Most Strange and Unique theme parks

We all like to go to theme parks because of the excite rides, indulging arcades, welcoming cartoon characters, and challenging games. The Disney Land, Wet ‘n’ Wild, and Six Flags all are famous throughout the world for their these features offering fun and entertainment.

But, now a days, the theme parks are not confined to these aspects only. In fact, they tend to be completely different by offering some strange or laughing scenes as well as bizarre rides. You will agree with this after you go through the following top 10 strange theme parks.

Diggerland – England

This is the theme park where you need to operate construction vehicles and machines. Spread in four different locations, this is where you can see a caterpillar or a bobcat moving over the grass or dirt while driving. A unique adventure awaits you here via its 19 varied kid-welcoming rides. Believe it or not, all the rides here are built using the actual construction machines like cranes, diggers, and dump trucks. Further, what further add to your excitement are the dancing machines.

Alien Apex Resort – New Mexico

This is the home of aliens in Roswell, the place where possibly an UFO had crashed in 1947. Its aim is to take you on a trip of the world that is managed by the aliens. It is going to open in 2010 luckily. The center of attraction will be the ride of alien abduction. There will be also an exhibit hall where you can know anything about the extra-terrestrial life. Further, do not miss the Symbiosis show that will dramatically recreate the UFO incident via fireworks, music, and special effects.

Dickens World – England

This is where you will come across the portrayals of Mr. Charles Dickens representing the murky side of the industrial revolution. The theme park is situated in the Kent’s Chatham Dockyard and is packed with the memories of pestilence, ailments, dysentery, and the top world of Victorian England. And sadly, you will even see some starving orphans.

The Holy Land Experience – Florida

This is no less than a heaven in Orlando wherein the life at the time of Jesus is exhibited. Many life events of Lord Jesus are reenacted here including the crucifixion. Actually, the park’s aim is to make you feel the calm and holy life of the people in the ancient days when they used to reside at some Holy Land. You will find here a town replicating the old Jerusalem: several markets, a Temple, a Judean Village, and a Garden Tomb where Jesus was buried.

Grutas Park – Lithuania

Also known as the ‘Totalitarianism Park’ or ‘Stalin’s World’, this park is encircled by barbed wires and several watch towers. Established by Vilumas Malinauskas, this theme zone is the abode of some 100 statues of very popular Soviets such as Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Dzerzhinsky. To add some sense of child-friendliness and lightness to this gloomy park, a zoo full of peacocks as well as ostriches along with other animals is also present.

Bon Bon Land – Denmark

Welcome the fourth largest park of the nation! It is influenced by the Danish confectionary that is expert is forming candies having the shape of strange animals and things. There are some beautiful racy highlights, vomiting rodents, and rides like The Horse Dropping, The Crazy Turtle, and the Dog Fart Rollercoaster that takes you excitingly near the giant piles of dog poo where the speakers around emit fart sounds. But, still this park is family friendly, as it has all the expected fun and events – roller coasters, shows, rafting, and playgrounds.

Memory Village – Haiti

This is a historical park where all the visitors pass through the life of a slave. This means that the park aims at educating the public about the slavery and so, it is the first theme park of its kind on the planet. A participant is given the traditional attires of a slave and is then kidnapped, trapped, and impelled to slot in a slave ship. On the other hand, the other visitors are ‘sold’ and are laid on a plantation. After 12 hours are gone, the participants rebel and free themselves.

World Chocolate Wonderland – China

How it will be for you if you have to look at the Great Wall of China and Terracotta Warriors in chocolate? Well, to get the experience, come to this park. Opened in Jan 2010, this park boasts everything in chocolate using 176,000 pounds of this yummy treat. Many monumental and famous attractions are in chocolate here, all closed in a glass to avoid melting and biting by the visitors.

Shijingshan Amusement Park – China

Located in Beijing, this is an eerily themed park where all cartoon characters reside uniquely. Can you recall the Walt Disneyland park of Orlando? You can compare this Chinese park to Orlando Disney Park. At the entrance, you will come across the castle that is also at the Orlando’s park. You might feel that the characters here are imported from Orlando to Beijing. You might also feel that the characters are stolen, but this is obviously not true. They reflect those stated in the Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Ferrari World – Abu Dhabi

This is a strange, but high tech park boasting roller coasters, an interactive museum, simulator rides, and a theatre for a play with Italian theme as well as a race track. This is among the leading luxury tourist destinations on the planet. You will surely admire this stunning process of converting a sand pit to a frolicking princess castle.

