Cheryl Adams Richkoff lists at Ranker - the ultimate source for lists and rankings in all categories

Cheryl Adams Richkoff - Lists at Ranker

Peter the Great

Czar Peter the Great of Russia casts a long shadow over history. A giant of a man, with appetites for learning and adventure to match, he did more to modernize&nbsp;his country than pretty much any other ruler&nbsp;before or <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/who-was-catherine-the-great/carly-silver" target="_blank">since</a>.&nbsp;But who was Peter the Great&nbsp;as a man, a father, and a reformer?

Born into violent turmoil between warring factions -&nbsp;and he was kin to all of them -&nbsp;he learned early when to be crafty and when to be cruel. He came to the throne as a young child, and for a time had to co-rule with his physically and mentally handicapped half-brother. Once he attained his majority, he was a shockingly bold reformer, despite wild protests from the nobility and church. Essentially, Peter the Great took the largest country in the world&nbsp;and pulled it forcibly from the medieval era into the early modern era.

The Remarkable Life Of Peter The Great, The Physically Enormous Czar Who Modernized Russia

General

Awesome and Crazy Facts About Peter The Great

Cheryl Adams Richkoff

Bugs

All across North America, the brown recluse spider strikes fear into the hearts of people even thousands of miles outside its habitat. However, though venomous, this arachnid becomes a lot less dangerous when you start to learn facts about brown recluse spiders. <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-brown-recluse-spider-pictures/ranker-science" target="_blank">Pictures of brown recluse spiders</a> show you they are quite small, and their venom thankfully can only be injected in small amounts. Maligned as malicious killers, brown recluse spiders typically&nbsp;hide away and rarely appear to people. A brown recluse bite, while certainly a terrible spider bite, likely won&#39;t kill or harm you all&nbsp;that&nbsp;much so long as you take the proper steps to treat it.

Learning more about the brown recluse spider can teach you not just about their bites but also the fascinating ways they differ from other spiders. Their reputation may be awful, but brown recluses just want to live their days out in your woodpiles in peace.

Things Most People Don't Know About Brown Recluse Spiders

11 Things Most People Don't Know About Brown Recluse Spiders

Survival

While you may know a neighbor or crazy uncle who is a&nbsp;doomsday prepper, they don't hold a candle to the self-sufficient lifestylers at Vivos&nbsp;xPoint. The self-proclaimed &quot;largest survival community on Earth&quot; is nestled in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and it is ready to shelter those rich enough to afford it from&nbsp;nuclear warfare, pandemics, or <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-zombie-apocalypse-true-stories/laura-allan" target="_blank">the&nbsp;zombie apocalypse</a>.&nbsp;California-based company Vivos&nbsp;is responsible for this massive complex. They have branched out and created communities made to &quot;survive virtually any catastrophe&quot; across the globe, but it is just outside of Black Hills, SD, where the most dedicated and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-the-rich-prepare-for-the-apocalypse/donn-saylor" target="_blank">wealthy survivalists</a>&nbsp;live.&nbsp;

The Story Behind Vivos xPoint, The Vast Complex Of Survival Bunkers In South Dakota

What's Up With The Secret Survival Bunkers Known As Vivos xPoint?

Graveyard Shift

While there are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/prison-ghost-stories/christopher-myers" target="_blank">many prisons</a> around&nbsp;the world famous for their ghostly residents, Port Arthur tops them all. The Australian prison, where thousands of British prisoners were shipped to and left to die starting in 1776, features every element of a good haunting including child ghosts, a haunted hospital,&nbsp;random ringing bells and more.According to legend, the multitude of ghosts and spirits who call Port Arthur home are victims of the brutal conditions of the prison itself. The Commandant instituted a &quot;Silent System&quot;, where prisoners were forced to stay silent, wear hoods over their heads, and remain in isolation for the majority of their lives, conditions which drove many prisoners insane.&nbsp;People have reported that certain prison cells have held their former occupant's depressed spirits in them, have heard the moans of the child prisoners at one of the facilities, and experienced mysterious disturbances at the officer's households. Port Arthur seems to be the Mecca of paranormal, chilling stories.&nbsp;

Port Arthur, Tasmania - The Most Haunted Town In The Southern Hemisphere

Port Arthur, Tasmania -- The Most  Haunted Town In The Southern Hemisphere

Lists about real men and women who have achieved everyone's childhood dreams to become astronauts, fly through outer space, and even walk on the freaking moon.

Men on the Moon

The Space Page

What was Skylab? Back in the day, long before there was an <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-iss-photos/carlycarano" target="_blank">International Space Station</a>, or even a Space Shuttle, and not too long after the end of NASA's famous <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/all-manned-apollo-missions/amylindorff" target="_blank">Apollo Space Program</a>, there existed the world's first space station, an &quot;orbital workshop,&quot; known as Skylab. Developed over a period of nearly ten years, the NASA Skylab project was launched into orbit in 1973 and completed three missions that year.But what did Skylab do? It&nbsp;was a workshop of scientific and medical experiments, some of them inspired by students on Earth. It was also a test, of sorts, to determine whether or not <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-space-affects-your-body/michelle-nati" target="_blank">humans could safely and productively live in space</a> for extended periods in the Skylab station. Skylab program history is full of fascinating stories related to the experiments conducted aboard, and inventions and technologies that were developed as a result of what happened aboard Skylab. Read on to find out the whole story of humanity's first home in space.

