76 Of The Weirdest And Most Unbelievable Facts From Known History, Shared In This Online Thread

If you've been reading Bored Panda, you know we have a soft spot for our past. I mean, just check out our pieces on history memes and rarely seen old photos; we appreciate it in all forms!

Apparently, so does Redditor Aquatax. Last month, they made a post, asking other users: "What historical events are so absurd that they would be too strange for a fiction story or a movie?" And their call was answered.

People started sending in their submissions one after the other and the comment section quickly transformed into one of the most interesting archives of hard-to-believe trivia that you can find online.

From the Toronto circus riot to anti-tank WW2 dogs, continue scrolling and check out what it has to offer.

#1

Tsquare43:

Hitler, Tito, Stalin, Trotsky, and Freud were living in the same Vienna neighborhood in 1913

nashamagirl99:

The best sitcom setup

Image credits: Tsquare43

#2

Back in the 1780’s, after being elected President, George Washington decided to send a letter to Congress that basically said, “Hey, looking forward to working with y’all, this will be exciting!”

However, George wasn’t very eloquent, and was generally busy and stressed, so he asked his friend James Madison to compose the letter to Congress, which James did.

When Congress received the letter, they decided to respond in kind, not wanting to slight the new president. They wanted to send back a letter that essentially said, “We’re glad you’re excited, so are we!” They decided there was no one better in Congress to write the letter than their very own…James Madison.

So, James writes a response to the letter he wrote in the first place, and Congress sends it to George. George decided to respond with something along the lines of, “Oh, good, I’m excited that you’re excited, too!” — and since his buddy James did such an excellent job with the first letter, George again went to him and had him compose the response.

Congress received the letter and again not wanting to be awkward and ignore the PRESIDENT, decided to reply with yet another letter that basically said, “Hey, we’re excited that you’re excited that we’re excited!” …and once again, they had James Madison compose the response.

So James Madison, future 4th president of the United States, wound up writing himself 4 letters back and forth between “George Washington” and “Congress”, and was too embarrassed to tell anyone about it while it was going on.

Image credits: happybex

#3

May have been said already, but when Napoleon returned to France from his exile, a Regiment of French soldiers were sent by the Coalition Powers to intercept him. Upon seeing them, Napoleon approached and simply said, "If you wish to kill your Emperor, here I am." The Commander of the Regiment ordered his men to open fire. Out of the 2,000 soldiers present, not a single one obeyed the order. They all joined Napoleon and marched to Paris with him. Truly a real life Mary-Sue. At least until he was thoroughly beaten and exiled again, permanently this time.

#4

A guy broke into the Prime Minster of Canada's house with a knife, intent to kill the Prime Minster.

The Prime Minster's wife hears someone walking around downstairs and tries to wake her husband. The PM just tells her its nothing, go back to sleep.

She gets up and investigates - finding the knife wielding assassin. She grabs an Inuit statue of a loon and beats the shit out of the guy. Our PM then runs into the hall and helps his wife take down the assassin. These are two people in their 60's just kicking the shit out of some dude in his late 20's.

She calls the local police who arrive, only to realise they forgot the fucking key to the front gate, so they send someone back to the station get it.

The assassin was later confirmed to have major mental health issues. Less than 5 years later, he was successfully treated for his schizophrenia, released from his treatment facility and formally apologised to the couple.

#5

The Toronto Circus Riot of 1855.

The Fire Department and some clowns get into a disagreement at a whorehouse, and get into a punch-up. The clowns win, but the firemen return to the circus later and start attacking in revenge. The firemen win the day but violence is stopped when the militia come in. The police do nothing, so the city fires all the police (and I mean everyone) and starts a new police force.

#6

Immediately after being shot, Theodore Roosevelt continued by giving a 90 minute speech before going to the hospital.

Actually all of Teddy’s life is fairly absurd now I think about it

#7

Wojtek, the soldier bear! He served in the Polish army in WWII, helping his fellow soldiers by carrying heavy creates of ammunition into battle, saving precious time during combat.

