Thomas Parr, The Man Who Lived to 152 Years

Nov 30, 2022

On 15 November 1635, Thomas Parr was laid to rest at a grave in old Westminster Abbey. Tradition insist that this man was born around the ye...

The Mechanical Turk: An 18th Century Chess Playing Robot

Nov 29, 2022

In the late 18th century, a Hungarian inventor named Wolfgang von Kempelen presented to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria a sensational mecha...

Marie Lafarge: The Arsenic Poisoner

Nov 26, 2022

In the early 19th century, arsenic was most widely used to kill rats and insufferable husbands alike. The chemical element was odorless and ...

Biertan’s Matrimonial Prison

Nov 22, 2022

Tucked away in the church grounds of a quiet village in Romania, there is a small cottage known as the ‘matrimonial prison’. It was here tha...

The Miraculous Resurrection of Anne Greene

Nov 21, 2022

Anne Greene is one of the reasons why some people used to have a morbid fear of premature burial . In December 1650, Anne Green, an English ...

Charles Domery, The Glutton

Nov 19, 2022

In 1799, Doctor Thomas Cochrane, a surgeon at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, found in his care a man with the most unusual ea...

Stompie The Tank

Nov 17, 2022

For the 1995 movie Richard III , director Richard Loncraine towed an old Soviet T-34 tank to the center of London and had it drive through a...

Elephant Memorial in Teluk Intan

Nov 16, 2022

Elephants are reputed to have a great memory. They are also reputed to never forgive. There have been tales where elephants have sought re...

The First Aircraft Accident Investigation

Nov 15, 2022

On 13 May 1912, a two-seater aircraft piloted by Edward Victor Beauchamp Fisher crashed at Brooklands, in England, killing both the pilot an...

Mokomokai: Tattooed Maori Heads And The Musket Wars

Nov 11, 2022

In the early 19th century, a deplorable trade developed in New Zealand between the indigenous Maori people and the European merchants. The w...