The switch between the calendars caused several ridiculous events, like countries skipping ten days at a time. Imagine going to bed on July 4 and waking up to find that it’s now July 15. Places like Sweden tried to avoid this by making smaller changes. However, they failed and ended up with bizarre dates like February 30. The Gregorian and Julian calendars are not the only calendars that caused such bizarre problems....
Before developing into the traditional images of Santa Claus, or a Nativity scene, or some snowy wonderland, Christmas cards went . . . in a different direction. The Victorian and Edwardian mind was clearly more adventurous than ours. 10Frog Dancing With A Beetle Christmas is the time of year when we are all supposed to come together. That includes members of the amphibian and insect world, apparently. Here, we see a frog merrily jigging on a beach with a stag beetle....
Note: Since this is a list of character fates, it should come as no surprise that spoilers lie ahead. 10Mork And Mindy Got Trapped On Prehistoric Earth One of the most successful spinoffs ever created, Mork and Mindy grew out of a Happy Days guest spot for Robin Williams and then became a beloved sitcom of its own. Week after week, audiences tuned in to see the hapless Mork battle with contemporary human customs ....
10Backpfeifengesicht From the people who brought you schadenfreude (happiness at the misfortune of others) and gluckschmerz (unhappiness at the good fortune of others), we have backpfeifengesicht. This is a German word that roughly translates to “a face badly in need of a fist.” The exact circumstances surrounding the creation of such a word are unknown. However, before we decide to run off and call our bosses backpfeifengesichts, it is interesting to note that it is the face that is said to be in need of punching and not necessarily the person it’s attached to....
10Teddy Roosevelt Uses Judo On The Swiss Minister You won’t find many presidents tougher than Theodore Roosevelt. He loved riding, swimming, and hunting and was always up for a good fight. He once informed his son that he believed in “rough, manly sports” so long as they did not “degenerate into the sole end of one’s existence.” In particular, he loved boxing and judo, the latter of which he started to train for in 1904 using a downstairs office in the White House....
Top 10 Celebrity Scandals Misrepresented By The #MeToo Movement 10 Suicide solidarity Marilyn Manson is the shock rocker most parents warned their kids against during the 90s. Not surprizingly, since he’s been associated with Satanism, a dalliance with Anton LaVey and smoking human bones. In 2001, Manson took his inherent weirdness to a new level, and decided to grab a security guard during his set at the Ozzfest. He wrapped his legs around the man’s head and rubbed his genitalia against it, whilst wearing only pantyhose and a leather thong....
However, in rare circumstances, musicians get into trouble for the unlikeliest of transgressions. These strange criminal blunders are undoubtedly rare among musicians, but they are so puzzling and hilarious that they deserve a light shining on them. 10 Paul McCartney In 1960, former Beatle Paul McCartney was arrested in Hamburg, Germany, for attempted arson. McCartney and then–Beatles’ drummer Pete Best pinned a condom to the wall of the Bambi Kino, their accommodations while playing in Hamburg, and set the condom on fire....
10Prehistoric Humans In a world where the production of goods was low, yielding little beyond what everyone needed, people did not use one another for profit. Humans lived by hunting and gathering, and the only division of labor was biologically based: The physically stronger males hunted for food, while the women took care of domestic tasks and raising children. Hunting was a collective activity, and spoils were therefore common property. In a world where everyone was struggling to survive, sharing basic needs was the norm....
Then the worst thing imaginable happened at the Bataclan theater in Paris, where several terrorists armed with Kalashnikovs opened fire at a crowd watching a rock show featuring the American band Eagles of Death Metal. When the smoke cleared, 89 people were dead after hours of gunfire, hostage taking, and at least one suicide bombing. Incredibly, this isn’t the first time such violence has struck a concert, nor will it be the last....
10A Stolen Bicycle Inspired His Career Before he could float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, Muhammad Ali was a 12-year-old boy looking for revenge. It was October 1954, and Ali (still known as Cassius Clay) was the proud owner of a red Schwinn bicycle. It was a Christmas gift from his dad, and he planned on riding it to a bazaar in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. He and a buddy spent the day checking out the stalls and munching on popcorn, but when Ali was ready to go home, he found someone had stolen his prized bike....
