The 7 Craziest Things Ever Done to Get Laid King Henry VIII Started a New Religion For His Penis In the year 1525, King Henry VIII had a problem with Anne Boleyn's pants -- specifically, whether or not he could legally get in them. See, even though he was married to Catherine of Aragon, he wanted to nail Anne Boleyn. Although Boleyn initially resisted, eventually she came around thanks to the prospect of becoming queen. So all Henry had to do was divorce his wife ... but therein lies the rub. Who would want to divorce a woman with such angular hair? Thing is, divorce was not a legitimate answer to anything in 16th century England back in the day, since marriage was considered holy and indissoluble by the Catholic Church -- best case scenario was an annulment, which could only be procured if the marriage had been entered into improperly. Pope Clement VII, here pictured giving exactly zero shits. Henry, however, was kind of used to getting his own way and decided to just go ahead and marry Anne anyway. No kidding. Getty
The 6 Creepiest Things Discovered by New Homeowners Approximately 99 percent of haunted house stories begin the same way: The owners move into a house that seems too good to be true. Then there is some foreshadowing via rumors from the neighbors, and finally a gruesome discovery. But that chain of events isn't just the stuff of movies and campfire stories. Real homeowners have moved into their new digs only to find horrors like ... #6. OK, based on what you have seen in horror movies/novels/TV shows, what is the one single thing that ensures your home will be infested with ghosts and/or poltergeists? Getty"You could at least desecrate our graves tastefully." So of all the possible things in the world you can find in your new home, none can be quite as unsettling as plunging a shovel into the floor of your basement only to have a child's skull come rolling out. Getty"See, honey? Wait, What? That's exactly what happened to Helen Weisensel. wisn"We're just miffed about the dry rot. Getty"So the cat's vomiting blood and calling for Azathoth.
Top 10 Lesser Known Mysteries Mysteries It was Einstein that said ‘The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.’ For me, mystery is the fabric of Life, and since I discovered Listverse a few years ago I have noticed it’s a sentiment many people share. The Brentford area of London is a peculiar place in terms of the names. There have been no other sightings since, and the Legendary Griffin has drifted into local folklore. Amphibians in Ancient Iraq In ancient Mesopotamia, the world’s first academically ratified, fully functioning civilizations of Babylon, Sumer and Akkadia emerged. In the district of Dowa, 100km north of the nation’s capital, Lilongwe, reports emerged of a rabid animal, with hyena like features, attacking and mauling members of the region. Valley of the Headless Men Mysterious Man of the US Declaration
The 5 Creepiest Unsolved Crimes Nobody Can Explain Dear Internet: We have to admit something -- we've been getting kinda cocky, recently. Whether we're explaining the phenomenon of alien abduction, debunking every textbook ever or doing some third thing, we've been spending a lot of time acting like we have all the answers. And it's started to go to our heads. But that all changes now. If unsolved mysteries are good enough for Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey, then by golly, they're good enough for us. So, in apology for our hubris, please enjoy this Cracked Classic, as well as these similar articles about unsolved mysteries and also that one article where we solved a bunch of mysteries no one else could 'cause we're so smart and dammit, we're doing it again. There are unsolved crimes, and then there are the kind of creepy, "What the hell could possibly be going on here" capers that keep the cops, and anyone who hears about them, up at night. Here are the real cases that almost fall into X-Files territory: It Gets Weirder:
10 Bizarre Human Mysteries Mysteries WARNING: this list contains some graphic images. Every so often, we’ll come across strange and inexplicable conditions found in the human body. Shamanistic practices were once much more prevalent in the world, and considered a profound foundation of the tribes that believed in them. Many of these shamans have been discovered as fraudulent, proving the use of slight of hand tricks and passing them off as legitimate procedures, but that isn’t the case for all of them. Much like entrancing healers, psychic surgeons can perform procedures that would normally require tools and what we consider conventional medical supplies (like anesthesia). These types of surgeons are mostly found in Brazil and the Philippines, where people strongly believe in spirits (which aid every procedure/treatment). Spontaneous Human Combustion SHC is burning from the inside out. Fire Immunity and Fire Starter On the subject of fire, we come to the Leidenfrost effect. D.D. The Delphic oracle did it.
6 Terrifying Experiments Parents Did on Their Own Kids Given all the complaining people do about animal experimentation these days, it's easy to forget that up until fairly recently, scientific experimentation on humans was considered perfectly acceptable. While most of our scientific forefathers stuck to experimenting on random poor people like any respectable person would, others took it a step further and said, "Well, this baby in my house is already crying a lot anyway ..." #6. Getty In 1933, psychologist Clarence Leuba wanted to figure out whether laughing when being tickled is an instinct we're born with or if we just learn it from watching other people do it. In the interests of science, Leuba first banned all tickling in his household, allowing it only during special, experimental tickling periods. Getty"Shut up, I'm tickling her right now! Where It Gets Weirder: But the most terrifying aspect of this experiment was the tickling itself. "Controlled experiment! #5. GettyWe think this might also be a Guns N' Roses album cover. #4.
