The Disturbing History Of Gas Baths On The U.S.-Mexico Border
In 1917, El Paso officials enacted a policy of disinfection and fumigation for Mexicans. This is the disturbing history of gas baths on the U.S.-Mexico border.
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What Christmas Was Really Like In The Wild West
Christmas traditions in America follow many of the same customs of well over a century ago. But what about celebrating the yuletide season in the old Wild West?
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These Were Aristotle's Beliefs About Women
Aristotle's views on ethics, logic, and metaphysics have played a central role in Western thought, even today. It's easy to assume that Aristotle was pretty much right regarding just about everything. But that's a mistake. One critical weak point in Aristotle's philosophy: his perspective on women.
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Why Lawrence Of Arabia Was Kicked Out Of The Royal Air Force
Calling Lowell Thomas a "vulgar man," Lawrence claimed he didn't like the fame and would later say that he'd been tricked into being filmed and photographed.
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The Creepy Source Of Most Teeth In Early Dentures
At this stage of the science of dentistry, however, dentures were not so much artificial tooth replacements as they were real human teeth, set in ivory and placed in someone else's mouth, according to the BBC. Wealthy people even placed advertisements in papers for human teeth.
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The True Story Of The Christmas Present That Saved POWs During World War II
During WWII, Allied soldiers caught by the Nazis became prisoners of war (POWs) and were placed into prison camps. Christmas brought secret tools for escape.
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Why 19th-Century Chinese Women Sometimes Had Two Husbands
Polyandry, when a woman takes two or more husbands, has been found in many cultures throughout history. In the 18th and 19th century, for instance, women in China ruled the roost and sometimes took more than one husband. Who knew the 1800s could be so progressive?
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These Mobsters Were Never Brought To Justice
While some of the most famous mobsters were never brought to legal justice, the Mafia has its own brand of justice.
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The Petty Reason This Roman Emperor Slaughtered 20,000 People
Not as well-known, but possibly even more cruelly petty than any of these emperors -- if you can believe it -- was Marcus Aurelius Severus (not Snape) Antoninus Augustus, also called "Caracalla," after a type of cloak that he apparently designed.
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The Untold Truth Of Christmas Witches
There are a whole bevy of holiday-themed ghouls, including an eye-catching subset of Christmas witches. These female figures run the gamut, from friendly grandmas to ogresses to wild, pre-Christian goddesses, many with roots in pagan practices. Here are the tales of several Christmas witches.
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The Unusual Material People Made Clothing With During The Great Depression
The farm provided clothing for the family as well -- with a little improvising. Bulk purchases of flour and feed were delivered to farms in large cloth sacks, and savvy mothers soon realized they could stretch the family budget by repurposing the fabric into garments for their families.
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What Really Happened With That Huge Earthquake In Haiti?
The 2010 Haiti earthquake left over a million people without homes, hundreds of thousands of people died, and several hundreds of thousands were injured.
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This Is What It Was Like To Be A Survivor Of America's Last Slave Ship
The Clotilda was America's last slave ship, setting sail in 1860. The ship picked up 110 Africans and made its way to Alabama, where all were sold into slavery. After emancipation, the survivors went on to form Africatown, which is still populated today. Here are the stories of some survivors.
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This Roman Emperor Made His Horse A Consul
If consuls were horses, they would naturally be far more adept at these tasks. At least, maybe this is what Caligula believed, because, as History states, he made his favorite horse, Incitatus, a consul, and "gave the steed a marble stall, an ivory manger, a jeweled collar and even a house."
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The Untold Truth Of Charles Curtis, The First US Vice President Of Color
Charles Curtis, Herbert Hoover's VP from 1929-1932, was the first person of color to be Vice President of the US but is hardly remembered today.
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The Time JFK Fell In Love With A Possible Spy
Inga Arvad was reportedly not only friendly with a dictator, who called her a "perfect Nordic beauty," but she also could have been working for him.
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How The 1936 Olympics Made Two Countries Realize They Had The Same Flag
At the 1936 Olympics, Haiti competed under its civil flag, a horizontal blue stripe on top of an equal-width red stripe. In contrast, Haiti's national flag includes a coat of arms in the center, per CRW Flags, but the civil flag was more commonly used for non-governmental affairs like the Olympics.
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The History Of Pets In The White House
It's no surprise that most American presidents have shared the White House with a dog, cat, or other animal friend.The presidency's unique challenges have made pets nearly a requirement for the job. Read on to learn more about the history of the animals that have made the White House a home.
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The Bizarre Truth About Airline Stewardesses 50 Years Ago
Most stewardesses began working around age 18-20. Seems young? You're right. Airlines preferred unmarried, childless stewardesses. The average age of tenured stewardesses was 32-35. The no-marriage rule was relaxed in 1957, though some airlines still required employees to be single and not pregnant.
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How Billionaire Eike Batista Went Broke In Just One Year
Batista was once seen as the perfect example of Brazil's status as a booming, successful country "that had seemed to successfully combine private enterprise with social justice and was riding high on surging commodities prices." How did Batista lose his entire $35 billion fortune in one year?
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How A Ouija Board Was Connected To A Murder
"Ouija" is actually a brand name for a type of game called a "talking board" that grew in popularity, along with a rise in interest in spiritualism, after the Civil War. In the years following a conflict full of death, strife, and acrimony, it's understandable that people wanted resolution.
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The Weird Way Hunting Was Done In The Stone Age
When Wisconsin University researchers examined a Stone-Age butchery site in Tanzania, they found that the site's animal remains indicated that those animals had been specifically targeted and killed by human hunters. Hunting is apparently far older than we realized.
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The True Story Of The 1914 Christmas Truce
In 1914, an informal ceasefire between German and Allied soldiers during World War I would later come to be known as the Christmas Truce of 1914.
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The Truth About Al Capone's Rival, Bugs Moran
The Roaring Twenties roared in part because of the proliferation of organized crime, and Capone had his rivals back in the day, in more ways than one. We're talking about the crime boss George "Bugs" Moran, born Adelard Cunin, whose life intertwined with Capone's in dangerous ways.
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The True Story That Inspired Moby Dick
Herman Melville's classic novel Moby Dick is an essential part of American literature and popular culture. One of the most riveting things about the novel is that it's based on a lot of true events. Here are some true events that inspired Melville's Moby Dick.
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The Truth About The Christmas Pickle
The pickle may have once been just some parents' clever scheme to keep kids from rushing the tree on Christmas morning.
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Technology We Wouldn't Have Without World War II
While the atomic bomb is the most notable advancement to come out of World War II, there are a number of technologies that got their start during the war years.
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