Some Wierd But Cool Macbook Concept Designs

Do you think you can come up with a better design than Apple for its popular products such as the MacBook and Mac mini? here is a collection of apple coolest but weird concepts.Most of them are pretty nifty, maybe the designers over at Apple would want to check it out for their next product design.

1. Macbook Water Concept

Greeks proposed a concept centuries ago that the world is made up of four basic elements namely Air, Earth, Water and Fire. Well MacBook Air is already out in the market so who says that we shouldn’t expect a MacBook Earth, Water and Fire too. Dvice has made an excellent concept of these 3, however we liked the iFluid idea MacBook Water is an iFluid device that has less booting time than a cell phone. Pour the fluid on a flat surface to get the MacBook Water started and to close it simply wipe the fluid off the surface. Storing it at temperate below 0°C voids the warranty of the product. But unfortunately it is impossible to make it now, lets hope it in next century. Via sizlopedia.

2. Macbook 3d Concept 

We have stepped in world of 3D-enabled technologies. Just imagine chat rouletting in 3D! and a hingeless spine design. Take a look at this MacBook 3D. Via yankodesign. 

3. Apple Mac-tribook Concept

The Apple triBook aims to resolve the issue of screen space that traditionally is a bugbear for most users of notebooks. The triBook comes with two additional side screens in additional to the main screen; thus increasing the total screen space to 21″. The two folding screens are intended to offer users more options to multi-task. However prima facie evidence, as gathered from reading other reports online, suggests that it is gamers who have responded most cheerfully to this news. Via maclife

4. Foldable Macbook Touch Concept

Introducing the first OLED touchscreen flexible macbook ever, the first laptop you can model at will. Via tommasogecchelin

 5. Virtual Macbook Air Concept 

Imagine a lighter MacBook Air, with a virtual keyboard instead of the physical one. The use of two touchscreens made the need of a mouse futile and now no real keyboard, small laser projector that displays a virtual keyboard on a flat laptop surface, makes it much thinner than Dell 9.99 concepts and of course old macbook air which is much fatter in front of it via Petitinvention

6.Digi-roll Macbook Concept 

This is next generation macbook concept where you can actually roll your laptop like an umbrella. Imagine how portable it’d be all rolled up. There’s an in-between configuration that you could theoretically use to browse email quickly, and the straps double as places to plug in your USB devices. It also has a detachable webcam you could use on your macbook or wear on your wrist, however digi roll is not specfically designed for apple but it would be cool to have it for macbook
via D-roll

7. Transparent Macbook Concept

A picture really does say a thousand words. Wouldn’t it be completely magical to have a transparent laptop? Via 2day
 
8.MacBook Mini Concept

It just looks too good and perfect to be true—which is why I want it to be real: It is less than half the size of any macbook and with the perfect, dream technical specs to boot. It features a foldable trackpad which saves up the space when you are not using the keyboard. One other mockup of the MacBook mini by the same designer is a sliding trackpad, which sounds like a better idea than the foldable one. Via slashgear.


9. Macbook with Optimus Maximus Concept

Optimus Maximus, is the dream of any heavy computer user and what if the two technologies combine? Macbook with a completely customizable OLED using optimus maximus. It would looks stunning and the minute you see it, you would realize that you are looking at a device that has some actual richness of personality and could provide a richer experience.


10. Macbook Folder Concept

Is it next MacBook? no, but everyone likes to put their 2 cents in. It’s called the Mac Folder – not all that different from any other laptop but this could be the netbook everyone wants/expects Apple to make. This ultra slim e-folder ‘Macbook Folder’ is equipped with a touch screen display, a large-button keyboard, two built-in speakers, MAC operating system, Bluetooth and wireless LAN. Via laptopinyo.

