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In 1961, Ham made history when he became the first chimp to survive spaceflight. Though he returned to Earth as a celebrity, his training was controversial. NASAHam in his capsule with handler Edward Dittmer. Ham the chimp made history as the first chimp in space on Jan. 31, 1961. Project Mercury, NASA’s first human spaceflight program, hoped to send a man into Earth’s orbit and safely return him. With Ham’s help, it did just over three months later....

Spending more time in nature could yield positive mental health results, but limited access in parts of the world is a significant hurdle. Oleh Slobodeniuk/Getty ImagesFinland has an abundance of forests and nearly 200,000 lakes, providing its people with plenty of natural spaces. Frequently spending time in green spaces like parks and gardens could improve mental health — and help reduce the usage of prescription drugs for conditions such as anxiety, insomnia, and depression, new research suggests....

This prehistoric crocodile likely consumed the small ornithopod shortly before its own death at the hands of an even larger creature some 95 million years ago. Australian Age of DinosaursThe crocodile was dubbed “Confractosuchus sauroktonos,” meaning “broken dinosaur killer.” When paleontologists came across a 95-million-year-old crocodile skeleton in Queensland, Australia, they got more than they bargained for. Not only was the crocodile a previously unknown species, but it also had the remains of a dinosaur in its stomach....

Dr. Maitland Jones Jr. was fired after 82 students at NYU signed a petition claiming that his organic chemistry course was too difficult and he was “condescending and demanding.” Princeton UniversityMaitland Jones Jr. is considered an expert in the field of organic chemistry, but some students took issue with his teaching style. No one said organic chemistry would be easy. But for dozens of students who took Maitland Jones Jr.’s organic chemistry class at New York University in the spring of 2022, the course seemed next to impossible....

Thousands of Allied troops were killed in the D-Day battle of Omaha Beach, when Germany’s brutal defense caught them off-guard. June 6, 1944 — also known as D-Day — was perhaps the single greatest turning point of World War II. It helped ensure the liberation of France from Nazi Germany and propel the Allies to victory in Europe less than a year later. But D-Day also came at a cost: namely, the loss of thousands of soldiers on the shores of Omaha Beach....

Operation Mincemeat allowed British intelligence operatives to trick Hitler into thinking that the Allies were about to invade Greece and not Sicily — leaving the Nazis vulnerable and changing the course of World War II. Public DomainThe fake soldier, William Martin, was actually the corpse of a Welsh drifter named Glyndwr Michael. Photographed, here, however, is M15 agent Ronnie Reed. On a spring day in 1943, the body of a British soldier holding a briefcase full of classified material washed ashore near Huelva, Spain....

From Willie to Johnny, here are 31 incredible photos from the unchained glory days of Outlaw Country. In the early 1970s, a new kind of country music burst onto the scene and began to change the face of popular music forever. Share Flipboard Email “Outlaw country” arose out of a frustration with the slick, stagnant, formulaic Nashville sound that had dominated country music for years. Outlaw artists and listeners instead yearned for a kind of country music that was gritty and real, closer to their own authentic realities than to that of the rhinestone cowboys of the Nashville sound....

Captain Anatoly Botsanenko launched his letter into the Soviet sea in 1969. Fifty years later, an Alaska man found it while looking for firewood. Tyler IvanoffIvanoff was merely looking for firewood when he stumbled upon Botsanenko’s 50-year-old message. Facebook commenters helped him translate the text. When Tyler Ivanoff went searching for firewood about 20 miles west of his home in Shishmaref, a tiny town on a tiny island in northwestern Alaska, he didn’t expect to find much else — let alone a 50-year-old letter perfectly preserved in an old wine bottle....

Sylvester Magee was born a slave, enlisted in the war as a Confederate, defected and fought for the Union, then lived to be 130 years old. Bettmann/Getty ImagesSylvester Magee, a former slave, on his supposed 124th birthday. On Oct. 5, 1971, an old man named Sylvester Magee died. Although he had no birth certificate or any living kin to corroborate his story, he said he was 130 years old. Not only that, he claimed to be the last surviving American slave, the last surviving Union veteran of the Civil War, and also – weirdly – the last surviving Confederate....

People have done some great — and ethnically questionable — things in the name of empire. Early this month, three researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discoveries on parasitic diseases. This December, the winners will receive their award at the official ceremony in Stockholm, where they will join the pantheon of scientific investigators whose discoveries changed countless lives for the better. In the meantime, one historical medical milestone has a backstory worth knowing about: how the smallpox vaccine arrived in America....

