PHOTOS WITH SHOCKING STORIES

Absalom Austin Townsend (December 7, 1810 – April 28, 1888) was an American miner and prospector. He was a pioneer of the Wisconsin lead-mining region and the California gold rush. 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 Townsend, the third son of Samuel and Sarah (Longwell) Townsend, was born in Sussex County, New Jersey in 1810. When he was two years old, his father moved to Steuben County, New York, where he resided till 1826. His father, now a widower, having purchased some military land in Western Illinois, started on October 15, 1826, with his eldest son, Absalom, and arrived at Fort Clark (now Peoria, Illinois), on January 1, 1827. In mid-February 1827, they arrived at the lead mines in the vicinity of Gratiot's Grove, near present-day Shullsburg, Wisconsin, and engaged in the business of mining. They were soon interrupted by the Black Hawk War in 1832. The elder brother volunteered in William S. Hamilton's company, while Townsend and his father forted at Gratiot's Grove, with Townsen...

Did you know Amadioha is real? Three men wanted to find out, so they started a journey earlier this year. They just wanted to see if the god they heard about was really there. As they went into the Igbo forests, things got mysterious. Ike and his two friends wanted to discover Amadioha, the god of thunder. They went deep into the ancient woods, curious and hoping to meet something divine. They reached a huge mountain, like a big guard standing in front of secrets. It pulled them up with some strange feeling. On the mountain, they found symbols on stones, making them think they're in a special place. It felt like an old temple. Surprisingly, Amadioha showed up, not as a person but a giant. Thunder and power were his thing, and he declared that no man shall see him and still be alive. This scared the men, and they knelt down to beg for their lives. Finally Amadioha decided to have a bet with them.He said If they could play a football match and score a goal against him they'd live...

Olive Thomas (October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920)  Thomas began her career as an illustrators' model in 1914, and moved on to the Ziegfeld Follies the following year. During her time as a Ziegfeld girl, she also appeared in the more risqué show, The Midnight Frolic. In 1916, she began a successful career in silent films and would appear in over twenty features over the course of her four-year film career. That year she also married actor Jack Pickford, the younger brother of silent film star Mary Pickford. She kept the marriage secret because Thomas did not want people to think her success in film was due to her association with the Pickfords. Her first film for Triangle Pictures, Madcap Madge, was released in June 1917.  Thomas' popularity at Triangle grew with performances in Indiscreet Corrine (1917) and Limousine Life (1918). In 1919, she portrayed a French girl who poses as a boy in Toton the Apache. Thomas later said that she felt her work in Toton was "the first ...

Carpo (Hora) Carrara marble, dated from the first century A.D with mid 16th century integrations, height 1,51 m. Florence – Galleria degli Uffizi 🇮🇹 🇬🇷Carpo (Καρπώ), Carpho or Xarpo was the one who brings food and was in charge of Autumn 🍂, ripening, and harvesting, as well as guarding the way to Mount Olympus and letting back the clouds surrounding the mountain if one of the gods left. >This sculpture represents one of the three “Horae”: grapes, pears, pomegranates and walnuts overflow from the edges of the dress worn by the young goddess, which she holds with her hands on her womb. They are the fruits of the fertile earth, the first fruits of the autumn season, the generative force of Nature. The dress, impalpable and adherent to the body like a wet fabric, enhances its shapes, creating, in the lower part, an extraordinary play of folds. The young woman is caught in a real dance step, a rapid movement that enhances the lightness of the figure. It was precisely these "thi...

Knocking at Death’s Door: A Sculpture by Giovanni Battista Cevasco In this poignant artwork created in 1875 by Giovanni Battista Cevasco, a widow is depicted knocking on death's door with one hand, while holding a wreath of victory in the other. The wreath symbolizes triumph over death, representing resurrection and renewal. The widow in the sculpture is identified as the wife of Pietro Badaracco, a person of wealth as indicated by her attire. Above the door, various symbols are depicted, including a compass, an anchor, books, a globe, and a ship's helm, alluding to the deceased's occupation as a captain of a ship or shipping fleet. The door-knocker itself bears a winged hourglass, symbolizing the fleeting nature of time.

