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King Henry VI and Queen Margaret of Anjou famously failed to produce an heir for eight years. New records indicate the pair may have brought some experts into the bedroom to help. World History Archive/AlamyHenry VI and Margaret of Anjou While the historical record has long shown that King Henry VI of England and Queen Margaret of Anjou had trouble procreating for over eight years, new historical evidence has come to light suggesting the pair took serious measures to make progress....

Although never numbering more than 200, Lehi would leave a permanent mark on Israeli politics, history, and culture due to their violence. United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumLehi established a reputation in Palestine for indiscriminate aggression, grandiose politics, and a willingness to do whatever it took to create an ethnic Jewish state. In the first half of the 20th century, a profusion of groups worked to establish a Jewish nation in the state of Israel....

Known as Mehmed the Conqueror, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II was just 21 years old when he took control of Constantinople and defeated the Byzantine Empire in 1453. In April 1453, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II marched on the fortress city of Constantinople. And after laying siege to the Byzantine capital for 53 days and bombarding its great walls with cannon fire, he brought the city to its knees and conquered the last vestige of the Roman Empire in Europe....

The French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte left five strands of his hair in this trademark bicorne hat. Zheng Huansong/Xinhua via Getty ImagesThe recently discovered Napoleon hat, similar to this one, contains a few strands of his hair. An anonymous buyer got more than he bargained for when he picked up a 19th-century bicorne hat at a small German auction house. Not only is it one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s hats — but it also contains the French emperor’s DNA....

He was born during a lightning storm Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia, reportedly in the midst of a lightning storm — perhaps foreshadowing his future obsession with electricity. According to family legend, a midwife claimed that this bad omen destined him to be a child of the dark, to which his mother replied, “No. He will be a child of light.” Pictured: Tesla’s birth certificate Wikimedia Commons...

One tiny region of Spain has had some unexpected – and slightly concerning – guests over the past several months: falling space junk. The rural region of Murcia, Spain, just can’t seem to catch a break lately: It has the country’s highest poverty rate, had to ask for a bailout, and now it seems to have become a target for falling space junk. Over the past several months, the tiny area has been the site of three space junk attacks, which initially added some excitement to the depressed region....

Rumble in the Bronx CEO Michael Roman faces eight charges for organizing the illegal event where police found hundreds of people crammed into close quarters in violation of coronavirus rules. New York City Sheriff’s OfficePolice found patrons smoking hookah, drinking, and failing to social distance — while watching or participating in illegal combat. While most of us spent the weekend at home or social distancing, New York City sheriffs raided an illegal fight club operating in cramped conditions....

A discovery of this magnitude has never happened off the California coast - or anywhere else in the world. YouTubeFootage taken on the Exploration Vessel Nautilus of the Muusoctopus robustus octopus nursery. The crew of a deep-sea explorer that roamed the ocean floor off the coast of Monterey, Calif. got the surprise of a lifetime when they came across the unprecedented sight of hundreds and hundreds of octopuses, stretching out as far as the eye could see....

They called him the “Silent Don” because he lived an unassuming lifestyle, but Florida Godfather Santo Trafficante Jr. was as ruthless as they come. Santo Trafficante Jr. was a reserved, modest man married to the same woman for 49 years. But he was also the most powerful crime boss in pre-Castro Cuba, with influence that extended into Florida and the rest of the United States. Trafficante was jailed and deported when Fidel Castro rose to power, leading him to spend a good portion of his adult life hatching a plan of revenge....

The sun only has a finite amount of energy, and when it’s gone, it’s going out in a blaze of glory. Yahoo NewsThe sun, when it dies, will create a planetary nebula like this one, according to scientists. For ages, insightful scientists and curious laypeople alike have been hypothesizing what will happen when the sun inevitably dies. Now, a team from the Universty of Manchester believes they’ve finally figured it out....

There’s been great debate about the role of shieldmaidens in Viking culture — namely, whether they existed in the first place. Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of the death of a shieldmaiden. The word “Viking” usually conjures up images of burly, bearded, blond men wielding double-handed axes. In a culture so closely associated with violence and bloodshed (the Viking version of heaven is an endless battle where the slaughtered are pieced back together to feast before doing it all again the next day), it is no surprise that even the women — or shieldmaidens — have come down through history as fierce warriors....

