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In the dead of night, an auxiliary cable meant to last another 15 years inexplicably snapped. The incident created a 100-foot gash in the dish — halting the search for extraterrestrial life. University of Central FloridaThe destructive gash is 100 feet long and has caused officials to temporarily halt the telescope’s operations. The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is home to one of the largest radio telescopes in the world. Essentially a giant ear to the universe, it tracks asteroids and listens for radio signals from other galaxies....

“He was looking for a rich, tough-minded female… someone who could stand up to the trauma of being buried alive.” In the winter of 1968, kidnappers seized college student Barbara Mackle very early in the morning, sealed her in a box underground, and demanded a ransom for her return. Mackle would then wait in silence for over three days until she was rescued. Bettmann/Getty ImagesBarbara Mackle’s ransom note picture. As miraculous as Mackle’s survival was, equally unbelievable was the destiny of her kidnapper....

Bethany Decker was last seen on January 29, 2011, but no one reported her missing for three weeks because someone continued to send messages from her Facebook account. Bethany Decker had a lot on her plate. In addition to her job as a waitress and her studies at George Mason University, she had a young son, a husband deployed in Afghanistan, and an ongoing romance with a co-worker. As such, no one was immediately concerned when Decker fell out of contact at the end of January 2011....

Charles II’s family was so set on keeping the royal bloodline that they put their children at risk just to make sure outsiders stayed outsiders. King Charles (Carlos) II of Spain was the last Habsburg ruler of Spain — and thankfully so. He was tragically ugly through no fault of his own, but due to the desire of his family to maintain their bloodline. Charles II of Spain was born November 6, 1661, and became king in 1665 at the tender young age of four....

He didn’t kill anyone and he’s even claimed he never ordered his followers to kill anyone. Was Charles Manson a murderous mastermind or the mentally ill scapegoat for a group of drug-addled kids who got in way over their heads? In 1973, just four years after Charles Manson and his “family” of followers perpetrated a series of murders that shook Los Angeles to its core, directors Robert Hendrickson and Laurence Merrick released their documentary, Manson....

When Jiang Lin saw the Chinese army murder unarmed civilians, her entire life changed. With the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre rearing its head, she’s decided to speak out. Jiang Lin during a military training exercise in China’s Ningxia region in October, 1988. A former Chinese military insider has broken 30 years of silence surrounding the secret military resistance to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. The 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square were the first time millions of international bystanders paid attention to China’s political landscape....

Disco was about far more than drugs and disco balls. Bill Bernstein/Museum of SexStudio 54. The 1960s and ’70s marked a turbulent time in the United States. The women’s rights movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the gay rights movement were all in full swing. And with those, of course, came the general unrest that always seems to accompany social and political gains for minorities. As activists pushed to challenge and change the status quo across multiple domains, they found common ground in a cultural revolution that had people lining up for blocks just to take part....

“The dogs that accompanied them as they entered this completely new world may have been as much a part of their cultural repertoire as the stone tools they carried.” Ettore Mazza/TwitterNew DNA evidence suggests dogs were domesticated in Siberia as long as 23,000 years ago before traveling to the Americas alongside humans. Dogs have been considered man’s best friend for millennia but when, exactly, did this loyal relationship begin? If a new study led by Durham University’s Dr....

During the murder of Grigori Rasputin on December 30, 1916, his killers poisoned him, shot him, and drowned him — but the “Mad Monk” simply refused to die. The death of Grigori Rasputin, a man who proved to be seemingly unkillable, is one of the most astounding stories in human history. On the night of December 29, 1916, a group of nobles who feared the powerful holy man’s influence with Russia’s royal family summoned him to the home of conspirator Prince Felix Yusupov and began to execute their murderous scheme....

In a city of two million people, two women who shared the name of Mary Morris were murdered within just a few days of each other. Coincidence or is something more sinister at play? On Oct. 12, 2000, bank loan officer Mary Lou Morris left her suburban Houston home and went to work. She never arrived at the office. Her husband tried to contact her all day. By 5 p.m., he had reported the 48-year-old as missing....

