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10Robert Peary Was The First Man To Reach The North Pole The Truth: Not even in his own account was Peary the first man to the pole. That was actually the other member of his expedition, Matthew Henson. However, Henson was black, so while Peary was widely celebrated, Henson sank into obscurity and had to get a job in customs to get by. Peary refused to answer Henson’s letters, help him get a job, or return the photos of the expedition that Henson had taken and paid for....

In an ironic twist of fate, many notable Nazis would later die by the very poison they so heavily utilized, administering the agent themselves as the war unraveled and their lives fell apart. Staring down the barrel of the Allied invasion, these Nazis knew their time was up and opted to take their own lives. Twisted irony? The easy way out? Or did they finally get a rightfully deserved taste of their own medicine?...

Also, I feel compelled to mention that during my own time in service, I was never killed, raped, or attacked by sharks (admittedly I lived in a land locked country). In fact, I never even had my wallet lifted, and for the most part, I’m sure that’s the experience of most volunteers (we all spent our days surrounded by groups of singing villagers and birthing babies singlehandedly, while vaccinating entire cities)....

Coincidence: Two future presidents served in one Union regiment Of the hundreds and hundreds of regiments raised in the North and sent to war, only one included two future presidents: Rutherford Hayes and William McKinley. Hayes began his Civil War career as an officer in the 23rd Ohio. Hayes attained the rank of general and spent much of the war career in western (soon West) Virginia, where he was wounded four times....

While the literary quality of some of their works has been acclaimed, some of their writings have been dismissed as “unsuccessful.” One dictator’s novel was even carefully scrutinized by a U.S. government translator, U.S. officials, and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Whatever one makes of the efforts of these poets and novelists, it seems clear that the grimness of their rule as despised dictators will forever overshadow their literary works....

10The Girl Who Befriended Crows Admit it. You’ve always wanted the ability to magically befriend wild animals, like the Beastmaster or some Disney princess. But while most of us can only dream of communicating with other creatures, Gabi Mann is pretty tight with the animal kingdom. This eight-year-old from Seattle is best friends with a flock of crows. In fact, they even give her gifts. This incredibly odd friendship began when she was just four and would constantly spill her food....

10Kinder Surprise This 1980s commercial was originally created to help sell those horrible chocolate eggs filled with a “surprise” item inside. It features a nightmarish Humpty Dumpty knockoff that Italian candy company Ferrero believed would sell more product. The company’s CEO at the time, Michele Ferrero, apparently didn’t realize that an increase in sales wasn’t linked to the emotional scarring of children. Kinder Surprise eggs have been banned from the United States due to an FDA ruling banning confectionery products with embedded non-nutritional objects....

10 For Whom The Bell Tolls Around 2:00 AM on August 6, 1801, Sir Jonah Barrington, an Irish judge, lawyer, and politician, and his wife experienced an event that they never forgot. Lord Barrington awoke to a soft sound that seemed somewhere between a voice and music. For some reason, the sound filled him with dread, and he awoke his wife, who also heard the sound. As it slowly grew louder and more plaintive, they got out of bed and tried to determine where it was coming from, but the sound seemed to be coming from everywhere at once....

10 Louis XIV And The Royal Touch There’s a lot of pressure and responsibility that goes along with being the monarch, and quite a few monarchs have been said to possess the “royal touch” and the capability to heal illnesses—especially scrofula, a type of tuberculosis. The idea started with England’s Edward the Confessor during his rule, which ended in 1066. Even Henry VIII was said to have the touch, which he passed along to ill subjects in the form of a protective coin that they could wear around their necks....

The history of Sotheby’s may be traced to 1744, when the English bookseller Samuel Baker held his first auction, which featured 457 books previously belonging to Sir John Stanley. Baker sold the contents of Stanley’s library for £826. Sotheby’s Holdings, Inc. is the holding company for Sotheby’s and is now one of the world’s premier fine arts auction houses. Founder Thomas Twining began one of the first companies to introduce tea drinking to the English....

