In his obituary, the New York Times called Robert Franklin Stroud “probably America’s most famous convict.” He rose to notoriety late in life, after author and former corrections officer Thomas E. Gaddis wrote a book about him in 1955 titled “Birdman of Alcatraz.” A few years later, this turned into a movie of the same name starring Burt Lancaster in the title role. This was a major Hollywood production, which proved popular with moviegoers and critics and received four Academy Award nominations.

A hundred years ago, Egyptologist James Henry Breasted described Hatshepsut as “the first great woman in history of whom we are informed.”

This is particularly ironic seeing as how one or more pharaohs who came after her tried to have her erased from history through damnatio memoriae. Maybe they hated her, maybe they resented her success, or maybe they simply wanted a return to tradition. Thankfully, they did not succeed, which means that today we can bring you the story of Hatshepsut, the woman who became a pharaoh.

He popularized, for lack of a better word, several tropes that we associate with serial killers today and we find in numerous crime shows, movies, and books - taunting the police, giving himself a unique name, and using the media to feed his craving for attention.

Gregor Johann Mendel was a scientist, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brno, Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was born in a German-speaking family in the Silesian part of the Austrian Empire and gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics.

Subutai was a Mongolian general and the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He directed more than 20 campaigns and won 65 pitched battles, during which he conquered or overran more territory than any other commander in history as part of the expansion of the Mongol Empire.

Imagine, for a second, that aliens land tomorrow. Armed with futuristic weaponry, they take the world’s leaders hostage, turning them into mere puppets. They dismantle humanity’s great buildings, destroy all religion… and mass-execute anyone who disobeys them. If that sounds like speculative fiction, think again; a similar scenario already unfolded 500 years ago. In 1519, conquistadors led by Hernan Cortez landed on the edges of the Aztec Empire. Within a year, they’d captured the emperor, Montezuma II, and turned him into their unhappy puppet. Shortly after, the entire empire collapsed, torn apart by the arrival of the Europeans.

“I am Darius the great king, king of kings, king of countries containing all kinds of men, king in this great earth far and wide...By the favor of Ahura Mazda these are the countries which I seized outside of Persia; I ruled over them; they bore tribute to me; they did what was said to them by me; they held my law firmly; Media, Elam, Parthia, Aria, Bactria, Sogdia, Chorasmia, Drangiana, Arachosia, Sattagydia, Gandara, India, the haoma-drinking Scythians, the Scythians with pointed caps, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Armenia, Cappadocia, Lydia, the Greeks, the Scythians across the sea, Thrace, the sun hat-wearing Greeks, the Libyans, the Nubians, the men of Maka and the Carians.”

Born in Sabaneta, Venezuela, on July 28, 1954, Hugo Chávez attended the Venezuelan military academy and served as an army officer before participating in an effort to overthrow the government in 1992, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison. Chávez became president of Venezuela in 1999. Early into his presidency, he created a new constitution for the country, which included changing its name to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Here in the 21st century, Capitalism is an increasingly controversial word. There’s a growing conversation about how much we should trust obscenely wealthy people, and whether or not there should be upper limits placed on human wealth.

Japan at the time had one of the world’s most powerful navies, and after dealing a devastating blow to US forces at Pearl Harbor and attacking Allied outposts all over the Pacific, they seemed invincible. To stop them, the Navy called on a mild mannered Texan who had led a bright but unremarkable naval career for 35 years. His performance was nothing less than spectacular. Within a matter of months, he had halted the Japanese advance, and then proceeded to force them back across the Pacific to the doorstep of their home islands, resulting in their surrender. Along the way, Chester Nimitz became one of the highest ranking officers in US military history, and one of the most important commanders in the history of the United States Navy. This is his story.