Like much of Disney's output in the '80s and '90s, the tale of a pauper whose fortunes change thanks to a chance encounter with a genie in a lamp was appropriated from a much older fairytale. In Aladdin's case it's a story that researchers think may have a real historical figure at its heart.
Read MoreHe was the King of Rock n' Roll in life, but his death was anything but distinguished. According to musical legend Leonard Bernstein, Elvis was the "greatest cultural force in the 20th century." But he died too young.
Read MoreAn alternative voting method has been making huge strides in the past few years, which combines the benefits of caucuses and traditional voting in one bright, shiny package: it's called ranked-choice voting. Here's how it works.
Read More"I am Spartacus." It's a rallying cry to this day, people together for a common cause, acting as one. But whether or not the moment actually happened in history, we're still asking: Who was Spartacus?
Read MoreWhat do the richest people in the world have in common, aside from owning suits worth more than your life savings? Are all the richest people geniuses? Were they mostly born rich? Here are the stories of the richest people in the world.
Read MoreWhether you liked his music or not, the world of music could probably do with more characters like the late Tom Petty. But if there's one thing about him that wasn't petty, it was his cash.
Read MoreBorn in Detroit, Michigan in 1941, James Phillip Hoffa has spent most of his life as labor union royalty. He joined the Teamsters on his 18th birthday, and studied law at the University of Michigan. From 1968 to 1993, he worked as a Teamster attorney. Where is he now?
Read MoreIf you could turn yourself invisible, would you use your powers for good or evil? Be honest. Thanks to science, you may one day have to consider this question seriously.
Read MoreSure, Bruce Lee was fast, and agile, and the most universally revered martial arts star in history. But how strong was he? Regardless of the man's combat prowess, he was still an extremely slight guy -- a stick figure in a yellow jumpsuit, if you will.
Read MoreBeing an author is hard, but when it goes right, it goes right. Some people have managed to use the art of stringing words together to rake in countless millions. So which one of these precious few has done it the best? Who, in fact, is the richest author in the world right now?
Read MoreFor Catholics, fasting during the Lenten season (Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday) is a way to practice spiritual discipline and penance leading up to their holiest day of the year. In 17th century Bavaria, however, some very clever monks spent their Lent living off of nothing but beer.
Read MoreLife hasn't been easy for Carlos Santana. In fact, it's been a long and bumpy road to legendary status for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.
Read MoreOn 24 February, 2020, author Clive Cussler died at 88 years old. He lived a pretty extraordinary life. And a pretty successful one.
Read MoreIt's one of those moments in espionage history when someone probably said, "That plan is so crazy, it just might work." Which is fine for movies, but in real life, generally, if the plan is that crazy, it really won't work. Case in point: the incident now known as The Great Locomotive Chase.
Read MoreIn 1990, Willie Nelson found himself at odds with the Internal Revenue Service to the tune of more money than you will ever even find yourself tangentially connected to.
Read MoreThe mortality rate of the coronavirus is somewhere around two percent, and there's no telling just how contagious it is until more data trickles in. What's more, there's a chance that there'll be an outbreak in the U.S. as well. So, what should we do to protect ourselves?
Read MoreJust one month before the release of Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee died in Hong Kong, where he had been working on what was his final, uncompleted film, Game of Death. But it was never fully realized.
Read MoreFor decades, Motley Crue has been a borderline unavoidable presence for even the most casual rock fan. Time after time, they've been bombarding us with hit songs, bad behavior, Netflix specials about songs and bad behavior ... well, you get the idea. But how much have they made?
Read MoreOn February 24, 2020, Rolling Stone dropped a bomb for the metalheads looking forward to Metallica's upcoming festival gigs: The metal juggernaut has canceled its appearances on both May's Sonic Temple festival and September's Louder than Life. Here's why.
Read MoreThe J.M. Smucker Company, manufacturers of Jif peanut butter, have teamed up with popular GIF database Giphy to produce limited edition peanut butter jars that may settle the pronunciation debate.
Read MoreIf the first images of record-breaking glacial melt in Antarctica didn't send you running for your climate comfort blanket, how about these latest images of bloody ice shelves calving into unforgiving seas?
Read MoreActing on a new directive to extend the orbital reach of satellites tens of thousands of miles in the direction of the moon, the shadowy R&D arm of the Pentagon is hard at work on a "nuclear thermal propulsion" engine.
Read MoreAll kinds of disasters, natural and otherwise, have rocked the American landscape through history. Many of them, like the Great Chicago Fire, are remembered by nearly everyone. Other disasters have faded into oblivion, forgotten by all those except the ones who lived them.
Read MorePretty much everyone who grew up in the '90s knows who Pocahontas is. Disney Princess, love interest of the great explorer John Smith, Native American nobility. Yes, Disney taught us many things about the Powhatan heroine, and they're all wrong. Mostly. Here's the truth about Pocahontas.
Read MoreEveryone wants to leave their mark on history, and there's no better way to do that than having something important named after you. Sometimes, that thing is a medical condition. What do you do to earn that? Here are real-life people who had medical conditions named after them.
Read MoreSometimes, coincidences just kind of ... happen, and don't really mean anything. Other times, they might be signs of a vast global conspiracy, a magic spell, or extraterrestrial surveillance, depending on who sees them. These bizarre coincidences all happened on the same date.
Read MoreA new study published in the journal Physical Review Letters may have the solution to science's most angst-ridden puzzle -- why the universe exists at all.
Read More
