Daily Gist

 In 2011, 5 chariots and 12 horse skeletons were found in a tomb in the city of Luoyang, China. Eastern Zhou dynasty period, about 2,500 years ago. It could have been as early as 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ that these horses were moved on to greener pastures - and no one has laid eyes on them until now. The completed excavation unearthed four horse-and-chariot pits, dating back as far as 770BC.  Watering the horses: A staff member sprays water to maintain the humidity of one of the horse and chariot pits unearthed in Luoyang, China. The main pit has five chariots and 12 horses buried almost 3,000 years ago The pits have well-preserved evidence of bronzeware and ceramics from the Early Western Zhou dynasty. Though a far smaller tomb than the famous 'terracotta army' found in 1974 in the Lintong District, this find has been undisturbed while buried and has not suffered the ravages of grave robbers. Archaeologists believe that the tomb belongs to an official of of ...

A zoo in Chile’s capital said it was forced to kill two lions on Saturday to protect a suicidal man who had entered their cage in front of aghast visitors The 20-year-old man broke into the enclosure, took off his clothes and jumped into the middle, horrifying other visitors who witnessed the attack. Zookeepers killed the two lions in order to save his life. The carnivorous felines, a male and a female, instinctively attacked a man who entered their enclosure and had to be put down. Two lions were killed after they severely mauled a man who stripped naked and entered their enclosure in an apparent suicide attempt early on Saturday, authorities said The man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and was said to be in grave condition. They were shaken by this because the animals in the zoo are part of our family,” Montalba said. “These were lions that had been with us for more than 20 years.” Director Alejandra Montalba of Santiago’s Metropolitan Zoo told local media the park was c...

 The skeleton of Archelon Ischyros, the biggest turtle that has ever lived. It measured 15 feet from head to toe and weighed almost 5,000 lbs. Archelon is an extinct marine turtle from the Late Cretaceous, and is the largest turtle ever to have been documented, with the biggest specimen measuring  The Black Hills of South Dakota, and is now on display at the National Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria. (This original specimen is much more complete and better preserved than the type specimen used to define the species. Archelon Had A leathery carapace instead of the hard shell seen in sea turtles. The carapace may have featured a row of small ridges, each peaking at 2.5 or 5 cm (1 or 2 in) in height. It had an especially hooked beak and its jaws were adept at crushing, so it probably ate hard-shelled crustaceans, mollusks, and possibly even sponges, while slowly moving over the seafloor.  It also potentially consumed other animals, whilst swimming closer to the surf...

 Chronicle Of The Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, according to ancient Greek authors, erected the Hanging Gardens of Babylon near the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq in approximately 600 B.C.  The gardens were supposed to have been planted as high as 75 feet in the air on a massive square brick terrace set out in theater-style levels.  The king is said to have erected the towering gardens to satisfy his lover Amytis’ longing for the natural beauty of her native Media (the northwestern part of modern-day Iran). People could wander beneath the lovely gardens, which were supported by tall stone columns. These ancient wonders are Colossus of Rhodes, Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and Lighthouse of Alexandria. Of these wonders, 4 were destroyed by earthquake, 2 were destroyed by fire, and 1 is still standing. Wonder Name City ...

Lady Jane Grey reigned for just nine days as Queen of England following the death of Edward VI in July 1553: she was deposed by the faction supporting Edward's  Jane Grey was one of the finest classical scholars of her age, despite being a teenager. One day, a schoolmaster visited her family's . Jane was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his daughter, Mary Tudor, and was therefore a grandniece of Henry VIII, and a first cousin once removed of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.  She had an excellent humanist education, and a reputation as one of the most learned young women of her day.[7] In May 1553, she married Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edward's chief minister John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. In June 1553, the dying Edward VI wrote his will, nominating Jane and her male heirs as successors to the Crown, in part because his half-sister Mary was Catholic, while Jane was a committed Protestant and would support the reformed Church of England, whos...

