The Strange World Of Medieval Food And Delicacies Public DomainFrom roasting cats to serving up beavers and lampreys, many medieval dishes weren’t for the faint of heart. Europeans in the Middle Ages routinely cooked, served, and ate dishes that most people today couldn’t possibly pretend to stomach. From beaver tails and minced swan entrails to roasted cats and slithering lampreys — the meals our medieval predecessors ate would likely spur animal cruelty charges today.

In 1865, Constance Kent confessed to murdering her three-year-old brother, Francis, when she was just 16 — but that was just the beginning of this disturbing tale.Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesConstance Kent was 16 years old when her brother’s body was found behind her house. It was known as the Great Crime of 1860. On June 29, 1860, an unknown assailant murdered 3-year-old Francis Savile Kent in a brutal fashion. Scotland Yard investigated.

Dale Cregan's story sounds like Hollywood had a field day with serial killer stereotypes – revenge, family feuds, murdered police officers, and a one-eyed suspect – but the horrifying crimes he committed were very real. Dale Cregan was a notorious one-eyed killer, whose involvement in a decades-long feud with the Short family led to the death of two policewomen in Greater Manchester, England in 2012. Cregan was a known drug dealer, who began by dealing marijuana as a teenager and by the age of twenty-two, had graduated to dealing hard drugs like cocaine.

Experts estimate that the sword dates back to the Third Crusade when Christian crusaders attempted to retake Jerusalem. JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty ImagesJacob Sharvit of the Israel Antiquities Authority holds the sword discovered by a local diver. Shlomi Katzin dove into the waters off the Carmel coast of Israel with a Go-Pro and a sense of adventure. He emerged with a remarkably intact four-foot-long sword — which experts say dates back to the Crusades.

Centuries after the first wave of the Black Plague killed nearly half of Europe, we are still left wondering how the deadly plague subsided.Wikimedia CommonsPieter Bruegel’s The Triumph of Death reflects the social upheaval caused by the Black Plague. No pandemic in history was as deadly as the Black Plague. From the Middle Ages right up until the 1750s, the Bubonic Plague decimated Europe and the Middle East, wiping out an estimated 30 million people in the first decade alone.