Ravaged By Solar Flares And NASA's Only Mutiny, Our First Space Station Went Out In A Blaze Of Glory

Whatever Happened To Skylab, The World's First Space Station?

Horrifying facts and disturbing details about real cases that shocked.

In Cold Blood

Death

The small town of Appomattox, Virginia is a quiet place. It is mostly known as the site of the surrendering of the South in the American <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/photos-from-civil-war-battles/aaron-edwards" target="_blank">Civil War</a> in 1865. Nearly 150 years later it was the site of a very different sort of surrender. In January 2010, a mentally troubled gun enthusiast named Christopher Speight&nbsp;surrendered to police for the mass shooting of members of his family and their friends. The incident became known as the 2010 Appomattox shootings. &nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/mass-shootings-murders-2017/ranker-news" target="_blank">The shootings</a> in Appomattox, Virginia,&nbsp;shocked not only the quiet community where they&nbsp;occurred&nbsp;but also drew nationwide attention when the killer hid from police in the nearby woods, firing high-powered rifles at law enforcement on the ground and in the air. More than 100 police officers arrived on the scene of the Appomattox shootings&nbsp;to help as the situation dragged throughout an entire night and into a second day.&nbsp;All of this taking place as Speight's victims lay in pools of blood inside and outside his home. Here's everything that took place that fateful couple of days in the winter of 2010.

An Egyptian Goddess Told Him To Kill: Christopher Speight And The Appomattox Murders

An Egyptian Goddess Told Him To Kill: The Appomattox Murders

Entertainment

Plenty of films change the movie&nbsp;industry,&nbsp;maybe with the development of a new type of special effect or maybe through the work of a brilliant new filmmaker, but what often gets overlooked is how movies can actually change the&nbsp;world.&nbsp;While many <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-oscar-winning-movies-based-on-true-stories/the-wrap" target="_blank">great films take inspiration from real life</a>, a select few managed to do the inverse, becoming movies with real-world consequences. Both the Hollywood of old and the cinema of today brought all sorts of changes to the world, and these changes arrived in ways both big and small, both bad and good, and almost all were completely uninentional.

10 Movies That Accidentally Impacted The World

Film

Surprisingly Measurable Ways Movies Impacted The World

Lists about famous addicts, the effects of substance reliance, the science of habit-forming, and more.

Dependency & Recovery

West Virginia

Opioid use in America continues to skyrocket in nearly every demographic,&nbsp;from rich to poor and from rural to urban. Yet, of all those affected, none quite match the horrific drug problems in Appalachia, where the epidemic is a full-blown crisis. Opioids in West Virginia, particularly in one of&nbsp;the state's largest cities, Huntington, impact the entire population, with nearly 20% of the population addicted to some form of opiate or opioid. As doctors overprescribe their patients with some of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-most-commonly-abused-medications/diseases-and-medications-info" target="_blank">most commonly abused medications</a>, more and more citizens find themselves entrenched in something that far outweighs the chronic pain they initially sought to treat. And when the prescriptions and/or funds for said medications run out, people often turn to the cheaper and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-heroin-addiction-does-to-your-body/laura-allan" target="_blank">infamously addictive heroin</a>.And the opioid health crisis of Huntington is only a microcosm of the vast opioid problem facing the United States. Opioid related deaths climb higher each year, outranking gun violence and car crashes in terms of fatalities, and the heroin crisis inadvertently led to a spike in blood-born pathogens. But, as the rest of the country just seems to be waking up to this disaster, Huntington, West Virginia, continues to live it as it has for many years now.

Inside Huntington, West Virginia: Ground Zero For The Opioid Epidemic

Inside Huntington West Virginia, Ground Zero For The Opioid Epidemic In Appalachia

Lists about gambling, cards, slots, casinos, bachelor parties, showgirls, and long hot nights spent wandering down the Las Vegas Strip with one of those tall frozen drinks and only one flip-flop. Let's play!

Viva Los Vegas

Lists of bone-chilling lore and weird AF urban legends from your home state and your neighbors. Also some cities ;) .

State Secrets

Las Vegas

Sin City didn't just get its name from its reputation as the gambling capital of the world. The glittery lights and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/casino-facts-and-statistics/kellen-perry" target="_blank">casinos of Las Vegas</a> pale in comparison to some of the cities juiciest ghost stories. It's one of the most haunted places in the West, and - despite a very storied history - is home to some of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/nevada-urban-legends-ghost-stories/jacobybancroft" target="_blank">Nevada's creepiest stories</a>.From its earliest days, Las Vegas has played host to mobsters, disillusioned gamblers, washed up entertainers, broken-hearted starlets, and various eccentric types. Some of these have <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/nevada-urban-legends-ghost-stories/jacobybancroft?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Las Vegas ghost stories</a> associated with them, and the infamous strip is most definitely one of the more haunted places on Earth. While it might not be the cities most popular feature, haunted Las Vegas attractions are just as exciting as any show on the strip. If you like a scary tale or want to have encounters with Las Vegas ghosts, there are plenty to keep you company on your next visit.

