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How Uhtred Of Bamburgh United Northumbria, Fought Against Viking Invaders, And Started A Decades-Long Blood Feud

The show The Last Kingdom follows the story of Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon who is raised by Vikings, works for Alfred the Great, and fights for the lands that rightfully belong to him. Much about Uhtred’s story is fictional, but the character is based on a real historical figure known as Uhtred of Bamburgh or Uhtred the Bold.

The real Uhtred lived in the 11th century, more than 100 years after his onscreen counterpart. During this tumultuous time in English history, the kingdom of Northumbria...
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When Did Rome Fall? Inside The Collapse Of One Of History's Greatest Empires

The Roman Empire was one of the greatest empires in history. Starting in 27 B.C.E. after the fall of the Roman Republic, the impact of the Roman Empire — and its expansion across Europe and beyond — can still be felt to this day. But, as history has proven, nothing lasts forever.

Though it was probably hard for Romans to imagine the end of the Roman Empire, all that remains of it today are incredible artifacts. Most people now cite the year 476 C.E. as the year when Rome fell — but was it, real...
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A Message In A Bottle From 1906 Was Just Found Hidden Inside King’s Theatre In Edinburgh, Scotland

In the midst of a $51-million restoration project at King’s Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of its donors paid a visit for a private tour of its lesser-explored areas. While standing on scaffolding 40 feet above the stage, he stuck his hand in a gap behind a decorative plaster crown adorning the proscenium arch and found a sealed bottle with a message inside.

Now, experts have extracted the note and discovered that it lists the names of the people who built the theatre back in 1906.

Mike H...
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Charles Manson And The CIA: Did The Infamous Cult Leader Have Ties To Secret Programs Like MK-Ultra?

In the summer of 1969, members of the Manson Family cult brutally murdered at least nine people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate. The subsequent trials determined that they’d carried out the killings on the orders of Charles Manson in an attempt to spark a race war — but in the decades since the crimes, new theories have emerged. Journalist Tom O’Neill, who studied the case for 20 years, claims that the Tate-LaBianca murders may have actually been the result of a secret connection between...
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Researchers Just Discovered The Identity Of The Model Featured In The Famous ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ Photo From 1957

For the past 25 years, the Atomic Museum has been trying to ascertain the true identity of the woman in Don English’s famous 1957 photograph of a woman wearing a mushroom cloud swimsuit. Widely known as “Miss Atomic Bomb,” she had long been identified as a model named Lee Merlin — but, as it turns out, this was only a stage name.

As researcher and historian Robert Friedrichs revealed, Miss Atomic Bomb’s real name is Anna Lee Mahoney of the Bronx, New York. Finally, nearly 70 years after the ico...
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The Blood-Soaked Story Of Ken Eto, The Gambling Kingpin Who Helped Take Down The Chicago Outfit From The Inside

It’s not often that a mobster and an FBI agent work together. It’s even rarer when that cooperation leads to genuine mutual respect. But for Ken Eto, known in the Chicago Outfit as “Tokyo Joe,” and FBI Special Agent Elaine Corbitt Smith, that’s exactly what happened.

Smith received Eto’s case in 1980 when she was a fresh face in the force. Eto had been running a gambling ring for the mob for more than two decades by then, but his file, considered an “old dog case,” had been untouched for years....
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1,800-Year-Old Statue Of Hermes Uncovered Among The Greco-Roman Ruins Of Aspendos In Türkiye

As part of Türkiye’s ongoing “Heritage to the Future Project,” archaeologists were excavating the ancient Greco-Roman city of Aspendos in the Antalya province when they came across a marble statue of the god Hermes among the ruins of an enormous fountain.

Nearby, they also found marble heads depicting the goddesses Aphrodite and Eros, as well as marble fragments belonging to statues of Artemis and Nemesis. Based on stylistic features, archaeologists dated these sculptures to the Roman Imperial...
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Inside The Hidden Battle With Opioid Addiction That Led To The Tragic Death Of Prince At Age 57

The allure of Prince’s music was undeniable. After skyrocketing to success in the 1980s thanks to his unique musical talents and provocative onstage presence, Prince cemented himself as one of the biggest superstars in the world, with a career spanning about 40 years.