ON THIS DATE… In 1914, the Christmas Truce began. “The Great War” had been raging for more than six months and already there had been tens of thousands of casualties, not counting civilians, as the Industrial Revolution allowed for the deadliest battles the world had ever seen. By Christmas Eve, soldiers in the trenches across Europe were exhausted, cold and suffering from low morale. Along the Western Front as the time approached midnight, British soldiers heard noise in the distance. They paused to listen and realized the Germans, their enemies, were singing Christmas carols. The British began to sing back. This led to an agreement from representatives on both sides to meet in the middle – No Man’s Land – to talk. A temporary truce was agreed upon, and soldiers spent the next several hours singing, sharing food and wine, trading cigarettes and cigars and even playing soccer. Across Europe, similar truces broke out that night, some of which lasted several days. One British soldier, a ...

"In November 1940, 44 young military cadets graduated from the first Army Air Corps Navigational Class at Miami University in Coral Gables, Florida.  A few farsighted men in the Army Air Corps saw the essential requirement for trained celestial navigators in our military aircraft. The instructor for this navigational class was 34-year-old high school dropout, Pan American World Airways' employee and navigation instructor, Mr. Charles J. Lunn. The cadets came from all parts of the United States-from the urban areas of the East Coast, westward to the Appalachian Mountains, to the Midwest and prairie states, to the Rocky Mountains, and the West Coast. These young men came from the inner cities, the farmlands, the mountains, and coastal regions, and they were all volunteers. Most were college-educated and in the prime of life. World War II was raging in Europe and it was becoming increasingly difficult for the United States to remain neutral."

"When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person," Harriet Tubman recalled of her own escape from slavery. "There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven." Escape From Slavery... Harriet Tubman grew up in Maryland as a slave. As a young girl, she was severely beaten by her masters and at one point suffered a serious head wound which led to her having seizures, headaches and very powerful visions. A devout Christian, she believed her visions to be revelations from God. In 1849, after her master died, she was sent to work on a neighboring farm. Management was slack, and it took almost two weeks before it was realized that she never showed up for work. After being convinced to return to work, she escaped again shortly thereafter via the Underground Network (a network of safe-houses, run by anti-slavery activists). Harriet went to Philadelphia,...

My wife has been lazying around for the past few days all in the name of pregnancy.  What’s funny is that it’s just a month and two weeks of pregnancy but because of what the doctor said on the day we went to get the result that she shouldn’t be doing anything strenuous and I should be pampering her, she decided to use it to her advantage. I’ll return from work in the evening and the next thing is me being inside the kitchen, turning semo on the gas cooker because my wife refused to cook for me. I love her , no doubt but she’s stressing my life. Because of her, I’m always on the internet, watching tutorials on some of the foods she likes and I don’t know how to prepare them. I was gradually becoming a working man and full-time husband. After a month of withstanding her, I decided that it was time to end what I was going through. On my way back from work yesterday, I brought a maid along. My wife was shocked to see her when she got out of my car. She was quick to ask me who she is a...

Princess Susanna - the Colonial Con Woman.. In 1771, a royal maid named Sarah Wilson was sentenced to death for stealing royal jewelry and a tiny portrait of Queen Charlotte, along with one of the Queen’s dresses. Wilson’s mistress stepped in on her behalf, and narrowly escaping execution, Wilson was transported to America on a prison ship and promptly sold to a wealthy plantation owner. Wilson did not take well to slavery and escaped shortly after arriving at her new workplace. Somehow (nobody can explain this) she was still in possession of the jewels, the dress, and the portrait she had initially stolen. Using these items as proof, Wilson claimed to be Princess Susanna Caroline Matilda, sister to Queen Charlotte. “Princess Susanna” claimed she had been exiled to America after an undisclosed scandal. For two years the false princess lived in luxury, wanting for nothing, as wealthy colonial families (the gentlemen especially) showered her with gifts in the hopes of winning royal favor...

He forced 20-year-old Colleen Stan to sign a contract that made her his sex slave. He kept her 23 hours a day in a box beneath his bed, tortured her, and eventually, had her introduce him to her parents as 'the boyfriend.' Kidnapping of Collen Stan... Colleen Stan is a woman who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by Cameron Hooker in Red Bluff, California in 1977. Hooker kidnapped Colleen Stan a.k.a.  “Carol Smith.” Cameron’s wife, Janice Hooker, assisted in the kidnapping.   Stan was held in captivity for the next seven years.  During her imprisonment, Colleen was tortured, sexually assaulted, and led to believe that she was being watched by a large organization called “The Company”.   Hooker had her sign a “slavery contract” supposedly from “The Company”.  He assigned her a new slave name, “K”, causing comparisons to the Story of O.   She was also led to believe that members of her family would be harmed if she attempted to escape. ...

