The Apollo 11 moon landing was one giant leap for mankind, but a string of conspiracy theories have since tried to ground the 1969 spaceflight as a staged production on a Hollywood backlot. The false claims range loud enough that…
When you think of former NBA player Horace Grant, two things come to mind: the Chicago Bulls of the early ‘90s, and Grant’s signature goggles. In a Reddit AMA held on Thursday, Grant responded to a question about why he wore…
Since shooting to fame and winning Emmys as the star and creator of 30 Rock, Tina Fey has remained quiet about the dramatic story behind the faint scar that lines the left side of her face. “It’s impossible to talk about it without…
In simultaneous play, a chess master competes against multiple opponents at the same time. In 1951, International Master Robert Wade began such an exhibition match with 30 teenage schoolboys from Moscow. He would not win one game. Robert Wade was…
The late Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, who passed away at 76 on Thursday was beloved by many worldwide. More than just the title of Queen, she had something in common with Queen Elizabeth—both were rarely spotted without their handbags. While Aretha…
Coco Chanel once tried to betray her Jewish business partners during the Nazi occupation of France by writing to German officials, arguing that their company was Jewish property and so should be confiscated, then redistributed, namely to her, according to…
Disney has dropped attempts to trademark the traditional Mexican Day of the Dead festival for the purposes of a new Pixar animated film following angry online protests. Critics took to social media after it emerged that the studio was applying to trademark…
In 1963, a sixteen-year-old San Diego high school student named Bruce McAllister sent a four-question mimeographed survey to 150 well-known authors of literary, commercial, and science fiction. Did they consciously plant symbols in their work? he asked. Who noticed symbols…
There are certain people who speak directly into their moment, and others who leave a message for history to decipher, whose work gains in relevance or whose life becomes uncannily meaningful decades after their death. It’s hard to think of…
At an open-air hospital in northern Ghana, Donald Hopkins watched a small girl endure a medical ordeal unseen in the United States. It was 2007, and four-year-old Rafia Fusseini was getting treated for Guinea worm, a parasite that infected her after…
