Ellen Ochoa became the first Latina to venture into space in 1993 — then became director of NASA mission control in 2012.

When she wasn’t testing her lethal concoctions on hundreds of slaves and children, she was dispatching Nero’s enemies — until she met a brutal end herself.

After winning her freedom in 1856, Biddy Mason invested in large tracts of land in downtown L.A., and she used her growing fortune to assist the city’s poorest people.

In 1866, Cathay Williams changed her name to "William Cathay," disguised herself as a man, and became a Buffalo Soldier.

A Canadian First Nations soldier, Francis Pegahmagabow was the best sniper on either side of World War I. But when he went back home to Canada, he still had no rights.

From the true size of Africa to the countries that refuse to use the metric system, these maps will make you see our world in a whole new light.

After a Nova Scotia movie theater refused to let Viola Desmond sit in the whites-only section, she took the case to court and ignited the country’s civil rights movement in the process.

Before committing his historic murder, John Billington was punished for a number of other offenses in Plymouth and became a social outcast — but scholars now think there might be more to his story.

An Irish-American serial killer, Lizzie Halliday murdered at least four people in upstate New York in the 1890s. And some people even accused her of being Jack the Ripper.

Dr. Thomas Neill Cream left a trail of victims across London and Chicago before he was executed in 1892. And some believe he may have been the infamous Jack the Ripper.

In 1910, Halley’s Comet was due to pass close by Earth — and everyone from religious fanatics to news reporters stoked the fires of a global panic, believing it was the end of the world.