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Sometimes seemly innocent and innocuous images have pretty dark and sinister backgrounds. A happy-faced photo of an ordinary family can be hiding what could become some of the darkest moments in history. Below we have found ten seemingly normal images, which, when you dig a little deeper into the backstory, unravel dark and tragic stories.

In 1877, Louisa May Alcott, beloved author of the classic novel Little Women, noted that she had just finished writing an entirely different kind of story—a dark and lurid romance that she planned to publish under a pseudonym. “It has been simmering since I read Faust last year,” she wrote. “Enjoyed doing it, being tired

People do strange things every day. We’ve all likely seen someone doing something that seems just a bit off. Maybe it’s noticing someone riding a bike wearing pajamas in the pouring rain or arguing with the loaves of bread on the shelf in the grocery store. Odd, yeah, but something we can just ignore as

Some people will tell you that robbing a bank is a victimless crime—as long as you don’t injure someone while doing it. The money is insured, so the only loser is the bank, and banks have plenty of money. Of course, the bank passes on the cost of insuring the money to its clients, so

Ah, the family sitcom. A little corny, a tad hokey, perhaps a bit idyllic. And mostly dead: Over the past few decades, consumer taste and an ever-broadening number of channels and streaming services have diversified and segmented TV premises. Great shows like The Sopranos and Breaking Bad have pilloried traditional family constructs, while terrible ones

We all know about the Titanic. Most of us remember the Lusitania. Some of us sang about the Edmund Fitzgerald. But those are just a few of the thousands of similar shipwrecks and sinkings throughout maritime history that litter the seafloor, and every shipwreck is the end of a story. But even when Davy Jones

Accounts of the “Shadow People” are some of the most chilling and outrageous of all strange phenomena. Perhaps not least is that no one appears to know exactly what they are, where they come from, or why. Yet sightings of them continue to be reported around the world. And what’s more, they appear to be

Author Miguel de Cervantes said, “Love and war are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in the one as in the other.” An estimated 40 million to 50 million died in the war spanning 1939 to 1945. But it was not all that bad as people also found fireworks amid the

Over the past 25 years, social media has changed the world as we know it—for better and for worse. The various social media platforms have helped us stay in contact with friends and family members over thousands of miles, reconnected those we have fallen out of contact with, and provided a whole new means of

“Phrogging” is when someone secretly moves into another person’s home. Phroggers typically have nowhere else to live. So they sneak into walls, crawl spaces, and other unseen areas. As they settle in, they quietly observe the home’s occupants. As residents sleep, phroggers move around the home late at night. Sometimes they eat the homeowner’s food

Whether it is the producer’s work to bring a production together, the cinematographer’s careful selection of palette and lighting, or the writer’s painstakingly crafted script, the efforts of so many key figures in cinema often go woefully unappreciated. However, few film industry professionals are more underappreciated than the editor, whose job is to build the

Mary I of England was the only surviving child of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine. As the Catholic queen of a country that had fallen into religious conflict and established a breakaway church, she saw it as her duty to bring her subjects back under the “true” religion. This led her to

Even amid mountains of evidence—eyewitness accounts, composite sketches of a suspect, or DNA left behind by a killer—sometimes, cases go unsolved, leaving already grieving families with more questions than answers and without any closure for decades. Thanks to advancements in technology and forensics, such as the CODIS database, which allows law enforcement and laboratories to

A recent opinion poll suggested that as many as 45% of Americans believe in ghosts or spirits of some kind. Certainly, people have been telling each other ghost stories since the dawn of time. We seem to have a natural inclination to believe that there is a shadow world in which departed loved ones, repentant

Drug lords must live by the proverbial sword. Often they die by it too. Cartel leaders and local drug runners know the nature of their business. Those at the top must be ruthless to retain power. When it all ends, many kingpins enter the afterlife on their own terms. With untold wealth earned during their

Gender-swapped cover songs generally go out of their way to avoid challenging gender norms. Pronouns get changed—”oh boy,” becomes “oh girl,” or vice-versa, to avoid anything too disruptive. But gender is such a powerful construct that frequently simply swapping the gender perspective gives a song an entirely new meaning. This list looks at ten songs

Adding new characters to a long-running television show is no easy task. In fact, there’s an entire trope called the Cousin Oliver, named after the character from the 1970’s classic The Brady Bunch. This is an extensive list of TV characters that were created late in the game to “spice things up.” This trope usually

In our day-to-day lives, we take a lot for granted. But things can change from one moment to the next. How we cope with a survival situation depends on many factors, including your age, fitness level, and location. Above all, the most crucial component is your readiness. Each survival situation is different. Maybe the difficulty

When I was in high school, I saw a ghost. Or, at least, I thought I saw one. The school was running a fundraising event one evening, and I joined a group of classmates headed to a temporary classroom on the far side of the building to retrieve fold-up chairs. Approaching the classroom, we saw

Everyone has a favorite snack or quick lunch that they munch on in the office. But you should think carefully about your choice before your next snack break. We want a snack that will keep us going until the next meal, and we want it to be tasty. But, at the same time, we don’t