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“There was so much going in that time period. People were literally starving to death and meanwhile, someone was bringing this home for their spouse.” Matthews Auction RoomThe dildo is carved out of ivory and comes with its own scarlet-lined case. Sex toy entrepreneur Shawna Scott has had her eye on a very special item for quite some time: an ivory dildo dating back to the 19th century. According to the Irish Times, Scott will finally be able to get her hands on the Victorian sex toy after she won it for $680 at an auction in Ireland....

In 1975, Martha Moxley was found in her own backyard with a golf club sticking out of her neck. A pair of Kennedy nephews were the prime suspects — but their guilt remains hotly debated to this day. The murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley has been one of the most captivating crimes in modern American history, in part because it took 27 years to convict someone of the crime. But it’s also become a notorious note in the nation’s criminal history because that convict was Michael Skakel, a member of “America’s Royal Family,” the Kennedys....

The century-old grenade was still functional and Hong Kong police had to quickly detonate the device in an abandoned alley. Hong Kong Police ForceThe grenade, mid-explosion, in a Hong Kong alley. The automated machinery in a potato chip factory in Hong Kong was unable to process one particular spud on Saturday and overseers quickly realized why: somehow, a German-made World War I hand grenade had found its way into the company’s supply shipments....

Archaeologists are descending into a 30-foot quarry via rope in order to scan the wall with lasers to create highly-detailed, three-dimensional digital models of the carvings. Newcastle UniversityThe phallus was a symbol of good luck to Ancient Romans. Hadrian’s Wall was a barrier constructed by the Romans to protect them from enemy hordes of barbarians. What remains of the structure is millennia old, and the fact it remains to this day is a testament to its structural integrity....

From exorbitant wealth to unspeakable violence, these Al Capone facts reveal a shocking tale of booze, bullets, and blood. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: Karen Friedman Hill: The Wife Of The Infamous ‘Goodfellas’ Gangster How Al Capone Rose From Brooklyn Street Thug To “Public Enemy No. 1” In 44 Pictures 21 Astounding Joseph Stalin Facts Even The History Buffs Don’t Know...

From being weighed against the Bible to being bound and tossed into a river, these witch tests prove how easy it was to be condemned during the era of anti-witch hysteria. Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty ImagesAs anti-witch hysteria took hold of Europe and North America, scores of innocent people were subjected to torturous witch tests. As Europe and North America were gripped by anti-witch hysteria in the 16th and 17th centuries, myriad innocent men, women, and even children were accused of sorcery and subjected to torturous witch tests in order to prove their culpability....

The affected bears don’t respond to clapping or shooing — and in one case, a bear even climbed into someone’s car. Kirsten Macintyre/California Department of Fish and WildlifeA young black bear undergoing a CT scan at UC Davis in 2019 after exhibiting troubling symptoms. For anyone who once loved a teddy bear, the idea of friendly bears in real life might sound enchanting. But scientists in California are concerned a new disease that causes black bears in California to act “dog-like” toward humans....

Known as the “Rotenburg Cannibal,” Armin Meiwes killed and ate a willing victim named Bernd Brandes in 2001 before storing the leftovers for 20 months in a hidden freezer. Armin Meiwes spent much of his youth devouring German fairy tales. He was particularly fond of Hansel and Gretel and its evil witch who abducted two children to fatten them up for slaughter. With a lifelong urge to eat somebody himself, Meiwes found a willing participant online who agreed to have his penis cut off and eaten....

Aum Shinrikyo was founded on the basis of meditation and spiritual guidance, but before long, it was a group determined to jump-start the apocalypse. Wojtek Laski/Getty ImagesShoko Asahara, leader of the cult group Aum Shinrikyo, during a visit to Moscow, Russia, on February 17, 1994. In 1984, the Japanese group Aum Shinrikyo was founded as a simple yoga class. Just 11 years later, it carried out a devastating sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway and made a name for itself as one of the world’s most frightening doomsday cults....

Many have made it their life’s work to address global poverty. Extreme poverty has halved since 1990, but there’s more work to be done. Do you have access to $1.25? If so, how much can it buy you? The World Bank and the United Nations have been asking those very questions for years. Extreme poverty is defined as earning less than $1.25 a day in 2005 prices, increased from the $1 a day originally set forth by the World Bank in 1996, which was still not enough to buy a hot dog combo at Costco....

