The Ryugyong Hotel ( Chosŏn'gŭl : 류경려관; sometimes anglicised as Ryu-Gyong Hotel or Yu-Kyung Hotel ) [4] is an unfinished (although topped-out ) 105-story, 330 metres (1,080 ft)-tall pyramid -shaped skyscraper in Pyongyang , North Korea . Its name ("capital of willows ") is also one of the historical names for Pyongyang. [5] The building is also known as the 105 Building , a reference to its number of floors. [2] The building has been planned as a mixed-use development, which would include a hote...
Jan 17, 2018•38 min
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, fourteen of them women, and all but one by hanging . Five others (including two infant children) died in prison. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check o...
Jan 10, 2018•42 min
A hatpin is a decorative and functional pin for holding a hat to the head, usually by the hair. In Western culture , hatpins are almost solely used by women and are often worn in a pair. They are typically around 20 cm in length, with the pinhead being the most decorated part. Hatpins were sometimes used by women to defend themselves against assault by men. Laws were passed in 1908 in America that limited the length of hatpins, as there was a concern they might be used by suffragettes as weapons...
Jan 03, 2018•31 min
The Taiping Rebellion or the Taiping Civil War was a massive rebellion or civil war in China fought between the established Manchu -led Qing dynasty and the Christian millenarian movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom between 1850 to 1864. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Dec 27, 2017•38 min
The Eggnog Riot , sometimes known as the Grog Mutiny , was a riot that took place at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York , on 24–25 December 1826. It was caused by a drunken Christmas Day party in the North Barracks of the academy. Two days prior to the incident, a large quantity of whiskey was smuggled into the academy to make eggnog for the party, giving the riot its name. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a pe...
Dec 20, 2017•35 min
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution . Following a 13-day siege , Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio , Texas , United States), killing all of the Texian defenders. Santa Anna's cruelty during the battle inspired many Texians—both Texas settlers and adventurers from the United States—to join the Texian Army. Buoyed ...
Dec 13, 2017•42 min
The most accurate measurement of the size of a human penis can be derived from several readings at different times since there is natural minor variability in size depending upon arousal level, time of day, room temperature, frequency of sexual activity, and reliability of measurement. When compared to other primates, including large examples such as the gorilla, the human penis is thickest, both in absolute terms and relative to the rest of the body....
Dec 06, 2017•39 min
The Dreadnought hoax was a practical joke pulled by Horace de Vere Cole in 1910. Cole tricked the Royal Navy into showing their flagship , the battleship HMS Dreadnought , to a fake delegation of Abyssinian royals. The hoax drew attention in Britain to the emergence of the Bloomsbury Group , among whom some of Cole's collaborators numbered. The hoax was a repeat of a similar impersonation which Cole and Adrian Stephen had organised while they were students at Cambridge in 1905. --- Our theme son...
Nov 29, 2017•27 min
Edward "Ned" Kelly (December 1854 [a] – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger , outlaw, gang leader and convicted police murderer. Recognised as the last and most famous of the bushrangers, he is best-known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Nov 22, 2017•52 min
Action Park is an amusement park located in Vernon, New Jersey , United States, on the grounds of the Mountain Creek ski resort. The park consists primarily of water-based attractions and originally opened to the public in 1978 under the ownership of Great American Recreation, who also owned the ski resort which at the time operated under the name Vernon Valley/Great Gorge. [2] Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you...
Nov 15, 2017•46 min
Boudica or Boudicca ( /ˈbuːdɪkə/ , Latinised as Boadicea or Boudicea /boʊdɪˈsiːə/ , and known in Welsh as Buddug [ˈbɨ̞ðɨ̞ɡ] ) [1] [2] was a queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61, and died shortly after its failure. She is sometimes considered a British folk hero. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here...
Nov 08, 2017•40 min
The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states ) and powers in the Western Bloc (the United States , its NATO allies and others). Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine (a U.S. foreign policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism) was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed . Th...
Nov 01, 2017•41 min
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare Tarrare (c. 1772 – 1798), sometimes spelled Tarare, was a French showman and soldier, noted for his unusual eating habits. Able to eat vast amounts of meat, he was constantly hungry; his parents could not provide for him, and he was turned out of the family home as a teenager. He traveled France in the company of a band of thieves and prostitutes, before becoming the warm-up act to a traveling charlatan; he would swallow corks, stones, live animals and a who...
Oct 25, 2017•38 min
John Romulus Brinkley (later John Richard Brinkley ; July 8, 1885 – May 26, 1942) was an American who fraudulently claimed to be a medical doctor (he had no legitimate medical education and bought his medical degree from a " diploma mill ") who became known as the "goat-gland doctor" after he achieved national fame, international notoriety and great wealth through the xenotransplantation of goat testicles into humans. Although initially Brinkley promoted this procedure as a means of curing male ...
Oct 18, 2017•39 min
Elizabeth Cochran Seaman [1] (May 5, 1864 [2] – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly , was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, in emulation of Jules Verne 's fictional character Phileas Fogg , and an exposé in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within. [3] She was a pioneer in her field, and launched a new kind of investigative journalism. [4] Bly was also a writer, industriali...