The Most Dazzling Las Vegas Ghost Stories Ever Told

Lists about the brilliant and fascinating men who led the American Revolution and created the documents that established these United States of America.

Our Founding Fathers

Fun facts and fascinating trivia about historical, bygone, and modern foods for people who love eating food.

Chew on This

Old Stuff

Times and tastes definitely change, but some of the Founding Fathers' favorite foods were undeniably gross. True, 18th century America was full of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-people-ate-in-colonial-america/setareh-janda" target="_blank">disgusting food</a>; it's not like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and other storied leaders had much say in what ended up on their dinner tables. They probably liked the taste of this cuisine, too. Modern appetites have changed, though, and no one would blame you if you wanted to stay far, far away from these menus.Reading about the food of the Founding Fathers can make you feel a little queasy. George Washington reportedly loved slurping down greasy peanut soup, while Thomas Jefferson had a taste for bone-filled shad. Alexander Hamilton probably had stale bread for breakfast. And then there was&nbsp;the always-innovative Benjamin Franklin, who was an early adopter of tofu – though he called it &quot;cheese.&quot;<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-people-ate-in-colonial-america/setareh-janda?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Colonial American food</a> was certainly... something. You might be curious to taste some of these dishes, while others sound so strange and disgusting you'd never want to even see or smell them. Regardless of how much they intrigue or repulse you, these foods give an interesting insight into the dietary habits of storied figures from history.

Weird And Disgusting Foods The Founding Fathers Ate

8 Weird And Disgusting Foods The Founding Fathers Ate

St. Albans Sanatorium, located in Radford, VA, shut its doors in the early 1990s&nbsp;after a century of abuse and terror. Actually, the terror began even earlier, during the American colonial period&nbsp;when the Draper's Meadow Massacre occurred on the very site that would one day be a boy's school and&nbsp;later <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/most-terrifying-haunted-hospitals/cristina-sanza" target="_blank">a mental hospital</a>. It seems that almost every city and town the world over has some claim to paranormal fame. But, few could come close to matching the amount of ghostly activity that has been recorded and reported at the haunted St. Albans, one of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/scary-real-places/stacie-hougland" target="_blank">the most haunted places</a> in Virginia&nbsp;and, perhaps, the entire country.Over more than 100 years, St. Albans was the site of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-psych-ward-stories/dukeharten" target="_blank">severe emotional and physical abuse</a> of patients and the numerous suicides it led to. Even when it was a boy's school&nbsp;at the turn of the 20th century,&nbsp;students were tormented by staff and encouraged to bully one another. A number of deaths were reported on the campus during the site's 20-year tenure as a school.When the hospital closed its doors in the 1990s,&nbsp;a former patient purchased the property with plans to turn it into a center for learning. In order to raise the funds to make that happen,&nbsp;he hosts regular ghost tours&nbsp;and overnight <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/13-chilling-real-life-haunted-house-stories/wavy-gravey" target="_blank">ghost sleepovers</a>&nbsp;at the old hospital. If he's eventually able to open his business, perhaps&nbsp;at long last something good will come from a place of such&nbsp;sorrow. Then again, there's plenty in the hospital's history that should have him thinking twice about wanting to spend so much time there.&nbsp;

St. Albans Sanatorium Seethes With Paranormal Energy Like No Other Place In The US

St. Albans Sanatorium Seethes With Paranormal Energy

Strange True Stories

Long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, there was a sophisticated metropolis on the North American continent&nbsp;known as Cahokia. What was Cahokia? It was a carefully planned city constructed by the Mississippian tribal people. It rose from the rolling plains of what is now Illinois during the 11th century, reaching its apex by the middle of the 12th century. It eventually became an abandoned Native American site&nbsp;with only its collection of enormous mounds left to bear witness to a once-great civilization.&nbsp;Over the span of several centuries, Cahokia has been rediscovered by researchers and archaeologists. Many of its secrets have been revealed, but the question as to what happened to&nbsp;Cahokia remains a mystery. What is known is that Cahokia was considered the social, cultural, and political center for a large and diverse group of tribal peoples that rivaled any other world civilization of its size. To learn more about Cahokia, read on!

Why Did First Nations People Abandon The Ancient And Sophisticated City Of Cahokia?

Why Did First Nations People Abandon Cahokia?

Flora & Fauna

Egg sacs. The very phrase connotes&nbsp;a <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/the-grossest-bugs-on-earth/analise.dubner" target="_blank">certain grossness</a>. But they're&nbsp;an important aspect of reproduction for a number of species; animal egg sacs ensure the successful production of future generations for certain spiders, amphibians, and insects. A simple walk in a park or forest during late summer or early fall will provide opportunities to see insects with egg sacs in the wild (given you live in an area with egg-sac producing species, that is). Yet, considering the gag factor many experience with&nbsp;egg sacs, it's understandable you&nbsp;might actively hope not to come across any.&nbsp;The various animals, insects, plants, and spiders that produce egg sacs each have a&nbsp;unique ways of doing so. Some sacs are spun with silk. Others have a papery texture. Some are strong;&nbsp;others, such as those produced by frogs, are moist and delicate. Some animals and insects hide or disguise egg sacs in order to protect their&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/animals-born-with-bizarre-mutations/amber-fua" target="_blank">growing babies</a>. Some hang them from tree limbs, others place them in water and abandon them. Regardless of the biology involved, the items on this list provide gross egg sac pictures galore.