Weirdest Things Smuggled on an Airplane

You might think that the increased security at airports around the world would deter would-be smugglers, but you'd be wrong. Motivated most often by profit, passengers have been caught with a jaw-dropping array of items, from tiger cubs and monkeys to exotic fish and even a human corpse. And while smuggling is certainly no laughing matter, these stories of failed subterfuge are, in equal parts, bizarre, outrageous, and funny.

Snakes On A Plane, Almost

In a particularly memorable baggage malfunction, headlines were made this September when the luggage clasp of a known wildlife smuggler broke in an airport, depositing a pile of live reptiles on a conveyor belt at Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The 95 boa constrictors, other snakes, and turtles that the smuggler was attempting to export illegally earned him six months in jail and a $61,000 fine.

Fish Under Skirt

"Flipping noises" alerted officials to the 51 live tropical fish tucked into the pockets of an apron hidden under the skirt of a woman traveling from Singapore to Australia this June. She might have been successful in the hoop skirt era, but not today. As it stands, if the woman is found guilty of smuggling wildlife, she could face an $85,000 fine and serve a 10-year prison sentence.

Underpants Full Of Geckos

Ants in your pants: Bad. Forty-four geckos in your underwear? Much, much worse. In early 2010, a German man was caught trying to sneak 44 endangered geckos and skinks out of New Zealand in pouches sewn into his underpants. The man claimed the lizards, which can sell for as much as $2,000 each, were for his personal collection.

Carry-On Chihuahua

Small dogs in handbags are as plentiful as paparazzi pictures of teacup-dog toting celebrities. But in late 2009, customs officials in Dublin Airport were surprised to find the outline of a Chihuahua in a man's hand luggage on a security X-ray. Suspecting it was a toy dog, customs officers got a second surprise when they unzipped the bag and found a tiny, and very real, canine. The dog, which according to the Mail Online, was to be a gift, was placed in quarantine.

Corpse In A Wheelchair

Plans that resemble the plot from "Weekend at Bernie's" rarely end well, and this one is no exception. This past April, a woman and her adult daughter were arrested after trying to board a plane from Liverpool to Berlin with the woman's recently deceased 91-year-old husband. The women had placed the corpse in a wheelchair and covered his eyes with sunglasses. Upon discovery, they said they thought he was just asleep.

Songbirds In Leggings

They say you can tell a lot about a man by his shoes. But in May 2009 at Los Angeles International Airport, the socks were the giveaway: Bird feathers and droppings on his socks alerted agents to a man smuggling more than a dozen exotic songbirds in specially made leggings under his pants. Carried this way on a flight from Vietnam to Los Angeles, the man was arrested and the birds put in quarantine at a zoo.

Pygmy Monkeys In Pants

In 2002, employees at Los Angeles International were tipped off to a smuggler when a bird of paradise flew out of his suitcase. But that wasn't all: The man's baggage held 50 orchids and three more birds tucked into nylon stockings. And that still wasn't all. When asked if there was anything else, the man admitted to having a pair of pygmy monkeys in his pants. The monkeys were moved to the Los Angeles Zoo, but all four birds died.

Crocodile Menagerie

There's a big, big difference between a crocodile handbag and a crocodile in a handbag. In late 2009, a man was arrested upon landing in South Africa after a flight from Thailand with 70 live animals in his bags. Eight tiny Caiman crocodiles, dozens of snakes, a turtle, and scorpions were among the animals confiscated and quarantined at a South African zoo.

Tiger Cub Surrounded By Stuffed Animal Toys

Which one of these things is not like the other? In August 2010, authorities found a sedated two-month old live tiger cub tucked into an oversized bag amidst stuffed tiger toys. The Thai Airways passenger who was heading to Iran from Bangkok claimed she was carrying the bag for someone else.

Cockroach Stowaways

Sometimes, smuggling is collateral; a byproduct of unhygienic conditions. And that, unfortunately, was the case for a number of airline catering companies recently cited for unsanitary conditions. LSG Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet were among the companies penalized for cockroaches, flies, mice, and "other signs of inadequate pest control." In other words, you might be getting a little more than you bargained for when those catering companies unload meals for purchase on the country's biggest airlines. The moral of the story? Keep your carry-ons zipped and bring your food from home.

Top Ten Fighter Aircraft of All Time.

