In November 2017, the art world was stunned when an enigmatic painting of Christ called Salvator Mundi sold for a record-shattering $450 million at auction.
In the winter of 1887, Parisian journalists gathered at a curious construction site on the Champ de Mars. There, amid wooden scaffolding and the rhythmic clang of hammers, they witnessed what one reporter would describe as men "reaping lightning bolts in the clouds."
For over 30 years, one name appeared again and again as the director of some of the worst movies ever made -Â Alan Smithee. But Alan Smithee wasn't a real person. He was a pseudonym used by Hollywood directors who wanted to disavow their finished films.
In the late 1990s, a brazen fraudster named Emmanuel Nwude pulled off one of history's most outrageous cons - selling a fictional airport to a gullible Brazilian bank director for a whopping $242 million.
The next time you find yourself composing an angry email to customer service, take comfort in knowing you're participating in a tradition nearly four millennia old. Long before Yelp reviews and Twitter rants, an irate customer named Nanni etched his frustrations into clay, creating what would become the world's oldest documented customer complaint. His target? A copper merchant named Ea-Nasir...
In the remote mountains of Turkey and Nepal, there's a buzz in the air. It's not your average bee activity, though. These bees create a unique kind of honey - a honey so potent it’s earned the nickname "Mad Honey."
Imagine a world entirely encased in ice, from pole to pole, with glaciers flowing even in the heart of the tropics. This may sound like a scene from a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie, but it's a scenario that many geologists believe occurred not just once, but multiple times during Earth's history, long before humanity walked the planet.
At quitting time on March 25, 1911, a spark caught in a scrap bin on the eighth floor of the Asch Building in New York's Greenwich Village. The bin sat in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a bustling garment workshop employing hundreds of immigrant youths.
When the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber first took to the skies in World War II, it carried the weight of a nation's hopes on its wings. The United States desperately needed a long-range, high-speed bomber capable of striking deep into the heart of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. On paper, the B-24 seemed perfect for the job.
Do you remember floppy disks? Those big, squarish items that your parents probably used to save their work on computers? While they might seem archaic now, floppy disks were at the heart of a revolution that had little to do with storing your school assignments.
In a future not so far off, your smartphone, computer, or front door may feature advanced biometric security to confirm your identity before granting access.