Lorna Wallace

There are a handful of dark theories about the rhyme’s inspiration—ranging from a Viking invasion to human sacrifice—but we’ll cross that bridge when get to it. First up, let’s break down the known history of the tune.

Explorers who vanished off the face of the earth. Conquerors, composers, and scientists who expired from strange illnesses. People tantalizingly close to power who wound up dead. When it comes to these deaths, we might never know what really happened.

Discover the controversial conspiracy theories that challenge Shakespeare’s authorship, from the Baconian Theory to the Alien Theory and beyond.

Everything from a cursed mummy to a steering mistake have been floated as the real causes of the ‘Titanic’ disaster—and some conspiracy theories claim the ship never sank at all.

Robert Burns was voted the greatest Scot over iconic warrior William Wallace in a 2009 poll.

Exolangs are constructed languages that imagine how the languages of extraterrestrial beings might look and sound—and linguists have come up with some pretty mind-bending options.

Women like Flora MacDonald, Anne Mackintosh, Isabella MacDuff, and more made their mark on Scottish history.

Some, like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Victor Hugo, believed they had communicated with spirits directly; others, like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Hardy, had ghostly encounters they couldn’t explain.