On September 26, 1983, Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov was on duty monitoring a warning system for nuclear attacks when his computer alerted him that the United States had just launched five missiles toward the U.S.S.R. — and he had only moments to decide if it was a false alarm.

Described as a reptilian creature with spines along its back, the Chupacabra is a legendary creature of the American Southwest known for attacking livestock and drinking their blood.

Known as the "Soap-Maker of Correggio," Leonarda Cianciulli murdered three women between 1939 and 1940 because she believed that human sacrifice would protect her son during World War II.

After getting lost while leading a group of gold miners through the Colorado Rockies in the 1870s, Alfred Packer resorted to cannibalism to stay alive — but the exact circumstances of his companions' deaths are unknown.

Before the age of 16, Lori Mattix claimed to have slept with David Bowie and started a relationship with Jimmy Page — and that was just the beginning.

On July 20, 1973, actor and martial arts legend Bruce Lee died in the Kowloon Tong district of Hong Kong at age 32 due to brain swelling known as a cerebral edema.

First discovered in a cave in 1903, Cheddar Man was a dark-skinned, blue-eyed man who lived in Britain 10,000 years ago — but much of his life is a mystery.

At 8 feet, 11 inches tall, Robert Pershing Wadlow was the tallest man in the world. But sadly, this "gentle giant" didn't live long.

On the southern leg of the P.T. Barnum's tour, Anna Haining Swan would meet Martin Van Buren Bates. Soon after, they would enter the record books as the world's tallest couple.

Marco Siffredi was a French snowboarder and mountaineer who had climbed Mount Everest before. But his determination to find the "Holy Grail" of routes proved to be his undoing.

The largest nuclear bomb ever created, Tsar Bomba was detonated by the Soviet Union above the Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya on October 31, 1961.