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Landing in January 2019 as part of China’s fourth-ever mission to the moon, the Yutu 2 rover just encountered a mysterious cube-shaped object in the moon’s Von Kármán crater. China National Space AdministrationThe “mysterious hut” was spotted about 260 feet away during the rover’s 36th lunar day. From naval expeditions to find new lands to our first foray into the cosmos, technology has been humanity’s only limit for exploration. And though America put a man on the lunar surface, China recently became the first nation to land a craft on the dark side of the moon — where it just discovered a “mystery hut....

For decades, Cynthia Plaster Caster tracked down legendary rock stars and made plaster molds of their penises. Getty ImagesCynthia “Plaster Caster” Albritten When it comes to groupies, there’s no doubt that rock bands have some of the craziest. Some collect autographs, some collect t-shirts, some even collect locks of hair and used tissues. And then, there’s Cynthia Albritton, known now as Cynthia Plaster Caster, who collects a somewhat different kind of keepsake: plaster molds of famous rock and roll penises....

Nearly 25 years after Denise Johnson was stabbed and set ablaze inside her North Carolina home, one true crime podcast uncovered some chilling facts and theories that have reignited the investigation. The Coastland TimesDenise Johnson’s murder is still unsolved after 25 years. On a warm July night in 1997, firefighters in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, answered an emergency call for a house fire. When they arrived, they discovered the body of 33-year-old Denise Johnson surrounded by flames — but the fire wasn’t what killed her....

Where does your state fall? Watching the news footage of white men walking down the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia brazenly waving around Confederate flags, torches, and giving Nazi salutes — a lot of people were probably shocked. You know who wasn’t even mildly surprised? The people working at The Southern Poverty Law Center. The organization dedicated to monitoring hate groups and extremists in the United States has documented a nearly 300% increase in anti-Muslim hate groups since 2015 and a drastic rise in overall harassment incidents in the last two years....

On February 12, 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables kidnapped 2-year-old James Bulger in Bootle, England. They then brutally tortured and murdered him before placing his body onto train tracks. BWP Media/Getty Images Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, pictured after their arrest for the murder of James Bulger. At first glance, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables seemed like two ordinary 10-year-olds. But in 1993, these two British boys became cold-blooded killers — and murdered a toddler....

Jack the baboon worked on the railway system in South Africa for 9 years without ever making a single mistake. Wikimedia CommonsJack operating the railway switches. When James “Jumper” Wide worked for the Cape Town — Port Authority Railway service, he developed a habit of leaping from one railway car to the other, even when the trains were moving. One day in 1877, he misjudged his jump by a little too much and fell under the moving train....

Afton Burton first started communicating with the incarcerated Charles Manson when she was 17. By 26, she believed she was engaged to the cult leader. It’s no secret that notorious criminals, serial killers, and famous convicts receive a fair amount of attention from rabid female admirers. Whether it’s a misguided sense of having the talent to reform them or a mere ploy to immortalize themselves in someone else’s legacy — it’s weirdly not uncommon....

More than 250 years later, Mir Jafar’s name is still synonymous with “traitor” in India and Bangladesh today. Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of Mir Jafar and Robert Clive after the Battle of Plassey in 1757. With a single act of treachery, Mir Jafar helped set the stage for nearly 200 years of British rule in India. History is rarely decided by individuals, but sometimes one person’s actions at the right moment can decide the fate of millions....

Peter Sutcliffe claimed to be on a mission from God as he killed 13 women and evaded hapless police on nine separate occasions while committing the Yorkshire Ripper murders. For five harrowing years, Peter Sutcliffe terrorized Britain as the bloodlusty Yorkshire Ripper. Claiming to be on a mission from God to kill prostitutes, Sutcliffe viciously murdered at least 13 women, and he attempted to kill no less than seven others — all while narrowly evading capture again and again....

The first discovery of a bat-like winged dinosaur was four years ago, but scientists had dismissed the initial finding because it was so bizarre. Min Wang/Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology/Chinese Academy of SciencesThe omnivorous Ambopteryx longibrachium dinosaur had membranous flaps like a bat. Chinese scientists have discovered a bat-like winged dinosaur that took flight in our world about 163 million years ago. The finding is the second such specimen that scientists have found with membranous wings....

