Pope Benedict XVI, elected head of the Catholic Church in 2005, resigned in 2013. He isn't the first pope to do so, but he's the first in about 400 years. Longer than the United States has been in existence.
Read More"You were right." Surely one of the sweetest sentences in any language. It has to be even sweeter when applied to a theory that is eventually backed up by observable phenomena. Unfortunately, Albert Einstein, perhaps the most influential physicist who ever lived, isn't around to see this one.
Read MoreGreen Day may technically be affiliated with punk, but their bank accounts are a lot closer to the wealthy businessmen that the movement likes to criticize. Let's see just how much the members of Green Day are really worth.
Read MoreThe 1990's live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was a huge success. And it almost didn't happen, thanks to George Lucas and a talking duck.
Read MoreDisneyland and Disney World parks ban some odd items. Some of the following items might seem a bit weird, but hey it's Disney's house, Disney's rules.
Read MoreBut no matter how grating, exhausting, or awkward your government mandated anti-viral family time gets, it's unlikely that it will ever reach the heights of weirdness achieved by the Ernest Hemingway household in 1926.
Read MoreJohn Panozzo started drumming at age 8, tutored by an uncle who helped shape a style that eventually resulted in Styx, a legendary arena-rock band of the 1970s and '80s.
Read MoreYou can teach dogs to sit and speak, but good luck trying to get them to play the piano. Some dogs are even great hunting companions, but it's not like you can just take them to hunt lions. Anymore.
Read MoreRoughly the size of a small hummingbird, this is the smallest dinosaur ever discovered.
Read MoreDid you know that Seagal's first marriage to Miyako Fujitani also produced a daughter? This is the untold truth of Steven Seagal's oldest daughter, Ayako.
Read MoreCountry music is about patriotism, small town values, cheatin' hearts, farms and dogs and -- Waylon Jennings, whose lifetime of substance abuse over the course of a remarkable music career pretty much guaranteed he'd die painfully, and probably much too soon.
Read MoreLately, it's been pretty difficult to ignore the fact that Vince McMahon is a very, very rich man; and so is his wife, Linda. But at one point, things were so bad they had to declare bankruptcy.
Read MoreIf you grew up in the United States, you're familiar with a certain elementary school narrative regarding World War II, about how the U.S. triumphantly "ended the war" by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The truth? Well, it's a bit more complex, as usual.
Read MoreThe Sedlec Ossuary houses chalices, ornate wall ornaments, and even a chandelier that are all built from the bones of more than 40,000 skeletons. About 30,000 of those skeletons belonged to people who succumbed to the Black Death.
Read MoreAuthor Ronald Kessler lauds FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's decision to declare John Dillinger "Public Enemy Number One" as "a stroke of public relations genius." Back when Hoover made that famous pronouncement in 1934, though, much of the public might have begged to differ ...
Read MoreKing Tut. The name captures the imagination. Just ask Steve Martin, who did a famous musical number about Tutankhamen for Saturday Night Live. Like a lot of history, though, the details often get lost in the translation ... until science steps in and gives the low-down.
Read MoreMarvin Gaye gifted the world with so much in his short tenure on Earth. Most would say he owed us nothing else -- but maybe not the IRS.
Read MoreNCIS boasts some seriously impressive longevity — it still draws some impressive ratings and brings in huge guest stars. Much of the appeal comes from its impressive cast, as actors like Mark Harmon, David McCallum, and Pauley Perrette have done a great job of creating rounded, dynamic characters.
Read MoreWe live in a world that seems to equate fame and wealth with the worth of a person. Perhaps that's why, despite the fact that Andrew Cunanan murdered five people in a still-mysterious killing spree, he's primarily remembered for his final victim: world-renowned fashion designer Gianni Versace.
Read MoreDuring the a meeting with Donald Trump, Bill Gates reportedly asked the commander in chief why he hadn't yet appointed a science advisor, and claims that Trump offered him the job on the spot.
Read More"Space," as it was expertly described by Douglas Adams, "is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
Read MoreThe mighty Persian Empire was born in the cradle of civilization, ancient Mesopotamia. Also known as the Achaemenid Empire, it emerged as "the world's first superpower" in the 6th century B.C., and under the leadership of King Cyrus the Great, the Persians toppled Babylon, Media, and Lydia ...
Read MoreAlexander Hamilton. Brilliant, but also arrogant; witty, but also dismissive; married, and the father of seven, but also a cheater. Consensus is, it's this last part that kept him out of the White House himself.
Read MoreUp until the 18th century, Ireland had itself a wolf problem. Their solution: make bigger wolves.
Read MoreDonnie Yen and Jackie Chan appeared together on screen, in 2003's pseudo-western comedy Shanghai Knights. But which of them would win in a fist and foot shootout?
Read MoreLet's just say for the sake of argument that your cat will find itself in the position to be eaten by a bear. Could your cat outrun the bear? How fast would your cat have to be to avoid being eaten by a bear?
Read MoreEven Charles Darwin acknowledged that zebras have sexy stripes, and occasionally, donkeys can't hold their horses around those striped seducers. Love is blind, but it doesn't need to be when zebras are involved.
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