This Is How Eels Powered The Economy In Medieval England
In England in the Middle Ages, there was one form of payment that stood out from the others: eels. Tenants used eels to pay their rent to English lords.
Read More-
-
What It Was Really Like Being A Teenager During The Civil War
The Civil War was by far the bloodiest conflict on American soil. It was difficult for all Americans, including teenagers of the time.
Read More -
Winchester Mystery House Offers Virtual Tours To Quarantined Horror Fans
On March 12th, the Winchester Mystery house, located in San Jose, California, announced via its website that it would be closing its doors until at least April 7th, citing concerns about the novel coronavirus pandemic. Now the location is open to the public, if only virtually.
Read More -
Why Is Healthcare So Expensive?
Why is it that citizens in the richest country on Earth are charged so much money for not dying that many go broke and even end up living on the streets? Let's take a look at the history and the travesty of American healthcare.
Read More -
What The Park From Class Action Park Looks Like Today
Action Park officially opened on May 26, 1978, and for the first few years it was a huge success. Waves of visitors flocked to what was then the state's first and largest modern waterpark... but it would also become its most dangerous.
Read More -
The Truth Of Benedict Arnold's Death
It's not everybody who gets an entire classification of something named after them. Yet so it is with Benedict Arnold, an otherwise hit-or-miss military commander during the American Revolution who is now well and truly and forever associated with traitors.
Read More -
The Truth About The Real Ivar The Boneless From Vikings
The history of 9th century Vikings is passed down to us today via Old Norse oral tradition, written down long after the campfires died. Did tales get changed? Quite possibly. Over time, things get added, subtracted, multiplied, and even turned into shows on the History Channel, like Vikings.
Read More -
The Truth Behind Cleopatra's Death
History is a murky son of a gun, but most historians agree that Cleopatra died on or around August 12th of 30 BC. It's generally accepted that she killed herself, but firsthand accounts are difficult to come by and the exact method of her demise is up for debate.
Read More -
The Truth About The Most Powerful Volcano Eruption In U.S. History
Photographer Dave Crocket described the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens as "hell on Earth," per My Northwest. One of Washington state's seven mountains, it had sat inactive since 1857...
Read More -
The Truth About The Deepest Hole In The World
Over the course of the 20th century, experts from all over the world have dug, dug, dug in their quest to reach Earth's mantle. This quest for depth has led to all kinds of terrifyingly deep holes punching through the Earth, but the deepest of them all can be found in Murmansk, Russia.
Read More -
The Truth About Sitting Bull's Death
Sitting Bull was a respected spiritual leader who was revered for bravery on the battlefield. He brought Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne tribes together and led a legendary united front against the United States. Here's the truth about his death.
Read More -
The Most Controversial Corporate Mascots In History
Sometimes, mascots can land a company in boiling hot water. From racist controversies to violent incidents, you’ll probably remember these controversial mascots, even if the corporations themselves might prefer that you didn't.
Read More -
The Messed Up Truth About The East India Company
The East India Company is pretty much the poster child of an evil corporation. Just how evil? Well, here's the messed up truth about this notorious organization.
Read More -
The Sometimes Tragic History Of Divorce
The U.S. divorce rate reached a record low in 2019, when only around 15 out of every 1,000 marriages ended in divorce. That was the lowest figure since 1970.
Read More -
How Social Security Would Not Have Existed Without The Great Depression
In the early 1930s, millions of Americans were out of work, and many were struggling to support their families. Unemployment skyrocketed nationally.
Read More -
The Truth About Henry Hill's Death
Henry Hill, the gangster who inspired the book Wiseguy and Ray Liotta's performance in Goodfellas didn't die of lead poisoning, so to speak. His was a much slower passage.
Read More -
The Reason You'd Never Survive Life In Ancient Egypt
Those of us who enjoy the comforts of the modern world would probably be horrified to walk a day in the sandals of the average person in ancient Egypt.
Read More -
The Mysterious Death Of Alfred The Great
Alfred, king of Wessex (the area south of the Thames River in England -- and the Thames is the river that runs through London, so go ahead and check the map), is universally referred to as The Great. But we're not sure how he died.
Read More -
The Legend Of Pecos Bill Explained
Myth and legend often begins with oral history rooted in fact. But Pecos Bill emerged from the typewriter of a former soldier of fortune named Edward O'Reilly.
Read More -
How Much Money Would Nicky Barnes Be Worth Today?
Federal judge and former special narcotics prosecutor Sterling Johnson, Jr, said of Leroy "Nicky" Barnes, "He had charisma. Have you been in the presence of Bill Clinton when he walks down the street? That was Nicky Barnes." Not a great look for Bill, but Barnes was quite the drug dealer.
Read More -
The Most Messed Up Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
Some people think that the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm are as dark as a Friday the 13th movie. Well, most of them aren’t … but some of them definitely are. Here are the most messed up Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
Read More -
The Untold Story Of Heroic Frontier Peace Officer Elfego Baca
All by his lonesome, Elfego Baca took on over 80 outlaws and dodged hundreds of bullets in a clash that lasted more than 33 hours.
Read More -
Why This Is The Most Unusual Flag In The World
While every other nation in the world has a rectangular or square flag, Nepal's flag instead follows a double-pennant design, and has done so for centuries. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, this makes Nepal the only modern country with a non-quadrilateral flag.
Read More -
How Ancient Is The Safety Pin?
The very first pins for clothing showed up around the 14th century BCE. It was called a fibula (plural: fibulae) and was mostly used by the Mycenaeans. The Fashion Institute of Technology explained fibulae functioned like a clasp to fasten garments.
Read More -
How The 1936 Olympics Made Two Countries Realize They Had The Same Flag
At the 1936 Olympics, Haiti competed under its civil flag, a horizontal blue stripe on top of an equal-width red stripe. In contrast, Haiti's national flag includes a coat of arms in the center, per CRW Flags, but the civil flag was more commonly used for non-governmental affairs like the Olympics.
Read More -
These Are The Oldest Human Remains Ever Discovered
In 2017, a team of paleoanthropologists in Morocco made a discovery that would fundamentally alter our understanding of the origin of our species. Their findings, published in Nature, push back the oldest known beginnings of Homo sapiens another 100,000 years.
Read More -
This Is When Mar-A-Lago Was Designated As A National Landmark
The heiress and businesswoman Marjorie Merriweather Post (basically, she built General Foods Corporation) purchased an unkempt patch of palm trees and vegetation off the coast of Palm Beach Island in 1923. Four years later, the brush had been transformed into a million-dollar beachfront property.
Read More
