temptations such as savory Jell-O molds, mayonnaise cakes, and piping-hot Dr. Pepper. Vintage cookbooks would recommend condiments as main ingredients while housewives from the Atomic Age and home cooks from the '60s bravely experimented with ham and marshmallows.
France fell to Germany in June of 1940. The United States hadn’t yet entered World War 2, and while isolationism remained politically popular, the country was growing wary. The prospect of being drawn into the European conflict was starting to feel inevitable, and Americans sensed they would soon have to send their army to fight.
Numerous outlaws throughout history came back around from their rabble-rousing and trouble-causing days to serve as lawmen, government leaders, and agents of criminal-catching agencies. From the Middle Ages to the Wild West to the Information Age, historical and geographical boundaries need not apply when it comes to outlawry. Some outlaws – mostly men but not always – are famous, but others are obscure historical figures. Their motivations on both sides of the legal fence varied, as did their successes when it came to breaking, making, or working with the law. Whether they were traitors, sell outs, or simply switched to the other side, messing with any of these outlaws was never a very good idea regardless of where they stood on a particular day.
The Middle Ages spanned from roughly 500 to 1500 CE. For much of that time, the people of England lived under a feudal system in which both the laws, and the penalties for breaking them, were significantly more bizarre than the ones we are familiar with today.
For a few dozen Alaskan Iñupiat natives, it is possible to see Russia from their house. Just below the Arctic Circle lie two land masses between Russia and Alaska, the Diomede Islands. Small, rugged, and surrounded by ice and harsh seas, the islands are located off the Alaskan coast in the middle of the Bering Strait. Little Diomede is considered Alaskan territory, while Big Diomede, the Russian island, has remained uninhabited since the Cold War.
On September 7th, 1978, Keith Moon, the legendary hard-partying drummer of The Who, was found dead in his London apartment. In the end, his life was as much defined by his self-destructive behavior and addictions as it was for his unique style of drumming.
The fashion choices of the 16th and 17th centuries differed drastically from those of centuries past. During the medieval period, outfits were chosen to keep the wearer slim; however, the fashion of the 16 and 17th centuries was all about making the wearer as big and rotund as possible. Bombast, usually made up of cotton, wool, horsehair, or even sawdust, was the material they used to achieve this bold look.
Two Guns, AZ, is one of the many cursed ghost towns scattered throughout the Southwest. It's a long-abandoned town, but tourists still stop to see its ruins along Old Route 66. Set on the rim of a canyon, the strange little town was the sight of a tragedy involving two Native American tribes. A man named Harry E. Miller showed up in the late '20s, leased property from the Cundiffs, and constructed a full-blown tourist trap. He played up the area's turbulent history and claimed he was full-blooded Apache. It's unclear if this claim was true. But some wonder: was the downfall of Two Guns Miller's fault alone, or did the land have a curse long before he blew into town?
What was daily life like for a king or queen during the Middle Ages? Contrary to what you might imagine, it didn't involve lounging in robes of silk and satin and indulging in lots of feasting. In reality, the life of medieval royals involved a lot of incest, sickness, and cold castles. You'll probably feel better about your own situation after learning what life for royalty in medieval times was like. Women were married off to very close relatives for diplomatic purposes; on many occasions, they were only in their early teens at the time. Sadly, the death rates for mothers and children were quite high, and the general lack of hygiene most definitely didn't help.
You may have thought about partying like your favorite rock stars to honor their legacies, but have you ever considered making their favorite recipe instead? Many celebrities enjoy the finer things in life, food included. Others like to dine on foods that speak to their heritage and bring them comfort. When a well-known artist passes unexpectedly and leaves us with a sense of emptiness, trying one of their favorite recipes may help fill that void.
We all know that historical movies can be inaccurate. Sometimes, they get historical figures completely wrong – for example, Pocahontas was a child when she met John Smith, and so was Isabella of France when William Wallace was alive. Still, most historical movies don’t make executions less gory as was the case with William Wallace's execution in Braveheart, and they don’t make real historical figures less intense. But Braveheart is guilty of both. Just look at how Braveheart portrays Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland. In real life, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace were allies, openly fighting together – but in the movie, Robert the Bruce betrays Wallace. That couldn't be more wrong. Robert the Bruce was so committed to Scottish independence that he offed his rival in church to crown himself King.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in April of 1865. Lincoln was examined by doctors and then taken across the street to a room in the Petersen House where he died on April 15, 1865 at 7:22 am. The after effects of Lincoln's assassination were immediate. People in the North mourned the loss of their leader, while some in the South rejoiced - and paid a hefty price for doing so. A ripple effect spread through the country over the next few years. Some triumphed in the wake of Lincoln's assassination, while others were left to pick up the pieces of the presidency and mourn. Here's a look into the ramifications of that momentous event.
For most people in America, access to running water, sewage treatment, and electricity are a given. But for those who can’t afford a home, want to live outside modern society, or just need an escape from the snow every winter, Slab City might be an attractive place to call home. Located about 190 miles southeast of Los Angeles and built on an abandoned military base, Slab City has become a tourist destination and a residential community. Far from being one of the most beautiful cities in the world or even the United States, Slab City has its own unique appeal for those who live there and call themselves Slabbers. It takes a certain kind of person to be willing to endure 120-degree days in summer, live miles from the nearest grocery store, and get by without running water. People do it, however, and many of them are proud of their self-reliance and endurance. What’s it like to live there?
The explosion of the Chelyabinsk Meteor, which nearly hit Russia in 2013, was a viral event captured by dozens of dashcams in the notoriously driver-unfriendly nation. However, the surprise arrival of the extraterrestrial invader, and the city-quaking explosion that followed, was no laughing matter. The Chelyabinsk Meteor’s size, a paltry 20 meters in diameter, might make it sound relatively harmless, but it had a massive impact on the city, without even touching down. Had the entirety of the meteor, instead of just a few meteorite fragments, hit Earth, Chelyabinsk would have likely been decimated.
England was the clear winner of the latter half of the 16th century. Flourishing under the reign of their industrious and stylish monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, it was between 1558 and 1603 that England emerged as the world’s first real superpower. Elizabethan England also saw the birth of a cultural and courtly movement that makes even the most stringent and alien ritualized historical decorum look like totally reasonable practices. Sure, England was winning history at the time, but some of the rules of aristocratic etiquette they and the rest of the world operated under were straight up bananas.
The history of America has been told in many classrooms, but that doesn't mean students hear everything. Consider this: one of the most famous divorces in history shaped America's Declaration of Independence. An affair with a British governor, a rumor of impotency, and a shocking death combined to create a fascinating, and formative, court case. Best of all, one of the prominent Declaration of Independence authors presided over the case, with his notes helping guide the language used in the famous document.
Many consider it Pink Floyd's masterpiece and one of rock music's most influential albums, but 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon is legendary for more than musical reasons. It has a rumored connection to The Wizard of Oz and features the groundbreaking use of segues comprising audio recordings. There's much to Dark Side unknown to the majority of listeners, but the surprising facts add intrigue to the beloved album.
For centuries, society has cheered on men who rack up the greatest number of “conquests” - conquests of women, that is. In some circles, sleeping with thousands of women is ostensibly a badge of accomplishment. Even several popes have bragged about their illicit encounters. Unsurprisingly, many of the biggest playboys in history are also some of the most infamous figures.
The concept of prisons as we know them today is relatively modern. In antiquity, jails served less as places of penitence and more as a purgatory before the final judgment of guilt, which was often punished either by enslavement or execution. Before the mega jails and super-maxes of today, historical prisons took on many forms, from isolated islands to underground dungeons. Excluding any prison that is currently open and also the horrifically depressing sub-genre of concentration camps, this list reveals some of the scariest prisons in history.
History is filled with stories of barbaric warriors who cause wanton destruction. They have been titled by ancient historians as "savages," "uncivilized," and even "the Scourge of God." But what makes them the most terrifying warriors in history? What sets apart the supposedly well-trained soldier of the Roman Empire from the bestial Goths? Or the noble samurai from the ruthless Mongol? Some could argue they were terrifying only because they weren't the ones writing the history - they were the outsiders. But they would be giving only a partial answer.
Queen Victoria ruled England from 1837 to 1901, presiding over an era of unprecedented technological and social change, as well as an era of unrelenting horrors and human cruelty. Sure, your hipsters and your steampunks may love cribbing Victorian style, choosing to remember the pennyfarthings and top hats that look so fun on a Pinterest page, but let's face it: in those days if you weren't a member of the aristocracy, your life was probably unremittingly awful from start to all-too-brief finish. Disease, filth, and poverty were the norm, with people turning to whatever means of support that they could find - even if those means ended up being totally nasty. Victorian occupations usually tended to involve doing something that no human should have to do, for unreasonable hours, until it killed you.
Accidental discoveries and inventions have often turned out to be some of the most important to human history. While it might seem intuitive to think that all archaeological finds were discovered by archaeologists or that all scientific discoveries were purposely made by scientists, that just isn't always the case. Sometimes, discoveries are made by ordinary folks doing the same things they do every day. Other times, what have turned out to be some of the world's most important drugs, most useful substances, most fascinating historical finds, and even best-selling toys have been the products of accidents or pure dumb luck.
While the Bermuda Triangle is full of its own environmental wonders, the media often stretches the secrets and mysteries that lie behind it. Once speculation stops and scientific research takes over, it becomes clear that plenty of Bermuda Triangle facts provide a perfectly plausible explanation for the disappearances that occur within the area. After analyzing the ominous enigmas and terrifying stories that surround the missing ships and aircraft carriers, their disappearances become less of a conundrum and more of an overexaggerated conspiracy.
Oh what a time to be alive in late 16th Century England! Queen Elizabeth I was defending her throne while some plotted against her in favor of her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. Regardless, Elizabeth's reign cemented Britain as a global powerhouse in arts, culture, and cuisine. (Particularly sugary foods, we'll soon find out.). Under Elizabeth's rule, the aristocracy enjoyed a meat-heavy diet with plenty of decadence and splendor - though some of their customs may leave us scratching our heads now.
After the metal and synth-pop dominance of the 1980s, the world was overdue for a new generation of artists that would change the trajectory of music forever. Leather jackets, hair spray, and tight pants were becoming passe in exchange for flannel, baggy jeans, and Converse. A strong argument can be made that 1991 was one of the most important years in music - with bands such as Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, the Smashing Pumpkins, and My Bloody Valentine (just to name a few) putting out game-changing records. The most notable scene that formed in the early '90s was the Seattle grunge scene, which saw many bands break through with their gloomy, apathetic music. Grunge had become synonymous with "1990s music," but it wasn't just Seattle that was changing music forever.
Marriage was the heart of family structure in Viking culture, hence the intricate nature of Viking wedding rituals. According to many of the myths and folklore to which historians attribute their knowledge of Viking weddings, each tradition and ritual was deemed necessary to earn the blessings of the gods, an important step on the path to becoming a parent and continuing the Viking bloodline. Marriage offered stability, serving as a way to control sexual activity and reproduction in the community. Contrary to their negative historical reputation for their treatment of women, Vikings actually worked quite hard to ensure relative gender equality and fair treatment of and respect for women.
Every day, the world flushes 270,000 trees down the toilet. If the US switched to bidets, it could save 15 million trees - so why don't Americans use bidets? If you're not familiar with this alternative to toilet paper in many countries, it's a basin separate from the toilet for washing one's nether regions. What countries use bidets? Many households in Europe, Asia, and South America rely on them. And why are bidets popular in Europe, but not America? Colonial American hygiene began with chamber pots and outhouses, and the country eventually progressed to toilets. Overall, however, Americans were skittish about hygiene topics associated with bidets.
Beneath Paris's tree-lined avenues and broad boulevards, there lurks a labyrinthine world of tunnels, chambers, and ossuaries: the Paris Catacombs, which are made up of 200 miles of tunnels that have been attracting, terrorizing, inspiring, and hosting generations of Parisians. The catacombs are probably best known as the final resting place for medieval and early-modern Parisians whose remains were relocated there in the late 18th century. But the catacombs are so much more than that. For centuries, the Paris Catacombs have been a quarry, tourist attraction, hiding place, farm, and art gallery, among other things.
The seafaring criminals known as pirates have existed for thousands of years. But because of the portrayals found in literature - or seen in films, TV shows, or on stage - much of what the general public thinks about pirates is likely historically inaccurate. Take for instance the pirate accent. Many believe the origin of the stereotypical pirate language is Robert Newton's portrayal of the fictional pirate Long John Silver in the 1950 film Treasure Island. Since both Robert Louis Stevenson's character and Newton himself were from the West Country region of England, the actor decided it would make sense to use an exaggerated version of his natural accent in his portrayal. And in the 70-plus years since then, a variation of Newton's accent has been used in many portrayals of pirates.
Have you ever heard a word or phrase and wondered when people started saying it? And why? Language is constantly changing, and many of the common terms and phrases we use in everyday conversation have much deeper meanings than we realize. Numerous statements still in use have evoked controversy and reassessment, while others continue to find new applications.
