Dron's son Ashwatthama

Ashwatthama, also called Drauni, the only son of Dronacharya was born after many years of severe penance to Lord Shiva. Ashvatthama was born with a mani on his forehead which made him fearless against any weapon, gods, devtas and nagas. The mani also made him invulnerable to diseases and hunger. Ashwatthama took his education along with Kauravas and Pandavas.

He showed quiet a valor in the battle of Mahabharat by killing son of Ghatotkacha  and a battalion of rakshas. But the main turning point came after his father was killed deceptively by Pandavas which angered him and he invoked narayanastra(shower of a million missiles on enemy) on Pandav army. After Duryodhan was killed by Bhim by striking him on his thighs (this being against mace fighting laws, Balram got very angry and cursed that mace fighting be forgotten forever) he vowed to avenge Duryodhan's death by killing all Pandavas.

Ashwatthama observed how an owl was attacked by crows in the day and how the owls attacked back in the night, so he with the help of Kritavarma and Kripacharya attacked the camp of Pandavs at night, killing many warriors and five sons of Panchali. Before the attack he worshiped lord Shiv and offered his body as offering in return of a boon that "whoever faces him this night shall die". Furious with what had happened in night, Pandavas with Krishna went to sage Vyas's hermitage where Ashwatthama was residing. On seeing Pandavas approaching, Ashwatthama invoked Brahmashira on Pandavas, to counter this Arjun to invoked the same weapon to nullify it, but on sage Vyas's advice Arjun took back the attack (two brahmashira would have destroyed the mortal world) but Ashwatthama unable to do so directed it to Abhimanyu's wife's(Uttara) womb, killing unborn son and only heir of the Pandavas. Seeing this Krishna got very furious and cursed Ashwatthama that he'll roam on earth alone till the end of kalyug infected with leprosy. He even snatched the mani from his forehead which gave him unique powers.

Although not many are aware of this but Pallavs (Southern kingdom near Tamil Nadu) were descendants of Ashwatthama. It is beleived that Ashwatthama married a Naga princess and had a son who started the Pallav kingdom, gotr of Pallav kings is mentioned as Bhardwaj in many texts (Bhardwaj was Grandfather of Ashwatthama).

It is fascinating to know that there have been many sighting of a large man with wound on his forehead in Gir forests of Gujarat. Many people have claimed that they have seen a huge man with leprosy like disease coming to Lord Shiva temple in Asirgarh. There is a doctor in Madhya Pradesh who swears that he has operated on Ashwatthama's forehead wound. Well who knows what is dwelling in those dense Gir forests of Gujarat....

Mighty Warrior Indrajit (Meghnath)

Meghnadh or Indrajit as he was called by Lord Brahma was the greatest warrior in the epic Ramayan, probably much greater than his own father Ravan. 

Meghnadh was the eldest son of Ravan and his wife Mandodari. At the time of his birth,  Ravan instructed all the planets and constellations to be in such positions(ghars) so that his son becomes the mightiest warrior and extremely knowledgeable. When he was born his birth cry was so loud that it sounded like thunder and hence the name Meghnadh .

When Ravan went to indralok to fight all the devtas and lord Indra, he was eventually defeated by them and Indra captured him. When Meghnadh heard about his father’s capture, he immediately went to Indralok, defeated all the devtas and Indra as well. Then he took Indra to Lanka and decided to kill him to honour his father Ravan. Immediately Lord Brahma intervened and asked Meghnadh to free Indra. Meghnadh accepted Brahma’s request and hence was granted a chance to ask for a boon. Meghnadh asked for immortality, but Brahma politely declined as immortality is against the law of the nature. Instead, he was then granted another boon by lord Brahma that after the completion of the Yagna (fire-worship) of his native goddess, he will get a flying-magical chariot, mounting on which, he will win over any enemy in war and become invulnerable. But Brahma also cautioned him that whosoever would destroy this yagna would also kill him. Brahma also granted him another boon that he would only be killed by such a man who hadn't had sleep and food for twelve years. Brahma was so impressed by Meghnadh's skills in war and he who gave him the name Indrajit (the one who won over Indra).

