In the 1870s, French gas fitter Albert Dadas started making strange, compulsive trips to distant towns, with no planning or awareness of what he was doing. His bizarre affliction set… Read the rest of the article: In the 1870s, a French laborer found himself making strange, compulsive journeys all over Europe

During World War II, the Allies feared that Germany was on the brink of creating an atomic bomb. To prevent this, they launched a dramatic midnight commando raid to destroy… Read the rest of the article: The story of a daring 1943 commando raid to stop Germany from getting an atomic bomb

Marvin Hewitt never finished high school, but he taught advanced physics, engineering, and mathematics under assumed names at seven different schools and universities between 1945 and 1953. In this week's… Read the rest of the article: Bogus professor Marvin Hewitt taught at seven different schools and universities

Everett Ruess and Barbara Newhall Follett were born in March 1914 at opposite ends of the U.S. Both followed distinctly unusual lives as they pursued a love of writing. And… Read the rest of the article: In the 1930s, two promising young American writers disappeared without a trace

Here are six new lateral thinking puzzles to test your wits and stump your friends — play along with us as we try to untangle some perplexing situations using yes-or-no… Read the rest of the article: Six lateral thinking puzzles

New York's Citicorp Tower was an architectural sensation when it opened in 1977. But then engineer William LeMessurier realized that its unique design left it dangerously vulnerable to high winds.… Read the rest of the article: In 1977, architects realized that Manhattan's Citicorp Tower could be brought down by a high wind

In 1914, Canadian Army veterinarian Harry Colebourn was traveling to the Western Front when he met an orphaned bear cub in an Ontario railway station. In this week's episode of… Read the rest of the article: The bear that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh

In 1835, a Native American woman was somehow left behind when her dwindling island tribe was transferred to the California mainland. She would spend the next 18 years living alone… Read the rest of the article: The true story that inspired Island of the Blue Dolphins

In 1940, Germany was sending vital telegrams through neutral Sweden using a sophisticated cipher, and it fell to mathematician Arne Beurling to make sense of the secret messages. In this… Read the rest of the article: During WWII, mathematician Arne Beurling made "one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of cryptography"

In 1911, three British explorers made a perilous 70-mile journey in the dead of the Antarctic winter to gather eggs from a penguin rookery in McMurdo Sound. In this week's… Read the rest of the article: In 1911, three men struggled for five weeks through the Antarctic winter to collect penguin eggs

In 1848, five years before Japan opened its closed society to the West, a lone American in a whaleboat landed on the country's northern shore, drawn only by a sense… Read the rest of the article: One man's visit to Japan's closed society changed the country's destiny

In the 1860s, San Francisco's most popular tourist attraction was not a place but a person: Joshua Norton, an eccentric resident who had declared himself emperor of the United States.… Read the rest of the article: "Emperor" Joshua Norton reigned over San Francisco for 21 years

In 1770, Hungarian engineer Wolfgang von Kempelen unveiled a miracle: a mechanical man who could play chess against human challengers. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll… Read the rest of the article: Did an 18th-century engineer manage to build a chess-playing automaton?

Ships need a reliable way to know their exact location at sea — and for centuries, the lack of a dependable method caused shipwrecks and economic havoc for every seafaring… Read the rest of the article: The man who solved the problem of longitude

In March 1913, Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson threw the most beautiful typeface in the world off of London's Hammersmith Bridge to keep it out of the hands of his estranged printing… Read the rest of the article: In 1913 T.J. Cobden-Sanderson threw the most beautiful type in the world into the river Thames

In May 1920, wealthy womanizer Joseph Elwell was found shot to death alone in his locked house in upper Manhattan. The police identified hundreds of people who might have wanted… Read the rest of the article: In 1920, whist expert Joseph Elwell was found shot to death alone in his locked Manhattan brownstone

After Japan invaded the Philippines in 1941, two American servicemen hatched a desperate plan to sail 3,000 miles to Allied Australia in a 20-foot wooden fishing boat. In this week's… Read the rest of the article: During WW II two Americans escaped the Japanese by sailing 3,000 miles in a wooden fishing boat

In 1896, Adolf Beck found himself caught up in a senseless legal nightmare: Twelve women from around London insisted that he'd deceived them and stolen their cash and jewelry. In… Read the rest of the article: The mistaken identity of Adolf Beck, "one of the strangest true stories in British legal history"

In 1930, British explorer Augustine Courtauld volunteered to spend the winter alone on the Greenland ice cap, manning a remote weather station. As the snow gradually buried his hut and… Read the rest of the article: Augustine Courtauld was marooned at a remote weather station in Greenland in 1930

In 1815 an American ship ran aground in northwestern Africa, and its crew were enslaved by merciless nomads. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow the… Read the rest of the article: Twelve Americans were enslaved in Africa after an 1815 shipwreck