A Brief History
On this day, February 22, 2014, we celebrate the five month anniversary of the launch of our site on September 22, 2013. In our first year (2013), we featured over 100 entertaining articles concerning bizarre and fascinating historic events. According to Google Analytics, the following ten articles were the most popular articles read by our thousands of much appreciated fans in 2013! Please let us know in the comments which article was your favorite from 2013.
Digging Deeper
10. How an Accidental Explosion Brought Down the Chinese Empire
Read here to learn how on October 9, 1911, an accidental bomb explosion in China lead to the ultimate fall of China’s last imperial dynasty.
9. The Punch that Killed Harry Houdini?
Read here to learn how on October 22, 1926, J. Gordon Whitehead dealt a potentially deadly sucker punch to magician Harry Houdini’s stomach.
8. The Tsar Bomba, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Biggest, Baddest Bomb Ever Built by Bomb!
Read here to learn how on October 30, 1961, The Soviet Union detonated the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the North of Russia; at 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise by humankind!
7. December 20, 1987, Worst Peacetime Sea Disaster
Read here to learn how on December 20, 1987, the passenger ferry Dona Paz sank with twice as many drowned as the Titanic!
6. Move Over Vampires, A Fanged Dwarf Dinosaur has Been Discovered!
Read here to learn how on October 3, 2012, a National Geographic explorer announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur, one with vampire-like fangs!
5. America’s Biggest Badass Soldier of World War I
Read here to learn how on October 8, 1918, United States Corporal Alvin C. York killed 28 German soldiers and captured 132 in France’s Argonne Forest during World War I making York one of America’s most decorated soldiers of the war.
4. A Man Who Lost His Face at Normandy and Continued to Fight with No Eyes!
Read here to learn how on October 31, 1944, Dr. jur. Erich Göstl, a member of the Waffen SS, was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, to recognize extreme battlefield bravery for losing his face and eyes during the Battle of Normandy during World War II and continuing to fight while blind.
3. December 23, 1938: Dinosaur Fish Found!
For our second prehistoric creature on our list, please read here to learn how on December 23, 1938, a commercial fisherman pulled in a “living fossil” in his net off the coast of Africa, a creature believed to be extinct since the time of the dinosaurs!
2. American Horror Story: Coven is based on a true story…well, sort of!
Read here to learn how on October 9, 2013, American Horror Story: Coven debuted on FX with at least three characters based on real life infamous Americans! This successful article was followed by a sequel of sorts that ranks as the nineteenth most popular History and Headlines article of 2013.
1. The Predicted Mass Alien Sighting Nobody Expected to Happen
All of the tenth through second entries on our list were written by historian Dr. Matthew D. Zarzeczny, FINS. Nevertheless, our most popular article for 2013 was written by special guest contributor Hestie Barnard Gerber, who later contributed this article to our site, which was the 42nd most popular History and Headlines article of 2013. For the most popular entry on our site in 2013, please read here to learn how on October 13, 2010, roughly thirty years after the famed Rendelsham Forest incident, thousands of eyewitnesses reported seeing shiny, circular objects in the skies above New York City – validating the mass UFO sighting predicted by Stanley A. Fulham, a former NORAD officer and relatively well-known author, a few months earlier.
Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite article on this site? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more outstanding samples of writings by History and Headlines‘s lead writer, please see…
Zarzeczny, Matthew D. Banned from the Internet?!: “Controversial” Top 10 Lists. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.
Zarzeczny, Matthew D. Meteors That Enlighten the Earth: Napoleon and the Cult of Great Men. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
And for our site’s co-founder’s literary endeavors, please see…
Downing, Elizabeth and Shell Harris. Skinny Smoothies: 101 Delicious Drinks that Help You Detox and Lose Weight. Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2012.
The above three books make excellent gifts!
