Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin [a] (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space , achieving a major milestone in the Space Race ; his capsule, Vostok 1 , completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union , his nation's highest honour. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support...
Apr 21, 2021•42 min
"The Death of Superman" is a crossover story event featured in DC Comics ' Superman -related publications. The crossover, which originated from editor Mike Carlin and writers Dan Jurgens , Roger Stern , Louise Simonson , Jerry Ordway , and Karl Kesel , began in December 1992 and lasted until October 1993. It was published in Superman , Action Comics , The Adventures of Superman , Superman: The Man of Steel , Justice League America , and Green Lantern . Since its initial publication, "The Death o...
Apr 14, 2021•31 min
Vantablack is a material developed by Surrey NanoSystems in the United Kingdom and is one of the darkest substances known, absorbing up to 99.965% of visible light (at 663 nm if the light is perpendicular to the material). [4] [5]...
Apr 07, 2021•37 min
Caligula ( /kəˈlɪɡjʊlə/ ; 31 August 12 – 24 January 41 AD), formally known as Gaius ( Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus), was the third Roman emperor , ruling from 37 to 41. The son of the popular Roman general Germanicus and Augustus 's granddaughter Agrippina the Elder , Caligula was born into the first ruling family of the Roman Empire , conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty ....
Mar 31, 2021•41 min
Tetris (Russian: Тетрис [ˈtɛtrʲɪs] ) is a tile-matching video game created by Russian software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the rights in the late 1980s. After a significant period of publication by Nintendo , the rights reverted to Pajitnov in 1996, who co-founded The Tetris Company with Henk Rogers to manage licensing....
Mar 24, 2021•42 min
The Great Famine ( Irish : an Gorta Mór [anˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ] ), also known as the Great Hunger, the Great Starvation, the Famine (mostly within Ireland) or the Irish Potato Famine (mostly outside Ireland), [1] [2] was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852. [3] With the most severely affected areas in the west and south of Ireland, where the Irish language was dominant , the period was contemporaneously known in Irish as An Drochshaol , [4] loosely translated as ...
Mar 17, 2021•48 min
In psychology , a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility , activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source misattribution have been suggested to be several mechanisms underlying a variety of types of false memory phenomena....
Mar 10, 2021•42 min
Joseph Frank Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966), [1] known professionally as Buster Keaton, was an American actor, comedian, film director, producer, screenwriter, and stunt performer. [2] He is best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". [3] [4] Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruptio...
Mar 03, 2021•38 min
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. March 1822 [1] – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery , Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, [2] using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad . During the American Civil War , she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army . In her later years, Tubman was an acti...
Feb 24, 2021•30 min
Washington's Birthday is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday of February in honor of George Washington , the first president of the United States , who was born on February 22, 1732. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971 moved this holiday to the third Monday, which can fall from February 15 to 21, inclusive. [1] Colloquially, the day is also now widely known as Presidents' Day (though the placement of the apostrophe, if any, varies) and is often an occasion to...
Feb 17, 2021•34 min
Cannabis ( /ˈkænəbɪs/ ) [2] is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae . The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: Cannabis sativa , Cannabis indica , and Cannabis ruderalis ; C. ruderalis may be included within C. sativa ; all three may be treated as subspecies of a single species, C. sativa ; [1] [3] [4] [5] or C. sativa may be accepted as a single undivided species. [6] The genus is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating...
Feb 10, 2021•34 min
The Antwerp diamond heist, dubbed the "heist of the century", [1] was by far the largest diamond heist and one of the largest robberies in history. Thieves stole loose diamonds, gold, silver and other types of jewelry valued at more than $100 million. [2] [3] It took place in Antwerp , Belgium, during the weekend of 15–16 February 2003. Though arrests were made and time was served, most of the diamonds stolen remain unrecovered. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd ...
Feb 03, 2021•46 min
The Burke and Wills expedition was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria in Australia in 1860–61. It consisted of 19 men led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills , with the objective of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south, to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres (approximately 2,000 miles). [1] At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-Indigenous people and was largely unknown to the European settlers...
Jan 27, 2021•36 min
The Battle of the Golden Spurs ( Flemish : Guldensporenslag ; French : Bataille des éperons d'or ) was a military confrontation between the royal army of France and rebellious forces of the County of Flanders on 11 July 1302 during the Franco-Flemish War (1297–1305). It took place near the town of Kortrijk (Courtrai) in modern-day Belgium and resulted in an unexpected victory for the Flemish. It is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Courtrai. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna ...
Jan 20, 2021•35 min
Alien abduction, sometimes also called abduction phenomenon, alien abduction syndrome or UFO abduction, is a personally held belief in which the alleged "abductee" describes "subjectively real experiences" of being secretly kidnapped by non-human entities ( aliens ) and subjected to physical and psychological experimentation. [1] Most scientists and mental health professionals explain these experiences by factors such as suggestibility (e.g. false memory syndrome ), sleep paralysis , deception, ...
