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Europeans Thought Coffee Was Satanic

Until the Pope tried it out and became a fan

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19th Century Concern Trolling: Chess Is “a Mere Amusement of a Very Inferior Character”

The writers of Scientific American had some not nice things to say about chess

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A Soldier’s Room Has Remained Virtually Untouched Since WWI

The home's current owner, however, says he feels little connection to the dead soldier

George Washington's only complete set of dentures, made out of lead, human teeth, cow teeth and elephant ivory.
 

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George Washington Didn’t Have Wooden Teeth—They Were Ivory

Washington's teeth were made of a lot of things, but not wood

Newspaper headlines in New York, where people react to the news that Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid in Pakistan.

Trending Today

The Navy SEAL Who Says He Shot Bin Laden Goes Public

Robert O'Neill says he is the SEAL who killed bin Laden

Participants in costume process with an effigy of Guy Fawkes, to be burned, as they take part in one of a series of processions during Bonfire night celebrations in Lewes, southern England.

Trending Today

Guy Fawkes May Be the Root of the Word “Guys”

The word's meaning has changed a lot throughout the centuries

A Big Circle named J1 in Jordan stretches 1,280 feet in diameter and the center has been bulldozed

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These Giant Circles in the Mideast Are One of the World's Last Mysteries

Archaeologists have found more than a dozen ancient circles in Turkey, Syria and Jordan—but don’t know why they were built

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Great Britain Still Has Significant Debt From World War I

The U.K. is committing itself to paying off a small fraction of that debt next year by issuing new debt

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Someone Just Bought an Entire Connecticut Ghost Town for $1.2 Million

Johnsonville was once a 62-acre mill village

Did this piece of debris come from Amelia Earhart's plane? Some think so; others disagree.

Trending Today

Aircraft Hunters Think They’ve Found a Scrap of Amelia Earhart’s Plane

This isn't the first time a seemingly game-changing piece of evidence about Earhart's disappearance has arisen, however

Moai on the slopes of the Rano Raraku volcano of Easter Island

New Research

Ancient Easter Islanders Likely Sailed Back And Forth to South America

The 4,600-mile roundtrip couldn't have been easy—even for people who had already migrated from Polynesia in wooden outrigger canoes

Nevado Coropuna, a volcano visible from the recently discovered Stone Age site in the Andes

New Research

Stone Age Shelter in Peru is the Oldest, Highest Human Settlement

Researchers found campfires and rock art at nearly 14,700 feet, suggesting ancient people lived high just 2,000 years after they reached South America

The German U-576 off the coast of France, around 1940 or 1941. It sunk near North Carolina in 1942.

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Wreckage of a Nazi U-Boat Was Found Off the Coast of North Carolina

A freighter lost in that skirmish was also discovered in the "graveyard of the Atlantic"

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Newest King Tut Theory: He Suffered Severe Disorders From Inbreeding

Problems included a club foot that prevented him from walking unaided

Nope nope nope.

New Research

You Don’t Even Want to Know About All the Stuff Living on Your Eyeball

Even eyes can't escape the microbiome

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Ex-Nazis Received Social Security Payments From America

Dozens of former Nazis are suspected of collecting millions in Social Security in return for exiting the country

New Research

“Arming the Rebels” Has Pretty Much Never Worked

Guns and training, but no on-the-ground support, doesn't amount to much

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"Vampire Grave" in Bulgaria Holds a Skeleton With a Stake Through Its Heart

The skeleton likely fell victim to vampire hysteria that gripped Eastern Europe until relatively recently

X-ray technology was invented in 1985 by Wilhelm Röntgen. This early image, along with others set to be on the block, were taken just a year later.

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Amazing Artifacts From the History of Science Are Going Up for Auction

Now if only we all had infinite money

Photograph of Robert E Lee's Arlington house taken in 1861

Cool Finds

Rare Photo of Robert E. Lee's Slave Acquired by National Park Service

The photograph of Selina Gray and her children sold on eBay for $700

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