Over the past century, dozens of aircraft have been designed and built to fight in the sky. But now based on expert opinion, audience polls and technical comparison, we've constructed a five-point matrix, that will rank the Top Ten Fighter aircraft of all time.

No. 10:F/A-22 Raptor

  No. 10: F/A-22 Raptor
Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin
Power Plant: Pratt & Whitney F-119 PW-100
Top Speed: Mach 2.5
Armament: One 20mm cannon, six AMRAAM and two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles

Because it is almost invisible to radar and carries an awesome array of weaponry the F-22 Raptor, America's fourth-generation fighter, gets superb innovation and fear factor ratings. However, the aircraft's prowess is compromised by its astronomical production costs and the fact it has some way to go to match the combat records of the F-15 and F-16. Therefore, in the kill ratio, production and service length categories, the Raptor scores zip, placing it firmly in 10th place on our list.

No. 9: Sea Harrier FA2

Manufacturer: British Aerospace
Power Plant: Rolls Royce Pegasus mk 104 or 106 turbofan
Top Speed: 736 mph
Armament: Two 30-mm Aden cannon, plus two AMRAAM and four Sidewinder missiles, two Harpoon or Sea Eagle anti-ship missiles

With its unrivaled ability to maneuver, hover and pop up from unexpected places, the Sea Harrier earns a solid fear factor rating. Its unique design and simple-to-produce airframe score well. Despite achieving a high kill ratio in the Falklands, the "jump jet's" slow speed makes it vulnerable to ground fire, which reduces its overall score. Though the aircraft is being phased out of frontline operations it still earns a respectable ninth place in our top 10 league. 

 No. 8: Sopwith Camel

Manufacturer: Sopwith Aviation Company
Power Plant: Clerget rotary engine
Top Speed: 112 mph
Armament: Two Vickers .303 machine guns

Credited with destroying at least 1,200 enemy aircraft, the Sopwith Camel rightly deserves to be called one of the best fighters of all time. Its solid, if unspectacular, scoring across the board ensures its standing in eighth place on the list of the greatest fighters of all time. 

 No. 7: Me 262 Schwalbe

Manufacturer: Messerschmitt
Power Plant: Two Junkers Juno 004s
Top Speed: 540 mph
Armament: Four 30mm MK-108 cannons

For innovation the "Swallow" scores maximum points. As the first of its kind, the Me 262 inspired equal measures of fear and admiration, so it also scores at the top of the scales in the fear factor category. However, because the aircraft was difficult to build and it had notoriously unreliable engines, the aircraft's production rating is low - so too is its service record, having only been active for a little over two years. Nevertheless, the Me 262 will forever be in the record books as being the world's first fully operational jet fighter - a legend of the skies and the seventh greatest fighter of all time.

 No. 6: Supermarine Spitfire

Manufacturer: Supermarine Aviation Works
Power Plant: Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 piston engine
Top Speed: 369 mph
Armament: Eight Browning .303 machine guns; later version, four 20mm cannon

Used in all British theaters of conflict throughout the Second World War the Spitfire remains the unrivaled symbol of victory and Britain's finest hour. But the Spitfire is also famous for giving Field Marshall Erwin Rommel the scare of his life. On July 17, 1944, in the north of France, a Canadian pilot named Charlie Fox shot at the car carrying the German military mastermind and knocked it off the road, putting Germany's "Desert Fox" out of commission.

No. 4 - A Tie! 

MiG 15
Manufacturer: Mikoyan Gurevich Design Bureau
Power Plant: Klimov VK-1 turbojet
Top Speed: 668 mph
Armament: One 37mm N-37 cannon and two 23mm NR-23 cannon

AND

F-86 Sabre
Manufacturer: North American
Power Plant: General Electric J47 engine
Top Speed: 685 mph
Armament: Six .50-caliber machine guns and eight 5-inch rockets

Compared to today's fighters both these jets are underpowered and primitive but few aircraft have done so well at the job they were designed to do. Both the F-86 Sabre and MiG 15 were the right aircraft at the right time and each richly deserve a prominent place in aviation history. Both designs relied heavily on captured German swept-wing technology and British engine design, so for innovation the MiG and Sabre are equally matched. Both fighters were produced in large numbers, but the MiG edges in front of the Sabre in the production category because of its renowned simplicity. Both jets have similar service records. The result? They are inseparable in the rankings: the MiG 15 and F-86 Sabre tie for fourth place. 

