Tsar Nicholas I of Russia is credited with coining the phrase "sick man of Europe" to refer to the declining Ottoman Empire. Though, as documented in The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, Nicholas actually said, "We have a sick man on our hands, a very sick man." How far the mighty had fallen.
Read MoreAlmost 150 years later, we still aren't sure who Jack the Ripper was. A prominent suspect with contemporary investigators is Aaron Kosminski.
Read MoreJohnny Cash started out poor, born in Arkansas as the fourth of seven children (four boys, three girls). As it turns out, losing his a sibling had a profound impact on him.
Read MoreAs The Book of Absinthe describes, the ever-witty Oscar Wilde once said, "After the first glass of absinthe you see things as you wish they were. After the second you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world."
Read MoreThere are precious few statements that all music fans can wholeheartedly agree on, but it's probably fair to say that "Jimi Hendrix was a very good guitarist" is one of them. But would he live long enough to see the fruits of his success?
Read MoreThere are a couple of schools of thought concerning the events which led Chuck Berry to hit Keith Richards so hard that his life Jumpin' Jack Flashed before his eyes. Here they are.
Read MoreHenry Hill, the gangster who inspired the book Wiseguy and Ray Liotta's performance in Goodfellas didn't die of lead poisoning, so to speak. His was a much slower passage.
Read MoreWe all know Davy Crockett, but less known is the story of his rival, Mike Fink.
Read MoreThe Doobie Brothers have had a truly glorious and long-lasting career that's made doubly more impressive by the fact that it's been in the highly volatile world of rock 'n' roll. But has it left anything in the musicians' pockets, or has the rock star life left them penniless?
Read MoreJosef Mengele was a breed of monster all his own, a doctor who opted not to heal the sick but instead conducted torturous and often fatal experiments on Jews at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Here's how he died.
Read MoreOnly half of the emperor of China actually died in office. And that's just the beginning. This is the tragic history of Chinese emperors.
Read MoreThe tiniest countries in the world are so small even America's smallest states look giant in comparison. These are the tiniest countries in the world.
Read MoreThe list of musicians who died in plane crashes includes solo icons but also partial or entire bands. Here are plane crashes that nearly wiped out entire bands.
Read MoreIs it strange to think that a guy got good enough at magic tricks to afford his own resort with a land mass roughly seven times the size of Vatican City? Sure, but it might be more shocking to realize that Copperfield is one of the most financially lucrative solo acts in history.
Read MoreA 1993 study showed that just shy of half of the members of the yakuza had been ritualistically deprived of a portion of their finger, and that 15% of those had undergone the procedure more than once. The practice is called "yubitsume," or "finger shortening," and it goes back over a hundred years.
Read MoreHygiene is your friend in the best of times. However, now that the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the world into the blurst of times, sanitizing surfaces seems more paramount than ever. But what about the surfaces that go in your mouth?
Read MoreIt's a frog-eat-frog world, and it's only getting hungrier. However, the award for the most WTF defense goes to the aptly named "horror" frog, which freaking breaks its own toes and turns them into weapons.
Read MoreHe was named Johnny Cash (except when he wasn't). He always wore black (except when he didn't). Complicated? Of course he was. Everyone is. For instance, it's worth examining his famous song "Folsom Prison Blues," and what inspired it ...
Read MoreHere's how one town avoided the initial onset of the pandemic.
Read MoreWith "social distancing" expertly positioning itself as 2020's Word of the Year, companies and schools have turned to teleconferencing with unprecedented interest. At the forefront of this movement has been Zoom, the video calling service which has experienced a meteoric rise to the top.
Read MoreTimes of crisis can realign society's priorities. What do people turn to for comfort as the seas of upheaval threaten to crash them against rocks of despair?
Read MoreWhile there are Founding Fathers like Washington and Benjamin Franklin, there were others. This is the truth about the Founding Fathers you don't know about.
Read MoreHow can a country not exist? In most cases, it's because other countries tell them they don't. Here are countries that don't actually exist.
Read MoreMata Hari has gone down in history as the femme fatale du jour of World War I. Mata Hari is the classic archetype. She was exotic and alluring, a promiscuous dancer, a courtesan, a divorcee, and a seductive spy. But that isn't Hari's whole story. This is the crazy real-life story of Mata Hari.
Read MoreJoan of Arc had visions of God, prompting her to lead a religious rebellion. She was a martyr who was burned at the stake.
Read MoreJohn Wayne was famous for delivering a fairly predictable cinematic product: manly men of few words and much action. But his real name wasn't so manly.
Read MoreIt would be easy to assume that Ringo Starr decided to leave the Beatles due to ego. Shockingly, it wasn't ego that drove Ringo to leave the Fab Four mid-recording session on August 22nd, 1968. To hear it described by those involved, it was the opposite: he didn't feel good enough.
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