It is paradoxical that a former delinquent with a colorful life ends up being the creator and director of the French police; even more so if...
In June 1801, Samuel Terry stepped off Earl Cornwallis in chains. He had come to Sydney to serve out his sentence at the convict’s colony. ...
James Holman was a remarkable figure in the history of travel and exploration. Born in Exeter, England, in 1786, Holman lost his sight in hi...
It is said that a fall from a height of only six feet can be deadly with broken bones, head injuries, spinal cord injuries and even death. B...
The Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1, or LCS-1, is a large, hollow, aluminum sphere with a precisely defined cross-section that has been on Eart...
In 1997, on the eve of the release of James Cameroon’s blockbuster movie Titanic , a curious story from Japan came to light. It was about Ma...
In the early 1960s, as NASA geared up towards space exploration, engineers and astronomers at the federal organization felt the need for a l...
The 1956 Summer Olympics was held in Australia. As was the custom, the Olympic flame was lighted in Olympia, months before the games started...
The First World War was reported from an almost exclusively male perspective, because few female war correspondents were given access to the...
The winter of 1739-40 was incredibly harsh all over Europe and especially brutal in Russia. Temperatures plummeted to forty degrees below ze...
When we talk about "limes", we usually think of the limits of the Roman Empire in northern Europe, in Germania or Britain. But in ...
In the small town of Liérganes, in Cantabria, northern Spain, a legend has been around since the late 17th century about a young man who dro...
There was time in 1820s London when the name of Edward Dando sent panic through the hearts of tavern and oyster shop owners. This young man,...
On 16 October 1964, China detonated a 22-kiloton nuclear weapon device at the Lop Nur test site, becoming the fifth nuclear power state in t...
George Spencer Millet must be rolling in his grave for his family chose to include this nugget of information in his gravestone: “Lost life ...
In the British Commonwealth war cemetery in Ramle, Israel, is a grave that has been receiving quite a lot of footfall from tourists in the p...
In the early 16th century, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan embarked on a historic expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific, ...
The penal colonies that the British established in Australia during the 18th and the 19th centuries were nearly impossible to escape from. S...
The job of an executioner in medieval England was detestable. Nobody invited them to their homes. They were not allowed to go to the church,...
On January 22, 1981, a 38-year-old industrial radiographer named Douglas Crofut was admitted to a hospital in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, the United...
