10The Bonfire Of The Vanities In 1494, the Medici family were temporarily chased from Florence, Italy, and into their place stepped Girolamo Savonarola. A Dominican friar, Savonarola took it upon himself to become the city’s moral compass and cleanse it of all its corrupt art and literature. And there was a lot of it—Savonarola and his followers cracked down on everything from paintings by the great masters to carnivals, gambling, and poetry....

10 Yuan Huangtou The first recorded use for a planar surface flight occurred in the year 559 AD in China when a young prince by the name of Yuan Huangtou of Ye soared more than 2.5 kilometers (1.5 mi) while strapped to a man-made kite. Those who had witnessed the event were left in astonishment, bewildered that something that had been built by man could carry a human through the air for such a long distance....

For all the political troubles Lincoln shouldered without a word of complaint, he struggled to stand up to the weight of his personal problems. He battled suicidal thoughts, a deep depression, and a life full of tragedy and unhappiness. And it made him a very different man than the one suggested by his stoic face. 10 He Was Afraid To Carry Knives Because He Might Kill Himself On the surface, Lincoln seemed like a fun-loving joker....

See Also: 10 Mind Boggling Presidential Conspiracy Theories 10Fox Sheikh Trump has had a bit of a will-they/won’t-they relationship with Saudi Arabia, criticizing the nation before his election, and increasing ties with it afterwards. His relationship with Megyn Kelly is less ambiguous and, although they did officially make peace, most people will remember them as sworn enemies. Perhaps that is why Megyn appeared in a conspiracy tweeted by Trump in January 2016....

10 Independent African Congregations From the founding of LDS in the 1830s until 1978, people of African descent were not permitted to be ordained as priests in the church. However, during that time, LDS missionaries were active across the world and had a small influence in Africa. Full missionary efforts did not begin until after the 1978 official declaration. Even though missionaries did not have a big presence in Africa, a few Africans acquired LDS books and set up autonomous branches without recognition from church headquarters in Salt Lake City....

10 Trains The first trains fell under the scrutiny of physicians who claimed that the “high speed” at which they traveled (about three times as fast as a horse-drawn carriage) was abnormal for the human body and could make a person run mad. The Royal Bavarian Medical College even supported the claim that people who rode in trains could end up with a type of brain fever called “delirium furiosum.” Delirium furiosum was not limited to people who rode in trains alone....

10Is He Supposed To Be The Serpent In Eden? The serpent who tempts Eve into eating the forbidden fruit has often been interpreted as Satan. But the Bible never specifically says this; people just assume so because the serpent apparently plays a similar role to Satan. In fact, the original Genesis story seems to rule out the idea, referring to the serpent as “the cleverest of the beasts of the field....

Some animals are also believed to consume alcohol on purpose since several species have been recorded seeking out intoxicating substances rather than ingesting them by accident. Like people, drunk animals still manage to stir up trouble despite bad coordination and liver problems. Here are some unusual stories about intoxicated animals. 10 Police Lock Up Inebriated Raccoons Residents of a West Virginia neighborhood made several calls to the Milton Police Department about disoriented raccoons in November 2018....

Music plays an important role in this week’s list. We learn about the “Singing Doctor” who serenaded each baby he ever delivered and the man who performed an impromptu saxophone concert for a herd of cows. There is also a bit of romance between two 100-year-old lovebirds, a tale of friendship between two travel buddies, and a source of hope from a medical procedure that can help quadriplegics move their hands again....

And while most dogs have an easy lot in life and may not feel inclined to rebel, what about all the wild animals that are tired of living under the boots of humans and having their habitats destroyed? What would happen if they decided to unite against people? Could they do it? Surely not, you may think. After all, humans are at the top of the food chain for a reason....

10Pornography Protects The First Amendment Larry Flynt’s Hustler magazine is known for its ribald sense of humor along with its explicit photos. However, one person thought they took the former too far in 1983. The magazine created a parody ad in which the minister Jerry Falwell describes his first time having sex—in an outhouse, with his own mother. Falwell slung lawsuits at both Flynt and his magazine and was initially awarded $150,000 in damages for emotional distress....

10NASA Predicts Alien Life Will Be Found Within 20 Years In the words of Matt Mountain, director at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, “Imagine the moment when the world wakes up, and the human race realizes that its long loneliness in time and space may be over . . . It’s within our grasp to pull off a discovery that will change the world forever.” Using ground and space-based technology, NASA scientists predict that we’ll find alien life in the Milky Way galaxy within the next 20 years....

As any traveler will tell you, though, gestures aren’t universal even if you think they are. In many countries, signs that you may have grown up with may mean something completely—and bafflingly—different elsewhere. These are some of the most confusing gestures that you either never knew existed or know to mean something completely opposite of what they do in these places. 10 Shaking Hands Over A Threshold We understand that shaking hands isn’t a globally recognized form of greeting like it is in most of the Western world....

When such predators trap someone, uneasiness quickly turns to terror. In a battle to the death, there is little chance for a human being against such adversaries as a cougar; a venomous snake; a bear; an alligator; a polar bear; an elk; or even a determined camel, especially when there is no escape, unless there is an unassailable refuge, help arrives in time, one has a weapon at hand, or innovation, coupled with desperation, saves the day....

In particular, Hitler wanted to eradicate modern art. According to the Reich, modern art was depraved and irrational. Dadaism, Impressionism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Surrealism were all verboten, and these paintings were all hauled out of museums. Hitler even declared, “The Dadaists, Cubists, and those futuristic expressive ones and those objective chatterers will under no circumstances participate in our cultural renaissance.” In July 1937, over 650 works were exhibited in the Institute of Archaeology in the Hofgarten in Munich....

10A Truly Ancient Idea Archaeologists from the University of Chicago have uncovered a stone memorial in Sam’al, Turkey that proves people in the region believed in the soul almost 3,000 years ago. The memorial dates back to the eighth century B.C., and the inscription on the monument was made by a man named Kuttamuwa. The stone was destined to be his burial monument, and it asks those he leaves behind to celebrate his mortal life and his “prolonged life,” as his soul will live on inside the monument....

Lucien Sarti and Two Corsican Hitmen According to jailed French mobster, Christian David, Kennedy was shot by three Corsican assassins. David named the deceased Sarti as one of the gunmen and offered to reveal the identities of the others if he was given his freedom. According to David, the two unnamed assassins were in buildings to the rear of the President, while Sarti fired from the grassy knoll in front of the motorcade....

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In the game of Chess, the word “checkmate” comes from the Persian phrase “shah mat” and it means “the King is dead”. In 1835, John Batman settled in what was to eventually become Melbourne, Australia. He named it “Batmania”. Two years later it was renamed Melbourne in honor of the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. A cannulated cow, also referred to as a cow with a window, is a cow that has been surgically fitted with a cannula, a porthole-like device which allows access to its rumen....

This list shows what Voltaire was able to capture in just a few words. Feel free to suggest your own quotes, as there were a great deal of omissions. I would also like to strongly recommend that you read his incredibly funny (and satirical) book Candide – it is actually a very easy read, and one of the best books of the time. “I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous....