Posts

These fifteen moving Muhammad Ali quotes, from the profound to the witty, capture how much the pioneering athlete and activist changed the world. On June 3, Muhammad Ali passed away at the age of 74. While Parkinson’s disease spelled a rather sedentary life for the groundbreaking boxer, his early career was nothing short of indefatigable. Black, proud, and powerful, as The New York Times wrote, Ali — née Cassius Clay — refused to play the “emasculating role” of caution and restraint that his white peers demanded of him....

By the middle of the 20th century, a confluence of factors–a rise in supermarkets and pre-packaged food, an advertising boom, a renewed fascination with classical European cooking, extreme growth in the middle class, among others–led to a truly singular culinary milieu. Even today, and even if you didn’t live through it the first time, chances are you can recognize some 1950s and 1960s food that America has now forgotten. While the likes of prune whip, salmon mousse, tuna noodle casserole, fish sticks, and yam ice cream deserve to be left on the culinary scrapheap of history, there are plenty of popular mid-century American dishes that merit a resurgence today....

Bobby Fischer became the World Chess Champion after defeating Soviet Boris Spassky in 1972 — then he descended into madness. In 1972, the U.S. seemed to have found an unlikely weapon in its Cold War struggle against Soviet Russia: a teen chess champion named Bobby Fischer. Though he would be celebrated for decades to come as a chess champ, Bobby Fischer later died in relative obscurity following a descent into mental instability...

Shirell Powell is now suing the hospital for accidentally having her sign off on a stranger’s death. The experience has left her “devastated.” A woman is suing New York’s St. Barnabas Hospital after she gave them permission to withdraw her dying brother’s life support only to realize that she had just signed off on the death of a complete stranger in the worst case of mistaken identity imaginable. 48-year-old Shirell Powell gave her consent to pull the stranger’s plug in July of last year on who she was told was her brother, Frederick Williams....

The portrait of a fictitious, 18th-century man is the first piece of art created by an algorithm to be sold by an auction house. ObviousThe Portrait of Edmond Belamy, created using artificial intelligence. A portrait that was created by an algorithm instead of an artist is currently up for sale and set to fetch a high price at one of the world’s most prestigious auction houses. The artwork up for auction at Christie’s in New York from Oct....

When a 15-year-old girl told her dad that a strange man poked his head under her bathroom stall, a group of fathers made sure the peeping tom couldn’t get away. Spartanburg County Sheriff’s OfficeDouglas Lane was charged with voyeurism, simple possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. On Sunday afternoon, a teenage girl frantically rushed back to her father’s table at a South Carolina Cracker Barrel to tell him that a strange man had poked his head under her bathroom stall to ogle at her....

For a decade-long period of explosive violence, Irish-American mobster Danny Greene terrorized the city of Cleveland with a series of fatal bombings. Danny Greene, the Ohio mobster known as the “Irishman,” liked to attribute his precarious survival to the luck of the Irish. He rose to power in the Cleveland organized crime syndicate with his ruthless reputation as a fighter and later as a bomber. Until one day, Danny Greene’s luck ran out as he had made one enemy too many....

With bobbed hair and short skirts, the hard-drinking flappers of the 1920s definied the Jazz Age — and changed American culture forever. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 36 Johnny Cash Photos That Show The Icon In Action “The Modern Young Girl Is A Delight”: Flapper Fashion Of The Jazz Age Lee Morgan Was One Of Jazz’s Biggest Stars — Until His Wife Shot Him In The Middle Of A Show...

Galvarino was heralded as a fearsome warrior, though it probably had something to do with the sharpened knives secured to the ends of his arms where his hands used to be. Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of Galvarino just after the Spanish cut off his hands. Galvarino was the Mapuche’s version of William Wallace. A chieftain and warrior, Galvarino sought to free his people from Spanish domination in the mid-1500s. The Mapuche inhabited present-day Chile and much of Argentina in the 1500s when the Spanish conquered the Incas with their superior forces and firepower....

Though it was supposed to resemble a dove, the church ended up looking more like a chicken. Wikimedia CommonsThe Gereja Ayam Chicken Church on the mountain. Daniel Alamsjah’s wife is from the Magelang area on the island of Java, Indonesia. It’s an area that Alamsjah had visited before, and they, for the most part, had been unremarkable trips. But one night, working hundreds of miles away in Jakarta in 1989, Alamsjah received a vision: a dove resting on top of a hill, and a voice clearly telling him to build a house of prayer for all people to come and worship in the hills near Magelang....

