At the age of 19 he inherited a large fortune. He hired an army of servants and crawled into bed - where he would stay for the next 70 years.

A massive migration of frogs closed off a major Greek highway as "millions" of the amphibians massed on the roadway.

Panic ensued as churchgoers struggled to reach the exits, but the inward opening doors hampered the evacuation. The church would burn to the ground in less than 20 minutes.

Casey Stengel (an outfielder for the Pirates) was hearing non-stop boos from the Dodger fans until he surprised them with this magic trick.

Elmer Ellsworth is remembered as the first Union soldier killed in the Civil War. He had a surprising connection to Abraham Lincoln.

The sub plummeted 243 feet and slammed into the ocean floor.

Although he was wounded, Carney would carry the flag all the way into the fort and plant it on the parapet.

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

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 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.