Topsy was an obedient circus elephant despite the abuse she suffered, but after she finally struck back, she was sentenced to be electrocuted to death on January 4, 1903. Wikimedia CommonsAn illustration of Topsy the elephant. The elephant stopped short. Around her, expectant crowds watched and waited. But Topsy the elephant would not move. It was as if she understood that the humans surrounding her had sentenced her to death. It was Jan....
The lead scientists of Voyager said, “This is an unparalleled journey, and we’re still in the process of discovering what’s out there.” Forty years ago today, the Voyager 1 space probe left Earth for the stars, where it is now the farthest man-made object from Earth. On September 5th, 1977 the Voyager 1 probe was fired into space, just a week after its twin, Voyager 2 had been launched. Their mission was to tour the solar system’s outer planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune....
The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in New York City in 1924. These vintage pictures show just how much the parade has changed since then. Source: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Wiki On Christmas Day in 1924, Macy’s employees rounded up professional bands, extravagant floats and animals from the Central Park Zoo, and marched to Macy’s on 34th Street in the first-ever Macy’s Day Parade. Drawing a crowd of about 250,000 people, the company instantly decided that the parade would be an annual event....
Knickers has become an overnight internet sensation because of his extreme size. TwitterKnickers, the 6-foot-tall cow living in Australia. A massive cow in Australia has sent the internet ablaze over its larger-than-average size, but more than that, the 3,000-lb steer is (according to local butchers) simply too big to be handled at the slaughterhouse. Knickers, the cow fit for a Football field, lives on a farm in the town of Myalup in Western Australia....
People have hung rags in the trees at a “clootie well” near Munlochy for hundreds of years in an ancient healing ritual. Sam Mellish / In Pictures via Getty Images ImagesThe clootie well was filled with offerings in 2018 (pictured) but has since been cleaned. For hundreds of years, a patch of trees on the Black Isle peninsula in Scotland has fluttered with colorful rags. These offerings — which range from socks to face masks — are part of an ancient healing ritual....
How the gang behind the Antwerp diamond heist committed one of history’s biggest thefts and got away with it — almost. The Antwerp Diamond District is one of the most heavily secured places in the world, with billions of dollars of diamonds changing hands there every year. And it was there in 2003 that one gang of thieves pulled off one of the largest diamond heists in history. Even though most of the gang, known as the School of Turin, has since been arrested, the diamonds have never been retrieved....
Three Spanish archaeologists face serious prison time after a government-sponsored commission found that at least 476 artifacts they “discovered” were “manipulated or outright fakes.” ZephyrusExperts found that the crucifixion was created “hundreds of years later than claimed.” When archaeologist Eliseo Gil presented artifacts from the third century A.D. in 2006, the academic world was stunned. Not only did the ancient graffiti on pottery shards he unveiled contain one of the oldest examples of the written Basque language, but the oldest ever depiction of Christ’s crucifixion as well....
The Viking remains, which date to between 1050 and 1300, were buried with both male and female objects, suggesting a highly-regarded member of society with a non-binary gender identity. Veronika PaschenkoA depiction of the Viking warrior as they would have been laid in the grave. In 1968, ditch-diggers in Suontaka, Finland, came across a puzzling mystery. They found a 1,000-year-old skeleton buried in women’s clothing — next to two swords. Archeologists speculated that they’d found a double burial, or perhaps evidence of a woman warrior....
Over the course of two days in April 1977, four teenagers in the idyllic town of Dover, Mass. witnessed a horrifying, alien creature. But before they could find an explanation, the Dover Demon disappeared. Wikimedia Commons A sketch of the alleged cryptid commonly referred to as the Dover Demon, as drawn by William Bartlett. Just 20 miles southwest of Boston, Mass. lies a picturesque hamlet named Dover. But hidden among the hardwood forests and curvy backroads lurks the Dover Demon....
The Inventor of Monopoly Elizabeth Magie designed the game to reveal the dangers of land-grabbing, but we all learned the wrong lesson from it. Wikimedia CommonsElizabeth Magie, the inventor of Monopoly. Circa 1930s. She may be the woman who invented Monopoly, but few know the name Elizabeth Magie today. What’s more, the progressive economic message that inspired the classic board game is now all but forgotten as well. This is the little-known story of the board game that tried to teach us the dangers of land-grabbing but then became something entirely different....
