In 1888, James Jameson, heir to the Jameson whiskey fortune, joined the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, led by explorer Henry Morton Stanley. The mission aimed to rescue Emin Pasha, the beleaguered governor of Equatoria in Sudan. Jameson, an amateur naturalist, accompanied the expedition to document his experiences.

Hans Schmidt was born in Bavaria in 1881 and ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1906. His early career was marked by a series of transfers due to inappropriate behavior. In 1909, Schmidt immigrated to the United States, where he served at St. Boniface Church in New York City.

During World War II, the threat of chemical warfare loomed large over Europe. In response, the British government sought ways to protect its citizens, including the youngest ones. In 1938, as tensions escalated, British inventor FW Mills designed a unique solution: the gasproof stroller, also known as the baby gas mask pram.

Catalina de Erauso was born in 1592 in San Sebastián, Spain. At the age of four, she was placed in a convent to become a nun. However, by the time she was fifteen, Catalina had other plans. She escaped the convent dressed as a man, adopting the name Francisco de Loyola.

Ella Harper, born in 1870 in Hendersonville, Tennessee, was known for a rare medical condition called congenital genu recurvatum. This condition caused her knees to bend backward, allowing her to walk on all fours. Due to this distinctive trait, she was nicknamed “The Camel Girl.”

In the early 20th century, the island of Tanna in Vanuatu witnessed the birth of a unique cargo cult. The John Frum movement began as a response to increasing Western influence and the presence of missionaries on the island. Islanders believed in a mystical figure named John Frum, who promised wealth and prosperity.

In 1869, former Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna found himself in exile in Staten Island, New York. He had brought with him a large quantity of chicle, a natural gum obtained from the sapodilla tree, intending to use it as a rubber substitute.

Sgt. Reckless, originally named Ah Chim Hai, was a small Mongolian mare purchased by the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War. In 1952, Lieutenant Eric Pedersen bought her for $250 from a Korean boy who needed money to buy an artificial leg for his sister. The Marines renamed her Reckless and trained her to carry ammunition.

In 1991, German historian Heribert Illig proposed the Phantom Time Hypothesis, a theory that suggests 297 years of the early Middle Ages (614-911 AD) never actually happened. Illig argued that the Gregorian calendar was artificially altered, making the current year 1727 instead of 2024.

In 1886, archaeologists uncovered a mummy in Deir el-Bahari, Egypt, with a haunting, open-mouthed expression, later dubbed the “Screaming Mummy.” This unusual find puzzled experts for decades. The mummy, identified as Unknown Man E, showed signs of a hasty burial, wrapped in sheepskin, a material considered impure by the ancient Egyptians.