In 1258, Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate and the heart of what was effectively the Arab empire fell to the besieging army of Ghengis Khan's grandson, Hulagu Khan. But things had been going downhill for a while.
Read MoreJim Crow laws became a guiding principle in the South. What were they, and how bad was life living underneath them? This is the untold truth of Jim Crow.
Read MoreThe Talking Heads had a successful 16-year musical career, which ultimately ended when Byrne decided to leave the band in 1991. Here's why.
Read MoreGeorge Harrison is remember as the quiet Beatle, but he was much more than that. This is the untold truth of George Harrison.
Read MoreEven Michelangelo's David, a seemingly innocuous statue, made a statement in its day.
Read MoreMaya Angelou has become one the most influential and popular authors in American history, and she overcame more than her fair share of hardship to do so. This is the tragic real-life story of Maya Angelou.
Read MoreThere's no catch-all for psychiatric wellness. At times in history, the insane asylum was a catch-all, and not the kind of place you'd want to spend a moment.
Read MoreWhen people die young, it's almost always a tragedy. It becomes even worse when they died of something that may have been prevented. He is perhaps unknown to many in the West -- less so by people not mathematically-inclined -- but Srinivasa Ramanujan died of something easily curable at a young age.
Read MoreLong hair, spandex, showmanship, and an after-show lifestyle that, according to David Lee Roth, made devoted hedonists like Led Zeppelin "look like Boy Scouts," combined to create a pop culture force of nature.
Read MoreSoundgarden often sang of sadness, misery, and despondence, topics the group's members knew all too well.
Read More1919's Red Summer race riots are a little-known fragment of America's bloody struggle with racism that portrays yet another link in the nation's chain of systemic ignorance, oppression, and violence.
Read MoreThe tragic true story of the Tulsa Race Massacre is a dark spot in American history, and thanks to decades of silence, you've probably never heard of it.
Read MoreWe have a creeping suspicion you'll know which song, but let's take a look at the Radiohead hit song that Thom Yorke hates.
Read MoreThe British medical journal The Lancet reported in 1997 on three verifiable cases of medical zombification. It's alive!
Read MoreYou don't really hear about Woolworth's anymore. It stands to reason, seeing as the company's mark on history largely comes down to "they sold ham sandwiches in a retail setting." But the store was the site of an important civil rights victory.
Read MoreFrederick Douglass went from slave to self-taught intellectual and abolitionist hero to serving as a diplomat under multiple presidents. This is the crazy real-life story of Frederick Douglass.
Read MoreIn America, we called them dime novels. The English called them penny dreadfuls.
Read MoreAs an artist with a vast musical output in many styles, Madonna's back catalog is so impossibly robust and encompasses so many subgenres of pop that even the most hardcore Madonna fan would probably find it difficult to adore all her music equally. In fact, she outright hates one of her own songs.
Read MoreThere was one particularly awful piece of paper that Hendrix was unfortunate enough to sign in 1965. What did this contract entail, and why did it have such a vast impact on the musician's life?
Read MoreNPR is usually seen as boring and nerdy, so it may be a surprise that even vanilla NPR is still frequently embroiled in scandal. Here are some of the biggest.
Read MoreAfter Young Hannibal depicted Hannibal Lecter as a samurai-themed kid seeking revenge on his sister's killers, it was easy to think that Hollywood has said all it has to say about a certain cannibal murderer. NBC's Hannibal promptly proved everyone wrong by bringing Dr. Lecter on the small screen.
Read MoreTom Petty was a Florida kid, born in 1950 in Gainesville, the first son of Earl and Kitty Petty. Things weren't exactly smooth sailing early on.
Read MoreJames Gunn, the writer and director of the first two movies in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy series — and, if nothing goes horribly wrong again, the planned third entry — loves his Easter eggs.
Read MoreIt took a couple of hundred years, but some members of what passed as the medical profession started to ask whether tobacco and cigarette smoking was really such a good idea after all.
Read MoreAround this time, Butler described having experienced a late night, supernatural visitation in which a black silhouette stood at the foot of his bed. The harrowing tale became the basis for a new song, titled "Black Sabbath," named after a 1963 Boris Karloff film.
Read MoreOn the night in question, Owen Hart was given a dramatically absurd entrance. The plan was that he'd be lowered by a cable, beginning his descent far up in the rafters of the packed Kemper Arena in Kansas City. Things didn't go as planned.
Read MoreThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- the NAACP -- was officially founded in 1909, but its roots stretched farther back into history -- from the time enslaving human beings was not only tolerated, but legally protected in this country.
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