Starting in the 16th century, castrati were used by choirs as a substitution for women. But while some found fame and fortune, many more suffered in poverty and obscurity.

The Dalton gang saw a number of successful robberies in the Old West — until October 5, 1892, when they attempted to rob two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas, in broad daylight.

From March 18 to May 28, 1871, a revolutionary government that called itself the Paris Commune controlled the French capital — and changed the country forever.

In the years leading up to the Civil War, U.S. diplomats James Buchanan, John Y. Mason, and Pierre Soulé drafted a plot to wrest Cuba from Spain — in order to protect American slavery.

In 1731, Spanish coast guards allegedly cut off the ear of British Captain Robert Jenkins, sparking enough outrage for Britain to go to war with Spain years later.

In 1680, a medicine man named Po'pay led the most successful Native uprising in American history, running Spanish colonizers off of Pueblo lands for 12 years.

More than 250 pyramids that once held the remains of the "Black Pharaohs" of Kush dot the deserts of Sudan, but due to their remote location and the civil war that plagued the country for decades, they don't see nearly as many tourists as their Egyptian counterparts.

The Aztec Sun god and the impetus for countless human sacrifices, Huitzilopochtli left a blood-soaked mark on Mesoamerican history.

On June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer led 210 men into an attack against 3,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors — and the Native Americans killed every last one of them.

A descendant of Inca royalty, Túpac Amaru II led one of the bloodiest revolutions against Spanish colonization until his brutal execution in 1781.

Irene Gut Opdyke risked her life to smuggle food and travel permits to Polish Jews — and even hid 12 of them inside the home of a Nazi officer where she worked as a housekeeper.