“The tree that owns itself” is a white oak in Athens, GA, which is widely assumed to legally own itself and the eight feet of land surrounding it
Hitler saw China and Japan as equals to Germany and even wrote admiringly: “I admit freely that their history is superior to our own”
In the 18-th century, one could pay admission to the zoo in London by bringing a cat or a dog to feed the lions
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was once a Nazi observation post; the allies abstained from ordering any strikes because of its beauty
The Leistler Bookcase: a 19th-century masterpiece described as “a cathedral in wood“
The Crown of Princess Blanche is the oldest surviving crown of England and has been described as one of the finest achievements of the Gothic goldsmiths
The experimental Bat Bombs: Incendiary bats deployed from a bomber
Peles Castle: one of the most stunning castles in Romania and one of the most modern of its time
For decades scholars have been studying Plimpton 322, a clay tablet from around 1800 BCE that contains complex mathematical inscriptions
The Ancient Greeks and Romans didn’t wear pants because they found them ridiculous and considered them to be barbarous garments
