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Why MLK Day is a Big Deal in Hiroshima
The Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial in D.C., during cherry blossom season. (Photo: Ron Cogswell/Flickr)Today, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, thousands of Americans are joining parades, volunteering,...
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How Thalidomide Went From Medical Disaster to Miraculous Cancer Treatment
A packet of thalidomide tablets, c. 1960, on display at the Science Museum in London. (Photo: Stephencdickson/WikiCommons CC BY-SA 4.0)In 2012, a crowd gathered to see the unveiling of a bronze...
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Curzon Street Station in Birmingham, England
There are a whole host of abandoned industrial buildings in Birmingham but the Curzon Street Station could be the oldest, as it is already the oldest surviving monumental railroad terminus in the...
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St. Augustine's Seminary in Bay Saint Louis, United States
St. Augustine's Seminary was founded by Fr. Matthew Christman in 1920 as the first seminary in the United States to train African-American men for religious life and priesthood. Until that time, the...
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Object of Intrigue: Backpack Helicopters
A man wearing a Hoppi-Coptor, a personal helicopter device developed by Horace Pentecost, c. 1950. (Photo: General Subjects Photograph Collection, 1845-2005, Washington State Archives, Digital...
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The World's Longest War Only Ended in 1985
A 19th-century map of the Scilly Isles. (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons)Some historians consider England’s Scilly conflict to be the longest war in known history, dragging on for a staggering 335...
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Makli Hill in Thatta, Pakistan
Dominating an area over 26,000 feet in diameter atop a Pakistan hilltop, the aptly named Makli Hill is a sprawling city of the dead that is made of beautifully crumbling tombs. From around the 14th...
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A Serbian Village’s 21st-Century Vampire Problem
A 15th-century engraving of a vampire attack. (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons) In 2012, the municipal council of the Serbian village of Zarozje issued a public health warning to residents,...
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North Carolina’s 1932 Series of Spontaneous Combustions is Still Unsolved
Mysterious fires: in 1932, 20 fires broke out in a house in Bladenboro, North Carolina. (Photo: Lukas Gojda/shutterstock.com)More than half a century before A Nightmare On Elm Street scared the bejesus...
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Fleeting Wonders: Russian Orthodox Christians Take the Epiphany Plunge
Epiphany bathers line up at an ice hole in Nerli in 2008. (Photo: Aleksey Nikolskyi/WikiCommons CC BY-SA 3.0)Marking a tradition so cool it's cold, scores of Russian Orthodox Christians dove headlong...
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FOUND: A Fish That Looks Like It Has Legs
The view from Motukiekie Island (Photo: Fuadounet/Flickr)The Bay of Islands is on the northern island of New Zealand, almost as far north as it's possible to go on that island. It has 144 islands, and...
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Tourists Love to Rub the Bronze Balls of Wall Street's Charging Bull Statue....
Don't they just look so touchable? (Photo: Tao Tao Holmes/Atlas Obscura)"It gives you good luck," is the usual justification for fondling the testicles, according to tourists from South America, Asia,...
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Northwest Angle in Angle Inlet, Minnesota
Surrounded on all sides by water and Canada, Minnesota's Northwest Angle is home to just 119 residents. Yet this small spit of land, which locals call "the Angle," makes a most prominent mark on U.S....
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Johnny Donutseed Statue in Monticello, Florida
Big Bend Travel Plaza, one of the first independent truck stops along I-10 in North Florida, is the oldest one still in operation. It is also the home of a curious roadside figure known locally as...
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Drinking Vodka With Elderly Settlers Who Refuse to Leave Chernobyl's...
Radiation warning sign in Pripyat. (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons)Let me introduce you to Ivan Ivanich. He is a proud fascist who would truly like to kill us all, however, approaching ninety he...
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Pachacamac in Lurín, Peru
As far as pre-Hispanic Peruvian gods go, Pachacamac was a pretty heavy hitter.The maker of the Earth; the soul that animated the world; god not only of creation but also fire and earthquakes, with a...
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Upheaval Dome in Moab, Utah
For decades, two theories about the formation of Utah’s Upheaval Dome jostled for supremacy.The geological formation in question is three miles across and roughly circular in shape. Although the land...
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After Terror Attacks on Pathankot Air Base, India Considers Censoring Google...
Part of the Pathankot Air Force Station, marked as "Pathankot Airport" on Google Earth. (Photo: © 2016 Google/Digital Globe, CNES/Astrium)Following militant coalition United Jihad Council's January 2...
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Michaelskapelle Ossuary in Oppenheim, Germany
Sitting unsuspectingly behind the Church of St Katharin in Oppenheim, Germany is a relatively small building that looks a tad sinister thanks to its severe angles, but inside is something much more...
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St. Fillan's Cave in Pittenweem, United Kingdom
Set into the natural rock behind a small metal gate in the town of Pittenweem, United Kingdom, St. Fillian's Cave is thought to have been the dark cave where the titular holy man composed his writings...
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