Wiki Walks

During a steeplechase event at the famed Belmont Park in NY, jockey Frank Hayes set a record that has never been duplicated. And that's probably a really, really good thing.

Frank Hayes Wiki

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A fed up and down on his luck San Francisco businessman, Joshua Norton, declared that he was the new Emperor of the United States, and the people sort of...just went with it. He passed laws and issued his own currency, and literally for the lolz the citizenry just played along. But like, for real though.

Emperor Norton Wiki

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What makes a thing a thing? What makes you...you? How much can you change something before it stops being that thing? Just one tweak? Or all tweaks but one? The Ship of Theseus is a classic Greek thought experiment that lays this complicated question that has been debated for millenia.

Ship of Theseus Wiki

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World War II was a time of technological marvels and revolutionary new weaponry that changed the world as we know it. However, one military project stands alone as perhaps the nuttiest (and brutally effective) plan ever devised. Gluing bombs to thousands of bats and just letting 'er rip.

Bat Bombs Wiki

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The ubiquitous piece of technology that connects everything from headphones to toothbrushes is named after a Scandinavian king who had some pesky dental issues.

Bluetooth Wiki

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After her family was sold to the Creek Indians and moved to Oklahoma in the early 1900s, Sarah Rector was given land at the age of 4 that turned out to be sitting on liquid gold. Nearly overnight, this young woman became arguably the richest black girl in the world.

Sarah Rector Wiki

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The crazy story of Helen Jackson, the 101 year old Missouri woman who died just a few weeks ago in December of 2020. Oh, quick note on Helen, she was the WIDOW OF A CIVIL WAR SOLDIER. Ya know, the Civil War, like, the one from the mid 1800s. Her husband fought in it. How is that even possible??

Also, the utterly random but oddly related story of how cicadas got their sound, according to Greek mythology. I promise its connected.

Helen Viola Jackson

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America was short on allies after its founding, and its Navy was getting absolutely thrashed overseas by pirate states. However, one surprising nation come to our rescue and was the first country to recognize the legitimacy of the United States, and still serves today as our companion in America's longest unbroken treaty.

America's Oldest Ally

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The Kingdom of Hawaii's Ni'ihau Island was purchased in the 1860s by Elizabeth Sinclair, a Scottish woman by way of New Zealand looking to find land to raise sheep and her family. Since then, "The Forbidden Island" has been off-limits to outsiders, even other Native Hawaiians, to protect the indigenous Ni'hauans' way of life. It has survived storms and even a wild escaped Japanese pilot who crashed there immediately after Pearl Harbor, where he took hostages and threatened to kill them all. But will it survive another 160 years with modernity just a quick boat ride away?

The Forbidden Island Wiki

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In the closing days and hours of the end of the Vietnam War, as Saigon began to crumble, the American military attempted to evacuate as many orphans out of the country as they could. These children were flown out in makeshift airborne nurseries to be delivered to American parents waiting to take them in. But further investigations revealed that many of these children were stolen from families and would spend decades trying to locate the families lost to them years ago.

Operation Babylift Wiki

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