According to the Bureau of Prisons, Alcatraz as federal penitentiary saw 14 escape attempts, starting in 1936, when Joe Bowers tried to climb a chain link fence. But only one attempt was (possibly) successful.
Read MoreIn the early days of the UFC, the mixed martial arts organization touted itself as boxing's cool uncle, the one who always has beer and won't mention anything to your parents. Rules were lax. Matches would be decided by "knockout, submission, doctor's intervention, or death."
Read MoreEverybody has known that one couple, maybe from high school: They're together, they broke up, they made up, they broke up ... Maybe we kind of expect it with, well, art people. Like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
Read MoreIt takes a pretty singular criminal act for a parole board to deny a person their freedom on the basis of fear for the perpetrator's safety, but that was one of the reasons given when, in the summer of 2018, Mark David Chapman was denied release for the tenth consecutive time.
Read MoreMonarchies being what they are, provisions must be made for who takes over when the present occupant of the throne kicks the royal bucket. The whole megillah gets infinitely more complicated if the monarch in question didn't marry, and had, as part of her public image, the title "Virgin Queen."
Read MoreWhy did John Cena, now ten years deep in an iconic career as the guy you get to cameo when you can't afford The Rock, give up on dropping sick beats? Theories have been floated for years, the most prominent of these being that his debut album, You Can't See Me, was simply too good for the world.
Read MoreIn the musky, firework-singed police lineup of large-scale American business failures, one perp stands head and shoulders above the rest: the XFL, or Xtreme (sigh) Football League, Vince McMahon's collaboration with NBC. Here's why it failed (the first time.)
Read MoreMarrying Henry VIII was the worst thing that could possibly happen to you. After all, the dude was a homicidal monster. So who were the women unlucky enough to be queen of England between the years 1509 and 1547? Well, here’s the tragic truth of Henry VIII’s six wives.
Read MoreIt's easy to blame a cat for bringing bad luck, and we've been doing it forever. But why? How did this superstition arise?
Read MoreIn all of the history of the United States, by 1861 no one had successfully assassinated a president, let alone a president-elect. That included Lincoln -- but that doesn't mean people hadn't tried.
Read MoreHenry VIII, King of England, was by no means the picture of health. By all reports a fairly robust, even athletic, man in his younger days, by the time he died in 1547, age 55, he was probably not what a lot of children wanted to grow up to be. But he did manage to avoid 'sweating sickness.'
Read MoreToday's contestants are the creme de la creme: in the red corner, with a career 56 wins and three acrimonious divorces, we have two-time heavyweight champion of the world Muhammad Ali. In the blue corner, martial arts icon and verifiable Green Hornet BFF Bruce Lee.
Read MoreWheel of Fortune has been around forever, and many have won big. But only one contestant has ever appeared twice.
Read MoreFreddie Mercury was a verbal virtuoso -- one of his many talents. Here are some of his most inspiring, and just plain entertaining quotes.
Read MoreBill Withers, who gave us such classic songs as "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine," was a 32-year-old laid-off factory worker when he got two letters: one from the factory, inviting him back to work, and the other from The Tonight Show, inviting him to appear. He chose correctly.
Read MoreUntil 2005, it was legal to execute juveniles in the United States. As Oyez details, the case of Roper v. Simmons put an end to capital punishment for citizens under 18 years of age. Before 2005? That was a different story.
Read MoreBill Withers, the soulful singer-songwriter who gave us such classic tunes as "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine," died March 30, 2020, at the age of 81. He had been suffering from heart problems, said his son, quoted in the obituary in The New York Times.
Read MoreShe was only 18 when she took an ill-fated bus ride with a fellow student, Alejandro Gómez Arias. Though it would prove life changing, it may well be the reason we know her today.
Read MoreYou know the blonde, spiky hair, you know the sneer. It's Billy Idol, and though the 1980s are long over, he's still around. But what about his money? Is that still here?
Read MoreTsar Nicholas I of Russia is credited with coining the phrase "sick man of Europe" to refer to the declining Ottoman Empire. Though, as documented in The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, Nicholas actually said, "We have a sick man on our hands, a very sick man." How far the mighty had fallen.
Read MoreJohnny Cash started out poor, born in Arkansas as the fourth of seven children (four boys, three girls). As it turns out, losing his a sibling had a profound impact on him.
Read MoreAs The Book of Absinthe describes, the ever-witty Oscar Wilde once said, "After the first glass of absinthe you see things as you wish they were. After the second you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world."
Read MoreThere are precious few statements that all music fans can wholeheartedly agree on, but it's probably fair to say that "Jimi Hendrix was a very good guitarist" is one of them. But would he live long enough to see the fruits of his success?
Read MoreThere are a couple of schools of thought concerning the events which led Chuck Berry to hit Keith Richards so hard that his life Jumpin' Jack Flashed before his eyes. Here they are.
Read MoreThe Doobie Brothers have had a truly glorious and long-lasting career that's made doubly more impressive by the fact that it's been in the highly volatile world of rock 'n' roll. But has it left anything in the musicians' pockets, or has the rock star life left them penniless?
Read MoreJosef Mengele was a breed of monster all his own, a doctor who opted not to heal the sick but instead conducted torturous and often fatal experiments on Jews at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Here's how he died.
Read MoreOnly half of the emperor of China actually died in office. And that's just the beginning. This is the tragic history of Chinese emperors.
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