10Hitler’s Hollywood Mansion In the 1930s, an American Nazi group called the Silver Shirts (we guess all the cool shirt colors were taken) were convinced that Hitler was sure to triumph over his enemies and rule the world—from his swanky Hollywood pad. The group, led by wealthy landowners Norman and Winona Stephens and mining heiress Jessie Murphy, spent $4 million ($66 million in today’s money) to buy the property from legendary cowboy actor Will Rogers....

While events like the Cuban missile crisis gained a lot of media attention, there were still several incidents that didn’t. But it was the little-known incidents that showed how desperate, funny, and stupid both sides were during the “war.” 10The Checkpoint Charlie Standoff Aside from the Cuban missile crisis, the closest the US and Soviet Union came to starting World War III was on October 27, 1961, when US and Soviet tanks faced each other in Berlin, Germany....

10 Whistlers Whistlers, also known as “electromagnetic dawn chorus” because the sounds they produce resemble early morning birdsong, are unearthly sounds reminiscent of early space rock bands such as Hawkwind. Formed in the upper atmosphere during lightning discharges, they may be picked up and recorded with simple equipment by radio enthusiasts. Known as “whistler hunters,” these intrepid radio amateurs often travel long distances to areas unpolluted by power lines and other electromagnetic interference in order to make the best recordings....

It is true that the Confederacy would not have come into its brief existence without widespread white support for racialized slavery, which its own vice president called the cornerstone of the rebellion. Yet these broad strokes paint over finer detail. The truth is, as always, more complicated. There are shades of gray among those who wore it. People like . . . 10 A Cherokee Chief For a region whose destiny was bound up with the institution of black slavery, it’s easy to tag the Confederacy as a simple conglomerate of white supremacists....

There’s more to Japan’s trains than running on time, though. From train companies charging relatives of suicide victims for delays to trains that bark like dogs, here are ten surprising facts about Japan’s railway system. 10 Train Companies Charge Relatives Of People Who Commit Suicide By Train Tens of thousands of people commit suicide in Japan every year. A good number of these people kill themselves by jumping in front of oncoming trains....

Yes, teachers have to deal with angry parents at times. But these parents usually just verbally abuse teachers whenever they believe their children are being mistreated. However, some parents go further and violently attack their children’s teachers. 10 Catherine Lang-Engelhardt When Catherine Lang-Engelhardt confronted an unruly group of students, she confiscated one student’s lacrosse stick. She wrote the 12-year-old student up for cursing and not having a hall pass. The student told her mother, Annika McKenzie, that the teacher had “pulled my arm and pushed me against the wall”—a claim that was never proven....

10 Minitel A forerunner to the modern Internet, Minitel was launched in France in 1982 and survived for 30 years. From small, tan-colored plastic terminals, users could check the phone directory, reserve train and theater tickets, browse news headlines, and enter chat rooms (including adult services). By 1985, the Minitel system was connected to over one million French homes. The number 3615, which Minitel used to access associated toll services, was once as ubiquitous in the French media as “www” is today....

Or so at least we’ve been told. It turns out that the lamest sense is actually a lot more powerful than you might imagine. There’s an unbelievable array of subtle, subconscious things that we just wouldn’t be able to pick up without a functioning nose.
You’re probably familiar with the idea that old people stink. Whether it’s from first-hand experience, or just general pop-culture osmosis, somewhere along the line most of us begin to accept the concept of an “old person smell” as a fact of life....

10 Planet Of The Apes You’ve seen the scene: George and Nova flee from Ape City and discover the ruins of the Statue of Liberty partially buried by the beach. It’s an iconic moment in film history wherein both the viewer and the protagonists realize that the apocalyptic world of the apes is actually Earth in the future. The movie is loosely based on a novel by Pierre Boulle, in which the Planet of the Apes is, indeed, its own distinct planet....

See Also: 10 Pop Culture Icons With Cleverly Hidden Insults 10 Uncle Tom’s Cabin Uncle Tom’s Cabin is undeniably the most influential American novel ever written. The author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, came from a deeply religious abolitionist family. The book’s title character is a slave in Kentucky owned by the Shelby family. After the family falls into debt, Tom ends up in the possession of the vicious Simon Legree. When he refuses to tell the location of two runaways, his overseers beat him to death....

