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Bethlem Royal Hospital in England was the first facility of its kind to treat people with mental illness — but poor management and funding turned it into a chaotic institution that came to define the word “bedlam.” If you were to visit the Bethlem Royal Hospital circa the 15th century, it would look like a scene out of American Horror Story. As the only institution in Europe that handled society’s “rejects” — namely the mentally or criminally unwell — for the vast majority of European history, Bethlem was severely overcrowded and under supported....

Captain James Cook sailed to expand scientific knowledge — and the British Empire. He is arguably history’s most accomplished navigator, but his voyages were not without controversy. Wikimedia CommonsCaptain James Cook. Born the son of a farmhand, James Cook did not seem destined for adventure, much less fame. However, a fateful voyage to Tahiti to measure an extremely-rare celestial event known as the Transit of Venus led him to become one of history’s greatest explorers and navigators....

In a 1985 interview with The New York Times, Martha Graham said that “To me, the body says what words cannot.” Share Flipboard Email And when the legendary dancer and choreographer got her start, many events seemed to defy articulation. Born in 1894, Martha Graham began working as a choreographer and dancer as the Great Depression cloaked the United States in darkness; as the Spanish Civil War showed that physical force, not moral fortitude, can win the war; as World War II plunged all corners of the globe into a mess of blood and shrapnel....

This week in exploration:Take a journey (almost) to the center of the Earth, Pluto’s planethood might be returning, Antarctic dig reveals 71 million-year-old fossils, and researchers attempt to examine why you hate the word “moist” so much. Live Stream The Mission To The Most Mysterious Place On Earth For the last two weeks, and for two months more, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been exploring perhaps the most uncharted, most mysterious, and most alien place on planet Earth: the Marianas Trench....

However, the opposition might have a greater voice in the Trump administration. Despite conspiracy theorists and certain celebrities stoking the public’s fears about the purported dangers of vaccinations, new research shows that the majority of Americans believe that mandatory childhood vaccines are worth the risk. A new Pew Research Center survey found that 82 percent of Americans support making the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines mandatory for children attending public school....

Roza Shanina racked up 59 Nazi kills in just 10 months on the Eastern Front — and her diary captured it all. Za Rodinu/FlickrRoza Shanina with her sniper rifle. In April 1944, a woman pulled the trigger on her sniper. “I’ve killed a man,” she said as her legs gave way and she slid down into the trench. That first kill marked the beginning of a short but legendary career. By the end of the year, Soviet sniper Roza Shanina was known for her deadly shot and was hailed as the “unseen terror of East Prussia....

A new study probed whether or not male northern map turtles have a preference of larger or smaller female mates. As it turns out, size does matter. S. Dobson/Grégory BultéGrégory Bulté holds up one of the 3D-printed animal decoys his team used to study the animal’s mating behavior. Carleton University ecologists are worried about Canada’s northern map turtles. Though not endangered, they are classified as a “special concern” in Ontario. In order to protect the species, the experts are using 3D-printed turtle “sex dolls” to study the animal’s mating preferences....

The mystery behind the sword found by a young girl in a legendary pool has been solved and it involves an offering to the Gods. Despite being found at the bottom of a famous lake, it turns out the sword found by a young girl in a Cornish lake isn’t actually ‘Excalibur.’ Earlier this week, on a trip to Cornwall, 7-year-old Matilda Jones noticed a sword lying on the bottom of Dozmary Pool while paddling with her father....

The suicide rate among girls ages 15 to 19 more than doubled between 2007 and 2015. In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images Today, more young American women ages 15 to 19 are committing suicide than ever before. According to new data from the National Center for Health Statistics, teenage girls in the U.S. are now committing suicide at a rate of 5.1 deaths per 100,000 girls, the highest rate recorded since they first began keeping track of suicide rates in 1975....

Millennia-old conch shell instrument uncovered, Nazi concentration camp secretary charged, 50-year-old lunar golf ball found. Researchers Just Uncovered A 17,000-Year-Old Musical Instrument — And Then Played It Georges Gobet/AFPThe shell sat in a museum for decades until a recent inventory revealed that it had actually been a musical instrument all along. When researchers first found this conch shell inside a French cave covered with prehistoric wall paintings in 1931, they initially believed it was used as a mere cup....

