All this little monkey was missing was corduroy britches. “Jack was the pet and assistant of double leg amputee signalman James Wide, who worked for the Cape Town–Port Elizabeth Railway service. James “Jumper” Wide had been known for jumping between railcars until an accident where he fell and lost both […]
If you’ve ever played GTA you’ll know that getting a tank is pretty much the ultimate thing you can do. Well it turns out, getting one in real life plays out pretty similarly… “Shawn Timothy Nelson (August 21, 1959 – May 17, 1995) was an American plumber and U.S. Army […]
William Utermohlen, an artist who suffered with Alzheimer’s, has provided the world with perhaps its clearest visual representation of the effects of the disease – one that is both fascinating and chilling. “William Utermohlen was born in south Philadelphia in 1933. He studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine […]
Game shows were different back in the day, in part because the law had to step in. “The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American television quiz shows. These shows’ producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order […]
A heavyweight championship fight is probably the last place you’d expect this to happen, but it did! “Oliver McCall (born April 21, 1965) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2019. A veteran of the sport for over three decades, he is best known for winning […]
Given the complexity of medical operations, it seems euthanasia would be the one procedure that couldn’t go wrong. That is not the case. “Euthanasia (from Greek: εὐθανασία, lit. ’good death’: εὖ, eu, ‘well, good’ + θάνατος, thanatos, ‘death’) is the practise of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different […]
How did a cement company get charged for complicity in crimes against humanity? Not in the way you think! “According to The New York Times, a representative of the French construction company Lafarge S.A. met with representatives of numerous militias from northern Syria in Gaziantep in the autumn of 2012, […]
McDonald’s had a costly loss at the 1984 Summer Olympics, after failing to predict a fairly predictable occurrence. “With a history of using athletic prowess to sell fast food products, American restaurant chain McDonald’s purchased major sponsor status for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, in addition to sponsoring several American […]
This lawyer took a bullet for his client, literally! “Clement Laird Vallandigham (/vəˈlændɪɡəm/ və-LAN-dig-əm; July 29, 1820 – June 17, 1871) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the leader of the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats during the American Civil War. He served two terms for Ohio’s […]
The same woman’s DNA was found at 40 crime scenes, eventually leading to her identification by police, but she was never punished. Why? “The Phantom of Heilbronn, often alternatively referred to as the “Woman Without a Face”, was a hypothesized unknown female serial killer whose existence was inferred from DNA […]
