Grunge

In the modern-day United States, the First Lady has very little political power. But apparently in Ancient Rome, it was the sister-in-law of the Pope who really ruled the roost (especially considering she was also his mistress, via The Guardian). Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilij was an incredibly intelligent, somewhat manipulative social climber of the 17th century. She was, in fact, sister-in-law to Pope Innocent X, by marriage to his brother, Prince Pamphilio Pamphilij (via Eyes of Rome).

The 1970s represented a period of drastic changes in the TV landscape. After decades of inoffensive family sitcoms, some producers, such as Norman Lear, began pushing the envelope. As Salon reports, shows like "All In The Family" offered a gritty and unflinching look at issues such as racism and poverty, although through the lens of comedy, with Lear's progressivism informing much of the writing. According to Screen Rant, "All In The Family" produced a spinoff, "Maude," which itself produced its own spinoff, "Good Times." The show was one of the first to highlight a Black family, detailing the difficult and hardscrabble lives of a Black family living in Chicago.

When it was announced that former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died on January 24, 1965, at the age of 90, his death was considered by many to be the end of an era, according to "Churchill: Walking with Destiny," an expansive 2018 biography by Andrew Roberts. "The day of giants is gone forever," wrote the historian Sir Arthur Bryant, while novelist V.S. Pritchett claimed that, with Churchill's death, the past was now "irrecoverable." Similarly, French President Charles de Gaulle, met the news of Churchill's demise with the words: "Now Britain is no longer a Great Power."

Make your way to Big Major Cay in the Bahamas, and you'll find it uninhabited by humans. It is, however, home to a colony of 30 to 40 pigs, ready to swim out and greet you. The Bahamas' swimming pigs have become a tourist attraction since appearing on the "Today" show and "The Bachelor." They've even inspired a book, "Pigs of Paradise" by T. R. Todd, according to CNN.

Widely considered among the greatest, if not the greatest, basketball player in history, four-time NBA champion LeBron James has accomplished a lot in his lifetime (per ESPN). NBA rings aside, the Lakers forward is a two-time Olympic medalist, winning bronze in 2004 and gold at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing (via Britannica). James has also been named the NBA's most valuable player four times, tying Wilt Chamberlain for third most MVP nods in history, according to NBC Sports.

The Islamic world is one filled with various nuances and complexities. With those nuances come many misconceptions and stereotypes. One often misunderstood concept is the fatwa. Under Islamic law, a fatwa is basically a formal opinion given by an Islamic authority or scholar on a topic, according to Britannica. Given the number of high-profile fatwa death sentences, the fatwa has been skewed into something it is not. Fatwas are not legally binding, and can always be challenged or dismissed, depending on who is following them.

Sir Harry Oakes was a man of means, who made his fortune by gold mining in his younger years, and after moving to the Bahamas, he was one of the island nation's richest men. But on the night of July 7, 1943, Oakes was clubbed to death in his bed, only to be discovered the following morning by his longtime friend, Harold Christie, according to Jaquo. Even worse, when Oakes' body was found, it was clear that whoever the killer (or killers) was, they had tried to burn his body to destroy evidence.

In 2010, Tina Herrmann, her friend Stephanie Sprang, and Herrmann's children, Kody and Sarah Maynard, all went missing from their home in Knox County, Ohio as Cleveland news outlet WKYC relates. As the ensuing investigation revealed, in what prosecutors alleged was a botched burglary, three of the four were murdered, and Sarah, who was 13 at that time, was abducted. Convicted for those crimes was a local unemployed tree-trimmer named Matthew Hoffman, who, as the jury learned though his trial, showed signs of an unusual sexual predilection.

Warning: this article contains references to violence, suicide, substance abuse and sexual abuse and exploitation. Okinawa might be the Eden of the Pacific. Sparkling seas beckon tourists to the lush, tropical islands scattered off the southern coast of Japan, but there has been — and still is — trouble in paradise. If you look past the shade of gently swaying palm trees, Okinawa's past casts longer and darker shadows. It was once its own kingdom that rose and fell and literally burned to the ground more than once. During the last days of World War II, the bombing and shooting and shelling on Okinawa Island took hundreds of thousands of lives, with soldiers hiding in caves and civilians often caught in the crossfire. The economy then plummeted and poverty levels rose. Some ancient traditions and cultural treasures nearly went extinct.

