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6 Very Specific Ways to Remember the Titanic

The replica Titanic in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. (Photo: Madison Berndt on Flickr)Today marks the 103rd anniversary of the tragic maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. The floating giant, full of hope and...

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The Hidden Trick To Unlock Wikipedia Magic

What is this fossil? Only a dedicated Wikipedia user will find out! (Photo: Didier Descouens/Wikicommons.)Of all the internet wormholes to fall down, Wikipedia might be the deepest. An offhand remark...

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The Lovely Ruins of America's Borscht Belt

Chairs sit in front of an abandoned theater in Hotel Adler. (Photo: Bryan Sansivero.)In upstate New York, deep within the Catskill Mountains, exists a whole world of empty buildings. They are reminders...

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7 Places That Could Give You Superpowers, but Will Probably Kill You

Don't be a Daredevil. Stay away from radioactive waste. (Photo: [AndreasS] on Flickr) Getting superpowers from a freak accident is one hell of a gamble. Historically, IE, in comic books, normal humans'...

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Everything You Wanted To Know (And Then Some) About Skull Racks

Stone representations of the once-enormous skull rack culture. (Photo: Kurt Bauschardt/Flickr.)In ancient Mexico, there were once walls built with thousands of human skulls. When Spanish soldiers and...

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The Business of Bones: Relic Trafficking in the Middle Ages

 Full-body relic of Saint Hyacinth in the former Cistercian monastery Fürstenfeld Abbey, Germany. (Photo: Wikicommons.)It’s hard to fathom now but there was a time (specifically, ninth-century Holy...

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The Manhunt for John Wilkes Booth

Click on the red dots to follow Booth's journey. Map: Steven Melendez.It was the crime of the century followed by one of America's most intense manhunts: for 13 days after shooting President Lincoln,...

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Object of Intrigue: Edwin Booth's Letter to a Grieving Nation

 An 1864 production of Julius Caesar starred Edwin Booth as Brutus (center), John Wilkes Booth as Marc Anthony (left) and their brother Junius Booth Jr. as Cassius. (Photo: Public domain)Poor Edwin...

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The Complete Guide to America's Sexiest (And Totally Real) Presidential...

On the anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, AKA the Great Emancipator, Honest Abe, The Liberator, etc., we couldn't help but notice how hilariously sexual presidential nicknames can be....

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Assassination Artifacts: 6 Items From Lincoln's Last Moments

The moment everything changed. (Image: Currier & Ives, 1865, on Wikipedia) With April 14, 2015 marking the 150th anniversary of the audacious Lincoln assassination, museums across the country are...

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The Strange History (And Future) Of Lincoln's Funeral Train

The rebuilt United States, ready for its 2015 journey. (Photo courtesy of Lincoln Funeral Train.)Before there was Air Force One, there was The United States, a luxury steam locomotive built in the...

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3 Dragons, 1 Unicorn: 4 Places That Claim to Hold the Remains of Fantasy...

Dragon bones? (Photo katieandtommy on Flickr) In some ways, science is a real buzzkill. Take for instance, dragons. Across countless cultures and endless centuries, humanity has told tales of great and...

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Lincoln’s Assassination Was Not the Worst Thing That Ever Happened at Ford’s...

 Ford's Theater the day after the 1893 collapse. (Photo: National Park Service.)Few locations carry the historical weight of Ford’s Theater. Like Dealey Plaza, Little Bighorn, and now the Twin Towers,...

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Places You Can No Longer Go: Gettysburg National Tower

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The Hall of Fame Hall of Fame: 6 Weird and Wonderful Places to Honor Just...

C-3POMG (Photo: Jiuguang Wang on Flickr) No matter your profession or area of interest, recognition is important. It's no wonder then that people will start up a "Hall of Fame" for just about anything:...

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Steampunk... Or Just Punk'd?

The Periscope machine captures a viewer's likeness and displays it on the top monitor. (All photos courtesy of Wright.)Before there was the Periscope app, there was the Periscope machine. Said to have...

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7 Theme Restaurants That May Have Gone Too Far

Yum? (Photo: riNux on Flickr)It's no secret that we here at Atlas Obscura enjoy a good theme restaurant. Whether it's a place where your dinner is served by ninjas or you eat in complete darkness, the...

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Pigeon Towers: The Rise and Fall of a 17th-Century Status Symbol

A dovecote at Niort in the Poitou-Charentes region of France. (Photo: dynamosquito on Flickr)During the 16th and 17th centuries, the richest people across the United Kingdom and France built beautiful...

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Swamped: Gorillas, Dolphins And More Snippets From Inside The World's Wetlands

The Gator Hook Strand of South Florida's Big Cypress. (Photo: Sarah West)What’s the planet’s mightiest swamp?It’s a surprisingly tricky question, given the terminology. Ecologists define wetlands by...

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Taiwan’s Yehliu And The Debate Over Geotourism

Yehlui Geological Park (All photos: Giulia Pines)Yehlui Geological Park is a misty oasis, a sprawling moonscape of pockmarked rock towers. You can climb over crevasses and in between cliffs, with the...

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