 Almost 500 years ago, a tall African man arrived in Japan. He would go on to become the first foreign-born man to achieve the status of a samurai warrior. Yasuke a tall African man, arrived in Japan in 1579 and made history as the first foreign-born man to become a samurai warrior. Yasuke was originally a slave from Mozambique and was brought to Japan by Portuguese traders.  The powerful Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga was fascinated by Yasuke's tall stature and dark skin, and upon seeing him, ordered his servants to try and rub the "black ink" off his skin. Despite this strange encounter, Nobunaga took Yasuke into his service, granting him a sum of money, a house, and a katana. From then on, Yasuke loyally served Nobunaga as an honored samurai, fighting alongside him in fierce battles. He went from being a piece of Portuguese property to a member of the Japanese elite. His height was 6 shaku 2 sun (roughly 6 feet, 2 inches)… he was black, and his skin was like charcoal,” ...

A Soviet partisan moments before being executed by German forces, Eastern Front, World War The partisans knew what they were getting into: it had to be done, they knew the risks and suffered the consequences. Claims have been made that the partisans killed over a half million Germans ... partisan war against Soviet power ensued for several years after German surrender  Soviet partisans hanged by German forces in January 1943. The Nazi ideology and the maltreatment of the local population and Soviet POWs encouraged partisans  this time at least 4,000,000 Soviet troops had been killed, wounded, or captured, while German casualties totaled only 1,150,000. Hitler did, On July 14, 1943, the Supreme Military Command in Moscow issued an order to all partisan units behind enemy lines to begin a coordinated assault against rail lines, focusing on the region around Orel and Bryansk, where a Soviet offensive was soon to begin. Although a year earlier this would have been impossible, the ...

Facing the Death: the different expressions of six Polish civilians moments before death by firing squad, 1939 It’s interesting to see the range of emotions displayed by these men: anguish, defiance, stoicism, acceptance, and fear, the third one from the left is even smiling. The execution took place during the Bloody Sunday in Bydgoszcz, Poland, 1939 Polish historian Czesław Madajczyk notes 120 executions in relation to Bloody Sunday, and the execution of 20 hostages after a German soldier was allegedly attacked by a Polish sniper. Bloody Sunday was a series of killings of members of the German minority that took place at the beginning of World War II. On September 3, 1939, two days after the beginning of the German invasion of Poland, highly controversial killings occurred in and around Bydgoszcz (German: Bromberg), a Polish city with a sizable German minority. The number of casualties and other details of the incident are disputed among historians. The Nazis exploited the deaths as ...

 Execution of rebellious tribal leaders in Yemen, 1962. The tribal leaders are being publicly executed in the town square, by sword. This is the moment of execution of one of the condemned. Mode of execution by sword decapitation, of the Toucouleur army of enemy soldiers in Sekou, capital on the banks of the Niger River. Engraving to illustrate the voyage to Western Sudan of Lieutenant (Navy) M.Mage, in 1863-1866, published in “Le tour du monde, nouveau journal des voyages”, under the direction of Edouard Charton, 1868, Paris. Selva Collection. In the Middle Ages, decapitations were executed with regular swords, and the earliest known specifically designed executioner's sword dates to ca. 1540. They were in wide use in 17th-century Europe, but fell out of use quite suddenly in the early 18th century. The last executions by sword in Europe were carried out in Switzerland in 1867 and 1868, when Niklaus Emmenegger in Lucerne and Héli Freymond in Moudon were beheaded for murder. Swords...

 When did the vulva become obscene? In September 2019, a French ad for feminine hygiene products featuring taboo-breaking representations of vulvas and menstruation sparked controversy. Yet in a cultural context in France, phallic symbols rarely cause a fuss. What explains this difference in treatment? Images of male genitalia in art and advertising rarely cause a stir – we’re used to them. Male statues have been flaunting their (fairly realistic) penises in public parks for centuries, and Perrier often centers its ads on phallic-shaped bottles. In contrast, vulval symbols are conspicuous by their absence. No wonder, then, that the Nana brand’s “Viva la Vulva” campaign is causing a stir. The phallus is seen as a powerful image, whereas the vulva is upsetting to many. But this has not always been the case. The divine vulva of Ishtar: a fertility symbol In The third millennium BC, the Sumerians, inhabitants of present-day Iraq, worshipped the goddess Ishtar. Poetic texts refer to the...

