George "Buzz" Beurling shot down 31 enemy planes over Malta, got fired for shooting at his own commanding officer, and died on a covert arms run to Israel at 26. Canada's most celebrated fighter ace had a life stranger than any war film.

Tom Simpson was Britain’s first World Champion road cyclist and the most complete rider of his generation. In 1967, he rode himself to death on Mont Ventoux during the Tour de France. This is the full story.

Ian Curtis's epilepsy medication likely worsened his depression. His manager kept booking shows. His bandmates didn't know how bad it was. A fresh look at the six weeks that ended Joy Division

John Rogan stood 8 feet 9 inches tall, was the son of enslaved sharecroppers, refused every sideshow offer, and died in 1905 with his grave sealed in concrete. Here is the story nobody tells.

In 1986, Jim Henson wrote two letters to be read after his death. Four years later he was gone at 53. Here's the story of the man behind the Muppets, and the words he left for those who loved him.

Six days in a Stockholm bank vault in 1973 gave the world a new psychological term. But the woman it was named after says she was never ill. She was just trying to survive.

In 1955, Nobel laureate John Steinbeck wrote a witty letter to Marilyn Monroe asking for an autograph for his teenage nephew. The letter sold for $3,520 at auction in 2016 but nobody knows if Monroe ever replied.

In 1906, a sealed Parisian magazine called Le Stéréo-Nu brought erotic stereoviews to a mass audience. Behind the camera was Jean Agélou, whose most famous model went on to sit for Modigliani and marry a celebrated Japanese painter.

In 1943, a Pennsylvania dentist convinced FDR to fund a secret WWII weapon: bats armed with napalm. The result accidentally burned down a US Army airfield. Here's the full story of Project X-Ray.

Phil Spector was one of the greatest music producers who ever lived. He was also a violent, controlling man with a gun obsession and a decades-long pattern of threatening women. This is the full story.

Charles Manson didn't just cross paths with the Beach Boys. He moved in, destroyed their cars, racked up a record-breaking gonorrhea bill, and got one of his songs onto their album. Here's the full, disturbing story.

Pope John XII turned the Vatican into a brothel at 18. Discover the shocking true story of history's most scandalous pontiff, from orgies to murder charges.

From Mad Jack Mytton setting himself on fire to cure hiccups, to the Duke who built 15 miles of underground tunnels to avoid people, meet the most gloriously strange figures in British history.

The founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 traces back to Carl Jung, a hallucination in a New York hospital, and a six-hour conversation in Ohio. Here's the full story.

A limestone tablet from 1250 BCE lists 40 ancient Egyptian workers and their reasons for missing work, from scorpion bites to brewing beer. Meet the world's oldest attendance register.

From debt-ridden teenager to almost-ruler of the Roman world, discover the real story of Mark Antony including lesser-known details about his life, his relationship with Cleopatra, and his dramatic downfall.

We tend to imagine great scientists as permanently inspired, waking each morning with clarity, purpose, and brilliance ready to pour onto the page. Charles Darwin was not that man. At least, not every day. On 1 October 1861, two years after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Darwin wrote a letter to his friend and fellow scientist Charles Lyell. In it, he declared: "I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything." He then mentioned he was p

Oskar Dirlewanger led one of the most brutal units of WWII. Even other SS officers were disturbed by his methods. This is the story of how a convicted criminal rose through the Nazi ranks and became synonymous with mass violence.

In the 1880s, a rebellious Parisian clerk invented the mug shot and modern crime scene photography. Now, forensic pathologist Philippe Charlier is reexamining the chilling images that resulted.

The unlikely story of Naked As Nature Intended, the 1961 British naturist film that drew police-managed queues, ran for two years in London cinemas, and launched the production company that went on to finance Roman Polanski.

The story of the Pubic Wars, the extraordinary rivalry between Bob Guccione's Penthouse and Hugh Hefner's Playboy that reshaped American media, censorship, and culture throughout the 1970s.

Robert Johnson recorded just 29 songs and died at 27, yet became the foundation of rock and roll. Discover the real story behind the crossroads myth, his graveyard guitar lessons, and his mysterious poisoning death.

A customer tipped Tonda Dickerson a lottery ticket at her Waffle House job. She won $10 million. Then came the lawsuits, the IRS, and a kidnapping at gunpoint.