The peculiar life of a German-Jewish sideshow performer based in America. — His name was “Oofty Goofty,” or at least, that was the nickname he came to adopt. In 1900, a reporter for the Houston Daily post was contacted by a peculiar man with an even more strange name. Going by “Oofty Goofty,” the man told his story. Born Leonard Borchardt in…

The Amazing Story of Augustin Lesage — Some people are born with talent. Others learn through and from a variety of means. And then some have it thrust upon them. For one particular man, since the early 1910s, he credited the voices of spirits with his unorthodox leap into the world of art. On August 9, 1876…

Did a sour rumor spoil a sweet cause? — Seventy-four years ago, almost two years after WWII, a different type of war broke out like no other. A conflict from which the smallest soldiers from all over Canada protested the offense. On one side were manufacturers of candy bars, the other being outraged children. The crime? The price of…

This is the tale of how an inseparable bond formed between man and beast on the job in South Africa. — During the late 1800s, when the Cape Government Railways opened the first railway line to Port Elizabeth from Cape Town, South Africa, Uitenhage was born. …

In 1996, a stray cat named Scarlett saved her litter of 5 in a famously striking act of maternal love. — With smoke billowing into the sky and flames spitting out from the building, New York firefighters working on getting it under control come across an extraordinary sight. On March 30, 1996, the New York Fire Department arrived on the scene of a fire that broke out in an abandoned garage…

The time a freak blizzard stranded 20 pupils and their driver for over 30 hours. — Today marks the 90th anniversary of a tragedy which befell a community near the small town of Towner, Colorado, located in Kiowa County, near the border between Colorado and Kansas. On that day, a freak blizzard would forever affect all of those involved and ultimately led to much-needed reforms. Background At…

Killer Whales Look After Handicapped Calf In 1996, amongst the pod of killer whales being observed by a research team in the waters of Tysfjord, Norway, one orca strikingly appeared to stand out. As the rest of this pod went to work hunting, a young calf stuck close to its…

The story of ‘Ming of Harlem.’ It could only happen in NYC. In a housing complex in Harlem fifteen-years ago, a new page in the Big Apple’s already storied history was unexpectedly written thanks, in part, to a big cat found within the concrete jungle. “There’s a tiger next door…” On October 3, 2003, the…

The historic partnership between man and beast. Established in 1843, the NSW town of Eden nestles less than 25 miles from the Victoria border. Named after George Eden, the British Secretary for the colonies, the breath-taking landscape also fitted the name. Eventually, seamen, many of which were whalers, would take…