In the summer of 1555, famed Ottoman corsair Dragut (Turgut Reis) launched a devastating raid on the Italian town of Paola. With unmatched naval speed and brutal precision, his forces plundered, burned, and terrorized the coastal settlement. It was one of many such strikes that cemented Dragut’s fearsome reputation across the Mediterranean—turning quiet towns into battlegrounds and reminding Europe of the sea’s unpredictable fury.
1555 – Dragut’s Wrath: The Sacking of Paola
In a remarkable move for its time, New Jersey extended voting rights to all adults who could prove a net worth of £50—regardless of gender or race. Though short-lived, this 1776 law granted suffrage to property-owning women and free Black men decades ahead of the national curve. It was a radical, fleeting glimpse of what inclusive democracy might have looked like in the young American republic.
1776 – A Revolutionary First: New Jersey’s Bold Voting Rights Law
When La Méduse ran aground off West Africa in 1816, chaos followed. With lifeboats limited, 151 people were forced onto a makeshift raft with little food or water. Adrift for 13 days, most perished from dehydration, suicide, and even cannibalism. Only 15 survived. The nightmare inspired Théodore Géricault’s iconic painting The Raft of the Medusa—a chilling indictment of arrogance, injustice, and abandoned lives at sea.
1816 – Cast Adrift: The Horrors of the Raft of the Medusa
Charleston, South Carolina, witnessed the bizarre in 1843 when an alligator reportedly fell from the sky during a thunderstorm. Stunned residents claimed the creature plummeted onto the street amid rain and thunder. The explanation remains unclear—perhaps a tornado or waterspout lifted it skyward. Fact or folklore, the tale lives on as one of nature’s strangest alleged stunts in American weather lore.
1843 – When Alligators Rain: A Charleston Mystery
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid struck again on July 2nd, 1901—this time robbing a Great Northern train near Wagner, Montana. The outlaws made off with $40,000, disappearing into legend as lawmen gave chase. The robbery was one of their most daring, cementing their status as symbols of the American outlaw myth, even as the age of trains, telegrams, and Pinkertons began to close in.
