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In 1883, 27 year old Edouard Delamare-Deboutteville built the very first petrol driven automobile. The motivation for doing so was to find a good alternative to horse transport for his father’s cotton mill. He was helped by his father’s mechanic, Charles Malandin. They modified an 8HP stationary gas engine for use with petrol as a fuel and fitted it to a four wheeled hunting-brake. [Image: a small scale model of the car built by Delamare-Deboutteville and Malandin]...

Runners-up: Alfred the Great, Suarez (theoretical), Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln. He is, in this lister’s opinion, one of the very few decent leaders in history. He had his personal vices, among them that he was a womanizer who used his power to seduce any woman who took his fancy. There’s a Clinton joke in there somewhere. But Augustus can be forgiven that sort of thing given that he was never a tyrant, never let his absolute power corrupt him absolutely, and worked tirelessly for some 42 years to make Rome the finest city in the world....

The Rancor is a savage and unintelligent animal whose only desire seems to be killing and devouring anything that has a pulse. In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi we first see the Rancor as the property of Jabba the Hutt, who feeds his enemies to it by dropping them through a pitfall trap into a cave where the Rancor lives. In early concept art, the Rancor resembled a crustacean and had a shell on its back; however this was later changed, with the end result resembling a kind of hideously disfigured dinosaur....

For the past 20 years, Frank Harrington has grudgingly driven his family to celebrate Christmas with his mother-in-law. This year, he takes a shortcut. It’s the biggest mistake of his life: The nightmare begins. A mysterious woman in white wanders through the forest, leaving death in her wake. A terrifying black car – its driver invisible – carries the victims into the heart of the night. Every road sign points to a destination they never reach....

10 Weird Epidemics That Remain A Mystery 10 A Pink Manta Ray In 2020, Kristian Laine dove near the Great Barrier Reef and took photos of manta rays. When they came out pink in some of the photos, Laine thought his camera had malfunctioned. The truth surfaced after he put the snaps on social media. The “faulty” shots showed the same individual. Biologists have known about this male since 2015 and he was indeed pink....

10 Menacing Ways Casinos Keep You Gambling In reality, of course, the house almost always wins, but just occasionally, either by cheating, by skill, or sometimes just by dumb luck, a player comes along who wins really really big. Far from trying to deter these big winners, many casinos encourage them, because they know that the publicity of a big win, can bring in 10 times more than they have to pay out (and, in any case, some of the big winners don’t know when to stop, and keep on playing till they are right back to being broke)....

During his reign of terror, Black was at the center of one of the United Kingdom’s largest manhunts in history. 10 Still-Unidentified Serial Killers 10 Illegitimate Child Robert Black was born on April 21, 1947, in Grangemouth, Scotland. His mother, Jessie Hunter Black, gave birth to Robert and then put him up for adoption. He was eventually taken in by an older couple named Margaret and Jack Tulip. Despite being saved from foster care hell, young Robert’s life was far from easy....

When enjoying the sunshine, people often reach for light romances or fast thrillers, but if you’re a horror fan and like to read with the seasons, then here are 10 horror books that fully embrace the heat of summer. 10 Jaws (1974)Peter Benchley Jaws is best known for its 1975 movie adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg, but the book itself made a splash at the time. Despite being a bestseller, critical opinion was mixed....

Top 10 Secrets Of Iconic Hollywood Sounds 10 The Travels of Marco Polo Physically confined, Marco Polo’s only freedom was in his mind. He could recall plenty of adventures. In 1269, Polo traveled across Asia. Twenty-four years later, he finally returned to his native Venice. Before he arrived, Venice declared war on neighboring Genoa. Barred from entering the city, Polo and his crew assaulted Geneon authorities. In prison for the attack Marco Polo passed the time by telling his cellmate, Rustichello of Pisa, of his exploits in China....

No grave is so universal as to forget the person within. Whether the tombs contain important officials, laborers, or infants, these final resting places can reveal emotions, daily moments, and the enigmatic games they loved to play. 10 St. Alban’s Abbot St. Albans Cathedral was named for the first saint of Britain, who was killed at the site by the Romans. Dating from Norman times, it also holds the honor of being the country’s longest active place of Christian worship....