As cold-case investigator Paul Holes prepared to retire in March 2018, he secretly tracked down the Golden State Killer who’d been terrorizing California for 40 years. Jose Carlos Fajardo/MediaNews Group/East Bay Times/Getty ImagesPaul Holes nearly knocked on Joseph James DeAngelo’s door to request a DNA sample before his retirement. Paul Holes has become something of a celebrity for his contributions in cracking the Golden State Killer case, which famously remained unsolved for over 40 years until an arrest was made in 2018....

For nearly a century, women’s suffragists battled misogyny, violence, and even each other in their fight to pass the 19th Amendment and win women’s right to vote. On Aug. 18, 1920, American women won the right to vote thanks to the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Though this historic moment is celebrated today, it was a controversial decision at the time. Women’s suffrage had been a century-long struggle — and men had resisted the idea since the early days of the country....

Knowing how to survive a zombie apocalypse is no laughing matter. These facts will give you everything you need to stay alive. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Photo by Jamie Trueblood / Paramount Pictures An impending zombie attack is no laughing matter. In fact, there is a plethora of interesting books and helpful films to allow you survive a zombie apocalypse and provide you with zombie facts. Before you check those out, here are some basic tips for escaping an undead onslaught:...

From being partially scalped to having her eyes gouged out, Kelly Anne Bates was tortured for weeks before James Patterson Smith killed her on April 16, 1996. On April 16, 1996, James Patterson Smith contacted Greater Manchester Police to say that his teenage girlfriend Kelly Anne Bates had accidentally drowned in the tub. Though he claimed he’d tried to resuscitate her, she was dead at the age of just 17....

From 1933 until they were caught in 1942, the Red Orchestra group battled Nazi Germany behind the scenes. Wikimedia CommonsHarro Schulze-Boysen, Arvid Harnack, and Mildred Fish-Harnack were a few famous leaders of the Red Orchestra. When the Nazis began rising to power in the 1930s, many Germans did not try to stop them. But the Red Orchestra was different. The people who joined this secret resistance group — artists, journalists, and government officials — were all determined to take Hitler down....

See the evidence that Chrysippus and other historical figures may have succumbed to death from laughter. Wikimedia CommonsBust of the Greek philosopher Chrysippus, who supposedly fell victim to death from laughter in the third century B.C. Laughter is the best medicine, or so the old adage goes. But, although extremely rare, there have been several documented cases throughout history in which laughter, rather than a cure, was actually a cause of death....

According to a new book, John Wilkes Booth was dating five different women at the time he was shot. Apparently, the expression is true: Everyone loves a bad boy. At least, according to a new book on Abraham Lincoln‘s assassin, it is. John Wilkes Booth and the Women Who Love Him written by E. Lawrence Abel and published on April 8, 2018, chronicles the women (and there were many) who were lovers or intense admirers of John Wilkes Booth....

Captain Lewis Nixon III fought with the 101st Airborne Division’s Easy Company alongside Major Dick Winters in historic clashes like D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. Left: Pinterest; Right: DreamWorksActor Ron Livingston (right) portrayed Lewis Nixon (left, center) in Band of Brothers. Lewis Nixon III has become one of the most storied figures in the Allied invasion of Europe during World War II. A member of the 101st Airborne Division, he parachuted into Nazi-occupied France and joined assaults like the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Market Garden to help thwart the Axis in Europe....

The Marquise de Montespan had the heart of the king, but it was rumored that she’d used black magic to get it. Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, the Marquise de Montespan, had just about everything one could want in 17th-century France. She was mythically beautiful, had a razor-sharp wit, and possessed the love of the king. Theirs was a rococo love of pleasure gardens, drawing rooms, and decadent banquets. Despite all this, it was said that Madame de Montespan wanted more: a seat on the throne....

Kendra Licari was charged with five crimes, including two counts of stalking a minor and obstruction of justice. Isabella County Police DepartmentKendra Gail Licari worked as a basketball coach at her daughter’s school during the period in which she was harassing several teens. A Michigan woman was arrested on December 12 after allegedly catfishing and harassing two teens in a year-long cyberbullying campaign — and one of the teens was her own daughter....