No. 3: F-4 Phantom

Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglass
Power Plant: Two J79 Spey turbojet afterburning engines
Top Speed: 1,485 mph
Armament: Four AIM 7 Sparrow and four AIM 9 Sidewinder missiles.

Produced in large numbers the F-4 Phantom has an unrivaled service history. But the aircraft really earns its third place ranking for being fast, durable and deadly. Phantoms were the test bed for missile technology - and the aircraft held five speed records for an impressive 13 years before being beaten by the aircraft featured in the No. 2 spot on our list of the top 10 fighters of all time.

No. 2: F-15C Eagle

Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglass
Power Plant: Two Pratt & Whitney F-100-PW-100 afterburning turbofans
Top Speed: Mach 2.5
Armament: One 20-mm cannon, four AIM-7F Sparrow and four AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles

No other fighter in the history of aerial combat has a record that even comes close to the Eagle's. The F-15 is far superior to most of its brethren - way better than the F-4 - accelerating better, turning better, handling better.

In fact, such is the reputation of the F-15 that during the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Saddam Hussein's air force simply refused to get in the air. They knew the F-15 would just knock them out of the sky.

 No. 1: P-51D Mustang

Manufacturer: North American Aviation
Power Plant: 1600 hp Packard-built Merlin 61 piston engine
Top Speed: 437 mph
Armament: Six wing-mounted .50-caliber machine guns

Fitted with external drop-tanks the Mustang's range was extended to almost 2,000 miles, making it the only Allied fighter capable of protecting the Allied bombers on long-range, deep-penetration raids. The Mustang performed its job so well that after its introduction in 1944, casualty rates for bomber crews were reduced by 75 percent. In fact, American P51s destroyed almost 5,000 enemy aircraft in Europe - making it the highest scoring U. S. fighter in the European theater of operations.

Strangest Alcohols of the World

If you’re both a traveller and a drinker, you probably conspire to find yourself in the world’s dingiest, most alcohol infested dungeon bars, tucking into a shooter of semi-legal absinthe or a sizable glass of the Chinese drink that visitors tend to rebrand simply ‘firewater’.

Heading out drinking in a new country is a great eye into the culture, a chance to experience a sociable and welcoming vibe that you might not get by staying in the hotel bar. Some drinks, though, are an experience in themselves.we’ve managed to dig out a handful of other beverages that might have you both gagging, and gagging to write home about:

Kumiss


Kumiss is a traditional Mongolian beverage made of horse milk. With only around 2% alcohol content you have to drink gallons of it to get a buzz. That, however, seems not to be a problem to its nomadic makers.

Chicha


Chicha's history goes back to pre-Columbian times where it was drunk during religious ceremonies. At present the word encompasses a variaty of low alcoholic and even non-alcoholic beverages popular throughout Central American, Amazonian and Andean countries. It is made from anything including maize, yuca, quinoa, pineapple, rice, potatoes and other locally available starches and the fascinating or appalling thing about it is that traditionally the ingredients are chewed by chicha makers and it it the enzymes in their saliva that break down the plant starch. The chicha makes then spit out the pulp into earthenware vats with warm water where it is fermented. Appetizing?

Hejie Jiu


Lizard wine is probably more fun to look at than to take a swig of, but the poor creature inside the bottle, usually a gecko, is supposed to give this Chinese specialty the power to fend off various illnesses.

Ruou Mat Ran


Originated in Vietnam and spread throughout Southeast Asia alcohol infused with cobras and other - preferably venomous - animals (scorpions, insects, reptiles, but I even heard of bear penis in spirit) is highly popular for its alleged medicinal and aphrodisiac powers. Judging by the region's population - it does the trick!

Pizza Beer


Just to prove that Westerner are not short on inventiveness - an Illinois, USA couple created this beverage to go with their favorite food. What's next? Eggs and bacon whiskey?

