The coronavirus (COVID-19) is the latest in a litany of pandemics that have been unleashed upon society, a powerful threat with a global impact. It's no wonder that pandemics throughout history have more often than not coincided with significant civil unrest.
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Serial killings had to have started somewhere — they weren't birthed by some mystical demon. This is a very human problem that started somewhere in our history, and the earliest known serial killer may have been the child butcher Gilles de Rais. Was this man history's first recorded serial killer?
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Spencer Silver discovered that his glue had microspheres that retain stickiness. He couldn't think of a use for his invention; after all, the goal was to find a new adhesive that could stick anywhere. So his microsphere-filled, removable adhesive sat on a shelf for several years.
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The Amish have a bit of a reputation as a devoutly religious group who live simply, without modern conveniences. But there is a dark truth to the group.
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At the age of 77, Joe Biden would be the oldest president in United States history were he to win the 2020 election. That's why many wonder if Joe Biden would run for president in 2024 if he loses to President Donald Trump.
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If President Donald Trump loses the 2020 US election, what happens then? Some think he'll refuse to peacefully hand over the presidency. Others think he'll try to become president again in 2024, which begs the question: Can Donald Trump run for president in 2024 if he loses to Joe Biden?
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In the constitution, the rules for future presidents were outlined, including a natural citizenship requirement and an age requirement. The age requirement to run for president of the United States starts at 35. The president's age was of great debate in the 1700s.
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Some candidates try again and again to be president, but success forever eludes their grasp. So you might be wondering, what's the most times someone has run for president of the United States?
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Hundreds of years ago, though, our ancestors made up their own mythology about the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis.
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Christmas will never be immune to buzz-killing shortages. These are the worst Christmas shortages in history.
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According to Smithsonian magazine, some 2,000-4,000 golden lancehead vipers live on the island officially known as Ilha da Queimada Grande (which translates literally to Big Burned Island, though its colloquial name obviously suits it better).
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At what point in history did we as a people decide, yes, pants they are important? That was right around the time we decided walking was for losers and started riding horses. Yep, horses are the reason for all this pants nonsense.
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The history of the pencil is inextricably linked with the entire history of human communication as it flowed from oral traditions to written communication, and the development of written languages, where tiny scrawled symbols denoted sounds made by the human mouth, tongue, and throat.
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Not only did Columbus not discover America -- there were already Native Americans who had been living there for thousands of years -- he literally never set foot in what became the continental United States.
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Traditionally, it's been attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, a theologian and professor of Middle East and Greek literature. For some years now, academics and descendants of the poet Henry Livingston, Jr., have claimed he should have bragging rights for creating it.
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If you're a writer, it's something you expect to have on you at all times. The ballpoint pen, your trusted companion throughout school and the days when checks were still being used, has only been around since the 1930s. And we have one man to thank: Lászó Biró.
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Remember the Alamo? The battle famously left very few survivors after Mexican troops advanced into the garrison. Among those few survivors were Susanna Dickinson and her daughter, Angelina. Dickinson and other survivors corroborated much of what we know about the siege and final assault.
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Also known as the "Pennsylvanian Fireplace," Franklin wrote in his autobiography that he invented the stove in 1742, but according to Founders Online, it was more likely during the winter of 1739-1740. The stove was a metal-lined fireplace that stood away from a building's chimney.
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Common characteristics include a coffin-shaped handle, a heavy cross guard -- the piece of metal found at a right angle to the blade above the handle -- and a "sweeping clip blade" with a "partially sharp top edge." The blade itself might measure anywhere from 9-12 inches in length.
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It's a small, ubiquitous little tool, so common and unassuming that it's easy to take it for granted. But for all its many uses, the paperclip is actually a relatively recent invention. The humble item now litters almost every office desk drawer in America.
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Indian cobras are "large highly venomous snakes," one of the "'big four' species that inflict the most snakebites on humans in India." Native to southeast Asia, they are "can be found throughout India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and southern Nepal," often near water. But Missouri? Not so much.
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The hot evolutionary question at the moment is, "why do so many creatures evolve into crabs?" It's a query that suggests many more questions: What do you mean, so many creatures? Do different animals evolve into the same thing? Could it happen again? What is so special about crabs?
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In 1941, about two weeks prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, an advertisement in The New Yorker seemed to predict the attack.
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We know what you're thinking. Ireland is just about as far from Australia as you can get, both in terms of distance and climate — how could wallabies possibly be living there? Well, as you can guess, they didn't get there naturally.
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Taking part in the liberation of World War II's concentration camps was an unimaginable horror that most Allied troops did not expect. It's estimated that up to 20 million people died in concentration camps. A small percentage survived to be liberated by Allied troops during World War II.
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The 2010s were full of brutal, gruesome movies. But not all of them got the attention they deserved. From psychologically disturbing dramas to gory horror flicks, these are the darkest movies of the past decade that nobody is talking about.
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Everywhere you drive, people or things are constantly reminding you to buckle up. That's what makes it all the weirder that when kids get on a school bus, there are no seatbelts to be found. How is that legal? Well, here are the details you need to know about why buses don’t have seatbelts.
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