10 Of The Grossest Egg Sacs You'll Find In Nature

Animal/Plant

The Grossest Egg Sacs You'll Find In Nature (Photos)

Lists about the many ways makeup is used to make people look better, worse, and completely different.

About Face

Tattoos

<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/crazy-womens-beauty-standards-from-history/machk" target="_blank">Beauty standards</a>&nbsp;are fickle things. Once upon a time, women sought perfectly unblemished skin; it was a sign of prosperity. Today, though, the world of beauty is all about cosmetic tattooing procedures, and the look of the moment is freckles. Starting in early 2017,&nbsp;Instagram was taken over by images of fresh-faced women sporting sprinkles of perfectly placed freckles.Why get cosmetic <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/face-tattoos/tat-fancy" target="_blank">facial tattoos</a>? In the case of freckles, it has to do with projecting a youthful appearance. But they're far from the only facial tattoo trends flooding social media. There are also creative permanent makeup looks, incorporating fanciful eyeliner and delicately drawn lip color. And cosmetic tattoos&nbsp;aren't just for women – men have begun experimenting with ink as well. It provides a subtle, natural-looking way to fill in receding hairlines.Are these facial tattoo trends pricey? Are they even safe? There are reasons to debate facial tattoos versus permanent makeup, but both can be a real confidence booster if you're willing to go under the needle. There's lots of cool (and weird) stuff to learn about facial tattoos and how they're bringing a new twist to the world of beauty.

Everything You Need To Know About Getting Makeup Permanently Tattooed On Your Face

Cosmetic Facial Tattoos: Things You Should Know About This Weird New Trend

Lists about people who were tried, convicted, and even executed for crimes they didn't commit.

Wrongful Convictions

Fact vs. Fiction

Since filmmakers released A Cry In The Dark in 1988, dozens of sitcoms and reality shows over the years have referenced the phrase &quot;A dingo ate my baby!&quot; The expression is based on a true incident. The story of 2-month-old Azaria Chamberlain&#39;s death begins in August 1980, when a young <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-australian-serial-killers/web-infoguy" target="_blank">Australian family</a> lost their infant daughter during a camping trip. The Azaria Chamberlain death story gripped the world, as the public watched the Chamberlains endure a media trial.&nbsp;

In 1982, Australian courts sentenced Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton to a life sentence in prison for <a href="http://https://www.ranker.com/list/child-murder-victims/ranker-crime" target="_blank">killing her child</a>. Azaria&rsquo;s father, Michael Chamberlain, received an 18-month sentence as an accessory. Both parents adamantly maintained a dingo took Azaria from their tent. They also alleged the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/killers-who-blamed-crimes-on-animals/trilby-beresford" target="_blank">wild dog killed</a> and devoured the infant.

At the time of Azaria&rsquo;s disappearance, there were no documented cases of dingoes attacking or killing humans, even small children. But over the years, similar cases have come to light, helping to vindicate the Chamberlain family. In 1986, Australian authorities released Chamberlain-Creighton from prison. In 2012 - 32 years later - investigators officially ruled Azaria&rsquo;s death as the result of a dingo attack.

The Strange Case Of Lindy Chamberlain, Who Did Three Years' Hard Time After A Dingo Ate Her Baby

The Strange Case of Lindy Chamberlain, Who Did Three Years Hard Time After A Dingo Ate Her Baby

Did you read that article that linked so-and-so to that guy from the thing? Or see the video about how this is the same as that? Come on, let's weave some tangled webs!

It's a Conspiracy

Conspiracies

Who are the lizard people? Are they real? And are lizard people in charge of the world? Reptilian conspiracy theories&nbsp;are more popular than you might think. One survey&nbsp;reported&nbsp;that <a href="http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/news/12-million-americans-believe-lizard-people-run-our-country/" target="_blank">at least 12 million Americans</a> believe their country is run by extraterrestrial reptilian overlords. The first lizard people theory&nbsp;seems to originate&nbsp;in <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-greatest-science-fiction-novels-of-all-time" target="_blank">science-fiction literature</a>&nbsp;and has&nbsp;grown beyond made-up stories into a complex belief system with various explanations.

Some speculate that there are reptilians in government, politics, and in high-ranking business positions. Other lizard people conspiracies involve alien beings, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-stories-of-encounters-with-humanoids/amandasedlakhevener" target="_blank">hybrid humans</a>, mysterious planets, and claims that essentially all world leaders and the wealthiest families&nbsp;are part of the reptile tribe.&nbsp;

But&nbsp;what exactly are the intentions of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/signs-someone-is-a-lizard-person/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">the lizard people</a>, if they even exist? According to reptilian theorists, this&nbsp;elite alien species&nbsp;seeks <a href="http://www.orgoneblasters.com/mindcontrol-bartley.htm" target="_blank">world domination and power</a> over every person on the planet. They are all about control, using their influence to&nbsp;vastly lower the quality of life for&nbsp;most people on the planet. This way, people have no energy, time, or motivation to notice or&nbsp;expose even the existence of the reptilians, let alone&nbsp;try to&nbsp;remove them from power. Check out the wild lizard people theories below that may sound ridiculous at first&nbsp;but will keep gnawing at the back of your mind as possibly true.&nbsp;

Who Are The Reptilians, And What Do They Want With The Human Race?

