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Cora Pearl’s extravagant personality made her popular among France’s 19th-century elite. But that era’s legendary debauchery soon went out of style — and so did she. In 1860s Paris, excess was en vogue — so was Cora Pearl. One of the most sought-after call girls with a black book of aristocratic lovers, Cora Pearl lived a life properly extravagant for the times, steeped in celebrity and infamy. As French writer Alfred Delvau wrote of the courtesan in his book Les Plaisirs de Paris or The Pleasures of Paris, “You are today, Madame, the renown, the preoccupation, the scandal and the toast of Paris....

We take our calendar for granted. We generally act as if it’s fixed, infallible, one with the Sun — a true guide to what time it is. Then, every four years, February 29 comes around to remind us that not only is the calendar simply a fallible human invention, but a pretty clumsy, ultimately inaccurate one at that. From the ten days that vanished from October 1582 to the fact that leap year doesn’t actually happen every four years, this look at the origins of leap year proves time isn’t what we think it is....

Constructed near Prague in the 13th century, Houska Castle has housed mad scientists, Nazis, and perhaps even “demons.” Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: Inside Caerlaverock Castle, The Mighty Fortress That Holds 800 Years Of Scottish History 33 Pictures Of Bellver Castle, Spain’s Majestic Island Fortress Experience The Grand Beauty of Germany’s Hohenzollern Castle, A Mystical Fortress In The Clouds...

Had Georg Elser’s bomb exploded 13 minutes earlier on November 8, 1939, Hitler would have been blown apart in a Munich beer hall just after the start of World War II. Wikimedia CommonsGeorg Elser, Munich. November 7, 1939 When asked by his Gestapo interrogators why he tried to kill Adolf Hitler, Georg Elser replied [PDF]: “The discontent within the working class, which I noticed since 1933, and the suspicion of an imminent war, which I had since fall 1938, was prominently on my mind....

In 1938, a judge, a rabbi, and a Jewish gangster got together and came up with a plan to beat up America’s Nazi sympathizers whenever and wherever they tried to march. Library of CongressThe German American Bund marches down East 86th Street in New York City, the center of the city’s German population. In 1938, American Nazis and their recruiting platform, the German American Bund, posed a very real threat to U....

When the recording was released in the 1950s, Hitler sounded so subdued that many people thought it was fake. Keystone/Getty Images14th October 1944: German dictator Adolf Hitler at various moments during his delivery of a speech. “I know that men are won over less by the written word than by the spoken word,” Adolf Hitler once said, “That every great movement on this earth owes its growth to great orators and not to great writers....

This 33-foot crocodile also had teeth the size of a banana. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology/Tyler StoneAn illustration of Deinosuchus, which actually more closely resembled modern alligators. Researchers have been stunned to find a species of ancient crocodile that measured 30 feet in length, had “teeth the size of bananas,” and preyed on dinosaurs. They’re fittingly calling its genus the “terror crocodile.” According to a study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers actually identified three new species of giant prehistoric crocodiles in 2018 all under the genus Deinosuchus....

“It demonstrates that modern science can really try and tackle some of these mysteries and unsolved questions that we have.” Since the 1930s, when brave mountain climbers returned from their journeys to the Himalayas with stories of the “Abominable Snowman,” the Western world has been obsessed with the legend of the Yeti. However recently, an international team of scientists have conducted DNA analysis of many artifacts purported to be body parts of the Yeti, and have determined that all of them actually belong to several species of bear native to the region, according to their paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B scientific journal....

The maternal mortality rate in the Lonestar State doubled in just two years. Texas has the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths not only in the United States, but in the entire developed world. This startling statistic, reported in a recent University of Maryland study, did little to convince state legislators to pass any laws regarding maternal mortality in the most recent legislative session. While the rest of the world made progress toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of a 75% reduction in maternal mortality by 2015, 48 states and Washington D....

The employee received the first delivery by accident, but never reported it to his superiors and instead profited from the mistake. Fox NewsGilberto Escamilla stole over $1 million worth of fajitas over almost a decade. A Texas man was sentenced on Friday to 50 years in prison, after being convicted of stealing over $1 million worth of fajitas. Gilberto Escamilla, a former juvenile justice department employee, began his heist nine years ago when a shipment of fajitas was delivered to the detention center where he worked....