After Ravan’s brother Kubhakaran was killed in battle, he send his son Indrajit to the battlefield.

On the first day of his battle, he killed all the 90 crore monkeys and 20 crore(half) sloth bears. Using the mighty weapon Nagapash (a dangerous weapon in which the enemy is blinded by thousand snakes ), he even defeated both Lord Ram and Lakshman and took their lifeless body to Pataallok(hell) for sacrifice. But eventually Hanuman went to Pataallok , saved Ram and Lakshman and then worshipped Lord Garud to save the monkey army.

Next day when Indrajit came to know that Lakshman and Ram are alive, he became very furious and vowed to kill them both. In the battlefield he used all type of sorcery(this was against the battle ethics) to kill armies of lord Ram, eventually Lakshman came out and started fighting Inrajit, to demotivate Lakshman and the monkey army Indrajit did such sorcery as if he was killing Sita in his chariot. This hit hard to Lakshman and in anger he pounced on Indrajit, taking advantage of lack of focus of Laksham he used Vasavi Sakthi against Lakshman, Lakshman fell unconscious, poised to die precisely at the following sunrise. His life was saved by Hanuman, who brought the Sanjivani plant for the weapon used by Indrajit and cured him.

When Indrajit came to know that Lakshman had survived again, he went to his native deity's secret temple to perform the yagna that would make him invincible. Vibhishan, Indrajit's uncle informed Ram about this, hence Lakshman and Vibhisan went to face Indrajit in the Yagnaagaar, where Indrajit would not touch any weapons. Indrajit fought Lakshmana with the utensils of the yagna.

Indrajit used the three Supreme Weapons (Brahmanadastra, Pashupatastra and Vaishnavastra) on Lakshman. To Indrajit's surprise  each of the three weapons refused to touch Lakshman. At that point Indrajit realised that Lakshman was no ordinary human. Indrajit vanished briefly from Yagnaagaar, returning to Ravan at the royal palace and reported what he saw, proposing that he make peace with lord Ram. Ravan became furious and told Indrajit that he was a coward for having fled the battlefield. This accusation provoked Indrajit who briefly lost his temper, striking fear even at the Ravan's heart. He apologised and told his father that his primary duty as a son was to serve his father. He returned to the Yagnaagaar and fought Lakshman with all his skills . Lakshman slew Indrajit by beheading him with the Indrastra. It was possible only because Rama's brother Lakshmana didn't have any sleep or food for twelve years during their exile.

Though Indrajit is seen as a demon in Hindu culture, he was a mighty warrior who just followed his dharm.

CURIOUS CASE OF MARY TOFT

Mary Toft was a British national from Surrey born in 1701, who became quite a controversy in the year 1726. She started giving birth to rabbit babies,seeing this her family summoned the local surgeon, John Howard. He saw Mary Toft deliver a litter of 9 rabbits, they were neither alive nor intact, but what actually came out of her were parts of dead rabbits. A stunned John Howard brought the bizarreness to the attention of other physicians. Soon enough, King George I of Great Britain himself sent two prominent surgeons to investigate the matter- Nathanael St. Andre, surgeon-anatomist to the King, and Samuel Molyneux, secretary to the Prince of Wales. Toft explained the surgeons about how she had developed an intense craving for rabbit meat during her pregnancy. Furthermore, she told them that following unsuccessful attempts of chasing the rabbits down, she dreamt of rabbits in her lap. And then she started giving birth to rabbits. Mary Toft continued to give birth to more rabbits, this time in the presence of notable doctors.In order to find substantial clues and verify the authenticity of this strange phenomenon, the doctors performed tests. For example,they added a lung piece of one of the dead rabbits to the water and noticed that the piece stayed afloat, giving rise to the logic that the rabbit must have breathed air before, something that isn’t a possibility inside a womb.

