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The two nails are believed to be from the tomb of the high priest who handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilate. Israel HershkovitzThe two ancient and corroded nails came from an unmarked box delivered to Tel Aviv University. The new study suggests they came from the tomb of the Jewish high priest Caiaphas. In 1990, excavations of the tomb of high priest Caiaphas, who plotted the killing of Jesus, yielded a stunning find: two Roman-era iron nails....

Most people with her condition develop it after head trauma, but she’s had it since birth. Kennedy News and MediaCairns didn’t realize her condition was abnormal until she brought it up to her mother as a teenager. She’s searched for solutions ever since. Imagine never knowing the sound of silence. That’s what 32-year-old Gemma Cairns goes through every day, as she has an extremely rare medical condition that forces her to hear her own blood course through her veins every waking second....

On March 26, 1997, the Heaven’s Gate cult became forever infamous when 39 members were found dead after committing mass suicide. Here’s why they did it. “Funny and charismatic, an overachiever who was on the honor roll.” That’s how Louise Winant remembered her brother, Marshall Applewhite, who would go on to become the Heaven’s Gate cult leader. None of Applewhite’s loved ones could understand how the man they knew — a friendly jester, a devout Christian, a devoted husband and father of two — could walk away from everything to found a cult....

Though Jesse James was an outlaw, Robert Ford wasn’t immediately hailed as a hero for killing him. Wikimedia Commons Robert Ford posing with the gun he used to kill Jesse James. When Robert Ford pulled the trigger of his six-gun killing Jesse James, he hadn’t killed an outlaw, he had killed a hero. At the time, James was already mythologized as an “American Robin Hood,” while Ford was viewed as a “traitor” who turned on James for a bounty....

While many Americans are taught that the civil rights movement was localized in the South in the 1950s and ’60s, the reality is that the struggle was brutal all over the country. New York Daily News Archive/Getty ImagesPro-segregation members of SPONGE (Society of the Prevention of Negroes Getting Everything) picket CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) workers outside the New York Pavilion at the World’s Fair in 1965. In 1956, U.S. Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia responded to the civil rights movement by rallying against the national desegregation of public schools....

Photo of Hitler hugging a Jewish girl sells at auction, Harvard researcher determines history’s worst year, archaeologists unearth Egyptian cat mummies. A Signed Photo Of Hitler Embracing A Little Jewish Girl Just Sold For Over $11,000 Washington Post/Courtesy of Alexander Historical AuctionsThe photograph of Adolf Hitler and Rosa Bernile Nienau at his retreat in 1933, sold by Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland. Despite the unsavory history of the Nazi regime, artifacts and paraphernalia from this dark era in history always seem to attract interest....

Human footprints dating back 120,000 years uncovered, early Christian texts about demons and wizards translated, secret Knights Templar crypt found. Archaeologists Uncover 120,000-Year-Old Human Footprints In The Desert Of Saudi Arabia Stewart et al., 2020Some of the 120,000-year-old human footprints uncovered at the Alathar archaeological site in Saudi Arabia. Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia just found 120,000-year-old footprints that capture humans as they were evolving into their modern form. At first, experts thought that these prints may have come from Neanderthals, but then found evidence that they instead belonged to taller, lighter hominids believed to be modern humans....

Just a few generations ago, marriage was an eternal bond that lasted through thick and thin — which likely resulted in a lot of unhappy people, but still, the low divorce rate numbers looked good on paper at least. These days, however, a whopping 40 to 50 percent of marriages end in divorce (at least in the U.S.). The most common legal grounds for divorce continues to be “irreconcilable differences,” meaning that no one was especially at fault in any specific for the dissolution of the union....

Even for famous figures like these, these ten weird funerals here are as unexpected, eye-catching, and puzzling as they come. Yamil Lage/Getty ImagesA guard of honour stays by the tomb of Cuban leader Fidel Castro at the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba on December 4, 2016. Fidel Castro — the controversial former ruler of Cuba — was laid to rest on Sunday after a four-day funeral procession across the country....

Eleven days after she reported the sexual assault to police, she was doused with kerosene and set on fire in retaliation. SAZZAD HOSSAIN/AFP/Getty ImagesWomen hold placards and photographs of Nusrat Rafi at a protest in Dhaka, following her murder by being set on fire after she had reported a sexual assault. The death of a young woman in a small town in Bangladesh has grabbed headlines across the world. Nusrat Jahan Rafi was burned to death for reporting the principal of the school she attended after he sexually harassed her....