Kumi Yamashita is a sculptor of magic, building an invisible bridge between the material and immaterial, and often creating interesting juxtapositions along the way. In her series -simply but aptly titled “Light and Shadow”- Yamashita uses a single light source and myriad specifically placed everyday objects to attain the desired silhouette. The art is full of astute presentations; a head filled with letters, an exclamation that slyly morphs into a question, a shadow couple seeking shelter from the elements under a cloud-shaped piece of cut aluminum, the same cloud that calls this couple’s physical forms into existence....

Witnessing an elephant give birth inspired a couple to create a new childbirth technology. Unfortunately, it was too ridiculous to use. Science Gallery DublinA depiction of the Blonsky device, which used centrifugal force to help with labor. Everyone knows that childbirth isn’t easy. But what if pregnant patients could simply strap themselves to a table, spin at a high speed, and propel the baby out? What could go wrong? It sounds ridiculous, but in the 1960s a couple actually patented the Blonsky device, a machine that used centrifugal force to fling babies into the world....

With blooms measuring over 10 feet tall, a corpse flower by any other name would smell just as horrible. Growing in the depths of Sumatran rainforests is what’s known as the Amorphophallus titanum or titan arum. But most people know it as the corpse flower. Along with its title-bearing status as the largest flowering, single-branched plant in the world, the corpse flower is also regarded as the worst-smelling one. Its rare and beautiful bloom emits a scent that’s been likened to stinky fish, baby diapers, and rotting flesh....

In 1888, London was terrorstruck by the grotesque murders of Jack the Ripper, who was shortly about to claim his next-victim: 47-year-old prostitute Annie Chapman. In September 1888, the Whitechapel district of London found itself in the midst of a blood-curdling series of homicides. Five prostitutes were not only slashed to death but utterly mutilated with their organs removed. Indeed, as written by The New York Times in September 1888, “The murders are certainly the most ghastly and mysterious known to English police history....

Given San Francisco’s huge real estate boom, you won’t believe what the actual Full House house would sell for today. The Tanners could never afford it. The house, located at 1709 Broderick St. in San Francisco, used in exterior shots on Full House. Looking back on the popular television shows of the 1980s and ’90s, it’s hard not to wonder exactly how families like the Tanners of Full House could actually afford their swanky home....

Source: WordPress While contemporary weddings are often a symbol of love and commitment between the bride and the groom, for most of history, weddings were more like a business deal in which two families joined forces for a beneficial arrangement or alliance. Wedding dresses, then, were chosen to present the bride’s family in the best light, especially in terms of wealth and social status. Source: The Dreamstress Source: Ruby Lane...

Tomás de Torquemada was responsible for over 2,000 deaths during the Spanish Inquisition, all in the name of keeping Catholicism alive in Spain. Getty ImagesTomas de Torquemada In 15th century Spain, there lived a man named Tomas de Torquemada. Though his name is often lost in the pages of history, he had a hand in almost every major event that occurred in Spain during his lifetime. Had it not been for Torquemada, Columbus may never have sailed to the Americas, the Spanish Inquisition may never have happened, and, perhaps most importantly, 2000 Spanish citizens would never have lost their lives....

Vivien Thomas did groundbreaking work in the field of cardiac medicine. Incredibly, he had no medical degree. Wikimedia CommonsA portrait of Vivien Thomas. In a time when over 2,000 people undergo heart transplants each year in the United States and go on to live normal lives, it is hard to believe it wasn’t that long ago when cardiac medicine was a relatively new field. Moreover, the story of two of the field’s pioneers is perhaps more remarkable than any surgery they performed....

“Hysterical” women of the 1870s, humanity’s weirdest collections, Kenya’s wildlife, light festivals around the world, history’s most extravagant funerals. 19th Century Women Institutionalized For “Hysteria” History shows no shortage of misogyny justified with pseudoscience. But perhaps no example is more egregious than the 19th century notion that most any Western woman who didn’t behave as men thought she should could be diagnosed with “hysteria,” thought to be caused by a “wandering” womb and sometimes “cured” with forced genital massage to stimulate orgasm....

From the book he died reading on the toilet to the one person who’s been allowed in his bedroom, these Elvis Presley facts reveal rock’s weird side. On January 8, 1935, Elvis Aaron Presley was born–just minutes after his identical twin. And that’s just the first of many seldom-heard, interesting Elvis facts that you probably haven’t come across before. From dating a 14-year-old to impersonating cops to earning the karate nickname of “Mr....