The International Flying Saucer Bureau asked all its members to send out a collective telepathic greeting to visitors from outer space.
Casey Jones
Today is the birthday of John Luther Jones, or as history remembers him, Casey Jones.
The Lakeview Gusher
It would flow out of control for 18 months. Over 9 million barrels of crude oil were spilled before the well could finally be contained. At its peak, the spill formed a 60-acre lake of oil.
I'm Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired
Fannie Lou Hamer was the granddaughter of slaves who grew up to be a freedom fighter.
Nugget Man
Robert C. Baker invented some of the most popular fast food items of all time.
The Longest Fly Ball
It was on this day during spring training in Daytona Beach, Florida, that Wilbert Robinson waited in the outfield for a baseball to be dropped from an airplane.
St. Francis Dam Collapses
A flood of 12 billion gallons (a year's supply of water for L.A. in those days) crashed through the canyon and swept away everything in its path.
Galileo's Middle Finger
The Italian astronomer Galileo died hundreds of years ago, but he's been giving us his middle finger ever since.
Bad Day at Boroughbridge
This was the day that Humphrey de Bohun, the 4th Earl of Hereford met his particularly gruesome fate.
The Great White Hurricane
A huge mother of all storms struck the east coast in 1888.
Mount Etna Erupts
The city walls were sixty feet high and they held back the lava for a week before it cascaded down and blazed a path of destruction to the sea.
Great Sheffield Flood
The disaster left an 8-mile path of destruction that wiped out over 400 homes, 100 factories and 20 bridges.
Mary Attacks Venus
The attack was one of many dramatic protests between 1913-1914 as women fought for the right to vote.
The Strowger Switch
An undertaker invented a pivotal piece of technology that would automate phone exchanges.
Long Beach Earthquake
Over 200 schools were destroyed in the disaster and it was clear that had the quake struck during school hours the death toll would have been significantly higher.
Amy Spain
The last "legally" executed slave in America was a seventeen-year-old girl named Amy Spain.
The Last Holdout
It was on this day, 29 years after World War II ended, that a lone Japanese soldier was finally coaxed out of his hiding place in the Philippines.
Death by Toothpick
Sherwood Anderson loved to write about "grotesques." That was his way of describing people who are undermined by their own illusions or false dreams.
The Sakai Incident
The port was off-limits to foreigners and as soon as the Frenchmen pulled up to the docks they were attacked by a bunch of samurai.
The Yogi
Through yoga and meditation, he inspired his students to see beyond the current moment and to understand the deeper calling inside each living being.