Curiosities

The underground fire of Centralia has been burning beneath Pennsylvania since 1962 and could keep going for another century. Here’s why.

Meet the underground palm tree of Borneo: it flowers, gets pollinated and fruits below the soil, never once reaching daylight.

For a century Rjukan had no direct winter sun, until it installed giant mirrors that now reflect sunlight onto its square every day.

The royal Monopoly ban is real: Prince Andrew and Prince William both admit their family games get far too competitive to play fairly.

In 1932, the Australian army fought 20,000 emus with machine guns in the Emu War, and remarkably, the birds actually won the battle.

Dying in Longyearbyen is nearly impossible: permafrost blocks burials, so anyone gravely ill flies to mainland Norway.

Bir Tawil is a strip of desert between Egypt and Sudan that no country will claim: discover the strange story behind this no-man’s-land.

Pheasant Island switches flags every six months: discover the curious 360-year-old shared-sovereignty deal behind it all.

The Principality of Sealand rose from an abandoned WWII gun tower and survived an armed coup staged by foreign mercenaries.

In 1919, a molasses tsunami over 13 feet tall swept through Boston at 35 mph and killed 21 people. Discover the strange physics behind it.