A Brief History On April 27, 1945, Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans and shot the next day, his body hung up in public and pelted with stones, spat upon, and generally scorned, an inglorious end to a strutting peacock of an egomaniac. Many other leaders of countries have met humiliating and gory ends, sometimes deserved and sometimes not. Here are 10 examples of how far the mighty can fall when bloodthirsty enemies can get a hold of them. Digging Deeper 10. Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (1967). Holt disappeared while swimming in the ocean and…
Browsing: The Bizarre
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A Brief History On April 26, 1933, the Nazi secret police force known as the Gestapo was founded. No strangers to torturing and executing people, firing squads, hanging by piano wire, and death by torture were Gestapo favorites. We continue what we started on April 25 when we told you about 10 ways people have been executed with no regard for humanity, intentional or unintentional. Here are 10 more ways people have executed other people and were not so nice about it. Digging Deeper 10. Poison Gas. Used today and recently for individual executions, the condemned have been known to…
A Brief History On April 26, 1986, the Soviet nuclear power plant in Pripyat, The Ukraine, suffered an explosion and fire resulting in the worst nuclear disaster in history. Digging Deeper A Soviet nuclear plant complex constructed for the purpose of providing electric power was the setting of the disaster. The disaster was not the first accident at the Chernobyl plant, nor would it be the last. There had been a partial core meltdown of Reactor #1 in 1982, something kept secret in typical Soviet fashion for 3 years. Later, in 1991 a major fire broke out in the still…
A Brief History On April 25, 1792, the guillotine was served its first victim. Meant to be a humane form of capital punishment, other modern forms have also attempted to achieve a quick and painless death for the condemned. Other methods have been purposely designed to cause pain and terror, both to the condemned and to potential violators. H ere are 10 methods of execution that are not very humane, even if they were intended to be. Obviously, there are many more interesting methods of execution, so stay tuned for a sequel list on this website. 10. Smashing the Head.…
A Brief History On April 23, 1016, Edmund Ironside was crowned King of England, replacing his father Aethelred the Unready. Digging Deeper Names used to mean more than just something looked up in a book or passed down from your parents. People used to earn their names based on where they lived, what they looked like or what they accomplished. Of course, it is easiest for us in the United States to understand English names, but other societies have named people the same way. Surely the kings noted above had “ironsides” and was “unready” for something, and the Indian (Native…