Ruth Graves Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie, and during WWII, when Massachusetts servicemen received them in care packages, it led to a full-fledged cookie craze
One of the last autographs John Lennon signed was on December 8, 1980, the day he died, and it was at the request of his murderer
“Diabolus in Musica”: How the Devil came into his dream and inspired Giuseppe Tartini to compose the Violin Sonata in G Minor, “The Devil’s Trill”
Vinnie Ream won the competition to create a sculpture of Lincoln, but whispers and doubts shadowed her efforts at carving a “man of sorrow”
Ancient Carmo Convent and Church bear poignant witness to Lisbon’s catastrophic earthquake of 1755 that killed thousands
Journalist Nellie Bly pretended insanity to expose the abuse in an asylum on Blackwell’s Island she called “a human rat trap”
The Sentinelese tribe living on an island in the Indian Ocean have rejected outsider contact for centuries and still greet visitors with arrow attack
The Green Children of Woolpit: a story possibly inspired by the 12th century persecution of Flemish immigrants
The brilliant and misunderstood Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear after arguing with Paul Gaugin and gave it to a prostitute, saying “Keep it carefully”
Charles Manson and his killer cult found guilty of nine murders, but “the Family” could be responsible for 35 mysterious deaths
