Before Joseph Stalin passed away on March 5, 1953, his health had already been wavering over the last few years. After suffering from long-term dizzy spells and raised blood pressure, the various doctors who regularly checked on him would have assumed natural causes. But is there more to this story than a simple health problem? […]
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Dina Sanichar was born in the jungles of India and spent his early life living among animals before being found and returned to human society. This strange story would later become Rudyard Kipling’s inspiration for the character of Mowgli in the Jungle Book, albeit an uplifting and whitewashed version. The Wolf Boy Is Found Dina
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In the early 1990s, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar had a problem. He was on the run from the law and needed to find a place to hide. So, he did what any criminal mastermind would do- built his own prison. La Catedral was a self-built prison that sat on top of a hill in
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Some people in history have been so strange and baffling that we may never know their story. For example, Tarrare was known for his extreme hunger and bizarre eating habits. Records indicate that he had an insatiable appetite and could eat more than 20 pounds in one day. What caused his insatiable hunger? To this
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Even though Ching Shih was only active as a pirate for about nine years, she certainly earned the “World’s Most Successful Pirate.” Also known as Zheng Yi Sao and Shi Yang, she was born in 1775 to a family of humble means. When she turned 26, she married a pirate named Zheng Yi. After he
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Ivan the Terrible was the infamous sixteenth-century ruler of the Duchy of Muscovy. He paradoxically was both an unhinged tyrant and the man who founded the Russian state. Ivan succeeded his father as grand ruler of the Duchy of Muscovy or Moscow when he was just three years old in 1533. Over the course of
Ivan The Terrible’s Many Wives Suffered Horrific Fates Read More »
Pontius Pilate was a Roman prefect whose name has become forever entwined with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Despite being a central figure in a story that has been told for over two millennia, we know little about the man himself and the events that shaped his life after the crucifixion. Early works by Josephus,
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In the late 24th century BCE, Ancient Mesopotamia was embroiled in a constant war over who would unify the region. Out of the ashes came Sargon of Akkad, who united many city-states in Mesopotamia and is credited with founding the first empire in recorded history. In tribute to his life and legacy, future generations referred
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We are all familiar with Joseph Stalin, the Georgian leader of the Soviet Union for nearly thirty years between the mid-1920s and his death in 1953. To say his reputation is not good is an understatement. In the late 1920s, Stalin turned the Soviet Union into one of the most totalitarian states in human history,
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