Joni Mitchell, the singer that delicately traces life and love in her songs, has largely retired from the public eye. So much of her life has been documented in songs, but to many, her early life remains a mystery.
Read MoreWhere to begin? In 1906, a sixteen-year-old orphan named Clara Germana Cele confessed to having made a pact with the Devil, in her Catholic mission school uniform. How did that happen, exactly? The details are confusing.
Read MoreWhen it comes to ancient volcanic eruptions, Pompeii may have cornered the public imagination. However, Thira deserves a mention for boasting not one site preserved by volcanism, but two: Akrotiri and Thera.
Read MoreEverybody's familiar with demons. Conceptually, they are more or less universal. But what are their origins in Christianity?
Read MoreAh, Mark McGwire! The second most famous Big Mac in history is one of the greats of baseball, even though his legendary player career is somewhat tainted because of his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Read MoreThe life of a hospital Emergency Room staffer is never dull. And the unexpected can ratchet up the pressure even more. This was the experience of ER staffers at Riverside General Hospital one night in 1994. To this day, the mysterious Toxic Lady, Gloria Ramirez, still has not fully been explained.
Read MoreAt the turn of the 19th century, slaves in the French colonies in Haiti pulled off an unprecedented feat.
Read MoreSometimes, a chance meeting can become the most important event in your life. Occasionally, it can change the world, too. That's what happened when grad student Sergey Brin met Larry Page. The two eventually co-founded Google, now one of the largest and most influential technology companies in the world.
Read MoreVikings has been a truly massive success for the History Channel, and for the show's first four seasons, it was spearheaded by a larger-than-life main character.
Read MoreSolomon Northup's tale is unique because his account of slavery was from the lens of a free man. He was educated, married, and had children before he was stolen and forced into 12 years of cruel bondage. This is what Solomon Northup's 12 years as a slave were really like.
Read MoreA recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests a coincidental explosion at Mount Okmok, a volcano in Alaska, caused the extreme climate that decided the very end of the Republic and birth of the Empire.
Read MoreIn just over thirty years, a staggering 16,000 people have vanished while traversing this largely unexplored wilderness, dubbed the Alaska Triangle.
Read MoreReliable contraceptives are nearly impossible to find in the wild.
Read MoreThe moon; our mysterious celestial cousin. While you probably won't be going there soon, even for a lot of money, it costs nothing to gaze up at it in wonder. You don't even need a fancy, heavy telescope to even see it.
Read MoreOn May 29, 2009, Ozzy Osbourne served Tony Iommi a lawsuit.
Read MoreThe year is 1922... don't get caught wearing this kind of hat.
Read MoreAmericans love talking about free speech. Or, more accurately, they love the idea of free speech ... even if they miss the fine print of the actual Constitution.
Read MoreConsidering Pink Floyd's generally bleak outlook, one might think that a childhood spent in a tent with a refugee father from Nazi Germany who fought in the Spanish Civil War would serve as the basis of a brilliant backstory for one of its members. And for Bob Klose, it was.
Read MoreIn the decades since Secretariat won the Triple crown, many horses have tried to match his performance. However, none of them did it as spectacularly as he did.
Read MoreGrant Imahara would work on some of the most iconic effects pieces of the last three decades. Here are some of the movie robots you never realized he built.
Read MoreIn a Reddit Q&A with fans, Imahara talked about his own preferences for the take-everywhere gadget (well, tool, actually) that was his must-have.
Read MoreIt's not the cherriest of gigs, running the free world. Still, the office is nice, and you get your own bowling alley. Maybe that's why children across the United States dream of the day when they'll grow up to be president.
Read MoreDepeche Mode has always been a group subject to drama as intense as their music.
Read More"When I was a kid, I never wanted to be James Bond. I wanted to be Q, because he was the guy who made all the gadgets," said Grant Imahara. Throughout his career, he did exactly that -- a career which ended with his death on Monday, July 13, of a brain aneurysm. He was just 49 years old.
Read MoreNeil Young and Rick James. You probably don't associate the two music legends with each other. But at one time they made sweet music together.
Read MoreRecollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847-1865, an 1895 book which collects anecdotes from Ward Hill Lamon about his presidential friend, included one particularly odd note about a dream.
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