Posts

From his love of cigars to his actual lover, no idea was a bad idea when it came to Fidel Castro assassination attempts. The peaceful death of Fidel Castro was the occasion of many respectful public statements from heads of state and major politicians all over the world. Public figures as prominent as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Gorbachev, Britain’s Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, and America’s President Obama and Hillary Clinton all called the departed “President” Castro “important,” “a major figure,” and – Jeremy Corbyn’s entry – a “champion of social justice....

While most associate wondrous castles with Europe, these beautiful castles in America give the old continent a run for its money. The Biltmore Estate, an 8,000 residence built by George Washington Vanderbilt and one of the most famous castles in America. Most medieval castles were constructed between the 10th and 17th centuries, long before Europeans settled America. Even today, it’s easy to find castles dotting the European landscape, many of them still occupied by families who have lived there for generations....

How the daring 1970s FBI sting known as ABSCAM employed con man Mel Weinberg to take down corrupt politicians. FBISurveillance image capturing ABSCAM in progress as U.S. Representative Michael Myers (second from left) holds an envelope containing $50,000 that he’d just received from undercover FBI agent Anthony Amoroso (left) while Camden, N.J. Mayor Angelo Errichetti (second from right) and con man Mel Weinberg (right) look on. ABSCAM began as an FBI sting operation in 1978 designed to recover stolen pieces of art and track down fraudulent securities....

Archeologists believe that ancient travelers might have stopped to stay at an inn, visit a blacksmith, or even pray in a small temple that all date to the 1st century C.E. Oxford Archaeology/Pen NewsArchaeologists uncovered the service station along an ancient Roman road in Bishop’s Stortford, about 30 miles northeast of London. Modern-day travelers often like to stop to grab a snack and stretch their legs. And, apparently, so did ancient Romans....

Cachoeira Queima-Pé in Brazil supplies fresh water to the nearby city of Tangará da Serra, which has faced severe droughts for the past few years. TwitterThe event was hosted on private property. Extravagant (and disastrous) gender reveal parties have become something of a regular occurrence in the age of social media, but a recent gender reveal gone wrong in Brazil has led to the couple responsible being investigated for an environmental crime....

In February 2009, Charla Nash was viciously mauled by Travis the Chimp, leaving her clinging to life and in need of a full face transplant. MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty ImagesCharla Nash’s new face, post-surgery. On Feb. 16, 2009, Charla Nash visited the home of her longtime friend, Sandra Herold, like she’d done many times before. Unfortunately, the visit was anything but normal. Sandra and her husband, Jerome Herold, had adopted a young chimpanzee named Travis over a decade earlier....

The rats have been part of local legends for years, but their existence was only recently proven. Tyrone LaveryThe giant Solomon Island rat, Uromys Vika The people of the Solomon Islands have long talked about the giant rats that live on the islands. The rats, which they called ‘vika,’ were said to be over a foot long, with teeth sharp enough to break open a coconut. It was said that unlike their city cousins who dwell mostly underground, they lived in the treetops....

“As the mother’s coffin was being raised to the lakkian, suddenly the ladder shifted and collapsed, the coffin fell and hit the victim.” One tragedy turned into two during a funeral on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on June 15. Local man Samen Kondorura, 40, was mourning the loss of his mother, Berta, when he too was killed after her coffin fell on him. In the middle of his mother’s funeral, held in the Parinding valley of the North Toraja district, Kondorura and several other pallbearers were carrying the coffin up a bamboo ladder onto a lakkian, a decorated tower where the deceased are placed in traditional Torajan services before the funeral rites take place....

From 1974 to 1986, the Golden State Killer was a serial killer and rapist who terrorized residents across California — and Joseph James DeAngelo almost got away with it all. The notorious Golden State Killer eluded authorities for more than four decades, but police have finally caught their man. While some would expect a monster in handcuffs, Joseph James DeAngelo was a seemingly ordinary former police officer living near Sacramento until April 2018....

While the murders committed in February 1933 by the Papin sisters’ were appalling, the treatment they experienced as servants by a wealthy French family made intellectuals see their case as a symbol for class struggle. Their names were Christine and Lea Papin and on February 2, 1933, they committed one of the grisliest murders in the history of France. They ripped out the eyes of their victims, rendered their faces unrecognizable, and mutilated their genitals....

