There are always defining moments in our past that if we remember them they make us smile. I think this also goes for any picture that reminds us of something significant in the past. With that said-
take a look at these 14 pictures and hopefully you will smile your way through this post as you take a glance at some of histories most defining moments.
1. Stephen Hawking with his bride, Jane Wilde, 1965.
2. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, 1991.
3. Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein, 1931.
4. Arnold Schwarzenegger in New York for the first time, 1968
I think that everyone struggles with some sort of fear of something in their life. Some fear spiders while other fear failure. But when does it cross over to the extremely bizarre phobia category? Well let’s take a look…
1. Automatonophobia
Automatonophobia is when someone is afraid on Ventriloquist’s Dummies.
Being afraid of anything that falsely represents a human. This could include animatronic creatures, mannequins, wax statues and yes even ventriloquist dummies. Everyone that struggles with this phobia experiences it a little differently.
Right now the cause of Automatonophobia is unknown. There has been suggestions that maybe the fear stems from society having certain standards about how one should be, but that is all speculations.
2. Cathisophobia
Cathisophobia is when someone is afraid of sitting down.
Cathisophobia is the fear of sitting down and is also know as Thaasophobia. It is suggested that they may have anxiety of being trapped in some way or not being able to sit still.
Also this phobia may stem from the anxiety of being in pain when sitting down and is common in the elderly or they may also be forced to sit for long periods of time. Younger people are more in fear of being trapped.
Most people who suffer from this phobia will do anything they can to avoid sitting. As you know sitting is a huge part of our life and could potentially cause a lot of problems in someones life.
3. Arachibutyrophobia
Yes… The fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.
That’s right folks, some people are terrified of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of their mouth. It is believed that this phobia stems from the fear of choking or getting something stuck in their throat.
4. Eisoptrophobia
Eisoptrophobia is the fear of looking in the mirror.
This is when you are afraid of your own image. Most of the time people who suffer from this phobia are afraid that if they look in the mirror they might find something wrong with their face or that something bad is sneaking up behind them.
5. Mageirocophobia
Mageirocophobia is when someone is afraid of cooking.
Most people that are afraid of cooking stems from the fear of things not turning out the way that they should. They may also have the fear of causing some kind of illness. Some people are even afraid that they may serve inedible food.
People have learned how to cope with this phobia by staying away from certain elements that cause them to become nervous. Some however have it so severe that it could be life limiting.
The story of humanity is our journey of understanding the world that we live in. Even today, historians and scientists work towards answering questions related to the universe and the past of humanity.
Here are 10 stories of success that have explained previously unsolved mysteries.
1. The Lost Franklin Expedition Ship
British explorer Sir John Franklin set off towards the Canadian Artic to search for the Northwest Passage in 1845. This voyage was well funded and equipped, and attracted a lot of attention from the media. However, after entering the Artic, it was never heard from again. 2 ships with 129 men simply disappeared.
Over the years, there have been a few clues to explain the fate of this expedition. In 1959, a rescue mission found 2 notes under a rock on King William Island. The first note explained how the ship got trapped in ice and so the crew decided to spend the winter on the island. The second note happened to be scribbled on the margins of the first note informed us that the ship had been trapped for over a year and the crew was displaying a high rate of mortality. Franklin was dead and whoever survived planned on walking south to safety. However, they did not make it. Bones found by Inuit hunters displayed marks of metal saws throwing light on the fact that the men were eating each other.
In 1880 when the area came under Canadian control, London stopped all attempts at their search operations. However, the Canadian’s still tried to find the missing ships. In 2014, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the discovery of one of the ships by an underwater vehicle belonging to Parks Canada. They believe this wreck will throw light on the fate of the expedition and the high death rate of Franklin and his crew. The other ship still hasn’t been found, but there is no doubt it will be found in the recent future.
2. Egypt’s Strangely Small War Elephants
The Pharaoh Ptolemy IV of Egypt declared war against the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III in 217 B.C. The armies met at the Battle of Raphia (not Gaza) in July that year. War elephants were the deadly weapon used by both sides. The famous Greek historian Polybius described how the elephants locked tusks and ran at each other in this fight. According to this account of the fight, only a few of Ptolemy’s elephants were actually a part of this battle. They started to panic at the sight of Antiochus’s larger Indian elephants.