Top 10 Assassins In The History

This is a list of some of the more noteworthy assassinations in world history. I put some conditions on the list when I started: the assassin had to have committed a successful assassination, had to have some political or national significance, and had to have been more or less working alone. Number one doesn’t meet this final requirement, but it is too famous not to include.

10. John Wilkes Booth [Wikipedia]

Assassinated American president Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Booth was an actor and Confederate sympathizer who conspired with several others to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward. It was hoped that the death of Lincoln and his first two successors would cripple the Union government and allow the Confederate government, which had surrendered four days earlier, to continue the war. Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated. The others are James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. Booth used a single-shot .44 caliber Deringer which he fired into the back of Lincoln’s head at point-blank range.

9. Balthasar Gerard [Wikipedia]

Killed Prince William I of Orange, Count of Nassau (also known as William the Silent) on July 10, 1584. William was prominent in the Dutch fight for independence from the Spanish crown in the Netherlands. He was directly involved (either financially or as a leader) in the battles that began the Eighty Years’ War. Gerard, a Catholic Frenchman and supporter of Phillip II believed William had betrayed both the Spanish king and the Catholic religion. Gerard shot William in the chest at close range at William’s home in Delft. Many historians believe William of Orange to be the first world head of state to be assassinated through use of a handgun.

8. Gavrilo Princip [Wikipedia]

Called “the shot heard round the world”, the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria at the hands of Princip sparked the outbreak of World War I. The political goal of the killing was to splinter southern provinces from Austria to form a separate country (Greater Serbia or Yugoslavia). Anywhere from six to twenty-two (depending on which account you read) conspirators lined the route of Ferdinand’s motorcade armed with pistols and hand grenades. Despite one car in the motorcade being blown up, Ferdinand made it through unharmed. While trying to leave the city, Ferdinand’s driver apparently made a wrong turn and unknowingly drove into Princip’s line of fire. Princip fired into the car twice, striking and ultimately killing Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. Princip’s weapon of choice was a 7.65 x 17 mm Fabrique Nationale semi-automatic.

7. Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik [Wikipedia]

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was the head of the German Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), or German secret police, during World War II. The more well known Gestapo was a division of the RSHA. On September 27, 1941, Heydrich was appointed military governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Morovia (Czechoslovakia). Heydrich’s brutality and cruelty to the Czech people and Jews in general earned him the nicknames Butcher of Prague, Blond Beast, and Hangman. Heydrich was so successful in the pacification of the Czech lands that Hitler considered making him governor of Paris. When British intelligence heard this, it was decided that Heydrich had to be eliminated at all costs. Thus was born Operation Anthropoid Kubis and Gabcik were Czechslovakian soldiers who had fled the country early in 1941. After being trained by the British they parachuted in near Prague and set up an ambush for Heydrich as he was driven to Prague Castle on May 27, 1942. After Gabcik’s gun jammed, Kubis threw a modified anti-tank grenade at Heydrich’s car, spraying Heydrich with shrapnel from the seat of the car. Heydrich died eleven days later from septicemia, probably from horsehair used in the upholstery. This was the only successful Allied assassination of a leading Nazi figure during WWII.

6. Charlotte Corday [Wikipedia]

Assassinated Jean-Paul Marat on July 13, 1793. Marat was a key figure in the French Revolution and was held up as a martyr for his cause following his death. He attained almost quasi-sainthood and busts of him actually replaced crucifixes in many churches in Paris. His support of the September Massacres and hand in starting The Reign of Terror tarnished his reputation and he was seen as something of a revolutionary monster in the Second Empire. For her part, Corday was generally reviled for murdering Marat, although during the Second Empire she was seen as a heroine of France. Marat suffered from an unknown skin disease (possibly dermatitis herpetiformis) from which the only relief he found was sitting in a cold bath. He spent the last three years of his life conducting the majority of his business from his bathtub. After gaining entrance to see Marat (while in his bath) under the auspices of informing on a planned Girondist uprising, Corday stabbed Marat in the chest with a recently purchased dinner knife piercing his lung, aorta, and left ventricle. I included Corday on this list because of the historical importance of the French Revolution and because she was the only female assassin I found in my research.