After a neighbor named John Favara accidentally ran over Frank Gotti, the middle son of Mafia boss John Gotti, the man vanished forever without a trace. Gallery BooksFrank Gotti was hit by a car driven by John Favara and dragged down the street while pinned beneath it. Young Frank Gotti had no idea what his father did for a living, and presumably didn’t care. The 12-year-old focused on the important things: sports, friends, and palling around in the neighborhood....

Iron Eyes Cody quickly became Hollywood’s go-to actor for Native American roles, but America’s noble “Indian” was of Sicilian descent. As Hollywood’s go-to Native American, Iron Eyes Cody was a common sight in Western movies for nearly 60 years. From starring in his first uncredited roles in the early 1930s, Cody would go on to appear in dozens of celebrated films as America’s beloved sage. His early roles were usually credited as “Indian” or “Indian Chief” and it wasn’t until Iron Eyes played in 1948’s Paleface with Bob Hope and Jane Russell that he was finally given a name for his character, the one which would stick for rest of his film career: Chief Iron Eyes....

Newton was still a student when an outbreak hit London in 1665 — and he became obsessed with the disease. Wikimedia CommonsThe recipe included a toad that had been dead for three days and then turned into powder. English mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton is most famous for discovering the theory of gravity. But a couple of documents show that the 17th-century genius also believed that powdered toad and toad vomit could treat those infected with the bubonic plague....

James Brown reportedly died of heart failure in Atlanta on December 25, 2006. But since then, investigators have suspected that he was actually murdered. James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul,” was one of history’s best showmen. His voice, dance moves, and attitude entranced millions throughout his life and long after his death. But James Brown’s death remains confounding to this day. Officially, Brown died of heart failure in the early hours of December 25, 2006, in the presence of only his personal manager, Charles Bobbit....

Despite his social and cultural advancements, Kublai Khan couldn’t conquer like his grandfather had and his military failures would ultimately usher in the end to the Mongol Dynasty. “Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard.” These were the words of one of history’s most notorious conquerors, the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, and it would be his grandson, Kublai Khan, who would accomplish just that when he successfully established the dynasty that would become the Chinese Empire — for a time, at least....

This past Saturday, it turns out that not one but two men were trying to break the world record for greatest distance paddled while floating in a giant pumpkin. But history doesn’t care about losers and thus the world will only remember Fergus Falls, Minn.’s Rick Swenson, who paddled a record total of 26 miles in a 1,086-pound pumpkin down the Red River from Grand Forks, Minn. to Oslo, Minn. over the course of 13 hours and 40 minutes....

Over the years rumors of sightings have swirled, but scientists are still on the hunt for proof. YouTubeArtists rendering of what the giant sloth-like mapinguari could have looked like. The giant beast reaches at least over seven feet tall on its hind legs, with matted reddish fur and long claws that curl inward as it crawls on all fours. It usually stays low to the ground, but when it stands up, it exposes a gaping mouth on its stomach that is large enough to consume any creature that crosses its path....

We still may not know what killed the Señora of Cao in Peru 1,600 years ago, but we now know what she looked like when she was alive. Ira Block/National Geographic; Fundación Augusto N Wiese No one knows what killed the Señora of Cao nearly 1,600 years ago. But whatever the cause, her untimely passing must have been upsetting to her people, the Moche, who lived on the north coast of Peru between approximately and 100 and 700 C....

“The most sublime letter ever penned by the hand of man” wasn’t written by the person you think. Photo12/UIG via Getty ImagesPresident Arbraham Lincoln with Secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay. Alexander Gardner, 1863. In 1864, Lydia Bixby received a letter signed by President Abraham Lincoln, a copy of which was also published in the Boston Evening Telgraph. The words were meant to comfort Bixby, who had supposedly lost five sons in the Civil War....

A grand jury declined to bring charges against the officers. Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old from Houston, was pulled over for rolling through a stop sign last summer. A few minutes later, female deputy Ronaldine Pierre stuck her fingers in Corley’s vagina on the ground of a gas station parking lot. According to the officer’s dashcam video, Corley was made to lie there, naked from the waist down, for nearly 11 minutes....