He had been recruited as a soldier when his division had to board an English ship which didn't allow animals on board. Outraged, the Polish then made him a soldier and he lived through the war to die of old age in a zoo in 1963.

#8

Battle of Karansebes

That time in the 1700s when the Austrian army got confused, waged a huge battle against itself within its own lines, and lost an estimated several hundred to few thousand men (and a lot of equipment and money) in the process. They then retreated.

The Ottomans, whom they were originally intending to fight, showed up two days later.

#9

Chinese revolutionaries blaming the sparrows for famine, which lead to killing the population of sparrows and... more famine, because they broke the ecosystem and the locust could spread.

#10

The Korean axe murder incident.

Basically, a tree was kinda blocking line of sight near the Bridge of No Return on the North Korea/South Korea border. A pair of Americans, escorted by South Korean troops, went to trim the tree. North Korean troops took exception to this and came out and told them to stop. They didn't. NK troops called for backup, which showed up with clubs and crowbars and the North Koreans proceeded to attack the South Koreans and Americans. The two Americans were killed (one bludgeoned to death, the other injured with an axe and died of his injuries on the way back to a hospital). North Korea, being North Korea, claimed they were acting in "self defense".

A few days later, Operation Paul Bunyan was launched in what was possibly the largest tree-pruning operation in human history, with over 800 infantry (including South Korean troops with Claymore mines strapped to their chests and remote detonators in their hands, taunting the North Koreans to cross the bridge), 27 helicopters, B-52 Stratofortresses, F-4 Phantom IIs, F-5 and F-86 fighters, F-4Es, F-111 bombers, and F-4C and F-4D Phantoms in attendance (also the USS Midway carrier was moved to a station offshore). The entire Second Battalion artillery was pointed at the DMZ, along with the 71st Air Defense Regiment. Local DEFCON was elevated. 12k more troops were ordered to Korea. Nuclear-capable bombers were deployed. A dozen C-130s were lined up, "nose to tail" at Yokota Air Base in Japan, on standby in case they were needed.

Literally 5 minutes into the operation was when the UNC let North Korea know that a UN work party was there "in order to peacefully finish the work left unfinished". The tree was successfully pruned to the point of being a stump, which was later replaced with a monument in 1987.

#11

The Spanish conquistadors found platinum during their search for gold, and dumped all of it in the sea, because they thought platinum was inferior to silver.

#12

In 1939, some American Nazis hung up a "No Jews Allowed" sign outside a store. A 5'4'' Jew passed by and, naturally not appreciative of their business policy, tore up the signs. The Nazis gladly took this excuse to go out and beat him up... only to learn that Joseph Greenstein was known as The Mighty Atom, one of the most accomplished strongmen in American history. The type of dude who bends horseshoes and pushes nails through metal sheets with his palm for his job. Needless the say, the Nazis ended up in about the same state Germany would be in a couple of years.

#13

The surgeon joseph lister performed a surgery that had a 300% mortality rate.

he was performing a surgery in 1851, wherein he was removing a patients leg. as he was cutting, he sliced the fingers off one of his assistants, and the assistant and patient both later died of gangrene, as well as one of the spectators in the surgical theater dying of fright.

#14

Operation Acoustic Kitty. In the 60’s the CIA spent months and tens of millions of dollars to surgically bug and then train a cat to sit near foreign officials in order to transmit their private conversations to CIA operatives. The day of the first official test run they release the cat, it wanders into the street and is promptly hit by a taxi.

#15

During the siege of Tenochtitlán in 1521, Cortes had a trebuchet built to save on gunpowder. However, the first projectile fired went straight up in the air and landed on it, completely destroying it. It's one of the last recorded military uses of a trebuchet.

When I was watching Eternals yesterday part of me was kind of hoping they would show this when they showed that part of human history, but it's just so ridiculous that it would even be too much for a Marvel movie.