For the poor, life was a bit different. In ancient China, everyday life for an average person meant living on a farm, eating cheap meals and struggling to survive. Life was dirty, hard, and short—and often truly disgusting. 10They Ate Eggs Soaked In A Little Boy’s Urine Ancient Chinese medicine was advanced. Chinese scholars had ideas that wouldn’t reach the West for thousands of years. But in the crude, early forms the ancient Chinese used, these treatments were a bit different, and a bit less appetizing....

The geniuses at Pixar accomplished a lot with Ratatouille, but what is perhaps most impressive is the fact that they made us forget that most people would normally do their best to get rats into traps (even though that is alluded to in the movie). Not only is Remy the rat made cute and lovable, but he also cooks food for humans without making the audience cringe. The demand for pet rats rose after the release of Ratatouille as kids around the world asked, “Mommy, can I get a rat?...

10Van Gogh’s Death Vincent van Gogh was one of the greatest artists of all time, but he had just as many issues as he did gifts. In 1890, van Gogh was staying in the Parisian suburb of Auvers, where he would regularly go out into the surrounding wheat fields to paint. On July 27, he was found shot in the stomach. Due to van Gogh’s well-known mental problems, the death was immediately assumed to be suicide....

10His Grim Childhood Roald Dahl’s childhood began much like one of his novels. His father and sister died weeks apart, leaving Dahl’s mother to raise him alone with five other children. Later, he was in a car crash where he was thrown through the windshield, severing his nose from his face and forcing reconstructive surgery. Dahl recounts several incidents from this period—recorded in his autobiography Boy—that wouldn’t seem out of place in his fiction....

10Olympus MonsMars Most people know that Olympus Mons is the tallest mountain and volcano in the solar system, but its size is still difficult to fathom. Standing at a massive 25.7 kilometers (16 mi) high, this Martian monolith is just under three times the height of Everest and its base covers almost the same area as Arizona. Despite Olympus Mons’s massive height, though, it would be remarkably easy to climb, as the average slope is only a 5° incline....

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Dogs for Lazy Owners Through the millennia, we’ve tried many ways to avoid the terrors of going outside or having to slightly move our muscles. The Egyptians tried using slave labor, but alas, the slaves complained and ran away. The Europeans brought us the Industrial Revolution, but still, we were forced to sit at machines and flip a bunch of switches. Even now, scientists are still striving toward this goal....

It is called the summer solstice and has been celebrated around the world since time began. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream depicted the fairy world’s riot of mischief on this special night. Today, folklore still plays an important role, and sacred rituals are observed by different groups to mark the start of summer. Welcome to the quirky world of Midsummer. 10 Sankthansaften Sankthansaften is the Danish midsummer festival named after Sankt Hans—St John the Baptist, who was born on June 24....

Weird Fact: A mouse can fit through a hole the size of a ballpoint pen During the summer months, mice will generally live outside and remain contended there. But as soon as the weather begins to cool, they seek the warmth of our homes. Because of their soft skulls and gnawing ability, a hole the size of a ballpoint pen (6mm – 1/4 inch) is large enough for them to enter en masse....

10 Electromechanical Random Number Generators When people seriously believed that psychic powers could be scientifically quantified in experimental conditions, a lot of effort went into developing techniques by which such powers could theoretically be measured. It had to be guaranteed that experimental subjects wouldn’t be able to predict or calculate the results of a test in mundane ways. Simple experiments using Zener cards and the like were criticized as being relatively easy to fool with non-ESP techniques like card counting and also as being subject to flaws like imperfect shuffling....

10Napoleon Wrote A Romance Novel This story is part truth and part embellishment. In 1795, Napoleon wrote a short story (only nine pages, so not a novel) titled “Clissen et Eugenie.” Historians generally agree that it’s, in part, a reflection of the relationship he had shared with Eugenie Desiree Clary, a relationship that was ending as he wrote the story. The story itself wasn’t published while Napoleon was alive, but multiple copies were preserved in varying conditions by friends, relatives, and fans of the great man, and the full story was eventually recompiled from these various copies....