No outstanding singer or band sounded like any other; each was distinctive; each was unique, offering his, her, or their own sounds. This is one of the characteristics of the musicians of those decades that made them famous among established and new fans generation after generation. Here are 10 origins of 1960s-1970s rock-and-roll oldies but goodies that continue to rock the house. 10 “Take It to the Limit” Randy Meisner, a founding member of The Eagles, not only played the bass guitar and sang, but he also wrote songs for the group—or, in many cases, parts of songs....

Since Europa is rich with water ice, many scientists propose that it could host life, despite being incredibly cold. Also interesting is that Europa has a magnetic field, which means that something underneath its surface is conductive. Europa has long been an object of scientific curiosity for researchers on Earth. The Voyager and Galileo spacecrafts each sent back detailed images of the moon’s strange surface, and future NASA missions to study Europa are planned....

10Arrests For Homosexuality Arrests on charges of homosexuality probably sound like something from the distant past. Sure, some state laws might be rubbing it the wrong way in technicality, but surely nobody practices it in reality, right? Not really, as gay men are still being prosecuted for being gay. At least a dozen men since 2011 have been arrested on charges of “attempted crimes against nature” in the US, even though that law was repealed in states throughout the country in 2003, which is admittedly pretty late in the first place....

10 Gustav Krupp Krupp, born Gustav Von Bohlen Und Halbach, was a Prussian diplomat who took over his wife’s family’s industrial empire—and her family name—in the early 20th century. He contributed tanks, cannons, and submarines to Germany’s arsenal during World War I. Despite Germany’s losing the war, Krupp was still able to profit from the loss of life with a deal he had brokered with a British manufacturer of artillery shells before the war....

What happens when passengers are forced to become pilots—in midair? There’s a chance, however remote, that we could find ourselves in just this situation. In that case, not only would our own lives, but those of our friends or family and any other passengers onboard would also be at risk (though reading this list first may help a little). That’s what happened to the people on this list, and this is what they did....

10 Charles Rowen Charles Rowen, otherwise known as “Karr the Magician” or “Karr the Mysterious,” was a South African escape artist and magician. His main tricks were escaping from straight jackets and jumping into piles of broken glass. In 1930, Karr was performing in Springfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa. He was attempting a very dangerous stunt in which he was tied up in a straight jacket while a man drove straight at him in a car....

10 A Fall from Grace Eike Batista is not a rags-to-riches story since Batista’s father had been the Minister of Mines and Energy in two previous Brazilian governments. It was natural that Eike Batista made his living in mining, gas, and oil with his family background. It was then a logical step to finance large-scale infrastructure projects that would support his other concerns. At the beginning of 2012, Batista had a net worth of around $35 billion—this meant that he was the seventh wealthiest person in the world....

The obvious problem with self-litigation is that the plaintiff is also the defendant and, depending on the circumstances, the only witness. Then there’s the issue of representation. Do you hire one lawyer or two? Can you represent yourself, or is that a conflict of interest? Despite its rarity and the possible complications, tales of self-litigation have been reported since at least 1899. 10 Curtis Gokey In 2006, Curtis Gokey slammed Lodi, California, with a $3,600 lawsuit after a dump truck owned by the city crashed into his car....

10The Lost Franklin Expedition Ship In 1845, British explorer Sir John Franklin set off into the Canadian Arctic in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. The voyage, which attracted huge media attention, was well-funded and heavily equipped. Yet after entering the Arctic, the expedition was never heard from again. Two ships and 129 men simply vanished into the uncharted northern waters. Over the years, a few clues have hinted at the expedition’s terrifying fate....

10Brightly Colored Dinosaur Eggs Creationists are up against a lot of problems when it comes to supporting their ideas, with the dinosaurs chief among them. But according to the Institute for Creation Research, dinosaur eggs are one of the most valuable pieces of evidence supporting their theories. When German scientists discovered blue-green dinosaur eggs in China, it was pretty exciting, especially for creationists. They point to the pigments that were isolated from the eggs—biliverdin and protoporphyrin—as evidence that they couldn’t possibly be millions of years old....