From who’s holding up the debate to who’s actually profiting from mass shootings, these are the five sobering gun control facts both sides need to stop getting wrong if things are going to improve. It’s hard to know the facts on gun control — and there’s a reason why. In December of 2012, Adam Lanza, armed with a 9mm Sig Sauer pistol, a 10mm Glock pistol, and a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, shot open the door of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut....

Many militaries around the world have a long-standing history of silencing and even banning queer service members, but these fearless soldiers dared to protect their countries anyway. Soldiers are frequently honored for their bravery and sacrifice. But the stories of LGBTQ soldiers are often obscured, dismissed, or swept under the rug. Regardless of how history has treated them, soldiers who identified as members of the LGBTQ community have a long legacy of fighting in wars....

From the world of medicine to the airwaves and the internet, a fascinating look at how some amazing robots will transform the human experience. Source: IEEE After years of waiting, science has begun creating a new world made better by some of these amazing robots: Astonishing Medical Robots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StlOi1YBp-M Robot-assisted surgery has been a reality for a number of years and is becoming increasingly widespread. Enabling surgeons to manipulate tools even more accurately and view the operation magnified many times are strong incentives for its use, remote consultation can even remove the need for the doctor to be physically present....

Million-year-old single-celled organisms have been brought back to life before, but now scientists are bringing back ancient moss — and even a 40,000-year-old worm. The Siberian TimesTwo nematode worms found in Siberia in 2018, after they’d been thawed. The Little Ice Age, which began around 1300 and lasted for hundreds of years, significantly increased the size of the Arctic glaciers. Teardrop Glacier on Canada’s Ellesmere Island, for instance, slowly expanded over the landscape, growing over anything in its way — including a seemingly negligible tuft of moss....

A child singer and dancer, Esther Jones inspired Paramount to create the cartoon character Betty Boop in 1930 — but she never received any credit or royalties. When it comes to “hidden figures” in Black history, few have a legacy as instantly recognizable as Esther Jones. A largely Harlem-based jazz singer known as “Baby Esther” in the early 1900s, Jones became the inspiration for the character of Betty Boop — but never received a penny in compensation....

Jose Monzalvez was preparing to shoot at a herd of elephants in Namibia when one of them broke free and trampled him to death. Daniel Hayduk/AFP/Getty Images Jose Monzalvez was positioning himself to shoot at a herd of elephants when one of the creatures noticed the threat and began to charge. The 46-year-old Argentine hunter was trampled and killed on Saturday during a hunting expedition near Kalkfeld, Namibia, reports the Namibia Press Agency according to the Independent....

Conjoined twins occur in just one out of every 200,000 live births. Progress Studio/Wellcome LibraryDaisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins, being wooed by two young men, 1927. Imagine that everything you had to do was a team effort. That’s a normal life for conjoined twins, who have to decide and execute all their actions together from what to wear and what to eat to what to study and where to work....

The remains belonged to extinct megafauna, including woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, hyenas, and wolves — and have all been dated to be between 30,000 and 60,000 years old. The Sherford Consortium/AC ArchaeologyThis partial woolly rhinoceros mandible remarkably still has several teeth attached. The development of Sherford began in 2015 and appeared rather promising. A new town in Devon, England, it would have 5,500 homes and sit near the bustling port city of Plymouth....

Likely starting with the ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia, flaying has long been one of the most excruciating forms of torture the world has ever seen. Wellcome Library, London/Wikimedia CommonsAn oil painting of Saint Bartholomew’s flaying after converting an Armenian king to Christianity. Throughout recorded history, humans have always shown extraordinary creativity in coming up with increasingly horrific ways to torture and kill each other. None of these methods quite compare, however, to being flayed — or skinned alive....

Former cop Joseph James DeAngelo pleaded guilty in June 2020 and received multiple life sentences, bringing the Golden State Killer trial to an end several decades after the murderer’s bloody reign began. Daniel Kim/Sacramento Bee/Tribune News Service/Getty ImagesJoseph James DeAngelo (right) enters his guilty pleas for 13 counts of first-degree murder on June 29, 2020 during the Golden State Killer trial. After decades of fruitless searching, the Golden State Killer who terrorized California in the 1970s and ’80s was finally caught in 2018....