In the Middle Ages, devil-fearing Christians killed cats, which carried the unintended consequence of increasing the rat population and the spread of the Black Death
The Holy Thorn Reliquary: one of the greatest relics of medieval Christianity for which it is believed to hold a single thorn from the Crown of Thorns
During the American Civil War, Walt Whitman volunteered as a nurse and treated wounded Union soldiers
The producers of ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ spent $500,000 to restore the decaying Alcatraz prison and recreate the cold atmosphere
Paloma Picasso, the daughter of Pablo Picasso, is a famous jewelry designer, best known for her jewelry designs for Tiffany & Co
The Coppergate Helmet is the most outstanding example of the Anglo-Saxon period to survive in Europe
The Swan House is one of the best examples of Renaissance Revival architecture and is one of the most recognised landmarks in Atlanta
The Roman festival Lupercalia is thought to be the origins of Valentine’s Day, where men sacrificed goats and made whips from their skins, while women would line up to receive lashes as part of a fertility ritual
The Cellini Salt Cellar is one of the most striking and celebrated works of Mannerist design and one of the world’s greatest Renaissance artefacts
Russian explorers unexpectedly measured high levels of radiation in abandoned military bunkers; the level of radiation exceeded the permissible level several thousand times