6 Intimate Details You Can Tell Just By Looking At Someone How much would you pay to be able to read another person's mind? As superpowers go, it's a hell of a lot more of a game changer than, say, flight. Your career, your relationships -- everything would change. But experts say you can gather a whole bunch of intimate details about a person just by looking at them. No, it's not 100 percent accurate, and it's not magic. It's just science. Is She Interested In You? Getty Remember back in high school when you were talking to that cute girl you really liked, but you couldn't tell if she liked you back, and your fear of rejection prevented you from expressing your feelings in any way apart from night after night of tearful masturbation? Science to the rescue! How? Experts will tell you it's all in the body language, but you know better. Getty"I realized she was into me right around the time we started having sex." But watch her feet. GettyThe angle of her heels says "I put out," but those knees say "not for you." And while we're on the subject ...
6 MORE Creepy Urban Legends (That Happen to be True) As we are fond of pointing out, fact is usually much creepier than fiction. So around this time of year we like to share some of the most gut-wrenchingly disturbing stories, the kind we would tell around the campfire if we ever actually went outside. And most importantly, they're all true. Something Off About That Picture The Legend: A young man is dropping off groceries at the house of an eccentric old lady when he notices an old photo that makes the hair on his arms stand on end. "Oh," she replies, trying to stuff a cat in the dishwasher "isn't that beautiful? The Truth: While most folks today are too squeamish to take more than a glance into the casket during a funeral, in the late 19th through early 20th centuries someone dying meant it was time to break out the camera for a family photo. And, while it all sounds like the set-up for some terrifying practical joke on the photographer, there was actually a somewhat reasonable explanation for the practice. The Corpse in the Carpet
5 Reasons Life Actually Does Get Better In the last year you've probably heard "It gets better" used as a motto to encourage gay teens who've been the victims of bullying. This is not a rebuttal of that, because I am not an asshole. What I do want to do is expand that message to everyone that age, whether you have a bully problem or not. I figure it's time, as I tend to write about dark and often brutally depressing subjects, like how I was a smoldering drunk for over half of my life and how much my parents sucked at being parents. So, as a man with a truly shitty past, let me say that it's not just a slogan. The Money Situation Will Improve (Even if it Doesn't) I'm not saying you'll be rich when you grow up. My girlfriend and I recently broke into the middle class after years of living one paycheck away from homelessness. GettyAbove, a stray one scouts the wild for its next victim. As a kid, you just have to sit back and take it, not fully understanding why you're living the way you are. Getty Photos.comSure, you'll do. Why?
The 5 Most Terrifying Diseases That Doctors Can't Explain We tend to trust that doctors are on top of this whole "getting sick" phenomenon -- when we visit the hospital, we know that someone is going to be able to tell us what's wrong with us and how to fix it. But then there are some particularly unusual diseases out there that have medical professionals throwing up their arms and declaring "Shit, we guess it's witchcraft." Things like ... #5. The Sleeping Sickness Getty Imagine your spouse comes down with what you assume is a bad cold. Getty"I told you not to mix NyQuil and Ambien!" It's not the first act of a horror movie, but a real, baffling disease that had doctors puzzled at the beginning of the 20th century. It began with victims complaining of a sore throat, right before it escalated into a goddamned living nightmare, the victims afflicted with hallucinations and madness before their bodies ultimately locked up. Getty"After discussing what a pain in the ass recovery will be, his father and I have decided to pull the plug." #4. #3.
The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth It doesn't matter whether or not you believe in ghosts, there are some places in which none of us would want to spend a night. These places have well earned their reputations as being so creepy, tragic or mysterious (or all three) that they definitely qualify as "haunted." Places like... Aokigahara is a woodland at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan that makes The Blair Witch Project forest look like Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood. It probably has something to do with all the dead bodies scattered around. What Niagara Falls is to weddings, Aokigahara is to suicide. More than 500 fucking people have taken their own lives in Aokigahara since the 1950s. The trend has supposedly started after Seicho Matsumoto published his novel Kuroi Kaiju (Black Sea of Trees) where two of his characters commit suicide there. Also skulls. Besides bodies and homemade nooses, the area is littered with signs displaying such uplifting messages like "Life is a precious thing! Winchester Mystery House Oh, bitch...!