This detail left several historians confused since African elephants are actually a lot larger than the Asian ones. There were several explanations that came up including the most widely accepted idea – Ptolemy was not able to get savanna elephants and hence was forced to use the smaller African forest elephants. However, further research in Eritrea (the source of Egypt’s elephants) has finally solved the mystery.
Eritrean elephants are close to extinction today. However, studying their population has thrown light on the fact that they are savanna elephants andare in fact much larger than the Indian elephants. Polybius was not present at the battle and hence would have heard legends about the size of wildlife in India which made him come to the conclusion that Antiochus’s elephants managed to scare off the African elephants. However, in reality, though the African elephants might have been larger in size they are extremely skittish and difficult to keep under control. This didn’t matter much since Ptolemy won the battle anyway.
3. The Dark Side Of The Moon
The first pictures of the dark side of the moon were taken in 1959 by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3. However, to the surprise of everyone, the unseen surface of the Moon contained almost none of the dark areas that are known as lunar maria that take over a large part of the familiar side of the Moon. Only 2% of the dark side of the Moon was made up of lunar maria.
Maris is large basaltic plains that are formed due to volcanic activity. It was concluded that a thicker crust could have prevented this from happening on the dark side. However, the mystery as to why the other side is darker still remained unanswered for over 50 years until Jason Wright – an astrophysicist claimed to have cracked the case.
A theory exists which states the Moon was formed from the debris that scattered when there was a collision between the Earth and a large object the size of Mars. This collision would have generated a large amount of heat and since the Moon is so much smaller than the Earth, the Moon cooled off faster. However, the side of the Moon that faces the Earth still continued to get heat from the molten planet. The faster cooling on the dark side of the moon could have created this thicker crust.
4. The Mysterious Notes In A Copy Of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’
Scientists were left puzzled over notes found in an ancient copy of Homer’s “Odyssey” for over 150 years. There were handwritten text all over the margins of this 500-year-old book. However, they had not been able to decode the text and understand what exactly it said. However, a collector M.C Lang offered a $1,000 reward to anyone who could decode the text.
The prize was finally won by 2 Italians – Daniele Metilli and Guila Accetta who found these notes were made in a shorthand form which was invented by Jean Coulon de Thevenot in the 18th century. Once they decoded the text, they discovered it was in French and was actually a translation of the “Odyssey”.
This discovery took a great deal of work on the parts of Metilli and Accetta who researched several defunct stenographic systems until they found something that resembled the annotations. They said they could never have been able to do it without the resources of the Internet.
5. The Ocean Quack
Around 50 years ago, sounds were detected by submarines through the Southern Ocean. These sounds resembled those of a duck quacking however that was impossible since ducks don’t venture into the middle of the sea.
Several other reports came up over the years that reported the same quacking sounds. Some theories said these sounds were caused by ships, others put it on shoals of fish. The only concrete thing about these sounds was the fact that they were reported in the Southern Ocean only during winter and spring.
Researchers finally discovered the source of this sound only earlier this year. They were reported to come from Antarctic minke whales. This came about when acoustic recorders were attached to a pair of minke whales which resulted in a close-up recording of this “quack”.
This discovery will now help scientists study the migration times and patterns of these whales by monitoring the “quack” and will be facilitated by a permanent acoustic recording station in Antarctica.
6. The Last Resting Place of U-26
Shortly after the start of World War I in 1914, Lieutenant Commander Egewolf von Berckheim was appointed the captain of a newly built German submarine U-26. His skills and effective captaincy helped him sink 4 enemy ships including the Russian Pallada.
In 1915, the submarined disappeared in the Baltic sea taking with it 30 of the crew members. There have been several theories over the years that explained this disappearance. Some claimed it was destroyed by a mine while others said there was something wrong with the engine. However, no wreck could be found.
In 2014, the U-26 remains were finally found in the western Gulf of Finland. This area was heavily mined by the Russians during the war in order to keep the Germans away. It is believed that this minefield is what destroyed the U-26.
Ironically enough, the remains of Pallada were also found along with the U-26. Coincidentally, these remains were found almost exactly 100 years after the commissions of the first submarine in 1914.
