Who was the Man in the Iron Mask? What was his crime? Did he really wear a skillet on his face for 30-plus years? Well, the answers to all those questions, in order, are ‘hard to say,’ ‘nobody's sure,’ and ‘probably not.’
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Ernest Hemingway had a Nobel Prize in literature and, three years before, picked up a Pulitzer. He also had a boatload of wives.
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Henry VIII was deathly afraid of being poisoned. But what really killed him may have already been inside him.
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If your dog is calm and collected 24/7, it might be best to check its pulse. That being said, there are certain dog breeds that are significantly less hyper than others. So today's quest to find -- drum roll -- the calmest dog breed in the world.
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Nicolas Cage is one crazy dude, and he should, of course, have an equally eccentric grave site. Cage's final resting place — an honest-to-God pyramid, which is already perched up in New Orleans' Saint Louis No. 1 Cemetery — does not disappoint. Here's the truth about Nicolas Cage's pyramid tomb.
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Ted Bundy is arguably the most infamous serial killer in the annals of American crime. And if you've ever read or watched anything about him, you probably know he was highly intelligent. But just what was Ted Bundy's actual IQ?
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Besides (we admit we're speculating here) a hope chest full of tommy guns and brass knuckles, Alphonse Gabriel Capone -- ol' Scarface himself -- had wheels.
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Every dog owner knows about the strange, yet adorable doggy behavior known as sleep twitching. But do we know for sure that dogs actually dream? Hey, looks like we've collectively stumbled onto a mystery! Come, let's take a moment to look at the real reason your dog is twitching in its sleep.
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The stories of antiquity are filled with great generals. But of all the great heroes of the classical period, none conquered as much or as quickly as Alexander the Great.
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Queen Victoria had her supporters, but also her detractors. Over the course of 42 years, at least eight times someone tried to cut short her reign. Here's the truth about every assassination attempt on Queen Victoria.
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"Remember, remember," theatrically inclined teenagers will tell you, "the fifth of November." Over the last forty years, Guy Fawkes and his grinning visage have occupied an ever-growing corner of the societal hive mind. But here's the true meaning behind the mask.
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The royal life isn't for everybody, with its constant demands and unceasing visibility. Some people don't want that. That seems to have been the case with Princess Feodora, who dodged the royal throne by being born to the wrong dad. Here's the truth about Queen Victoria's sister Princess Feodora.
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Pat Garrett was a buffalo hunter, a cowboy, a sheriff, and the man who killed Billy the Kid.
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The ancient Egyptians were deadly serious about their board games, especially when it came to senet. This board game wasn’t about having fun. It was about death and the afterlife.
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Energetic, happy dogs running in the park with their owners are certainly cool, but sometimes, the situation calls for the opposite.
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Genghis Khan was the first Khal Drogo and the fifth horseman of the apocalypse. The seemingly indomitable Mongol conqueror cemented his legacy while raining searing, equine death on the Khwarazm empire in 1219. But even great warriors meet their own end. Here's the truth about Genghis Khan's death.
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The last song Janis Joplin ever recorded was about a car. Her voice was the engine powering the a capella masterpiece, "Mercedes Benz." Of course, according to the lyrics, her friends all drove Porsches, and according to reality, so did she. But whatever happened to Janis Joplin's famous Porsche?
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Al Capone had a lot of love for his child, Albert Francis Capone, better known as "Sonny." Here's what to know about Albert Francis Capone, Al Capone's son.
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The ukulele is one of those things that comes and goes in popular culture. Small, sprightly, lightweight, a uke can literally fit in your pocket.
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You don't hear much about smallpox today. According to the CDC, nobody has died of smallpox since 1978. And that's thanks to the first vaccine ever created.
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Jeffrey Dahmer said of his first murder victim, "The guy wanted to leave and I didn't want him to leave." But here's how Dahmer himself died.
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Margaret Tudor was the daughter of King Henry VII and older sister of King Henry VIII. She was promised in marriage to James IV of Scotland, part of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace between England and Scotland in 1502. But there's more to her story.
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Medellin Cartel founder and Cocaine King of Colombia, Pablo Escobar, was by some accounts the wealthiest criminal in history. But what happened to his money once he died?
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Let's rip this Band-Aid off up front: Alexander the Great's horse was named Bucephalus, and no, his name didn't mean anything that you're imagining.
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Late fees, man -- the clawing, creeping, unfortunate fact of the video rental age. But now that the great beast Blockbuster has been bound in the ancient tongue and imprisoned in a strip mall in Bend, Oregon, can we finally rest easy about our late fees?
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The year is 1947. The Allies have slogged through years of bloody warfare, but in the end emerge triumphant over the powers of the Axis. The boys are home. The world is at peace. Nothin' but good times ahead. Right? Not for Elizabeth Short, also known as "The Black Dahlia."
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If tales by his contemporaries are to be believed, Grigori Rasputin was a nigh-unkillable villain with lust in his loins, lunacy in his brain, and evil where his heart should have been. Here's the disturbing truth of his death.
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