The Death of Messalina. 1850. Francois Victor Eloi Biennourry. French 1823-1893 . oil/canvas.  The third wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius, who had a reputation for promiscuity. Though the emperor forgave Messalina’s adultery, Taurus committed suicide, and, according to Tacitus, Messalina was only prevented from further persecuting Agrippina because she was distracted by her new lover A Powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she allegedly conspired against her husband and was executed on the discovery of the plot. Born 25 January AD 17 or 20. Rome, Roman empire. Died, 48 (aged 31 or 28) Gardens of Lucullus, Rome, Roman Empire. Spouse, Claudius.  She Was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero, a second cousin of Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she allegedly conspired against her husband and was executed on the discovery of the plot. Her notorious reputati...

 Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder on August 23, 1927.  On April 15, 1920, a paymaster for a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts, was shot and killed along with his guard.  The murderers, who were described as two Italian men, escaped with more than $15,000. After going to a garage to claim a car that police said was connected with the crime, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and charged with the crime.  Although both men carried guns and made false statements upon their arrest, neither had a previous criminal record. On July 14, 1921, they were convicted and sentenced to die. Anti-radical sentiment was running high in America at the time, and the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti was regarded by many as unlawfully sensational. Authorities had failed to come up with any evidence of the stolen money, and much of the other evidence against them was later discredited. During the next few years, sporadic protests wer...

 Just before his execution, by public hanging. He later became a symbol of the fight against tyranny in Iran. Hossein Kavousifar Smiling Before His Execution.Just before his execution, by public hanging. He later became a symbol of the fight against tyranny in Iran Majid Kavousifar was an Iranian who, with his nephew Hossein Kavousifar, was convicted of the murder of Judge Masoud Ahmadi Moghaddasi. Majid and Hossein Kavousifar were both publicly executed by hanging in Tehran in August 2007.  Kavousifar and family member Hossein Kavousifar were hanged for killing Hassan Moghaddas, a top Iranian judge, in 2005 He was an Iranian civilian who, with his nephew Hossein Kavousifar, killed judge Masoud Ahmadi Moghaddasi in August 2005. Masoud Ahmadi Moghaddasi was one of judges of revolutionary court, that sentenced between 2800 to 3800 political prisoners to execution in 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners. The executions vary from being dropped while wearing the noose in ...

Shockingly! House Maid is Caught on Secret Camera Pouring Her Own Urine Into Her Boss' Juice A house help has shocked an entire household after she was caught on camera pouring her own urine into a cup containing her boss' juice. The family believed to be Kuwaiti installed a secret camera in their kitchen after becoming suspicious of their maid's activities in their home. And what they discovered was shocking. The Maid was caught pouring her urine into her boss' juice after he requested a drink. The Camera captured two women going about their daily chores while one of them prepared a drink. She is seen stirring it and then heading away before the second maid walks over to the juice. She quickly pulled out beaker of what purportedly contains her own urine from her trousers. She is then clearly seen topping up the drink with the liquid.   The picture concludes with the woman returning to carry on with her job. She can be seen preparing food in the background. The man invo...