Links between holiday traditions and pagan culture are well established - and occasionally celebrated - but there are also a lot of misconceptions about paganism that make the word itself a bit taboo. Paganism isn't something to be feared or shunned. In Latin, "pagan" was simply the word for villager or civilian. Religious connotations that developed during the Middle Ages made pagans into heathens rather than outsiders. With all that in mind, there continues to be a pervasive presence of paganism in the modern world.
Ever wonder about the identity of the woman posing for the Mona Lisa, or think about the life of the “farmers” depicted in American Gothic? Check out who the people in these 12 famous paintings actually were. Artists Leonardo da Vinci, Andrew Wyeth, and Grant Wood get all the acclaim for their priceless works of art. But what about the models that inspired those artists? It’s rare to ever hear their stories. Perhaps the models were artists, as well? Maybe they were the artist's secret lover? Or, could it be in some cases that the model is actually the artist doing a disguised self-portrait?
We all wish we had a guardian angel. Some of us are even nice enough to wish everyone else had one, too. But maybe we should be careful what we wish for, because if guardian angels were real, it would mean that awful people would end up with heavenly protection. People like Adolf Hitler, for example. One of the most evil people in history, Hitler himself believed he enjoyed supernatural protection from God; or sometimes, from "the gods," if he was in a particularly neo-pagan mood. And as you will see from the list below, it seems the Fuhrer of Nazi Germany had good reason to think there were occult forces working to keep him alive.
Modern medicine has seen more development in the past 50 years than in all of human history combined. Many long-practiced medical treatments now seem completely bizarre in retrospect - things like putting animal dung on a wound, drinking urine, carving holes in your skull, or drinking medicinal potions made of morphine or mercury. But which practices are considered the most peculiar from all of human medical history? Which practices were once used as medicinal treatments only to be later found incredibly dangerous?
It's a 1,200-year-old institution that has weathered wars, disease, and everything in between. But why has the British monarchy survived when so many others have faltered? The modern British monarchy can trace its roots back centuries, to the period when the island of Great Britain was a collection of disparate kingdoms in England, Scotland, and Wales. That changed over time, as these kingdoms consolidated into a single monarchy. Why does the British monarchy still exist?
Few professions in the world are as scrutinized and well-documented as the Presidency of the United States of America, so it might seem like every single aspect of all the former presidents' lives has already been covered. But sometimes there’s just as much interesting material from before they were president as there is from their time in the White House. It takes an extraordinary kind of person to run for the highest station in America, so it makes sense that extraordinary origin stories are the norm for Oval Office occupants.
History is full of titanic figures, men and women who managed to make a truly significant impact on the world around them. Some of these have been largely viewed as “good guys,” for they often made the world a better place as a result of their work, whether it was charity or inventing. These heroes of history have, at times, been unfairly maligned, while others deserved the opprobrium they received after their deaths. In all of these cases, these villainous good guys reveal an unpleasant truth: People, particularly “great” ones, are rarely as morally uncompromised as we'd like them to be.
The history of dueling is full of shocking moments, like the time the vice president shot and killed the Secretary of the Treasury - that was, of course, the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. But no duel was more shocking than the topless duel between fought a princess and a countess. It was called the first emancipated duel because not only were both duelers women, their seconds and the doctor on hand to tend their wounds were also women. Female sword duels were uncommon, even by the late 19th century when the topless duel was fought.
Photographs provide provocative glimpses into people's lives. Stories behind photos - for individuals on both sides of the camera - may reveal much more than a single image can encapsulate. Pulitzer Prize-winning photos receive international attention for their ability to evoke visceral reactions, highlight key events in history, and open eyes to unrealized truths.
On August 5, 1930, a group of men on a sealing expedition made their way across a rarely exposed ice sheet in the Svalbard Arctic Region along the Norwegian archipelago only to discover a scene that was long thought to have been lost to history. While the group, named the Bratvaag Expedition, had intended to hunt seals and study the structure of the glaciers in the area, they instead found themselves unintentionally excavating the remains of the disappeared S.A. Andrée Expedition, which had gone missing in that very region of the Arctic over 30 years before.
The first—and perhaps the most important—political rivalry in U.S. history was between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. The two Founding Fathers clashed over political differences, each trying to sway President George Washington to his side. But there’s more to the Hamilton and Jefferson feud than you thought. Why did Thomas Jefferson hate Alexander Hamilton? He called Hamilton a corrupt monarchist, a traitor to the country—and their beef went far beyond political differences. In the rivalry between Jefferson and Hamilton, both men would destroy their own reputations in order to attack each other.
Books have always been a key part of the American cultural and social landscape, and thus have often become flashpoints in various culture wars. In fact, throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, certain books - even some we love - have been declared off-limits by those who believe they pose a danger to a certain group (usually children). Many reasons exist for book bans, which typically render even stellar tomes into stories people can’t read. This is all the more unsettling given how often banned books have been turned into films, many of which are underrated.
Anyone who has grown up with a sibling knows how easily rivalries can develop. The desire of brothers and sisters to outperform each other is a nearly universal emotion, one that transcends social class, culture, and time period. In other words, everyone is prone to this rivalry, even US presidents. History is chock-full of famous siblings with particularly juicy beefs. If humans are already naturally inclined toward competing with their sibs, adding power, wealth, or fame to the equation only inflames that tendency. In societies with hereditary governments, siblings have done all kinds of terrible things to each other to seize power for themselves. In more modern times, while dynastic political families do still exist, high-stakes sibling squabbling often plays out in corporate boardrooms or lawsuits. But throughout history, one thing is clear: Family is complicated.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini maintained relationships with several mistresses – as many as 14 at a time, according to some – but none stuck by him quite as ardently as Clara Petacci. Petacci, his preferred paramour, kept a diary about her time as Mussolini's mistress that provides intimate insights into her lover's life and sexual behavior. Although never married to Mussolini, she was the woman behind one of the most powerful leaders of the twentieth century and died alongside him as a result. even perished by his side.
Ancient Norse seafaring Vikings were well-known as explorers, traders, and warriors. But when they got down, they weren't messing around. Sure, Norse Sagas tell of epic voyages, and etymological studies have granted insight into the lands to which they traveled and settled. Archeological evidence has revealed records of weapons and armor they fought with. But what our current perception of the Vikings sometimes overlooks, and shamefully so, is that, in addition to thrilling expeditions to far-flung lands, Vikings had some pretty wild festivities. Maybe you're wondering "What were Viking parties like?"
Did you ever wonder if the great stories of ancient mythology, tales of the men behind the Egyptian pyramids and the rulers of the fabled cities of ancient Anatolia, were real? Well, if that's the case, then you're in luck - there are indeed some notable true stories behind myths. For example, the Great Pyramid was partially built by the architect Imhotep, who was then turned into a god. Started from the bottom of the pyramid, now we here!
Sending criminals and political troublemakers to remote islands has been a pretty normal thing throughout history - just ask Australia or Napoleon. In Central America, the former penal colony on Coiba Island was once home to some of Panama's worst criminals and most threatening political enemies. The prisons on Coiba Island housed over 3,000 prisoners between 1919 and 2003, even after the island became part of Coiba National Park in 1991.
It's an iconic car, the DeLorean, made famous by its fundamental role in the Back to the Future movies - but do you know the man behind the car? Do you know the John DeLorean story? The DeLorean's namesake, John DeLorean, lived a life so intriguing that it's now the subject of two major movies. Framing John DeLorean, featuring Alec Baldwin, was released in July 2019, a mashup of documentary footage and reenactments of DeLorean's extraordinary path. A month later brought the arrival of Driven starring Jason Sudeikis and Lee Pace and detailing DeLorean's exhaustive - albeit questionable - quest to make the innovative, ethical sports car.
Pablo Escobar: kingpin and... animal lover? In the 1980s, Escobar's zoo at Hacienda Nápoles took shape, filled with exotic animals, including hippos. The zoo was only functional for about 10 years before the Colombian government claimed it, but during its heyday, Escobar allowed locals to explore it for free. He even bussed children to the zoo. Today, however, those hippos are causing quite the uproar in Colombia. While hippos aren't native to South America, that hasn't stopped them from making a home in Colombia, wandering away from Hacienda Nápoles, and multiplying quickly. These hippos haven't hurt anyone yet, but it's likely only a matter of time before these sometimes dangerous animals get too close to humans for comfort.
Versailles etiquette was as complicated and ornate as the furniture and artwork filling the great chambers of the French royal palace. The smallest details of life at court, including personal hygiene, were dictated, regulated, and policed. But more often than not, court etiquette at Versailles was more bizarre than it was dignified.
The relationship between Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller went beyond pupil and teacher. It was based in Sullivan's ability to open up the world for Keller. Deaf, blind, and mute due to a childhood illness, Helen Keller learned to read, write, and speak through the tireless efforts of her instructor, friend, and companion, Anne Sullivan. Anne Sullivan's teaching philosophy was based on making learning active, enjoyable, and on going. Through finger-spelling, gestures, Braille, and vocal training, Sullivan gave Keller the gifts of language, expression, and liberation.
Have you ever wondered why the days of the week are named the way they are? Sunday and Monday are named after the sun and moon, which makes sense, but then we've also got Saturday, which is named after the Roman god Saturn. And then, just to shake things up, the remaining four days of the week are named after the Norse gods Tyr (Tuesday), Odin/Woden (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), and Frigg/Freya (Friday). Just as many common phrases derive from outdated traditions, words associated with mythology are indelibly bound to our vocabulary. Here are some of the most intriguing examples.
In ancient times, the most powerful and influential cities in the world were located primarily in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Places like Alexandria, Jericho, and Carthage once were thought to be as influential or powerful as cities like London, Tokyo, or Washington, DC, are today. By the 21st century, the majority of cities that were military, economic, and religious powers hundreds or thousands of years ago no longer have that kind of influence. Although some of the powerful ancient cities like Alexandria and Baghdad do still exist, many more of them have been forgotten or left in ruins.
In addition to being the highest point on Earth at 29,000 feet above sea level, Mount Everest is also one of the most sought after destinations of mountaineers and outdoor enthusiasts. While it's not considered one of Earth's most dangerous mountains, people die attempting to summit its peak each year, prompting many to wonder what it's like to climb Everest and if it's worth it. Despite the costs, dangers, and extreme endurance needed, many climbers claim it is.
Of all the monarchs to sit on the British throne in the modern era, few are as infrequently discussed as King William IV. It's a real shame, because the stories of his life are a real gas. Only the most dedicated of royal historians are probably familiar with facts about King William IV, but a close reading of his biography reveals a life filled with risk-taking, debauchery, and an anti-authoritarian streak that he carried with him right to the throne. In many ways, William IV was the original "mad lad," and modern rogues could learn a thing or two about his particular brand of misbehavior. His actions certainly make him stand out among even the most bizarre English royalty.
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever will always be remembered as the night of Michael Jackson's first moonwalk. The image of the King of Pop gliding across a stage is one of the most memorable moments in music history, and some may argue that the move changed the course of pop music. The 1983 performance wasn't merely the genesis of one of the most imitated '80s dance moves; it also showed MJ's gift for capturing the world's attention through meticulously crafted performances.
Martin Scorsese's period epic Gangs of New York took up residence in the chaos-ridden New York City neighborhoods of the mid-1800s, populated by eccentric characters and vicious acts of aggression. Its depiction wasn't entirely accurate, but it was based on a very real neighborhood and the very real misery it experienced. Five Points, a major intersection in lower Manhattan, was home to a host of impoverished immigrants seeking a better future for their families. That future wasn't easy to come by; newcomers mostly encountered hostility and distrust, which often boiled over into conflict.
Jason Statham's 2018 movie may be a work of fiction, but there is a real-life monster behind The Meg: the 60-foot-long prehistoric sea creature known as the Megalodon. The movie paints the shark-like monster as something that still lives in the ocean, but this apex predator likely died out millions and millions of years ago - or did it?
Though the threat of worldwide nuclear annihilation has lessened somewhat since the end of the Cold War, the US government's nuclear plans have gotten more sophisticated. Focus has altered from a large-scale exchange of thousands of missiles to small-scale incidents, and in response, arrangements have shifted more towards detection, prevention, and the aftermath. And yet, the legacy of the Cold War looms large, particularly in the wake of 9/11. From the old behemoth bunkers at Raven Rock and Cheyenne Mountain to sophisticated new missile tracking satellites, the United States government is committed to covering all the bases and remaining as secure as possible in the event of a crisis. This includes both preserving the president and senior leadership and informing the citizens how to prepare for a nuclear event.