#16

Roman empire declaring war on Neptune the god of water... they just went and stabbed the water

#17

Draco, the Ancient Greek lawmaker and namesake of draconian rule, which is known as excessively cruel, was actually beloved by his people. He was so beloved that, in fact, he died at a celebration held in his honor when Greek citizens threw their hats at him, a symbol of affection. However, the crowd threw so many hats that he ended up suffocating under them and died.

Whether this is folklore or truth is hard to tell. While the event was well documented, some documents show that he was likely driven out of Athens, which would make more sense given his behavior. Just as with many Greek transcripts, the difference between fact and fiction is vague, but his escape from Athens is known.

#18

Anti-tank dogs in WW2. The soviet union strapped bombs to dogs and trained the poor things to run under tanks where they'd blow up. 4 out of a group of 30 managed to damage german tanks, while 6 damaged soviet soldiers in trenches.

#19

Napoleon getting attacked by a horde of rabbits.

Basically, the story goes that a rabbit hunt was set up to celebrate the Treaties of Tilsit and they ended up amassing somewhere between hundreds and thousands of rabbits (accounts vary). Anyway, the day of the hunt they set the rabbits in cages surrounding the area that they would be hunting in.

They released them once everyone was set, but instead of being scared the bunnies swarmed the hunting party. At first they thought it was funny, but then it got overwhelming and Napoleon and the others had to flee from the bunnies in a coach.

#20

One of eleven children born to Charles and Maria Sax, Adolphe was an extremely accident prone youth who barely made it to adulthood. At three he fell three floors down bashing his head on the stone floor at the bottom. He drank a bowl of acidic water believing it was milk. He swallowed and subsequently passed a large needle. He flew across his fathers workshop and was burned badly when a barrel of gunpowder exploded. He fell upon a hot cast-iron pan on a stove burning his side. He frequently slept in a room where varnished furniture was drying, somehow avoiding poisoning and asphyxiation. He was hit in the head with a slate roof tile while walking down the street. He fell in a river and nearly drowned.
Then this same child, who some force was failing miserably to unalive, grew up and had the audacity to invent the saxophone.

#21

I got one for you.

Ex-Nazi and Cult Leader Pedophile Paul Schäfer was so obsessed with having the Children of his compound, Colonia Dignidad, love him and only him that he once took all of the children of the compound to a river where he had someone dressed as Santa Claus floating on a raft.

He then shot and killed Santa, in front of all the children and told them all that "Santa's dead. The only holiday we ever need to celebrate here is my birthday!"

#22

Benjamin F Wilson was already a WWII veteran when he enlisted in the Korean War. He had to take a demotion from Lieutenant to private to do so, but he quickly rose back through the ranks. In 1951 he was put in charge of protecting a place that they called Hell Hill, and he knew that an attack was coming, but he remained with his men. He took a bullet to the leg and then went into a one-man charge to kill 7 and wound 2 Chinese soldiers alone. His men tried to take him for medical treatment, but when his stretcher was put down, he got up and limped back up the hill… just as everyone else was retreating. He charged alone with his rifle, killing 3 enemies. Then they took his rifle, so he killed 4 more with his entrenching shovel. The Chinese retreated, for a while. The next day Wilson went on a one-man assault again to take down 33 more enemy soldiers, despite his existing wounds. This was a guy that just wouldn’t be held down.

Literally this guy is too John Wick for John Wick, wouldn't even pass as realistic.

#23

There was that time when a Bolivian water company tried to quadruple the price of water and that was so comically over-the-top evil that James Bond Quantum Of Solace had to tone it down so that their fictional version were only trying to double the price of water. The real life company were too proposterously wicked to be believable as a Bond villain. Let that sink in.

#24

Some undeveloped cultures developed rituals in which they'd build fake airports and and dress and act like soldiers in order to attract air cargo drops, after witnessing parts of wars.

A pope once awarded a chemist a medal for fortifying wine with cocaine, the pope loved cocaine wine.

