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Experts estimate that the sword dates back to the Third Crusade when Christian crusaders attempted to retake Jerusalem. JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty ImagesJacob Sharvit of the Israel Antiquities Authority holds the sword discovered by a local diver. Shlomi Katzin dove into the waters off the Carmel coast of Israel with a Go-Pro and a sense of adventure. He emerged with a remarkably intact four-foot-long sword — which experts say dates back to the Crusades....

Before RuPaul entered and expanded our understanding of the mainstream, just a handful of famous drag queens–such as Danny La Rue, Divine, and Doris Fish–managed to capture the attention of the public. For the most part, the art of drag performance had been kept to nightclubs and small stages. In the theater world, female impersonation has existed for centuries–but not out of any desire to expand what it means to be a woman....

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Gary Ridgway prowled Washington state as the Green River Killer, hunting for sex workers and other vulnerable women to rape and murder. Wikimedia CommonsAs the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway took more victims than Jeffrey Dahmer, Son of Sam, and BTK — combined. From 1982 to 1998, Gary Ridgway terrorized Washington State as the Green River Killer. He murdered at least 49 women, but the real number could be as high as 71....

Just before midnight on September 11, 2001, a Polish immigrant named Henryk Siwiak was fatally shot in Brooklyn. His killer was never found. Family Handout/FlickrThe NYPD is offering a $10,000 reward for information about Henryk Siwiak’s murder. More than two thousand people died in New York City on September 11, 2001. But one death stands out in particular — that of Henryk Siwiak. The Polish immigrant didn’t die in the 9/11 terrorist attacks....

For nearly a century, women’s suffragists battled misogyny, violence, and even each other in their fight to pass the 19th Amendment and win women’s right to vote. On Aug. 18, 1920, American women won the right to vote thanks to the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Though this historic moment is celebrated today, it was a controversial decision at the time. Women’s suffrage had been a century-long struggle — and men had resisted the idea since the early days of the country....

One of the few truths in life is that you’re not always going to get it right on your first try. This is especially true when your goal is to become an international, multibillion dollar company. Countless businesses have risen and crumbled simply because they offered the wrong product and failed to see it. Others, however, learn to adapt. These companies did just that, and are now some of the biggest corporations in the world....

The anti-Jewish pogrom of November 1938 known as the “Night of Broken Glass” foreshadowed the Holocaust and the deaths of some 6 million European Jews. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: Holocaust Photos That Reveal Heartbreaking Tragedy Only Hinted At In The History Books How Hitler Happened: 36 Photos That Explain The Nazis’ Rise 28 Haunting Photos From The Battle Of Kursk: The Clash That Changed WWII...

Also known as Muttnik, Laika the space dog made history in 1957 as the first animal to travel into Earth’s orbit — and the first to die there. Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/Getty Images Laika the dog, also known as “Muttnik,” pictured in the Sputnik 2 capsule in 1957. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is rightly credited with being the first man in space, but he was far from the first earthling to go into orbit....

Miep Gies hid the Frank family for years during the German occupation of the Netherlands and even saved Anne Frank’s diary from falling into Nazi hands. In 1933, Hermine Santruschitz began working for Opekta, a European spice and pectin company that specialized in manufacturing jam. It was there that she met the man who would become her husband, Jan Gies, and her boss Otto Frank, a businessman who had moved from Germany to the Netherlands to escape from Nazi prosecution....

Though it’s only half the size of a soccer field, Migingo Island is home to some 500 people, making it one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty ImagesThe bountiful fishing atoll has been fought over by Kenya and Uganda for decades. The African continent is vast and diverse, with over 11 million square miles of luscious jungles, thriving cities, and arid deserts. As the oldest inhabited continent on Earth, there’s no shortage of rich histories to be found....