See Also: 10 Mysteries Unlikely To Ever Be Solved 10 The Presence On 20 May 1916, three weary figures stumbled up to a whaling station on the north coast of South Georgia. Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley and Tom Crean had walked for one and a half days non-stop to find help to rescue their crew who were stuck on the other side of the island as well as Elephant Island....
10Isola La Gaiola At first glance, Isola La Gaiola seems like a perfect example of the beauty and romance of southern Italy. Situated in the Gulf of Naples, the island is split into two sections joined by a rough stone bridge. Surrounded by ruins dating back to Ancient Rome, the island is at the center of Gaiola Underwater Park, an area famous for its rich marine wildlife. At one time, Isola La Gaiola was a status symbol for the rich, with Europe’s wealthiest vying for ownership....
10 The Alcatraz Citadel Most people think of the history of Alcatraz as the history of the prison, but the two are not exactly the same. Before the penitentiary even existed, the island hosted a military fort known as “Alcatraz Citadel.” Back in 1847, the US Army realized the island had strategic and military value as it could guard against attacks coming into the San Francisco Bay. Around the same time, the California Gold Rush caused traffic coming into San Francisco to skyrocket, so a military outpost seemed like a good idea....
The death of Bambi’s mother is a quintessential moment in dark Disney moments. She dies midway through the movie, horrifically, after we’ve gotten a chance to know her, after we’ve seen her raise Bambi and teach him the ways of the forest. A harsh winter follows a scant summer, and one day, when they’re out in the meadow grazing, she senses danger. There are hunters in the woods. Bambi’s mother tells him to run, to not turn back, and to keep running....
10Anti-Capitalism 2011 saw the release of The Muppets, the first live-action Muppets film in decades. Starring Jason Segel and Amy Adams, the movie shows the gang, who have drifted apart over the years, banding back together to save their old theater from oil baron “Tex Richman.” The film was rated PG for “mild rude humor,” which is about as innocuous as it comes. But bizarrely enough, the movie found itself in the crosshairs on the Fox Business show Follow the Money, where host Eric Bolling called it an attempt by radical liberals to brainwash children against capitalism....
For hundreds of years there was no religious freedom in France—forcing many people to live in small communities. Jewish settlements, although discriminated against, were allowed to use their own language—Shuadit, which thrived. Invented in the eleventh century, Shuadit was the language for Jews in France, and it thrived at a time when speaking languages other than French was frowned upon. Shuadit continued to fly high until the French Revolution. When the revolutionaries declared freedom of religion, Jews now had the choice of going wherever they wanted....
You wouldn’t throw a party without supplying some sort of finger-food spread. Checkout lanes at many stores are stocked with a variety of snacks, allowing us to make a last-minute grab for something to tide us over until the next meal. But some of the most popular—and tastiest—snacks have an unappetizing side you might not be aware of. 10 Cheetos Mess With Your Mind Orange-stained fingers are a small price to pay for this delightfully cheesy snack....
A lot of the time, interspecies sex is pretty boring. Two unrelated animals find one another by mistake, and nothing much comes of it. Sometimes, though, the story gets more disturbing. In some cases, the two sets of genitals don’t fit together, and the sex causes physical injury. In other cases, it is part of a calculated deception, where one partner stands to benefit and the other loses out. In still other cases, the sex is deliberately violent and deliberately horrible and seems to make no sense at all....
10Soyuz 33 On April 10, 1979, the Soyuz 33 capsule blasted off carrying two crewmen to the Soviet Salyut 6 space station. The crew included the first Bulgarian astronaut, Georgiy Ivanov, and a Russian, Nikolay Rukavishnikov. However, on final approach to the space station, the main engine of the Soyuz malfunctioned, shaking the entire spacecraft as it fired unevenly. A second attempt to fire the engine also failed, and the crew were told to sleep while the problem was analyzed....
Of course, lots of these buildings have been abandoned for fairly mundane reasons, but in some cases, the stories that lie behind them are darker and sadder. The following are ten derelict buildings with stories that ensure nobody will want to use them in the future. 10 Chateau Miranda This neo-Gothic building in Celles, Belgium, was also known as Chateau de Noisy and was constructed between 1886 and 1907. The original plan was for the wealthy Liederkerke-De Beaufort family to use it as their summer home....
