The place to learn about the past and present,
When a pregnant young queen started to drown, her attendants wouldn't help. Find out why. The protocol around royalty which governs how they interact with commoners is usually ancient, rigid and ensures royal family members’ inviolability. On one occasion however it caused an entirely avoidable tragedy for the Chakri royal dynasty of Siam, modern-day Thailand.... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
It baffles people now as it did then, when hundreds of people around 16th Century Strasbourg danced and danced till they could dance no more. Read about its potential cause and the remedies phycisians came up with One Summer’s day in 1518 down a narrow street in Strasbourg, France an odd thing occurred; people turned... Continue Reading →
Bill Morgan's fortunes went from catastrophic to fantastic when the lucky trucker recovered from being on life support to winning a car and massive windfall on two scratch-cards, even winning the 2nd 'scratchie' live on air. Luck can be like buses, you wait for ages then several come at once, and so it happened to... Continue Reading →
Adventurer Aron Ralston found himself in a heck of a pickle when a boulder landed and trapped his arm while out hiking. With no help coming, he knew he'd have to do the unthinkable if he wanted to live It was May 1st, 2003 and a man named Aron Ralston found himself well and truly... Continue Reading →
A catastrophic disaster to befall the Holy Roman Empire that barely anyone knows of; when dozens of the Empire's noblemen drowned... in a latrine. A complex, multi-ethnic patchwork of kingdoms made up the Holy Roman Empire that was the most powerful Christian kingdom to emerge from the shadows of the Dark Ages. Politically, it was... Continue Reading →
From wounded pride to suicide; find out how these four pranks went wrong in the worst ways possible. Life needn’t always be so serious. It shouldn’t always be about the humdrum, work-consume-die existence. A good prank that doesn’t hurt or upset anyone can provide belly-aching laughter, fun and reminds us not to take ourselves too... Continue Reading →
From moans and groans to broken bones; find out how these six stunts went wrong in the worst ways possible. Life needn’t always be so serious. It shouldn’t always be about the humdrum, work-consume-die existence. We live, too, to be entertained. Stunts do this by impressing us with people’s breath-taking skill and bravery, and are... Continue Reading →
History and Things 