 80 YEARS OLD WOMAN LANDS  PLANE AFTER  HUSBAND #PILOT  DIES AT CONTROLS Her husband was slumped over dead in the seat next to her; the plane was wobbling out of control, and Judy Newton did not know how to fly. She considered crashing the plane, a single-engine Piper Cherokee, into a mountain so that she could die with her husband. Then she remembered their two sons, 8 and 22 years old. That is when she radioed for help, and a flight instructor took to the air to guide her to a safe landing. Mrs. Newton, 40, and her 41-year-old husband, Charles, a sales representative for a paint manufacturing concern in High Point, were flying from Morganton to Mocksville, about 80 miles, on Sunday after visiting friends. 'I Just Started Screaming. We were talking,'' Mrs. Newton was quoted as saying in an account of the incident published yesterday in The Greensboro Daily News. He was working on his instrument rating,'' Mrs. Newton said. ''He said, 'I feel faint,' ...

 Disgusting moment food delivery man urinates in lift before dropping off customer's food The CCTV footage shows the man sneezing or blowing his nose on his shirt before he exits the lift The man gets into the lift with what looks like a delivery bag of food and presses the button As soon as the doors shut he whips his todger out and starts to pee in the corner He presses one of the buttons in the lift – but no sooner have the doors shut than he begins to urinate in the corner.  Holding A piece of paper in his mouth – and with the bag of food hanging from his wrist perilously close to the danger zone – the mulleted man opens his flies and lets rip. A puddle soon begins to gather in the corner where the panel of buttons is located. It rapidly spreads outwards, forcing the man to step backwards in order to avoid standing in it himself He then puts his todger away and turns around, leaning back on the handrail in the opposite corner of the tiny lift as if nothing had happened. Th...

 Man killed 4-month-old boy after learning he wasn’t the dad A Tennessee man fatally beat a 4-month-old boy after finding out the infant wasn’t his son, police said. Jose Avila-Agurcia, 33, of Memphis, is facing a charge of first-degree murder in perpetration of aggravated child abuse in the April 12 death of Alexander Lizondro-Chacon, who he thought was his son. A Tennessee man fatally beat a 4-month-old boy after finding out the infant wasn’t his son, police said. Jose Avila-Agurcia, 33, of Memphis, is facing a charge of first-degree murder in perpetration of aggravated child abuse in the April 12 death of Alexander Lizondro-Chacon, who he thought was his son, the Commercial Appeal reports. Cops responded to a residence on Court Avenue and found the boy’s mother, Mercy Lizondro-Chacon, who said the infant was having trouble breathing. He was then rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead from blunt force trauma to the head, according to an affidavit of complaint. The boy...

Bizarre moment man is caught eating a bowl of cereal while robbing a family's home, before turning to the camera and saying: 'Oh, yum'  A suspected thief exposed himself after he broke into a family's home in Australia to rob. The man entered the home in Teesdale, near Geelong, last Thursday, June 22,  and allegedly stole $5,000 worth of jewellery and two jet skis worth $15,000 each. He was also caught on security footage bizarrely eating a bowl of cereal in the home he had broken into. Mother-of-two Lexie Hern claimed her late grandmother's gold chain was one of the pieces of jewellery that was taken. She explained that CCTV footage allegedly showed the man enter her property and search through a number of rooms including bedrooms and the bathroom. He then walks into the kitchen at one point and helps himself to a bowl of cereal with milk.   CCTV shows the dark-haired man, wearing a white T-shirt and a face mask pulled under his chin, eating from the bowl and makin...

 Woman Caught Making Love During Zoom Meeting After Forgetting To Turn Off Her Camera As the meeting progressed, within seconds, the woman stood up from the front of the camera and went to meet up with her husband, as they started clinging to each other. The woman from the US was participating in a zoom meeting with her other colleagues when suddenly her husband showed up behind the camera in her room, removed his clothes, and beckoned to his woman. As the meeting progressed, within seconds, the woman stood up from the front of the camera and went to meet up with her husband, as they started clinging to each other However, other participants who were at the meeting expressed shocked by the scene. Similarly, upon realizing her mistake, she rushed to the camera to block it with her hands, but it was too late to reverse what has been seen.

