Mt. Vesuvius erupted in the year 79 AD, wiping out the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii as it spilled an estimated 1.5 million tons of volcano bits into the air per second. Apparently, it also turned one man's brain into glass.
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The Lewis and Clark expedition! A perilous journey! The road was long, the terrain was treacherous. How many of the men on the Lewis and Clark expedition lost their lives so that we, generations later, would have a passable idea of the shape of Montana?
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The story of Lewis and Clark's dog is a timeless one. The fact that they named their dog "Seaman" has aged less gracefully. But did he survive?
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Theologians have been wrestling with this biblical mystery for millennia: why did Old Testament folks live so gosh dang long while we, with all of our scientific advances, struggle to hit the single century mark?
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"In the beginning," the Bible says, "God created the heavens and the Earth." Six days later, we got people, and things mostly got worse. But hold your prehistoric horse ancestors. What about dinosaurs? Where do they fit into the grand design?
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Finalizing the biblical canon took a long time, and quite a few books were left on the cutting room floor. Why? Well, a lot of those books were absolutely bonkers. From talking animals to a murderous Jesus, here are the craziest stories that didn’t make it into the Bible.
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Consider, for a moment, the Gideon Bible. It's the closest you'll get to something you can find in every hotel room without the use of a blacklight. Here is its story.
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The Inca were one of the great civilizations but they're pretty mysterious, too. because they didn't develop a system of writing. That has modern historians scratching their heads, but archaeologists have made major strides in putting together a picture of just how and why the Inca Empire crumbled.
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anuary 2020, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and wife Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, announced that they were distancing themselves from thrones in general, and would work to become "financially independent." But how much are they costing the UK?
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Iconic monarch. Cornerstone of the English Reformation. Dedicated collector of wife heads and employer of potty buddies ... None of these descriptions can do justice to Henry VIII, at least not so well as this one: dude was fat. Here's why.
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Calico Jack. He's well known enough that you've probably heard his name, but the man captained a ship for less than two years, which is around the same amount of time most people work at a sandwich shop after high school. Why did he die so quickly?
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While some Amish use public electricity and drive cars, there are certain circumstances in which the social isolation associated with their lifestyle creates more harm than charm -- like a 2020 study that investigated a spate of largely unexplained deaths that plagued two Amish families.
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Once or twice in a generation, a hero comes along. And not one of them holds a candle to the legacy of Lytle S. Adams, the World War II-era dentist who tried to avenge the attack on Pearl Harbor by giving hand grenades to bats.
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Spokane, Washington Assistant Fire Chief Greg Godfrey named John Orr as "the most prolific arsonist in the history of the United States." But the next-most prolific may be a California utility company responsible for more than 1,500 wildfires.
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"Calico" Jack Rackham remains one of the best remembered pirates from the golden age of sail. With that much clout and swagger, it'd make sense if Jack's modern-day admirers turned his gravesite into a sacred place of skullduggerous pilgrimage. There's only one problem: they'd have to find it first.
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If you've spent time in the "Weird News" section of your favorite news outlet, you may have encountered the mysterious phenomenon known as "the Hum," -- an odd, low-pitched sound that an estimated four percent of all people are able to hear. Now scientists may have solved this mystery.
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Obviously, there's a lot to unpack when it comes to the life of Wyatt Earp, but here are the bare bones facts about where Earp's bare bones were buried.
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You might wonder how it would feel to be Henry's chief advisor. "Bad." That's how it would feel. Because you'd know that you weren't living up to your full potential. If you wanted power, acclaim, and political gravitas in the court of King Henry VIII, there was one job for you. And it was gross.
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As reported by the Telegraph back in 2007, there are still surnames in circulation which might point to one's corsair lineage. Are they a sure sign? Heavens no. The last names listed as particularly pirate-y by the British historical preservation organization English Heritage are as follows:
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One of the weirdest parts of U.S. democracy is the remarkably undemocratic Electoral College. As angry voters will tell you, two of the last three American presidents were elected despite losing the popular vote. Now, 53% of voters support ending this bizarre institution. How did this get started?
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The Holy Bible is probably the most discussed, debated, and argued book in the history of humankind. But which books had the rockiest road to travel on the way to acceptance into biblical canon? Here are the most controversial books that were included in the Bible.
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China, the country with the biggest military in the world at 1.6 million troops, according to Army Technology, has just unearthed a special reinforcement unit. We're talking, of course, about the Terracotta Soldiers.
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Bill Gates is not just a one-percenter -- he's the one literally standing on top of the entire world's money mountain. It's easy to be generous and self-assured when you have the kind of wealth that enables you to do anything, but was Gates as confident back when he was still a young up-and-comer?
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Though he had nearly 1,100 patents to his name, Thomas Edison is most often remembered as a bringer of light. So it's only appropriate that some detractors have practically depicted him as Lucifer with a light bulb filament for a pitchfork. Some even say he electrocuted an elephant to death!
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Despite what "Home on the Range" claims, buffalo don't roam in North America -- that's bison; our national mammal. But much like the fate of Native Americans -- bison have been relegated to a shadow of their former numbers. Here's the truth about America's oldest herd of bison.
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There's a reason that Hetty Green is called the “Witch of Wall Street.” A real-life Scrooge, Green got ridiculously rich and infuriated people with her stingy ways. From her ruthless business skills to her crazy personal life, here’s why she’s known as America’s greatest miser.
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Viewed through a contemporary lens, the friendship between Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle falls somewhere between The Odd Couple and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. At one point, they were BFFs, but over the years, their relationship soured. Here's why.
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