Stories

In 1900, Charles A. Vander Bie patented an inventive twist on traditional cycling: the rowing bicycle. Vander Bie, an American inventor, sought to create a bicycle propelled by a rowing motion rather than the usual pedaling. The patent, filed in the United States (US Patent No. 656,323), outlined the unique mechanism that allowed riders to push and pull a set of handles connected to the rear wheel, transferring motion to the bike in a style similar to rowing a boat.

During the American Revolution, a woman known only as “355” was thought to be a key figure in Washington’s Culper Spy Ring. A single coded letter mentions her as a “lady” who could “outwit them all,” leading to speculation that she may have been a covert spy in British-occupied Manhattan.

Since 1986, Filipino sign painter Ruben Enaje has been crucified annually on Good Friday. Following his survival from a three-story fall, Enaje made a vow of gratitude: to reenact the crucifixion each year, believing he was spared for a purpose.

In 1861, Kate Warne, America’s first female detective, uncovered a plan to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln. Disguised as a Southern belle, she infiltrated secessionist circles in Baltimore, listening closely to the conspirators plotting Lincoln’s murder as he traveled to his inauguration.

Just one week before the Titanic sank, “The White Ghost of Disaster,” a fictional story by Captain Mayn Clew Garnett, appeared in Popular magazine. The tale featured a massive, supposedly unsinkable ocean liner, a fatal collision with an iceberg, and the subsequent loss of many lives—paralleling the real tragedy almost exactly.

In the late 19th century, New England faced an outbreak of tuberculosis, or “consumption.” The disease spread through families, wasting its victims away. As more people fell ill, fear grew in these close-knit communities, and some sought supernatural explanations for the spread.

In 2015, a massive underwater volcanic eruption in the South Pacific led to the birth of a new island, Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai. The eruption connected the two separate Tongan islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Haʻapai, forming a land bridge that quickly captured scientists’ attention.

In early 1945, as Auschwitz was about to be liberated, a group of European immigrant artists in New York published The Bloody Record of Nazi Atrocities, a pamphlet combining images and text to reveal Nazi crimes. One page featured “Nazi Death Parade,” a six-panel comic showing the mass killing process in graphic, shocking detail.

In 1910, Cincinnati’s Imogene Rechtin attended a social event where the hostess greeted each guest with a kiss. Disgusted by this “promiscuous kissing,” Rechtin, a middle-aged mother, resolved to stop the practice, citing fears of spreading disease.

Rosewood, a town in central Florida, thrived as a small Black community in the early 20th century. But in January 1923, it was destroyed in a tragic week of mob violence that left homes burned and lives shattered. With only one house left standing, Rosewood vanished from maps and memory.