Though it’s only half the size of a soccer field, Migingo Island is home to some 500 people, making it one of the most densely populated places on Earth.The African continent is vast and diverse, with over 11 million square miles of luscious jungles, thriving cities, and arid deserts. As the oldest inhabited continent on Earth, there’s no shortage of rich histories to be found. For the tiny tin shack atoll of Migingo Island, that history is one of territorial strife.

In 1942, the U.S. Marine Corps recruited 29 Navajo speakers to create an unbreakable code to use in the Pacific Theater — and by the end of the war, more than 450 Navajo Code Talkers had helped the Allies to victory.During World War II, the Allied powers needed a way to transmit secret messages that enemy troops couldn’t decipher. So, in 1942, the U.S. Marine Corps recruited a group of men who would become known as the Navajo Code Talkers to make that happen.

Hyalinobatrachium yaku, a new species of glass frog, has such clear skin that researchers can observe its tiny heart beat through its chest.Jaime Culebras and Ross Maynard; CC-BY 4.0The newly discovered glass frog species (Hyalinobatrachium yaku). There are 150 species of glass frogs — but researchers announced this week that they may have discovered the coolest one yet. Though many of these tiny amphibians have see-through skin in parts — providing a view of their organs, bones, blood vessels, and even the eggs inside females — the new Hyalinobatrachium yaku is the clearest yet.

A small-time hustler from Vancouver, Paul Snider thought he'd struck it rich when he met model Dorothy Stratten — but when she left him, he killed her.Paul Snider wanted glitz, glamour, fame, and fortune — and he would do anything to get it. Meanwhile, Dorothy Stratten was on the verge of getting everything that Snider wanted when the two met in 1978. She was beautiful, photogenic, and soon caught the eye of Hugh Hefner as the next superstar Playboy model.

A rumored torture device developed in 17th-century Europe, the pear of anguish combined sexual violation and horrifying physical pain, making it one of history's most brutal instruments of agony.Klaus D. Peter/Wikimedia CommonsThe alleged torture device known as the pear of anguish, also referred to as the choke pear. Whether they like the macabre or enjoy the shiver they get when they see them, torture devices have always fascinated the public. Perhaps that’s why novels and movies are full of the most inventive torture methods that a writer can conjure up.