Marriage

The phrase &quot;mail-order bride&quot; conjures images of black-and-white photographs of stern couples marrying for convenience. The practice has its origins&nbsp;in the <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/natural-beauty-of-wild-west-photos/lisa-a-flowers?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">American Wild West</a>, when male settlers, cowboys, and prospectors required not just female company, but loyal wives. Men would arrange for a woman to join him out West – sight unseen in many cases – where they would marry and start a family. Times have changed quite a bit since then, but do mail-order brides still exist?The concept may seem archaic and sexist in modern culture, but real-life mail-order brides are absolutely still around, thanks in large part to <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/profile-pictures-from-russian-dating-sites/michelle-nati" target="_blank">Internet dating sites</a>.&nbsp;There are many facts about mail-order brides that will surprise and shock, and since the practice continues to grow around the world, it's worth learning more about what it means to be a mail-order bride or marry one.Despite all the problems that can happen with mail-order marriages, plenty of success stories offer hope to would-be mail-order brides and their prospective partners. Whether you're intrigued or repulsed by the notion of this type of marriage, it seems to be here to stay.

Here's Everything You've Been Too Afraid To Ask About Mail Order Brides

Things You Didn't Know About Modern Mail-Order Brides

Tales from the Internet

So what&#39;s it like to see a relative in porn? Have no fear,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2bxi3x/have_you_ever_found_friends_or_relatives_in_porn/?utm_content=title&amp;utm_medium=front&amp;utm_source=reddit&amp;utm_name=AskReddit" target="_blank">Reddit</a>&nbsp;is here to tell you some&nbsp;awkward family stories. Based on the reactions collected, it appears that seeing a family member in a video of that sort induces a wide range of reactions. For when you think about the behind the scenes, you realize a whole group of real people put together this fantasy using literally their own&nbsp;blood, sweat, and tears (depending on the genre). As such, some relatives of adult entertainers&nbsp;share stories of how they came to accept their family member for their choices, or at least chose to ignore it when they get together over the holidays.

Many others who discovered their relatives in adult movies didn&#39;t take it as well, but they fall in the minority overall. The vast majority of relatives&nbsp;appear to respect their family member&#39;s choices as well as acknowledging the perks of being in the pleasure industry. Reading through the majority of these accounts&nbsp;provides a touching reminder&nbsp;that even stars have family members who are stoked about their stroke.

17 People Describe What It's Like Being Related To A Porn Star

Relatives Of Porn Stars Share Stories

Shining a spotlight on shocking deeds done by damsels in anything but distress.

Very Bad Girls

True crime stories and courtroom dramas are fascinating for many, but how about a true crime story filled with hilarity, impossible claims, and ridiculous scenarios? If interested, step right this way to the Dalia Dippolito&nbsp;circus! In 2009, a young Florida prostitute named Dalia Dippolito married one of her clients. Six months into the marriage, she found herself dissatisfied and started to look for a way to exit the marriage while filling her pockets with her husband's money. This was the beginning of the Dalia Dippolito murder-for-hire plot, where she really believed she could get away with murdering her spouse&nbsp;like the famous&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/notorious-black-widows/robert-f-mason" target="_blank">black widow killers</a>.Word reached the local police (via one of Dalia's former lovers) that she was interested in hiring someone to kill her husband, Mike Dippolito. The police then arranged for an undercover cop to pose as a hit man, who met with and recorded Dalia's enthusiasm for having her husband killed. The Boynton police then staged a murder scene at the couple's townhome, when no one was at home. When Dalia returned, the police broke the &quot;news&quot; that her husband had been murdered. What followed was an eight-year circus of the Dalia Dippolito murder trial: three trials, one mistrial, two convictions, and even more absurd excuses and stories spun by the defendant. To find out more about the amusing and idiotic tale of&nbsp;Dippolito, read on below.&nbsp;

Ridiculous Things About Dalia Dippolito, Who Hired An Undercover Cop To Kill Her Husband

Explainer

The derisive term &quot;Melungeons&quot; refers to&nbsp;a group of dark- and light-skinned&nbsp;people who lived throughout the Appalachian mountains during&nbsp;the early 20th century.&nbsp;Due to the tangled history and ever-shifting dynamics of the United States, much of this group&#39;s cultural and ancestral history has fallen through various cracks, only coming to light in the early 21st century.&nbsp;The&nbsp;terminology historically used to refer to this group most likely&nbsp;derives from the derogatory epithet &quot;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/24/melungeon-mountaineers-mixed-race/29252839/" target="_blank">melange</a>,&quot; which was frequently used in the Jim Crow South&nbsp;to refer to those of mixed race.&nbsp;At one time they were believed to be descendants of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-the-roma/hugh-landman" target="_blank">Roma</a> people, although that theory has since been proven&nbsp;false.

