The Real Reason Bonnie Parker Had A Limp
Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, infamous thieves and murderers who cut a swath of violent crime across America in the 1930s, had lots of things in common. Including a limp.
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Here's How Much Samuel Colt Was Worth When He Died
From cowboys to bank robbers to noir detectives, those pieces of rapid firing machinery have been omnipresent in the country's culture since the 19th century. And we have one man to thank for that: Samuel Colt, the inventor of the revolver.
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The Reason You'd Never Survive Life In Ancient Rome
The idealized image of Rome often portrayed in movies and TV shows was only known to the empire's richest citizens. For everyone else life was usually short and brutal.
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The Real Winnie The Pooh Almost Fought In WWI
You'd be forgiven for not thinking that Winnie the Pooh (likes honey, dislikes bother) ever brushed up against the horrors of the Great War. But you'd also be incorrect.
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The Biggest Things In The World That Have Mysteriously Vanished
Sometimes, stuff that should logically never be able to disappear will just up and vanish in quantities that are hard to describe. For our purposes, we'll use the quantifiers "a boatload," "a town-full," and "basically the entire wing of a museum."
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What Really Happened To All Of Cleopatra's Siblings
The reign of ancient Egypt's final pharaoh, Cleopatra VII, is one of the most famous sagas in history. However, if you only know the parts of the story involving Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, you're missing out on some delicious family drama that played out between Cleopatra and her siblings.
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Who Are The Descendants Of These Famous Historical Figures?
What’s it like to be related to someone who altered history? Here's how the descendants of famous historical figures feel about their relatives.
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What Life Was Really Like For Women In Ancient Mesopotamia
The first cities in the world began popping up along the arable banks of the Tigris and Euphrates river around 4,500 BCE, creating historic period we now refer to as Mesopotamia. But what was life like for the women of the era?
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The Truth About Cult Leader Jim Jones' Death
On November 19, 1978, a woman named Hyacinth Thrash awoke in her cabin in the Guyanese jungle, and she entered a far darker world than the one she'd known. Over 900 fellow members of the People's Temple had died, including her own sister, after being forced to drink cyanide-infused Flavor-Aid.
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The Infamous Nickname Al Capone Hated
Some nicknames we outgrow; others we don't. And as proof that mobsters are just like the rest of us, Alphonse Gabriel Capone hated at least one of his nicknames: Scarface.
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The Messed Up Truth About Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill is known for WWII, his finest hour. But Churchill also had more than his share of less-than-fine hours. His life was stuffed to the brim with actions, views, and personal habits that were, to put it mildly, problematic. This is the messed up truth about Winston Churchill.
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How Much Radiation Still Exists In Hiroshima?
Contrary to what many expected, the city didn't become a permanent nuclear No Man's Land after the atomic bomb detonation. Here's why.
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The Real Reason Plague Doctors Wore Masks With Beaks
The plague doctors' robes and their masks with the long, birdlike beaks are among the most ominous outfits in history. Sure, they look kind of clumsy and goofy, and the wearer probably can't see very much out of the eye holes, but did they do anything?
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The Only Painting Vincent Van Gogh Sold While He Was Alive
If life imitates art, then Vincent Van Gogh was a portrait of tragedy. Almost all of his success came after his death. Except for this.
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The Real Reason Stephen Hawking Said That Black Holes 'Have No Hair'
Stephen Hawking said that black holes probably evaporate away and eventually vanish over unimaginably long timescales. Cool. But what does this have to do with hair, and whether or not black holes have any?
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What Life Was Really Like For Women In Nazi Germany
If you thought a genocidal regime premised on racial purity and superiority might seek to engender female empowerment, guess again. Racism and sexism go hand-in-hand, and Adolf Hitler was so outrageously racist that his views on women could be summed up as "KKK."
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The Truth About The Hatmaker Who Killed John Wilkes Booth
If John WIlkes Booth met his destiny in Port Royal Virginia, then that destiny was mad as a hatter, and his name was Boston Corbett.
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Unsealed Vatican Archives To Shed Light On 'Hitler's Pope'
Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli, has drawn criticism for his routine failure to condemn the Nazi regime and their atrocities in all but the most roundabout of ways. This has caused many to think that he was a barely closeted Nazi sympathizer. Now, we're going to find out the truth.
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Was Abraham Lincoln Really A Champion Wrestler?
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter can stake its heart out, because the real-life Lincoln kicked more butt than a bajillion brilliant fight scenes.
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The Awful Truth About Tainted Drinking Water In The U.S.
In 2014, Flint, Michigan became the poster city for water contamination. But it's not the only offender.
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The Real Reason Bobby Fischer Never Defended His World Title
Few moments in history are as indicative of how strange the Cold War years were as the saga of American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer and his victory over Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky in 1972. So why did he never defend his title?
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The Brutal Death Of Billy The Kid
Billy the Kid was described as slight, cheerful, funny, charming, and witty. He loved to dance and sing and enjoyed a good joke, while fluent in at least two languages. Oh, and he shot people. Shot them dead. Until the night he was shot dead himself. This is the brutal death of Billy the Kid.
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Secret 17th-Century Corridor Discovered In British House Of Commons
In February 2020, the British Parliament announced the discovery of a secret 17th-century corridor in the House of Commons, thought to have been sealed off during World War II. Here's everything you need to know about the secret 17th-century corridor discovered in British House of Commons.
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What Really Caused The Elephant Man's Disease?
His name was Joseph Merrick, and he had a terrible disease that left him horribly deformed. Nicknamed 'the Elephant Man,' Merrick worked as a sideshow freak, but what caused the disease that gave him so much pain and suffering?
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Was Aladdin Actually Based On A Real Person?
Like much of Disney's output in the '80s and '90s, the tale of a pauper whose fortunes change thanks to a chance encounter with a genie in a lamp was appropriated from a much older fairytale. In Aladdin's case it's a story that researchers think may have a real historical figure at its heart.
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Comparing The Richest People In The World
What do the richest people in the world have in common, aside from owning suits worth more than your life savings? Are all the richest people geniuses? Were they mostly born rich? Here are the stories of the richest people in the world.
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The Truth About Jimmy Hoffa Jr.
Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1941, James Phillip Hoffa has spent most of his life as labor union royalty. He joined the Teamsters on his 18th birthday, and studied law at the University of Michigan. From 1968 to 1993, he worked as a Teamster attorney. Where is he now?
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