Lincoln is not just a good politician; he was also something of an inventor, dabbling in mechanical creativity. And he even managed a patent for one of his inventions, said Time Magazine, the first (and so far, only) president to hold a patent.
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These are the strangest status symbols throughout history.
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Contrary to popular belief, Clinton was not impeached for doing things with a cigar in the Oval Office. This is the true story of the Clinton impeachment.
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The unusual liqueur has been around since 1860, when Milan-based café owner Gaspare Campari bottled some of the stuff in his basement, as recounted by Saveur. Its candied vermilion hue, spiced yet bitter taste retains a refined, unique quality that beckons the drinker to challenge their senses.
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Besides Vaseline in particular, Coolidge had some interesting ideas about health in general. The website Medicare Supplement ranks him as the 22nd healthiest president in history, earning a grade of C and receiving the dubious distinction of "pickiest eater of all presidents."
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Loeb wanted to make the newspapers with a crime so sensational that the press couldn't help but take notice. Although Leopold would later claim that he only went along with the plan "to please Dick" (via PBS), he had his own interest in committing the perfect crime.
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Is it such a stretch for a movie like The Big Lebowski to inspire some sort of life credo? Think about it for a second. How bad could a religion be that brings the laid-back teachings of "The Dude" to life?
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"The woman of the year 2000 will be an outsize Diana, anthropologists and beauty experts predict. She will be more than six feet tall, wear a size 11 shoe, have shoulders like a wrestler and muscles like a truck driver." According to Roe, women would have "Amazonian" proportions.
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While a "day in the life of" may not be as glamorous as Chuck Norris delivering roundhouse kicks to the jaws of '90s TV ruffians, the small cadre of elite Texan police plays an actual, prominent role in the state's law enforcement and criminal investigation, kind of like a Texas-only FBI.
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The majority of people who've never taken a philosophy class have a hard time naming -- or caring about, for that matter -- more than a handful of philosophers, but any middle school student could tell you who Pythagoras was. He was the guy with the triangles. All of the "a²+b²=c²" nonsense.
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The beginning of a new year has always been cause for celebration, introspection, and superstition, but as we saw in 1999 when Y2K was a thing, it's also a time for fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It wasn't so different 1,000 years ago. Here's what it was really like on New Year's, 1000 AD.
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Living in the Wild West wasn't easy, but doctors did their best to save their patients. Here's what life was like for doctors in the Wild West.
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"Maybe I didn't deserve to win the race, but neither did he," Andretti told Motor Trend Magazine. "The rule was clear, and a rule is a rule. Bobby won the race, but he cheated winning it. There's an asterisk next to that one." But it wasn't that simple.
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ZME Science reported in 2017 that they used sonar technology to uncover sunken boats, cars, a Civil War-era pier and structures that looked like boulders arranged similarly to those found in England's Stonehenge -- where about 100 stones stand in a circle.
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They date back to about the 14th Century, but very little else is known about them and "the skill and genius of a civilization that we know ... nothing about."
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If there was ever a book for both military leaders and businessmen alike, it's The Art of War by the Chinese philosopher and strategist Sun Tzu. His writings detailed the Chinese army's military strategies, including information on weapons and the importance of intelligence tactics.
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Robbing graves was common in the 17th to 19th centuries, when doctors needed cadavers to experiment with. This is what it was really like being a grave robber.
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Science fiction has been successfully and very unsuccessfully predicting the future since its conception. Futurism was once a wacky, fun thing to talk about. Will we have jetpacks and be kicking it with aliens while we travel the universe? Now, of course, the predictions are much darker. Or weirder.
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Here's why Caleb Followill was hated by his Kings of Leon bandmates -- who happen to all be members of his own family.
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Vestal Virgins in ancient Rome were typically upper-class women selected to serve the goddess of the hearth, Vesta. What it was really like to be a Vestal Virgin included keeping the sacred flame at the Temple of Vesta going, performing rituals, and taking a vow of chastity for 30 years.
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When you open the news and find out the stock market crashed, you often see photos of despondent stockbrokers on the floor of the stock exchange. The trading floor is one of the most iconic areas of finance, and not everyone understands what it's like to work there.
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For many people, King Arthur is more than just a character in an epic poem, they believe he must be a real historical figure. After all, the Arthurian legend has been told over several generations.
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Cholera is a bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea, vomiting, and leg cramps and is transmitted through contaminated food and water.
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Certain U.S. vice presidents would have done better staying away from Pennsylvania Avenue. And some of them found themselves promoted to the highest office in the world and failing just as much as they did as vice presidents. These are the worst vice presidents in American history.
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Many of those who study dictators as either political commentators or psychological investigators make the point that the reverse side of narcissism is paranoia. These two traits have emerged in an interweaved manner through the behavior of countless dictatorial figures throughout history.
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Lord Byron was a Romantic poet, aristocrat, and British politician best known for the works of Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in the 19th century. The crazy true story of Lord Byron includes fame, fortune, and a wild string of affairs across Europe until his death at age 36 in Greece.
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Witch-hunters oversaw the deaths of thousands due to fear and uncertainty, but who were these men? Here's what it was really like being a witch-hunter.
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