In one of the most bizarre legal cases of the past 200 years, a man shot a ghost, and suffered the consequences. “The Hammersmith Ghost murder case of 1804 set a legal precedent in the UK regarding self-defence: that someone could be held liable for their actions even if they […]
You may have seen a photo of the goat tower before, but what really is it, how did it come to exist, and which came first; the goats or the tower? “The first goat tower was built in Portugal in the 19th century and modeled on a garden folly. Known […]
Ireland is covered in old, historic structures, but bizarrely, some of this architecture serves no purpose – so who built them and why? “In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends […]
Seventy-nine people were killed during a stunt by a clown in 1845. The tragedy is most notable for the bizarre and hilarious act the clown was performing at the time. “Cooke’s Royal Circus was in Great Yarmouth, and as part of a promotion, it was advertised that a clown, named […]
Over 30 years later, this audio recording still has no definitive explanation – but the leading theory is pretty sad. “The 52-hertz whale, colloquially referred to as 52 Blue, is an individual whale of unidentified species that calls at the unusual frequency of 52 hertz in the north Pacific Ocean […]
Seeing the skull and crossbones approaching at sea was probably already pretty frightening, but for some pirates, it just wasn’t scary enough. “The Jolly Roger was the ensign flown by a pirate ship preceding or during an attack, during the early 18th century (the latter part of the Golden Age […]
Thankfully, the world is full of all types of dogs… Well, maybe not all types – these unique breeds don’t exist anymore! “A research article on dog genomics published in Science/AAAS defines modern dog breeds as “a recent invention defined by conformation to a physical ideal and purity of lineage”. […]
It takes a lot of time and money to be this petty, but that’s no problem for the people who build “spite houses”. “A spite house is a building constructed or substantially modified to irritate neighbors or any party with land stakes. Because long-term occupation is not the primary purpose […]
The world was a grim place before the advent of the flush toilet. “On 26 July 1184, in the German city of Erfurt, approximately sixty local nobles died when the floor of a building collapsed through the ground floor and into the latrine cesspit below. They were attending a Hoftag […]
This is a book even the library doesn’t want you reading – because it’s bad for your health. “Shadows from the Walls of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers is an 1874 book by Dr. Robert C. Kedzie (1823–1902) of Michigan. The book […]
