Considered the deadliest natural disaster in American history, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 left one in four city residents homeless and killed up to 12,000 people.On September 8, 1900, the coastal city of Galveston, Texas, was hit by a hurricane like none that the United States had ever experienced before. Winds of 120 miles per hour slammed the city with flying debris that cut through homes like shrapnel. Waves crashed onto the streets, leaving the city 15 feet underwater at one point.

On October 22, 2005, former beauty queen Tara Grinstead disappeared from her home in Ocilla, Georgia. Over a decade later, her killer was finally arrested — in part because of a podcast.In the small southern town of Ocilla, Georgia, the disappearance of a young woman named Tara Grinstead shook the close-knit community and stumped investigators. Grinstead was only 30-years-old when she mysteriously vanished on October 22, 2005 — and for 12 years, nobody could figure out what had happened.

The Mungiki have been terrorizing Kenyan villages for years, wielding machetes and showing no sign of mercy. STRINGER/AFP/Getty ImagesPolice detain a Mungiki suspect during disturbances in the Dandora district of Nairobi. Out of poverty rises desperate people. That’s the basic origin story of the Mungiki, a banned gang of thugs in Kenya. The secretive sect, sometimes called the Kenyan mafia, arose in the 1990s when tribal clashes decimated small communities all over Kenya.

Though it was previously believed to be iron, King Tut's dagger is most likely made from meteorite metals. S. Vannini/Getty Images King Tut’s dagger. If you’ve ever rolled your eyes at the thought that the Great Pyramids of Giza were built by aliens, a recent discovery might make just a believer out of you. Last year, researchers discovered that one of King Tutankhamen’s daggers is made from material not found on earth.

The female Yangtze giant softshell turtle could have "laid a hundred eggs or more a year," experts said. Now, the known population of this turtle species is only two males. Tim McCormack/Asian Turtle ProgramA female Yangtze giant softshell turtle in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2008. The Yangtze giant softshell turtle, Rafetus swinhoei, was first described in 1873 and has long been considered the world’s most endangered turtle species. As of April 24, 2023, its extinction is seemingly all but guaranteed.