The place to learn about the past and present,
The story of the light cruiser that was sliced in half by the colossal Queen Mary transatlantic liner. It was late 1942 and the Battle of the Atlantic – the struggle to ferry millions of tonnes of equipment, war materials and men through a deadly gauntlet of U-Boat submarines – was in full flow. When... Continue Reading →
What occurred to cause a tidal-wave of beer to slosh down the slums of London? Read on to find out the devastation caused. If we’ve all got to meet the reaper some day or other, some folks might say that drowning in beer isn’t the worst way to go. It was 1814 and the Meux... Continue Reading →
Patrick Lawler seemed fine after a small accident at work. What seemed at first to be a lousy toothache turned into needing emergency surgery after a stunning X-ray find. The 23-year-old construction worker, with black eyebrows and goatee, sat on the edge of his chair and gnawed on his fingernails with the sort of trepidation... Continue Reading →
A credible conspiracy story: The aim was to take over Washington DC in a military coup; there was just one man standing in their way - Two-time Medal of Honor recipient Major General Smedley Butler It was November the 24th, 1934 and retired General Smedley Butler sat before a closed session of the Congressional Special... Continue Reading →
Of all of Bonaparte's illustrious battles perhaps the one he wanted to forget was not his worst ever defeat, but his most embarrassing one, when Napoleon fled from a horde of rabbits. History tells us that Napoleon Bonaparte’s worst ever defeat occurred at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Yet, his most humiliating one was... Continue Reading →
Read about the reaction when, in Iowa 2005, fortune cookie lucky numbers caused 25 times more players to win the state lottery than anticipated. You know how at the end of a Chinese restaurant meal you get a little fortune cookie to crack open with some lucky numbers and wise words of oriental counsel inside?... Continue Reading →
Boston was hit by one of the weirdest disasters ever heard of, when the city docksides were deluged by a wave of sticky molasses. Read about the suffering it inflicted and how the city's streets reeked for years after. Molasses (Black Treacle) is a thick, heavy substance refined from sugar cane. In Boston, 1919, the... Continue Reading →
A tale hard to distinguish fact from fiction, yet there is undoubtedly some truth behind Sawney Bean and his massive family of incestuous cannibals who may have devoured hundreds over the decades and terrorised the locals. Read on to discover his terrible fate. The tale of Sawney Bean is a gruesome tale from Scottish history.... Continue Reading →
When a man commissioned a strange structure to be built on behalf of a mysterious group, it left stone masons scratching their heads. Find out what was inscribed on it and why it was the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. In June 1979, a man using the pseudonym Robert C. Christian approached the Elberton Granite... Continue Reading →
A story came out of the horrors of the First World War of an enemy of a novel kind; that wolves on the Eastern Front grew so bold, so numerous, soldiers on both sides were forced to turn their guns on these pack predators. It was the Winter 1917 and WW1 was into its fourth... Continue Reading →
History and Things 