In the 1890s, Victorian fashionistas wore live jewel beetles, ensnared in delicate gold cages attached to chains and brooches. Fabrics from India embellished with beetle wings were already popular as …
The London Necropolis Railway from Waterloo Station to Brookwood Cemetery was the most haunting train line in Britain. In the 1800s, London was burying 50,000 dead each year — …
The CIA worked on a surveillance cat project called Acoustic Kitty during the 1960s. They made a monstrosity That’s actual cats surgically implanted with microphones and radio transmitters—designed to …
Grover Krantz decided to donate his body to science, but not without his best friends. The anthropologist told his colleague David Hunt of the Smithsonian: “I’ve been a teacher …
From smearing on arsenic to bathing in viper juice, history shows there’s nothing we won’t try to rid ourselves of lice. Lice and nits (lice eggs) were our constant …
The Stasi stole people’s underwear to make a library of their smells. Image Source When the Berlin Wall fell, merrymakers found something rotten at Stasi headquarters. Hundreds of jars …
Tobacco smoke enemas were used in the 18th century to treat everything from colds to cholera. In 1746, one of the earliest documented references to a tobacco smoke enema involved …
In 1931, Churchill predicted lab-grown meat. The first lab-grown hamburger arrived three decades behind his schedule. In “50 years hence“, Churchill wrote: “With a greater knowledge of what are …
Victorian people were fascinated by Circassian Beauties. From the middle ages, Circassian women were considered the most beautiful in the world. Their North Caucasus homeland stretches along the Caucasian mountain range …
Arctic Explorers may not have had fresh fruit and veg but, dammit, there was whiskey. In 1907 Ernest Shackleton put in an order for 25 cases of Mackinlay’s …
During WWII, “liquid stockings” could last up to three days if you didn’t wash. Stockings back then were extremely important. Women wouldn’t venture outside with naked legs. In 1941, you …
Dad’s revenge: the earliest surviving pair of socks were designed for wearing with sandals. Wearing socks with sandals has been a source of endless ridicule for dads, German tourists, and hippies. …
