Remember: if someone calls you "Einstein," you probably just had the opposite of a genius moment. But the man behind the name was the real deal. Every mastermind has his quirks, and Albert Einstein was no exception. And it's possible that the quirkiest part of his life didn't even happen in a classroom, but at home! His personal life pushed the envelope just as much as his brilliant ideas, though most people have no idea just how "mad" the scientist/physicist really was!
Eleanor Roosevelt is remembered as a leading figure in American history. Quite aside from her role as First Lady to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, though, she was also a prominent political figure herself with an agenda of her own. But there was even more to Eleanor than many people realize. Away from politics, Eleanor’s personal life was complicated, and historians have uncovered letters that prove just how much she was hiding.
It’s easy to forget that our planet is just a tiny part of a huge cosmos, one that we can likely never fully explore. But there was a period from the 1950s to the 1970s when countries — chiefly Cold War rivals the United States and the Soviet Union — were locked in a race to discover as much as possible. This ranged from launching satellites into space to landing on the Moon. Indeed, the Space Race was a unique and special time in history, when people were not only filled with patriotism for their country’s ambitions, but with hope for the future and curiosity for what existed in space. Here, then, are 30 lesser-known facts about that battle for interplanetary supremacy.
In 1912 the “unsinkable” Titanic famously sank beneath the waves and caused the loss of some 1,500 lives. There was also an almost incalculable loss of property and cargo. Some of these items — such as the painting La Circassienne au Bain — were lost forever. But some artifacts, including a high-performance car, five Steinway pianos, and even the world’s most valuable cookie, have since been salvaged from the wreck. How much are they worth? You'll have to read on to find out more about these curious and priceless treasures...