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Joshua Halsey was murdered during the Wilmington Massacre that saw a racist mob of 2,000 white men overthrew the city’s democratically-elected government and kill up to 300 people. Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty ImagesThe new Pine Forest Cemetery grave of Joshua Halsey. Joshua Halsey, a 46-year-old Black laborer in Wilmington, North Carolina, was awoken by his frightened daughter on Nov. 10, 1898. She begged him to flee their home for fear that a mob was coming to kill him....

The study might give millions of cat owners around the world a reason to rejoice, as their pets are not only more attentive than they thought — but literally know their names. StockVaultThe study examined 29 household cats and 19 cats from so-called “cat cafes.” Cats are commonly cherished for their independence. Felines require far less attention than dogs, after all. However, while they seemingly traipse around their owners’ homes without paying attention, experts have just suggested they’re highly observant — and recall the names of their owners and fellow household cats....

“We have seen thousands of amber fossils but the preservation of color in these specimens is extraordinary.” Cai et alScientists have been able to unlock the secret behind the vibrant colors of prehistoric insects using these 99-million-year-old specimens. Although scientists have been able to mine a great deal of information about prehistory from fossils, they are not always able to determine an animal’s coloring. But according to Science Alert, a swarm of prehistoric insects fossilized in amber is showing scientists just how vibrantly colored the world was 99 million years ago....

From abused child to NFL star to murderer, the story of Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez is riddled with bloodshed and tragedy. In 2012, star NFL tight end Aaron Hernandez got engaged, welcomed his first child, caught a touchdown in the Super Bowl, and signed one of the most impressive contracts in league history. The following year, the 23-year-old superstar was arrested for murder and saw his career and his life fall apart instantly....

Clocking in at 882 feet long, the Titanic’s size was unparalleled — but it might have also hastened its demise. Wikimedia CommonsMost know the story of its tragedy, but few know how big the Titanic was. When it set sail in 1912, it was the largest vessel ever built. When it launched in April 1912, the Titanic was deemed the largest ship in the world. The literal behemoth measured 882 feet long and 92 feet wide, with a weight of over 46,000 tons....

In the 1950s, a Japanese woman named Masako Katsura took the billiards world by storm — and made a name for herself in the traditionally male-dominated sport. The Wing/TwitterMasako Katsura was the first woman to compete on the international billiards stage, making her a legend. In 1952, the undisputed king of billiards Willie Hoppe faced an unprecedented opponent: a female player. Masako Katsura had not even been born when Hoppe won the first of his 51 world championships, but she quickly made a name for herself in Japan....

Ilse Koch may not be as famous as the Holocaust’s ringleaders, but she was every bit as evil. Wikimedia CommonsIlse Koch, popularly known as the “The Bitch of Buchenwald.” We’ve written twice before about women who not only survived the Holocaust, but saved the lives of fellow prisoners with their superhuman courage and will to survive. The stories of Gisella Perl and Stanislawa Leszczyńska highlight one vital aspect of human nature: Our ability to persevere and care for others in even the most harrowing and cruel of circumstances....

Kirk Anderson said that Joyce McKinney tied him to a bed for three days and raped him repeatedly. She said that wasn’t possible. What was the truth? One autumn day in 1977, the police in Devon, England, got an unusual call for help. A young member of the Mormon Church claimed that he had just been imprisoned and raped by a woman named Joyce McKinney for three days, chained to a bed, and forced to try to impregnate her....

University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb decided to kill a boy just to prove that they could get away with it. They were wrong. The dream of pulling off the “perfect crime” has long fascinated criminologists. The idea that someone could get away with something without anyone ever catching them seems almost impossible. After all, there would never be any record of anyone getting away with the perfect crime, if it really had been the perfect crime right?...

“This is all crazy,” said the victim. “They never explained anything to me.” Nine years ago, when she was just 12 years old, he raped her. Now, he’s been granted joint custody of the child conceived during that assault. On October 6, The Detroit News reported that Sanilac County, Michigan Circuit Judge Gregory S. Ross had recently awarded joint legal custody and parenting time of the eight-year-old boy to 27-year-old convicted sex offender Christopher Mirasolo....

