A lot of American comforts don't feel luxurious because they're simply part of everyday life. But for visitors sometimes the biggest culture shock isn't a famous landmark, but that the refrigerator makes its own ice.
From fake scholars and forged masterpieces to phony doctors and planted artifacts, these audacious impostors fooled brilliant experts, prestigious institutions, and entire fields before their incredible deceptions were finally exposed.
Discover the forgotten people behind history’s most famous victories, inventions, discoveries, and breakthroughs, from Alfred Russel Wallace and Rosalind Franklin to Ub Iwerks, Frank Worsley, and Branch Rickey across history.
You can’t have a conversation about powerful people without talking about Matilda of Tuscany. A commanding woman who brought peace and destruction as she saw fit, her glorious achievements during her lifetime undoubtedly shaped the course of history. A lover, a fighter, and a genius, Matilda had it all in one powerful package—and that made her end all the more tragic.
Dolores Maria Agatha Wilhelmine Luise von Fürstenberg-Herdringen was born in Berlin in 1936, into a family that moved easily through European aristocratic circles. Her father was Franz-Egon von Fürstenberg-Herdringen, while her mother, Gloria, would become one of the most celebrated society figures of the mid-20th century. Before Dolores was even an adult, her family connections had already stretched across European nobility, international finance, and the fashionable jet set.
Porfirio Rubirosa epitomized the playboy lifestyle of the 1950s by living in luxury at the expense of others. Subsisting on pleasure, polo, and fast cars, Rubirosa played a dangerous game and spent his entire life trying to maintain a dodgy equilibrium. By employing his devil-may-care charm, he refused to settle for less—never taking “no” for an answer.
The ancients didn't have the same knowledge or technology that we do today, but they developed some surprisingly effective remedies.
Surrounded by luxury and indulgence from birth, Lady Jeanne Campbell never learned how to control herself. She took what she wanted; she enjoyed her pleasures. Yet, in the end, her carpe diem lifestyle couldn’t prepare her for the real world.
Jimmy Hoffa was a man of deep contradictions even before he became America’s greatest mystery. A union leader devoted to the well-being of his truckers, he nonetheless had a reputation for ice-cold snubs, red-hot power grabs, and a willingness to go even lower than his enemies. But in the end, those enemies brought about a legendary downfall.
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