With the first World War raging in Europe, 30-year-old Englishman Hugh Lofting was living in New York, with his wife and two young children, working for the British Ministry of Information. In 1916 he left the safety and comfort of his life there, returned to England, joined the army, and was sent to Flanders. His service on the front nearly cost him his life, and it inspired him to create one of the most beloved characters in children’s literature. While enduring the horrors and monotony of the trenches, Lofting wrote letters home to his children Elizabeth and Colin. Not wanting to share with them the details of his experiences, which he said would have been either “too horrible or too dull,” and knowing that the children preferred that the letters be illustrated, Lofting decided to entertain them with a story—a story that had been inspired by his wartime observations. Lofting was troubled by the difference in how wounded soldiers and wounded horses were treated. “However seriously a ...

During the 1765 debate in Parliament over the proposed Stamp Act, Charles Townsend referred to the American colonists as children, “nourished by our indulgence.” Irish member Isaac Barré responded passionately: “They nourished by your indulgence? They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them, in one department and another, who were perhaps the deputies of deputies to some member of this house, sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon them; men whose behaviour on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them.”  When news of the debate made it to the colonies, Barré’s speech was a sensation. Soon a clandestine group emerged in Boston, dedicated to resisting the Stamp Act and other perceived British injustices, and taking their name from Barré. The Sons of Liberty had been born. Nebulous and secretive, the group spread and...

For over 400 years, on November 5 the British have been celebrating Guy Fawkes Night with bonfires and the burning of effigies, commemorating the foiling of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot—an attempt by a group of radical Catholics to assassinate King James I and blow up the House of Lords.  In Britain’s North American colonies in the eighteenth century the event had evolved into “Pope Night,” a raucous affair celebrated primarily in the coastal towns and cities of the northeast and featuring the burning of effigies of the Pope and the devil. The rowdiest and most notorious of the North American Pope Night celebrations were those in Boston. The participants in Boston’s Pope Night processions were primarily young working-class men; “the very dregs of the people,” one Bostonian complained. Each year one procession would set out from the North End bearing effigies, while another marched from the South End. When the two groups met, a violent brawl would follow, with each gang trying to capture...

After the Civil War, Jubal Early practiced law in Lynchburg, Virginia for nearly 30 years. Unlike most former Confederate generals, Early never advocated or worked for reconciliation with the North. Instead, he remained defiantly “unreconstructed” and through his writings and speeches in the post-war years he became a leading spokesman for what came to be known as the “Lost Cause” narrative. That Early would spend his post-war years so adamantly pro-Confederate is one the most interesting ironies of that era. Well-remembered for his “Lost Cause” stance, few remember that before the War Jubal Early was one of the most ardent Unionists in Virginia and an outspoken opponent of secession. Early was elected as one of Franklin County’s two delegates to the Virginia Secession Convention in 1861. In the first vote on secession he voted NO, along with 2/3 of the delegates. And on the second vote, when 1/3 of the delegates switched their vote to YES in reaction to President Lincoln’s call for vo...

In 1963 South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem was dealing not only with the communist Viet Cong insurgency, but also with widespread protests and discontent among the country’s Buddhist majority, who objected to the country’s laws and policies that they said favored the Catholic minority. Diem, a fervent Catholic whose older brother was a bishop, believed the Buddhist uprising was part of the communist insurgency. The clashes between his forces (led by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu) and the Buddhists made the news worldwide and generated widespread sympathy for the Buddhists—most dramatically after a protesting Buddhist monk set himself on fire on camera on a busy Saigon street. These events deeply troubled the Kennedy administration. At the beginning of November 1963 there were 16,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam, ostensibly in the role of trainers and advisors, but increasingly finding themselves in combat roles. President Kennedy was a firm believer in the “domino theory” (the belief ...

