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“Beer and baseball go together, they have for years. But I think those kids were doing things other than beer.” The dog days of summer, 1979. Baseball, beer, teenagers, and rock and roll. Disco Demolition Night may have made headlines the following the day for the destruction it caused, but considering the circumstances, it couldn’t have been that big of a shock. By 1979, the backlash to disco music’s popularity from rock and roll fans had reached a boiling point....

James Hemings was the first French-trained chef in America — but he was also enslaved by Thomas Jefferson alongside his sister Sally. Jefferson MonticelloIn addition to being one of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves, James Hemings was the first American chef to train in Paris. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson set sail for Paris to serve as the American ambassador to the French court. He brought along an enslaved teenager named James Hemings, the brother of Sally Hemings — who would later have children with the Founding Father....

During the Kentucky Meat Shower Of 1876, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was real life when meat purportedly poured from the heavens. Scientific AmericanOne of the specimens collected after the meat shower. It was a clear, March morning in Bath County, Kentucky in 1876 when meat started falling from the sky. That’s right, meat. “Between 11 and 12 o’clock I was in my yard, not more than forty steps from the house,” a local farmer’s wife named Mrs....

Mary Ann Nichols’ murder in the Whitechapel neighborhood of London on August 31, 1888 sent the city into a panic — but it was just the beginning of Jack the Ripper’s infamous killing spree. Wikimedia CommonsMary Ann Nichols’ body was found on Buck’s Row in the East London neighborhood of Whitechapel around 3:40 a.m. No one heard her scream. But in the early hours of Aug. 31, 1888, police came across the mutilated body of Mary Ann Nichols....

“The fact that we can’t [determine whether it’s wolf or dog] might suggest that it’s from a population that was ancestral to both — to dogs and wolves.” Centre for Palaeogenetics/TwitterScientists have named the 18,000-year-old mummified mutt Dogor, which means “friend” in Yakutian. A recent discovery has left researchers bewildered. An 18,000-year-old mummified corpse of a puppy was found buried under the Siberian permafrost, but analysis of the incredibly well-preserved remains have suggested that the animal is neither dog nor wolf — meaning it could actually be a common ancestor for both....

While burps and farts are certainly contributing factors, they’re only responsible for around 10 percent of the gas output. Cooking and heating appliances are the major culprits here. Wikimedia CommonsSix million people visit Munich for Oktoberfest each year. Nearly 7 million liters of beer are consumed. Nobody knows how to celebrate beer and bratwurst better than the Germans, and Oktoberfest is an annual reminder of that. With more than 6 million visitors traveling to Munich, the 16-day event is also sadly quite the polluter....

Paul Avery was a top reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle reporting on the infamous Zodiac killings. But after making a break in the case, the killer took to tormenting him with letters and cards. KRON-TV/YouTubePaul Avery being interviewed about the Zodiac case in October 1970. Born in Hawaii in 1934, Paul Avery was a reporter from the time he was just 21 years old. From Mississippi to Texas to Alaska to Hawaii, wherever there was a story, Avery would uncover it....

While in prison for avenging her husband in broad daylight, Pupetta Maresca transformed into a sort of Godmother. By the time she was released, she became a full-fledged criminal queen. Most Mafia movies, from The Godfather to Gomorrah, feature hyper-macho men in lead roles. But in real life, organized crime rings also contained lady bosses worthy of any fictional Michael Corleone or real-life John Gotti. Back in 1950s Italy, one woman named Pupetta Maresca earned her stripes as a Camorra boss by killing the man who assassinated her own husband....

Who knew sleep could be so bad? alyssafilmmaker/Flickr Many of us welcome the prospect of sleep. But sometimes our brains don’t let us rest easy. While the occasional bout of insomnia is common, it pales in comparison to these violent and terrifying sleep disorders: Scary Sleep Disorders: Sleep paralysis Imagine waking up, unable to move or speak. You sense a weight on your chest, feel short of breath, and start to panic....

The Craigslist Killer used the classifieds website to solicit his victims. From there, Philip Markoff targeted women who he robbed and assaulted before killing one in 2009. The Craigslist killer, a 23-year-old medical student named Philip Markoff, did not seem like a murderer. He had grown up in a small town in upstate New York in a middle-class household. Friends and classmates would later describe him as serious, well-behaved, and active in extracurricular activities....

