Showing posts with the label History

The Tragic Death of Sophie Blanchard, The First Woman Balloon Pilot

May 30, 2023

Ever since Sophie Blanchard stepped into the basket with her husband, the famous balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard, she knew she belonged to ...

Martin van Butchell: The Dentist Who Put His Dead Wife on Display

May 25, 2023

Quackery in dentistry has existed as far back as the earliest days when sufferers from dental problems sought treatment at the hands of some...

Philip Ashton: The Castaway

May 22, 2023

Just three years after the publication of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe , a youngster from Massachusetts suffered a fate similar to the pro...

1764 Woldegk Tornado: The Strongest in History

May 18, 2023

On June 29, 1764, almost the entire town of Woldegk was in church attending a day of repentance and prayer. Also known as Buß- und Bettag, i...

Why Phyllis Rode Aristotle Around Like a Horse

May 17, 2023

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there is a bronze aquamanile, or water jug, dating from the late 14th or early 15th century. ...

The Case of The Radioactive Toothpaste

May 11, 2023

In the late 1943, while the Manhattan project was underway, a team of spies were sent to Europe to gather information about how the Nazis we...

The World’s Oldest Optical Illusion

May 10, 2023

In the October 1892 issue of Fliegende Blätter , a German humor magazine, there appeared an image depicting an optical illusion. The image w...

Girolamo Segato’s Mysterious Petrified Mummies

May 9, 2023

For thousands of years, different cultures across continents have successfully preserved bodies of their ancestors. For the Egyptians, mummi...

Lennie Gwyther: A 9-year-old Who Journeyed Solo Across Australia

May 4, 2023

On February 3, 1932, nine-year-old Lennie Gwyther packed his bags and left for Sydney. He was going to attend the opening of the Sydney Harb...

John ‘Half-hanged’ Smith

May 3, 2023

A man can lose a life in the most silliest of mishaps, like tripping over his own foot and breaking his neck. Yet, some people have an uncan...