“Catching them at this tempo, we risk losing our entire Orca population. The capture quota is now 13 animals a year, but no one is taking into account that at least one Orca is killed for everyone that is caught.” Whale and Dolphin ConservatoryA still taken from drone footage of the “whale jail” on Russia’s Pacific coast. More than 100 whales have been ripped away from their wild habitats and locked inside cramped holding pens in Russia....

Any time you enter the grocery store, you’re forced to pick sides: Do you spend a little extra money for the bananas with a sticker that says “organic,” or do you go for the non-organic (and therefore less “healthful”) alternative? On a subject where everyone considers themselves to be an expert, myths perpetuate quickly and with ease. As with any argument with its finger on the pulse of science, it’s wise to remember that anecdotes are not data, and preference is not fact....

Though tens of thousands of people were crucified, just four skeletons have been found with physical evidence of crucifixion. Adam Williams, courtesy of Albion ArchaeologyThe skeleton has a nail in its heel, the best physical evidence of Roman crucifixion found to date. At first, the skeleton didn’t look like much. Almost 2,000 years old and caked with mud, it struck archeologists as just one of many remains found in a cluster of Roman cemeteries....

Using the latest technology, scientists “digitally unwrapped” 2,000-year-old animal mummies from ancient Egypt and determined their causes of death. Swansea UniversityMicro CT scan of a mummified Egyptian cobra dating back 2,000 years. A team of researchers from the University of Swansea in Wales dissected the remains of mummified animals from Ancient Egypt. The examination was carried out without desecrating the artifacts via advanced high-resolution 3D digital scanning, resulting in a “digital unwrapping” of the ancient remains....

Shah Jahan was a fearsome leader, but his obsession with opulence ultimately brought him down – as did his own sons. Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of Shah Jahan sitting on the Peacock Throne. Note the encrusted jewels on the elaborate throne. Shah Jahan came to power in 1627 when he ascended to the throne as the fifth in line of Mughal emperors. Jahan hoped to unite much of southern Asia in a vast Muslim empire at the height of Islamic influence at the time....

With his extensive list of Nazi criminals, Simon Wiesenthal made sure that all who had wronged him and his fellow Jews during the Holocaust got what was coming to them. Wikimedia CommonsSimon Wiesenthal: concenctration camp survivor, Nazi hunter. Simon Wiesenthal’s story started like so many others: a Jewish man and his family were herded like cattle into forced labor camps and did their best to survive the war. But Simon Wiesenthal’s story would not be like any others....

Starving Time was a particularly gruesome era in early colonial America when ravenous Jamestown colonists exhumed corpses for sustenance. Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of Native Americans attacking colonists during the Indian massacre of 1622 in Virginia. Today, it’s hard to imagine what it would be like to be one of the first English settlers at Jamestown in Virginia, let alone during the period now called Starving Time. There’s nothing in our lives to compare it to....

Literally ‘Storm Unit,’ the SA was once a group of specialized troops under Imperial Germany — until Hitler assembled them en masse to intimidate his political opponents. Wikimedia CommonsThe Sturmabteilung helped bring Hitler to power, only to ultimately be betrayed and slaughtered by him. Hitler utilized the frustration of the unemployed and veteran soldiers to assemble an unofficial army of thugs, known as the Sturmabteilung, to intimidate his political opponents and to protect the early Nazi party....

Nikola Tesla hated the idea of war and designed his death ray in the hopes that he could completely eliminate warfare. Imagine a beam of energy that could bring down planes from miles away with nothing but electricity. Imagine an invisible wall of energy protecting a country from invasion, acting as an electric fence that could vaporize enemy soldiers the second they step foot inside. Sounds like something most militaries would love to get their hands on, doesn’t it?...

On August 19, 1942, British and Canadian troops launched the Dieppe raid in hopes of taking a German-occupied port in northern France — but the results were calamitous. Library and Archives CanadaCaptured Canadian prisoners of war following Dieppe raid. In early 1942, there were growing pleas for the Allies to invade Nazi Europe and open a second front. The response was the Dieppe raid, which took place on Aug. 19, 1942....