As a relative novice to politics and the labor landscape in the United States, Robert F. Kennedy worked as a lawyer for several Senate committees before being appointed chief counsel of the US Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management in 1957. More commonly referred to as the McClellan Committee, it was where Robert Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa had some of their most vitriolic exchanges. Both Hoffa and Kennedy knew how to get under each other's skin, and their public interactions could be full of tension or riddled with petty jabs at one another. The feud between Hoffa and Kennedy was far from collegial and definitely influenced the lives and careers of both historical figures.
Often, the typical workday doesn't resemble anything we imagined during our school years or witnessed on TV and in film. The daily grind can become mundane; hard work doesn't always get noticed or rewarded; lunches turn into quick bites of sandwiches while we work from our desks; and long commutes have us drained by the end of the day. Then, embarrassing mistakes and awkward interactions with coworkers leave us wishing we could have stayed home. Do people around the world experience the same discomforts? These familiar yet less-than-desirable experiences led us to wonder what it's like to hold a job in other locales.
Nowadays, the ambitious and wild Biosphere 2 experiment is only remembered as a footnote to the Pauly Shore film Bio-Dome, which is a shame. The Biosphere 2 project was ambitious, idealistic, and apocalyptic; it was some pretty crazy science wrought with drama, intrigue, cults, and billionaires. There are many wild Biosphere 2 stories as a testament to this fact. In short, its movie should have been a David Fincher thriller instead of a low-budget comedy.
Creatures like the narwhal, okapi, and Komodo dragon are on the short list of mythical creatures proven real. Yet, while scientifically interesting, these examples aren't in the realm of more fanciful and legendary animals like unicorns, Bigfoot, or the more hilarious mythical creatures that cryptozoologists fawn over. Mythical creatures in real life often fail to live up to the expectations formed by old legends, fairy tales, or cartoons.
Why would you undergo neck elongation? This procedure, which works to stretch out the neck, causes pain and takes a lot of dedication. It's natural to wonder why anyone would go through the process. But look closer, and you'll realize that how neck elongation is perceived varies widely from person to person. Some cultures have a rich history of neck elongation practices. In many cases, the reasons why people elongate their necks are related to tradition.
There's something about enormous caverns that captures humanity's imagination, and Devils Hole in Death Valley National Park is one of the strangest natural formations in the world. Devils Hole has a unique natural ecosystem and is home to an isolated fish species which doesn't exist anywhere else. Its waters also act like a natural earthquake sensor that can detect vibrations from as far away as Japan, Chile, and Indonesia. But it wouldn't be called Devils Hole if there weren't creepy national park stories inspired by the mysterious depths.
Much like the tide, historical trends and taboos ebb and flow. Some of them, like fashion throughout the centuries and the most common ways to die, are solid and almost definitive indicators of the cultural zeitgeist. Others, like hair trends throughout history, may seem inconsequential in comparison. However, like the tide itself, these hairstyles have affected humanity on a global scale.
Humankind has been passing along legends and folklore since we’ve been able to communicate. The good news is, while many contain kernels of truth, the majority of the creepy legends shared in hushed tones over roaring fires aren’t true. Most are just exaggerated stories meant to scare listeners and sometimes impart some sort of life lesson. Urban legends wrap up society’s fears in an attention-catching narrative that can be safely enjoyed for thrills, all the while knowing that it's all just a tall tale.
If we told you there was a man who fought through wars, survived the un-survivable, and married into two of the most esteemed wealthy families of the 18th century, you might think it was a particularly unrealistic movie plot. But it isn't - it's the life story of a very real person, who also happens to be one of the most notorious con men to ever run a racket.
If you grew up in the '80s, there is a good chance you can remember the catchy Fraggle Rock theme song. The catchy opening jingle wasn't the only interesting aspect of the show. Fraggle Rock was arguably one of the best Jim Henson productions ever. It was even better than the muppets. Even if you're a Kermit fan who can't co-sign that statement, you have to agree that Fraggle Rock is fantastic and completely weird.
You may never have heard of Benny Binion, but odds are you're familiar with some of his work. So, who was he? For starters, he was one of the pioneers in Las Vegas gaming and founder of the World Series of Poker. While Binion was said to be one of the nicest men you'd ever meet, he was also a guy you didn't want to cross. From his start as a gambler and racketeer in Dallas, TX, to the establishment of his Horseshoe Hotel and Casino on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, Binion was as ruthless as he was charismatic. Binion reshaped Las Vegas gambling, attracting high rollers and average players alike.
When it comes to cutting-edge athletic footwear, Reebok and its competitors - Nike being the most prominent among them - have been at the forefront of industry-shaking innovations that literally change the way people wear (and buy) sneakers. But few innovations have caused a stir quite like the Reebok Pump. On its way to becoming a veritable game-changer, the Pump - introduced at the tail-end of the 1980s - featured technologies that many brands, including arch-rival Nike, had been tiptoeing around for years.
Forget the movie Apocalypto – the real Mayans of pre-Colombian America were more than stone pyramids and bloody rituals. From about 200 until the so-called “Mayan collapse” around 900 CE, the Maya people were at the height of their influence. They were one of many civilizations – like the Olmecs and the Aztecs – that animated Mesoamerica before the arrival of European colonizers. Clustered around the Yucatán peninsula, Maya culture was layered and complex, filled with masterful artwork, political networks, and thriving cities. They even had a written language that is preserved in artwork and bark-bound codex books.
The opening words to the national anthem are familiar to anyone who watches or attends a sporting event in the United States. But why is the national anthem played at games to begin with? Depending on one's point of view, you can blame - or thank - World War I for being the catalyst for this tradition. "The Star-Spangled Banner" began its life as a poem by Francis Scott Key about seeing the flag flying over Fort McHenry after it was bombarded by British troops in 1814. Long before it became the official US national anthem in 1931, the song was recognized for its ability to boost patriotism.
Whitey Bulger's life played out like a Martin Scorsese film, and certainly, the legendary mobster and his exploits have been well documented in movies and television alike. The eccentric gangster grew up on the streets of Boston in the early 1940s and was only a teenager when he turned to a life of crime. Throughout his life, Bulger robbed banks, committed murder, dealt in the international arms trade, and even worked as an FBI informant. His long and storied life came to an end on October 30, 2018 when he was allegedly killed in prison by other inmates.
Humans have been around for around 350,000 years, but it has only been a short time since they began to group together in what we call civilizations. In all of our history on this planet, humans have only civilized themselves for approximately 10,000 years thanks to the development of agriculture, animal husbandry, and eventually writing. Of the thousands of civilizations that have existed, most have disappeared. Few have remained in the same place they originated such as the Chinese or Egyptians, while most have died out. Many ancient civilizations existed throughout human history, but some lasted longer than you might believe.
Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant have a few things in common; not only were they popular actors during Hollywood's Golden Age, but they both used a way of speaking known as the Mid-Atlantic or Transatlantic accent. Although Hepburn was American and Grant was from England, you wouldn't know it by the way they spoke. By using the Mid-Atlantic accent, the top actors of Hollywood's Golden Age, like Hepburn and Grant, hid the dialect of their natural voice and adopted a fabricated accent that is hard to place.
But knowing the historical contexts around such leaks can help us understand why the leakers did what they did, and whether or not it was worth it.
The romance of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII had it all - passion, intrigue, and betrayal. Anne was neither the first nor last of Henry's wives, but she remains the most enigmatic, and their relationship the most tumultuous. Small details about their life together reveal just how over the top their relationship actually was.
If there’s one member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that pretty much everyone in the world could name without trouble, it’s J. Edgar Hoover. Best known as the country’s most famous G-man, Hoover’s work as director of the FBI began in 1924, when Hoover took control, it was simply called the Bureau of Investigation. The “Federal” was added 11 years later in 1935. Hoover may not have founded the FBI, but he certainly molded it into the institution citizens know today. As the head of the organization for nearly 50 years, Hoover has become a national icon, revered for the way he shaped the country’s domestic police force. In fact, Hoover is still so revered that the FBI’s national headquarters is named for him.
In 1994, Nicholas Barclay vanished from his neighborhood in San Antonio. Three years later, he was found in Spain, having allegedly escaped from a military child sex ring. When he returned home to Texas, he appeared physically different and spoke with a French accent. The family excused all of this and accepted him into their family. But of course, this very different person wasn't Nicholas Barclay at all. After several months of passing himself off as Nicholas, 29-year-old French con artist Frédéric Bourdin admitted he had stolen the identity of Nicholas, the family's long-lost son. But how could the family be so blind?
Historic landmarks have been attracting tourists for hundreds - in some cases, thousands - of years. Monuments like the Roman Colosseum, the Great Wall of China, and the Eiffel Tower are so distinct that you can probably identify them just by their silhouettes - but what do you really know about them?
What happened to the Garden of Eden? This question has plagued many to go searching for the location of the fabled garden, and as such people have nominated places as crazy as Mars and Missouri as its source, while many scholars believe it never existed at all. Certain descriptions in Genesis leave only a few locations that fit the given criteria: the Armenian Highlands of Eastern Turkey (around where Noah might have landed after the flood), Northeast Africa (the ancestral home of man where Moses supposedly parted the Red Sea), and Jerusalem, even though the Bible describes Eden as east of Jerusalem.
What with being such a private, insular community, many people are curious about the Amish lifestyle and beliefs system. Leaving the Amish faith is extremely hard on any individual who decides to become "English" (the Amish term for everyone who isn't Amish), but, fortunately, ex-Amish stories have provided us with a fascinating glimpse into the Amish way of life. To put it simply, people living in mainstream America would consider Amish laws and punishments to be harsh, but it’s important to note that not all Amish follow the same rules.
The Great Pyramid of Giza. The Great Wall of China. The Parthenon. The Eiffel Tower. Stonehenge. Great structures capture our imagination and give us a lasting collective heritage. (They also provide the backdrop to innumerable selfies.) But while they may last for centuries, these familiar objects have widely divergent building times. Some take decades to erect, others just a few years. Still others have been slowly created over centuries. Here are some of the world's most famous landmarks, along with the time it took to make them a reality.
Anyone who considers themselves a Disney Parks fan is familiar with the spectral entities that lurk in the Haunted Mansion. These semi-transparent ghouls dance, dine, and even play organ in the classic Disneyland ride. Invented before modern holograms and other high-tech optical tricks, the Imagineers had to use a technique called Pepper's Ghost to create the realistic-looking, phantasmal beings. The Pepper's Ghost illusion has been around since the dawn of Victorian-era spiritualism, which featured a love - or perhaps obsession - for all things spooky and supernatural.
Anybody looking for Julius Caesar facts is bound to find something interesting along the way - namely, his wild reputation for sex. The ancient Romans didn't have the same hangups about sex that many societies do today; much of Julius Caesar's sex life was considered normal by their standards, but not all of it. Caesar had a few alleged preferences in his sexual relationships that made him the subject of mockery, some of which could even be connected to his death in the Senate.
We often don't give a second thought to the color of everyday items. Of course a pencil is yellow! Well, yes, a candy cane should be red and white. But these things didn't always have these telltale colors. Some were changed - to be easier marketed, or for safety reasons. Sometimes the iconic color was an accident during the creation process, or simply the easiest thing people had on hand. So if you've ever wondered why barns are red or tennis balls are yellow (or green?), this video is for you!
Who was Attila the Hun? Attila the Hun is known as the most prolific killer of the Early Middle Ages. But the facts about Attila's life are much more complicated than that. Born into the royalty of a small but ambitious steppe tribe, Attila and his brother Bleda were groomed for a life of combat. They ascended to control the Hunnic Empire, and were soon at war with Rome. Information on Attila the Hun is hard to come by and often biased. We know he was an innovative general feared by his enemies, but did you know that his conquests were instrumental in founding the city of Venice? Or that one of his greatest invasions started with a possibly fraudulent marriage proposal?
You’ve heard of Nero, of course. He’s a highlight of world history in high school - the crazy Roman emperor who supposedly fiddled with a tune while the city burned to the ground. You’ve heard he was out of his mind, sure, but you have no idea exactly how nuts the last of the Julio-Claudian emperors was. Born into the twisted web of the Roman royal family, Nero was adopted by Emperor Claudius as heir to the Roman Empire. Nero distinguished himself as even crazier than any of his predecessors (which is saying something considering Caligula came before this guy).
The Victorian Era lasted throughout most of the 1800s. This period of time was known for its technological advancements and for its increased social mobility. And with that came new beauty trends that spread from Britain to the United States by word of mouth and publications aimed at women - some beauty trends that would never happen in today's world. Not all of these trends were good - many of them had deadly consequences.
Short review of the Mayan calendar.
A post on Medium in May 2016 attempted to tackle a seemingly unanswerable question: what's the weirdest town in America? To do this, Lyman Stone used 20 different variables, including what percentage of each city's population was foreign-born, married, working, in the armed forces, etc. He then compared that data to national averages. What he found was that San Jose, CA, is the most bizarre town in the US. But though it may be demographically weird, San Jose doesn't hold a candle to these weird small towns in the United States.