Discover the heroic life and tragic death of Lakota chief Sitting Bull, one of the most legendary Native American warriors of all time. As Sitting Bull prepared to take on U.S. troops in 1876, he began to dance. On the banks of the Little Bighorn River, the Lakota chief danced for 36 hours, had his arms cut 50 times, and saw a vision of U.S. soldiers falling like grasshoppers from the sky....

Botanist Robert Fortune was commissioned by the East India Trading Company to infiltrate China’s tea industry and topple the country’s monopoly on the beverage. Second only to water, tea is the world’s most popular beverage. But the origin story of tea’s popularity doesn’t go down quite as easily as the drink itself. Eager to meet the market demand both at home and abroad for tea, Britain sabotaged the virtual monopoly China held on tea, opening the beverage to the world, and destroying China’s economy in the process....

During the Christmas Truce of 1914, British and German soldiers sang carols, exchanged gifts, and supposedly even played a soccer game. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix/Getty ImagesBritish officers from Northumberland Hussars meet their German counterparts in No Man’s Land of the Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector of the Western Front during the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914. In the midst of the unrelenting violence of World War I, a cease-fire suddenly swept across vast swathes of the Western front in December of 1914....

“If you strike at them they will all turn on you and devour you and your women and little children,” the Dakota chief warned before the uprising that led to the slaughter. He was right. It was December 6, 1862. On President Abraham Lincoln’s desk lay a list of 303 Dakota people who were accused of everything from rape to murder. These accusations came after Dakota warriors in southern Minnesota took it upon themselves to do something about the starvation and loss of millions of acres of their land caused by white settlers in what’s known as the Dakota Uprising....

From the Russian “Popeye” who was nearly killed by his arm injections to the man who injected himself with magic mushrooms, these are the strangest headlines we saw in 2021. With nearly every corner on Earth bearing traces of human oddity, this year came with such staggeringly weird news stories that we are still scratching our heads about them. From amateur paleontologists discovering 10,000 Jurassic fossils using Google Earth to Russian plans of cloning an ancient army, 2021 was truly a cornucopia of the absurd....

For better or worse, many have posed the question following Trump’s Election Day victory. The 2016 election has left the country exhausted, and the presidency is sure to exhaust 70-year-old Donald Trump even more. Born less than a year after World War II ended, Trump is now the oldest person ever elected president. This has caused many to wonder just what would happen if the president-elect dies between now and the inauguration date of January 20, 2017....

The chainsaw was invented to more safely perform a brutal surgery known as a symphysiotomy on laboring women, during which the birth canal was widened with a hand-cranked, rotating blade. Chainsaws are great for cutting down trees, pruning overgrown bushes, or even carving ice. But the reason why chainsaws were invented might shock you. The answer goes back to the 1800s — and it’s unsettling. Indeed, chainsaws were not invented by inventive landscapers but instead were created by doctors and surgeons....

How did a woman with a tiny cut she didn’t remember getting wind up needing both arms and legs amputated? Deadline NewsMarguerite Henderson Marguerite Henderson had a paper cut so minuscule, she didn’t even remember how she got it. A few days later, Henderson’s family was told she was going to die because of it. Henderson is a 54-year-old woman from Crosshill, Scotland. When she noticed the next day that a paper cut on her finger looked infected, she went to a pharmacist to see if they had anything for it....

Candy Lawson was found guilty of unlawful imprisonment, embezzlement, and adult abuse. Candy Lawson of Corunna, Michigan, was convicted of charges including unlawful imprisonment on Monday, after it was discovered that she’d been keeping her disabled sister locked in a closet for seven years. Authorities claim Lawson kept her adult sister, Diana Churchill, locked in a 4×8 closet in her home for seven years, giving her little access to clothing, water and food, and making her use a bucket as a toilet....

Residents of the small German town first thought that the impact from the self-detonated bomb was from either a meteor or an earthquake. Boris Roessler/picture alliance via Getty ImagesAccording to local experts, the aging bomb self-detonated. At around 4 a.m. this past Sunday, residents of the central German town of Limburg awoke to what they thought was a meteor collision. Indeed, the following day they found a crater measuring 33-feet-wide and deep 13-feet-deep, but local officials were able to confirm that the crater was actually the result of a blast from an unexploded 550-pound bomb dating back to World War II....