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He simply was too much ahead of his time.
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On May 30, 1832 a duel took place in Paris in which a young man — barely twenty years old — was lethally wounded. Much later, he turned out to be one of the greatest mathematical minds in history. Although it was clear during his lifetime that he had “some”…
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The unbelievable Agabbadòra Hammer
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“In Sardinia, the use of the “femina agabbadòra hammer” was a women’s practice. Whenever an elderly man or woman of a given family was dying and in great pain, the family would call for the Accabadòra or Lady of the Good Death. She would usually be a widow dressed entirely…
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Einstein’s letter to Curie when she was facing relentless attacks on her personal life, saying that she “tarnished the good name” of her late husband, Pierre Curie.
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She was denied a seat in the French Academy of Sciences in January 1911 for reasons that probably included gender and religion.Prague, 23 November 1911Highly esteemed Mrs. Curie:Do not laugh at me for writing you without having anything sensible to say.But I am so enraged by the base manner in…
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The really cool black stone.
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Back in 1786, a French botanist named André Michaux was wandering around Baghdad when he stumbled upon this really cool black stone near the Taq Kasra ruins. It had some pretty odd carvings and writing on it, and Michaux was totally fascinated. He ended up keeping it with him for…
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When they disconnected my uncle and said he’s dead, I stayed watching him, he had his hand clinging to mine and even so it was still warm.
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I continued to observe him, he seemed asleep, perhaps 3 or 4 minutes had passed and his skin color was the same. Suddenly, from his face a veil began to fall, which every time it descended, leaving his mummified and disfigured yellow appearance. Under this non-transparent veil, soft and not…
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On This Day, September 29, 1941, the massacre at Babi Yar began.
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Over the course of two days, 33,771 Jews were murdered in the Babi Yar ravine, located on the outskirts of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine (USSR). A week after the Germans captured Kiev, they decided to massacre the city’s Jews. The Jews were ordered to assemble in the morning for…
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An Australian soldier driving Japanese Lieutenant General Hatazo Adachi to the Wom Airstrip, New Guinea for the formal New Guinea surrender ceremony, 13 Sep 1945
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Lieutenant General Hatazo Adachi commanded the Japanese forces on New Guinea from November 1942 until the end of the Second World War. He took command of the Eighteenth Army after the death of Lieutenant General Tomitaro Horii on 23 November 1942, and inherited an army that was already in retreat.…
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Anna war crime : 12 August 1944: The Massacre of St. Anna di Stazzema.
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Sant’Anna di Stazzema is a locality in the province of Lucca, in Tuscany, sadly known for being the site of one of the worst na#ifascist massacre in Western Europe during the Second World War. Introduction note:The na#i/na#ifascist reprisals in Italy are less known to English-speaking readers than Oradour sur Glane’s,…
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Lieutenant William Calley was the officer in charge of Charlie Company
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Lieutenant William Calley was the officer in charge of Charlie Company, a unit of the 11th Infantry Brigade of the Americal Division, during the My Lai massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968. The My Lai massacre was a mass murder of hundreds of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians, mostly women,…
