For many people, being dead is a fairly limiting handicap that prevents them from doing most of the things the living take for granted. In the 1930s, a man called Charles Vance Millar challenged that unfair stereotype via various stipulations of his will that allowed him to continue playing jokes on people despite being dead. A lawyer by trade, Millar […]
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Walter Hunt is a man who is simultaneously considered to have possessed one of the finest inventive minds in all of American history while also being an individual almost no one has ever heard. This is despite the fact that it’s almost guaranteed that one of his inventions is currently lying somewhere in your home, the safety pin. This was […]
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On the morning of July 7, 1944, Captain Ben L. Salomon of the U.S. Army’s 105th Infantry, commissioned as a dentist, single-handedly held off a fierce attack of an overwhelming force of Japanese soldiers in order to allow sufficient time for approximately 30 of his comrades to safely retreat. After 15 hours of terrible fighting, when relief finally arrived, Salomon […]
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On Christmas Day 1904, Carl Emil Pettersson stood at a crossroads – either he was going to be eaten by hungry cannibals or become a member of the Tabar people. Happily, the latter occurred, after which he led a rather remarkable life. Born in October 1875 in Sweden, at around the age of 17 Pettersson went to sea. Working his […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader He wasn’t Elvis, but he wanted to be…and a lot of people even thought he might be. Here is the bizarre story of Jimmy Ellis, or, as he was also known, Orion. HEARTBREAK HOTEL By the time he was a teenager, it was clear that Jimmy Ellis had two talents: […]
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Nestled safely in the bosom of the Bear Lodge Mountains of Wyoming is a large rock formation known simply as Devils Tower. A popular landmark and the first recognised United States National Monument (declared such by President Theodore Roosevelt on September 24, 1906), the imposing rocky butte was at the forefront of a bizarre media frenzy in 1941 when a […]
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As the old adage goes, money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure takes the sting out of being poor. Gordon Bennett Jr. was a man for whom money meant nothing- he spent money with such impunity that across the pond in England his name has since become synonymous with astonishment and surprise. The son of famed newspaper magnate James Gordon […]
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While historians posit that the Wild West was nowhere near as wild as Hollywood would have you believe, it was a place where certain lawmen forged reputations as legendary heroes in their pursuit of outlaws. (Although in some cases, such as Wyatt Earp, the lawmen were little better than some of the criminals, see: Wyatt Earp – The Great American… […]
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Born in Dresden, Germany in 1877, Carl Tanzler claimed to have descended from aristocratic stock. Fanciful even as a child, in later years he recounted a story of being visited in his youth by a long-dead ancestor, Countess Anna Constantina von Cosel, who gave him a vision of a beautiful, dark-haired woman whom she said was his one, true love. […]
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Born into a poor peasant family in a foreign land, no one had worse odds to become the ruler of the Byzantine Empire than Basil. Yet, through a combination of hard work, scheming, murder and competence, Basil ascended to the Byzantine throne and enjoyed 19 years of relatively peaceful rule. Authorities disagree over when and where Basil was born. Some […]
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The 19th amendment to the United States Constitution, which was the result of many decades of hard work and lobbying from tireless suffragists who battled on both the state and national fronts, prohibits any US citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of their sex. Nearly a half century before this Constitutional amendment was ratified on […]
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Richard Turpin, better known by his nickname, Dick, was a legendary highwayman who stalked the English countryside. A century or so after his death by hanging in 1739, Turpin was idealised as a dashing rogue or gentleman thief type in a multitude of supposedly factual stories purportedly based on his life. In reality, he was not exactly dashing, with a […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Harley Earl is considered one of the three most important figures in the history of the American auto industry (Henry Ford and GM head Alfred Sloan are the other two). Yet other than car buffs, few people have heard of him. THE HOLLYWOOD KID In 1925 the General Motors Corporation […]
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We British are a famously stoic people and notable figures from our history are often portrayed as being impossibly composed- facing unthinkable hardship and turmoil with a quiet, reserved dignity. Perhaps no man in history has ever typified this stereotype better than Henry Paget, a man who by all accounts reacted to his leg being blown off and then amputated […]
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Phoebe Ann Moses, better known as “Annie Oakley,” made a name for herself as one of the best sharpshooters in the world throughout her lifetime. In the process, she overcame a childhood filled with abuse and adversity to become not only an enormously successful entertainer, but a role model for women and young girls. Born in 1860, Annie’s father, Jacob, […]
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Packed tighter than a sardine in the one-man Freedom 7 capsule, 37-year-old Alan Shepard couldn’t wait any longer. His mission – which originally was going to make Shepard the first human in space – had already been delayed weeks, allowing Yuri Gagarin and the Russians to beat him in blasting off for the stars. Now, in his fourth hour sitting […]
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Howard Hughes, the legendarily reclusive billionaire business magnate, is a man about whom much has been written and most people know at least a little bit about. However, as we did when we covered JP Morgan’ giant, purple, knobbly nose that he largely managed to keep hidden from the world, today we’re going to focus on a lesser known aspect […]
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History is filled with stories of eccentric people whose lives were littered with astonishing and sometimes improbable stories. Edward Hughes Ball Hughes (that was his real name) was one such individual- a man who spent money so erratically that he came to be known by the rather fitting moniker of Golden Ball Hughes or more simple, The Golden Ball. Born […]
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