After years of struggling with diabetes, hypertension, and worsening stress, 54-year-old Luther Vandross died from a heart attack on July 1, 2005.

Canopic jars helped preserve certain organs that were removed during the mummification process — and they were often stored in the same tomb as the actual mummy.

Capable of holding approximately 50 silver denarii, almost a full year's pay, this purse would have been worn on the left arm in order to keep the right free for combat.

On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech professor Liviu Librescu tragically died during the worst school shooting in U.S. history — after saving the lives of 22 students.

Located off the coast of Lord Howe Island between New Zealand and Australia, Ball's Pyramid is, at 1,877 feet tall, the tallest volcanic sea stack in the world.

Born when Jayne Mansfield was just 17, Jayne Marie Mansfield bore witness to the struggles her mother faced due to her fame and chose to live largely out of the public eye because of it.

While excavating the route of a planned highway, archaeologists found a tusk and pelvis bone dating to the Ice Age.

The process of fermenting grain to make beer was likely discovered by several cultures independently as hunter-gatherers settled into agricultural societies around 12,000 years ago, but the first physical evidence of beer brewing dates to 3400 B.C.E. in Mesopotamia.

Mickey Hargitay was a Hungarian immigrant who rose to fame in the United States as a bodybuilder, but he's perhaps best known for marrying Jayne Mansfield and raising actress Mariska Hargitay.

Go inside the incredible triumphs and heartbreaking tragedies of Golden Age Hollywood's most iconic actresses — pictured in stunning color.