A dying pope once got a blood transfusion from a young child and they both died.

In the US during the 90s people managed to call various restaurants and convince the managers the strip search female employees, and in one case a customer, on behalf of the police.

Voltaire once gamed the loterry and made millions.

A brown bear named Wojtek once reached the rank of corporal.

#25

British Secret service created a sabotage device consisting of a dead rat with explosives shoved up it's arse. Back then for safety if you saw a dead rat, you scooped it up with a spade and chucked it into the furnace. This would ignite the explosives and blow up the building enough that the Nazi's would call in their bomb squad for every dead rat.

#26

The time Julius Caesar was captured by pirates.

"In 75 BCE a band of Cilician pirates in the Aegean Sea captured a 25-year-old Roman nobleman named Julius Caesar, who had been on his way to study oratory in Rhodes. As the story is related in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, the capture was a minor inconvenience for Caesar but very bad luck for the pirates.

From the start, Caesar simply refused to behave like a captive. When the pirates told him that they had set his ransom at the sum of 20 talents, he laughed at them for not knowing who it was they had captured and suggested that 50 talents would be a more appropriate amount. He then sent his entourage out to gather the money and settled in for a period of captivity. The pirates must have been dumbfounded. It’s not every day that a hostage negotiates his ransom up.

Caesar made himself at home among the pirates, bossing them around and shushing them when he wanted to sleep. He made them listen to the speeches and poems that he was composing in his unanticipated downtime and berated them as illiterates if they weren’t sufficiently impressed. He would participate in the pirates’ games and exercises, but he always addressed them as if he were the commander and they were his subordinates. From time to time he would threaten to have them all crucified. They took it as a joke from their overconfident, slightly nutty captive.

It wasn’t a joke. After 38 days, the ransom was delivered and Caesar went free. Astonishingly, Caesar managed to raise a naval force in Miletus—despite holding no public or military office—and he set out in pursuit of the pirates. He found them still camped at the island where he had been held, and he brought them back as his captives. When the governor of Asia seemed to vacillate about punishing them, Caesar went to the prison where they were being held and had them all crucified."

#27

The fact that Stalin could’ve survived a heart attack he had if he hadn’t executed all the good doctors in the USSR. That’s karma

#28

The entire life of Aleister Crowley

#29

Mansa Musa's pilgrimage from West Africa to Mecca

Stops by Egypt ruined their economy because he was so rich he made the value of gold plummet.

Building a pool in the middle of the desert so that his 1st wife could swim.

Making it to Mecca with an entourage like Aladdins after the genie.

Heading back says sorry I fucked up the economy I will buy my gold back and heads back to his country like no biggie.

Actually, no this should be a movie I would pay to watch it twice.

#30

The dancing plague of 1518 was pretty weird

#31

Canadian ww2 and Korean War veteran Leo Major, aka the "Canadian Pirate Sniper."

His ww2 antics include:

Capturing a group of some 40 Nazis by himself, but refusing an award for it since he hated his general or something.

Losing an eye in an explosion, but convinced his captain to let him stay because he only needed one eye to use a rifle.

Escaping a hospital with multiple broken ribs, 2 broken ankles and something wrong with his back, and went back into combat around a month later

Capturing the entire Dutch city of Zwolle BY HIMSELF by faking an invasion, capturing at least 100 Nazis while doing so, AND setting fire to a nearby Nazi base

His Korean War antic was:

Capturing a very crucial Chinese-controlled hill against all odds (some 200 Canadians against several thousand Chinese)

#32

Polpot. Some guy wants to take your country back to year 0 and employs kids to kill all the people that speak other languages or had any education.

#33

The Texel battle the 23rd of January 1795 between french cavalry and dutch fleet. The only time a cavalry charged over boats and won. The Dutch fleet was trapped by ice on Den Helder. The french hussars put fabric on the horse's feet and went on the ice, launching the attack and scaring the fuck out of the Dutch. They then escalated the ships with their swords between their teeths. They took 14 warships and managed to overtake a british vessel that was trying to flee through the ice. A woman in charge of the canteens said that they probably wouldn't have dared to do that if she hadn't distributed so many wine.

