Members of France's decadent aristocracy were dying mysteriously; were they being poisoned?
Petite, pretty, educated, female, and a bank robber.
In 1957, America's mob bosses held a summit meeting in the small community of Apalachin, New York.
Millions of people have put money into cryptocurrencies and very few of them fully understand how they work.
Indonesia's Mount Tambora erupted massively in 1815 and the effects were felt worldwide.
Derived from Ancient Greek, a kakistocracy is a government formed by the least competent people available.
Occasionally, people turn up with the ability to speak a language they say they have never been taught. Is that possible?
In 12th-century Germany an attempt to mediate a political dispute turned to crap.
During World War II, an extraordinary Allied unit operated behind enemy lines under the command of a Russian Jew.
The Trafficantes rose to become major figures in organized crime in America through all the usual illicit activities of the sub-culture. The U.S. government even sought their help.
The best friends of the United States are dismayed at how the country has changed.
The switch from one year to the next is a completely artificial construct and it's celebrated in many different ways.
More than 2,000 years ago a Roman emperor is said to have hosted a dinner designed to scare the wits out of his opponents.
Beware the prime number named after one of the seven princes of hell.
A humble carpenter used greed and graft to make a fortune.
Early maps of the world are filled with isolated bits of land that mariners and explorers identified but that we have since learned never existed.
Being imprisoned in France's Caribbean penal colony frequently amounted to a death sentence.
The deadliest crash in motor racing history brought about a concern for safety that had previously been casual.
A master forger claimed ownership of 18,500 square miles of Arizona and New Mexico that didn't belong to him.
Drawing from a passage in the Bible, conservatives advocate for Christian dominion over all aspects of society.
The needless deaths of three soldiers, in the last minutes of conflict, were added to the millions of other pointless casualties.
There are many strange stories attached to a manor house that overlooks Scotland's Loch Ness.
Civil rights activist, journalist, political candidate, and target of the FBI.
There's a story that drivers on a lonely stretch of road lose control of their vehicles when a powerful pair of disembodied hairy hands steers them into a crash.
In a somewhat crowded field, Lord Gordon Gordon is reckoned to be one of the more accomplished fraudsters of the Gilded Age.
An audacious and daring escape from slavery.
Baked beans cooked by someone using their nana's recipe are almost always awesome; baked beans dished up from a can, not so much.
Stock manipulator, philanderer, swindler, and all-round louse.
Lee Miller transitioned from being a fashion model to a war correspondent.
South of the Mason-Dixon Line, executions take place more frequently than in any part of the United States and the burden falls unevenly on Black prisoners.
Who do you send out to decide which are the world's best restaurants? Why, a tire company of course.
Violet Jessop survived the sinking of two vessels and the collision of another, all sister ships of the White Star Line.
At the intersection of corporate power and political corruption lives are often ruined and lost.
When a child kills his mother there is bound to be a massive stirring of public interest.
An English parson joined a criminal gang in order to supply his need for fine alcohol.
For centuries, soldiers and civilians have robbed the casualties of war while others have committed atrocities against the vanquished.
Buller's incompetence surfaced when he was placed in command of troops in the Second Boer War.
Long before the hippies of the 1960s counter culture, there were people who set up idealistic communes in an effort to escape from a society they did not like.
In the 1890s, iceberg lettuce arrived on dining tables. Pity.
Thousands of children died from consuming contaminated milk in the nineteenth century.
Incomprehensible insurance policies, school reports, and government documents are just a few of the examples of how the English language is butchered in the service of oblique communication.
Convicted of murder at age 14, he was the youngest person ever to face the death penalty in Canada.
A woman with a sparkling wit and a tragic life story.
A free Black man in New York State was kidnapped and sold into slavery.
The split between Gertrude Elizabeth Blood and Lord Colin Campbell in 1882 ended in a sensational trial.
Anti-tourist sentiment is building in many vacation hotspots as residents grow weary of boorish behaviour by visitors.
The characters referred to in nursery rhymes are often based on real people or events.
Once known as “Sodom by the Sea,” Coney Island's amusement centres had a background of dirty dealing.
The man could spin convincing stories; some of them might even have been true.
The power of marketing has taken us from smelling like dead skunks to making most of us sweet-scented, close-up companions.
The reporter paid a terrible price for investigating corruption in Phoenix, Arizona.
