Source and see more here: From A Monumental Buddha To A Giant Bird, These Are The Most Incredible Statues In The World
Source and more here: 55 Photos Of Alcatraz Prison, America’s Most Notorious Lockup
Al Capone's son didn't follow in his father's footsteps to live a life of crime. But he did inherit many of his dad's problems. From syphilis to the suspicion of the police, Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone long struggled under the weight of his infamous last name. So after a publicized arrest for stealing aspirin, he decided to change his last name to Brown — and then he disappeared to the West Coast.
Discover the little-known story of Scarface's son: The Secretive Life Of Albert Francis Brown, The Son Of Al Capone
On October 18, 1963, French scientists in the Sahara Desert launched a rocket with an unusual passenger: a tuxedo cat named Félicette. A stray feline found on the streets of Paris, Félicette had undergone special "training" alongside 13 other cats to determine her fitness for space travel. Because Félicette was the calmest cat of the whole group — and didn't gain weight during the study — she was chosen as the first feline to ever go to space.
Félicette spent 15 minutes in spaceflight before her rocket plummeted back down to Earth. But even though she survived the trip, her story would soon come to a tragic end. Not long after Félicette returned from her journey, French scientists euthanized her so that they could study the effects that the trip had on her brain.
Read more here: Inside The Forgotten Story Of Félicette, The First And Only Cat To Go To Space
Source and more: When The New York City Subway Was The Most Dangerous Place On Earth
After surviving the Great Depression, World War II, and a near-fatal accident, Dick Proenneke set out to live simply in the Alaskan wilderness. In 1967, he began building a log cabin by hand on the shores of Twin Lakes using only local timber and his own carpentry skills. With no electricity or running water, he cooked on a fireplace, buried food containers in the ground to keep them from freezing, and stored meat on stilts to keep animals away.
For the next 30 years, Proenneke braved months of bone-stabbing cold and complete isolation, but he thrived — filling more than 250 journals and filming his daily life with a camera and tripod. His writings and footage were later turned into the documentary Alone in the Wilderness.
Learn more about his extraordinary life: The Unbelievable Story Of Dick Proenneke, The Man Who Lived Alone In The Alaskan Wilderness For 30 Years