~History~

The dead bodies in Ben Franklin's basement were actually sacrificed by the Hellfire Club.

Bozo the Clown (Larry Harmon) ran for president, trained to be an astronaut, and hung out with cannibals. And he did it all in full costume.

They're real, and they're hiding right under our feet—as long as our feet are in Missouri.

Black boxes record everything going on in the cockpits of crashing planes. These are the last words of their doomed pilots.

Downloadable games are the format of the future, but they’re not a modern invention. Eager computer users were downloading wirelessly over 30 years ago.

Varlam Shalamov spent much of the period from 1937 to 1951 gulaged in the arctic cold of Kolyma. This is what he learned from the experience.

The world's oldest known joke is from 1900 BC Sumeria and it's a fart joke. A familiar journey through the ancient world's recorded bits of humor.

Upon first glance, Witley Park in Surrey, UK is just like any other extravagant Victorian mansion. But look closer.

Children who fight the effects of his magic dust risk a sentence of mutilation, a life of torturous nightmares, or even death.

Age-old inspiration to put chariots of fire in your loins and give your erection a new direction.

Always carry to bed a napkin, and eat plenty of phosphorous. Come get your Civil War era sex education on.

#2. 90% of all acid in the world for a whole decade came from one man—holed up in a missile silo.

From bobs, to Afros, to mullets, to “The Rachel,” hair has been just as important as clothes in understanding the beliefs and cultural influences throughout history.

We're still shaking our heads at dress codes that reign today, but let's plumb the depths of the last century for offenses to be offended about.

Jackson was a legend. And, at some point, he was gifted a humongous wheel of cheese. This is the story of that cheese.

Let's be grateful for how far healthcare has come.

Shakespeare left his wife his "second-best bed," commonly believed to be a mean-spirited gesture. But the bed tells a different story.

What’s even better than a nice refreshing huff of DDT? Giving children uranium to play with to their heart's desire, of course.

The first known serious flight attempt in world history occurred about a thousand years before the Wright brothers, in an English abbey.

Grose's dirty dictionary published in 1785 gives us a peek into sex and the seedy underworld of England's Georgian age.

Necessity is the mother of invention, but this list proves that sometimes the best inventions are created by accident …or maybe fate?

The Oneida Community, a biblical communist cult, practiced free love as early as the 1840s. You may have some of their products in your home.

Magazines with ladies in their underwear used to have the power to sway "even grown men" to wanton murder.

In 1672 Jure Grando became the first real person to ever be described in history as a true vampire.

You think your kids are stubborn? You have no idea how bad it gets.

The Darwin Awards are annual and don't concern themselves with historical (ig)noble sacrifices. Let's correct that injustice.

When you're being executed, you get an opportunity to sum up your existence with something profound. Or maybe just a joke.

The freak show lives on as reality shows, but the fantasy world dreamed up by PT Barnum lies as a relic in the depths of the American imagination.

Hold off on fluffing those brushes — these are beauty trends you may not want to blend with.

Advertising is a Mad Men world minus anything that can conceivably offend someone. It wasn't always that boring.

Sketched with coal or chalk in places where migrants were likely to pass, hoboglyphs–the secret code of hobos–were pointers for other travelers.

Some riots will be leaving historians scratching their heads forevermore.

They defied the orders of their superiors, laid down their rifles, and celebrated Christmas with the enemy in No Man's Land.

The American Revolution was built on a foundation of booze, led by tavern addicted Founding Fathers who could drink any frat boy under the table.

The drink has a colorful history involving everything from medical miracles to murder.

Come with us on a journey into scientific iniquity as we spotlight bogus science in near and far history.