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The  Battle of the Alamo  (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the  Texas Revolution . Following a  13-day siege , Mexican troops under  President   General Antonio López de Santa Anna  launched an assault on the  Alamo Mission  near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day  San Antonio ,  Texas , United States), killing all of the  Texian  defenders. Santa Anna's cruelty during the battle...

The most accurate measurement of the size of a  human penis  can be derived from several readings at different times since there is natural minor variability in size depending upon arousal level, time of day, room temperature, frequency of sexual activity, and reliability of measurement. When compared to other primates, including large examples such as the gorilla, the human penis is thickest, bot...

The  Dreadnought  hoax  was a  practical joke  pulled by  Horace de Vere Cole  in 1910. Cole tricked the  Royal Navy  into showing their  flagship , the  battleship   HMS  Dreadnought , to a fake delegation of  Abyssinian  royals. The hoax drew attention in Britain to the emergence of the  Bloomsbury Group , among whom some of Cole's collaborators numbered. The hoax was a repeat of a similar imper...

Edward "Ned" Kelly  (December 1854 [a]  – 11 November 1880) was an Australian  bushranger , outlaw, gang leader and convicted police murderer. Recognised as the last and most famous of the bushrangers, he is best-known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police.   Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on...

Action Park  is an  amusement park  located in  Vernon, New Jersey , United States, on the grounds of the  Mountain Creek  ski resort. The park consists primarily of water-based attractions and originally opened to the public in 1978 under the ownership of Great American Recreation, who also owned the ski resort which at the time operated under the name Vernon Valley/Great Gorge. [2] Our theme son...

Boudica  or  Boudicca  ( / ˈ b uː d ɪ k ə / ,  Latinised  as  Boadicea  or  Boudicea / b oʊ d ɪ ˈ s iː ə / , and known in  Welsh  as  Buddug   [ˈbɨ̞ðɨ̞ɡ] ) [1] [2]  was a queen of the  British   Celtic   Iceni  tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the  Roman Empire  in AD 60 or 61, and died shortly after its failure. She is sometimes considered a British folk hero.   Our theme...

The  Cold War  was a state of geopolitical tension after  World War II  between powers in the  Eastern Bloc  (the  Soviet Union  and its  satellite states ) and powers in the  Western Bloc  (the  United States , its  NATO  allies and others). Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the  Truman Doctrine  (a  U.S. foreign policy  pledgi...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare   Tarrare (c. 1772 – 1798), sometimes spelled Tarare, was a French showman and soldier, noted for his unusual eating habits. Able to eat vast amounts of meat, he was constantly hungry; his parents could not provide for him, and he was turned out of the family home as a teenager. He traveled France in the company of a band of thieves and prostitutes, before bec...

John Romulus Brinkley  (later  John Richard Brinkley ; July 8, 1885 – May 26, 1942) was an American who fraudulently claimed to be a  medical doctor  (he had no legitimate medical education and bought his medical degree from a " diploma mill ") who became known as the "goat-gland doctor" after he achieved national fame, international notoriety and great wealth through the  xenotransplantation  of ...

Elizabeth Cochran Seaman [1]  (May 5, 1864 [2]  – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name  Nellie Bly , was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking  trip around the world  in 72 days, in emulation of  Jules Verne 's fictional character  Phileas Fogg , and an  exposé  in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within. [3]  She was a pio...

The  cobra effect  occurs when an attempted solution to a problem makes the problem worse, [1] [2]  as a type of  unintended consequence . The term is used to illustrate the causes of incorrect stimulation in economy and politics. [2] --- 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...

The  Oak Island mystery  refers to various stories of buried treasure and unexplained objects on  Oak Island ,  Nova Scotia , Canada. --- 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.

Marie Skłodowska Curie  ( / ˈ k j ʊr i ,  k j ʊ ˈ r iː / ; [2]   French:  [kyʁi] ;  Polish:  [kʲiˈri] ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934; born  Maria Salomea Skłodowska ;  [ˈmarja salɔˈmɛa skwɔˈdɔfska] ) was a  Polish and naturalized-French   physicist  and  chemist  who conducted pioneering research on  radioactivity . She was the  first woman to win a Nobel Prize , the first person and only woman t...

