Posts in category Vintage + Historical Oddities

The reader is challenged to correctly rearrange the pages, which were printed “in an entirely haphazard and incorrect order.” There are 32 million possible combinations!

When diehard fans of 19th-century ballet dancer Marie Taglioni got their hands on a pair of her shoes, they did what any true fan would do: eat them.

The first version of this bejeweled book sunk with the Titanic, while the second was destroyed in a Blitz attack on London during World War II.

Did Jesse James die in 1882? Did he fake his own death, and live on in the guise of J. Frank Dalton (or someone else)? It was a question not even Robert Ripley could convincingly answer.

Over a span of 40 years, late novelty architecture aficionado John Margolies photographed more than 1,000 roadside attractions lining the highways of America.

Were the telegram systems really on the fritz? How did John Wilkes Booth escape the scene? Where is the derringer used in this fatal crime currently located?

Half a century after skyjacker D.B. Cooper leapt out of a Boeing 727, taking $200,000 in cash with him, crime historian Eric Ulis is picking up where the FBI left off in solving this infamous crime.

Ben Franklin’s armonica was becoming a true icon in the music world… until it started wreaking havoc on the minds and bodies of performers and their audiences.

Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber® was constructed from a 1930s Graflex camera flash tube, complete with glued-on button and circuitry additions.

In celebration of Nickelodeon favorites’ pearl anniversaries, we’re sharing some strange and shocking facts behind the sketches of three classic Nicktoons.