Despite his success, however, Prince’s career wasn’t always steady. In the 1990s, amid disputes with his label Warner Bros. Records, Prince dropped his name and started referring to himself as an unpronounceable glyph. During this...
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2,500-Year-Old Necklace Made Of Bronze Found By A Polish Farmer Who Was Clearing A Path In His Pasture

In the small village of Bartosze, Poland, the son of a local farmer was clearing a pasture and trying to make it easier for the cattle to access a watering hole when he stumbled upon an ancient treasure, broken in half. The two cleanly split pieces quickly came together to form an open-ended necklace made of bronze and decorated with a double groove pattern on its exterior.

Realizing the importance of this discovery, the farmer then handed the artifact over to the local branch of the Provincial...
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The Dramatic Life Of Paolo Gucci, The 'Black Sheep' Of The Gucci Family

Today, Gucci is one of the most famous fashion brands in the world. Gucci is simultaneously a fashion statement and an indicator of social status. Of course, it wasn’t always this way. Like everything, Gucci had to start somewhere, and though the company was founded by Guccio Gucci, it was his grandson Paolo Gucci, the “black sheep” of the family, whose contributions helped solidify the brand as an international powerhouse.

Yet Paolo Gucci’s work has often gone unrecognized. In the film House o...
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How Brian Epstein Transformed The Beatles From A Local Liverpool Band Into A Global Phenomenon

The Beatles are widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bands of all time. As pioneering musicians, their influence can still be felt in modern-day songwriting. Likewise, the undeniable craze of Beatlemania all but guaranteed that The Beatles, regardless of their music, would be talked about for decades after they split up.

But while The Beatles were undoubtedly talented, they did not become international superstars through talent alone. Their early success was helped, in la...
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Archaeologists In Denmark Just Found A 4,000-Year-Old Ritual Site That Was Like The Wooden Version Of Stonehenge

Archaeologists in Denmark have uncovered the remains of a 4,000-year-old circular site that shares some key similarities with England’s famous Stonehenge.

The discovery came when workers were preparing for construction of a residential area and stumbled upon the remnants of this Neolithic structure. Experts believe it dates to around 2000 B.C.E., and it resembles similar circular structures from this era whose remains have been found in the Netherlands, Wales, Germany, and other European countr...
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How Were Wolves First Domesticated Into Dogs? New Study Says They Did It Themselves In Order To Get Fed

For thousands of years, dogs have been man’s best friend. When humans still lived primarily in hunter-gatherer societies, dogs were among the first domesticated animals. And as the millennia passed, the relationship between man and dog has remained, in many ways, unchanged.

But there has long been debate in the scientific community about when and how, exactly, wolves were domesticated into dogs. Some have speculated that, much like today, humans aided in the process, selectively breeding wolves...
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'Sword Of Damocles' Is Used To Describe An Impending Disaster — But Where Did The Phrase Come From?

If you’ve ever heard someone say the “sword of Damocles” was hanging over their head, they were likely referring to feeling a sense of impending doom, as if catastrophe could strike at any moment. Like many modern expressions, such as having an “Achilles heel,” this phrase has ancient roots, though the exact interpretation of the original meaning has been somewhat warped over the years.

The phrase originated with the writings of the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero (106 to 43 B.C.E.), who share...
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Archaeologists In Türkiye Just Unearthed An 1,800-Year-Old Residential Complex Full Of Elaborate Mosaics

Archaeologists working in Türkiye’s ancient city of Pergamon recently discovered an impressive Greco-Roman residential complex dubbed the “Mosaic House.” While just 20 percent of the structure has been unearthed so far, at least four different elaborate tile floors have already been uncovered.

What’s more, a roof tile found at the site suggests that the complex belonged to the royal family of the Pergamon Kingdom. The residence was seemingly burned down during Arab raids in the seventh century,...
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The Shocking Story Of Amarjeet Sada, The 8-Year-Old Boy Who Became The World's Youngest Serial Killer

From Jack the Ripper to Jeffrey Dahmer, history is full of tales of vicious murderers. However, few of these stories are quite so disturbing as that of Amarjeet Sada, who is widely considered to be the world’s youngest serial killer.

Many deadly criminals notoriously tortured animals as children, but Amarjeet was not one of them. He started on humans, killing his first victim — his infant cousin — when he was just seven years old. However, the boy did not face any real consequences.