Thomas Onslow the local policeman suspected Mary and hence started investigating her. He found in his investigation, that from past one month, Toft’s husband had been buying young rabbits. The same day, a porter called Thomas Howard, confessed that he had been bribed by the woman’s sister-in-law to sneak a rabbit into her chamber. Mary Toft denied the accusation at first, but when a famous London physician, Sir Richard Manningham, threatened her that he might have to perform a very painful surgical operation to examine her uterus, she got scared and told the physician that an  accomplice had inserted the claws of a cat and a rabbit’s head into her womb. So basically, for all the times she made it seem as though it were animals that she was giving birth to instead of a regular human baby, it was all a result of animals having been previously inserted into her vagina. But up until then, Mary Toft had gone to large extents to prove the existence of something, that in real terms, have always been impossible. It was a big shame on the part of the doctors that defended her case, and it goes unsaid, their careers were effectively ruined. And Mary Toft was sent to prison.

The fall of Aztec

The Azetcs were a great civilisation who lived in large parts of Mesoamerica now Mexico.
Their capital was Tenochtitlan(now the location of Mexico City), situated on  Lake Texcoco. The Aztec Empire was a tribute empire, which extended its power throughout Mesoamerica. It originated in 1427 as a triple-alliance between the city-states Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan who allied to defeat the Tepanec state of Azcapotzalco. The greatest ruler of the Aztec empire was The Moctezuma II. He united the Mexico basin. But downfall of the Aztecs came because of him.
Hernán Cortés a Spanish Conquistador, had heard about big cities made up of gold and gems arrived on the Mexico soil and executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous people against others. He used a native woman, Doña Marina, as an interpreter. He was a fugitive, punished for mutiny against the king who ran away and came to the mexico basin. 
As Aztecs had never seen people with yellow hair, white skin and horses, Moctezuma thought  Hernán Cortés as the sun god and thus invited him to his city Tenochtitlan. The Spanish seized this opportunity and captured Moctezuma and ruled through him for months, raiding the big temples, scratching the gold from the walls and melting the gold idols.
Cortés left Tenochtitlan to return to the coast and deal with the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, he left his trusted men in charge .His men allowed a significant Aztec feast to be celebrated in Tenochtitlan and closed off the square and massacred the celebrating Aztec noblemen.This massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan precipitated rebellion by the population of the city. When the captured emperor Moctezuma II, now seen as a mere puppet of the invading Spaniards, attempted to calm the outraged populace, he was killed by a projectile. Cortés, who by then had returned to Tenochtitlan, and his men had to fight their way out of the capital city . However, the Spanish and Tlaxcalans returned with reinforcements and a siege led to the fall of Tenochtitlan a year later on August 13, 1521.
After that almost all the Aztec people died because of poor living conditions or diseases brought by the Spaniards.
Greed of one civilisation led to the fall and death of the other civilisation.