“I would bet a lot of these doctors had power reasons for doing this — mental health issues, narcissistic issues — or maybe they were attracted to certain women." PixabayDoctors in a dozen states and several European countries have potentially impregnated women with their own sperm instead of the authorized donor sperm. According to the New York Times, numerous doctors and fertility specialists in the United States and around the world have impregnated women with their own sperm rather than the selected donor sperm during artificial insemination....

Dinosaur blood found inside 99 million-year-old tick, remains of giant prehistoric penguin uncovered, Ancient Egyptian mummy unearthed. Dinosaur Blood Found Inside 99 Million-Year-Old Preserved Tick It’s 99 million years old, well-preserved in amber, and still has its last meal inside it. And for this prehistoric tick, that meal was dinosaur blood. But before your mind starts drifting toward Jurassic Park fantasies, read the report at Nature Communications. Evidence Of Giant Prehistoric Penguins The Size Of Humans Uncovered By Researchers Earlier this week, researchers announced the discovery of remains coming from a giant prehistoric penguin like nothing they’d ever seen before....

The USS Lexington was sunk during a battle with the Japanse Navy during WWII. Now, after missing for 76 years, a team of explorers has discovered it. Discovery of the USS Lexington. The USS Lexington, nicknamed “Lady Lex,” was one of the first U.S aircraft carriers ever built. The carrier was sunk during World War II‘s Battle of the Coral Sea in an intense assault against three Japanese aircraft carriers in May of 1942 and had remained missing ever since....

For hundreds of years throughout the British Isles, mourning families hired sin eaters to “consume” their loved ones’ unconfessed sins by eating a meal they had placed on the chest of the corpse. Funerals in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries in Wales, England, and Scotland sometimes had an unusual guest. A destitute stranger, called a sin eater, came to mourn with the family. But he did more than that....

Of the four eggs, one was already broken upon discovery and two cracked during the retrieval process. The one egg that remains intact is now safely being prepared for public viewing. Oxford ArchaeologyAccording to the archaeologists, the two eggs that cracked open during retrieval emitted a “sulfurous aroma.” Between 2007 and 2016, archaeologists excavated an ancient Roman settlement called Berryfields in central England. According to Smithsonian, the findings included four chicken eggs preserved in a waterlogged pit for 1,700 years — some of which accidentally cracked open....

The enormous, prehistoric beast Elasmotherium sibiricum, known as the “Siberian unicorn”, is now believed to have been alive far more recently than scientists thought. Artist’s rendering of Elasmotherium sibiricum, also known as the “Siberian unicorn.” Quick, look down at your nails or run your fingers through your hair. The essential building block of both, a durable protein called keratin, is the same thing that makes up a unicorn’s horn. Yes, a real one, the “Siberian unicorn” that are now making headlines again....

Andrey Sakharovsky ignored the warnings, climbed into the bear enclosure to feed them from a can of milk, and then had his arm severed close to the shoulder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMgTPaquP1I Most of us have heard the expression “don’t poke the bear,” but one drunken man decided to disregard that wisdom both figuratively and literally. The Siberian Times reports that a drunken Russian man in the Shelekhov district of the Irkutsk region was recently caught on video jumping into the cage of a captive bear....

In 1800, Gabriel Prosser recruited 2,000 people for Gabriel’s Rebellion in Virginia, which was set to be the first large-scale slave revolt after the American Revolution. Public domainGabriel Prosser (1776-1800) struck fear into slave-holding Virginian society when he masterminded a daring plan to topple the young state’s government. Gabriel Prosser was born into slavery in 1776, the same year the United States declared its independence from Britain. Raised on a plantation six miles north of Richmond, Virginia, Prosser grew up in bondage while white Virginians celebrated their liberty....

How the great naval clash at 1942’s Battle of Midway allowed the U.S. and the Allies to eventually beat the Japanese in World War II’s Pacific Theater. WikipediaThe U.S. Carrier Yorktown at the Battle of Midway. By early 1942 the Japanese Empire was racking up victory after victory. After the devastating attack against the American fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japan had gone on to invade southeast Asia, the Philippines, New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies....

For 4,000 years, people in western Mongolia have used eagles to hunt small mammals — though only 10 women still uphold the practice. Leo Thomas/InstagramZamanbol, one of just 10 female eagle hunters left in Mongolia. Deep in the craggy hills of Mongolia’s Altai region live a group of hunters with an extremely rare skill: hunting using golden eagles. For centuries, nomadic tribes of the Altai region have trained their young men and women in the ancient art of golden-eagle hunting....