So drunk French cavalry made one of the biggest capture of ships of modern history (for instance, trafalgar is 23 boats sunk or taken). on horses. on the frozen sea.

#34

Honey Trap Fail

An attempt by Russian security forces to blackmail Indonesian leader Sukarno by filming him having sex with a group of flight attendants resulted in him requesting copies of the tapes to send to his friends.

#35

Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who was drafted into the Japanese army, captured by the Russians, drafted into the Red Army, captured by the Germans, drafted into the Wehrmaht, then finally captured by the Americans.

Oddly, the Americans didn't draft him into the US Army. They sent him to a POW camp in the USA, where he stayed. He eventually died peacefully in 1992, in Illinois.

He was the only soldier in history known to have fought on 3 opposing sides of the same war.

#36

The Kill-Dozer,

Marvin Heemeyer walked in on his finance cheating on him the same year his dad died. Then his city wanted to buy his property to build a factory. When he rejected the offer, the city bought all the surrounding land and closed all the roads so he couldn’t get to work. He bought all the equipment and materials to build a new road completely by himself and when he asked the city if he could, they said no. He decided to put his equipment to good use and created the Kill-Dozer. He went on a rampage and at one point during his rampage a factory owner hopped in a tractor and they had a battle. He had sealed himself in the Kill-Dozer and when his oxygen was running low he shot himself in the head. It took the military 3 weeks and a specialized blowtorch to crack into it and recover his body. The military tried using C4 to get into it, but it was no match for the Kill-Dozers hull. There’s a documentary on Netflix if your interested

#37

Between 1933 and 1941, the Chinese city of Shanghai under Japanese occupation, accepted unconditionally over 18,000 Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust in Europe, a number greater than those taken in by Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and British India combined during World War II

#38

In April 1917, in the midst of World War I, the Imperial German Zeppelin L23 that was on sea patrol came across an honest-to-goodness wooden sailing ship from a non-combatant country that was transporting a non-war related cargo. It was the Norwegian schooner Royal, and was a holdover from a different era of shipping. The Captain of the Zeppelin then gave an order said to be unique in aircraft history: "Gentlemen, prepare to board our prize!" Unfortunately, as the boat from the Zeppelin was being lowered, the rough seas caused them to lose their machine gun overboard. So instead, the Zeppelin crew bluffed the schooner into submission with a flare gun. They sailed the schooner all the way back to Germany, in the only instance of Airship-based Piracy.

#39

I was about to say the emu wars but I think they would make up a great movie. Might flop in Australia tho.

#40

Just about every cold war cia propaganda operation. Air dropping condoms that are XXL with labels that say small over the soviet union. Trying to make a gas that turns you gay.

#41

The last known kill by bow and arrow in combat was actually during the battle of Dunkirk, 1940. Jack Churchill landed a well placed arrow into a german soldier's chest

He also chose to carry bagpipes, and a scottish longsword

#42

Operation Mincemeat.

The Allies wanted to trick the Axis into thinking that they weren’t going to invade Sicily so they obtained the body of a recently deceased homeless person in London, dressed him up in a British officer’s uniform and added a satchel full of “top secret” battle plans that gave phony invasion plans somewhere other than Sicily. Then the arranged for the body to wash up on shore in Spain, knowing that the Franco regime would open the documents and pass word on to Berlin and Rome. Try tried to make it look like they hadn’t opened the documents and returned them (and the body) to Britain but British spies were able to confirm that Spain had opened the documents and taken the bait.

#43

Caesar raising his ransom because he thought he was ✨fabulous✨

#44

1561 Celestial event over Nuremberg. Apparently a bunch of people witnessed spheres and cylindrical "fighting" in the sky.

#45

When Napoleon returned from exile the first time the authorities in Paris sent a detachment of the army to arrest him.

