Francis Tumblety: A Quack Doctor Who Became A Jack The Ripper Suspect Public DomainFrancis Tumblety, a “quack” doctor with a previous arrest record. Who was he? Francis Tumblety had a mysterious past, though it’s likely that this was an intentional choice as he benefitted greatly from keeping much about his life secret. Some accounts say he was born in Ireland, others in Canada, but in any case, his family eventually moved to Rochester, New York, sometime around 1844.

While Thomas Jefferson was the main author of the Declaration of Independence, the congressional committee of John Adams, Ben Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston played an important role.If you’ve ever wondered who wrote the Declaration of Independence, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that there wasn’t just one author. It may help to take a step back to a hot, humid day in June of 1776 when the document first began to take shape.

Though it was supposed to resemble a dove, the church ended up looking more like a chicken. Wikimedia CommonsThe Gereja Ayam Chicken Church on the mountain. Daniel Alamsjah’s wife is from the Magelang area on the island of Java, Indonesia. It’s an area that Alamsjah had visited before, and they, for the most part, had been unremarkable trips. But one night, working hundreds of miles away in Jakarta in 1989, Alamsjah received a vision: a dove resting on top of a hill, and a voice clearly telling him to build a house of prayer for all people to come and worship in the hills near Magelang.

Burning At The Stake Wikimedia CommonsSome burnings were alleviated by tying gunpowder to the victim. That way, the inevitable explosion would kill the victim quicker. Those in power during the Middle Ages generally attempted to match the severity of capital punishment with the associated crime. Unfortunately, both sexism and superstition were alive and well in Medieval times. The ramifications of this deadly combination resulted in women being accused of witchcraft or heresy and subsequently burned at the stake.

The On-Set Accident That Killed Brandon Lee Ron Galella, Ltd./Getty ImagesThe son of Bruce Lee, both celebrities died at a young age during the height of their careers. Ascendant actor Brandon Lee wanted to be different from his father. Where Bruce Lee had made a name for himself as the lead star of numerous action films, Brandon wanted to star in more serious, dramatic roles. There’s an unfortunate irony, then, that when he took the lead role in The Crow — an action-packed comic book adaptation — it wound up being his last.