There are few hairstyles as distinctive as the Christian monks' tonsure. When you see someone sporting the shaved head with the ring of hair, you know what they're probably doing the rest of their life. Here's the history behind the monks' iconic haircut.
Read More
Legend has it that twin brothers Romulus and Remus founded the city of Rome, per the Ancient History Encyclopedia. Descendants of the mythical founder of Italy, Aeneas, the double-myth twins were the sons of a Vestal Virgin named Rhea Silvia. Some accounts name Hercules as their father ...
Read More
Life often plays the Ygritte to humanity's Jon Snow, and not just because life eventually screws people. Time and time again, life tells even the smartest and most knowledgeable individuals, "You know nothing." Facts are screwy things, after all, and just when you think ...
Read More
From America's founding historical moments, the beard choices of American men reveal deep-seated attitudes about the most basic stuff that makes a civilization tick. So grab a beard comb, and let's dive face first into the bristly, dark depths of the history of the American beard.
Read More
Submerged cities are, by their very nature, baffling to behold, but sometimes these underwater towns are discovered under especially mystifying circumstances.
Read More
Pandemics threaten people's lives and upend their way of life. In what might be described as unnatural selection, the illness enables some companies to thrive, while confronting others with catastrophe, by virtue of whatever goods and services do the most good for people seeking to avoid infection.
Read More
Only a few Jeopardy! contestants have had the juice to become household names. And with that said, the following article gives information on these notable people. Answer: Who are the best players in Jeopardy! history?
Read More
You would be amazed, just amazed, to find out about the improbable origins of colloquialisms, catch phrases, and turns of phrase. Like did you know that "4/20" was invented by some teenagers who liked to get high?
Read More
Bigfoot... Sasquatch... Are these two different mythical creatures or one and the same?
Read More
Maria Henao and late husband Pablo Escobar had drastically different backgrounds. Henao recalls in her memoir, My Life and My Prison With Pablo Escobar, that she "came from an upstanding, traditional family." Escobar not only came from the wrong side of the tracks; he was a runaway train to hell.
Read More
Medellin Cartel founder and Cocaine King of Colombia, Pablo Escobar, was by some accounts the wealthiest criminal in history. But what happened to his money once he died?
Read More
As we've all suddenly realized, your standard Aldi or Fred Meyer is basically a petting zoo for capitalism, with John Public rubbing his meathooks all over your next meal like he's learning new words from Anne Sullivan. It's important to take precautions to avoid germs are the store.
Read More
Marie Antoinette had four children, and despite their royal origins, none of their lives were cake.
Read More
Pope Benedict XVI, elected head of the Catholic Church in 2005, resigned in 2013. He isn't the first pope to do so, but he's the first in about 400 years. Longer than the United States has been in existence.
Read More
"You were right." Surely one of the sweetest sentences in any language. It has to be even sweeter when applied to a theory that is eventually backed up by observable phenomena. Unfortunately, Albert Einstein, perhaps the most influential physicist who ever lived, isn't around to see this one.
Read More
But no matter how grating, exhausting, or awkward your government mandated anti-viral family time gets, it's unlikely that it will ever reach the heights of weirdness achieved by the Ernest Hemingway household in 1926.
Read More
Roughly the size of a small hummingbird, this is the smallest dinosaur ever discovered.
Read More
If you grew up in the United States, you're familiar with a certain elementary school narrative regarding World War II, about how the U.S. triumphantly "ended the war" by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The truth? Well, it's a bit more complex, as usual.
Read More
The Sedlec Ossuary houses chalices, ornate wall ornaments, and even a chandelier that are all built from the bones of more than 40,000 skeletons. About 30,000 of those skeletons belonged to people who succumbed to the Black Death.
Read More
King Tut. The name captures the imagination. Just ask Steve Martin, who did a famous musical number about Tutankhamen for Saturday Night Live. Like a lot of history, though, the details often get lost in the translation ... until science steps in and gives the low-down.
Read More
The mighty Persian Empire was born in the cradle of civilization, ancient Mesopotamia. Also known as the Achaemenid Empire, it emerged as "the world's first superpower" in the 6th century B.C., and under the leadership of King Cyrus the Great, the Persians toppled Babylon, Media, and Lydia ...
Read More
Alexander Hamilton. Brilliant, but also arrogant; witty, but also dismissive; married, and the father of seven, but also a cheater. Consensus is, it's this last part that kept him out of the White House himself.
Read More
Up until the 18th century, Ireland had itself a wolf problem. Their solution: make bigger wolves.
Read More
Alexander Hamilton, many enemies included some of the country's most celebrated Founding Fathers. And from the sound of things, the hate isn't wholly unfounded.
Read More
What does the Liberty Bell sound like? Does it whisper like wind washing over amber waves of grain? Not quite. It seems that American freedom rings in E-flat. Or at least it used to.
Read More
Witness Edward, eldest son of England's King Edward III, born in 1330 and made Prince of Wales a mere 13 years later. At least one legend has it that Edward was known as the Black Prince (though only after his death) because he favored black armor. But the truth may be much darker.
Read More
You may have seen the famous Currier and Ives print depicting the electrifying kite experiment that Benjamin Franklin conducted with his son, William. Did Franklin really discover electricity? You may find the truth shocking.
Read More