During the expansion of the Pan-American Highway 4 years ago, a large “whale graveyard” was discovered in the Atacama Desert. Under layers of rock lay huge fossils which mystified palaeontologists regarding why so many species (nearly 40) of animals met their doom in the same place. The roadwork was then put to a temporary stop in order to allow further investigation.
3D imaging experts from the Smithsonian came up with a possible answer. Their investigation showed the death of these marine mammals happened at 4 different times over a period of 20,000 years, before they were washed out to the tidal flat and covered with layers of sand. It is believed that the cause of death of these whales was toxic algal blooms which still happen in Chilean waters. Some of these fossils also show small apatite grains which are likely the remains of the deadly algae.
8. The Lost son
In 1942, four airmen vanished on board an Avro Anson plan soon after taking off from the airfield in Patricia Bay, British Columbia. There were extensive searches carried out by the Canadian military but no trace of the plane was found.
In 2013, a group of workers from a logging company happened to come across the remains of the plane and the four airmen while working on Vancouver Island. Unfavourable conditions led to the remains being collected and identified only in May 2014. The four men were then buried at a Commonwealth war cemetery.
A strange stone head weight 170 kgs was found in Chichester, England two hundred years ago. The origin of this head was unknown until 2013 when laser scanning technology was used and the head was identified to belong to a statue of the Roman Emperor Trajan and dates back to A.D 122. It is one of the most significant relics that has been found from Roman Britain.
Previously, it was thought impossible to identify the origin of the head simply because of its extremely weathered condition. However, modern laser technology helped scientists identify the different facial features and ever the hairstyle which all pointed towards Trajan.
It is believed that the statue was erected to greet visitors as they entered Chichester’s harbour – the gateway to England. There is a similar statue on display at the Ostia Harbour in Rome.
10. The Location Of The Santa Maria
In 1984, history was made when underwater archaeologist Barry Clifford discovered the wreck of Whydah – the only fully confirmed pirate shipwreck. However, in 2014 Clifford has claimed to have found the wreck of the Santa Maria – Columbus’s flagship that sunk on Christmas Eve 1492.
During his research in Haiti, Clifford pinpointed the location of a fort that Columbus built after the wreck of the Santa Maria. Using this location and the content in Columbus’s diaries he found a likely site of the wreck. To his surprise, Clifford discovered he had photographed this wreck with his team years ago! Several dives organised in 2014 confirmed the size of the ship was the same as that of the Santa Maria and they even found a cannon consistent with the guns that were reported to have been carried by Columbus. This happens to be one of the most amazing archeological finds in recent history.
Parasites live all over our world and we come in contact with them a lot more than we actually think! It could be as simple as drinking contaminated water or eating a fresh-water vegetable and you become contaminated with a parasite! I know it sounds kind of gross but this is real life stuff and it may be in you right now! Check it out:
1. Loa Loa
This parasite can enter your body through any opening and then end up coming out of your eye.
2. Scabies
These are highly contagious bugs that make you break out in crazy rashes.
3. Roundworm
These parasites infect as many as 1.5 billion people and responsible for 60,000 deaths per year.
4. Guinea Worm
You can get these nasty worms by drinking contaminated water. They will then literally crawl out of your skin.
5. Human Botfly
These parasites live in your skin, mouth and eyes.
6. Tapeworm
With no signs or symptoms, these worms can live in the host for up to 30 years.
7. Hookworm
These parasites live in your intestines and suck your blood.
8. Pinworm
These worms lay eggs on your anus and use you to infect other people.
9. Whipworm
Painful passage of stool, diarrhea, and rectal prolapse.
10. Blood-Flukes
They journey into your bloodstream and lay eggs that spread to your liver, bladder, lungs and intestines.
John Wayne has always been looked up to as a hero even though he has never fought a war or rescued someone. Wayne has appeared in nearly 250 movies with some of his best roles being taken when he was in his late sixties.
Here are 10 facts about this American icon that you absolutely SHOULD know!