Most of these people were not his former soldiers, many of which had died in the Russia campaign.

When they arrived to arrest him he challenged them to arrest their emperor and they joined him instead.

#46

During a Viking raid in Luna in 859, The siege was led by Bjorn Ironside and Haestienn.

Haestinn died, but before that he converted to Christianity because he wanted to be buried in Luna. A 100 unarmed men went inside to deliver the body, Hestienn jumped out of the coffin and his men took the weapons inside the coffin and sacked the city.

But they failed successfully because they thought it was Rome, not Luna.

#47

The Allies in Italy during WW2 were blocked at one point by an old castle that defended a critical valley they needed to move through.

The Nazis had taken it over and heavily fortified it with machine guns and artillery. Had a long ramp to the main gates that left the attackers open to mg fire. Back of the castle opened onto a sheer cliff. Destroying the castle wasn't an option.

The British tried taking from the front and failed. The Americans tried the same thing with more men and also failed.

Enter the Canadian Army, who decided to scale the cliff at night, with all their gear, in complete silence and take the fort.

And they did it.

#48

From the last time this was asked:

The Marathon at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis.

The first place finisher did most of the race in a car. He had intended to drop out, and got a car back to the stadium to get his change of clothes, and just kind of started jogging when he heard the fanfare.

The second place finisher was carried across the finish line, legs technically twitching, by his trainers. They had been refusing him water, and giving him a mixture of Brandy and Rat Poison for the entire race. Doping wasn't illegal yet (and this was a terrible attempt at it), so he got the gold when the First guy was revealed.

Third finisher was unremarkable, somehow.

Fourth finisher was a Cuban Mailman, who had raised the funds to attend the olympics by running non-stop around his entire country. He landed in New Orleans, and promptly lost all of the travelling money on a riverboat casino. He ran the race in dress shoes and long trousers (cut off at the knee by a fellow competitor with a knife). He probably would have come in first (well, second, behind the car) had it not been for the hour nap he took on the side of the track after eating rotten apples he found on the side of the race.

9th and 12th finishers were from South Africa, and ran barefoot. South Africa didn't actually send a delegation - these were students who just happened to be in town and thought it sounded fun. 9th was chased a mile off course by angry dogs. Note: These are the first Africans to compete in any modern Olympic event.

Half the participants had never raced competatively before. Some died.

St. Louis only had one water stop on the entire run. This, coupled with the dusty road, and exacerbated by the cars kicking up dust, lead to the above fatalities. And yet, somehow, Rat Poison guy survived to get the Gold.

The Russian delegation arrived a week late, because they were still using the Julian calendar. In 1904.

#49

Juan Pujol García.

WWII spy who won both the German Iron Cross and Order of the British Empire for spying.

He initially approached British Intelligence and offered his services, and was refused. Undeterred, he created the persona of a loyal Nazi supporter, became a German agent, gathered a payroll of fake sub-agents (all bankrolled by Germany), persuaded the German Navy to chase a fake convoy, then finally got recruited by the Allies. He finally fed misleading info to the Axis about the D-Day landings, causing them to deploy forces to the wrong locations, even after the invasion had begun.

#50

The Battle of Karánsebes .

The Austrian army scouted for Ottoman troops and set up camp at the town of Karánsebes. A hussar unit went into town and ran into some Romani people who were selling schnapps. Soon after, some infantry followed them and found them all partying while drunk. The infantry and hussars got into a heated argument over the schnapps that culminated with somebody firing a shot. The next thing anybody knew, the entire Austrian army shot at and ran away from each other, thinking that the Ottomans were attacking. Two days later, the Ottomans—whom, I imagine, were baffled to find dead and wounded Austrian soldiers already in and around town—arrived and took Karánsebes with no resistance.

#51

The whole process that led the Americans to try to use pigeons as a targeting system for missiles. It was WWII.

#52

I could imagine a comedy about the second Russian pacific fleet in 1903. They sailed half way around the world to get wrecked by the japaneese.

