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In his private life, though, Charles Dickens was a bit different. He held troubling relationships with women and science alike, and his life was even stranger than the stories he wrote. 10 He Believed He Could Heal People Through Hypnosis In 1837, Charles went to see Dr. John Elliotson perform experiments upon the stage. Dr. Elliotson was a mesmerist, a man who believed that all human beings are filled with a magnetic fluid that can be controlled through hypnosis....

SEE ALSO: 10 Shocking Photos From The Bitter Heart Of War [WARNING: This list contains images that may disturb some readers.] 10A Normal Day In Omagh On August 15, 1998, a car bombing took place in Omagh, Northern Ireland. It was carried out by the Real IRA and resulted in the deaths of 29 people, while further injuring over 200. The bombing took place during “the Troubles,” an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for over 30 years....

From The New York Times March 1, 1917: “E.G. Tompkins and Will Hoffstetter were killed and Jim Hoffstetter and Mrs. W. A. Bevington, a bystander, were wounded in the Davidson County Courthouse this morning at the trial of a case in the circuit court in which Tompkins is suing the Hoffstetters for alleged alienation of his wife’s affections. After his wife received a divorce Tompkins filed suit for $50,000 damages against the Hoffstetter brothers, and their sister, Miss Emma Hoffstetter, alleging that they had embittered his wife against him....

10 Queen Victoria While her status as the first known carrier of hemophilia is well documented, few realize just how devastating the spread of Queen Victoria’s genes were on the next three generations that followed her. Two of her daughters and four of her granddaughters were carriers of the disease. A son, three grandsons, and four great-grandsons were all sufferers, most of whom bled to death. Since her children eventually married into other politically important wealthy bloodlines, Queen Victoria’s genes weakened the royal houses of England, Russia, Spain, and Prussia....

10Black Caiman Oh, and yes, they totally attack humans. In 2010, a biologist named Deise Nishimura was attacked by a caiman while cleaning a fish on her houseboat, and while she managed to fight it off, it took one of her legs with it. This particular caiman had been living under her houseboat for eight months, evidently waiting for the chance to strike. 9Green Anaconda 8Arapaima 7Giant Otter 6Candiru 5Bull Sharks 4Electric Eels Electric eels are actually more closely related to catfish than eels, but you probably wouldn’t want to get close enough to one to find out....

10 Stacey Lannert Stacey Lannert, one of the few females to kill a parent, was 18 when she shot and killed her father, Thomas Lannert. When she was younger, she was a daddy’s girl, especially close to her father whom she felt “was like Superman.” However, Thomas was physically abusive toward his other daughter, Christy. He often kicked her down the stairs of their home and constantly beat her. When Stacey turned eight, he turned his attention toward her, forcing her to perform sex acts on him....

One group that is relatively forgotten, however, are the pterosaurs. Pterosaurs were not true dinosaurs but rather placed in their own class of flying reptiles. Here we will take a look at 10 of the most bizarre and terrifying pterosaurs. 10Ikrandraco Avatar Starting out the list is a unique pterosaur that was only recently discovered and identified in 2014. Ikrandraco is notable for an unusual crest that protruded from its lower jaw....

10 Operation Big Itch Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) in Utah was established as a military installation with the reallocation of public lands in 1942. By the 1950s, there was a definite need for a remote testing facility, a role that DPG would fill nicely. It became the location of the Biological Warfare Assessment Laboratories in 1954. With that title came the necessity of figuring out whether or not insects were viable for use as delivery systems for various types of nasty diseases....

Some of these women killed for him, some of them were involved in a shootout trying to attain weapons to violently free him from prison, and others came and went, avoiding the repercussions of being associated with ol’ Charlie. While there are many things we will never know about these women and their choice to join a madman, there are some facts out there that many people may not know....

However, in recent years, the island has attracted more tourists and businesses than ever before. Some businesses have realized that there is a lot more to Greenland than snow and ice. And tourists have figured out that the island’s history, culture, and natural beauty are just a few of its fascinating features. 10 Geography Greenland is considered to be an independent territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Although Greenland mostly operates on its own, it still relies on Denmark for some things, such as security and a substantial subsidy which supplies nearly 60 percent of government revenues....