This likel...
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Researchers Just Uncovered A 4-Billion-Year-Old Beach Buried On Mars

Billions of years ago, Mars may have looked very different. The Mars ocean theory has been a subject of scientific debate and focus for the better part of 50 years now, ever since NASA’s Mariner 9 orbiter first captured evidence of water-sculpted surfaces on the planet back in the 1970s.

But the extent of how much water once covered Mars’ surface is still somewhat murky. Analysis of meteorites, for example, has shown that water was on the planet’s surface roughly 4.5 billion years ago, and some...
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A Geological Rift In Africa Is Growing Quickly — And Might One Day Split The Continent In Two

Earth has seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. At this moment in history, that is fact, but it wasn’t always the case. Hundreds of millions of years ago, there was only a single supercontinent known as Pangea. And millions of years in the future, there may be a new continent — because Africa is splitting.

Indeed, scientists have known for the past two decades that Africa is gradually splitting apart. The first crack appeared in 2005 af...
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Archaeologists In Italy Unearthed A 1,700-Year-Old Statue Of Hercules That’s Just 20 Inches Tall

Archaeologists working in the town of Montaione, near Florence, Italy, recently announced the discovery of a miniature statue depicting the Greco-Roman hero Hercules.

Standing just 20 inches tall, this marble statue dates back 1,700 years and showcases the excellent craftsmanship of the ancient Romans. The statue’s size isn’t the only unique thing about it, however. It also features a detail rarely depicted in statues of the Greek hero, making it an even more remarkable and important discovery....
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Ernest Burkhart And The Haunting True Story Behind 'Killers Of The Flower Moon'

In the 1920s, members of the Osage Nation living in Oklahoma faced a terrifying series of brutal killings. Known as the Osage Indian murders, these crimes were driven by greed, as the perpetrators sought to inherit the oil wealth of the Osage people and the land they called home. One of the main perpetrators was a man named Ernest Burkhart.

Burkhart’s uncle, William King Hale, was well aware that each tribal member had been granted “headrights” for the oil that had been discovered beneath their...
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Metal Detectorist On The Isle Of Man Unearths An Iron Age Spoon Used For Ancient Divination Rituals

A metal detectorist recently made a fascinating discovery on the west coast of the Isle of Man: a 2,000-year-old “divination spoon” used by Iron Age people to foresee the future.

Just 27 other ancient divination spoons have been found across Britain, Ireland, and France, and this is the first artifact of its kind to be uncovered on the Isle of Man. Its discovery hints at some of the ritual practices that once took place on the island.

The discovery was made by metal detectorist Rob Middleton,...
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Tezcatlipoca, One Of The Four Aztec Creator Gods Who Built — And Destroyed — Humanity

Like most gods in the Aztec pantheon, Tezcatlipoca is difficult to define in a succinct manner. He was a multifaceted figure, embodying a variety of concepts ranging from the night sky to conflict and sorcery. His animal counterpart, or nagual, was the jaguar, considered by the Aztecs to be a powerful and mystical creature with connections to the Underworld.

The Aztecs revered jaguars, and elite warriors even adorned themselves in jaguar pelts as a way of imbuing themselves with the animals’ st...
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Is The Shroud Of Turin Actually The Burial Cloth Of Jesus Christ — Or A Total Fraud?

The Shroud of Turin, or the Holy Shroud, is believed by some to be Jesus Christ’s burial garment. The centuries-old linen cloth appears to bear the faint image of a crucified man who endured horrific injuries before his execution — including wounds from a crown of thorns.

Some Christian leaders believe that the Shroud of Turin was truly used to wrap Jesus’ body after his crucifixion. However, science has so far yet to confirm this presumption. Like many holy artifacts, the debate about its auth...
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The Long-Lost Original Tomb Of Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose II Has Been Discovered Near Luxor

Archaeologists in Egypt recently announced the discovery of the long-lost tomb of King Thutmose II — the first royal burial chamber to be unearthed since Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922.

Although Thutmose II’s body was discovered back in 1881, it was not found in the tomb that was originally built for the late king. As the new discovery shows, Thutmose II’s original tomb was left in a poor state of preservation due to flooding soon after his death, and most of the origi...
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