Christianity will lose its place as the world’s largest religion within 20 years, experts predict. Christianity is currently the largest religion in the world. But given current birth rates, that’s likely to change relatively soon. A new study from the Pew Research Center found that the world’s Muslim population will probably exceed the Christian population in less than 20 years. This prediction is based on more than 2,500 censuses looking at current birth trends, death rates, and the age makeup of today’s religious populations....

A scientist was able to capture a photo of a single atom without the use of a microscope. David Nadlinger/Oxford UniversityThe prize-winning photo of a single atom. Forget everything you know about atoms. Bet that took a while. If there is something about atoms from grade school science class that may have stuck, it’s likely the assertation that atoms are invisible to the naked eye. Well, a recent photo, taken by David Nadlinger, dispells that concept....

The recently uncovered base was used by the Nazi’s as a weather station. Wikipedia / ATI Composite History tells us that the Nazis sought to rule the world — and recent discoveries show that the “world” in question apparently included the Arctic Circle. Indeed, during an expedition to explore the region this August, Russian researchers discovered a secret Nazi base, which the Nazis used during the war as a weather station....

One of only 10 of its kind ever found, this ancient stone marked the spiritual, military, and political boundary of the ancient city of Rome. Stefano Montesi/Corbis/Getty ImagesThe ancient stone at the Ara Pacis Museum on July 16, 2021, in Rome, Italy. Workers performing an excavation for the rerouting of a sewer system just discovered a rare stone marker that marked the city limits of ancient Rome. The discovery was made on June 17 and announced on July 16 at an unveiling at the Ara Pacis museum, near the site where the ancient slab was discovered....

Unofficial answers for the ghost blimp’s missing crew range from an enemy attack to alien abductions. Wikimedia CommonsA World War II Navy Blimp. One of the many dilemmas faced by the Navy following the attack on Pearl Harbor was a shortage of ships available to patrol the West Coast. At a time when the risk from Japanese submarine attacks was very real, the military was forced to bring back some rather outdated technology to patrol the coast: blimps....

The low height of this portion wall and its orderly layout suggest that it was meant to keep the nomadic population under control. Gideon Shelach-Lavi et al/Hebrew University/Antiquity JournalThe research team used unmanned aerial drones to survey the wall and forts seen here. For the first time in history, experts have mapped all of “Genghis Khan’s Wall,” a 458-mile stretch of China’s world-famous Great Wall in Mongolia. According to Fox News, the subsequent study found this fortification wasn’t built to stave off invading hordes after all — but instead to manage nomadic shepherds....

From powerful priestesses to demonic masters of the occult, the history of witches is a story of the dangers of being a woman in a male dominated world. A fearsome being of fairytale and myth, the witch has carved out a home in nearly every culture across the world and time. Indeed, the witch represents the dark side of the female presence: she has power that cannot be controlled. While the witch often conjures depictions of aging, ugly, hook-nosed women hunched over their cauldrons and inflicting toil and trouble on the masses, history tells us that the witch’s origins are far less sinister....

Before burying himself with an army of 8,000 terracotta soldiers, Qin Shi Huang ruled China with a single philosophy: “Burn the books, bury the scholars.” Wikimedia CommonsAn 18th-century imagining of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. In April 1974, Zhao Kangmin, the director of a small public antiquities collection in central China’s Shaanxi province, heard that some nearby villagers might have stumbled upon something interesting. The farmers, digging a well, had unearthed a bunch of disarticulated body parts made of clay....

The World’s Most Incredible Umbrella Designs: Portugal This colorful walkway of umbrellas is an art installation over the streets of Águeda, a small town in Portugal. There is little known about this mysterious installation that appears to mimic the 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. As the sun hits the umbrellas, shadows and colors rain down on the pedestrians below: Source England Dating back to 1931, this miniature umbrella design from England put an end to soggy cigarettes....

Mysterious stone balls unearthed at Neolithic Scottish tomb, 800-year-old Merlin texts translated, Napoleon’s hat containing traces of his DNA goes up for auction. Mysterious Balls Made Of Polished Stone Found Inside 5,500-Year-Old Scottish Tomb Mike LawlorMeasuring in at about three inches in diameter, the balls seem custom built to fit into the palm of an adult’s hand — though experts still have no idea what their exact purpose was. The seaside cairn known as Tresness has sat on the Scottish isle of Orkney since 3500 B....