Urination is art? Apparently so. A fascinating look at some of the world’s weirdest artwork. Human Body Statues, Dr. Gunther von Hagens German anatomist Dr. Gunther von Hagens has a penchant and pride for turning real human bodies into statues with a technique called “plastination.” By using a volunteer’s dead body and injecting a liquid plastic solution into it to harden and preserve the cadavers entirely, von Hagens creates “timeless” art....

William Still helped some 800 slaves escape to freedom, but his heroism is often overshadowed by Harriet Tubman’s. Swarthmore CollegeWilliam Still was a free-born black abolitionist who was pivotal in rescuing hundreds of black slaves through the Underground Railroad. William Still was known as the “Father of The Underground Railroad,” aiding perhaps 800 fugitive slaves on their journeys to freedom and publishing their first-person accounts of bondage and escape in his 1872 book, The Underground Railroad Records....

Yolanda Saldívar was the president of Selena’s fan club, but after she was fired for embezzlement, she murdered the “Queen of Tejano Music” on March 31, 1995. During the 1990s, Yolanda Saldívar was living every music fan’s dream: She was a trusted friend and confidante of her idol, the Latina superstar Selena Quintanilla. The two first became acquainted after Saldívar founded the singer’s fan club. Saldívar soon became part of Selena’s inner circle, managing both official fan club business as well as the singer’s boutique shops....

Living in the future is pretty good in a lot of ways. We have cellphones, unlimited Internet pornography, and painless dentistry. But there are some ways in which the world hasn’t changed in centuries, and while plenty of progress has been made in some areas, a surprising number of places are still doing things the way they were done when Abraham Lincoln was writing on the back of a shovel. Areas such as ....

These famous inventors don’t actually deserve credit for the inventions that made them famous. Here’s who we should be remembering instead. Image Sources (clockwise from top left): Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons, Michael Jackson Wiki. While the light bulb may be the quintessential human invention — not to mention the very symbol of inspiration itself — the process of invention couldn’t be further from flipping a light switch....

From bloody battles to devastating pandemics, the deadliest days in American history have all left their mark on the United States. What is the deadliest day in American history? It’s a surprisingly challenging question to answer. Since 1790, the U.S. population has risen from four million to more than 330 million. During the deadliest day of the Civil War at the Battle of Antietam, the population was about one-tenth the size it is now....

Abigail Folger was one of the five victims of the Manson Family’s “Tate murders.” YouTubeAbigail Folger was heiress to a massive fortune. Twenty-five-year-old Abigail Anne Folger might never have been at 10050 Cielo Drive at all if not for her boyfriend, Wojciech “Voytek” Frykowski. He was an acquaintance of star-studded film director Roman Polanski’s from back in Poland. But although it was Frykowski who brought Abigail Folger into the Hollywood circle, Folger was already a famous persona in her own right: she was the daughter of Peter Folger, chairman of the Folger Coffee Company, and she was the heir to his fortune....

These surreal photos of alligator farms from the early 20th century capture the heyday of this bizarre trend that swept across the United States. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 1 of 34Alligator pen. Florida. 1948.State Library & Archives of Florida 2 of 34A man pets an alligator. Florida. Date unspecified. State Library & Archives of Florida 3 of 34Woman playacting with alligators....

The cannabis was mixed with animal dung to make it burn more slowly at a lower temperature. Israel MuseumThe shrine at Arad, as rebuilt in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The upper squares show the cannabis and frankincense residues. The oldest known instance of ritualistic cannabis burning has been discovered on a limestone altar in Israel’s Tel Arad shrine. According to Science News, the cannabis was mixed with animal dung to burn at lower temperatures, while the frankincense found on another altar helped with the stench....

Cathy Smith was a groupie who partied with the Stones, The Band, and various Hollywood stars. She was also the woman who gave John Belushi a fatal overdose. Lenore Davis/New York Post Archives /(c) NYP Holdings, Inc. via Getty ImagesCathy Smith and her lawyer at the Plaza Hotel bar in New York City. On March 5, 1982, Cathy Smith was arrested after she attempted to drive the wrong way out the one-way exit of Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont Hotel in John Belushi’s rented red Mercedes....