The speed of light is a constant in our universe. In a vacuum, light travels rapidly, an impressive 186,282 miles per second (via Space.com). According to the American Museum of Natural History, the speed of light is the fastest anything can go in our universe. It can be thought of as the "speed limit" of everything. For the most part, light tends to stay at this speed. It doesn't go faster, and it rarely goes slower. Yet one Danish physicist was able to manipulate light and stop it in its tracks.

It's hard to express just how much a newborn baby will change your life. To give new parents the best chance at success, and to provide children a strong start in life, good luck rituals relating to childbirth have evolved all over the world. In Turkey, for example, the hairline of a newborn baby and even its eyebrows are sometimes covered in flour to help foster a longer lifespan, as The Bump explains. And in some parts of India, young children are thrown off the roof of a temple in a good-luck ritual that is now considered quite controversial.

These days the British royal family are mostly ceremonial heads of state, per the Royal website. Because of this, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II spends much of her time attending special events of cultural and social importance, such as the Queen's Speech to the British Parliament (via Parliament). One event you'll rarely see Queen Elizabeth II attend, though — or any king or queen throughout history, for that matter — is a funeral, whether that funeral is for a member of the royal family, someone else who has died in British high society, or even just an average citizen, as Express notes.

Egyptians living 3,500 years ago used grain products for an intriguing test, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Throughout all of history, civilizations have had health tests and cures. Some worked, some didn't. Long ago, ancient Egyptians figured out lots of medical information without the benefit of advanced technology, according to World History. They used honey and herbs on people with toothaches, practiced aromatherapy, and attempted to cure diseases by exorcising a ghost from a sick person. But one test they created was actually pretty useful: They established one of the oldest pregnancy tests known to humankind.

Scientific experiments are — ideally, anyway — carried out according to ethical principles, according to recommendations from the American Psychological Association. And when it comes to living people being part of an experiment, the rules are even stricter. Scientists should take great care not to injure, sicken, or kill the subjects. It hasn't always been so, and over the centuries, some scientists have taken unethical shortcuts, such was when Edward Jenner deliberately infected a young boy with cowpox and then smallpox to see if the former would prevent the latter. The boy survived, paving the way for vaccines and the eventual eradication of the disease, but most modern scientists would be horrified at the idea of a potentially deadly experiment carried out on a child, regardless of how high the stakes are.

Steven Van Zandt, guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, author, and actor who portrayed a mobster in the acclaimed HBO crime drama, "The Sopranos," once claimed that if not for discovering the music of a certain band in the mid-1960s, he might have ended up a real-life gangster, according to Spin magazine. Van Zandt, who rose to fame as a co-founder of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band before going solo, told the magazine that he had an "anti-authoritarian rebelliousness that I think that makes criminals who they are."

On April 14 of 2018, A&E aired an episode of its popular true crime series "The First 48" which chronicled a homicide that took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma the year prior. According to Tulsa World, 33-year-old Craig Wingard was shot multiple time on July 5, 2015, outside of an apartment unit in East Woodrow (a local housing complex in the greater Tulsa area). Wingard was a former U.S. Marine who was reportedly attempting to restore an allegedly stolen item from the unit's occupants when things took a fatal turn for the worst. He was shot five times before the suspects ran off, leaving him bleeding in the parking lot (via Fox News 23).

Times of adversity summon an ironclad sense of camaraderie out of all of us. During the World War II, as the United States and other Allied powers combated one of the most harrowing threats that the humans had ever faced, over 16 million American men and women enlisted into the armed forces, with 73% of them serving overseas. Tragically, an estimated 407,000 perished in the war (via Department of Veteran Affairs). Those were trying and uncertain times and in order to keep spirits up, a few big name stars embarked upon a pilgrimage abroad to visit troops stationed across the world.

It's every parent's worst nightmare: that their baby will be harmed by a caregiver. A new documentary, "The Killer Nanny," will examine the tragic case of one family who experienced it firsthand. It is the story of au pair Louise Woodward and the Eappen family, whose son Matty Eappen died of Shaken Baby Syndrome in the 1990s (per IMDb).

On the evening of October 19, 2007, 18-year-old Lee Cutler planned to go to friend's house for a birthday party. Before he left home, Cutler told his mother, Beth, he would be spending the night and would call her the next day to check in. He then gave his mother a hug, which she later described as lasting longer than she expected.

The following article includes descriptions of the murders of children. Having one's child die is considered to be one of the most painful experiences a human can go through (per Heal Grief). One mother from England is still grappling with the pain of child loss to this day. Elsie Ralph's children all died on one tragic night and she is still seeking justice for their deaths decades later (via the Daily Mail).