As humans take up more land for themselves, small animals are expected to survive while larger ones are at greater risk of extinction. Threatened by human encroachment, large mammals like rhinos are expected to perish while smaller, nimbler creatures like gerbils will likely survive. As the Earth continues to warm and as humans take over animals’ habitats for our own use, larger, less nimble animals requiring specialized habitats are getting squeezed out....

“No humans were harmed in the making of this burger,” the company said. Oumph!The plant-based burger won the Silver Brand Experience and Activation Lion at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. If you’ve always been curious about how human flesh tastes but have sensibly avoided the taboo indulgence, the Swedish company Oumph! has a solution: a plant-based burger patty made to taste like human meat. As the New York Post reported, the company originally released its bizarrely unique burger around Halloween 2021 alongside an appropriately gruesome horror-themed advertisement on their YouTube channel....

Between 1999 and 2018, there were dozens of chillingly similar cases of women killed by strangulation in Chicago’s South and West sides — and they’re all still unsolved. The Unforgotten51 ProjectSome of the victims of the so-called Chicago strangler, whose cases all remain unsolved. Something is very wrong in the Windy City. Since 1999, at least 50 women — mostly Black — have been murdered in a disturbingly similar fashion. But is it the work of a single killer dubbed the “Chicago Strangler?...

Dakotaraptor, the new dinosaur species discovered in South Dakota, is a far larger relative of the Velociraptor. A new species of raptor was found in South Dakota this week, and it’s one of the biggest ones yet. The Dakotaraptor, aptly named after the state of its discovery, was 16 feet long with nearly 10-inch claws. An artist rendering of what the Dakotaraptor may have looked like. The fossils date back to the Cretaceous period around 66 million years ago, the era that saw the emergence of some of the most well-known dinosaurs, including the Triceratops, the Pteranodon and, of course, the Tyrannosaurus Rex....

Right: The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, the first cell phone ever made commercially available (1984 model). Left: Martin Cooper, the lead inventor of the DynaTAC and the father of the cell phone, in a 2007 reenactment of the very first cell phone call ever made on a DynaTAC prototype in 1973. Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons On April 3, 1973, Motorola employee Martin Cooper made a very consequential phone call. Dialing up AT&T’s Joel Engel from midtown Manhattan, Cooper informed Engel that Motorola had beaten AT&T to the punch on a new project they’d both been trying to develop: The world’s very first cell phone....

Andrei Chikatilo murdered 56 people but despite the mounting evidence against him, he was arrested and let go several times before he was finally convicted. Georges DeKeerle/Sygma/Getty ImagesNotorious Ukrainian cannibalistic serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. In 1982, Russian authorities were on the hunt for a serial killer. The number of bodies that had turned up, all killed and mutilated in the same way, had led the police to believe it was the work of one person, and that that one person would likely kill again....

The Apollo Moon landings were unbelievable — so much so that around 10 million Americans actually don’t believe they happened. Why? Wikimedia CommonsBuzz Aldrin walks on the moon, July 20, 1969. July 20 marks the anniversary of the first Moon landing, and – unlike most anniversaries – it’s something to celebrate. Just to get started, engineers had to build a 40-story tower and pack it with a quarter of a million gallons of explosives that somehow didn’t just blow up on the launchpad....

The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte would have been the largest, heaviest tank ever created. ullstein bild/Getty ImagesAdolf Hitler inspects a tank in 1945. In the midst of World War II, Hitler pushed for the creation of one of the most powerful, and least practical, weapons of all time: the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte. The Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte would have been the largest, heaviest tank ever created. Weighing 1,000 tons, five times the weight of the heaviest tank ever built, and measuring 115 feet long, the Ratte was a testament to overkill....

As the house band at Andy Warhol’s Factory, The Velvet Underground played at some of New York City’s wildest and most debauched parties, all while changing the sound of rock forever. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 39 Vintage Hippie Photos That Capture Flower Power In Full Bloom Valerie Solanas — The Radical Feminist Who Shot Andy Warhol...