1. Stalin ordered his death
Joseph Stalin was extremely outraged by the anti-communist sentiments that were expressed by Wayne in the late 1940s. According to sources including an unnamed Soviet source and Stalin’s successor Premier Nikita Khrushchev, two KGB assassins were dispatched to kill the movie star in 1951. However, they were intercepted by the FBI. The FBI also managed to foil other plans to kill Wayne, including a sniper attack during his visit to Vietnam in 1966.
2. Cancer
Wayne’s most inappropriate role in a movie was the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan in the 1956 film The Conqueror. A large part of this film was shot in Utah close to Nevada’s nuclear test sites. A few years later a large number of people on set were diagnosed with cancer including two of Wayne’s sons. Wayne himself lost 4 ribs and his entire left lung to cancer in 1964 and finally died of stomach cancer at the age of 72 in 1979. In 1985, Wayne’s estate allowed the John Wayne Cancer Foundation to use his name as an advocate program to fight cancer.
3. Marion and the Duke
John was born with the name Marion Robert Morrison on May 26th, 1907. His parents liked the name Robert and decided to use it for their next child so Marion’s middle name was changed to Michael. Marion never went anywhere without his Airedale terrier Duke. The two were always seen together and the local firefighters started to call the boy “Little Duke” which he liked a lot more than the feminine name “Marion”.
When he start working in the film industry he appeared as Duke Morrison and later in 1930 the director Raul Walsh started billing him as John Wayne. The actor had no say in the matter but he still preferred to go by the name Duke.
4. Football career
his statue in orange county airport
Being 6 feet 4 inches tall, Wayne was massive for someone born 100 years ago. He scored a football scholarship to the University of Southern California and played as an offensive tackle. His coach Howard Jones found him a job at Fox Studies as a labourer and prop man.
When he was out surfing in his junior year, Wayne injured his shoulder and was too hurt to play after which he devoted all his time to Fox Studios.
5. Draft dodging
Several of Wayne’s major roles showcased him as a war hero however he was never a part of the military. He was too young to be a part of the army during the first world war and by the time the US got into the second world war, he was 34 and just starting to get famous.
He had several health issues including a bad back, ear infections and his torn shoulder that killed his career as a football player. If he went through a physical he would have been stamped as unfit for service. Instead, the studio applied for him to receive a 3-A deferment (“hardship to dependents”) because he had a family.
Wayne did more for the war by being a part of movies that added an element of glamour to the military. During the war, he also worked for the OSS and spend months doing USO appearances or the troops.
6. Chess
Wayne was very fond of playing chess and was a skilled player. However, he was not above using duplicitous means if he could get away with it. During his shoot for Chisum in the 1970’s Wayne made friends with Christopher Mitchum the son of Hollywood legend Robert Mitchum. They would play chess together and Wayne would cheat by moving 2 pieces simultaneously while using his big hands to block Chris’s view. The next game Christopher called him out on it and his response was “Well, I was wondering when you were going to say something. Set ‘em up. We’ll play again.”
7. Wayne’s boxer relative
American boxer Tommy Morrison who held the WBO and ICB heavyweight championship titles happened to be Wayne’s grandnephew and went be the nickname “The Duke”. In 1996, Tommy announced he had contracted HIV due to a “permissive, fast, and reckless lifestyle.”
He dropped out of boxing and had some trouble with the law. He also hid away in a cave for some time. In 2006, he emerged saying the HIV tests were false positives. In 2007, he was tested negative, likely due to tampering of blood samples.
In fact, Morrison still had HIV and did very little to fight his infection. He eventually died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 44 in 2013.
8. Yakima Canutt
Yakima Canutt was a rodeo world champion and worked closely with Wayne. Their greatest innovations were creating methods to produce fight scenes that were exciting and realistic. Many of Wayne’s signature mannerisms came directly from Yakima like for example the towering saunter and the squinting.
Cannutt suffered a large number of serious injuries including broken ribs and legs. He had been under a fallen horse which severed his intestines, and the horn of a bull had ripped his face open. However, he died of natural causes at the age of 89.
9. Bald
Wayne was never the kind of person to go to a plastic surgeon to preserve his youthful looks. However, in the 1940s when his hair started to thin he began wearing wigs for his movies and to certain public appearances. This could have been on request of the studio. It was no secret that he was bald when spending time with his family or friends and he was far from shy about being photographed without his wig.