In actuality,&nbsp;those in this group&nbsp;originally descended from early European and African settlers, as well as Native Americans in some cases. These origins were elusive for many years, due in part to the isolation of the group. Like the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-blue-fugates-of-kentucky/cheryl-adams-richkoff" target="_blank">Blue Fugates</a>, they were shunned by the rest of society,&nbsp;although this&nbsp;separation stemmed from the intolerance&nbsp;of the early-20th-century American South. For years, the group&nbsp;lived in fear of persecution and even enslavement due to their mixed&nbsp;heritage. Members of the group&nbsp;often&nbsp;assimilated into whatever aspect of their heritage they found most familiar.

Families&nbsp;of people once referred to as &quot;Melungeons&quot;&nbsp;still exist today, though they&#39;re no longer considered outcasts and&nbsp;are increasingly connecting to their unique origins. Theirs is a story of survival, won in the face of the social, cultural, and legal cards historically stacked against them.

The Unsolved Case Of The Mysterious 'Tri-Racial' Europeans

Who Were The Melungeons? The Mystery Is Still Unsolved Today

London After Midnight

The early decades of filmmaking were essentially the Wild West. It was a time of experimentation and little to no regulation, and one that continues to fascinate movie buffs – especially considering how many of those early silent films were lost&nbsp;due to neglect or fire.Among those bygone pictures, one looms especially large in the public imagination: the supposedly lost film London After Midnight. The 1927 silent production starred <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/lon-chaney-sr-movies-and-films-and-filmography/reference" target="_blank">Lon Chaney</a>, and the horror mystery film&nbsp;was considered controversial from the moment of its release. It was spooky, certainly, but the movie attained notoriety after a murder in 1928. The killer claimed to have seen visions of Lon Chaney's character, who supposedly urged him to carve up a woman with a razor.&nbsp;The London After Midnight murder made headlines and added to the movie's dark allure.Was there some malevolent force at work in London After Midnight? Was it a <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/the-most-infamous-cursed-movies-of-all-time/randolph" target="_blank">cursed movie</a>, or simply a convenient excuse for a deranged criminal? The true power of the film will likely remain a mystery; the last known copy was destroyed in the 1967&nbsp;fire that ravaged the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer vaults.&nbsp;But a reconstructed version made from&nbsp;photographs is still available for viewing – if you dare.

Did The Lost Film 'London After Midnight' Possess A Man To Commit Murder?

London After Midnight, The Film That Allegedly Drove A Man To Murder

Winnie the Pooh

Could it be that all the&nbsp;Winnie the Pooh <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/winnie-the-pooh-characters/reference" target="_blank">characters</a> represent mental disorders? Be it via books, TV shows, or&nbsp;movies, generations of children grew up&nbsp;with Winnie the Pooh and his friends in Hundred Acre Wood.&nbsp;Each character was so different, yet lovable. And so seemingly innocent. But do stories of&nbsp;Winnie the Pooh possess hidden meaning? Could Pooh&#39;s calm, happy distraction, Rabbit&#39;s mania, or&nbsp;Eeyore&#39;s gloomy outlook be&nbsp;teaching children about mental illness?

Examples of mental illness in children&#39;s literature are fairly common, though it isn&#39;t always labeled explicitly. There are clear metaphors in Winnie the Pooh, personality traits and mental issues to which everyone can relate. Whether or not&nbsp;AA Milne intended this to be the case when he wrote the books, or those at Disney had it in mind when creating the animated adaptations, is unclear, and perhaps irrelevant. If Pooh and friends can teach kids about <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/tv-characters-with-mental-illness/alexandra-plesa" target="_blank">mental health</a>, let them teach.

The Characters In Winnie The Pooh All Represent Mental Illnesses

All The Winnie The Pooh Characters Represent Mental Disorders

Ranking the best reality & competition shows and exploring the attention-starved monsters we create and feed when we watch them participate. 

Escape to Reality

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

The producers of ABC&#39;s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (aired 2003-2012) knew they had a winner in the very premise of their show. A construction crew, led by the charismatic Ty Pennington, granted gorgeous new&nbsp;homes to people who struggled with financial hardship or were otherwise deserving of such a life-changing experience. It seemed like the perfect feel-good watch &ndash;&nbsp;who doesn&#39;t fantasize about landing the home of their&nbsp;dreams?&nbsp;Each <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-extreme-makeover-home-edition-episodes/reference" target="_blank">episode</a> captured the moment of the home reveal, when everyone in the family, their friends and neighbors, cried happy tears. So did the audience. But was it all too good to be true? Is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition fake?

In one sense, the answer is no &ndash; they really do build those houses. But behind the scenes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the situation is not always as joyous and exciting as it appears onscreen. None of the families&#39; financial problems vanished when&nbsp;they entered their freshly constructed&nbsp;palatial estates. The new houses came with pools and gourmet kitchens, but also with very high real estate taxes and astronomical utility bills. Over the years, a number of the &quot;lucky&quot; families have been forced to sell their homes, and some have even gone into foreclosure.

None of those outcomes are what any of the families ever expected. But when presented with such an offer, who would turn it down? Fans might think Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is one of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-most-actually-watchable-reality-tv-shows" target="_blank">best reality TV shows ever</a>, but the truth is much darker than you might expect. That&#39;s&nbsp;how Extreme <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-real-estate-tv-shows-on-netflix/ranker-streaming" target="_blank">Home Makeover</a> is faked: by taking advantage of&nbsp;the dreams of desperate families.

