During World War II a Polish transport company picked up an unusual mascot: a Syrian brown bear that grew to 500 pounds and traveled with his human friends through the… Read the rest of the article: The bear who fought in World War II

During the siege of Leningrad in World War II, a heroic group of Russian botanists fought cold, hunger, and German attacks to keep alive a storehouse of crops that held… Read the rest of the article: During the siege of Leningrad, nine botanists starved to death protecting a storehouse of edible crops

In 1879, a ghastly crime gripped England: A London maid had dismembered her employer and then assumed her identity for two weeks, wearing her clothes and jewelry and selling her… Read the rest of the article: In 1879 a London maid dismembered her employer and then assumed her identity

In 1978 a team of geologists discovered a family of five living deep in the Siberian forest, 150 miles from the nearest village. Fearing persecution, they had lived entirely on… Read the rest of the article: In 1936 a Russian family retreated into the Siberian forest, where they lived in complete isolation for 42 years.

In 1917 a pair of Allied officers combined a homemade Ouija board, audacity, and imagination to hoax their way out of a remote prison camp in the mountains of Turkey.… Read the rest of the article: How Allied prisoners used a Ouija board to escape a Turkish prison camp in World War I

In 1976 a television crew discovered a mummified corpse in a California funhouse. Unbelievably, an investigation revealed that it belonged to an Oklahoma outlaw who had been shot by sheriff's… Read the rest of the article: Oklahoma outlaw Elmer McCurdy had a career that lasted 100 years — two-thirds of it as a corpse.

After the Battle of Gettysburg, a dead Union soldier was found near the center of town. He bore no identification, but in his hands he held a photograph of three… Read the rest of the article: Could a dead Gettysburg soldier be identified by the photograph he held?

In 1968 British engineer Donald Crowhurst entered a round-the-world yacht race, hoping to use the prize money to save his failing electronics business. Woefully unprepared and falling behind, he resorted… Read the rest of the article: The story of Donald Crowhurst, who tried to fake sailing around the world in 1968.

Anna Jarvis organized the first observance of Mother's Day in 1908 and campaigned to have it adopted throughout the U.S. But she then spent the next 40 years bitterly fighting… Read the rest of the article: Why the founder of Mother's Day came to hate the holiday

Toward the end of World War II, Japan launched a strange new attack on the United States: thousands of paper balloons that would sail 5,000 miles to drop bombs on… Read the rest of the article: During World War II, Japan floated balloons across the Pacific to drop bombs on the U.S.

Over the span of half a century, Brooklyn impostor Stanley Clifford Weyman impersonated everyone from a Navy admiral to a sanitation expert. When caught, he would admit his deception, serve… Read the rest of the article: The adventures of serial impostor Stanley Clifford Weyman

In 1925, Kentucky caver Floyd Collins was exploring a new tunnel when a falling rock caught his foot, trapping him 55 feet underground. In this week's episode of the Futility… Read the rest of the article: Trapped in a cave in 1925, Floyd Collins became one of the first media sensations of the 20th century

In 1919, Ohio businessman Arthur Nash decided to run his clothing factory according to the Golden Rule and treat his workers the way he'd want to be treated himself. In… Read the rest of the article: How one man ran a company according to the Golden Rule

During wargames in Louisiana in September 1941, the U.S. Army found itself drawn into a tense firefight with an unseen enemy across the Cane River. The attacker turned out to… Read the rest of the article: Three boys with a toy cannon briefly held off U.S. Army during 1941 wargames

In 1952, French physician Alain Bombard set out to cross the Atlantic on an inflatable raft to prove his theory that a shipwreck victim can stay alive on a diet… Read the rest of the article: Can a castaway survive on fish, plankton, and seawater?

In August 1980, an extortionist planted a thousand-pound bomb in Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Casino in western Nevada. Unless the owners paid him $3 million within 24 hours, he said, the… Read the rest of the article: The FBI's race against a casino bomber in 1980