Stories

In January 1955, Leo Carr paid $1.50 to vote in Hardin County, Texas. At the time, this was the cost of a poll tax—a fee required by law to cast a ballot.

On March 25, 1921, USS Conestoga departed Mare Island, California, bound for American Samoa. The Navy tugboat never arrived.

In 1879, Alphonse Bertillon began working as a clerk at the Prefecture of Police in Paris. Frustrated by the lack of consistent methods to identify repeat offenders, he began developing a system using physical measurements.

In 1953, General Motors unveiled the Firebird I, a jet-inspired concept car designed by Harley Earl’s team. It was powered by a 370 hp Whirlfire gas turbine and featured wings, a single-seat cockpit, and a jet exhaust.

n 1881, a railway worker in South Africa enlisted an unusual assistant: a Chacma baboon named Jack.

On June 4, 1922, at Idora Park in Oakland, California, spectators witnessed a motorsport first: motorcycle chariot racing.

In Leggett, California, an ancient coast redwood stands with a twist—it has a hole carved through its trunk large enough for a car to pass.

In 18th-century Yorkshire, a performer named Thomas Wedders, also known as Thomas Wadhouse, drew attention across England for an unusual reason: his nose.

In 1252, King Haakon IV of Norway sent King Henry III of England an unusual diplomatic gift: a white bear, most likely a polar bear.

Beneath Cambodia’s Phnom Kulen plateau, a French archaeologist’s GPS buzzed near a change in forest vegetation. Moments later, he and his team sank into a long-lost man-made reservoir, untouched for over 1,000 years.