The  PS  General Slocum  was a passenger  steamboat  built in  Brooklyn ,  New York , in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisions. On June 15, 1904, the  General Slocum  caught fire and sank in the  East River  of New York City. [1]  At the time of the accident, she was on a chartered run carrying members of  St. Mark's...

The  Lost Cause of the Confederacy , or simply  Lost Cause , is a literary and intellectual movement [1]  that describes the  Confederate  cause as a heroic one against great odds despite its defeat. The beliefs endorse the virtues of the  antebellum South , viewing the  American Civil War  as an honorable struggle for the Southern way of life, [2]  while minimizing or denying the central role of ...

Tycho Brahe  ( / ˌ t aɪ k oʊ   ˈ b r ɑː h i ,  ˈ b r ɑː ,  ˈ b r ɑː ə / , born  Tyge Ottesen Brahe  ( Danish:  [ˈtyːə ˈʌdəsn̩ ˈbʁɑː] [n 1] ); 14 December 1546 – 24 October 1601) was a  Danish   nobleman  known for his accurate and comprehensive  astronomical and planetary  observations. He was born in the then Danish peninsula of  Scania . Well known in his lifetime as an  astronomer ,  astrologer...

Eugenics  ( / j uː ˈ dʒ ɛ n ɪ k s / ; from  Greek  εὐγενής  eugenes  "well-born" from εὖ  eu , "good, well" and γένος  genos , "race, stock, kin") [2] [3]  is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the  genetic  quality of a group of individuals. [4] [5]  The exact definition of  eugenics  has been a matter of debate since the term was coined. --- Our theme song was written and perf...

The  Cadaver Synod  (also called the  Cadaver Trial ;  Latin :  Synodus Horrenda ) is the name commonly given to the posthumous ecclesiastical trial of  Pope Formosus , held in the  Basilica of St. John Lateran  in Rome during January 897. [1]  The trial was conducted by  Pope Stephen VI  (sometimes  called Stephen VII ), who was the successor to Formosus' successor,  Pope Boniface VI . Stephen ac...

The  Battle of Agincourt  ( / ˈ æ ʒ ɪ n k ʊ r / ; in French,  Azincourt   French pronunciation: ​ [azɛ̃kuʁ] ) was a major English victory in the  Hundred Years' War . [a]  The battle took place on Friday, 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day ) in the  County of Saint-Pol ,  Artois , some 40 km south of  Calais  (now  Azincourt  in northern  France ). [5] [b] Henry V 's victory at Agincourt, again...

The  Great Molasses Flood , also known as the  Boston Molasses Disaster  or the  Great Boston Molasses Flood , occurred on January 15, 1919 in the  North End  neighborhood of  Boston ,  Massachusetts . A large  molasses  storage tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and for decade...

New Coke  was the unofficial name for the reformulation of  Coca-Cola  introduced in April 1985 by  The Coca-Cola Company  to replace the original formula of its flagship  soft drink , Coca-Cola (also called  Coke ). New Coke originally had no separate name of its own but was simply known as "the new taste of Coca-Cola" until 1992, when it was officially renamed  Coke II . Coca-Cola's  market shar...

The  Donner Party , or  Donner-Reed Party , was a group of  American pioneers led by  George Donner  and  James F. Reed  who set out for  California  in a  wagon train  in May 1846. They were delayed by a series of mishaps and mistakes, and spent the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in the  Sierra Nevada . Some of the pioneers resorted to  cannibalism  to survive. Our theme song was written and perform...

Chung Ling Soo  was the stage name of the  American   magician   William Ellsworth Robinson  (April 2, 1861 – March 24, 1918), who is mostly remembered today for his death after a  bullet catch  trick went wrong.

Ghost hunting is a  fringe   pseudoscience  wherein its adherents visit and investigate  locations  that are reported to be haunted by  ghosts . Typically, a ghost hunting team will attempt to collect evidence that they see as supportive of  paranormal  activity.  Ghost hunters  often use a variety of electronic devices: the  EMF meter ; digital  thermometer ; handheld and static  digital   video...

John Harvey Kellogg , M.D. (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943) was an American medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan , who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition , enemas , and exercise . Kellogg was an advocate of vegetarianism for health and is best known for the invention of the breakfast cereal known as corn flakes with his brother, Will Keith Kell...