What It Was Like To Be Marie Antoinette's Child
Marie Antoinette had four children, and despite their royal origins, none of their lives were cake.
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The Real Reason Why Pope Benedict XVI Resigned
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.
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How This Star Just Proved Einstein Was Right
"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.
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Why Ernest Hemingway Was Once Quarantined With His Wife And Mistress
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.
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The Truth About The Smallest Dinosaur Ever Discovered
Roughly the size of a small hummingbird, this is the smallest dinosaur ever discovered.
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Here's How Many People Died During The Bombing Of Hiroshima
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.
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Here's How The Black Plague Finally Ended
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.
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The Truth About King Tut's Health Problems
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.
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We Now Understand Why The Persian Empire Crumbled
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 ...
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The Truth About Alexander Hamilton's Affair
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.
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The Dog Breed That Once Hunted Wolves
Up until the 18th century, Ireland had itself a wolf problem. Their solution: make bigger wolves.
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The Real Reason Alexander Hamilton Had So Many Enemies
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.
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The Real Reason The Liberty Bell Is Cracked
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.
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The Real Reason Edward, Prince Of Wales, Was Known As 'The Black Prince'
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.
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Did Benjamin Franklin Really Discover Electricity?
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.
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We Now Understand Why The Mongol Empire Crumbled
For the better part of the 13th century, the Mongols were a horseback riding cultural and military juggernaut of the Eastern hemisphere. Still, nothing lasts forever, and Genghis Khan's empire, while still famously genetically prevalent, has since crumbled. Here's what happened.
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The Real Reason Nazis Performed Experiments On Twins
In 1937, Doctor Josef Mengele began work at Frankfurt, Germany's Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene. There, he worked under the supervision of hardcore eugenicist Otmar Frieherr von Verschuer, researching the effects of nature versus nurture, specifically focusing on twins.
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The Truth About The World's Poorest President
While a person's integrity isn't inherently defined by their bank account, former Uruguayan head of state Jose Mujica, dubbed "the world's poorest president," governed with a heart of gold.
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The Truth About Queen Elizabeth I's Successor
Elizabeth I had the extremely mixed blessing of being born of the House of Tudor, the reigning royal family of England, which began with Henry VII in 1485. Royalty being what it is, and national elections being what they weren't, succession was always an issue.
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This Was Ray Kroc's Net Worth When He Died
In 1954, the Ray Kroc met Dick and Mac McDonald at their San Bernardino, California restaurant, was impressed by their efficient operation, and became their franchise agent who polished the concept, built the McDonald's restaurant chain ... and became filthy rich.
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What Life Was Like During The 1918 Flu Pandemic
In 1918, children used to skip rope to a rhyme that captured the tenor of the time. Via Stanford University, it went like this: "I had a little bird. Its name was Enza. I opened the window, And in-flu-enza." Unfortunately, Enza flew in through a lot of windows.
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The Tragic History Of Joshua Tree
Joshua Tree National Park's got death, despair, stifling heat, and a dark and sinister past. Joshua Tree is in the Mojave Desert, the only place on Earth where you'll find the giant yucca plants called "Joshua Trees." The park's history is full of tragedy. This is the tragic history of Joshua Tree.
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The Intriguing History Of Why We Wear Pants
How did we as a culture get from wearing tunics, robes, gowns, and togas to cargo shorts and mom jeans? How did pants go from being a sign of barbarism to being one of the only requirements to eat at a Waffle House? And why do we call them pants?
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Wyatt Earp's Best Friend Wasn't Who You Think It Was
"The real story of the Old West can never be told unless Wyatt Earp tells what he knows, and Wyatt will not talk," said perhaps the oldest of those friends, William Barclay "Bat" Masterson.
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The Real Reason Muhammad Ali Changed His Name
Nearly forty years after his final match and four years after his death, the name Muhammad Ali is synonymous with pugilistic excellence. But he wasn't always named Muhammad Ali.
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What It Was Like To Be Henry VIII's Child
What if you were Henry VIII's kid? Would life be all strawberries and high fashion as the child of England's most notorious ladykiller?
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Famous Stores That May Not Survive The Coronavirus
With the rise of the coronavirus, what's left of the mall experience is often shuttered as part of the nation working together to stop the spread. Classic mall stores such as Sears, among others, may not survive the pandemic.
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