JACK THE RIPPER

Jack the Ripper, murderer of at least five women, all prostitutes, in or near the Whitechapel district of London’s East End between August and November 1888. The case is one of the most famous unsolved mysteries of English crime. The name "Jack the Ripper" originated in a letter written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was widely disseminated in the media. Jack the Ripper used to cut throats of his victims prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that Jack  possessed surgical knowledge. Jack the Ripper murdered 5 women naming  Mary Ann, Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly, they are called the canonical five.
Nichols was not missing any organs, Chapman's uterus was taken, Eddowes had her uterus and a kidney removed and her face mutilated and Kelly's body was eviscerated and her face hacked away, though only her heart was missing from the crime scene.
Other than these 11 murders are linked with Jack the Ripper.
The surviving police files on the these murders shed some light on this case. A large team of policemen conducted house-to-house enquiries throughout Whitechapel. Forensic material was collected and examined. Suspects were identified, traced and either examined more closely or eliminated from the enquiry. More than 2,000 people were interviewed, "upwards of 300" people were investigated, and 80 people were detained.
Though Jack the Ripper was never caught there are many conspiracies related to the identity of Jack the Ripper.
According to some theories Walter Sickert a renowned painter of that time was a curious candidate for these murders, and mainly falls to the fact that Sickert had made sketches and paintings of the Ripper crimes that were quite accurate.
According to a theory given by then police officer Inspector Abberline Jack wasn’t ‘Jack’ at all, but in fact, a woman, Jill the Ripper !!
According to an another theory Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale the grandson of Queen Victoria was the Jack the Ripper. He went mad when he discovered he had syphilis and hence went on a killing spree. Killings stopped at the same time when he went  to a mental institution.
Well we will never know the true identity of the this mad serial killer.

RAPE OF NANKING (NANKING MASSACRE)

In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. The six weeks of carnage is known as the Rape of Nanking.
After finally defeating the Chinese at Shanghai in November, 50,000 Japanese soldiers then marched on toward Nanking. Unlike the troops at Shanghai, Chinese soldiers at Nanking were poorly led and loosely organised. Although they greatly outnumbered the Japanese and had plenty of ammunition, they withered under the ferocity of the Japanese attack, then engaged in a chaotic retreat. After just four days of fighting, Japanese troops smashed into the city on December 13, 1937, with orders issued to "kill all captives." Their first concern was to eliminate any threat from the 90,000 Chinese soldiers who surrendered. Many were beaten to death by Japanese soldiers, others were simply mowed down by machine-gun fire , tied-up, soaked with gasoline and burned alive.

After killing Chinese soldiers, the Japanese soldiers turned their attention to the women of Nanking. Old women over the age of 70 as well as little girls under the age of 8 were dragged off to be sexually abused. More than 20,000 females (with some estimates as high as 80,000) were gang-raped by Japanese soldiers, then stabbed to death with bayonets or shot so they could never bear witness.

Even pregnant women were not spared. In several instances, they were raped, then had their bellies slit open and the foetuses torn out. Sometimes, after storming into a house and encountering a whole family, the Japanese forced Chinese men to rape their own daughters, sons to rape their mothers, and brothers their sisters, while the rest of the family was made to watch.

Throughout the city of Nanking, random acts of murder occurred as soldiers frequently fired their rifles into panicked crowds of civilians, killing indiscriminately. Young or old, male or female, anyone could be shot on a whim by any Japanese soldier for any reason. Corpses could be seen everywhere throughout the city. The streets of Nanking were said to literally have run red with blood.

Those who were not killed on the spot were taken to the outskirts of the city and forced to dig their own graves. Other times, the Japanese forced the Chinese to bury each other alive in the dirt.

This incredible carnage continued unabated for about six weeks, from mid-December 1937 through the beginning of February 1938.

But according to some theories this massacre never happened. It was a false propaganda spread by Chinese Nationalists and Communists for their political purposes. Well who knows whats the truth.

WITCH-HUNT IN MEDIVAL AGES

Witch-Hunt refers to search of people who perform witchcraft or are labelled as witches.
Labelling of women as witches and burning them is being done since the times of Egyptian civilisation. But it became more prominent in medieval ages in Europe. Witch Hunt used to happen in South Asia and Africa also but it was at its peak in Europe.
Witch-Hunt intensified in 1400's. As women were a weaker sex, it was considered that they were more prone to Devil's temptation.
During this period the ideas of feminism were growing in the minds of the women. Women started to demand a equal status in the society. They started to break the society's boundaries. The church got alarmed and scared. They started a witch-hunt all across the Europe and started labelling women witches who had these feminism ideas. About 35,000 to 1,00,000 women were executed during this period.
Church could go to such levels to consolidate their power in Europe.