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love started as a pseudo-religious commune of psychedelic-loving hippies. It soon turned into a collective of California’s most wanted drug traffickers. Dr. Dennis Bogdan/Wikimedia CommonsTimothy Leary, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s most famous member, on a lecture tour. State University of New York at Buffalo. 1969. In 1966, John Griggs was a member of an Anaheim, California gang known as the Street Sweepers when he robbed a Hollywood producer at gunpoint, taking his LSD stash....

Following the Supreme Court’s decision on the 2013 Shelby v. Holder case–which withdrew the requirement that jurisdictions with a history of discrimination against minority voters get approval from the feds before changing voting laws–and the subsequent addition of voter identification laws in many states, it appears that even as we make new leaps toward equality we’re going backward when it comes to voting rights. But that’s nothing new. In the Oxford Companion to American Law, Grant M....

Known to this day for his recording of “Hallelujah,” Jeff Buckley died at just 30 years old when he waded into the Mississippi and drowned on May 29, 1997. David Tonge/Getty ImagesJeff Buckley in Atlanta in 1994 — the year he released his debut album Grace. No one witnessed Jeff Buckley’s death. On May 29, 1997, in Memphis, Tennessee, the singer who is now famous for his rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” waded fully clothed into a channel of the Mississippi River....

Art is one of the most subjective fields in the world: while one person may find a million dollar painting exquisite, another might find it repulsive. Here are some of the most bizarre art works that challenge traditional perceptions of art: Waiting For Prince Charming Some art is a performance, an interaction between viewers and the art itself. At the “Sleeping Beauty” exhibit in Ukraine’s National Art Museum, five women took turns sleeping upon white beds, waiting for Prince Charming’s kiss to rouse them....

Roman gladiator arena uncovered, Ancient Greek island complex found, historic bridge accidentally destroyed. 2,000-Year-Old Roman Gladiator Arena Uncovered In Turkey Ancient OriginsAn arch that comprises a mere fraction of the ancient ruins uncovered in Anavarza. Roman gladiator events so often show up in movies, legends, and the like that it’s sometimes hard to remember that these bloody spectacles actually once happened in real life. And Turkish archaeologists digging in the southern province of Adana’s Dilekkaya village recently came face to face with direct evidence of these violent shows that unfolded centuries ago....

Not only was William Adams the first Englishman to reach Japan, he became an adviser to the shogun and one of the first Westerners to become a samurai. Wikimedia CommonsA statue commemorating William Adams. On April 19, 1600, a ship drifted into the waters near the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. The men on board were a long way from home, and they had suffered terribly to get there. The ship was part of a fleet that had set out from the Netherlands almost two years earlier, only to see ship after ship lost to storms and violent attacks by natives and rival European powers....

Whether we call them witch doctors, shamans, or healers, these mystical men and women understand forces the modern world can’t comprehend. Modern “Witch Doctors”: 25 Photos Of The Widely Misunderstood Practice View Gallery “Witch doctors” are the victims of some truly unfortunate irony: While considered noble healers and guardians who would protect others from witches and general malady, many popularly understand these herbalists as witches themselves – and witches whose medicinal knowledge simply cannot aid others in the slightest....

Believe it or not, the subway was once the height of refinement. Today, New York City’s subway system is in disarray with several breakdowns a week and no improvements in sight. Commuters are miserable and the officials in charge have recently been pointing fingers at each. Share Flipboard Email And what’s one of the biggest sources of all these problems? The answer lies in the antiquated systems that haven’t been updated since the subway’s glory days....

Some of the world’s finest forests cannot be found above ground – a fascinating look at the phenomena of sunken forests. Submerged and sunken forests are a haunting natural occurrence of ages-old trees whose remains are usually buried for thousands of years before being uncovered by changes in sea level, erosion, or climate change. Here are five of the most amazing examples of sunken forests in the world: Source: ARA Tours...

Even though Charlie shot a “gaping hole” through Sonny “Tex” Gilligan’s torso, the man forgave his canine friend, saying, “he’s a good dog.” TwitterSonny “Tex” Gilligan and his dog, Charlie. A New Mexico man was accidentally shot by his own dog while setting out on a hunting trip. Despite sustaining injuries, the 74-year-old man forgives his 120-pound Rottweiler-mix named Charlie for the incident, saying “he’s a good dog.” ABC News reported that the man, 74-year-old Sonny “Tex” Gilligan of Doña Ana County, was on his way to a jackrabbit hunt on Oct....