Bobby Fischer epitomized the notion that there is a very thin line between genius and insanity. Because Fischer refused interviews and famously cut off contact with acquaintances who talked about him publicly, many Bobby Fischer stories and Bobby Fischer facts did not emerge until after his death. Some may never have surfaced at all. But even from a very early age, Bobby Fischer's life was fraught with chaos, anger, and instability. Fischer is perceived as possibly the greatest chess player who ever lived yet his bizarre personality later in life destroyed any semblance of a positive legacy.
If you grew up in the United States, you probably learned the United States Customary System (USCS) for weights and measures. USCS terms like inches, feet, pounds, and miles are derived from the British Imperial System, steeped in a long history of application and use. Any introduction to the metric system may have muddied the measurement waters, adding unfamiliar words and awkward conversions to your school day.
It was 1917 when the United States had just joined World War I. With demands for military investment growing, the US Treasury Department was in desperate need of money. Without enough of its own, the Treasury Department had to borrow it from someone, but was also constitutionally required to receive congressional approval to take on debt and make financial decisions. Rather than oversee every increasingly common request and transaction, Congress figured, “Hey, let's give the Treasury Department power to oversee their own debt! But we have to limit that so we don't get ourselves in any trouble." Thus the debt ceiling was born. It was a means to allow the Treasury Department to get money, accrue debt, and invest in everything the government needed to invest in without requiring constant approval from Congress, while still allowing Congress to control the total amount of debt accrued.
Kings live some of the most extraordinary lives of any human beings. They can have seemingly limitless wealth, power, and time to do what they want. But one thing seems to mirror extraordinary lives: extraordinary deaths. The kings on this list have some of the most unusual, sometimes painful deaths you may ever heard of - from a mouthful of molten gold to the nastiest case of gangrene you can imagine. And while some of these deaths were ordered by the hands of others, some of them are just outright bad luck.
Next time you're abroad, watch out for these American habits other countries think are rude. Us Yanks aren't the most popular kids in the global school at the best of times - you don't need to commit a social faux-pas to exacerbate the situation. Whether it's a gesture or word, rude things American tourists do can reinforce the host country's negative perception of Americans, even if you've got the best of intentions. So brush up on these habits or American phrases that are rude in other places and you'll have nothing to fear on your next holiday.
It's impossible to meet the incredibly unrealistic and changing beauty standards of our world, and many of us have already spent way too much time trying to pluck, paint, or contour ourselves into stacking up. It may not be a surprise to learn that this is basically a timeless issue, but some of the beauty ideals of the past are really hard to imagine as fun or glamorous.
In the 1960s, the story of a man and his talking horse captivated the globe. The show was Mister Ed, and it followed the hijinks of a talking horse named Mr. Ed and his keeper Wilbur Post. The show became an instant classic, and the character of Ed has popped up everywhere from rap music and comedy sketches to children's shows. Behind the character of Mr. Ed was a real horse. His name was Bamboo Harvester and he was already famous when he stepped onto the Hollywood scene. TV’s most famous horse was born and bred a star. Lighthearted and humorous at times, stubborn and imperious on occasion, the real Mr. Ed was a true trail blazer.
From the early inhabitants of the original 13 colonies, to the pioneers who moved West and South as America expanded, there was one common problem when it came to establishing new settlements: What would they name their city? Some US cities and towns were named after a founder, a nearby geological feature, or a place the settlers had come from, but others had very unusual names.
Many of the stories about Davy Crockett (1786-1836) are wrapped up in myth and masculinity, much of which was propagated by Crockett's own hand. He wrote an autobiography, aptly titled A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee, which detailed - and perhaps embellished - life on the American frontier. Davy Crockett's stories became wrapped up in the frontier, manliness, and American strength, promoting a sense of machismo that contrasts heavily with its modern conception. As a frontiersman, soldier, and politician, Davy Crockett achieved folk hero status soon after his passing in 1836, and his reputation continued to grow throughout the 20th century.
Any time a highly respected historical drama comes along, whether on the big or small screen, be prepared for dozens of articles about all the things it got wrong. Uncovering those inconsistencies may be illuminating, but the relationship between history and its fictionalized depiction is a codependent one. Even with poetic license doing some heavy lifting, fiction often hews closer than expected to historical fact - or at least uses true events as a sturdy jumping-off point.
Some of the most pivotal moments in history have taken place at sea. Naval battles account for the rise and fall of many great dynasties and empires. This list showcases some of the largest and most consequential battles from across the ages that have determined the course of history.
There’s a quote attributed to EB White that goes, “Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.” The list below appears to confirm that, with stories about geniuses who disappeared, geniuses who vanished, and, yes, some geniuses who seem to be some flavor of what people used to call, insensitively, “crazy.” But the plural of anecdote, as they say, isn’t data. These so-called mad geniuses aren’t a homogeneous group of crackpots. Some of these geniuses went into hiding for perfectly sensible reasons, such as to flee the Gestapo or avoid pushy and privacy-invading press.
During America's long involvement in the Vietnam conflict, from 1965 to 1973, tens of thousands of young men and women were recruited and drafted into the ranks of the US armed forces. They were sent overseas to fight on the battlefield or help in various support capacities. However, whether you were conscripted involuntarily or joined up to dictate your own career path, you had to undergo training, and that was one painfully unforgettable experience.
When it comes to Greek mythology, some of the stories you'll find out there are pretty strange. Goddesses being birthed from clam shells, women being kidnapped by Hades, and plenty of stories of cheating god husbands (we're looking at you here, Zeus). But if you go past the more well-known myths, things start to get even weirder. Yes, those wacky gods on Mount Olympus have a serious strange streak that would shock even the most open-minded historian.
Due in large part to popular Hollywood films like Gladiator and Ben-Hur, there are plenty of misconceptions about ancient Rome and the way Romans lived. The ancient Romans wore togas, but not very often. They had several leaders who were certainly ineffectual, brutal, and careless, but they weren't necessarily insane - nor did they sing a sad song while the city of Rome burned down. There were gladiatorial fights, but they weren't nearly as bloody as we've been led to believe.
There are thousands of traditions throughout the world that belong to different cultures, eras, religions, and peoples. Yet, amongst these many traditions, there are some that stand out from the many others because of their peculiarity, strangeness, or disturbing nature. If your interest is piqued, you'll love our list. We'll discuss the most popular traditions still known or practiced today in 2022. Some of these traditions might be surprising, but you've likely participated in each of them or have known someone who has.
You've likely heard of the advanced skills of the Inca Empire. From creating a reliable system of measurement and communication to building a 25,000-mile road system, the Incas were brilliant, innovative people. However, like many native populations, they were bested by the Spanish conquistadors when they invaded in the mid-1500s. The European conquerors stole or destroyed much of the priceless Inca art and artifacts, so we must rely on stories and legends to build the narrative of what life was like for the Incas.
On a Scottish history timeline, you can see how the English have used, abused, and downright insulted Scotland. Slurs, jokes, and awful stereotypes aside, the English were responsible for the most horrible atrocities committed in Scotland. The 18th-century Battle of Culloden and its aftermath were particularly difficult for the beautiful, culturally rich country, but mistreatment didn't start or stop there. Scottish history facts are full of examples of disputes and hardships, many of which may make you sympathize with England's northern neighbor.
When it comes to world historical figures, whether they're Roman emperors, European kings, or American presidents, today most people know them for their larger-than-life deeds. People like Augustus, Napoleon, and Thomas Jefferson changed the world. They conquered vast amounts of territory, or they led successful revolutions that changed the governments of their countries - or both. But even the most legendary rulers were also capable of deep and lasting friendships. In fact, many of their closest friends also served key roles in their rise to power.
When it comes to classic toys, Fisher-Price is at the top of the list. Founded in 1930, the popular child’s toy line came to fame in the 1960s with their incredibly popular Little People line. These vintage Fisher-Price toys featured adorable little figures packed inside fun and educational playsets. While most of the toys were staples in households from the late '60s up to the early '90s, it turns out those old toys you used to play can sell for a pretty decent amount today.
English is a language with many influences. A hefty percentage of English words are taken from French, and are particularly evident in British English. The influence of Old Norse and others can all be readily seen in everyday use. Another major source of our modern vocabulary comes from decidedly ancient origins, particularly the Greco-Roman world. This collection features words and phrases and the stories behind them drawn from the ancient world.
History brims with oppressive, self-serving, and indifferent people. Hernán Cortés, the notorious Spanish conquistador, was one of them. Spanish conquistadors were generally insensitive and exploitive to indigenous peoples in their quest for wealth and power. Cortés was a trailblazer - he was the first Spaniard to make significant inroads in what is today modern Mexico. However, his actions led to the demise of one of the most powerful empires in the Americas. Born into a noble family in Spain around 1485, Cortés experienced a restless childhood, dreaming of fame and fortune. Spain's increasing exploration of the Americas gave the young Cortés the chance he was looking for. In 1504, he followed his dreams westward. Cortés subsequent actions ultimately led to the fall of the Aztec world.
Who was Amelia Earhart? She was a pioneer in flight, an author, a fashion designer, and so much more. Earhart was born in Kansas in 1897. She was the oldest of two daughters, and her mother didn't believe in raising her children to be proper and dainty little girls. Instead, they wore bloomers (pants) and had plenty of freedom to explore and do what they wanted. From the beginning, Earhart was a tomboy; she spent her free time climbing trees and sledding down hills. All of this set the scene for what came later, when she broke through the traditional wall of male-dominated aviation.
Many of us have heard of the unusual practices of Sparta, the war-obsessed, ancient Greek society. Let's be real: many of us learned them from the notorious 2006 film, 300. While the movie, and our history books, highlight some of the more impressive aspects of Spartan society, there are plenty of weird facts about Sparta that seem too extreme to be real. So get cozy, grab your sword (if you have one), and read on to dive into the wild traditions of Sparta. Make sure to vote up the facts that seem too outrageous to be real.
If you underwent potty training, you definitely know the process of flushing the toilet, though you probably don't know how toilets work. Like the causes behind airline turbulence, what happens when you flush the toilet is likely something you possess a vague understanding of without getting into the down-and-dirty of it, so to speak. But crazy facts about toilet plumbing exist out there, many happening directly beneath you as you drop a dookie. The mechanics of flushing, including why toilets are u-shaped, only serve to keep you better informed as a citizen, who deserves the right to know where your waste goes.
Those who woke up in Oahu, Hawaii on December 7th, 1941, had no idea they were about to experience one of the darkest days in modern military history. Over 2,400 Americans perished in the attack where air raid sirens blared, Japanese bombers filled the sky, and every second counted.
History is littered with the stories of people who, for a variety of reasons, were cast away from their homes and forced to live in foreign lands. Getting exiled was always a risk in the game of politics. Make the wrong enemy or fall from grace, and men and women who lived public lives could be banished by their opponents to get them out of the way. In the ancient world, many important historical figures were cast out of places like Athens and Rome, where citizens took banishment very seriously. The modern world continues to use exile as a political tool to push out dictators, overthrow governments, and silence inconvenient activists.
From prehistory through modern-day occurrences, history offers some pretty fascinating stories and information. It also, as often as not, leaves observers wanting more. Simply put, history is full of questions - and Redditors want answers. In a recent Reddit thread, individuals chimed in on which historical mysteries they wondered about and really wanted to be solved. Their contributions ran the gamut from political conspiracies to secret identities to some fascinating "what-could-have-beens" through the ages.
In ancient times, the ultimate tourist guide was the Seven Wonders of the World, a list of seven sites that were supposedly wonderful to behold. The subsequent centuries weren't kind to those wonders, however, and most of them no longer exist. The pre-modern list focused on ancient structures and monuments around the Mediterranean – so, what about the rest of the world? In recent decades, new lists have highlighted more wonders of the world. These sites are more representative of the diversity of the human experience. Bonus: They’re still standing, so travelers can visit them today.
Some products are so ubiquitous that their names are taken for granted. Have you ever stopped and thought what “Pilates” means? What about “nachos”? Or even “saxophone”? It turns out that those products - and many others that are household and cultural staples - were named after their creators.
During the mid-18th century, murder was so rampant in Britain that Parliament needed to create an equally brutal law in response. Some said legislation as a fate worse than death. The British Murder Act of 1751 became law the following year, with the purpose of terrorizing the public into a reasonable facsimile of human decency.
Every year, millions of hours and billions of dollars are poured into medical innovation, with new methods of improving, sustaining, and extending human life discovered on a near daily basis - yet without some significant accidental medical discoveries thrown into the mix, many of us would not be here today. Unintended scientific discoveries often prove more fascinating than those made on purpose. Perhaps it’s the lure of serendipity, or the enticing possibility of changing the world for the better through nothing more than sheer happenstance. Either way, people everywhere are grateful that some enterprising individuals were fortunate enough to stumble into important medical breakthroughs - and had awareness enough to understand the implications of their discoveries.