With fascist ideology on the rise in many places, the atrocities committed in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane remind us of where it can lead.
They said it was impossible to break out of the prison. They were wrong.
The use of cleverly worded insults seems to have gone out of fashion replaced by short, social media abuse.
A growing number of people are questioning the received truth of science that our planet is a sphere.
The Hells Angels and Mongols biker gangs got into a bloody brawl in 2002 that left bodies behind.
We need to resurrect some old words that have sadly gone out of fashion and put them to use in describing Donald Trump.
Women, and some men, apply many beauty products to their bodies and some of these cosmetics contain known cancer-causing substances.
She chose a career of caring for society's most vulnerable members and then it went horribly wrong.
A ship's mascot in the Royal Navy saved the lives of many sailors during World War II.
Humans are competitive creatures and are apt to make a contest out of everything, no matter how daft.
The Theresienstadt concentration camp was fashioned in an attempt to fool outsiders that Jewish captives were being treated humanely.
COVID-19 laid bare the shortcomings of societies that have worshipped at the altar of making money over the building of supports for all citizens.
It isn't often the professions of architect and bank robber are combined in one person, but that's the case with George Leslie.
A volcanic eruption wiped out an entire town in the Caribbean in 1902, but one man survived because he was in jail.
The gifted author had a very complex character and a self-destructive nature that came out in an infamous magazine article.
Many people have set out to create ideal communities; none have been wholly successful.
Artifacts representative of the cultural heritages of many nations reside in the museums and private collections of other countries.
A crusading activist who fought for the underdogs of Victorian society.
A little more than 26 miles of running in one go is enough to daunt the most avid jogger, but some people feel it’s not a big enough challenge.
Poor quality design and/or construction sometimes cost lives. Greed and cost-cutting are frequently contributing factors.
The claim is that every conceivable ailment can be cured by using one or more of these incredible devices. The claim is bogus.
Deserted temples for consumerism dot the landscape, silent sentinels of failed enterprises.
How did a street urchin from London’s East End slums become a general in the Chinese revolutionary army?
The son of once-enslaved parents, Thomas Downing invented fine dining in America with his Oyster House in New York City.
When outlaw bikers fall out with one another, bad things happen.
A freshly minted British eccentric embarked on reckless adventures in Canada's frozen North.
Connected to some of America's most prominent families, Kiki Preston led a scandal- and tragedy-plagued life.
Bob Carlisle was a seafarer, big-cat tamer and so much more.
We venture into deep waters when we examine men's fashion. Read about moustache styles over the years and learn some of the history of moustaches.
A British aristocrat of the 19th century, she ignored all the rules about how a woman should behave.
Although it was once considered one of the best companies in the United States, Boeing has sunk in public and investor esteem because of greed and mismanagement.
The 19th-century author Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton is widely accepted as one of the worst writers ever to be published, and his name lives on in an award.
Thousands of fake documents were made to help Jews and others escape the Nazi gas chambers.
A German shoemaker's life wasn't going so well until he hit on a money-making plan.
The notion of five days of work and two days of leisure is an artificial construct.
While lauded for his charity work, the British TV star was a hideous sexual abuser behind the scenes.
Cities, towns, and villages erect giant artifacts to honour something local.
For several centuries, a few members of Europe’s nobility suffered from the belief they were made of glass.
For centuries, people believed in the existence of places that were figments of the imagination.
She alone decided who was in and who was out socially during New York's Gilded Age.
These are the sort of stories favoured by supermarket tabloids but there's a difference, these are true.
During World War II American airmen paid a terrible price in daylight bombing raids of enemy targets.
He was a Texas oil tycoon with a reputation bigger than the state.
Religious leaders, wing-nuts, charlatans, and even a chicken have predicted the end of the world, but we are still here.
We sometimes feel that pricing is determined by what the seller thinks he can get away with, and sometimes we are right.
Death notices tend to be sombre things but some people want to leave different kinds of memories after they have gone.
Idealistic young people wanted to create a more egalitarian society in the 1960s.
In 1786, a mentally unstable woman lunged at the British monarch with a knife. She paid dearly for her inept attempt at regicide.
In the 1990s, an extortionist tied German police up into tangled knots of incompetence.
How violent were the gladiatorial combats in Ancient Rome?
Queen Victoria described her childhood as dreary, and one of the people charged with her upbringing said she could be “naughty and vulgar.”
