The place to learn about the past and present,
In perhaps the greatest 'hold my beer' escapade to date, Thomas Fitzpatrick stole a plane to win a bet that he could fly from Jersey to New York in just 15 minutes. Bulky sedans rumbled sedately along the right-angled streets, and haggard creatures of the night here and there passed under the patchy street lighting... Continue Reading →
What's the best way to promote train travel to Texas? Stage a train crash for people to come and see there, of course! Read about what happened on the big day when the guy in charge of health and safety took the day off. We know that one to two hundred years back, people’s faith... Continue Reading →
When a poodle fell off a high rise balcony in Buenos Aires, it's hard to imagine how it could result in the deaths of three pedestrians below. Cachi’s beady eyes were locked on to the tennis ball the Montoya family’s youngest boy bounced, so engrossed his head nodded up and down to its rebound. The... Continue Reading →
One man's fate to die on a date in 1980 was so strong even escaping Death Row could not postpone his mortality. Such is the antisocial, troublesome character of some people you meet that you just know they’re destined to be dead or in prison before they reach their 40th birthday, and so was the... Continue Reading →
The time one disregarded European state forgot to end the 'Great War' For its main belligerents, World War One lasted from 1914 until 1918, yet bizarrely Germany remained technically at war with one country for another 39 years. Modern Andorra is a European minnow state of 468 km (181 sq mi) and just 76,000 call... Continue Reading →
The embarrassing episode for the Chicago Police Dept. when they discovered a teenager had managed to get hold of a uniform and go under cover as a cop. Find out what duties he performed during his 'shift' and try to figure out how he slipped through the net. It was just past lunchtime and a... Continue Reading →
How on earth did Greenpeace get mixed up in the seedy world of covert operations to result in one of its ships getting mined? Read about how the world-renowned conservation group annoyed the French so much they launched 'Operation Satanique' against them. Sticking to the shadows, sheathed in black and deadly with any weapon, the... Continue Reading →
When investigators found the bodies of nine missing trekkers in the Artic tundra half-dressed and away from their tent for no apparent reason, it began perhaps the spookiest mystery in Russian history. It was the depths of winter and 23-year-old Igor Alekseyevich Dyatlov with eight other fit, young men and women arrived at the town... Continue Reading →
The oceans have always proved bountiful for coastal communities, providing not only sustenance but valuables lost in the sand or washed ashore from shipwrecks. For the people of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in 2015, however, the sea gifted a hoard of 'Baltic Gold'. Amber is hard, transparent fossilised tree resin, the sort famous for... Continue Reading →
To fly is a dream, and every kid at some point imagines acquiring enough helium balloons for a little aerial adventure. Big kid Larry Walters actually pulled off this stunt for real in an epic flight over Los Angeles. Who hasn’t held a bunch of helium balloons as a kid and imagined the fun they... Continue Reading →
History and Things 