For untold years the tropical paradise of Lord Howe Island was home to the enormous insect called the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, or Land Lobster - an 8-inch long bug endemic to the island. But they went extinct shortly around 1918 - at least until 2001, when just a few dozen were found on a virtually uninhabitable rock a dozen miles away.

Sources

"Rediscovery of the ‘extinct’ Lord Howe Island stick-insect (Dryococelus australis (Montrouzier)) (Phasmatodea) and recommendations for its conservation" by David Priddel et al.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-15/lord-howe-island-stick-insect-discovery-balls-pyramid/106381564

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lord_Howe_Island_stick_insect_Dryococelus_australis_10June2011_PalmNursery.jpg

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In World War II the United States took a unique turn in their quest for delivering fast, secret communications in combat situations. This was by using Native American language speakers and translators to deliver simple, yet unbreakable coded messages on the front lines. This is the story of the Navajo Code Talkers.

Sources

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/n/code-talkers.html

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers

https://www.intelligence.gov/publics-daily-brief/publics-daily-brief-articles/navajo-nation-inventors-of-the-unbreakable-code

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker

File:Navajo_Indian_communication_men_with_the_Marines_on_Saipan_landed_with_the_first_assault_waves_to_his_the_beach._-_NARA_-_532526.tif?page=1

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When Paraguay invaded its much larger neighbors in 1864, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay responded in force. For the next five years these nations waged the deadliest war ever seen on the continent. It was a war that saw 20 percent of Paraguay's entire population die. This is the story of the Paraguayan War.

Sources

https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/3585/1/B28_-_The_Paraguayan_War_%281864-1870%29.pdf

https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/brazil/section/0c2155f3-0885-42c3-afda-319d122d8b63

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Batalha_de_Campo_Grande_-_1871.jpg

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In 1882 a 50-year old tortoise from the Seychelles was brought to the tiny island of St. Helena as a gift to the governor. That tortoise, who was later dubbed Jonathan, is still alive and well today, making him over 190 years old, and the world's oldest living land animal.

Sources

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/at-190-jonathan-the-tortoise-is-the-worlds-oldest-living-land-animal-180979514/

https://sainthelenaisland.info/jonathan.htm

Image by Luke McKernan - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jonathan_(27242406408).jpg

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In 1822, a young man, Alexis St. Martin, was accidentally shot in the stomach. Miraculously, he survived, and even more amazing was the hole between his chest and stomach became permanent. This allowed a US Army surgeon - William Beaumont - to spend a decade studying St. Martin’s digestive system, making Beaumont the "Father of Gastric Physiology". This is the very weird story of the gunshot that changed medicine.

Sources

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/grisly-story-human-guinea-pig-alexis-st-martin-180963520/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_St._Martin

https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/probing-the-mysteries-of-human-digestion/

Images:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Beaumont_painting.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Alexis_St._Martin,_aged_81_Wellcome_L0011057.jpg

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They say absolute power corrupts absolutely. And while that is often true, sometimes you can get someone in power who genuinely wants to help their people. Such was the case with the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was a man who was thrust onto the imperial throne, and forced to spend his time fighting - when all he wanted to do was study philosophy and govern his people. This is the story of Marcus Aurelius: the philosopher emperor.

Sources

"Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine" by Barry Strauss

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus_Augustus#/media/File:Kunsthistorisches_Museum_Vienna_June_2006_048.jpg

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In World War II, the allies struggled to fend off U-boat attacks on shipping in the North Atlantic. A major issue was a lack of air support. Planes didn’t have the range to provide protection to the merchant fleets in the icy north. And then, someone had an idea. What if you converted an iceberg into an airbase? And even better - what if you could build an entire aircraft carrier out of ice. This is the story of Project Habakkuk.

Sources

https://albertaaviationmuseum.com/operation-habbakuk-the-iceberg-aircraft-carrier/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk

https://www.thealbertan.com/hot-summer-guide/the-iceberg-aircraft-carrier-that-almost-was-albertas-forgotten-wartime-wonder-10781370

https://www.albertaunderwatercouncil.com/single-post/2016/10/10/diving-jaspers-habbakuk-wreck

Images:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antarctic_Sound-2016-Iceberg_02.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lancaster_Mk_I_gun_positions.jpg

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Here is a free idea for you. If your sports team is having a bad season and no one is coming to games, throw a cheap beer night! It is a tried and true promotion method and one that the Cleveland Indians implemented in 1974. Specifically a 10 cent beer night. And it worked, drawing a crowd of thousands. The only problem was Cleveland got a little more than they bargained for when the game devolved into a full blown riot.

Sources

https://clevelandmagazine.com/articles/10-cent-beer-night-an-oral-history-of-cleveland-baseballs-most-infamous-night/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Cent_Beer_Night

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Texas_Rangers_run_during_Ten_Cent_Beer_Night.jpg

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In Turin, Italy, there is a cloth that is one of the most recognized holy relics in Christianity. It is a linen cloth that bears a faint image of a man who appears to have undergone crucifixion. Could this have been the burial robe of Jesus? This is the story of the Shroud of Turin.

Sources

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/jesus-burial-cloth-or-medieval-forgery-dna-evidence-further-complicates-the-debate-over-the-shroud-of-turin-180988514/

https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7248/5/1/8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_Turin

https://www.shroud.com/

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Secundo_Pia_Turinske_platno_1898.jpg

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Few places on Earth remain as mysterious and inaccessible as North Sentinel Island. Deep in the Bay of Bengal and surrounded by tropical waters, this small island is home to one of the world's last uncontacted peoples - the North Sentinelese. They are a people who have fiercely resisted outside contact for thousands of years. Their isolation has sparked fascination, controversy, and endless speculation. Today we explore the history of North Sentinel Island and the people who have chosen to remain apart from the wider world.

Sources

https://www.andaman.org/book/chapter8/text8.html#sentineli

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/sentinelese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sentinel_Island

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Sentinel_Island.jpg

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What if the highest office in the United States came with a deadly curse? For more than a century, Americans noticed an eerie pattern: presidents elected in years ending in zero seemed doomed to die in office. From William Henry Harrison to John F. Kennedy, the so-called Curse of Tippecanoe - or Tecumseh's Curse - has become one of the most enduring legends in American history. But was this a supernatural act of vengeance tied to the legendary Shawnee chief Tecumseh, or simply a remarkable series of coincidences? In this episode, we explore the origins of the curse, the presidents caught in its shadow, and the strange events that continue to fuel one of America's most chilling presidential mysteries.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Tippecanoe

https://periodicpresidents.com/2013/06/11/what-is-tecumsehs-curse/

Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tecumseh02.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albert_Gallatin_Hoit_-_William_Henry_Harrison_-_Google_Art_Project_(cropped).jpg"

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