In the last several decades, teen clothing has become an independent industry – from retail stores advertising the latest fashions to Instagram models forming the new trends with each post. This wasn't always the case, though. Long before the '90s birthed the denim oddity that was JNCO jeans, and even before Seventeen ran its inaugural issue in 1944, "teen" was barely a word in the common vernacular. In the early 1900s, high school clothing trends were essentially smaller versions of whatever was worn by adults. So, how did teen style manage to define 20th-century fashion? Perhaps accessibility – such as the wave of shopping malls in the 1980s – played a pivotal role.
History is full of famous feuds, between siblings, clans, and even people who aren't related to each other. The causes underlying these feuds are often similar, regardless of the individuals' class, time period, or nation of origin. Since humans have existed, they have competed with each other for power and resources. In regions where resources aren't abundant, families and groups come into conflict with each other, often with deadly consequences. In countries with dynastic monarchies, siblings are often pitted against each other. In more recent times, the rise of powerful corporations has created even more avenues for conflict.
Wars are often fought by massive groups of people, but even in the largest conflicts, unique individuals like Joe Medicine Crow stand out. Joe Medicine Crow was born in 1913 near Lodge Grass, MT. Despite his family's long tradition of military service, he originally planned to enter academia. But when America joined WWII in 1941, Medicine Crow enlisted in the infantry as a scout, following in the footsteps of his step-grandfather.
Kings and queens wield a lot of power - and sometimes, they let that power go to their heads. Just look at the petty figures of historical royalty who started wars over minor slights, or publicly snubbed people for upsetting them. Queen Victoria ignored her daughter Beatrice for months after Beatrice said she wanted to get married, and the Queen Mother was so angry at Wallis Simpson that she pretended the divorcee dating her son didn't exist. One king put a mouse on trial, while another ordered his soldiers to whip the sea when his bridge collapsed.
For how often we use the English language every day, few of us take the time to consider where these thousands of words actually came from. Our language was developed in a few different ways. Sometimes, we grabbed loanwords - meaning we barely changed the original spelling and definition. (Think “siesta” - it means the same in English as in Spanish - “a short, daytime nap.”) Then there are words that we tried to borrow - but ended up bungling pretty awfully in the process. Like “ketchup” - it's an iconic tomato condiment, right? Well, originally the word meant “pickled fish” in Chinese.
She’s the most successful serial killer whose name you’ve never heard. Giulia Tofana killed hundreds of men in 17th-century Italy when she turned her makeup business into a poison factory, selling a deadly concoction called Aqua Tofana. Her crimes place her among the most deadly female serial killers in history, alongside the Russian noblewoman who killed over 100 people and the Hungarian Blood Countess who may have killed 650 people.
Jennifer Carol Wilbanks, forever immortalized as the real life runaway bride, made headlines in 2005 when she vanished from Duluth, Georgia – just days before her 600-person wedding – and again when she resurfaced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, several days later. Wilbanks and her fiancé, John Mason, were to be married a mere six days after her disappearance. Although, at first, she claimed to have been kidnapped, she later changed her story and admitted that she panicked at the thought of marrying Mason in front of their 600 wedding guests and 28 attendants.
Accidents happen all the time. People become distracted and drop items from their hands, clumsily knock things off shelves, and misinterpret kitchen recipes that sometimes produce disastrous results. While everyone suffers from clumsiness or preoccupation now and then, inventors, chemists, and engineers typically do everything they can to prevent accidents on the job. As they develop ideas they believe could possibly change the world - for better or worse - experts meticulously calculate their every move to ensure they can replicate the results, should they succeed.
Whether it’s Marvel’s Thor, Disney’s Moana, or those Titans that clashed in that movie, pantheons of mythic heroes are everywhere in popular culture. But those Hollywood films barely even begin to scratch the surface of the wild stories our ancestors have told since time began.
When the first Chippendales male revue opened in 1979, it was an instant hit. But the male strip show hid a dark secret: its founders were murderers who treated the business like an organized crime syndicate. How did Chippendales start? In the 1970s, Somen Banerjee owned a failed Los Angeles disco, and a nightclub promoter named Paul Snider suggested he begin the first all-male strip club for women...
Jim Steinmeyer designs magic tricks that other magicians use. He knows the ins and outs of illusion. He's written several books on the subject and, in one, he claims, "Magicians don’t protect their secrets from the audience, they protect the audience from their secrets." Indeed, the magic is in the presentation, not in knowing how it's done. But magic as we know it has been around for quite a while. The ancient conjurers became traveling vaudevillians who morphed into Las Vegas showmen and street mentalists. By this point, many stage tricks have been explained in books. Some have been revealed in lawsuits. Even Harry Houdini has had the secrets behind his most well-known tricks exposed.
Every beginning comes from another experience's ending, but that doesn't make breakups any easier or less messy. And although all splits are tough, there's something about a band breakup that leaves its fans as heartbroken, angry, and nostalgic as the members who experienced the abrupt departure firsthand. This list features the messiest band breakups in history, proving that highly public, complicated splits cross all decades and genres. Some rock 'n' roll bands took their intentional hateful personalities a little too far. In other cases, the hard-partying lifestyle and inter-band romances were to blame. And despite some band members' outwardly harmonious “best buds” reputation, the truth later came out.
The Renaissance lasted from the 1300s to the late 1600s, and what a time it was to be alive. Even if you don't love Renaissance Faires (and come on, who doesn't?), you should definitely love the Renaissance itself. Where else can you find such an amazing blend of art, philosophy, and science? Things that happened during the Renaissance directly shaped the way we live today, paving the path that led from the Dark Ages to the modern world. Famous inventors, artists, and thinkers made sure the Renaissance influences today more than you'll ever know (at least until you read this article).
Gebelein Man is part of the huge mummy collection on display at the British Museum in London. His story is quite different from the Egyptian mummies you might be picturing, though. Gebelein Man, along with his contemporary, Gebelein Woman, sports the world's oldest known figural tattoos. The Gebelein mummies were accidentally preserved by their environment, as opposed to the careful preparation later Egyptian mummies underwent. Many other cases of accidental or environmental mummification have been discovered around the world, from Juanita the Ice Maiden and her fellow Incan child sacrifices, to Ötzi the Iceman.
Elisabeth of Austria was one of the most powerful monarchs of the 19th century. Remarkably beautiful, Elisabeth, nicknamed Sisi, defied Austrian court traditions. She traveled often and became a beloved figure in both Austria and Hungary. Elisabeth was very concerned with her looks; she engaged in strange beauty rituals and aggressive exercise routines. Elisabeth's iconoclastic ways resulted in her bizarre death at the hands of an anarchist.
The US is full of countless ghost stories and reports of paranormal encounters. From ghosts dating back to colonial days to ghosts from the Golden Age of Hollywood, stories can be found in all corners of the country. Here are some of the most well-known haunts that are still quite active to this day. Read on and see which ones you want to add to your bucket list of spooky places to visit next.
There are certain cities throughout the world that we all know the names of: Paris, Tokyo, New York, Moscow. We likely know one or two things about each of these cities. Paris has the Eiffel Tower. New York has Broadway. But each city has its own, unique elements that not a lot of people know about. For example, who knew that one of Los Angeles' iconic plants actually isn't even native to the city? Or that there is a very specific traffic sign that is missing throughout all the streets of Paris? From fortresses to subway systems to green spaces, these hidden gems are some of the coolest things we've heard about these major cities. Which is your favorite?
Perhaps if he’d been born a few years earlier, Geronimo would have lived out his life as an Apache chief, adhering to tradition and ensuring the safety of his people. As it happened, one of the most famous Native Americans in history was born to a life of turmoil at the tail-end of America’s westward expansion. The life of Geronimo was fraught with heartache, true, but a life filled with pain didn’t stop the brilliant tactician and charismatic leader from making history.
The 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon, written by David Grann, is based on his own investigations into the systematic theft and brutality committed against members of the Osage Nation. The 2023 movie of the same name, directed by Martin Scorsese, is based on Grann's work and emphasizes the relationship between Mollie Burkhart and her husband, Ernest, as the conspiracy to eliminate members of her family unfolds around them. Killers of the Flower Moon offers a glimpse into a relatively unknown historical event defined by racial injustice, greed, and murder. The true crime story reveals a dark chapter in US history as land, money, oil, and love brought death and devastation to the Osage Nation during the early 20th century.
From the fronts of cars to weirdly human knots on trees, people see faces in the strangest places. But have you ever wondered why we see faces everywhere? It turns out there's a name for that phenomenon: pareidolia, which describes humanity's ability to identify discernible images in places where there aren't any. In attempting to understand pareidolia, researchers have proposed several scientific and behavioral explanations.
We learned a lot this year - new information, reminders of things we uncovered long ago, and tidbits that confirm what we already know. And much of it had to do with medieval history. In 2022, we discovered things about the Middle Ages that blew our minds. Deaths, dragons, and massive Mongol broods are among our favorites, but they're only the beginning. From details about medieval weaponry to stories about some of the most powerful individuals who ever lived, these facts about the Middle Ages left us saying “good knight!” - mouths agape and all.
We learn about geography in school. We have a basic understanding, or at least we should, of where places are, how they got there, and why they are that way. We piece together an image of the world in our heads based on maps and globes, things we hear in the news, and facts and figures we hear in pop culture. So when we actually look at and learn about where things are, or their relative size, or even how many people live there, the reality can be vastly different than the internal picture we had.
Lambasted by Rolling Stone magazine as "rock and roll's all-time worst day — a day when everything went perfectly wrong," the 1969 music festival at Altamont Speedway in Northern California was a concert unlike any other. Immortalized in the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter, Altamont was scheduled during one of the most rebellious and heady times in American history, filled with gritty guitar riffs, lots of recreational drugs, and young people looking to rebel. The free concert gave fans a chance to jam out with some of the most epic bands of the counterculture, including the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead. But when the Hells Angels showed up to work security, things took a turn for the worse. Fans expecting free love and peace were treated to brutality and general mayhem. Forever remembered for its shocking violence, destruction, and chaos, the tragic events at Altamont ended the era of free love and marked the death of the swinging '60s.
Islands are supposed to be sunny, peaceful, and warm - exotic locales where you spend time on the beach, maybe do a bit of snorkeling, and even enjoy a few fruity drinks. Except sometimes, none of that happens. The world sports many deceptively beautiful islands, ones that look pleasant but are actually terrifying. From former nuclear test sites to places that are home to deadly creatures, these scary isles have more going on than we realized. And we wanted to know more. We found out what people who've been to 10 of the most dangerous islands in the world said about them, and were left ready to just stay home. Vote up the islands you will most definitely take a hard pass on, too.
For over half a millennium, the mysterious disappearance of the Princes in the Tower - 12-year-old King Edward V and his 9-year-old brother, Richard, the Duke of York - has been considered a treacherous murder committed by their uncle, Richard III. When the death of their father, Edward IV, his young son became king. Within a few short months, however, both children had disappeared without a trace, and Richard III claimed the crown in 1483. It was a short reign: Richard III died in 1485 fighting against Henry Tudor's forces in the culmination of the War of the Roses. Almost 200 years later, in 1674, workmen dug up two juvenile skeletons at the foot of a staircase in the Tower of London. These skeletons were presumably the two young princes, and the remains were interred in Westminster Abbey - but this was not the end of the enduring mystery. New evidence has emerged indicating the remains discovered in the Tower of London may not be the princes, and Richard III's murderous reputation
From the intricate paintings of Hieronymous Bosch to the excessive pulp of movies like Constantine, hell has been depicted in dozens of different ways. However, its most common elements - hellfire, souls screaming in torment, and gruesome demons - cannot be found in the Bible. Similar to how our beliefs about angels formed, today, the imagery of "hell" is the result of hundreds of years of art, theology, and imagination. The Greeks believed in a punishing afterworld called Tartarus, and Christian artists and writers borrowed heavily from its complex mythological structure.
In the era of the battle royale, it’s no wonder that renewed interest has arisen in deciphering once and for all who the toughest warriors of all time were, both in the general sense and in the specific. Ranking various historical armies and their members is all well and good, but the real excitement comes from matching up the most notable military figures from the annals of history and trying to figure out which of them would win in an all-out fight to the finish.
A blind king rode into battle, two armies clashed over a stolen bucket, and a severed head got its revenge by killing an earl. These medieval war stories sound completely fake - but they're all real. Take, for example, the Battle of Hastings, one of the most important battles in medieval history. It's also one of the strangest battles of the Middle Ages, since William the Conqueror almost lost because of a rumor. William had to take off his helmet and shout "Look at me! I live!" to convince his men not to flee. Or how about Richard the Lionheart, who fought a crusade while lying on a stretcher? And it turns out ice battles aren't an invention of Game of Thrones; medieval Russians fought a massive battle on a frozen lake.
The sound of children singing alone can be quite scary (see the Poltergeist main theme, or the "1-2 Freddy's coming for you" song from A Nightmare on Elm Street), but when coupled with certain weird and creepy nursery rhymes, the shudder factor rises exponentially. Let's take a closer look at some of these disturbing nursery rhymes, and perhaps you'll think twice before teaching them to your kids.
