In 1928, Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming returned to his laboratory after a vacation and noticed something unusual in one of his Petri dishes. A mold had accidentally contaminated a culture…
In 2003, Canadian man Kirk Jones intentionally went over Niagara Falls without a barrel or any approved safety device. He plunged over the Horseshoe Falls, a drop of about 167…
In 1932, farmers in Western Australia were struggling with a huge influx of emus. After the breeding season, an estimated 20,000 birds migrated into farming areas, trampling fences and consuming…
In August 2010, a massive traffic jam developed on China National Highway 110, northwest of Beijing. The congestion was caused by a combination of heavy truck traffic, road construction, and…
Yang Kyoungjong, a Korean man living under Japanese rule, was first conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army. He was reportedly captured by Soviet forces during the 1939 Battles of Khalkhin…
During the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency pursued a number of unconventional espionage projects. One of the strangest was Acoustic Kitty, an effort to determine whether a cat could…
On February 5, 1869, prospectors John Deason and Richard Oates were searching for gold near Moliagul when Deason’s pick struck what appeared to be a buried rock just a few…
The iconic startup sound played before many Netflix originals was created by Academy Award-winning sound designer Lon Bender. According to Bender, the final sound resulted from multiple recordings and experiments.…
Before creating Pokémon, Japanese game designer Satoshi Tajiri spent much of his childhood exploring fields, forests, and rice paddies around Machida, near Tokyo, collecting insects. Friends even nicknamed him “Dr.…
At the turn of the 20th century, driving in rain or snow was difficult because motorists often had to stop and manually clear their windshields. In 1903, American inventor Mary…
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