Behind The Scenes Stories Reveal Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Is A Nightmare

Behind The Scenes Stories About How Fake Extreme Home Makeover Is

From 1789 to 1799,  French revolutionaries overthrew the monarchy of the Ancien Régime, set up a republic, eliminated a lot of people, and drastically changed the course of human history.

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

French Revolution

Most anyone with a perfunctory knowledge of world history knows about the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/french-revolution-bloodiest-moments/setareh-janda" target="_blank">French Revolution</a>. The ten-year upheaval in France started in 1789 and was inspired by&nbsp;the American Revolution. It&nbsp;heralded&nbsp;egalitarianism, liberty, and brotherhood for all. But the average person may not be familiar with&nbsp;Charlotte Corday&nbsp;and the role she played in the French Revolution.Who is Charlotte Corday? History has labeled her&nbsp;the &quot;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/historical-female-assassins/melissa-brinks" target="_blank">Angel&nbsp;of Assasination</a>&quot; and she is known to most casual students of history as the aristocrat&nbsp;who murdered French Revolution&nbsp;leader, Jean-Paul Marat, in his bathtub.&nbsp;Marat's death is most famously depicted in&nbsp;Jacques Louis David's painting&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Marat" target="_blank">&quot;The Death of Marat.&quot;</a>&nbsp;Casual historians would label Corday's&nbsp;act as a tragic setback for the revolutionary cause in France at the time.&nbsp;But diving deeper into the story of this educated, young noblewoman reveals&nbsp;a fascinating and complex character in what is usually seen as black and white historical event. Here's everything your history teacher skimmed over in class about the cunning revolution assassin, Charlotte Corday.

France's Angel Of Assassination's Murder Of A Hero Brought France To Its Knees

10 Wild Facts About Charlotte Corday, The Assassin Who Lost Her Head

Historical Facts

Ota Benga.&nbsp;The name has a lyrical quality. This is the name of the early 20th&nbsp;century&nbsp;African pygmy who was brought to the United States as an exhibit subject in 1904 and met a sad end when he couldn't find happiness in the land of opportunity. So, who was Ota Benga and why in the world would he leave the Congo to live so far away from all he knew and loved?Benga's story is complex, fascinating, and heartbreaking.&nbsp;He arrived first&nbsp;as part of an anthropological exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair where society's growing fascination for <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-tom-thumb/nicky-benson" target="_blank">strange human oddities</a>&nbsp;featured into the entertainment. Later he lived in a&nbsp;zoo alongside animals, like some sort of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-old-photos-from-circuses-in-history/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">circus exhibit</a>. Eventually he would attempt&nbsp;to find a life of normalcy but, like other <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-joseph-merrick-the-elephant-man/harrison-tenpas" target="_blank">social pariahs</a> before him, found it difficult. The astonishing life of Ota Benga is full of shocking surprises and provides much food for thought about identity, race, loss, and social acceptance.

Heartbreaking Facts About Human Zoo Exhibit Ota Benga

10 Heartbreaking Facts About The Pygmy Ota Benga

Joseph Stalin

Technological and scientific advances rose rapidly during the late 19th and early 20th century, prompting a worldwide interest in all the new -&nbsp;and sometimes very strange -&nbsp;possibilities science had to offer. Humanzees,&nbsp;man-ape hybrid soldiers,&nbsp;presented one such possibility.

This was the age of steel, the railroad, the factory system, and even eugenics. But before Europe fully moved towards extreme nationalism and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weird-causes-historical-figures-supported/stephanroget" target="_blank">surprising figures campaigned</a>&nbsp;for breeding a master race, a lone Russian scientist who had successfully crossbred a variety of mammals -&nbsp;including zebras and donkeys -&nbsp;got the idea to try and breed&nbsp;humans with apes. But his name was not Josef Stalin;&nbsp;it was Ilya Ivanov, and he was exploring the human-ape hybrid possibility long before Stalin ever succeeded in politics.

Over the years, and thanks to articles published by creationist organizations, Ivanov&#39;s weird experiments were conflated with Stalin, who supposedly asked scientists to breed a race of man-ape hybrid soldiers who would be super strong and serve in an enormous Soviet army. Such plans were never on Stalin&#39;s radar; indeed, such a fighting force&nbsp;was never even of interest to Ivanov. All he wanted to do was prove the creation of a humanzee was possible.

The real story of how Ivanov managed to secure a small amount of funding from the Soviet government to conduct artificial insemination experiments on both humans and chimpanzees&nbsp;is far more intriguing than the rumors -&nbsp;but just as despicable.

Did Stalin Really Force Soviet Scientists To Create A Human-Chimpanzee Hybrid?

