Amazing Tales About History

It's one of the more quoted stories from the slave era. Four deaths during a mutiny aboard a ship - La Amistad - carrying 50 kidnapped Africans from Cuba led to high profile court cases in the U.S. about the immoral slave trade in the 1800s, drawing international attention.

Veteran soldiers in the 1700s were as perplexed as ordinary towns folks - and even as scared - by the deafening, ongoing noise that woke them up on a particularly dark night. Nobody could see the source of the sound - a sound like never heard before. Was it Judgement Day? When the morning light came, the mystery was solved.

His gravestone reads "X-Y-Z" because the identity of the man who staged an 1899 bank robbery is still unconfirmed. He was shot dead during the robbery and photos of him were widely circulated in the newspapers of the day. No one ever positively identified him.

Maybe you've seen the classic 1944 Cary Grant movie "Arsenic and Old Lace." It's about two spinster women who lure unsuspecting men to their home and then poison them. What you may not know, is that it's based on a true story.

Roger Sherman is the only founding father who signed all four of the country's original documents. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and brokered the Connecticut Compromise, breaking a political impasse and allowing the Constitution to be approved.

The first flying automobile approved by the FAA was invented in the 1940s. Robert Fulton's Airphibian was only one of his incredible gifts to society. He also invented the flight simulator, that teaches pilots to fly, and Skyhook, featured in a 007 film.

Was it Wethersfield or Windsor? After English settlers arrived at Plymouth in the 1600s, they moved into Connecticut. A dispute over which town they settled first continues. Either way, Wethersfield boasts some of the nation's most incredible history.

The development of airports has occurred with many today surrounded by neighborhoods that were built when the airports were small. The Tweed-New Haven Airport fits this bill - and its runway is on the actual border between two towns.

Yankee Peddlers - the original door-to-door salesmen. Starting in New England in the 1700s, two brothers not only created the Yankee Peddler approach to consumerism, but they also happened to establish the use of tin for plates, coffee pots and dozens of other applications in the U.S.

Mount Rushmore. It was conceived and chiseled by Gutzon Borglum, a controversial artist who was the one who decided which four presidents to feature. And when he couldn't quite finish the project, in stepped his son.