In 1605 the 16-year-old tsar of Russia was murdered, along with his mother.

Maximilian's rise to power was the ill-conceived brainchild of Napoleon III who sought to extend French imperial power

Eratosthenes was the guy who came up with the science we know as Geography, and he was the first person to prove that the Earth was round.

This half-woman, half-fish oddity would become one of his most popular sideshow attractions of all time.

5 English monks witnessed an amazing spectacle. They saw what appeared to be "two horns of light" on the shaded part of the Moon.

Mumtaz Mahal, the beloved Empress of India, died while giving birth to her fourteenth child.

Clement Vallandigham was an outspoken anti-war, pro-Confederate democrat. He came up with the snappy slogan, "To maintain the Constitution as it is, and to restore the Union as it was."

It was on a rainy night in 1816 that a bunch of friends gathered at a summer house near Lake Geneva. Their collective creativity would mark a pivotal moment in horror history. 

A mysterious flaming blob flew into Traven Matchett's backyard in southern Ontario. The fiery object nearly hit his nineteen-year-old daughter, Donna, in the head.

On this day Ella Fitzgerald spent her last morning listening to birds in the backyard of her Beverly Hills home.

A French physician named Jean-Baptiste Denys gave a 15-year-old boy about 12 ounces of sheep blood.

Jean Baptiste Kleber was one of the greatest generals from the French Revolutionary Wars. He died when an assassin plunged a knife into his heart.

During his 22-year reign as the King of Bavaria, Ludwig II earned a reputation as a wild eccentric who loved to build fantastic castles. His death was extremely suspicious.

Over the 50 years the open-pit mine operated it became one of the largest manmade holes on earth. A truck starting at the rim of the mine would take 2 hours to reach the bottom.

A man from Kentucky named Lewis Haslett called his invention an "Inhaler or Lung Protector."

It was the deadliest crash ever in motorsports history. Pierre Levegh was driving a Mercedes 300 SLR which collided with an Austin-Healey and went airborne.

As he recited a prayer, Thích Quảng Đức lit a match and set himself ablaze.

Legend has it that Sir John Popham rises from the dead every New Year's Eve and takes a step toward his empty tomb.

The Maori tradition was to strap their dead chiefs in an upright position and set them adrift.

The British ship's demise was a significant step toward the War for Independence.