Congressman Preston Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner to a bloody pulp on the floor of the United States Senate.

Two wealthy teenagers from Chicago set out to commit the perfect murder.

At age 10 she was kidnapped by a band of Delaware Indians. After 6 years living among her captors, she was reunited with her real family.

A 30-foot wide meteor came within 93,000 miles of hitting Earth. On the cosmic scale, that's a pretty close call.

A counterweight had failed and the 6-ton baroque behemoth came crashing down. The incident would inspire Gaston Leroux to write The Phantom of the Opera.

A large swath of New England was plunged into almost total darkness. Many believed it was the end of the world.

The massive landslide involved 60 million cubic meters of earth. 116 people and over 500 farm animals were killed.

At least 200 workers would die in a relentless storm of explosions that literally launched buildings into the air.

More than a cubic mile of rock blasted into the sky, leaving behind a gigantic horseshoe crater. The force of the Mount St. Helen's blast was equal to 1600 atomic bombs.

A man named Shawn Nelson stole an M60 Patton Tank and went on a 23-minute rampage in San Diego, California.

After 32 years with an anglicized spelling, the United States Congress changed "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico."

Captain Eli Beeding rode a rocket sled and subjected himself to the world’s worst case of whiplash.

One of the coolest ways to travel from Manhattan to JFK Airport used to be a 7-minute helicopter flight that took off from the helipad on top of the Pan Am Building.

During the Civil War, the Union Army occupied New Orleans under the command of Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler, who issued an infamous order.

A year and a half before the Wright Brothers' famous flight at Kitty Hawk, an eccentric character named Lyman Gilmore took off in his steam-powered plane - or so he claimed.

With unemployment at record levels and an economy in the crapper, 100,000 New Yorkers took to the streets.

A Union soldier named John J. Williams was the last man to die in the American Civil War.

Vice President Richard Nixon was attacked by an angry mob in Venezuela. The incident occurred during a goodwill tour of South America.

A team of peatcutters uncovered the body of a young girl who had been in the marsh for 1,700 years.

Two men survived being lost at sea for 6 months aboard a 13-foot dinghy.