• A jeweler takes an up-close look at a diamond

    Diamonds Aren't Made Of Coal. Here's What They're Really Made Of

    Coal is formed through the fossilization of dead plant matter. Since land plants only emerged on Earth about 450 million years ago, coal itself dates back only 300 or 400 million years. This means that diamonds -- which are over a billion years old -- predate coal by hundreds of millions of years.
  • Vince McMahon

    This Was Vince McMahon's Childhood Idol

    Considering Vince McMahon has harbored rivalries with everyone from Triple H (who would go on to be his son-in-law) to Bret "The Hitman" Hart to Randy Orton -- even with his own children Stephanie and Shane -- his actual childhood idol makes a lot more sense.
  • Dolly Parton with eagle and eagle handler, 2003

    Here's Why Dollywood Has A Connection To Eagles

    The many attractions of Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, include fairway rides, a reproduction of the two-room cabin in which Dolly grew up, an entire water park, and the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, an enormous aviary measuring 30,000 square feet
  • Buzz Aldrin

    Who Are The Men Who Have Walked On The Moon?

    We walked on the moon for the first time in 1969, and since then there's been a rarefied group of people who've set foot on our planetary satellite. The United States no longer sends people to the moon on missions, so the group remains small. (And no, there's no evidence we faked it.)
  • Scorpions performing in Rio in 2019

    Here's Why People Think The CIA Wrote A Scorpions Song

    It was "Wind of Change" that has led some to believe that Scorpions were reaching beyond mere musical expression and into the realm of politics. It wasn't just a song about envisioning a free future for all people, as the lyrics say -- oh, no. It was CIA-created propaganda.
  • Gregg Allman

    The Tragic Death Of Gregg Allman

    Gregg Allman was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 2007, for which he received a liver transplant. In the following years, he would go on to suffer from liver cancer. The band continued to tour, but Gregg's worsening health problems would force them to stop in 2014.
  • Weird Al Yankovic, 1987

    The Odd Location Where 'Weird Al' Yankovic Recorded His First Hit

    "Weird Al"'s career really started with "My Bologna," a parody of the Knack's hit "My Sharona," described succinctly by Rolling Stone: "accompanied only by his accordion, the song is a G-rated ode to bologna" which "launched a hugely successful career that is going strong to this day."
  • Alcatraz prison

    Here's Why There Were Often Kids Around Alcatraz

    A prison can't operate without staff, including Alcatraz. Many of the police officers, prison guards, and other staff who worked in the prison lived on the island with their families, including young children. There was another side to the island, where staff kept their homes and raised kids.
  • A tile depiction of Adam, Eve, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden

    The Truth About The Serpent In The Garden Of Eden

    The Biblical story of the Garden of Eden centers around four key characters: God, Adam, Eve, and the serpent. To many, the serpent is a particularly interesting character, representing cunning and evil, standing in opposition to God's goodness and grace.
  • Solar system 3D image via NASA

    How Humans Contaminated The Solar System

    We've also littered the heavens. We know it might be a problem someday. There's everything we've left behind on the Moon and on Mars, the probes we've sent deep into space, and probes like Venera 7 that have dropped onto Venus. Closer to home is the trash currently orbiting Earth itself.
  • Mary Pinchot Meyer

    The Mysterious Murder Of A JFK Mistress

    Not all of Kennedy's mistresses received the same treatment. Mary Pinchot Meyer, a talented painter and the daughter of a wealthy progressive lawyer and a journalist, was a long-time Kennedy mistress whose death, although less well known than Marilyn Monroe, was no less shrouded in mystery.
  • A photograph of Harriet Tubman, circa 1900

    The Time Harriet Tubman Fell Victim To A Conman

    One of Tubman's encounters with danger stands out from the rest, but not because of a slave owner or someone on the hunt for her reward money. It came from a hustler who was uncommonly good at his job, who left Tubman beaten and bound in the woods of Auburn, New York.
  • Lauryn Hill

    Whatever Happened To Lauryn Hill?

    Many of Hill's friends and collaborators point to one relationship which has been especially destructive since her 1990s hey-day, a relationship which came into being just as Hill was at her most vulnerable, feeling the pressures of both public life and supporting a family as a working mother.
  • nostrils

    You Should Never Pluck Your Nose Hair. Here's Why

    Although they can be annoying at times, nose hairs actually serve a vital health purpose. Coated with a thin layer of mucus and as dense as the hair on your head, nose hairs protect us from pollen, dust, germs, and other airborne particles we would otherwise breathe in -- a first line of defense.
  • Bob Dylan, musician

    The Reason Bob Dylan Backed Out Of Woodstock

    Some of the biggest acts around performed, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, but Dylan took a hard pass. What could have been more important?
  • Crossroads

    What Happened With Robert Johnson And The Crossroads?

    The legend is that Johnson entered into a Faustian pact: that his great ability as a guitarist and vocalist was down to Johnson selling his soul to the devil, a deal which took place at the crossroads of Highways 49 and 61 in Mississippi, according to how the legend is recounted by Biography.
  • BIlly the Kid

    How Many Men Did Billy The Kid Kill?

    In August 1877, during a poker game, McCarty trades insults with a local blacksmith, Francis Cahill. The game turns violent. Cahill pins McCarty to the ground, and McCarty shoots. Cahill dies two days later.
  • Whitesnake in 1987

    The Untold Truth Of Whitesnake

    Whitesnake is 1987 all the way, and the band's megahit "Here I Go Again" is perhaps the catchiest hard rock song of all time. Whitesnake has a complex history that stretches over four decades. Here are a few things you probably don't know about the band.
  • Mathew B. Brady (1823-1896), prominent American photographer, created a successful portrait business prior to the U.S. Civil War. Ca. 1870.

    The Untold Truth Of Civil War Photographer Mathew Brady

    The 19th-century photographer Mathew Brady, who went from taking portraits of the rich and famous to taking death portraits on Civil War battlefields, is known for depicting the cost of war. The truth of Civil War photographer Mathew Brady is he funded the photojournalism himself and went into debt.
  • Alcatraz Island

    The Truth About The Brutal Punishments In Alcatraz

    With voguish gangsters and bootleggers like Al "Scarface" Capone and George "Machine Gun Kelly" Barnes capturing the public's attention, the government knew it needed an equally dramatic response to their sensational criminality, one that would strike fear in the hearts of potential lawbreakers.