Who was the tallest person ever recorded?

King Edward VIII of England gave up his throne for the love of Wallis Warfield Simpson on December 10, 1936. His younger brother George VI, who reigned until 1952, took the throne in his place when Elizabeth II became queen.

She was Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, a beautiful young woman who had been seduced at age fifteen by architect Stanford White. At the time of the seduction, she was single and a showgirl in the “Floradora” company. She met White in a room with a red velvet swing. After she married, her husband Harry Thaw grew…

Martha Mitchell, wife of Richard M. Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, was known as the Mouth That Roared. She was so called for her sometimes outrageous comments on liberals, protesters, reporters, and other menaces to society.

Genghis Khan was born circa 1162 and died in 1227. His real name was Temiijin; the title Genghis Khan meant “universal ruler.” He ruled Mongolia, conquered China, devastated the Muslim empire of Khwarizm (now part of Soviet Uzbekistan), and raided Persia and Russia.

Pius IX, who led the Catholic Church for nearly 32 years, from 1846 to 1878, was the longest-reigning pope. It was during his reign that the First Vatican Council, in 1870, promulgated the dogma of papal infallibility. That doctrine states that the pope cannot err on matters of faith or morals when speaking ex cathedra,…

Matthew A. Henson (1866-1955), who had worked with Peary since an 1887 expedition in Nicaragua. Henson and Peary were the only two of a team of six explorers to reach what Peary claimed was the North Pole on April 7, 1909.