Stories

Ron Mueck began his career in the world of puppetry and special effects, working on films like Labyrinth (1986). His experience in model-making led him to create sculptures with extreme detail.

In the early 1860s, William Mumler shocked the world by producing photographs that seemed to show spirits alongside the living. His eerie images drew believers and skeptics alike to his Boston studio.

In 2008, Kenichi Mamitsuka from Japan introduced SpoGomi, blending “sport” and “gomi” (Japanese for “trash”). Teams of three to five participants compete to collect litter within a designated area and time frame.

Gaza’s history dates back over 4,000 years, beginning as a Canaanite settlement before falling under Egyptian rule for 350 years. The Philistines later made it one of their main cities.

In January 1918, an unusual influenza outbreak struck Haskell County, Kansas. Dr. Loring Miner, concerned by the severity, alerted the U.S. Public Health Service, marking the first recorded report of the virus. Local newspapers listed numerous cases of pneumonia and “la grippe,” suggesting a widespread illness.

In the 1920s, heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post built Mar-a-Lago on 17 acres in Palm Beach, Florida. Completed in 1927, the estate featured 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms, and an 1,800-square-foot living room. Post spent $7 million—now worth over $90 million—on its construction.

In 2016, Dutch artist Margriet van Breevoort created a sculpture named Homunculus Loxodontus for the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands.

In 1865, Danish inventor Rasmus Malling-Hansen developed the Hansen Writing Ball, recognized as the first commercially produced typewriter.

On September 13, 1848, Phineas P. Gage, a 25-year-old railroad construction foreman, was preparing a charge at a blasting site near Cavendish, Vermont. An accidental explosion dislodged a 3-foot iron tamping rod, which struck his left cheek and exited through the top of his head. Gage was rendered unconscious.

In 1933, after Adolf Hitler assumed power in Germany, Nazi agents arrived in the United States. Officials established the Friends of New Germany, later known as the German American Bund, to promote Nazi ideas.