Jan 13, 2021•41 min
This episode picks up on Wikipedia's list of unusual deaths, starting with the Medieval period. --- 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.
Jan 06, 2021•33 min
The Etruscan civilization ( /ɪˈtrʌskən/ ) of ancient Italy covered a territory , at its greatest extent, of roughly what is now Tuscany , western Umbria , and northern Lazio , [2] [3] as well as parts of what are now the Po Valley , Emilia-Romagna , south-eastern Lombardy , southern Veneto , and Campania . [4]...
Dec 30, 2020•41 min
Lapland New Forest was a Christmas -themed park near Ringwood , Hampshire , UK . [1] The park had been advertised as being a "winter wonderland" with a variety of exciting family events such as a Christmas market and a "magical tunnel of light", but the majority of the promised attractions either malfunctioned or were of a very low quality. The park closed after a week after complaints from customers and poor press attention, and the organisers were charged with misleading advertising , and sent...
Dec 23, 2020•44 min
The Boston Massacre was a confrontation on March 5, 1770, in which British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob in Boston . The event was heavily publicized by leading Patriots such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams . [2] [3] [4] British troops had been stationed in the Province of Massachusetts Bay since 1768 in order to support crown-appointed officials and to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercanti...
Dec 16, 2020•38 min
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician [3] [4] [5] and scientific skeptic [6] [7] [8] who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. [9] He was the co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician under the stage name The Amazing Randi and later chose to devote most of his time to investi...
Dec 09, 2020•36 min
Maximilian I ( Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph Maria , Spanish : Fernando Maximiliano José María de Habsburgo-Lorena ; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was an Austrian archduke who reigned as the only Emperor of the Second Mexican Empire from 10 April 1864 until his execution on 19 June 1867. A younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria , Maximilian had a distinguished career as commander-in-chief of the Imperial Austrian Navy . Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd...
Dec 02, 2020•41 min
The Jamestown [a] settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James (Powhatan) River about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg . [1] It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S. (May 14, 1607 N.S. ), [2] and was considered permanent after a brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of ...
Nov 25, 2020•35 min
The Atari video game burial was a mass burial of unsold video game cartridges , consoles, and computers in a New Mexico landfill site, undertaken by American video game and home computer company Atari, Inc. in 1983. Up until 2014, the goods buried were rumored to be unsold copies of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , one of the biggest commercial failures in video gaming and often cited as one of the worst video games ever released , along with the Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man , which was commercially s...
Nov 18, 2020•38 min
General Gregor MacGregor (24 December 1786 – 4 December 1845) was a Scottish soldier, adventurer, and confidence trickster who attempted from 1821 to 1837 to draw British and French investors and settlers to "Poyais", a fictional Central American territory that he claimed to rule as "Cazique". Hundreds invested their savings in supposed Poyaisian government bonds and land certificates, while about 250 emigrated to MacGregor's invented country in 1822–23 to find only an untouched jungle; more tha...
Nov 11, 2020•45 min
Lucia Cole was an imaginary persona that tricked a number of online publications into releasing stories about her upcoming album and celebrity collaborations.
Nov 04, 2020•31 min
Theodore Edward Coneys (November 10, 1882 – May 16, 1967), known by the nickname "Denver Spiderman", an American drifter who committed a murder in 1941 and subsequently occupied the attic of the victim's home for nine months. --- 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 28, 2020•30 min
Times Beach is a ghost town in St. Louis County , Missouri , United States, 17 miles (27 km) southwest of St. Louis and 2 miles (3 km) east of Eureka . Once home to more than two thousand people, the town was completely evacuated early in 1983 due to TCDD —also known as dioxin —contamination. It was the largest civilian exposure to this compound in the history of the US. 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 fi...
Oct 21, 2020•44 min
The Battle of Hastings [a] was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy , and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson , beginning the Norman conquest of England . It took place approximately 7 miles (11 kilometres) northwest of Hastings , close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex , and was a decisive Norman victory. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a p...
Oct 14, 2020•32 min
The Battle of Stamford Bridge ( Old English : Gefeoht æt Stanfordbrycge ) took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire , in England on 25 September 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading Norwegian force led by King Harald Hardrada and the English king's brother Tostig Godwinson . After a bloody battle, both Hardrada and Tostig along with most of the Norwegians were killed. Although Harold Godwinson repelled the Norwegian invaders, his ...
Oct 07, 2020•36 min
The Hawaiian cowboy, the paniolo , is also a direct descendant of the vaquero of California and Mexico. Experts in Hawaiian etymology believe "Paniolo" is a Hawaiianized pronunciation of español. (The Hawaiian language has no /s/ sound, and all syllables and words must end in a vowel.) Paniolo, like cowboys on the mainland of North America, learned their skills from Mexican vaqueros . [109] --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per e...
Sep 30, 2020•31 min
