Police had stopped the investigation of Nicole van den Hurk's murder, so her stepbrother falsely confessed in order to get her body reexamined for DNA testing.

Born and married into wealth, Constance Markievicz forewent her status to support her people, her sex, and win herself a seat alongside the country's most powerful men.

Before World War II went into full swing, there was a brief period of silence on the Western Front known as the Phoney War in which the Germans took full advantage.

Throughout the late 1800s, Ida Lewis braved the waters near Newport, Rhode Island — and saved 18 lives along the way.

J.D. McMahon promised Wichita Falls a skyscraper befitting the prospering boom town. Unknown to townspeople, the con man drew up blueprints for a building 480 inches tall, instead of the 480 feet he promised.

Claire Phillips was a smalltown girl from Michigan who wound up running a spy ring for the United States in the Japan-occupied Philippines during World War II.

How India's Great Banyan Tree came back from the brink of death to become one of the most astounding living things on Earth.

"Angel's Glow" was a phenomenon of the Civil War in which soldiers' wounds seemed to glow in the dark. It took 139 years to figure out why.

Written sometime between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D., the Seikilos epitaph is the oldest complete musical composition in existence — hear it for yourself.

Kurt Gödel was one of the 20th century's most brilliant mathematicians. But he was so paranoid he ended up starving to death.

Ambrose Burnside may have been a Civil War general as well as a governor and U.S. senator, but many today know him best as the man who popularized sideburns.