The Real Moby Dick: A Ship Sunk by a Whale, and 90 Days the Crew Drifted Toward the Wrong Continent

Everest: 30-Year Fight for the Top of the World — The Two Men Who May Have Done It First and Died

Alfred the Great: King Who Hid in a Swamp, Burned the Cakes, Then Beat the Vikings Nobody Else Could

Charles Darwin: The 5-Year Voyage of a Seasick 22-Year-Old That Changed How Humans See Themselves

Discovery of Yellowstone: Explorers Whose Reports of Boiling Rivers Were Called Lies for 60 Years

Cahokia: The American City Bigger Than London That Was Abandoned Before Columbus Arrived

Jim Bridger: The Mountain Man Who Found the Great Salt Lake and Thought He'd Reached the Pacific

The Donner Party: How a Shortcut That Saved No Time Killed Half a Wagon Train

Kit Carson: The Illiterate Trapper Who Became a Legend in Books He Couldn't Read

Amerigo Vespucci: The Man Two Continents Are Named After Who Never Commanded a Voyage

Meriwether Lewis: The Expedition Leader Who Died in a Roadside Inn Three Years After Coming Home

Thor Heyerdahl: The Man Who Sailed 4,300 Miles on a Balsa Raft to Prove Every Expert Wrong

Ibn Battuta: The Man Who Travelled Three Times Further Than Marco Polo and Nobody Remembers His Name

Daniel Boone: The Frontiersman Who Opened Kentucky and Died Landless in Missouri

Roald Amundsen: The Man Who Reached Both Poles and Vanished Flying to Rescue a Rival

Lawrence of Arabia: The Archaeologist Who Led an Army and Spent His Life Denying It

Adolphus Greely: The Commander Who Watched 19 of His 25 Men Die Waiting for a Ship That Never Came

Bob Bartlett: The Captain Who Walked 700 Miles Across Siberia to Save the Crew His Leader Abandoned

George Washington: The General Who Lost Almost Every Battle and Won the War

Captain Scott: How 5 Men Reached the South Pole and Died 11 Miles From Food

Blackbeard's Mentor: The Pirate Who Trained Him, Then Hunted Him for the Crown

The Greenland Vikings: The Colony That Survived 450 Years and Then Vanished Without a Word

Marco Polo: The Teenager Who Walked to China and Came Back 24 Years Later

Burke and Wills: How 19 Men Crossed Australia and Only 1 Came Back

John Wesley Powell: The One-Armed Veteran Who Conquered the Grand Canyon First

William the Conqueror: The Bastard Son Who Took England in a Single Afternoon

John Ward: The English Fisherman Who Became a Muslim Corsair Admiral and Sank His King's Ships

Sweyn Forkbeard: The Viking Who Conquered England in 5 Weeks and Died Before He Could Be Crowned

Samuel Bellamy: He Stole the Atlantic's Richest Ship for Love — and Sank With It

Sigurd Jorsalfari: The Viking King Who Burned the Mediterranean to Reach Jerusalem

Peter Easton: The English Pirate Who Commanded 40 Warships and Retired as a French Marquis

Halfdan Ragnarsson: The Viking Who Conquered Two Kingdoms and Was Killed by Irish Farmers

The Dutch Privateer Who Became a Muslim Pirate King and Sailed to Iceland to Take Slaves

The Pirate Who Captured Three Forts Without Firing a Shot — and Was Killed by a Trick of His Own

The Viking King Hacked Down By His Own People — and Declared a Saint by the Same Men Within a Year

The Man Who United the Vikings — The Forgotten King Who Built a Nation From Raiders

The Icelander Who Single-Handedly Saved Norse Mythology From Oblivion — and Was Hacked to Death

The Viking Widow Who Outlived Her Husband, Her Sons, and Quietly Founded a Third of Iceland

Olaf Tryggvason: The Viking King Who Converted Norway by Burning His People Alive

Klaus Störtebeker: The German Pirate Who Walked Past Eleven of His Own Men After Being Beheaded

L'Olonnais: The Buccaneer So Cruel He Ate Men's Hearts — and Was Eaten Alive by Cannibals

The Wealthy Gentleman Who Abandoned His Wife, Bought a Pirate Ship, and Was Hanged for It

Stamford Bridge: The 15-Minute Slaughter That Ended 300 Years of Viking Terror

Edward Low: The Pirate So Cruel His Own Crew Mutinied and Cast Him Into the Open Ocean to Die

The Pirate Captain Who Taught Blackbeard Everything — and Was Paid by the Crown to Hunt Him Down

Gunnhild, Mother of Kings: The Viking Queen Who Outlived Six Kings and Was Drowned in a Bog at 80

The Jomsvikings: The Pagan Brotherhood of Mercenaries So Disciplined Even Vikings Were Terrified

The Viking Who Raided the Mediterranean for 3 Years and Sacked the Wrong City Thinking It Was Rome

Calico Jack: The Pirate Who Was Famous for Being Bad at Piracy

The Pirate Who Hid the Greatest Treasure Ever Stolen Behind a Cryptogram No One Has Cracked...

Henry Morgan: The Pirate Who Burned an Empire's Greatest City to the Ground and Was Knighted for It

Port Royal: The Pirate Capital of the World That Sank Into the Sea in 90 Seconds

The Varangian Guard: How Exiled Vikings Became the Most Elite Warriors in the Known World

Sigrid the Haughty: The Viking Queen Who Refused a King and Started a War That Destroyed Norway

Cartagena: The City Every Empire Fought Over for 400 Years and No One Could Hold

Sweyn Forkbeard: The Viking Who Conquered England in 5 Weeks and Died Before He Could Be Crowned

The Frigate: The Ship That Ended the Golden Age of Piracy

"Black Sam" Bellamy: The Richest Pirate Who Ever Lived Was Dead at 28

Lindisfarne: The Single Raid That Began 300 Years of Viking Terror

Anne Bonny & Mary Read: The Two Women Who Terrified the Caribbean