In 1910 Scotland Yard exploited a new invention, the wireless telegraph, to capture the main suspect in a gruesome murder.

We explore an odd custom: how, in the 1700s, English landowners would pay people to live in primitive isolation on their estates.

In 1916 an American circus elephant named Mary was hanged from a railroad crane before a crowd of 3,000 onlookers.

In 1764 a French engineer on a tiny African island claimed that he could see ships beyond the horizon.

Pedro Carolino's Portuguese-English phrasebook includes such tortured English phrases as "The ears are too length" and "He has spit in my coat."

How accurately did the father of science fiction predict the modern world?

Here are six new lateral thinking puzzles to test your wits!

What happened to nine student hikers on a winter's night in 1959?

In 1943 three men came up with an ingenious plan to escape from the seemingly escape-proof Stalag Luft III prison camp in Germany.

What is actually known about the disappearance of the English settlement at Roanoke Island in 1587?

For centuries, May 1 brought chaos to New York, as most tenants had to move on the same day, clogging the streets with harried people and all their belongings.

In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll look at the strange phenomenon of poet doppelgängers — at least five notable poets have been seen by witnesses when… Read the rest of the article: LISTEN: Poet Doppelgängers

Follow the dramatic 14,000-mile clipper ship race of 1866, in which five ships competed fiercely to be the first to London with the season's tea.

In 1950 newspapers around the world reported that a 10-month-old kitten had climbed the Matterhorn, one of the highest peaks in Europe. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet… Read the rest of the article: LISTEN: Can a Kitten Climb the Matterhorn?

In 1935 a shark in an Australian aquarium vomited up a human forearm, a bizarre turn of events that sparked a confused murder investigation. This week's episode of the Futility… Read the rest of the article: LISTEN: The Shark Arm Affair

Victorian children's author Favell Lee Mortimer published three bizarre travel books that described a world full of death, vice, and peril. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast… Read the rest of the article: LISTEN: The Scariest Travel Books Ever Written

Follow the dramatic story of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which 20 men and 150 dogs struggled through arctic blizzards in a desperate effort to save the town… Read the rest of the article: LISTEN: the great dog race of mercy

When Ewart Grogan was denied permission to marry his sweetheart, he set out to walk the length of Africa to prove himself worthy of her. In this week's episode of… Read the rest of the article: Crossing Africa for Love

In 1897, Swedish engineer S.A. Andrée made the world's only attempt to balloon to the North Pole.

In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll explore Benjamin Franklin's self-improvement plan and find out which vices gave him the most trouble.