Oct 11, 2017•33 min
The cobra effect occurs when an attempted solution to a problem makes the problem worse, [1] [2] as a type of unintended consequence . The term is used to illustrate the causes of incorrect stimulation in economy and politics. [2] --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Oct 04, 2017•33 min
The Oak Island mystery refers to various stories of buried treasure and unexplained objects on Oak Island , Nova Scotia , Canada. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Sep 27, 2017•49 min
Marie Skłodowska Curie ( /ˈkjʊri, kjʊˈriː/ ; [2] French: [kyʁi] ; Polish: [kʲiˈri] ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska ; [ˈmarja salɔˈmɛa skwɔˈdɔfska] ) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity . She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize , the first person and only woman to win twice , the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nob...
Sep 20, 2017•51 min
The PS General Slocum was a passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn , New York , in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisions. On June 15, 1904, the General Slocum caught fire and sank in the East River of New York City. [1] At the time of the accident, she was on a chartered run carrying members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church ( German Americans from Little Germany, Manhattan ) to a church picnic. An estimated...
Sep 13, 2017•43 min
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy , or simply Lost Cause , is a literary and intellectual movement [1] that describes the Confederate cause as a heroic one against great odds despite its defeat. The beliefs endorse the virtues of the antebellum South , viewing the American Civil War as an honorable struggle for the Southern way of life, [2] while minimizing or denying the central role of slavery . While it was not taught in the North, aspects of it did win acceptance there and helped the process...
Sep 06, 2017•33 min
Tycho Brahe ( /ˌtaɪkoʊ ˈbrɑːhi, ˈbrɑː, ˈbrɑːə/ , born Tyge Ottesen Brahe (Danish: [ˈtyːə ˈʌdəsn̩ ˈbʁɑː] [n 1] ); 14 December 1546 – 24 October 1601) was a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. He was born in the then Danish peninsula of Scania . Well known in his lifetime as an astronomer , astrologer and alchemist , he has been described as "the first competent mind in modern astronomy to feel ardently the passion for exact empirical f...
Aug 30, 2017•46 min
Eugenics ( /juːˈdʒɛnɪks/ ; from Greek εὐγενής eugenes "well-born" from εὖ eu , "good, well" and γένος genos , "race, stock, kin") [2] [3] is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of a group of individuals. [4] [5] The exact definition of eugenics has been a matter of debate since the term was coined. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be su...
Aug 23, 2017•47 min
The Cadaver Synod (also called the Cadaver Trial ; Latin : Synodus Horrenda ) is the name commonly given to the posthumous ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus , held in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome during January 897. [1] The trial was conducted by Pope Stephen VI (sometimes called Stephen VII ), who was the successor to Formosus' successor, Pope Boniface VI . Stephen accused Formosus of perjury and of having acceded to the papacy illegally. At the end of the trial, Formosus was pr...
Aug 16, 2017•45 min
The Battle of Agincourt ( /ˈæʒɪnkʊr/ ; in French, Azincourt French pronunciation: [azɛ̃kuʁ] ) was a major English victory in the Hundred Years' War . [a] The battle took place on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ) in the County of Saint-Pol , Artois , some 40 km south of Calais (now Azincourt in northern France ). [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army, crippled France and started a new period in the war during which Henry V married the...
Aug 09, 2017•47 min
The Great Molasses Flood , also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster or the Great Boston Molasses Flood , occurred on January 15, 1919 in the North End neighborhood of Boston , Massachusetts . A large molasses storage tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and for decades afterwards residents claimed that on hot summer days the area still smelled of molasses. Skit music: “Danger...
Aug 02, 2017•35 min
New Coke was the unofficial name for the reformulation of Coca-Cola introduced in April 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace the original formula of its flagship soft drink , Coca-Cola (also called Coke ). New Coke originally had no separate name of its own but was simply known as "the new taste of Coca-Cola" until 1992, when it was officially renamed Coke II . Coca-Cola's market share had been steadily losing ground to diet soft drinks and non-cola beverages for many years. Meanwhile, consu...
Jul 26, 2017•46 min
The Donner Party , or Donner-Reed Party , was a group of American pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed who set out for California in a wagon train in May 1846. They were delayed by a series of mishaps and mistakes, and spent the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada . Some of the pioneers resorted to cannibalism to survive. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here ....
Jul 19, 2017•58 min
Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of the American magician William Ellsworth Robinson (April 2, 1861 – March 24, 1918), who is mostly remembered today for his death after a bullet catch trick went wrong.
Jul 12, 2017•50 min
Ghost hunting is a fringe pseudoscience wherein its adherents visit and investigate locations that are reported to be haunted by ghosts . Typically, a ghost hunting team will attempt to collect evidence that they see as supportive of paranormal activity. Ghost hunters often use a variety of electronic devices: the EMF meter ; digital thermometer ; handheld and static digital video cameras , such as thermographic (or infrared ) and night vision ; digital audio recorder ; and computer. Traditional...
Jul 05, 2017•50 min
John Harvey Kellogg , M.D. (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943) was an American medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan , who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition , enemas , and exercise . Kellogg was an advocate of vegetarianism for health and is best known for the invention of the breakfast cereal known as corn flakes with his brother, Will Keith Kellogg . [1] Skit music: Galway Kevin MacLeod ( incompetech.com ) Licensed under Creative Commons: By A...
Jun 28, 2017•36 min