5. Nathuram Godse [Wikipedia]

Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. Gandhi’s actual name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mahatma is an Indian honorific similar to “Your Excellency”. Godse was a member of the Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu nationalist organization opposed to the Muslim League and the secular Indian National Congress. The reason for the assassination is generally attributed to Gandhi’s support of the Partition of India and weakening of India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse believed Gandhi was sacrificing Hindu interests in an effort to appease minority groups, ie Muslims. Godse killed Gandhi during his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla House in New Dehli. Godse approached Gandhi, bowed to him, then shot him three times at close range with a Beretta semi-automatic pistol.

4. Felix Yusupov [Wikipedia]

Perhaps the most interesting, or bizarre at the very least, assassination in history. On December 16, 1916 a group of nobles lead by Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich assassinated Grigori Rasputin. According to legend, Rasputin was poisoned, shot, clubbed, and ultimately thrown into an icy river where he finally succumbed to death. The conspirators, having decided that Rasputin’s influence over Tsaritsa Alexandra (wife of Tsar Nicholas II) was too dangerous a threat to the empire, first poisoned Rasputin with “enough cyanide to kill seven men”. When unaffected by the poison, Yusupov shot Rasputin in the back with a revolver. Yusupov then left the body to consult with the others. When they returned to the body, Rasputin grabbed Yusupov by the throat and whispered, “You bad boy” into his ear before hurling him across the room and running out. As he ran out, he was shot three more times. The group followed him out and found him still struggling to carry on. They then clubbed him into submission, wrapped him in a sheet, and threw him into the Neva River. Three days later, the body was pulled from the river and autopsied. The cause of death was found to be hypothermia and his arms were found in an upright position as if he had tried to claw his way threw the ice. It should be noted that Rasputin had survived a previous attempt on his life. On June 14, 1914, Khionia Guseva stabbed Rasputin in the abdomen, and his entrails hung out in what seemed a mortal would. Rasputin recovered after intensive surgery and it was said of his survival that “the soul of this cursed muzhik was sown on his body.”

3. Lee Harvey Oswald [Wikipedia]

Perhaps the most debated and controversial of all assassinations is Oswald’s November 22, 1963 murder of American president John F. Kennedy. An avowed Marxist, Oswald was a former marine who emigrated to the Soviet Union in October of 1959. He later returned to the United States in 1962, finding life in the Soviet Union to be less than the idyllic existence he expected. After drifting through numerous jobs (and one failed assassination attempt upon General Edwin Walker), Oswald ended up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area where he killed Kennedy. Oswald shot Kennedy from a sixth floor window of the Texas Schoolbook Depository (where Oswald worked) as the president’s motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX. Oswald used a Mannlicher-Caracano rifle purchased via mail order earlier that year. I counted ten separate theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination, including KGB, CIA, and Mafia involvement, multiple gunmen, and imposters for both Oswald and Kennedy.

2. Andrei Lugovoi [Wikipedia]

Lugovoi is the man believed to have poisoned Alexander Valterovick Litvinenko with polonium-210 on November 1, 2006. This is notable because Litvinenko is the first known victim of induced acute radiation syndrome or radiation poisoning, the first “nuclear assassination”. Litvinenko is thought to have been poisoned while having tea with Lugovoi and Dmitiri Kovtun. Litvinenko was a harsh critic of the Russian government and Russian president Vladimir Putin, and was currently investigating the death of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist known for her opposition to the Putin administration who was found murdered in 2006.

1. Marcus Julius Brutus [Wikipedia]

In my opinion, the most famous assassination in history. Brutus, and as many as sixty or more men, stabbed Gaius Julius Caesar to death on March 15, 44 BC, the “Ides of March”. Caesar was the military dictator of Rome beginning about 50 BC, but his relationship with the Roman Senate was contentious, to say the least. Brutus, a friend of Julius, but a Senator first conspired with other Senators to kill Caesar as they feared his growing power would make the Senate obsolete. Supposedly, Caesar’s last words as he lay dying on the steps of the Forum were, “Et tu, Brute?” which roughly translates as “You too, Brutus?”

Notable Extras: Carlos the Jackal (not really an assassin, mostly did hijackings), Abu Nidal (terrorist), Guy Fawkes (failed attempt), and James Earl Ray (probably should be on the list, but I didn’t want to get too Americanized.)