Oregon banned slavery before statehood, but its early laws also tried to exclude Black people entirely. Explore the disturbing history of Oregon’s Black exclusion laws.
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Oregon banned slavery before statehood, but its early laws also tried to exclude Black people entirely. Explore the disturbing history of Oregon’s Black exclusion laws.
René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle found the Mississippi, claimed Louisiana for France, then missed the river completely and doomed his Texas colony.
Writer’s block may feel like laziness with better branding, but science says writing trouble can involve anxiety, perfectionism, brain function, aphasia, agraphia, dysgraphia, and hypergraphia.
Discover the astonishing life of Buster Keaton, the silent film genius who risked death for comedy, revolutionized filmmaking, survived Hollywood disaster, and became one of cinema’s greatest legends.
The USS O’Bannon allegedly attacked a Japanese submarine with potatoes during World War II. Here’s the real story behind one of the Navy’s strangest legends.
Explore the strange true history of professional farters, from Roland the Farter and medieval court entertainment to Le Pétomane, the Moulin Rouge, Japanese fart battles, and Mr. Methane.
Discover the truth behind Haiti’s zombie law. The strange truth involves poison, premature burial, Article 246, Vodou folklore, and Hollywood’s habit of making everything more dramatic.
How fancy women’s hats, egret plumes, Theodore Roosevelt, and Pelican Island helped launch federal wildlife protection and the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The 1904 Olympics in St. Louis were swallowed by the World’s Fair, producing marathon mayhem, food legends, dazzling spectacle, and deeply troubling human exhibits.
In 1816, a London medical journal reported the bizarre case of a student who fought sleepwalking duel while, collapsed from a nonexistent gunshot wound, and received fake surgery from a very committed doctor.
In 1964, the FBI investigated “Louie Louie” for obscenity, only to conclude that The Kingsmen’s garbled lyrics were officially unintelligible.
During the Civil War, Scott County, Tennessee rejected secession so strongly that it declared itself the Free and Independent State of Scott. Here’s the strange story of the county that seceded from secession.
Explore the dark origins of Little Red Riding Hood, from Charles Perrault’s grim ending to the Brothers Grimm’s wolf surgery, folklore symbolism, and disturbing older versions.
Explore 50 weird, wonderful, and slightly embarrassing fun facts about American history, including strange wars, bizarre military plans, disasters, nuclear scares, and decisions that definitely needed a second meeting.
The Soviet Union’s Program 7 tried using nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes, from digging canals to putting out gas fires. Because subtlety was apparently bourgeois.
