Stories

In 1927, Liberia held general elections that produced one of the most improbable vote counts in world history. Charles D. B. King, the incumbent president and leader of the True Whig Party, was declared the winner with 229,527 votes—despite only 19,000 registered voters in the country.

Clinging to a sheer cliff face 75 meters above the floor of Jinxia Gorge, the Hanging Temple near Mount Heng in Shanxi Province was constructed in 491 AD. Built by a monk named Liaoran during the Northern Wei dynasty, it appears to float in mid-air, supported by 27 oak beams embedded in the rock. Hidden iron supports add further strength.

On October 23, 1943, about 1,700 Polish Jews arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, believing they were being sent to Switzerland in a prisoner exchange. Among them was Franceska Mann, a renowned Polish-Jewish ballerina from Warsaw.

On the beaches of Qingdao in eastern China, a striking new look began turning heads in the early 2000s. Locals weren’t showing more skin—they were covering it completely. Enter the facekini: a full-face covering designed to shield beachgoers from the sun, jellyfish, and algae.

In 2004, undercover agents from the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office set out to expose Trinity Southern University, a Dallas-based diploma mill. To do so, they submitted an application for Colby Nolan—a six-year-old house cat—claiming he had job experience and a 3.5 GPA.

Magawa, a Southern giant pouched rat, was trained not to chase cheese, but to save lives. Born in Tanzania in 2013, he became the most successful landmine-detecting rat in history, uncovering explosives in Cambodian soil for five years before retiring to a quiet life in 2021.

On February 4, 1912, a crowd assembled beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Among them was Franz Reichelt, an Austrian-born tailor who had developed a wearable parachute suit. He had told officials he would drop a dummy from the first platform. Instead, he intended to jump himself.

In 2022, scientists Corrado Malanga of the University of Pisa and Filippo Biondi of the University of Strathclyde used Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) tomography to study the Khafre Pyramid on the Giza Plateau. Their findings revealed five identical subsurface structures near its base.

In the 17th century, Jan de Doot, a Dutch blacksmith, suffered from an excruciating bladder stone. At the time, bladder stone surgery was dangerous and often fatal. Having seen others suffer at the hands of surgeons, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

In January 2024, Lucasfilm announced The Mandalorian & Grogu, a feature film directed by Jon Favreau and co-written by Favreau and Dave Filoni. Originally, a fourth season of The Mandalorian was planned, but Hollywood labor disputes delayed production. Lucasfilm then prioritized a film over the season.