After surrendering to Japanese forces, Frazier was forced to embark on the harrowing 65-mile Bataan Death March in the Philippines when he was just 17-years-old. FacebookGlenn Frazier passed away on Sept. 15, 2018. Glenn Frazier, a celebrated World War II veteran and prisoner of war, passed away on Sept. 16, 2018, at the age of 94. Frazier joined the U.S Army on July 3, 1941 when he was only 16-years-old, and requested that he be stationed in the Philippines....
A man named Harold Schenck filmed the Hindenburg that day in May 1937 with a wind-up camera — and captured an angle that professional cameramen missed. Wikimedia CommonsThe explosion killed 13 passengers, 22 crew members, and one man on the ground. At the 75th-anniversary memorial service for the Hindenburg disaster, aviation historian Dan Grossman was approached by a man in the crowd. Offhandedly, the stranger said he had some footage of the zeppelin explosion....
Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 31 Great Travel Selfies That Prove The Self-Portrait Isn’t Always Obnoxious Meet Mirrors Me, The Woman Who Turns Selfies Into Masterpieces 44 Colorized Portraits That Reveal Historical Figures As They Truly Were 1 of 25American photographer Robert Cornelius in the first-ever photographic portrait of a human, self- or otherwise, 1839....
In the 1960s, Rhode Island built state Route 37 right over nearly 1,000 graves of people who had died at a nearby state institution for the poor, sick, and mentally ill. WPRI/YouTubeThe bodies buried under Rhode Island’s Route 37 were part of a state cemetery for the poor and mentally ill. Tens of thousands of Cranston residents commute to work on Rhode Island’s Route 37 every single day. However, most of them don’t realize that up to 1,000 bodies are buried beneath that highway....
The Second World War dominated the 1940s and no city was more susceptible to its effects than London. The decade opened with the Battle of Britain and the Blitz of 1940-41, during which time Londoners experienced aerial bombing whose severe consequences were felt throughout the city. More than 20,000 Londoners lost their lives and over a million buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged in the ensuing German attacks. The bombings occurred from September 1940 to May 1941, with 57 consecutive days and nights of bombings....
Though he was only serving a four-day sentence and was already halfway through it, Marc Schwartz decided to make a risky break for it. It didn’t pan out like he’d hoped. Fox NewsMarc Schwartz sits in a police car after his recapture. Just two days into his four-day DUI sentence, Marc Schwartz pulled off an escape from the Santa Rosa jail where he was being held. But, the California man’s taste of freedom was short-lived....
Where tattoos are the result of bringing art to the physical body, former tattoo artist Mike Dargas’ current project exists in a separate, yet similar space: transposing the physical body to art. The Cologne, Germany-based Dargas swapped ink for oil paint a few years ago when looking for what he considered to be more challenging work. Citing Salvador Dalí, Michelangelo and H.R. Geiger as influences, Dargas today creates larger-than-life hyperrealistic portraits of men and women in the midst of myriad emotions....
The frilled shark lives between 390 and 4,200 feet below the surface, making live specimens extremely rare to catch. Sic Noticias News The frilled shark caught by the research team. Researchers aboard a Portuguese trawler off the Algarve coast have caught a rare frilled shark, which scientists have dubbed a “living fossil.” According to SIC Notícias, the researchers were working on a European Union project to “minimise unwanted catches in commercial fishing,” when the five-foot-long snake-like fish found its way into their nets....
Niels Högel’s grandmother and father were both nurses. He had a normal childhood. He also began purposefully killing patients just to see if he could resuscitate them. TwitterNiels Högel admitted to 55 of the 85 provable murders, though authorities believe the body count to be as high as 200. Niels Högel chose an admirable profession and dedicated his life to the service of others as a nurse. The downtime between patients, unfortunately, led the German nurse to an unconscionable activity that has just landed him in prison for life....
As FDR’s New Deal worried Wall Street, a cadre of bankers decided to replace him with decorated Marine Corps General Smedley Butler as their fascist dictator. Here’s how they failed. On Nov. 24, 1934, retired General Smedley Butler sat before a closed session of the Congressional Special Committee on Un-American Activities in New York. Though he was a two-time Medal of Honor winner with a once unimpeachable reputation, Butler knew there were already those outlets, like the New York Times, who would call his story a “Gigantic Hoax....
