Fun
Deaths, hoaxes, laws, and legends that sound invented and mostly are not.
FunSeven Historical Deaths Too Strange to InventSeven documented historical deaths that sound invented: Aeschylus and the turtle, Attila the Hun's wedding night, Isadora Duncan's scarf, Franz Reichelt's parachute jump.
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FunA Cabinet of Supernatural Legends, Filed by RegionSeven legends from seven parts of the world — hidden folk, snow women, doubles, foul-smelling giants — and what each one says about the landscape it came from.
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FunSix Historical Hoaxes That Worked, and One That Did NotSix historical hoaxes that deceived experts for years: Cottingley Fairies, Piltdown Man, Cardiff Giant, Great Moon Hoax, Donation of Constantine, Hitler Diaries — and one that collapsed fast.
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FunTwelve Historical Facts That Sound InventedThe year without a summer. The Pepsi Navy. The piano tuner with nine fingers. Twelve facts I didn't believe until I checked — and one I had to correct.
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FunEight of History's Strangest Laws — With CitationsEight genuinely-enforced historical laws that sound invented: Roman sumptuary laws, the English window tax, Sweden's high-heel ban, the Byzantine purple-dye monopoly.
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