 Tragedy ... Woman's body was laid out on the aisle for nearly the whole flight under a blanket Cabin crew had no choice but to leave her on the aisle after she suddenly died on the flight from Turkey The diabetic 50-year-old had left her insulin in her hold luggage and her condition deteriorated soon into the journey Cabin crew on the aboard the Azur Air flight were unable to resuscitate her as panicked passengers looked on in horror Her husband told Russian press she had taken a shot of insulin just an hour before boarding the Boeing 757 so she felt she didn't need to carry it with her during the flight Larger planes are usually equipped with a closed area unofficially known as a "corpse cupboard" to store the bodies of passengers who die suddenly in mid-air. Budget airlines operating smaller planes normally have procedures to put a body on an empty row of seats. But if a flight is fully booked they are forced to leave the body on the aisle.

 A flight attendant has left many people on the internet shaken up after she claimed that she saw the ghost of her late husband during an overnight flight. Lena gasped, her heart seizing in her chest. It couldn't be real. “No, no, no, no, no,” she found herself murmuring. Lena gasped, her heart seizing in her chest. It couldn’t be real.  Yet, she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the end of the airplane aisle. She has left many people on the internet shaken up after she claimed that she saw the ghost of her late husband during an overnight flight. While boarding the passengers on her most recent trip, Lena had an odd feeling. She had the unpleasant impression that someone familiar had just boarded the plane and couldn’t shake it. While making her rounds, she caught sight of a passenger who resembled her late spouse. How is this even possible? When Lena approached him, she uncovered a secret that she hoped she hadn’t discovered… She stared at him again. Those warm brown eyes loo...

 Joe Biden has interacted weirdly with a young girl who'd come out to greet him The US President has found himself at the centre of an online storm after weird moment that happened as he was saying goodbye to embassy staff and their families in Finland US President Joe Biden has been called out following a weird moment with a young girl – who he appeared to try to gobble up and sniff. In an incident that has gone viral, the president was filmed saying goodbye to a bunch of United States embassy staff and their families just before he left Finland on Friday (July 14) at the end of his jaunt to Europe. As the well-wishers were on the Tarmac at the airport in Helsinki, Biden leant in towards the little girl and appeared to put his mouth on her shoulder, pretending to gobble her up, before appearing to try to sniff her – although that was possibly a peck on the cheek that went a bit weird when the girl turned away from him. Either way, it was certainly a bizarre moment – and, as usual ...

Couple Caught Having Sex Inside Toilet Of EasyJet Flight In UK, Escorted Off Plane EasyJet confirmed the incident took place onboard one of their flights and added that the police were also informed. Two passengers were caught on camera allegedly having sex in the toilet during an easyJet flight from the UK's Luton to Ibiza. The shocking footage, which went viral on X was taken on September 8 and showed a flight attendant opening the door of the toilet where the couple was caught in the act.   A Member of staff was seen nervously standing outside the toilet doors as passengers eagerly waited for him to open it. As he opened it, the couple was seen in a compromising position.  The man involved in the act quickly slammed the door shut, as other passengers cheered and shrieked in surprise. One woman was heard screaming ''Oh my God'', before asking her friend if she had caught what happened on camera. Meanwhile, the cabin crew and some passengers also appeared embarrass...

The Serial Killer and the Texas Mom Who Stopped Him It was nearing eight o’clock in the evening on December 11, 1981, and the serial killer Stephen Morin was driving the SUV of his latest captive, Margy Palm, north out of San Antonio.  Helicopters circled the city and police combed the streets, warning people to stay inside and lock the doors. Morin’s reign of terror was sputtering to a clumsy close after a rare mistake earlier that day. He was suspected of the murder, torture, and in some cases rape of more than 30 women in 9 or 10 states—and most of San Antonio now knew that he was on the loose in its manicured, country-club midst. Morin’s concern at the moment, though, wasn’t escaping so much as finding an appropriate soundtrack for his kidnapping of Palm, the 30-year-old Texan in the passenger seat. Morin, also 30, had pulled a .38 revolver on her six hours earlier as she reached her Chevy Suburban in the parking lot of a Kmart after Christmas shopping, then shoved her inside t...