It could only be described as a cavalcade of failure. They caused several international incidents along the way. Almost started WWI early, shooting up a british fishing fleet had a non-zero number of sailors die of black lung at sea, ended up in Madagascar and became he worlds deadliest floating zoo. When renforcments arrived they were sent with winter clothes, to wear while sailing around india. Only to arrive for the Battle of Tsushima (battles happen a lot there and the japaneese didnt need a typhoon this time to win this time) signal to a japaneese ship that they were sailing with their lights off to suprise them and at dawn were promptly introduced to the sea floor.

There are plenty of edutainment pieces on these events, I quite like this video on the events.

#53

In WW2, British commandos filled a ship with explosives, tried to sail incognito into Germany's largest dry dock but was discovered and fired upon by all the shore batteries, the ship started getting hit again and again (and any single hit could detonate the explosives) they some how managed to sail the ship at full speed straight into the gate of the dry dock propelling the ship halfway out of the water and getting it stuck on the gate making it impossible to tow it away. A small taskforce then attacked the dock facilities before retreating back but sadly the ship didn't explode as the timer had failed.

The next day a bunch of German officers and officials came to examine the British ship meanwhile half a mile away captured commandos were being tortured for information. To them their mission had failed and now they were facing some brutal treatment.

The explosives on the ship suddenly detonated, the explosion was massive, it destroyed the dock, hundreds of soldiers that were sent to secure the dock and killed all the German officers and officials that had come to inspect it.

Those being tortured heard the explosion and got to have the last laugh.

I've always wondered why it was never made into a film there's so many twists and turns and when you think it's all over there's one more big twist.

#54

Maybe not an event, but pretty absurd.

In an attempt to claim control of the former Spanish Empire's territories in the Americas, the French ruler, Napoleon III, created the term "Latin America." Because if the territories were Spanish (or formerly), then the French had no right to them, but if he got the world to call it Latin, which the French were considered a branch of, then Napoleon III could attempt to take them for a new, glorious, French Empire. This would also reassure the British, US, and Dutch that he was not going after their American territories, since they were not "Latin" countries.

In other words, we call Hispanics of the Americas Latin because it was French propaganda used to legitimize their rule over South and Central America.

#55

The Ghost Army. The 1100-man unit was given a unique mission within the Allied Army: to impersonate other Allied Army units to deceive the enemy. From a few months after D-Day, when they landed in France, until the end of the war, they put on a "traveling road show" utilizing inflatable tanks, sound trucks, fake radio transmissions, scripts and pretense. They staged more than 20 battlefield deceptions, often operating very close to the front lines.

#56

The events surrounding the death of Rasputin. Man just would not die.

#57

The Lincoln Assassination. John Wilkes Booth was an actor and the brother of, at the time, one of the most famous actors in the country, and the son of another incredibly popular stage actor. He joins a neo-Confederate conspiracy with the goal of killing the President, VP, and Secretary of State so that General Joseph E. Johnston (who had not surrendered at this point) could essentially lead a second wind of the slaver's rebellion. And after he managed to kill Lincoln and his confederates failed to kill anyone else, his brother had to basically do an apology tour.

#58

During the battle of Fishguard, the last land invasion attempt of Britain the: "British forces lined up in battle order on Goodwick Sands. Up above them on the cliffs, the inhabitants of the town came to watch and await Tate's response to the ultimatum. The locals on the cliff included women wearing traditional Welsh costume which included a red whittle (shawl) and Welsh hat which, from a distance, some of the French mistook to be red coats and shako, thus believing them to be regular line infantry."

TLDR: the French attempted a land invasion of Britain from Fishguard, Wales. Before the battle broke out locals including women in traditional Welsh dress lined cliffs to watch the battle, the French thought they were backup soldiers and surrendered.

#59

How about Audie Murphy. World war two hero who actually became a movie star. Starred in a movie about himself and his exploits but they didn't include everything that actually happened because no one would believe it. Heck, they completely skipped over how he earned two of his silver stars.