These two photographs show the same unidentified Black woman.  On the left she is dressed in civilian clothes.  On the right she is dressed in a Union soldier's uniform,  c.1861.  *Note: Even through we don't know where this woman is from, nor where she lived, but we are adding her to our NC Military gallery. -End note- Historians have identified about 400 women who disguised themselves as men and enlisted to fight in the American Civil War. They found army records of soldiers who were discovered to be women during their service.  Historians also found pension cases for women who revealed themselves after the war ended. It is possible that the number of women soldiers was much higher, since historians only have records for those who were discovered or revealed themselves. After the war, not every person assigned female at birth returned to life as a woman. Albert D. J. Cashier took the opportunity to establish a new identity as a male citizen. The medical doctor...

Stephen Hall L. Meek (July 4, 1807 – January 8, 1889) was a fur trapper and guide in the American West, most notably a guide on a large wagon train that used a trail known as the Meek Cutoff. A native of Virginia, both he and his younger brother Joseph Meek would spend their lives as trappers west of the Rocky Mountains. 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 Stephen Meek was born in Washington County, Virginia on July 4, 1807. In his autobiography, he claims to be a relative of President James K. Polk, and the claim is corroborated by his brother. He was educated in the local public schools in Virginia before beginning work for William Sublette in 1827. He began working as a labourer for Sublette's Rocky Mountain Fur Company in St. Louis, Missouri. Soon, however, he became a trapper for a variety of companies. 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭 Meek joined an expedition with Benjamin Bonneville in 1831 as a trapper while Bonneville was exploring the Great Salt Lake. From 1833 to 1834, he travelled to Calif...

At about 9:30 on the morning of November 1, 1755, an earthquake estimated at 8.5 to 9.0 on the Richter Scale struck Lisbon, Portugal, violently shaking the city and surrounding area for about five minutes, reducing 85% of the city to rubble. At the time the earthquake struck, most of the people of Lisbon and other Portuguese cities were in church, celebrating All Saints Day. Tens of thousands of them were buried alive when the buildings collapsed.  In celebration of the holiday, all the candles in Lisbon had been lit. The toppled candles ignited fires that soon had the stricken city engulfed in flames. When the quake finally stopped, the ocean sucked out of the harbor, leaving it dry land for about 45 minutes, until a massive tsunami swept in and over the city, drowning many who had survived the collapsing buildings and subsequent fire. The total number of people killed in the earthquake is impossible to know exactly but is estimated that as many as 75,000 of the city’s 200,000 res...

Theology, specifically end-time theology (called "eschatology" by theologians) played a very important and largely forgotten role in the Progressive Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In chapter 20 of the book of Revelation there is a reference to a thousand-year period during which Satan will be imprisoned and unable to “deceive the nations.” This thousand-year era is known as “the Millennium” and in Christian theology there are several schools of thought on when it supposed to occur. Some Christians believe it will occur after the return of Christ (“premillennialists”). Some don't believe the reference to a millennium is literal (“amillennialists”). But in the late 1800's and early 1900's most American Protestants were “postmillennialists”—that is, they believed that a thousand-year era of peace and goodness would someday occur, after which Jesus would return. This otherwise esoteric theology had significant political and social implications, co...

William Hogarth was the best known and most popular English artist of his time. Although an accomplished and talented portraitist, Hogarth was most notable and is best remembered for his “moralizing” art (intended to depict the ruinous consequences of vice and immorality) and for his pointed satirical works of political and social commentary. His 1755 four-painting cycle titled “The Humours of an Election” is a great example of the latter. The paintings were inspired by the 1754 Parliamentary election in Oxfordshire. When the Whigs made a determined effort to win the seats in what had been a Tory stronghold, the Tories fought back vigorously, and the ensuing campaign and election was characterized by bribery, fraud, and chicanery. Hogarth’s paintings, which were widely reproduced as popular prints, satirized the stages of the electoral process—the wooing (and bribing) of the voters, election day itself, and the election aftermath. The third painting in the series is titled “The Polling...

In June 1939, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound was appointed First Sea Lord, the highest-ranking officer in the British navy. Soon afterwards he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet. For the next four years he would command the British navy during some of the most difficult and dangerous times in its history. His often-controversial tenure was marked by both crucial victories and disheartening defeats. The son of a British barrister father and a Boston-born mother, Pound entered the royal navy in 1891, rising to the command of a battleship in World War I and earning distinction at the Battle of Jutland. In 1936 he became the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Three years later he advanced to command of the entire navy, just as it was about to face one of the most important challenges in its history. Pound had not sought or desired the position of First Sea Lord. At the time of his promotion he was already suffering from health problems an...

