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Persecuted around the world and still subject to discrimination in modern day Europe, we look into the fascinating history of the Gypsy people. In 1332, a Franciscan monk from Ireland visited the island of Crete. While there, he wrote this description of what he called “the descendants of Cain,” whom he met outside the town of Heraklion: This was the first written account in Western Europe of the people who would come to be known as Gypsies, or Romani....

In a world inundated with color, the unique lack of it makes albinism just as striking – a fascinating look at albino animals. Source: Dusky’s Wonder Site In our colorful world, sometimes the absence of color can be even more striking and eye-catching. Affected by a disorder called albinism, these white animals provide a stark contrast from the colorful habitats in which they live. Yet understanding the difference between true albinos and white animal variations is often difficult....

The thieves say they will only return the 128-year-old stone chair if a historic Confederate association agrees to fly a Black rights banner outside their headquarters. White Lies MatterThe Jefferson Davis chair was presented to the Alabama town of Selma in 1893. Since 1893, a three-foot stone chair memorializing the Confederacy has stood at Confederate Circle in Selma, Alabama’s Old Live Oak Cemetery. Last month, however, it disappeared. The stone chair, which weighs about several hundred pounds, was dedicated to former Confederacy President Jefferson Davis and was first discovered missing sometime between midnight and 3 a....

After the wealthy and prominent Blanche Monnier fell in love with a commoner, her mother did the unthinkable in an attempt to stop it. Wikimedia CommonsBlanche Monnier in her room in 1901, not long after she was discovered. One day in May 1901, the attorney general of Paris received a strange letter declaring that a prominent family in the city was keeping a dirty secret. The note was handwritten and unsigned, but the attorney general was so disturbed by its contents that he decided to investigate immediately....

Before the days of Photoshop, Instagram filters and instant home-editing software, there was little that could be done to adequately convey the energy, mood and spirit of a moment captured in time to its viewer. Enter the Lumiere brothers in 1903 and their invention of autochrome technology (a composite of black and white emulsion passed through a series of red, blue and green filters), and you’re that much closer to showcasing the depth and dimension of subjects immortalized by film....

Unfortunately, this is not the first time scientists have found trash in the deepest part of the ocean. Discovery/Five Deeps ExpeditionA team of scientists performed the deepest manned sea dive in history. The advancement of new technologies continue to push the boundaries of human exploration. They also make us more aware of the disturbing extent of human pollution. According to the BBC, Victor Vescovo descended nearly seven miles to the deepest place in the ocean — the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench....

Sarah Boone claimed it was all an accident — but a horrifying video on her phone proved otherwise. Orange County JailSarah Boone was charged with second-degree murder. A Florida woman was arrested on Tuesday after a bizarre game of hide-and-seek turned fatal. Forty-two-year-old Sarah Boone and her boyfriend Jorge Torres Jr. allegedly agreed it would be funny if he were zipped up in a suitcase. But once inside, Boone left him to die — all while taunting him on video....

A former slave, William Dorsey Swann hosted some of America’s first drag balls in Washington D.C. in the late 1800s — and fought for queer rights long before Stonewall. Born into bondage, William Dorsey Swann was robbed of all prospects for his life and spent years just trying to survive. The African-American slave spent his youth on a Maryland farm in sheer uncertainty until the Civil War came to an end....

After a fire broke out at Madame Delphine LaLaurie’s house in 1834, witnesses discovered a secret torture chamber where she had viciously beaten, starved, and killed countless enslaved people. The home at 1140 Royal Street in New Orleans looks elegant. Sophisticated even. But the story of LaLaurie Mansion — so named for its mistress, Madame Marie Delphine LaLaurie — is one of torture and death. Wikimedia CommonsThough it looks peaceful today, LaLaurie Mansion was once the site of true horrors....

Located deep in the Masurian woods of what was once East Prussia, the Wolf’s Lair housed Adolf Hitler and 2,000 fellow Nazis from 1941 until its destruction in 1945. Deep in the woods of Kętrzyn, Poland, lies the crumbling remains of Adolf Hitler’s secret outpost, the Wolf’s Lair. Built in 1941, the covert complex included 50 bunkers and 70 barracks with two airfields and a railway station nearby. Hitler spent over 850 days at the Wolf’s Lair where he launched increasingly detached war strategies that fostered growing dissent in his regime....