In 1974, he made an appearance at Harvard University where he refused to flinch while answering a series of questions from the student body. He was 70 at the point and had a great time with the students. When a student asked him “Where did you get that phoney toupee?” his reply was humorous “It’s not phoney. It’s real hair. Of course, it’s not mine, but it’s real.”
10. Red Meat
The weirdest rumour that went around about Wayne was the fact that after his death, an autopsy found several pounds (some sources say 40) of undigested red meat in his digestive tract. However, these rumours can be disregarded without even considering the biological impossibilities. Wayne was 72 when he died and had been suffering from cancer for a long time.
There are tons of famous icons who have had close calls with death, from surviving attempts at assassinationto just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Here are 05 thrilling stories of people who narrowly avoided the call of death.
1. Frightened British Troops Release A Captured Paul Revere
Before the American Revolution, Paul Revere was the first to create a network of intelligence to spy on the British soldiers in America. On the night of April 18, 1775, Revere was captured by the British on his way to Concord. With a pistol at his chest, he was questioned about the hiding places of the militia and was threatened to be shot if he attempted to run.
The British then marched to Lexington where the first shots of the American Revolution were here. Afraid, they let Revere go and even offered him a horse. Had they known of his espionage activities or had he attempted to escape, he would have been executed.
2. Little Abraham Lincoln Was ‘Apparently Killed For A Time’
Abraham Lincoln was only 10 years old when he came close to death. He was doing his daily chores of taking corn to the grist mill at the neighbouring farm. At this point, mills were still driven by horses and Lincoln guided the horse around.
Getting impatient, little Lincoln whipped the horse saying “Git up, you old hussy. Git up, y – !” Before he finished his sentence, the horse reared and kicked the boy in the head. He was unconscious for an entire night and bleeding profusely. When he did wake up, his first words were “- you old hussy!”
3. Two-Year-Old Eleanor Roosevelt Sets Sail On The Britannic
As a toddler, Eleanor’s parents were having a rocky marriage. In order to cure their marital woes, they decided to do a tour of Europe on the SS Britannic, an ocean liner.
On May 19, 1887, thick fog reduced the visibility and the Britannic rammed into another ship, the Celtic. Out of the 450 passengers on the Britannic, 6 were killed instantly, 6 were reported missing and hundreds were injured. The Celtic reported no fatalities.
her statue in Boston
Eleanor was only two at the time and narrowly avoided a gruesome fate. She clung to crewmen before she was dropped from the deck to her father on a lifeboat. This memory has left her with a fear of heights and open water that remains even today.
4. Qin Shi Huang Di Nearly Died Before Completing China’s Unification
In 227 BC,King Ying Zheng of Qin was that target of an assassin sent by the prince of Yan. The assassin by the name Jing Ke entered the chambers of Zheng with a map showing a gift of territory.
As He got closer to the king, he unrolled the map which revealed a hidden dagger. He then attacked the king but only managed to tear a part of his robe. Courtiers did not know how to react since it was forbidden to carry weapons into the audience chambers and guards could only enter if they were personally summoned.
King Zheng ran for his life while a physician struck Ke with a medicine bag. This gave the king some more time. When he finally got his sword, he disabled Ke by wounding him in the thigh. In a final attempt, He threw the dagger at the king and missed. The king then stabbed his assassin. The king of Yan ordered for his own son to be executed to pacify Zheng but Yan was eventually annexed and destroyed.
5. Martin Luther King Jr. Had A Nightmare Of A Day
On September 20, 1958, five years before King’s historic speech in Washington, he was in New York at a book signing with Izola Curry stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. The instruments went through his sternum and was close to severing his aorta. Izola was delusional and screamed “I’ve been with him for six years! Dr. King ruined my life! The NAACP is no good, it’s communistic!”
During the weight for an ambulance, a bystander almost pulled the blade out which would have killed King in seconds. However, another witness prevented that from happening and a the blade was removed successfully in surgery. During King’s final public speech, he recapped the events of that day and told his listeners about the advice of doctors to not sneeze since a small jerk to his body would have pushed the blade in further. Thankfully he wasn’t feeling congested that day!