Some pubs go out of their way to create an unforgettable experience for customers. Here are 13 unique pubs to check out.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, isn't the first royal to get into conflict with his family members.
There are many cases of people reporting the sense of the presence of someone else when there is no one there.
Identical twins usually share many characteristics, sometimes this is a fondness for criminality.
Without beer we might still be living in caves and using a club to get our meals; or maybe, it was bread that caused the revolution.
There is no such thing as an average human and believing there is leads to all sorts of mistakes.
In 2010, homosexual men began disappearing in Toronto. Was a serial killer on the loose?
People have loved thrill rides for a long time and what was once deemed scary is now thought of as tame.
The eloquent and talented princess tried unsuccessfully to regain the independence of Hawaii after its illegal U.S. takeover.
In 1760, King George II fell off his toilet and died. Read on for more interesting facts about johns.
In the 1890s, an immigrant to the United States may have thought it was a good idea to import every bird species mentioned in Shakespeare’s collected works. Pity about the starlings.
Joaquin “Jack” Garcia infiltrated the mob and took down one of its most famous crime families.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of science that our planet is getting hotter, there is still a rump of deniers who say global heating is rubbish.
Thousands of American Indians were forced to trek hundreds of miles to an internment reservation.
Product flops, Donald Trump business catastrophes, and the mysterious world of social media influencers.
Early in the 20th century, a dozen children died at the hands of a woman hired to look after them.
Even QAnon found this radical group outrageous.
Born in 1861 to free Black parents, Isaac Murphy became one of the greatest jockeys in America; then white people squeezed him out of horse racing. Learn more about his story here.
For centuries, mythical characters have been enlisted by adults to frighten children into behaving properly.
Under the guise of self-improvement, religion, or some other form of camouflage, charlatans are able to dupe followers into doing their bidding.
Devastating loss of life occurs when high-powered firearms get into the wrong hands.
Otherwise known as Simon Fraser, the clan leader was a cunning turncoat who played a role in the Jacobite Rebellions of the 18th century.
There was a time when yearning for a previous age was believed to be bad for people's health.
Temples of manufactured fun sit idle all over the world, victims of changing tastes, economic downturns, or, perhaps, it was just a dumb idea to start with.
There was a time when large corporations commissioned Broadway-style shows to motivate employees and sell product.
Special interests spend vast amounts of money influencing government policy to their advantage.
The biggest con game of them all finds new suckers every two years. Cities are so excited to host the Olympic Games but the massive debt that follows should not come as a surprise.
An area of the city was set aside for the sex trade from 1897 to 1917. It was the first “red-light district” in the United States that was regulated.
Wherever he looked Comstock saw filth and was determined to stamp it out.
Hidden somewhere in France was a statuette that people had been looking for for 30 years.
How a mother killed her child rather than see her become a slave.
During the Victorian era, parties were held during which a mummy was unwrapped.
More than 250 years ago, she cleverly used image manipulation to become famous for being famous.
Collectively, large numbers of people seem to be better at decision making than individual experts; until they aren't.
Swords and pistols were the preferred weapons of duelists who had scores to settle, but sometimes really creative combats took place.
Sir Edmund Backhouse was the go-to man for intelligence on China at the start of the 20th century although most of his information was fake.
The English author was interned during World War II and unwittingly became a propaganda tool.
For thousands of years, cats have performed valuable service in keeping down the rodent population aboard vessels.
An 18th century military man, Roger Aytoun got his nickname because he loved bare-knuckle fighting.
5 Hertford Street is a highly secretive gathering place for VIPs in Britain's capital.
Some of today's environmental problems can be traced back to an American inventor.
A French woman became the toast of Paris—on borrowed money.
For 16 months, a vessel loaded with incinerator ash sailed the oceans looking for a place to dump its cargo.
The Canadian man with many wives and his fundamentalist Mormon cult.
Every profession has its superstitions and musicians are no exception. Classical music composers have to deal with "The Curse of the Ninth," as rock stars try to avoid becoming members of the "27 Club."
If you want to fire up a conspiracy theory, start a campus secret society.
Is there an identical copy of you somewhere in the world?
A writer of prodigious quantities of novels and the librettos for operettas, he was also fond of practical jokes.
In 1567, a Spanish duke was made Governor of the Netherlands with instructions to deal with dissidents.
"Durable" Mike Malloy seemed indestructible to those who tried to kill him as part of an insurance fraud scheme.