Mantum The mantum or papal mantle differs little from an ordinary cope except that it is somewhat longer, and is fastened in the front by an elaborate morse. In earlier centuries it was red in colour; red, at the time being the papal color rather than white. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the immantatio, or bestowal of the mantum on the newly elected pope, was regarded as specially symbolical of investiture with papal authority: Investio te de papatu romano ut praesis urbi et orbi, “I invest thee with the Roman papacy, that thou rule over the city and the world” were the words used in conferring it at the Papal Coronation....

Starting with a new band, we come to Bonded by Blood. Named after the Exodus album of the same name, Bonded by Blood has currently released two albums, Feed the Beast and Exiled to Earth, as well as an EP, Extinguish the Weak. Bonded by Blood is part of the new wave of thrash, but compared with contemporaries such as Municipal Waste and Evile, they are very unheard of. Bonded By Blood is possibly the band who portrays Thrash metal revival best....

Misconception: A song about drugs As evidenced in the movie Dangerous Minds, this song has widely been speculated to be an ode to mind-altering drugs, with Mr. Tambourine Man supposedly representing Dylan’s drug dealer. The song’s abstract, surrealistic imagery has fueled the idea that LSD was responsible for some of the lyrics, although Dylan claims to have been introduced to the drug after the song had been written. Dylan insists the song was never about drugs, but rather the search for inspiration....

iPhone Grab Skateboarding It happens to the British too Vasectomy Live This was shown live – obviously the reporter didn’t realize. Ouch Gas or Grill? I can’t hear… Top Cop It is always nice to see reporters laughing at their own mistakes – especially classic is her comment “you can youtube me” – and we have! The Mountain Climber In such a politically correct climate, you have to wonder how long she kept her job after that slip up....

This is a list of ten of the most common old wives’ tales which are, in fact, bunkum! Feel free to use the comments to tell us about some of the more unusual tales you have come across in your life. In fact, both colds and fevers cause dehydration – so liquids are essential when suffering from either. In addition, missing out on food when you are sick is never a good idea as food provides the body with the sustenance it needs to get healthy....

(Note: please don’t get hung up on the rankings, something die-hard comedy fans are especially notorious for. The comedians mentioned here are presented for their uniqueness of voice, not their superiority over one another.) This comedian is the prototypical comedian upon which all stereotypes are built. Born Jewish, kicking off his career with a radio gig in the thirties, and performing roughly 200 shows a year in the forties after failed attempts at acting, Youngman is the quintessence of the working comedian....

See Also: Top 10 Misconceptions About The Titanic Debunked Modern historical and medical analysis has challenged many of the causes of death that were once widely considered fact. Greater understanding of diseases and in-depth research into first-hand accounts from the time have led to new theories about the deaths of some of the world’s best-known individuals. 10 Edgar Allen Poe: Cooping or Rabies? The famous American writer Edgar Allen Poe was found wandering the streets of Baltimore on election day in 1847, delirious and wearing a stranger’s clothes....

However, once the Second World War broke out in 1939, problems in Goebbels’ propaganda paradise soon surfaced. Under the constant threat of invasion, and frequent allied bombings, the German public were not as willing to simply absorb Nazi values and principles. The pressure of war led to blunders in propaganda, along with the ever more eccentric ideas of Goebbels failing to hit the spot with the German population. Although Hitler’s National Socialist Party was successful in altering the ideology of an entire country, not all of the Third Reich’s propagandist pursuits went to plan....

Pope Gregory XII reigned between 1406 and 1415. During his papacy there were two antipopes. At the Council of Constance, in order to heal the schism in the Church, Pope Gregory XII officially resigned along with antipope Benedict XIII. The remaining antipope—John XXIII—was deposed. All three were replaced by Pope Martin V two years later. Interestingly, Gregory XII was conditionally elected. The terms of his election (by a mere 15 cardinals) was such that he would be compelled to resign if Benedict XIII did....

If you have had any experiences with the following plants, be sure to tell us about it in the comments – we are always interested in hearing about our readers experiences in areas like this. So, onward, the list: Active Constituents: Ergoline alkaloids This is a species of morning glory native to the New World tropics, and widely cultivated and naturalized elsewhere. The seeds have been used for centuries by many Mexican Native American cultures as an hallucinogen; they were known to the Aztecs as ‘tlitliltzin’, the Nahuatl word for “black”....