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...
For centuries, the phrase "burning of the Library of Alexandria" has conjured an image of mankind's greatest collection of knowledge going up in flames. It's become a metaphor for the triumph of ignorance over learning, a cautionary tale passed down through generations.
Coffee, is an aromatic, eye-opening beverage that millions of people worldwide can't seem to start their day without. But, imagine being ruled by a leader who believed that coffee was a threat to public morality, to the extent that he threatened to behead anyone caught drinking it publicly.
When Helen Viola Jackson passed away in December 2020 at age 101, it marked the end of an era. She was the last known surviving widow of a Civil War veteran, dying over 155 years after the war concluded.
In 15th century BCE Egypt, a remarkable woman ascended the throne and reigned for over 20 years. Defying tradition, Queen Hatshepsut (pronounced: haat·shuhp·soot) proclaimed herself Pharaoh, becoming one of few females to hold such power in ancient Egypt.
Perched dramatically in the mouth of a 400-foot cliff in southwest Slovenia is Predjama Castle, certified by Guinness World Records as the world's largest cave castle.
The date was August 6th, 1915. World War I raged across Europe as the German army marched on Russia’s Osowiec Fortress, determined to finally capture the stronghold after two failed attempts. Little did the Russian defenders know, the Germans had brought a terrifying new weapon - poison gas.