In 2005, the same year as when the Vatican started offering its exorcism course, a 23-year old novice nun, Maricica Irina Cornici, was found dead in Holy Trinity Monastery, a convent located in Tanacu, Romania.
Read More
What's the big deal about a fish being found in an old boat in the sea? The archaeologists believe that the sturgeon was part of a royal power play that ended up an epic fail at the bottom of the sea.
Read More
The "best-equipped and most technologically advanced Arctic expedition to that date" set sail on May 19 with a crew of 134 men and enough provisions to last three years. Despite the planning and care that went into preparing for the journey, the boats disappeared just two months later.
Read More
The Dendera light is a motif carved into the walls of the Hathor Temple in Dendera, Egypt. The image, depicted across three stone reliefs inside the temple, shows a unique depiction of what, at first, looks to be a light bulb shaped like a Crookes tube, with a cord snaking through the middle.
Read More
You might know NASA sent the first men to the Moon in 1969, but how much do you know about the events that caused NASA to be created?
Read More
The Moon is not actually quite as attached to us as you'd think. In fact, it's ever so slowly inching away from Earth, like a guest at an awful party tactically maneuvering toward the exit.
Read More
We're all familiar with ancient Egypt, but what about the other grand cultures of Africa? Here are some incredible African civilizations you've never heard of.
Read More
Zhu took on the name Hongwu and claimed he had the divine right to rule, becoming an absolute monarch. Wary of losing his throne to violence -- after all, he took it by violence -- he stamped down rebellions and even established secret police.
Read More
Medicine, law, war, and entertainment were all very different 100 years ago. Here are some creepy things that were considered normal 100 years ago.
Read More
They're classified as pyrophyllites, a layered silicate formed by hydrothermal alteration (i.e., they dried out). Despite their names, they're not, in fact, spheres, but somewhat flat, oval, and some have three parallel lines across their length. The kicker? They're about 3 billion years old.
Read More
You might have some Neanderthal DNA of your very own. Think of them as cousins. Just like you and your cousins, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals had some key differences.
Read More
The dark reign of the guillotine came and went. This was the last time a guillotine was used in France as a for of execution.
Read More
This legendary swordsman, like all samurai, began his training when he was a wee one, and he wasn't much bigger when he attained his first victory. As The Karate Lifestyle relates, Musashi fought his first sword duel at the age of 13, defeating a fully trained, adult samurai in single combat.
Read More
Think of a sundial, which catches the light and deploys a shadow to tell the viewer what time it was. In practical terms, this meant each village operated under its own solar time, because their relative position to the sun was unique, which in turn produces an individualized time.
Read More
Milgram believed his experiment proved that ordinary people, when directed by an authority figure, would behave in ways that ran counter to their own moral or ethical beliefs. In October 1963, he published his findings in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.
Read More
The United States has had a long, sad history of racial violence, and shockingly, few of these incidents are widely remembered. There are the U.S. race riots history forgot.
Read More
One of the most advanced civilizations outside of Greece is also one of the most mysterious. The Etruscans lived in Italy, in what is now Tuscany, but researchers are only now starting to piece their history together.
Read More
Innocent things, like Candy Land, the invention of mini golf, and the treadmill were actually inspired by disease, moral codes, and prison work.
Read More
TV shows can end well, or they can break their fans' hearts on the way out. Here are some of the the darkest TV finales in history.
Read More
Writer and humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain, was called "the Dean of American literature" and "the greatest American humorist of his age" and his books are still widely read today. Here's a look at some of his famous friendships.
Read More
Heroin is now considered to be a dangerous drug that is extremely addictive. However, this wasn't always the case.
Read More
Such was the case with the amazingly comically named Bald Knobbers, a band of vigilante costume-wearers who, as cited by Legends of America, prowled southwest Missouri in the years following the Civil War, taking the law into their own hands.
Read More
Many historical families throughout history have allegedly been cursed. Here are the stories of some historical families that are famously cursed.
Read More
A country once wanted to make him its president, simply for being Albert Einstein. The country in question was the newly-founded Israel, and when their first president, Chaim Weizman, died in 1952, the country promptly reached out to the Jewish Einstein and offered him the presidency.
Read More
King Haakon told his cabinet that, if they disagreed with his decision, he would not stand in their way. If they gave in to the Germans, however, he would have no choice but to abdicate the throne, according to the Royal House of Norway. The government unanimously took his side.
Read More
This politically important island hides more than you can imagine. Inside the Rock of Gibraltar lies a maze of tunnels. Tunnels that became of great importance for the British during World War II and marked the Rock, as it's sometimes called, as a staging area for troops.
Read More
Regarding the role of women in ancient Mali, there is, unfortunately, very little firsthand information. Much can be inferred, and insight comes from Ibn Battuta, who, according to Britannica, was a traveler and author of the medieval Muslim world who traveled 120,000 kilometers during his life.
Read More