 Casie, who hails from Tennessee, confessed to eating her dead husband's ashes, My Strange Addiction A Woman has confessed to eating her dead husband’s ashes - and says that it’s helped her lose three stone since his death. A 26-year-old woman is boggling minds on the internet as she confessed to her bizarre addiction on a television show. Casie, who hails from Tennessee, has a strange addiction, which is eating her dead husband’s ashes. Appearing for the first time on a television show called ‘My Strange Addiction’, Casie elaborately talked about how she developed the habit of eating out of the urn in which the ashes are stored. The couple, who married ten months after they met in 2009, had been inseparable before Sean’s fatal asthma attack which is when Casie’s “world stopped turning”. Initially Casie found comfort in carrying Sean’s ashes around with her, taking him wherever she went. I take my husband everywhere, to the grocery store, shopping, to the movies, out to eat, anywhe...

A  30 years old woman from Bulawyo, Zimbabwe, identified as Marie, is in a big dilemma after her husband who died four years earlier has refused to let her have a normal life as he keeps coming back to have sex with her. The widow who said her husband died when she was 26, believes she is under a kind of spell and wants help from some Sangomas (witch doctors), to free her from the grip of her late husband. Hear Her:I have gone through enough of this spiritual warfare. I'm a 30-year-old widow and my husband died 4 years ago when I was 26 years old. We had just gotten married when he died in a horrific car accident and died on the spot. That was five months after we had been married. I got so emotional pain that I would mysteriously see him every night. He would be crying whilst looking at me and I thought I was dreaming. Three months later, I felt like someone was waking me up at night and I was shocked to see him in my bedroom, sitting by side of the bed. I wanted to scream but he ...

 A male tegu opens its jaws and attempts to mate with a female lizard that's been dead for two days. When A zoologist  went for a walk in the park in southeastern Brazil on a warm September day in 2013, he was hoping to find noteworthy animal behavior to study. "I felt a sense of wonder," says zoologist who observed male tegus mating with a dead female. But he did not expect to witness lizard necrophilia. Right in front of him, he saw a male reptile trying to court and mate with a dead female of the same species, Salvatore Marianne, commonly known as the black-and-white tegu. A male lizard attempting to mate with a dead female lizard A male tegu opens its jaws and attempts to mate wit. I felt Surprised, because I did not observe this behavior in lizards before, only in frogs," He said, of the Zoology Museum of the University of Campinas in São Paulo. Necrophilia occurs in other lizard species, but it's the first documented instance in black-and-white tegus, one o...

An ancient man and woman have been found locked in a loving embrace in a grave in Ukraine for 3,000 years The archaeologists who excavated the grave believed that the woman was willingly entombed alive in order to accompany her husband to accompany her husband to the next world, reports Autopsy experts say it would not be possible to place the woman’s body in such a loving position if she was already dead. The experts say it is likely the woman chose to die and be buried with her husband. They believe she may have drunk poison as she climbed into the grave and embraced her recently dead partner. The extraordinary burial saw the couple clasped together since the Bronze Age in eternal love. It is a unique burial, a man and a woman lying there, hugging each other tight. Both faces were gazing at each other, their foreheads were touching.” The woman was lying on her back, with her right arm she was tenderly hugging the man, her wrist lying on his right shoulder. The legs of the woman were ...

 The Baby who was allegedly starved his mother's boss in Lagos, has died.   On Friday December 17, the deceased's mother cried out after seeing the state of her 5-month-old baby allegedly seized by her madam. The woman did a live video with human rights activist, Harrison Gwamishu, to report what her madam had done. According to the 19-year-old mother, her madam seized her baby because she couldn't pay back the hospital bill she had  helped her clear.   Photos of the baby before showed him looking healthy. However, after allegedly being with the madam named Tina, the baby lost so much weight. It took the intervention of the Lagos State Social Welfare and the police to reunite the woman and her child.