In October 2020, John Eisenman murdered Andrew Sorenson for prostituting his daughter — though police have found no evidence supporting these claims. On Oct. 29, 2021, police in Spokane, Washington arrested John Eisenman for the murder of his daughter’s boyfriend, Andrew Sorenson. And according to Eisenman, he did it because Sorenson had sold his daughter into a sex-trafficking ring in Seattle the year before — though police remain unable to corroborate those claims....

Though only 25-years-old when he died, Manfred von Richthofen downed more than 80 enemy planes in two short years of World War I, which earned him the formidable title of Red Baron. Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, circa 1917. Manfred von Richthofen was World War I’s all-star fighter pilot, known as a “flying ace”. In a time when militaries were beginning to experiment with deploying airplanes as a weapon of war, the fearsome young man stepped up to become one of the best pilots the world had ever seen....

If his own confession before his brutal execution is to be believed, then Peter Niers slaughtered 544 people — 24 of which were pregnant women he killed for their fetuses. The legends of Peter Niers may be lesser-known than those of Vlad the Impaler or Elizabeth Báthory, but they are no less horrifying. It was said that Niers was a master black magician who could render himself invisible, transform into a cat, a dog, or a goat....

For thousands of years, accused criminals were subjected to being pressed or crushed to death, most famously during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Library of CongressIllustration of Giles Corey being pressed to death. If you were sentenced to death by crushing, or getting pressed to death, you were in for an excruciating end. While strapped down, you would have intense weight placed upon you, bit by bit, until the weight literally crushed you to death....

When doctors told Dr. Scott-Morgan that he would be dead by the end of 2019, he was determined to prove them wrong. TwitterThe British roboticist was told he would be dead by the end of 2019. He had other plans. In 2017, Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease (MND). He was told that his muscles would wither away, and that he’d likely die by the end of 2019....

Though some say the “Falling Man” photo of a 9/11 jumper may depict a man named Jonathan Briley, his true identity remains uncertain. Richard Drew/Associated Press“The Falling Man,” the 9/11 jumper — perhaps a man named Jonathan Briley — whose photo remains haunting to this day. At 8:46 AM on September 11, 2001, a Boeing 767 aircraft hit the facade of the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center. Only 16 minutes later, another 767 struck the South Tower....

Starting with its first street gang in the early 1800s and continuing with its most recent mob boss assassination in March 2019, New York’s history of gangs is as gruesome as it is complicated. Public Domain19th-century depiction of the dilapidated Five Points neighborhood. On March 13, 2019, Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, the acting head of the notorious Gambino crime family, was shot and killed by unknown assailants outside of his Staten Island home....

Before the days of saline and silicone, doctors would try inserting pretty much anything. As this horrifying history of breast implants shows, that didn’t always work out. Wikimedia/Linda Bartlett Image. Experts estimate that breast enlargement is currently the second-most popular cosmetic surgery operation around the world, with approximately four percent of women in America endowed with breast implants. There are a couple of caveats in that figure, but when you can get a “temporary” breast enhancement injection that lasts for 24 hours, it really makes one wonder just how we got to this point....

The new guidelines are still being drafted, but the Navy has been outspoken about wanting to learn more about what its pilots have encountered. PixabayA U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier. The UFO phenomenon has mystified, inspired, and confused people for generations. Even U.S. military personnel have claimed to have seen unidentified flying objects during their time in the service, and the sheer amount of data has begun to muddy the waters. That’s why the U....

Mystery human ancestor discovered, Ireland’s most haunted mansion goes on sale, 1,300-year-old shipwreck uncovered. Some Humans Are Descendants Of A Mysterious Ancient Ancestor That Scientists Can’t Identify Smithsonian InstitutionHomo erecctus, a possible candidate for the mysterious human ancestor that scientists recently uncovered. When scientists recently set out to make the ultimate family tree of humankind that goes all the way back to our earliest ancestors, they were shocked to find one missing piece in our genome....