Why did the US want Hawaii? With even a glance at its sensual beaches and lush jungles, it's no surprise that the scenic islands have always been desirable. But as with any story of settlement, the development of Hawaii didn't come about as peacefully or honorably as its sumptuous vistas would have you believe. For American lawyer and entrepreneur Sanford Ballard Dole, Hawaii was a gold mine — or at least a pineapple one — and he used his government influence and self-appointed position in Hawaii to push the US toward taking over the islands in the late 1890s.
Human history has, to a remarkable extent, been shaped by natural disasters. Whether it’s volcanic eruptions or floods, plague or environmental devastation caused by human activity, human life has proven to be both remarkably precarious and, paradoxically, remarkably resilient. Some natural disasters have come dangerously close to ending the world as humanity has known it but, somehow, people continue on, working to rebuild the damaged world left behind. Strangely enough, natural disasters can end up influencing history in some strange and unexpected ways.
You’re a tourist in the ancient Mediterranean. Where do you go? Easy: Do a tour of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The idea for a consolidated list of wonderful man-made monuments came from writers in the ancient world. For example, Antipater of Sidon, a Greek writer from the 100s BCE, wrote a poem celebrating some of the known world's most breathtaking sights. These places formed the core of the Seven Wonders.
Throughout the 13th century, the group of nomadic tribes known as the Mongols unified under a single ruler and proceeded to carve out the largest empire the world had ever seen. From the Danube River in Europe to all the way across Asia up to the Pacific Ocean, the highly mobile warriors overcame empires, kingdoms, and states they encountered until they eventually ruled over an enormous number of people.
The 1990s were a golden age of late night comedy, shaping the late night television landscape for generations to come. For years, The Tonight Show on NBC - and its longtime host Johnny Carson - was the ultimate tastemaker. But a cast shake-up and its fallout changed that landscape forever.
Keeping your homeland safe from Vikings was no easy task in the Middle Ages. These hardcore warriors were strong, proud, and often unpredictable. Still, the clever, the tough, and the lucky managed to overcome Viking forces and keep their people safe. Viking raids were usually opportunistic and lightning fast. Defending against them was not as important as outlasting them.
Death is one of the few certainties in life. Every person experiences it in some way (including their own), and very often, will take part in a ritual surrounding the end of a loved one's life. Many similarities exist among historical death traditions, but there is no single way to grieve, express loss, or celebrate a person's life. Whether it's how a group prepares a corpse, shows continued deference and care for a deceased loved one, or honors the legacy of a fallen hero, death rituals reveal a lot about living. As a result, the end of life has been met with cultural practices and religious rites through the ages.
You've seen Caravaggio's stunning paintings, but do you know the story behind the images? Caravaggio was a violent and tragic figure who likely died because of his commitment to his art. He became "the most famous painter in Rome" in 1600 and gave birth to the Baroque style and the technique of chiaroscuro, but when he wasn't painting, Caravaggio surrounded himself with thieves, prostitutes, and fights.
In large part thanks to Disney's version of her story, Cinderella is a familiar fairy tale character. The girl is maltreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, and essentially ends up as their servant. When it comes time for a royal celebration, Cinderella can't attend - until the intervention of her fairy godmother, some lovable creatures, and a magical gourd. By the time the tale ends, Cinderella finds her Prince - well, he finds her - and they live happily ever after. But this is just one telling of “Cinderella,” and it's a fairly tame one.
Organized crime can be explained as a complex and thoroughly centralized criminal enterprise that has been established for the explicit purpose of engaging in unlawful activities. In the world we live in, hundreds of organized crime families operate illegally and often engage in illicit activities. These activities include fraud, human trafficking, robbery, drug and arms smuggling, kidnapping for ransom, and cargo theft. The primary forms of income for organized crime groups are prostitution, drugs, loan-sharking, and gambling.
The chain of command and obeying orders are two concepts that are essential to military success. But military history is still full of people who disobeyed orders. Armies are made up of individuals, and regardless of the time period or culture, there are always people who buck the system. The reasons soldiers have disobeyed are as varied as the world's militaries themselves.
In 1906, Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, about conditions in industrial meat packing plants, was published. It was a fictionalized account of what it was like in the meat packing industry, and how horrible working conditions were in meat packing plants. Sadly enough, much of what happened in this novel was absolutely true, and was taken from real experiences. This novel served as a wake up call that led to a series of improvements in the industry to make our food safer and to provide better conditions for factory workers.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit adventure that preceded it are full-fledged mythologies and histories unto themselves, making it a little strange to discuss the impact of real-world mythology and history on Tolkien’s saga. But the list of historical references in The Lord of the Rings is long and the impact of influences on his writings, including Norse mythology and Tolkien’s own WWI experiences, is undeniable. Tolkien lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in modern history and had a life story of his own worthy of a book or two. Some of what he learned and experienced was bound to influence his writing. On the record, Tolkien was generally shy about admitting direct influences and allegories, but the historical parallels are too obvious to ignore.
Early in the morning of April 15, 1912, the world's largest ocean liner slipped beneath the icy waves of the North Atlantic, carrying 1,500 people to their graves. For decades, the shipwreck remained hidden - but how did they find the Titanic? Treasure hunters searched for the ocean liner for years, hoping to find valuable items that sank with the Titanic. But in 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard successfully found the Titanic on a scientific mission. Or, at least, that's what he told the press. The mission was "strictly scientific," one scientist told The New York Times in 1985. In fact, the search for the Titanic was actually a cover story for a secret Cold War mission.
Many countries in the world are home to famous landmarks and monuments that attract millions of visitors each year. But some landmarks have areas inaccessible to the public - or anyone at all. These rooms might be a secret to most visitors, but they're usually not built for secretive reasons. These spaces have all sorts of purposes, from record keeping to providing a living space to recreation - or even no real purpose at all.
Songs have always been a fascinating way to explore popular culture. They possess meaning and symbolism, whether they're considered timely, timeless, or both. Many permeate the zeitgeist as testaments to a generation's woes, beliefs, loves, and hates. Essentially, music offers an escape. It can also be incredibly controversial. Some songs have been so offensive to a particular group that they got banned. Occasionally, this happens to tunes most people wouldn't assume anyone would have a problem with. This list features songs we were surprised to learn were controversial.
Charles II of England - the so-called "Merry Monarch" - had a legendary love life. His mistresses were visible, integral members of his court. Stories of their affairs with the king, and their rivalries with each other, have echoed through the centuries. Born in 1630, Charles spent much of his young adulthood in exile. His father, Charles I, was ousted from the throne and executed in 1649. While a Puritanical regime ruled over England, Charles bided his time on the continent. In 1661, England's Parliament invited Charles to come home and become king - this "Restoration" of the monarchy ushered in a new phase in English history. Charles had some accomplishments during his 25 years on the throne.
Aliens and UFOs are two of the most debated and pondered things in human history. Our universe contains two trillion galaxies aside from our own, making it impossible to prove if life exists on another planet in another galaxy. Who's to say if aliens visited Earth centuries ago? Is it possible they left messages for us through art? There are endless possibilities, but for now, here's a list of classical paintings that may (or may not) have UFOs or aliens hidden inside.
Neanderthals lived hundreds of thousands of years ago, one of the many ancestors to modern humans. The species went extinct about 40,000 years ago, although it continues to live on in the DNA of humans beings around the world. Neanderthals have long been thought of as base, unintelligent creatures who dragged their knuckles and wielded clubs. Reddit says otherwise, providing a lot of information to combat this negative view. The subreddit Today I Learned has offers some eye-opening facts about Neanderthals, many of which may surprise you.
Engaging in warfare is one of the ugliest and most cruel things humans can do to one another. Even in the darkest days of armed conflict, however, some people rise to the challenge of the time and prove their heroism and fortitude. They're often those who carry weapons into battle, but they're also the medics, nurses, and surgeons who work tirelessly to keep their comrades alive. Some even make the ultimate sacrifice, so it's worth looking back at those who demonstrated in one way or another the heroism of which people are capable in the darkest hours.
Saturday mornings used to be sacred animation time. Generations of kids, fueled by bowls of sugary cereal (likely advertised during their Saturday TV sessions), flocked to screens for a binge-worthy block of cartoon programming - whether it was Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the aptly named The Weekenders, or any other classic animated series. So, what happened to Saturday morning cartoons? From the 1960s to the 1980s, cartoons dominated kids' early Saturday TV schedules. Most people probably can't recall when this long-running, popular tradition stopped because cartoons gradually phased out of their lives as they aged. Perhaps, like the downfall of G4 TV, the phenomenon could never last. Profitability, changing viewing habits, and even legislation played a part in the eventual extinction of blocks of animated programming from weekend airwaves.
There are certain books that aren't exactly listed in great detail on Amazon. These weird and mysterious works often have unknown authors and describe forgotten histories or strange and fantastical worlds. There are some books that are so mysterious that no one has ever been able to read them, written in cryptic codes that have yet to be cracked. Some contain odd pictures depicting fights or the origin of the Earth or flora and fauna we've never seen.
If you come at the king, you’d best not miss, and if you do succeed, you’d better be ready to look over your shoulder for the rest of your days. Even when a conspiracy to topple a king actually succeeds, that doesn’t mean things worked out for the perpetrators. Regicide often comes with unforeseen costs. This collection looks at the times when historical backstabbers got way more than they bargained for.
In a country with 50 separate territories with unique cultural backgrounds, laws, and social practices, it's unsurprising that citizens of each state in the US find pride in the unique histories of their home residency. Still, while we may boast about our own states and believe that we have a good idea of what goes on in others based on stereotypes and generalized ideas of regions throughout the US, there are a lot of surprising facts about the Midwest, the South, the Northeast, and the West Coast that are unbelievably bizarre but true.
What do Tilda Swinton, Christopher Plummer, and King Princess have in common? They're all celebrities with famous ancestors. All of the celebs on this list aren't distantly related to notable historical figures - these individuals can actually claim direct descent from at least one historically significant ancestor. Celebrity ancestors include royals, politicians, and artists - in other words, accomplished people who are known outside the context of their famous descendant. Whether they appeared on a genealogy show - like PBS's Finding Your Roots, African American Lives, or the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? - or grew up hearing about their famous ancestors, these actors, musicians, and personalities are appreciative of their storied backgrounds.
We may have our differences, but everyone likes the idea of a good meal. Whether the goal was to show off the most intricate and expensive dishes or keep house guests too occupied to stage a revolt, history is full of elaborate banquets. Hosts held nothing back when trying to impress their guests. They provided all kinds of entertainment, from musicians and actors to ladies of the night.
Marie Anotoinette has been the portrait of decadence and extravagance for almost 250 years. Her unpopularity, fueled in large part by her lavish lifestyle, made her a polarizing figure - so much so that it eventually led to her death. As it turns out, much of the hate for the infamous French Queen was based on lies and rumors. And unlike what you saw in that Sofia Coppola movie, she probably didn’t listen to The Cure.
Alexander the Great conquered a vast empire but did not live long enough to contend with the immense struggle to actually run and keep hold of it. That enormous undertaking fell to the men who succeeded him. Although purportedly Alexander’s last request was that “the strongest” inherit his great empire, none were quite able to reunite his lands under one banner - though many tried. The wars of the Diadochi (“successors”) raged for generations after Alexander’s demise.
King Henry VIII has gone down as being one of the greatest medieval villains - a man with a tyrannical attitude and penchant for killing people he disagreed with (executing approximately 57,000 people in his time on the throne). However, it's possible that his inhumane ways may have stemmed from an excruciatingly painful condition - a leg injury that Henry VIII struggled with for over 10 years.
The RMS Titanic is arguably the most famous ship to ever set sail - and not for a good reason. The mighty passenger liner, notably described as "unsinkable," sank in the North Atlantic on the morning of April 15, 1912, a mere two days away from its scheduled arrival in New York City. In doing so, the doomed vessel inspired a litany of retellings, at least one Oscar-winning film, and a handful of attempts at a real-life sailing sequel, including the Titanic II, which was due to make its maiden voyage in 2022.
There is no definitive answer to how many bands there are currently in the US, but it's estimated there are more than 2,000, with tens of thousands officially and unofficially formed globally. There are also hundreds of thousands of musicians worldwide. Given those numbers, you may not be well acquainted with most of them, but chances are you've heard the names of the bands on this list.
Was Excalibur the actual Sword in the Stone? Was Arthur Pendragon real? Who was Merlin? Legends and theories abound about the figures related to King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The stories range from heroic to decidedly not. Real or mythological, the Arthurian lore holds our interest to this day.
Genghis Khan has a legacy that few historical figures have outmatched. He set the foundation for the largest contiguous empire in human history, evoking fear and respect along the way. Genghis Khan and his descendants reshaped political and social institutions across multiple continents, but they also had a massive influence on human genetics.