Every successful person has a painful story, so never give up. A school bell that sounds like a disturbance at 8:am also sounds interesting at 2:pm... it is just a matter of time, so Don't envy anyone. Not everyone walking fast has an appointment.  Some have running stomachs!... If a rose smells better than tomatoes, It doesn't mean the rose can make a better stew. Don't try to compare yourself to others.  You also have your strength, look for it and build on it. All animals that exist, were in Noah's ark. A snail is one of those animals. If God could wait long enough for snails to enter Noah's ark; His door of grace won't close till you reach your expected position in life. Never look down on yourself, keep looking up.  Remember that Broken crayons still color. Keep on pushing, you never can tell how close You are to Your Goal.

For a while now, I've been seeing one face in my dreams. She's about the most beautiful woman I ever laid my eyes on.     At first, I was scared. I was scared because she only came to my dreams. She would wrap her burst with a small cloth. The skirt was usually short too.     On every visit, she would serve me roasted plantain and palm wine, which I enjoyed.  I didn't tell anyone about this, and with time, I found myself looking forward to her visits.     Nkechi couldn't even know, because well, she would bring down the whole house.    Today, I went for a revival service, one put together by our youth pastor. I sat in the last row, because I didn't want the guest preacher poking into my business.     There have been stories on how powerful he is, and how God uses him to cast out demons. I didn't want my demon to be disturbed.      However, I raised my head and saw him before me.      ...

James Robertson (June 28, 1742 – September 1, 1814) was an American explorer, soldier and Indian agent, and one of the founding fathers of what became the State of Tennessee. An early companion of explorer Daniel Boone, Robertson helped establish the Watauga Association in the early 1770s to defend Fort Watauga from an attack by the Cherokee in 1776. In 1779, he co-founded what is now Nashville, and was instrumental in the settlement of Middle Tennessee. He served as a brigadier general in the Southwest Territory militia in the early 1790s and as an Indian Commissioner in later life. 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Robertson was born in 1742 in Brunswick County, Virginia, of Scots-Irish and English descent. Around 1749, his father relocated the family to Wake County, North Carolina. Robertson worked with his siblings on their family farm and had limited formal education, but he learned to track and hunt animals and know his way in the woods and waterways. 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐞...

Aneta Louise Corsaut (November 3, 1933 – November 6, 1995) She began her acting career in New York City in the mid-1950s. In 1958, Corsaut and Steve McQueen made their film debuts in the independent cult horror film, The Blob. Corsaut first appeared on the long-running Griffith show in 1963 as schoolteacher Helen Crump, who later became the Mayberry sheriff's wife on the first episode of the spinoff Mayberry R.F.D. Corsaut also had a continuing role as policeman Bumper Morgan's pawn-shop-owner friend on the series The Blue Knight and as Irma Howell in theIn the TV series Adam-12, Corsaut portrayed Officer Pete Malloy's girlfriend, Judy. She had a supporting role as Head Nurse Bradley in the 1980s sitcom House Calls, and also appeared in several episodes of Matlock with star Andy Griffith.  short-lived series Mrs. G. Goes to College. She returned to the role of Helen Crump in the reunion shows Return to Mayberry in 1986 and The Andy Griffith Show Reunion in 1993. On November...

Francis Barnett Prine (known as Barney Prine) was an American pioneer who was one of the first settlers to homestead in the Ochoco country of central Oregon. When he was young, Prine travelled with his family from Missouri to Oregon's Willamette Valley over the Oregon Trail. He served in the 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. Prine later moved to Central Oregon, where he established several businesses in what became Prineville, Oregon, a town named in his honour. 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 Prine was born on 1 January 1841 in Jackson County, Missouri, 12 miles (19 km) east of Kansas City. His parents were Francis "Frank" Prine and Alice Elizabeth "Elsie" (née Dealy) Prine. In 1853, Prine's family left Missouri for Oregon. Prine was only 12 years old, but he drove one of the family's wagons and took his turn standing guard at night while crossing the plains and mountains along the Oregon Trail. The Prine family settled in Linn C...