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Deep-dive stories of disasters, mysteries, forgotten battles and the strange turns of the past — thoroughly researched, vividly told, and never dull. History, but with katanas.
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Witch Bottles and Concealed Shoes: The Secret Charms People Hid in Their Own Homes
For centuries, ordinary families sealed strange objects into their walls, chimneys, and doorways to keep evil out. The charms they left behind…
The Human Lightning Rod: Roy Sullivan and the Seven Strikes He Somehow Survived
The odds of being struck by lightning once in a lifetime are vanishingly small. A Virginia park ranger named Roy Sullivan was…
The Law of the Tongue: The Killer Whales of Eden Who Hunted Alongside Humans for Generations
For nearly a century, a pod of killer whales in a bay on Australia's south coast rounded up other whales and delivered…
The Somerton Man: The Body on the Beach, the Code No One Could Crack, and the 70-Year Hunt for a Name
In 1948 a well-dressed man was found dead on an Adelaide beach with no name, no labels in his clothes, and a…
The Cleveland Balloonfest of 1986: How 1.5 Million Balloons Turned Into a Disaster
It was supposed to be a moment of pure joy: a million and a half balloons rising over Cleveland to set a…
The Cleveland Balloonfest of 1986: How 1.5 Million Balloons Turned Into a Disaster
It was supposed to be a moment of pure joy: a million and a half balloons rising over Cleveland to set a…
The Baby Thief: How Georgia Tann Sold Thousands of Stolen Children
For nearly three decades, a respected Memphis social worker was hailed as a pioneer of modern adoption. In truth, Georgia Tann was…
The Beast of Gévaudan: The Man-Eating Terror That Stalked 18th-Century France
Between 1764 and 1767, something hunted the uplands of south-central France, killing as many as a hundred people - mostly women and…
Ea-Nasir: The World’s Oldest Complaint Letter and the Ancient Merchant Everyone Hated
Nearly 3,770 years ago, a Babylonian named Nanni took delivery of some bad copper and did what furious customers have done ever…
A Fortune in the Frost: The Viking Silver Hoard an Amateur Just Unearthed in Finland
One quiet September afternoon, an amateur with a metal detector dug up nearly ten pounds of Viking-age silver in his own hometown…
The Iroquois Theatre Fire: How an “Absolutely Fireproof” Theatre Killed 600 in Fifteen Minutes
It was advertised as absolutely fireproof. Five weeks after it opened, a holiday matinee in Chicago's grandest new theatre became the deadliest…
The Centralia Mine Fire: The Town That Has Been Burning Underground Since 1962
In 1962 a small Pennsylvania coal town lit a fire it could not put out. More than sixty years later Centralia is…
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