When looking back through human history, one would be hard-pressed to find an era, civilization, or community that has not been impacted by an infectious disease outbreak. From the bubonic plague to influenza to cholera, epidemics and pandemics the world over have come in many shapes, sizes, and death tolls. But sometimes, the death toll alone doesn’t reflect the true, lasting impact that specific infectious disease outbreaks had on the populations they infected - or those nearby.
Laws should keep us safe, but human silliness and petty bureaucracy often derail the best intentions. For instance, the strangest small-town laws in America prove regulations don't always have to make sense. From protecting elephants in the Deep South to regulating the height of weeds in the Rockies, America's most bizarre state laws confirm the nation's penchant for overreaching Big Brother-ness at the micro level.
The outlandish ideas of one era can eventually become predictions that come true at a later date. Something that was seen as unfathomable, implausible, or even ludicrous at one point can end up as a part of everyday life over the years. Inventors, scientists, and writers of yesterday have weirdly predicted things that people laughed at in their time - only for their predictions to become standard, if not indispensable, for later generations.
Throughout history, great powers have risen and fallen. Some disappear suddenly, while others take decades - if not centuries - to slip into the night. The fall of one order usually provides a vacuum for another to fill, but the immediate transitory period is one of chaos, drama, and intrigue. A major power's collapse in one area can fundamentally change the character of another one thousands of miles away. Alexander the Great's sudden demise dictated the course of the next 300 years of the Hellenic world, while the fall of Constantinople had a huge impact on Moscow. This collection looks at what really went down right after these major powers fell.
Members of the British royal family may have titles, wealth, and privilege, but their romantic lives are very similar to those of regular citizens. Royal relationships are just like any other romantic partnership: they begin when two people meet and connect. Some members of the Windsor family met their significant others through friends; others found their spouse through fortuitous encounters. From Queen Elizabeth II's schoolgirl crush on Prince Philip to Princess Eugenie's Alpine romance, royal meet-cutes can be relatable, surprising, and extraordinary all at once.
A woman slit the throat of her own baby. A soldier shot a sailor on the street in broad daylight. A mother killed three of her children. These crimes were part of a wave of suicide-murders in the 17th and 18th centuries - a wave that swept through much of Europe but was especially common in Denmark. Insane though it may sound, people used to commit murder just so they could get executed. They even researched what crimes incurred the death penalty to guarantee they would die.
You might be surprised by just how many people line up every year to intern for free for their dream funeral home jobs. Seriously. There are tons of people who believe that being a mortician or death industry professional is a calling. But one of the many compelling funeral director facts is just how hard it is to become a funeral director.
Mary, Queen of Scots (AKA Mary Stuart) is one of history’s most disastrous queens. From the time she became an infant monarch to her tragic demise, Mary attracted attention. And she still does. For centuries, novels, television shows (see the CW's Reign for an example), and even songs have reviled and romanticized her. So behind all the legends and mythology surrounding her, what are the important facts about Mary Stuart?
In the trial of the Chicago 7, the leaders of prominent activist groups faced prison time for breaking a new federal anti-riot law. This came after antiwar demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention clashed violently with police. According to the Justice Department, the defendants had crossed state lines intending to start a riot. Who were the Chicago 7? Initially, they were the Chicago 8. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were leaders of the Youth International Party, also known as the Yippies. Thomas Hayden and Rennie Davis represented the Students for a Democratic Society. David Dellinger, a conscientious objector in WWII, led the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Lee Weiner and John Froines were academics. And Bobby Seale was a founding member of the Black Panthers.
The Holodomor was a Soviet state-induced famine in Ukraine between 1932 and 1933. For nearly two years, Joseph Stalin starved Ukraine in the name of feeding the Soviet Union. Literal tons of food went to waste, and millions of Ukrainians died as a result. The Holodomor, or "death by hunger," was a little-known genocide that struck right before the Holocaust. Yet, just like with the Holocaust, there is a disturbing amount of Holodomor denial, even in modern times. Only 16 countries worldwide have formally acknowledged that the tragedy was indeed a genocide, and the US is not one of them. President Barack Obama made a memorial speech in 2016, acknowledging "one of the most horrific man-made tragedies in modern history." The US Senate and Congress have passed resolutions declaring that “Joseph Stalin and those around him committed genocide against the Ukrainians in 1932-1933."
Amsterdam is one of not-so-many places in the world where pleasure work is legal, and the city has worked hard to blend their reputation of tolerance with one of accountability when it comes to pleasure work. However, when it comes to dealing in terms of flesh, regulation is easier said than done, and the history of this district reveals the ups and downs encountered along this controversial road.
As descendants of apes, it can be tempting to think that we humans are the apex of that evolutionary line. We've dominated the planet for thousands of years, and no other species has ever completely transcended the food chain the way we have. There is no doubt that human beings have the most evolved brains of the apes.
Everyone wants to be famous, right? Well, maybe not, and most people would definitely not bury themselves alive for over two months to achieve stardom... but not everyone is Mike Meaney. In 1968, Irishman Mike Meaney decided he would make his dreams of fame come true by breaking the world record for the longest someone has remained buried alive. The Tipperary, Ireland, native based in London was able to stay in his oversized coffin for 61 days - beating the past world record by over two weeks. The kicker? No representative from the Guinness Book of World Records was on-site to see Meaney complete the feat.
Despite its reputation, the Wild West was nowhere near as wild as it's cracked up to be. Statistically speaking, it was more peaceful than some major cities today. The image of the West we get from movies like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and video games like Red Dead Redemption is a sensationalized version of the American frontier. For a more accurate version of the time period, you're better off reading Willa Cather's Prarie Trilogy. But the West wasn't without its risks. Outlaws still looted trains and lawmen still cornered cowboys on the run. While danger wasn't as widespread as we're led to believe, it sure was intense. Quick-draw duels, rattlesnake bites, disease, and the elements all conspired to make the West a tough place to survive. Even sex in the Old West could be precarious.
Archaeology aims to open a window into the past by unearthing artifacts that show exactly how humans' ancestors used to live. But sometimes, experts have discovered archaeological finds that rewrote history. Rather than confirm a commonly held belief (cavemen weren't intelligent!), these finds would upend it (cavemen made art and crafted advanced tools!). More recent historical artifacts that rewrote history have changed the way people think about ancient civilizations and humanity as a whole.
Thomas Edison was one of the greatest inventors of all time - or was he? Most people think Edison was the inventor of the light bulb, but that doesn't seem to be the case, which begs the question, "Who truly invented the light bulb?" There is a lot of contention over famous stolen inventions, and unfortunately it's impossible to not bring up Edison when it comes to the subject.
Unfortunately, most laws aren't put in place until they have to be put in place (i.e., something bad has happened). Usually, an event causes such a public uproar that legislation is nearly forced into having to enact some kind of law. The source of the public outcry can be many different things. It might be a massive tragedy - such as a fire - where hundreds of people perish. It might be a piece of literature that is so graphic, that its readers demand a change to the system. Or it might be the story of an ordinary woman who found a decomposing slug in the bottom of her glass. Regardless of the reason, the following laws were all important in creating the working and living conditions that we're accustomed to today.
The reality of nuclear combat's devastation was clear as soon as the first atomic weapons were dropped during World War II, leading the U.S. government to develop a "doomsday plan" out of perceived necessity. In the Cold War era, the threat of impending nuclear warfare – and the fear it caused in the American citizenship – escalated even further. Politicians played on this fear, and the government began planning for a potential attack. Testing bombs on mock cities in the Nevada desert – constructed to assess potential damage – was only part of the doomsday strategy.
For all of history, humans have enjoyed a good puzzle. Puzzles, codes, and ciphers have been found almost everywhere, from second-century Egypt to the 17th-century letters between King Charles I and Queen Henrietta-Maria. Still today, crossword puzzles, Rubik's cubes, and Sudoku all remain enjoyable ways to pass the time. But not all puzzles are simply meant for fun and leisure. Ciphers and codes are, of course, also a great way to keep a secret, such as where one buried some hidden treasure. A well-crafted code can also inform your own military of certain movements and plans, and without revealing that information to an enemy. Many of the strongest ciphers and codes endured for decades or even centuries before finally being cracked.
Of all the places celebrities partied during Hollywood's Golden Age, one of the most popular was more than four hours north of Tinseltown. Movie stars and others among Hollywood's most famous drinkers often attended parties at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA, owned by publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst. While Hearst's enormous hillside estate may have inspired the somber epic Citizen Kane, what went on behind the walls of the real castle had a more playful and fun tone - at least until Hearst ran out of money.
During the Gilded Age, the mass accumulation of money by families like the Vanderbilts changed the economic, social, and physical landscape of the United States. The Vanderbilt family's wealth grew out of the shipping and railroad industries, both of which were largely monopolized by the the family patriarch, Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, in the late 19th century. His hard work set the foundation for his sons and grandsons to continue making money, but their descendants became less inclined to earn and more likely to spend.
People, trends, norms - they all come and go. As a result, history is full of firsts, lasts, and everything in between. What's innovative one day may be rendered obsolete within a few years, decades, or even longer, while methods of communication continue to change at exponential rates.
Neanderthals remain one of the great mysteries of human evolution. They are the human's closest relatives, but their habits elude us. We are learning more about our hominid cousins every day, but there is still so much we do not know, including the mystery of Neanderthal mating habits, as there is not a lot of evidence to describe what Neanderthal sex would have been like. Thankfully there are new advances in genetic paleontology shining a light on this elusive subject, and the discoveries surrounding ancient human mating rituals continue to develop.
The mysterious story of the Tollund Man continues to fascinate archaeologists and scientists. Found in a bog in the Jutland peninsula in the mid-20th century, the Tollund Man lived during the Iron Age and is believed to have been the victim of a religious sacrifice. While many of the details about the Tollund Man are pure speculation, the combined efforts of Mother Nature and human researchers have led to fascinating new revelations in the decades since he was found.
Anyone who's ever wanted their "15 minutes of fame" has Andy Warhol to thank. Commonly associated with Campbell's Soup cans, pale wigs, and an assortment of strange artists and celebrities working together in a place known as the Factory, Warhol became one of the most famous American artists in history. The Andy Warhol life story is colorful, filled with the drugs, adult pleasure, and creativity that infected the New York art scene of the era. Although many wild tales exist about the Factory and his relationships with celebrities from the 1960s to the 1980s, true stories about Andy Warhol reveal a man who wasn't always in tune with his image.
When an actor dies on set, the project (if ever completed) is an eternal memorial, forever remembered for the unique and shocking tragedy. Below is a list of notable celebrities who died while filming a movie or TV show, from Heath Ledger to Brandon Lee to Marilyn Monroe. The list also includes famous actors killed on set. The untimely deaths of the following actors and actresses occurred either while they were on set, during the middle of filming, or before production was completed on the project. These unexpected and tragic deaths of television and film entertainers were shocking and the celeb's loss was felt all over the world, while there are also other deaths on this list that have even been considered some of the most fascinating unsolved Hollywood murders.
City 40, or what is today known as Ozersk, is a closed city in Russia that the Soviet Union created during the Cold War. City 40 didn't appear on any maps until 1991, allowed no outsiders to enter, and for a long time, no insiders were allowed out. It wasn't until very recently that the Western world has even become aware of Ozersk, and it took a brave documentary crew sneaking cameras through the heavily guarded gates for any footage of the city to escape.
Entelodonts, known colloquially as "Hell Pigs," "Killer Pigs," or "Terminator Pigs," were gigantic, fearsome omnivores known for their massive heads and impressive jaw strength. For 21 million terrifying years, these beasts crushed bones and ran through forests and floodplains all across North America, Asia, and Europe. Entelodonts walked among the other giant prehistoric animals of the Cenozoic Era until they went extinct more than 16 million years ago.
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we know of the wide variety of subjects the FBI keeps files on. Along with the obvious serial killers, terrorists, and embezzlers, the FBI investigates actors, musicians, athletes, comedians, cartoonists, and even a fast food “colonel.” The reasons for said federal surveillance range from the subject receiving death threats to having communist sympathies to possessing giant collections of adult material.
Sometimes misunderstandings happen - and that's normal. But when those misunderstandings or mistakes happen on a global scale between leaders or warring nations, they're not so normal. There have been plenty of historical mix-ups that led to terrible things: death, destruction, and world war. Some crises were averted, others were not. These historical snafus have shaped the way our world works, and have some huge historical consequences.
It's not surprising that a global conflict like World War II generated so many amazing spy stories. Espionage has always been a business marked by deceit, betrayal, and frequently, death. The fate of a captured spy is usually brutal, and even relatively benign entities like the Allies dealt harshly with such individuals. Still, their treatment was relatively kind compared with the Nazis. These stories include heroes and villains, loyalists and traitors, and the greatest WWII spies who were motivated by duty, principle, or just plain money.
