10Ireland’s Last Witch On March 15, 1895, Bridget Cleary’s husband set her on fire, believing she was a changeling. The dressmaker and egg seller had been bedridden for days and “seemed to be wild and deranged” when Michael Cleary force-fed her herbs and held her over the embers of the kitchen fire in a sitting position. Bridget’s body was discovered in a shallow grave. 10 individuals were arrested from the brutal murder—including her mother, father, and brother....
From the minute the Nazis entered Poland, the attack on Jewish people had begun. The Nazis arrived in Krakow on September 6, 1939, and immediately changed the lives of Jewish people, depriving them of state pensions, imposing compulsory disclosure of foreign bank deposits, and demanding people between the age of 14 to 60 embark on forced labor. All Jewish people were also ordered to wear badges with the Star of David....
10The Kidnapping Of Diane Lucas Dorothy Lucas, 22, was out grocery shopping with her three-month-old daughter Diane on August 23, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois. The store was busy, and Dorothy left Diane in a carriage outside the grocery store. When Diane came back outside, Diane was gone. At first, Dorothy thought it was a prank, but when the baby wasn’t returned, she got the police involved and a citywide search began....
But if ghost stories aren’t enough to raise goose bumps or make your blood run cold, allow the wonderful world of science to remind you that real life can be even stranger—and creepier—than fiction. 10 Space Madness Much has been made of the need for humans to reach and even colonize Mars. President Obama recently announced that the government is working with private aerospace firms to make it a reality by the 2030s....
We’ve told you before about the priceless cultural artifacts and historic sites that our species has managed to misplace over the years. But those valuable losses had nothing on this lot. 10 Our Most Invaluable Audio Recordings For the vast majority of human existence, creating an archive of sounds was physically impossible. Speeches vanished into the ether, along with performances, songs, and accents. Then in the late 19th century, we finally figured out a way to preserve these sounds for future generations....
Some people, though, didn’t let that stop them. They went out into the world and did incredible things—the types of things we’d learn about in every history class if we could only get through a unit without middle schoolers giggling at every mention of “Bushrod Johnson” or “Emperor Pupienus.” 10 Dick BongAmerica’s Greatest Flying Ace He’s been called the “Ace of Aces,” “the bravest of the brave,” and “America’s greatest World War II pilot....
10Servius Tullius, King Of Rome Little is known for certain about Servius Tullius’s early life, but Roman legends (and his name) suggest that he was born a slave. Some sources claim that he was the son of a princess captured and sold into slavery during the siege of Corniculum, but others suggest the Roman nobility simply made the story up to mask their embarrassment at being ruled by a commoner. The legends do seem to agree that he was destined for greatness from childhood, since his head had a tendency to burst into divine flames while he slept....
Here are 10 popular songs that are footnoted with unfortunate events. Some were inspired by catastrophes such as descent into madness, destruction, and death, whereas others portended misfortunes yet to come. Sometimes, it was a case of both. 10 “Smoke On The Water” By Deep Purple In December 1971, Deep Purple arrived in Switzerland to record their groundbreaking album Machine Head at the Montreux Casino using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio....
A face-off between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, the election of 1876 redefined the term “controversial.” So ugly that it nearly sparked a second civil war, the campaign season was brutal, impassioned, and often utterly ridiculous. 10 Both Parties Claimed Victory Elections are usually pretty simple: The person with the most votes wins. That wasn’t the case in 1876. Once all the votes had been counted and the electoral college votes doled out, both parties took one look at the results ....
This item may be familiar to most avid Listverse readers and has been presented on numerous lists, but I found that I still had to have it in somewhere, as there seems to be the instant stereotyping of relating wine and beer to unhealthiness. However, over the course of a ten year study, wine, and specifically red wine, has been found to possess great cardiovascular benefits (aka: it helps your heart!...
10 Liber Linteus Although not used by any existing religions, the Liber Linteus is an important text for studying ancient religions. Discovered in the 19th century, it is the earliest text from the Etruscans and the only linen book that archaeologists have found. Since the Etruscan language is still poorly understood, study of the Liber Linteus is an ongoing process. A Croatian explorer had discovered an Egyptian mummy buried with the book....
Nope, this isn’t a speculative history scenario and Nazis don’t come into it. In 1842, a society was established in Germany, the Verein zum Schutze deutscher Einwanderer in Texas—the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, or the Adelsverein. The goal was to organize a mass immigration movement to colonize the Republic of Texas, thereby creating a new German state in the heart of America. By 1847, over 5,000 German immigrants had made their way to Texas and established five settlements....
But sometimes, artists hold back or lose work of much greater importance. These are works that could transform their reputations, works the whole world wants to see. 10Orson Welles’s Lost Film Orson Welles’s stellar reputation rests on a handful of films he made in the ’40s and ’50s. Like Marlon Brando, the director famously spent the last decades of his life as a washed-up old drunk, no longer interested in his art....
And what a way to start a week. For a few, brief, terrifying minutes last weekend, it looked like the state of Hawaii was about to vanish in a cloud of radioactive dust and nuclear fire. Thankfully, it turned out to be a false alarm. But elsewhere, nearly as crazy stories were unfolding. This time, they were the real thing. 10 Hawaii Got A Taste Of Armageddon Very few of us will ever experience the feeling of knowing with absolute certainty that we and everyone we love is about to be annihilated in a sea of fire....
In the US, the start of this week was defined by a whole lot of stuff stopping. The government shut down again for the first time in five years in what may have been the first of many shutdowns still to come in 2018. We’ll discuss this along with what the rest of the world was doing in the meantime. In most cases, the answer appeared to be either getting stuff done or going utterly crazy....
This week, the phrase “spoke too soon” is the one that probably applies best to the news. You may recall last week’s column opened with us saying how it had been a blissfully dull week, with no major attacks. No sooner had we filed the dang thing than a mass killing in Kashmir threatened to send nuclear-armed India and Pakistan spiraling into war. More on this brewing crisis below, alongside all the other important stuff that happened this week....
California is doomed: it’s going to fall into the ocean! Ninth-grade high school students and Harvard University seniors agree that the Earth causes the phases of the moon. Want to know where a comet has been? Check out its tail. Forensic evidence is infallible. All these widespread beliefs are mind-boggling misconceptions. Here’s why. Ten Misconceptions About The Illuminati 10 More and More Food Production Is Needed Although some organizations sound the alarm that more and more food production is needed to ward off mass starvation in the near future, this is not true....
10Banks Lend Out Customer Deposits Most people think that banking operates off a simple idea: a bank takes in deposits from customers, promising them interest as an incentive keep their deposits with the bank, and then lends that money out at a higher interest rate in order to make a profit. Unfortunately, banking hasn’t worked that way for centuries. In reality, banks lend out money from the very loans they issue to customers....
Where is the highest mountain? It’s on mars. The super-giant volcano called Olympus Mons (Latin for mount Olympus) is the largest single mountain in the solar system and, at the moment, the know universe. At 14 miles (22 km) high and 388 miles (624 km) across, it is almost three times as high as mount Everest, and so wide it’s base would cover Arizona, or the whole of Britain. The crater is easily large enough to swallow London....
10 Sandie Shaw Sandie Shaw was one of the top girl singers to come out of the British Invasion, with hits like the frequently covered “Long Live Love” (1965) and her Eurovision Song Contest winning “Puppet on a String” (1967), reportedly “the biggest selling single by a UK-based female artist of all time” Shaw really had the whole package, a singer/songwriter with a very attractive, stylish appearance and a lovely voice....
