On January 18, 1879, Anna Haining Bates gave birth to a son in Seville, Ohio. Anna, nearly 8 feet tall, was married to Martin Van Buren Bates, known as the “Kentucky Giant.”

In a tradition dating back to the 16th century, students across Germany and Central Europe have engaged in Mensur fencing—ritualized duels that leave no declared winner.

In October 1917, King George V observed a strange model ship painted in clashing stripes and colors. It wasn’t hidden—it was meant to confuse.

In 1986, a cylindrical habitat named Aquarius was constructed in Texas and later deployed 62 feet underwater near Conch Reef in the Florida Keys.

In 1959, Juni Ludowici, a German inventor and engineer born in 1896, unveiled an unconventional house design: the Kugelhaus.

In 1963, Worcester-based State Mutual Life Assurance faced low employee morale after a merger. They hired freelance artist Harvey Ball to create an image to lift spirits.

When Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek in 1964 as a “Wagon Train to the stars,” major studios turned it down.

In 1917, three children—Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto—reported six apparitions of a radiant woman in Cova da Iria, near Fátima, Portugal.

In 1917, Australian trooper Samuel Rolfe, a farmer from Inverell, was exposed to mustard gas near Albert, France.

Born near Lyon around 1772, Tarrare’s appetite was evident early. By his teens, he could eat a quarter of a bullock in one day.