The craze for animal furniture came from the work of Rowland Ward, who was a talented taxidermist whose work popularized the trend. The Strand Magazine/Babel.HathitrustA tiger chair, a bear dumb waiter, and a baby giraffe chair. When you see a baby elephant, you might think, “Oh, how cute.” But if you were a Victorian, there’s a good chance you would have thought, “Hmm, you know, that would make a great umbrella stand....

From the “Alaskan Avenger” who attacked pedophiles with a hammer to the “Revenge Mother” who fatally shot her daughter’s killer in the middle of his trial, discover some of the most shocking true stories of vigilante justice. In a perfect world, justice would be served for every wrongdoing, especially heinous crimes like rape and murder. But in the real world, many people have felt let down by the law. So, throughout history, a small number of ordinary citizens have made the fateful decision to take the law into their own hands — to varying degrees of “success....

The British author L.P. Hartley once said, “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” If this old adage is true, then when it comes to medicine and health, the past is one underdeveloped nation. Share Flipboard Email The scientific practices of modern medicine only really began at the end of the 18th century. And as medical science has, in the centuries since, continued to progress at faster and faster rates, our medical knowledge has become outdated faster and faster as well....

From the secrets of the Great Wall to the realities of its pollution nightmare, these interesting facts about China reveal how astounding the land of nearly 1.4 billion people truly is. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 6 Astonishing Asian Structures That Boggle The Mind 19 Zombie Mythology Facts To Blow Your Mind 100 Interesting Facts About The World To Blow Your Mind...

Known as “The Summer Of Love,” thousands of young people flocked to San Francisco in 1967 to experience music, free love, and hallucinogenic drugs. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 29 Monterey Pop Festival Photos That Epitomize The “Summer Of Love” The Height Of Hippie Power: 55 Photos Of San Francisco In The 1960s Big Hair And Wild Partying: Step Into The World Of ’80s Hair Metal...

Airbnb’s new policy comes months after a viral TikTok revealed the listing of an “1830s slave cabin” on the platform. TwitterThe Panther Burn House at Belmont Plantation was advertised as a former slave house. In July 2022, a TikTok exposing “an 1830s slave cabin” on Airbnb went viral, prompting a wave of outrage online. Now, just over half a year later, Airbnb said they will no longer allow users to list properties that were once used to house enslaved people....

The octagonal gold ring dates to the third century and is inlaid with a green gemstone that has an image of Jesus as the “good shepherd” carved into it. Israel Antiquities AuthorityThe ring depicts Jesus as the “good shepherd.” Almost two thousand years ago, a powerful storm off the coast of Caesarea in present-day Israel wrecked a ship. Now, archeologists have recovered treasures from that ship’s hull — including a rare gold ring adorned with an early symbol of Jesus Christ....

According to the UK Independence Party, the burka is bad for many reasons — especially for women’s bones. The burqa has seen its fair share of critics over the years, along with recent, successful attempts to ban it outright. Some, in justifying their proposals, cite security concerns or their view that the full-body covering is at odds with liberal democratic values. But this week, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has come up with one of the oddest rationales for banning the burqa yet: Muslim women need their vitamin D....

Source: Daily Mail For some of us, dolls are sinister, nightmare-inducing creatures with distant, glassy eyes that follow us around while they plot our demise in their little doll heads. Maybe these fears stem from a childhood misgiving, like cutting off most of P.J. Sparkle’s hair and dyeing it a magical shade of florescent that can only be achieved with a stolen green highlighter. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but what we ended up with was a deranged, wild-eyed goblin baby that vowed to eat us the next time we succumbed to slumber....

The researchers believe that the two teenagers lived around 2,700 years ago and were found adorned with gold. Zainolla SamashevThe skeletal remains of the teenage boy found in Kazakhstan. The graves and burial mound of two Iron Age teenagers have been excavated in Kazakhstan to reveal a treasure trove of fine items. The team of researchers behind the excavation believe that the two teenagers, one boy and one girl, lived around 2,700 years ago....