Many Americans know the Hatfields and McCoys infamously didn’t like each other, but just how bad was the animosity between these two families on the West Virginia-Kentucky border? In December 1864, Asa Harmon McCoy left the Union Army and returned to his home in Kentucky. Just 13 days later, he was dead, murdered by a group of pro-Confederate guerrillas led by a man named Jim Vance. Vance was the cousin of “Devil” Anse Hatfield, head of the prominent Hatfield family from neighboring West Virginia, and the murder he committed would turn out to be the start of one of the most famous blood feuds in history between the Hatfields and McCoys....

When Genghis Khan died in 1227, rumors spread that he perished heroically in battle or was castrated by a princess, but modern researchers believe that the Mongol conqueror’s death was far more mundane. Genghis Khan’s death has been the subject of scholarly debate for nearly 800 years. The story of his brutal reign as the founder of the Mongol Empire is well documented. His death, however, remains largely mysterious. To this day, historians are still asking: how did Genghis Khan die?...

Part pyramid scheme and part sex-trafficking operation, NXIVM was founded by Keith Raniere in 1998 and soon attracted rich and famous members from across America. “Do you think the person who is being branded should be completely nude and sort of held to the table like a sort of, almost, like a sacrifice?” This was just one of many horrific questions that NXIVM sex cult founder Keith Raniere posed to his top lieutenants....

First opened in 1933, the White Sea-Baltic Canal was built on the backs of gulag prisoners. By the time it was done, more than 25,000 laborers had lost their lives. Getty/Laski DiffusionConstruction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal. The canal was constructed between 1931 and 1933 by forced labor of gulag inmates. The White Sea-Baltic Canal is a testament to the genius of Soviet engineering and to the hardiness of its workers....

A great-great grandson of American serial killer H.H. Holmes says that his ancestor was Jack the Ripper. Newly-presented evidence may bolster a long-held theory about the identity of legendary London serial killer Jack The Ripper — that he was American serial killer H.H. Holmes. And it’s coming from a source who may know a thing or two about Holmes: his great-great grandson. Indeed, Jeff Mudgett contends that he has evidence that his ancestor, H....

Before a Spartan boy could be considered a man, he was put in the Krypteia – a secret squad that would sneak up on unsuspecting slaves and brutally murder them at will. Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg/Wikimedia CommonsThree Spartan boys practicing archery. The ancient Greek city-state of Sparta has made its way into modern minds as a land of warriors. During the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., the Spartans earned the respect and fear of much of the ancient world with their pursuit of military excellence at all costs....

Maria Reynolds and her husband conned Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton out of one-third of his salary. Wikimedia CommonsThe Secretary of the Treasury admitted to his affair in a 100-page document called the Reynolds Pamphlet. Whether warranted or not, political sex scandals always receive a lot of attention. And apparently, the public’s appetite for such stories is hardly new. Indeed, before there was Monica Lewinsky, Maria Reynolds was the center of what is largely believed to be America’s first political sex scandal....

Along with her husband, Lucinda Southworth donated $15 million to help fight the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa. Trisha Leeper/WireImage/Getty ImagesLarry Page and Lucinda Southworth. Lucinda Southworth has an impressive resume. Born in the United States in 1979, she obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation, she chose to continue her education at the University of Oxford, obtaining an MSc degree, focusing on the study and data analysis of Eukaryotic organisms....

The mimic octopus is one of the smartest and most adaptable creatures in the ocean. The mimic octopus is the chameleon of the sea. With the ability to change its color, texture, and behavior, it mimics whatever life forms are in its current environment. Scientists believe that it can mimic up to 15 other different types of marine species. Officially named the Thaumoctopus mimicus, the mimic octopus is a relatively new scientific discovery....

Hitler had German commandos trained to infiltrate allied territory in a Trojan Horse mission that caused confusion and chaos among real American soldiers. Photo By George Silk/The LIFE Premium Collection/Getty ImagesGerman soldiers surrender during the Battle of the Bulge, the final major German offensive of World War II during which Operation Greif took place. In a final grapple against the Allied powers around Belgium, Hitler devised a special operation so secret that allegedly many German officers remained unaware of its existence until the day of its launch....