Though John Adams was old and ill when he died, the curious timing of his demise sparked countless unusual theories.

Other, lesser-known towns were often just as raucous as Tombstone and Deadwood. Jerome, Arizona, for example, was once called "the wickedest town in the West" because of its proliferation of bars, ...

Although many in the modern day associate the Soviet Union with Russia, it was one of the world’s largest multi-ethnic states, comprised of 15 republics. The Soviet Union’s first census, conducted in ...

Countless people around the world have been captivated by ancient Egypt since Roman times, but especially after King Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in 1922, Egyptomania spread across Europe and the ...

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E., it buried Pompeii’s frescoes under ash, preserving them for nearly 2,000 years. Pompeii’s frescoes, mostly untouched until the 18th century, have become some of ...

Caesar’s adopted son and heir Octavian ultimately emerged victorious in the ensuing power struggles, and in 27 B.C.E., he took the new name Augustus and became Rome’s first emperor. With that, the ...

The Ark of the Covenant is first mentioned in the Book of Exodus, when God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites to build an ark (a chest) out of “acacia wood” that is “two and a half cubits long, a ...

Linda Napolitano was a typical housewife living in Manhattan with her husband and two children. But everything changed on Nov. 30, 1989, when she claims three gray bipedal creatures abducted her from ...

Shortly after midnight on April 15, 1912, Harold Cottam, the telegraph operator of the RMS Carpathia, idly decided to call the RMS Titanic. His shift was over, but he wanted to alert his counterparts ...

While the Los Angeles Mafia never rose to the same notoriety as its counterparts in New York and Chicago, the crime family infiltrated Hollywood, had a hand in the growth of Las Vegas, and terrorized ...

With preparations for Henry’s coronation underway, London was likely more packed than usual. And the new, terrifying disease quickly spread. By the time it petered out at the end of October 1485, ...

This painstaking process also produced a terrible, overwhelming stench similar to rotting fish and urine. But for dye makers, the rewards far outweighed the costs. Though it could take 10,000 snails ...