Why kill your enemy when you can terrify him, and then kill him? “Operation Wandering Soul was a propaganda campaign and psychological warfare effort exercised by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. It was an attempt to increase desertions and defections from Việt Cộng forces and weaken their morale. It […]
Europe’s currency, the Euro, was initially designed with strict rules in mind, but these rules eventually went out the window with one cheeky plan. “The Eurobridges Spijkenisse, locally known as the Spijkenisser Eurobruggen, is an applied arts project in the city of Spijkenisse, in the Dutch province of South Holland. […]
This country had an official wizard for decades, then they fired him. “In 1974, the Wizard migrated to Christchurch in New Zealand and began to speak on a ladder in Cathedral Square. The city council attempted to have him arrested, but he became so popular that they made the square […]
Can you still get in to heaven after taking God to court? These people apparently didn’t care. “Lawsuits against supernatural beings, such as God or the devil, have occurred in real life and in fiction. Issues debated in the actions include the problem of evil and harmful “acts of God”.” […]
The pooper looks pretty funny, but is this figurine comedy or tragedy? “A Caganer (Catalan pronunciation: [kəɣəˈne]) is a figurine depicted in the act of defecation appearing in nativity scenes in Catalonia and neighbouring areas such as Andorra, Valencia, Balearic Islands, and Northern Catalonia (in southern France). It is most […]
This bank robbery was the first of its kind – and in all likelihood, the last. “On January 6, 1995, McArthur Wheeler and Clifton Earl Johnson robbed two banks in the Greater Pittsburgh area at gunpoint. At 2:47 p.m., at the Swissvale branch of Mellon Bank, one of them stuck […]
The British are very serious about Paddington Bear – not even members of the armed forces are shown mercy when it comes to Paddington. “Paddington Bear is among the most popular characters in children’s literature. The actor Stephen Fry, who narrated Paddington audiobooks, stated “Michael Bond’s bear is a Great […]
Incredibly these trumpets survived over 3,000 years – more incredibly; some madmen decided to play them to hear what they sound like. “Tutankhamun’s trumpets are a pair of trumpets found in the burial chamber of the Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The trumpets, one of sterling silver and one of bronze […]
This 1,600-year-old poem has never been replicated in English, because it would be virtually impossible. “The Star Gauge (Chinese: 璇璣圖; pinyin: xuán jī tú), or translated as “the armillary sphere chart”, is the posthumous title given to a 4th-century Chinese poem written by the Sixteen Kingdoms poet Su Hui for […]
This was not a job with a lot of scope for career progression – but overall it might not have been so bad, depending on your outlook… “Garden hermits or ornamental hermits were people encouraged to live alone in purpose-built hermitages, follies, grottoes, or rockeries on the estates of wealthy […]
