We go to museums to view items that have historical, cultural, and scientific significance to us. Or items that stimulate our curiosity. Items like human body parts. There are museums that actually display these body parts. Many of them belong to famous people, and the stories behind them are usually out of this world. And

“Many fine books have been written in prison,” said Raoul Duke, in Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And it’s true. Ghandi, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, the Marquis De Sade, and O. Henry all turned their sentences into, well, sentences. But those guys were writers to begin with. Every person on this

To quote Indiana Jones, “I hate snakes.” The fear of these slithering creatures is so common that it is considered to be part of human instinct. Every once in a while, people are bitten by venomous snakes while camping and hiking. But considering that there’s an antidote for nearly every type of venom on the

Who knew that the Devil had a flair for architecture? The Devil might be synonymous with evil, but if these legends are true, he might also be a master architect, mason, and engineer. As things go, there are several castles and bridges across the world whose construction is credited to the Devil. Most of these

Most organs are a necessity, if not to live, then to at least have a high quality of life. Major advancements have been made in lab-grown organs,[1] but for now, we still need to rely on donors to meet our transplantation needs. Unfortunately, all across the world, demand exceeds supply by far, and this is

Dessert is either the reason you ate your meal in the first place or an afterthought when you convince yourself that you have just enough room left for a fun and tasty indulgence. Desserts rarely cost what we pay for our meals and almost never require a bank loan to get. That hasn’t kept some

Few buildings are more recognizable than the White House. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has epitomized US democracy since 1800, when President John Adams moved in. From the days of unceasingly trying wars to global turmoil, the walls of the White House have undoubtedly witnessed unprecedented moments in history. Something you may not have thought about is

Thanks mostly to Hollywood, many Wild West outlaws have reached folk hero status. Even today, people know gangs like the Wild Bunch, the Dalton Gang, or Billy the Kid and his Regulators, and their reputations are such that many would tremble at the thought of going back in time and meeting any of them in

It has been said that one cannot dig a hole in Rome without encountering the past. But the same rich heritage makes the whole of Italy a smorgasbord for archaeologists. New discoveries about famous landmarks are always great. Yet, the richness of ancient Italy rests in the forgotten moments of ordinary life. Celebrations, workshops, and

There are countless UFO sightings all over the world, but some of the most compelling stories come from not just one person but rather an entire group of people who witnessed a strange phenomenon together. For whatever reason, schools have become a common place for UFO sightings to occur. True believers think that young schoolchildren

The United States government has long been accused of withholding lifesaving treatments from the people it serves. Concerned citizens have looked on in dismay as supposed wonder drugs and innovative therapies have inevitably earned the ire of public institutions like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Subsequent sanctions imposed

The 19th century saw the emergence of a new type of criminal—the confidence man. Nowadays better known as a con artist, his tactics involve finding a suitable victim (referred to as a “mark” or “sucker”), gain their trust, and then defraud them out of money or property. When the job is executed well, the target

The solemn grounds of a graveyard evoke a range of emotions for many people. Usually, it involves the various stages of grieving for our family and friends who have died. Though it’s true that most of us will be laid to rest in a cemetery when our time has come, it is inconceivable to think

Today, most news stories concern crime and corruption. These disturbing tales seem even more sensational due to their constant coverage on social media and mainstream media’s 24/7 news cycle. With so much negativity in the world, it’s easy to feel jaded. Although superheroes don’t actually exist, these 10 stories show that one person’s extraordinary kindness

The Internet is stuffed to the gills with urban legends of every kind. In general, they exist to shock you or make you believe something ridiculous in order to get a few more clicks. While sites like Listverse do their best to debunk these legends, some of us become so tired of all the nonsense

Sometimes, an old grave is like a code. Crack one, and it might release a torrent of new information or twist a mystery even tighter. In recent years, many pivotal insights into human behavior and strangeness were triggered by grave goods, skeletal injuries, and even tomb architecture. No grave is so universal as to forget

When people think of Adolf Hitler, the first thing that usually comes to mind is that he was one of the most evil men in history, responsible for the deaths of over six million people. They don’t tend to think that he was a man who inspired the love and often fanatical devotion of quite

The effect of war on the world is devastating. It destroys families, cities, and countries. It also causes PTSD among many other ailments and has long-lasting effects on economies. If war continues unabated around the world, tragedies like the ones detailed below will never end and this quote might very well ring true in time:

Finding love is almost never like the movies. Most people meet their significant others through school, work, friends, or dating apps. For most people, there is nothing magical about their relationships, and many are jaded enough to say that true love doesn’t exist. However, sometimes, a love story is so strange and wonderful that it

The flowing watercourse of a river can be a remarkable sight for those who relish the beauty and excitement of natural streams. There are, however, countless rivers around the world that are marred by unspeakable tragedy. The following list delves into the history of these waterways, examining a myriad of inexplicable deaths, grisly murders, and

Sometimes, being dead isn’t so restful. In the recent past, this could mean wild dogs digging up your remains, as often happened in the early 1900s of Australia. Or maybe it entailed ghouls dressed in men’s clothing taking shovels to your brand-new burial plot. Many people in the past distrusted cemeteries because they attracted the

As children, many people took a beloved pet into the garden and buried it. Perhaps they erected a small cross made from Popsicle sticks over the grave. However, not all pets have had to make do with such modest, if heartfelt, memorials. Some monuments put up to ensure that an animal or group of animals

According to the idea of the “butterfly effect,” even the smallest causes can have large, unforeseen consequences. The term itself came courtesy of MIT meteorology professor Edward Lorenz. He used a computer program to simulate weather patterns with a dozen variables over long periods of time. Lorenz noticed that just rounding off one variable from

Many groups and organizations practice some type of hazing as an initiation rite. Military units, gangs, and sports teams are just a few of the groups known to have inflicted hazing rituals on their prospective members. However, it is university fraternities that are most often associated with hazing. Usually, hazing consists of a couple pranks

Everyone likes to receive a gift every now and again, especially if it’s from someone we love. With the exception of cats bringing dead prey that we probably aren’t going to eat, animals aren’t exactly known for their gift-giving skills. But as we will see here, it appears that many animals are fond of giving

A common motif in art of the Middle Ages is that of the Wheel of Fate. A spoked wheel is shown with a king sitting at the top. As the wheel turns, the king is toppled from his place and shown as a beggar crushed by the turn of fate. Of course, the other side

Eat your vegetables. Sleep eight hours a day. Exercise. There are so many truisms about staying healthy that we sometimes don’t use due diligence in determining if the advice given to us is even true. Then there are the old wives’ tales, passed down from one generation to the next, that often disregard the difference

When it comes to making discoveries, the public has a huge advantage over professionals—they are everywhere. Every day, people work and play outside in every imaginable environment. Tourists and hikers explore difficult corners of the world, and homeowners dig more trenches than archaeologists. The latter make the headlines more often. But ordinary civilians frequently stumble

Beer is at least 10,000 years old, with ancient tablet inscriptions discussing it as far back as 3400 BC. Obviously, people have been getting drunk for an incredibly long time. In fact, the history of beer provides us with both a fun and fruitful window into long-dead cultures of the past and how they behaved.

Children think differently than adults. They don’t fully understand how the world works yet, so they see things in a completely different light. This, however, doesn’t last long. It’s believed that by around the age of 11, children have most of the mental abilities of adults; they just lack the experience or knowledge to put