Dubai at it's Best

An aerial picture of a Cloud-Shrouded Dubai has won first prize in a National Geographic photography contest

List of wars with highest cost of causalities/deaths tolls across the world.

This list of wars by death toll includes deaths that are either directly or indirectly caused by war. These numbers include both the deaths of military personnel which are the direct results of battle or other military wartime actions, as well as the wartime/ war-related deaths of civilians, which are the results of war induced epidemics, diseases, famines, atrocities etc.

Two of the ten most highly estimated death tolls, have been waged in the last century. These are of course the two World Wars. Most of the others involved China or neighboring peoples.

Some events overlap categories.

Knocker-up

 A Knocker-up was a profession in England and Ireland that started during and lasted well into the Industrial Revolution and at least as late as the 1920s, before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable.

A knocker-up's job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time.

The knocker-up often used a long and light stick (often bamboo) to reach windows on higher floors. In return, the knocker-up would be paid a few pence a week for this job. The knocker-up would not leave a client’s window until they were assured the client had been awoken.

There were large numbers of people carrying out the job, especially in larger industrial towns such as Manchester. Generally the job was carried out by elderly men and women but sometimes police constables supplemented their pay by performing the task during early morning patrols

Very Strange Connection

President Lincoln's oldest son was connected to three presidential assassinations. He was invited, but did not attend, Ford's Theatre (but was by his father's deathbed in 1865); he was on the scene when Garfield was shot in 1881; and he was present for McKinley's assassination in 1901. 

Shortest war in history

Year Fought: 1896
Between: British Empire vs Zanzibar
Outcome: British victory

The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar on 27 August 1896. With duration of only 45 minutes, it holds the record of being the shortest war in recorded history. The war broke out after Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini, who had willingly co-operated with the British colonial administration, died on 25 August 1896, and his nephew, Khalid bin Bargash, seized power in what amounted to a coup d’état. The British favoured another candidate, Hamud bin Muhammed, whom they believed would be easier to work with, and delivered an ultimatum ordering Bargash to abdicate. Bargash refused. While Bargash’s troops set to fortifying the palace, the Royal Navy assembled five warships in the harbour in front of the palace. The British also landed parties of Royal Marines to support the “loyalist” regular army of Zanzibar. Despite the Sultan’s last-minute efforts to negotiate for peace via the U.S. representative on the island, the Royal Navy ships opened fire on the palace at 9 am on 27 August 1896 as soon as the ultimatum ran out. With the palace falling down around him and escalating casualties, Bargash beat a hasty retreat to the German consulate where he was granted asylum. The shelling stopped after 45 minutes. The British demanded that the Germans surrender the erstwhile Sultan to them, but he escaped to sea on 2 October 1896. He lived in exile in Dar es Salaam until captured by the British in 1916. He was later allowed to live in Mombasa where he died in 1927. As a final act, Britain demanded payment from the Zanzibar government to pay for the shells fired on the country.

A bolt of lightning killed an entire soccer team during a game in 1998!

In October of 1998 a bolt of lightning killed an entire 11-man soccer team from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The opposing team was completely unharmed. Thirty more people had burn injuries.

Some people thought the team had been cursed and that was what caused the lightning to strike them. The game was a draw at 1-1 when the lightning struck the visiting team in the province of Kasai in the eastern region of the DRC.

Incidentally, a similar situation happened the following weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa. A Premier League soccer match was suddenly stopped when lightning struck the field.

Half of the players from both teams, the Jomo Cosmos and the Moroka Swallows, fell to the ground. Several of the players writhed on the ground holding their ears and eyes in pain. Luckily, no one was killed in that incident. 

World's Youngest Serial Killer - Mary Bell

Mary Bell born May 26, 1957
Mary Bell is deemed one of the world's youngest serial killers in history. Although not a serial killer by definition, many feel if she wasn't captured the killings would have continued. She had a tough start in life. Mary's mother tried to kill her on multiple occasions during the beginning years of her life, allegedly trying to make it look like an accident.

Abuse was no stranger to Mary Bell. Her mother, who had Mary at the age of 17, was a prostitute who traveled to Glasgow to work. She was absent from home, spending little to no time with her daughter. When she was there she forced the young child to engage in adult activities with men. The only knowledge Mary Bell had of her mother was the abusive actions towards her.


At the tender age of just 10 years old, one day before her 11th birthday, Mary Bell would commit her first murder. Martin Brown was her first victim, whom she murdered by strangling him to death. Soon after she claimed the life of Brown, Mary and a 13 year old friend Norma Flora Bell (no relation) broke into and vandalized a nursery in Scottwood. They allegedly littered the nursery with letters claiming they were Martin Brown's murderer. This was simply dismissed as a prank as kids will be kids. Soon after the vandalism incident, young potential serial killer Mary strangled three year old Brian Howe to death. After the toddler died, she carved the letter N into his chest, which she would later change to a M, done with a razor blade. Mary then came back to cut parts of his hair off with scissors and used it to partially castrate him.

This young murderer and 13 year old Norma Bell would eventually become captured August in 1968. The trial was set against Mary and Norma, charging them both with two counts of manslaughter. Norma was acquitted of the charges but Mary Bell was convicted of both counts of manslaughter. Prison was deemed inappropriate because of her age and she was too dangerous for a girl's home. She was sent to a boy's home indefinitely.

After serving her time in the boy's home and some time in prison, she was released to the world with a new, unknown identity in 1980. She had a daughter in 1984. When people found out her identity on two separate occasions, she was driven from her location both times. Finally settling in at an unknown location, her daughter grew up and had children. She now lives as a grandmother.

First View of Earth From Moon

On Aug. 23, 1966, the world received its first view of Earth taken by a spacecraft from the vicinity of the Moon. The photo was transmitted to Earth by the Lunar Orbiter I and received at the NASA tracking station at Robledo De Chavela near Madrid, Spain. The image was taken during the spacecraft’s 16th orbit.