On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The surprise attack destroyed much of the United States' fleet, especially the battleships. This collection of pictures captures the attack on Pearl Harbor, including pictures of planes caught on the ground, battleships burning and sinking, explosions, and bomb damage.

For decades, scientists have been trying to figure out why one in five births in a small town in Brazil are twins (the usual average is one in 80 births). Could notorious Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele be responsible? Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa believes Mengele, using the pseudonym Rudolph Weiss, made a number of visits to the Brazilian town of Candido Godoiwas during the 1960s to continue his twin research.

The town, very concerned about this potential tie to a Nazi, asked scientists at a Brazilian university (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul) to research the cause of the high twin rate. The scientists discovered that the high rate of twins went back to at least 1927, which was years before Mengele reached Brazil. Also, the rate of twins has continued to be high to the present day, which is years after Mengele's death. The conclusion is that Mengele could not have been the cause of twin town.

Find out more about the research and other possible reasons for the high birth rate by reading this National Geographic article.

Very early in the morning of December 3, 1984, poison gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant into the sleeping city of Bhopal, India. The lethal gas caused the deaths of an estimated 3,000 to 8,000 people and injured thousands more.

In 2009, the 25th anniversary of the gas leak brings attention to the survivors of the accident, many of whom have suffered long-term illnesses related to their exposure to the gas. Most have received very little aid from the Indian government or from Union Carbide.

For the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, the government had planned to open what remains of the fertilizer plant to the public. However, just days before the anniversary, the government decided not to open the plant, citing regulations against grandstanding before elections. There is a lot of controversy surrounding whether or not the plant should be opened to the public. For more about the plant nearly opening, see this CNN article.

According to Germany's The Local, pieces of the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing went up for sale on Ebay starting on Tuesday, December 1. The pieces for sale used to be part of the border crossing along the Berlin Wall, but currently reside as part of an arched roof for a parking lot.