No one goes to watch a Michael Bay movie expecting historical accuracy. But the chasm between Pearl Harbor the movie and real Pearl Harbor facts, as shown in photos from December 7, 1941, is clear. The film contains an armada-sized number of errors about the military, including the wrong planes, nuclear-powered subs before the advent of nuclear power, and magical 21st-century radio technology. ....And then there are all the plot holes...
Every amateur historian knows the term "Dark Ages." It conjures up images of political upheaval, filthy living conditions, and widespread ignorance. But were the Dark Ages really dark? Not so much. Throughout the Mediterranean, into Europe and the British Isles, and from the expanse of the Byzantine Empire, the period from roughly 300 CE to about 1500 CE brought plenty of beauty and wisdom to the world.
As a reporter from the BBC once stated, "When [Mount] Everest takes a life, it also keeps it." The number of bodies on Everest grows every year from the climbers who lose their lives on its slopes. Causes of death include hypothermia, exhaustion, lack of oxygen, and falls, among other realities. Once the bodies are frozen, they become attached to the hillside, and on Everest they stay - permanently. One of Everest's most famous residents, Green Boots, who fell victim to the deadliest day in Everest history, resides at a particular location on the mountain where most hikers must pass. As a result, Green Boots on Everest has become one of the landmarks for those heading up the slopes.
It's not surprising that WWII, as a global conflict, is taught differently in different countries. Each nation's education system tends to view the conflict in the context of its own backyard, or in the places where its own soldiers were placed in harm's way. Moreover, nations that history has deemed the "villains" of the conflict (primarily Germany, Italy, and Japan) must reckon with the history in a different way from those who view their part in the struggle as a source of great pride (particularly the US, the UK, and Russia).
King Tutankhamun's importance in life has been eclipsed by his passing - or, more accurately, by his burial. When Howard Carter found King Tut's tomb in 1922, it led to the most substantial find of ancient Egyptian artifacts in history. Carter spent years detailing the contents of King Tut's tomb, removing each item for future research and investigation. The discovery of King Tut's tomb was so important that it continues to influence and shape historical understanding of ancient Egypt, the pharaohs, burial practices, and King Tut himself.
When you hear “super soldier” you probably think about Captain America. But throughout history there have been real-life super soldiers who dedicated their lives to defending their people and convincing 72,000 Ranker voters to support them on today’s super soldier tier list...
Most students have read The Diary of Anne Frank; it's a bestseller and important part of history. Whether it's viewed as a reminder of the Holocaust or as the remarkable writings of a budding literary talent, the story behind Anne Frank's diary is full of controversy, some of which is still unfolding. In 2022, for example, researchers announced they might have discovered who betrayed Anne Frank's family to authorities: Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh. In her diaries, Anne includes facts about her birth in Germany in 1929, details about her family's move to Amsterdam as Hitler came to power, and reflections on hiding with seven other people in a secret annex.
Everyone loves a good mummy, but one of the most fascinating stories about these wrapped legends doesn't have anything to do with the likes of King Tutankhamun or Juanita. One of history's most famous mummies is "Unknown Man E," found at the ancient Egyptian site of Deir el-Bahri. But this, one of the most scary mummies ever found, is better known to the world as the "Screaming Mummy."
The Beatles made history, but they didn't sing about it much. Even when they did, usually it was an oblique reference to a current event – something that for them was contemporary, but which has since gone into the history books. In this way, larger historical currents did make their way into the band's lyrics – albeit often metaphorically, or as quick one-liners. Here's a sampling of the rare and subtle ways the Beatles commented on the world at large, and its past.
While the world collectively held their breath through December 31, 1999, the Y2K hysteria predated the new millennium by decades. Prince was singing about “two thousand, zero zero, party over, oops, out of time” as early as 1982, and preparations for the great unknown of the 2000s intensified throughout the 1990s. In hindsight, it was a new year like any other. Why were people scared of Y2K? To put it simply, it was the sobering realization that we had permanently crossed the threshold into a computerized world, and the possibility of even a brief widespread technological issue could signal the end times.
Numerous battles that took place during the Middle Ages are well known. The Battle of Hastings in 1066, for example, has been studied from nearly every angle. In addition to looking at the details of the conflict itself, historians and the general public continue to assess its influence on culture and politics alike. Many people have the same type of interest in battles fought during the Scottish Wars of Independence, those that took place during the Hundred Years' War, and all kinds of crusading efforts throughout the medieval period. Alongside the best-known battles are numerous little-known skirmishes and conflicts. No less full of carnage and heroism, these fights and their overall impact on life and death during the Middle Ages have been overlooked.
Ironic deaths are the stuff of legend when it comes to the craziest deaths imaginable. For starters, the owner of the Segway died in a Segway accident and a Green Party candidate was killed by an SUV. Some of the most ironic deaths of recent memory have been gathered here on this ironic death list. Ironic deaths are both easy and hard to define; unlike the Alanis Morissette song, there's a little more subtlety to calling a freaky death "ironic." Some of the most tragic deaths in history, however, were true cases of irony and life finding a way to turn death into something simultaneously funny and fascinating. These crazy deaths and stupid deaths feature stories of people who died in ways you might not expect.
The banning of books has long been criticized, yet people still think seem to think that it's a good idea. You'll notice that some of the bans on this list are from within the last five or 10 years even. Yet, some filmmakers decide to fight back to the criticism being thrown at the novel. They'll make films as equally racy, violent, or challenging as the books they're based on, which then often also receive backlash from the same group of folks. However, that group is usually fairly small when compared to the entire world - so most of the films made from the banned books on this list did quite well at the box office.
Throughout its history as an industry, Hollywood has shown a remarkably enduring fondness for the war film. It’s easy to see why, as they often capture the horror and triumph of armed conflict, and the genre allows directors like Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and Christopher Nolan to showcase their talent. Many of the best war films are those that draw on at least some real history to add texture to their stories, whether the focus is on WWI, WWII, Vietnam, or some other conflict. Oftentimes, viewers don't even recognize that the characters in these harrowing stories are based on real people.
Throughout history, quite a few bandits have tiptoed past guards, scaled high walls, and made their way into seemingly inaccessible places. These famous break-ins in heavily fortified locales lead to an important question: Are these venues as safe and secure as they claim?
From the infamous Dr. Death to well-known cases of people choosing assisted self-end, the RTD has sparked controversy for decades. People like Karen Ann Quinlan, Terri Schiavo, and Brittany Maynard made headlines across the country, driving political movements for new laws. In the year after 29-year-old Maynard chose to end her life after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, for example, more than half the states considered DWD acts. The long history of the DWD movement shows how medical technology, individual rights, and morality intersect.
The Elizabethan ruff is easily identified - a large, stiff, upright, usually lace collar that, in all honesty, looks uncomfortable and awkward. The Elizabethan collar that dominated fashion during the late 16th and 17th centuries, however, was an indicator of wealth, prestige, and social status. Ruffs became increasingly large and elaborate as methods to create them advanced. Hours were spent looping, ironing, and starching lace and linen into place. Embroidery, jewels, and precious metals were added to heighten the glamour of the ruff. By the late 16th century, what was once a simple collar had transitioned to become the ultimate display of excess.
Poltergeist is one of the most beloved horror movies in American history. It's also rumored to be cursed. Many of its stars and cast members have met with unfortunate accidents after filming, and some have even died. While it's not the first movie in history to be followed by such rumors, the Poltergeist curse carries more weight because of its unique origins.
Prison is far from pleasant, but things sink to an extra nasty level when prisoners are taken out of the yard and put into solitary confinement. Solitary confinement was originally a form of punishment practiced by Quakers and Calvinists who wanted to afford prisoners the quiet space to evaluate their actions, presumably while praying. Some religious sects, such as the Amish, still use forms of social isolation to punish offending members of their community, and it can wreck the psyche of those ostracized. Still, these practices don't hold a candle to the United States prison system, which takes solitary confinement to an inhumane level.
As soon as mankind learned to shoot, it figured out how to use that power to kill. The history of shooting squads is very long, though the practice is quickly becoming a relic of the past. If you're wondering "when did shooting squads start?" or "how did shooting squads start?", hold your horses, that information is coming, along with a number of other fascinating facts and anecdotes about the history of firing squads. The invention of gunpowder (and the firearms that use it) was the catalyst for firing squads becoming the standard method of execution for militaries across centuries. Many traitors, spies, and war criminals met their end to men with rifles, and are memorialized in the annals of shooting squads in history.
Let’s face it - sometimes history can get in the way of a good movie. And while we don’t fault these films for playing it loose with the facts, sometimes those overlooked details have major historical implications.
We all know that once every four years, Americans go to the polls to vote for a new President. But this technically isn’t true. Americans don’t actually vote directly for a commander in chief; they elect representatives who then decide the next president. Complicated? Sure, and maybe even a little misleading. But this system wasn’t designed on a whim. The Founding Fathers and their fancy wigs had very specific intentions in mind when structuring elections this way.
Being a great artist takes a toll. Maybe you think you have to suffer for your art, or you become consumed by your obsessions. And then there's Pablo Picasso. Great artist? Yes. Difficult life? Most definitely. But he dealt with the pressure of being a great artist by being one of the biggest womanizers this side of the easel.
History is full of supposedly haunted houses such as The Winchester Mystery House, The Amityville Horror House, and the one in Disneyland where those grim ghosts won’t stop grinning. While many of these haunted houses are famous, few boast the evidence of paranormal activity like an unassuming home nestled snugly in northern Indiana.
On Oct. 13, 1972, a plane carrying 45 passengers, including the Old Christians Uruguayan rugby team, crashed in the Andes between Chile and Argentina. The Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 survivors believed they would be rescued within days. They could not have predicted how long their ordeal would last or that they would become famous as the "Andes mountains cannibals." Of the 27 passengers who survived the impact, only 16 returned home alive when they were finally rescued over two months after the crash. In order to survive on an Andes mountainside, the rugby team crash survivors were forced to consume the flesh of fellow passengers who passed away. Their plight has been referred to as the "miracle of the Andes".
Even the weirdest death row last meals make sense, because how do you limit yourself to small fare when you know it's the last food you'll ever eat? Serial killers like Steven Michael Woods order as much food as possible so they can make their last meals count. The prisoners last meals below contain everything from the best cuts of meat to heaps of ice cream. Would you choose a large lavish meal for your final dinner? One of the most expensive meals is likely that of Lawrence Russel Brewer. He order pounds of food, but didn't eat one bite, causing Texas to get rid of the "last meal." One of the more boring meals was Ted Bundy's. What was Ted Bundy's last meal? Well, he simply went with the standard last meal before execution. Robert Dale Conklin, on the other hand, ordered filet mignon, sauteed shrimp, and goat cheese.
Few things are more tragic than a missing persons report remaining unsolved. Families can be left with questions that may not be answered for years, decades, or ever. Such was the case in 1980 when the remains of a John and Jane Doe were discovered in the woods in Harris County, Texas. For over 40 years, the identities of the bodies remained a mystery. DNA evidence recently solved one mystery only to open up several new ones, some of which remain unsolved to this day.
Stephen King didn't earn the title King of Horror by sticking to safe subjects or shying away from taboo characters. Vampires, children being run over by semi trucks, and a girl dispatching bully classmates with her telepathic powers titillated readers and fans, but never elicited outrage on a large scale. Yet the most controversial King book of all time is one he wrote while still a 16-year-old high schooler.
Let's face it, the very act of sex is weird. And gross. And the reason you exist. And the driving force behind the world's technology. Human beings have developed some very strange habits, and it's easy to look at something like, say, nasolingusts (nose lickers) and wonder, simply: why? But the science behind bedroom practices is actually fascinating. The oft-repeated "Rule 34" states that for every action there is an equal and opposite adult version of that somewhere on the internet. If that's so, then Rule 35 states that for every quirk and preference, there is also a team of scientists studying that exact quirk in a lab.
Cannibalism has existed throughout history and, in 2023, we learned about many instances of the practice taking place. While a lot of historical sources that contain such stories are written with bias, those same documents create a very grim look at the past. Often, part of that past includes famine, starvation, and the struggle to survive - all of which can lead to cannibalism. There are also tales of cannibalism for ritualistic purposes or as a result of pure wrath, adding additional layers to the history and myth surrounding the practice. Here are some instances of cannibalism we learned about this year. They left us unsettled and shuddering - and reminded us how troubling history can be. What about you?
Following in the footsteps of one of his biggest heroes, Antarctic explorer Henry Worsley dreamed of crossing the continent completely on his own, but the voyage ended in tragedy. Inspired by the incredibly tough, competitive, and stubborn explorers of the early-1900s, the Worsley Antarctic expedition of 2015 was an attempt to re-create a voyage Ernest Shackleton attempted but never completed 100 years earlier. Unfortunately, Worsley found similar results and met an even grimmer end.
Humanity has endured pretty terrible things in the last 2,000 years, from wars to natural disasters to virulent plagues. But what was the absolute worst time to live in certain countries? Or to put it another way, what events and natural disasters in history should you be glad every day that you didn't have to live through?