English cooking has been greatly improved by the influence of other cultures. This article makes the case for chicken tikka masala as Britain's national dish.
In the 12th century, a Christian group rejected the Roman Catholic Church because of materialism and hypocrisy; they paid dearly for their opposition.
There are many groups of people who don't want their activities to become public. Here, is just a small sample.
Very few of us exercise enough; but how much is enough?
It's no secret that there's an epidemic of obesity in the United States brought on by over-consumption of the wrong types of food.
If your time machine lands sometime in the 23th century, you might have trouble understanding the locals, even though both of you are speaking English.
Huge numbers of people responsible for the Holocaust escaped punishment; some Jewish survivors decided to correct that.
The Roman Catholic Church leads the way in conferring sainthood on people, and some pretty rascally characters have been canonized.
In a crowded field of English eccentrics, Jack Mytton stands head and shoulders below the rest.
Well-known cultural symbols sometimes cause strange psychological impacts.
A major occupation for monarchs was warfare with all the attendant casualties.
For some people death notices are a chance to settle scores, for others, they are an opportunity to dispense advice and even humour.
Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards were the last women in England to be put to death for being witches; victims of superstition and ignorance. They are remembered as the Bideford witches.
Not many people are able to pay for a hotel room costing $100,000 a night, but those that can get every imaginable whim catered to.
An epic story of cruelty to an animal for the entertainment of people.
Those that contribute least to global heating are the ones who suffer most from it.
Ordinary mistakes can be left to civilians, but for really stupid plans we have to rely on the armed forces.
Known to be Queen Elizabeth II's favourite child, Prince Andrew disgraced his royal background.
Scots have made considerable money from tourists hoping for a glimpse of a creature that doesn't exist.
A movement is growing that seeks to redress the imbalance between the haves and the have-nots and to bring democracy to the workplace.
In Victorian England, the people who drove Hansom cabs lived in fear of a litigious woman who made it her life's work to harass them.
There are a lot of very wealthy people, including Iranian businessman Javad Marandi, who have used the accommodating government of Azerbaijan and its "Azerbaijani Laundromat" to clean up their ill-gotten gains.
As scientific knowledge expands, older truths lose their validity.
In 1724, a book fed appetites for lurid, true-crime stories in England and became a publishing phenomenon.
During World War II, the Allies used many creative schemes to aid in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Americans spend about $50 billion a year on weddings, and with that kind of coin skittering about, some unsavoury characters are bound to be attracted.
People who live near each other don't always get along and the result sometimes leads to unusual construction.
Colonel Russell Williams was a highly respected military officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force. But he had a terribly dark secret that would shock the world.
Here’s how The Atlantic magazine describes a cashless society: “The cash has been converted into numbers, into signals, into electronic currents. In short: Information replaces cash.”
Broadway delivers smash hits and broken dreams—more often the latter.
A destructive invasive species is causing havoc in America and most people are completely unaware of the problem.
William Joyce was of Anglo-Irish descent and became a fascist and went to Germany, from where he broadcast to England on Hitler’s behalf.
Two women crossed the United States on motorcycles in 1916.
During the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, a tropical fruit became an object of veneration.
The man with an acerbic wit was a theatre critic, bon vivant, and prolific writer in the 1920s and '30s; he is now largely forgotten.
Sneezing powder, stink bombs, and joy buzzers all came from the fertile mind of Sam Adams.
Tourist traps are places where travellers go to part with their money while getting little in return.
A singing sensation in the pre-war and post-war periods, Dorothy Squires had a turbulent life off the stage.
Has human evolution stopped or will our species continue to change?
A teenager who just wanted to fit in was ostracized by her peer group. Ultimately their bullying turned the teens into killers.
It has been named the highest-fat dish in New York state by health.com.
A Scottish folk hero who still commands great respect although recent research shows he was more of a rogue than anything else.
Louis Wain was an illustrator who changed the way people look at cats.
For centuries, people have tried to find new ways of making music; sometimes their efforts have bordered on weird.
A family in London endured a 12-year reign of terror at the hands of an unseen spectre.
Sailors faced many perils at sea, so they developed rituals and traditions to fend off danger. Learn sailors' charms and omens—bananas, cats, redheads, and more.
Cleaning up after the daily bodily functions has generated a variety of solutions, but it’s only relatively recently that paper has come to the rescue.