First, for the sake of clarity: We’re defining a “successful invasion” as an event in which a military group or leader was able to fulfill a set objective on British territory in the British Isles—ideally involving a naval landing, because that’s more exciting. 10 The Roman Invasion The Romans first landed on the shores of Kent in AD 43 (not counting Julius Caesar’s effort a century earlier). Their conquest ended in AD 84, with the conclusion of Agricola’s campaign....

However, many of these seemingly impossible tales do have a grounding in fact. Even bizarre tales of giant wooden horses and bloodsucking vampires may not be as fantastical as we imagine. 10 The Delphic Oracle Over 2,500 years ago, people traveled from all over Greece to hear the advice and prophecies of the God, Apollo, uttered by his priestess at the Oracle of Delphi. The advice came out in ambiguous riddles that had to be interpreted by the listener with the help of assistant priests employed to explain what the priestess’s strange ramblings actually meant....

10 The Culture Killing Tsunamis In the 15th century, the Maori boasted top canoe makers, artists, and fishing gear craftsmen. Then, the culture went into a mysterious decline. Double-hulled ships became single-hulled boats. Their art and fishing tools weren’t up to standard, either. Additionally, some tribes can trace their storytelling and genealogy to the 15th century and no earlier. Archaeologist Bruce McFadgen blames a tidal wave for this cultural erasure. He managed to find solid archaeological evidence to back up Maori tales describing a terrible flood that swept away entire fleets and communities....

Although the Hillside Strangler doesn’t receive the notoriety of the rest, the crimes were of a particularly brutal nature and shocked the residents of Los Angeles to their very core. The flagrant flaunting of the law by committing murders right out in the open and picking up victims from crowded, inner-city areas only added to the fear and panic the city felt, knowing that there was a murderer on the loose who could approach from the shadows and take life at any time....

10 JAL Flight 1628 In November 1986, a UFO was sighted by the crew of Japanese Airlines Flight 1628 over Alaska. This incident made headlines when the FAA announced it would investigate the sighting, which had been caught on radar at the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Captain Kenju Terauchi and a crew of two were on a special flight delivering French wine from Paris via Iceland and the US through the Arctic Circle....

Mammal eggs may lack shells, but they have their moments. Conception is a sparkly business, and mouse eggs once held a mammoth. Then there was the albatross with the egg streak and the unexpected reason why eggs look the way that they do. 10 Penguin Dads Are Hot Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) leave incubation to the guys. The female deposits an enormous egg and then leaves for months to hunt and replenish herself from the toll the egg took on her body....

This week, we learn that the world’s loneliest frog has found a girlfriend. A puppy has a miraculous survival, and a man’s life is saved by beer. There are a few potentially “game-changing” medical breakthroughs, an extreme feat of endurance, and a humbling act of forgiveness. 10 Courtroom Clemency The victim of a DUI hit stunned the courtroom when she not only forgave her attacker but also asked for his help....

10Engineered Jingles The American Psychological Association recently published a revealing paper on the phenomenon of earworms—songs you can’t seem to shake from your head, even if you dislike them. Songs that hang on and won’t let go share some unique characteristics not shared by less catchy hits. In addition to a quick tempo, these songs share what researchers called a “common melodic shape,” as well as the frequent use of unusual intervals and repetitive notes....

There are a lot of theories as to why we haven’t made contact yet (that we know of). But perhaps, we simply made a cosmic mistake in our calculations. We began by assuming that alien life would be like us. If that assumption is wrong, all of our calculations about finding alien life make no sense. So now we’re changing that assumption, broadening our thinking and our strategies to make contact with alien life that isn’t like us....

WARNING: The clip above shows a cat using the toilet. Cleaning kitty litter is no walk in the park. According to statistics, it represents half of the expenses of keeping a cat. An interesting solution would be to train your cat to use the toilet. But how do you train your cat to do this? Enter the Litter Kwitter, a cat-friendly training system that teaches cats how to use a human toilet....