gnostek+11‹›1 / 18A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Bishop Odo rallying Duke William 's army during the Battle of Hastings in 1066Bayeux Tapestry410%Most famous medieval artEmbroidered in wool on linen 70 metres long, the Bayeux Tapestry was likely stitched within twenty years of the 1066 invasion it records — by English hands, for a Norman patron, depicting the death of a king the embroiderers may have watched fall.+ See More01The Bayeux Tapestry stretches 70 metres long but is only 50 centimetres tall, stitched in eight colours of dyed wool.02It was likely made in Canterbury by English embroiderers, commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William the Conqueror's half-brother.03A Halley's Comet appears in scene 32, depicted as an omen above figures pointing upward in visible alarm, dated to 1066.
gnostekTarrare800%the 10 most interesting wikipedia articles everTarrare, an 18th-century French soldier, ate live cats, eels, snakes, and a 14-month-old toddler — then vanished from a hospital ward. His autopsy revealed a stomach cavity large enough to fit a small child.+ See More01Army surgeons used Tarrare as a spy courier, hiding dispatches inside raw meat he swallowed whole.02A 14-month-old infant disappeared from the hospital ward where Tarrare was confined; he was the prime suspect.03His autopsy revealed a massively distended stomach, corroded organs, and a body riddled with tumors at death around age 26.
gnostek‹›1 / 3Dyatlov Pass incident300%Strange disappearancesNine hikers cut their tent from the inside and ran barefoot into −30°C Siberian night. Two corpses had crushed chests matching a car-crash impact. No attacker ever found.+ See More01Two victims had fractured ribs consistent with 20,000 lbs of force — no external bruising.02Lyudmila Dubinina's tongue, eyes, and lips were missing; soft tissue only, no blade marks.03Soviet investigators closed the case citing 'an unknown compelling force' — then sealed it for 30 years.
gnostek‹›1 / 6George Soros1400%greatest investors of all timeOn September 16, 1992 — 'Black Wednesday' — George Soros shorted $10 billion in British pounds and pocketed $1 billion before London's close. The Bank of England spent $27 billion defending sterling and lost.+ See More01Soros shorted £10 billion in a single day, forcing Britain to exit the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.02The UK Treasury spent an estimated $27 billion in reserves trying to defend the pound — and failed within hours.03Black Wednesday cost British taxpayers roughly £3.4 billion; Soros personally cleared over $1 billion by market close.
gnostek‹›1 / 2Egill Skallagrímsson600%Heroes of the medieval eraEgil Skallagrímsson committed his first killing at age seven with an axe at a ball game. He later composed a poem so good it talked an enemy king out of executing him.+ See More01Egil killed a boy at a childhood game, age seven; his mother praised him as future-Viking material.02Captured by King Eiríkr Bloodaxe, Egil composed 'Höfuðlausn' overnight — the poem bought his head.03He reportedly suffered a disfiguring bone disease now theorized as Paget's disease of the skull.
gnostek‹›1 / 5Topsy (elephant)600%domesticated wild animals that turned on ownersConey Island's Topsy, a circus elephant who had killed three men, was electrocuted before 1,500 paying spectators on January 4, 1903. Thomas Edison's company filmed it. The footage survives.+ See More01Edison Manufacturing Company filmed Topsy's electrocution; the film, 'Electrocuting an Elephant,' was commercially distributed that same year.02Topsy killed three men in three years, including an abusive trainer who fed her a lit cigarette.03She was given cyanide-laced carrots, then 6,600 volts — organizers had originally planned to hang her publicly.
gnostekBuckskin Frank Leslie100%Violence in the Wild WestTombstone gunfighter Buckskin Frank Leslie used live ammunition to trace his wife May's silhouette on their cabin wall, bullet by bullet. He later shot her dead; the bullet-portrait remained on the wall.+ See More01Leslie outlined May Killeen's body on their cabin wall with real bullets while she stood still, married her days after killing her first husband.02He was convicted in 1889 of murdering his girlfriend Mollie Williams and wounding a ranch hand in the same shooting.03Sentenced to 25 years in Yuma Territorial Prison, he was released after 7 years due to his medical skills — he'd become the prison doctor.
gnostek‹›1 / 7Galba5020%The History of RomeGalba reigned 7 months; soldiers dragged him from his litter in the Forum, hacked off his head, and a soldier named Terentius Rufus paraded it on a pole before selling it to his enemies for 100 gold pieces.+ See More01His killer couldn't grip the head by hair — Galba was bald — so carried it by the thumb jammed in the mouth.02Three other emperors followed within the same calendar year of 69 CE: Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.03He was 70 years old at accession — the oldest man to claim the imperial throne to that point.
gnostekMen Behind the Sun600%Japanese unit 731Director T.F. Mous used an actual child's corpse — sourced from a local hospital — for a dissection scene. Chinese censors banned it; Hong Kong screened it. The corpse is in the frame.+ See More01Director T.F. Mous obtained a real child's body from a local hospital to film the autopsy sequence.02China banned the film; Hong Kong screened it; it grossed over HK$6 million in its opening week.03Live rats were reportedly set on fire for one sequence, prompting an SPCA investigation in Hong Kong.