On July 4, 1974, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, a deep-sea drillship vessel, dropped anchor in the Pacific Ocean. Its stated purpose was to mine the sea floor for manganese nodules. However, that was just a cover. Its real purpose was far more ambitious…nothing less than the salvage of a lost Soviet nuclear submarine known as K-129….
In popular media, dinosaurs are often portrayed as large, lumbering creatures with leathery, drab, gray skin. But a shocking new find suggests that this might be incorrect. Were dinosaurs really covered in…fluffy, colorful feathers? Did Dinosaurs have Feathers? It’s a story seemingly ripped from the pages of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. While working in western…
In 2005, a team of archaeologists began surveying Medieval churches in Kilteasheen, Ireland. In the process, they stumbled onto a mysterious burial ground. What they found shocked them. Did the ancient Irish fear an invasion…from zombies? Strange Skeletons in Ireland? The archaeological team in question was led by Chris Read and Thomas Finan. From 2005 to…
They’re invisible from the ground. But from the air, these stone structures materialize, forming strange wheel-like patterns. What are these ancient “geoglyphs” that stretch across the Middle East? What are Geoglyphs? Geoglyphs are large ground-based drawings. They’re formed by either placing or removing stones, gravel, or earth. While nearly impossible to see from up close, the resulting…
During the Civil War, the Confederate States of America invented and deployed a number of secret weapons against Union forces. They created the the first steam-powered ironclad warship and built the H.L. Hunley, the first combat submarine to successfully sink an enemy vessel. But the strangest secret weapon of all was the one they didn’t…
In late 1919, Charles Ponzi was a poor but ambitious man. Less than a year later, he was worth millions. Then his ill-gotten wealth vanished in an epic collapse that brought down six banks and ruined thousands of investors. What was Charles Ponzi’s scheme? Who was Charles Ponzi? In August 1919, Charles Ponzi became fascinated…
On April 19, 2011, the Central Intelligence Agency declassified six secret documents from 1917 and 1918. These were America’s oldest classified documents and believed to be the last of their kind from World War I. So, what great secrets could possibly require nearly a century of security? Political intrigue? Government conspiracy? Something even worse? Secret…
If you were to ask the typical American about President Abraham Lincoln’s greatest enemy, he or she would most likely answer with Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America. But recent scholarship suggests that Lincoln faced a far more hated enemy much closer to home…Judge Roger Taney, the Chief Justice of the…