Debunking Stalin's Attempts To Make Man-Ape Super Warriors

What It's Like

&quot;Sugaring&quot; is a paid&nbsp;arrangement between two consenting adults - typically a younger woman and an older man - which&nbsp;includes an agreed upon number of hours or days spent in one another&#39;s company. Many of these relationships begin by using a <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weirdest-dating-sites/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">niche dating site</a>&nbsp;geared specifically for this purpose. While such arrangements almost always include intimate contact, some individuals on the arrangement also seek out the &quot;girlfriend experience,&quot; which can include just hanging out together, having someone to talk to, or serving as a dining and travel companion. Sugar babies set the rules and payment, and often are the recipients of free accommodation, shopping sprees, spa treatments, and much more.&nbsp;

True sugar stories are not always what one might expect, though.&nbsp;When sugar babies talk about their lifestyle, it&#39;s clear the&nbsp;experiences are a mixed bag. Ideally, it&#39;s a win-win situation for both individuals involved, but there are many less than desirable scenarios&nbsp;and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/worst-first-date-stories/lea-rose-emery" target="_blank">date stories</a>&nbsp;from real-life sugar babies.

Real Life Sugar Babies Describe What It's Really Like To Have A Sugar Daddy

14 Women Talk About What It's Like To Have A Sugar Daddy

Lists about American living and culture before the modern era.

Early Days in the USA

Dusting for prints & pointing the magnifying glass at some of history's most persistent, fascinating, and frustrating mysteries.

History's Mysteries

Jamestown, VA, is the site of the first&nbsp;permanent English settlement in the New World. Established in 1607, the colony was initially the creation of a corporation called the Virginia Company of London. One could buy shares in the new venture&nbsp;or travel to the area themselves.&nbsp;The Jamestown settlement struggled during its first two decades. The earliest residents endured a "Starving Time" that decimated the small population, and they experienced other challenging circumstances. Bad press about living conditions and life expectancy traveled back&nbsp;to England, and for a time it was difficult to convince people to <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/jamestown-brides-facts/cheryl-adams-richkoff">settle in the new colony</a>.By the 1630s, though, things had become calmer in Jamestown. The English Civil War sent a number of royal supporters packing, and some of them went to Virginia to settle. The original settlement was essentially abandoned by the late 17th century, and for 200 years, Jamestown was largely forgotten. Many&nbsp;experts even insisted that the original James Fort had washed away into the James River, and -&nbsp;like the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/legends-theories-croatoan-roanoke-disappearance/lyra-radford">mysterious Roanoke Colony</a>&nbsp;- it was considered lost to history.In the early 1990s, historian and archeologist Bill Kelso&nbsp;insisted the original site, trod by Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, remained exactly where it was in 1607. Kelso was&nbsp;right. Since 1994, Preservation Virginia and Jamestown&nbsp;Rediscovery have carefully excavated the site marking the storied colony of Virginia.&nbsp;What they found is as strange as it is amazing.

10 Mysterious And Creepy Items Discovered At Jamestown, Virginia

10 Mysterious Items Discovered at Jamestown, Virginia

Exploring ancient societies and cultures that have gone the way of Blockbuster and Dunkaroos. 

Bygone Civilizations

People come in all colors - to an extent. Still, you wouldn&#39;t expect to see a human with naturally blue skin, but that&#39;s the case for the Blue Fugates. Who are the Blue Fugates? The title refers to members of the&nbsp;Fugate family of eastern Kentucky, particularly those who lived in the early- to mid-20th century.&nbsp;And according to firsthand accounts, the title is no exaggeration.

Why did the Fugates turn blue? The short answer has to do with a genetic mutation arising from inbreeding. The longer answer has to do with <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/most-common-dominant-genes-in-humans/laura-allan" target="_blank">recessive genes</a> and bizarre happenstance. If the Fugates hadn&#39;t lived in such a rural area, their condition might not have become so pronounced.

Blue skin is often seen as something not quite human, from&nbsp;the Scottish Blue Men of the Minch to&nbsp;the Hindu god Krishna. But the Fugates&nbsp;are mortal, and however wild they may seem, these facts about the Blue Fugates of Kentucky are nothing but the total truth.

Facts And Stories About The 'Blue Fugates'

What's Up With The Blue Fugates of Kentucky?

Lists about the many cruel and sadistic ways people have inflicted pain on other human beings around the world and throughout history.

Pure Torture

Immurement, or the complete enclosure of a human being into a small space with no escape, was historically a common form of punishment across cultures throughout history. Indeed, history is full of terrifying tales of people who were bricked up or buried alive. Enclosing a person into a tiny box&nbsp;was considered one of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/slowest-methods-of-torture-in-history/machk" target="_blank">slowest forms of torture</a>.&nbsp;However, some immurements were a deliberate personal choice, particularly among the devout of several religions, such as priests, monks, and nuns.

Trapping someone in a tight space&nbsp;was also one of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/torture-used-on-women-in-history/katia-kleyman" target="_blank">forms of&nbsp;torture&nbsp;used on women</a>&nbsp;in particular. These immurements might last weeks, months, years, or until death.&nbsp;Some among the immured&nbsp;were sacrificial; some were unwitting victims. Certainly, in horrific stories of historical immurement,&nbsp;anyone even slightly claustrophobic would have struggled immensely and, as time passed&nbsp;and food and energy diminished, immurement must have seemed like a particularly harsh hell. If you want to know what it was like to suffocate&nbsp;slowly in an enclosed space, read on to get a taste of what it was like to be immured&nbsp;and left for dead.&nbsp;

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