#60

The Molasses flood in Boston in 1919. It sounds ridiculous but people died.

#61

I find it pretty crazy that there was a time and a place on earth where there were big battles on mounted armored elephants. And where the enemy would use burning pigs to scare the elephants and trigger a stampede. Basically total chaos as you release your burning pigs.

#62

The Anglo-Zanzibar War, fought between the UK and Zanzibar in 1896.

It lasted 38 minutes.

#63

Douglas Bader.

RAF flying ace - 23 kills - though he had previously lost both his legs in (separate) flying accidents. He wore a pair of clunky tin legs.

He was shot down over France in 1941. The Luftwaffe were so pleased to have captured him they arranged for the RAF to drop a pair of his legs at a designated time and place, and cleared the sky for the drop to proceed.

The RAF did indeed drop the legs as arranged but since all German fighters and ack-ack had been stood down as arranged, it seemed a waste not to bomb a nearby enemy airfield.

Meanwhile, Bader stumping about on his tin legs, was a great hit with his Nazi captors. At a great party held by the Luftwaffe in his honour, he drank them under the table, excused himself to a third floor bathroom, shinned down a drainpipe and stumped off into the darkness.

He was only recaptured by a German spy in the resistance. For the next four years he continually escaped and was recaptured until he was finally sent to Colditz.

After the war, there was a great spirit of reconciliation and togetherness between the air forces on both sides. Bader was not convinced. He was invited to address a crowd of assembled now ex-Luftwaffe pilots and began his speech with the words: "Seeing so many of you here today, I am struck by the single thought: I didn't kill enough of you bastards".

#64

My personal favorite: The Cadaver Synod in which the dead body of a former pope was disinterred, propped up on the throne, and then formally tried by The Church to have his papacy retroactively annulled. Predictably, he was found guilty. Then they chucked his corpse in the Tiber.

People are funny animals.

#65

The tale of Mike “Ironsides” Malloy. He was a hobo that a gang tried to kill for insurance money but he just wouldn’t die

#66

When Ivan the Terrible died, he had two sons(he had clubbed the third one to death). The older son Feodor, who was likely mentally disabled, became the puppet of his regent Boris Gudanov. The younger son, Dmitry, was sent into exile in Uglich. The accepted historical narrative is that Gudanov had Dmitry murdered in Uglich so when Feodor died, he could usurp the throne. However, after Feodor died, no less than three different people claiming to be Dmitry tried to take power. These "False Dmitrys" provided Poland with the casus belli to invade Russia, starting a war that killed nearly half the Russian population. The first False Dmitry raped Gudanov's daughter and massacred his family. He ended up almost converting Russia to Catholicism and was subsequently beaten to death by a mob and his remains fired out of a cannon in the direction of Poland. The Second False Dmitry was possibly a converted Jew. Very little is known about the Third False Dmitry to the point that there may have been a Fourth False Dmitry or possible a False False Dmitry.

#67

A French president, Félix Faure, died of a stroke while getting head from his mistress in the 1890s.

#68

Adding to World War 2/Holocaust stories

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small town in the south of France. It fell in Nazi occupied France, and it was a destination for Nazis for r&r. The entire town worked together during occupation to save thousands of Jews and other folks fleeing Nazis by acting as a hub to help folks cross the border. E.g. “Distant family members” would visit for a few days, and then “head home.” Lots of forged documents, secret communication. All non-violent. Again, all the while Nazis are basically vacationing there.

Town never really bragged about it. General sense was that it was simply the right thing to do. Old documentary called Weapons of the Spirit highlights the story. There’s also a great display in Yad Vashem/Holocaust museum in Israel.

#69

War of Cow between 2 villages. Nowdays it is competition fest day between those two villages Świdwin and Białogard in Pomerania

#70

The battle of the eclipse. The Medes and the Lydians agreed to a draw after a solar eclipse occurred during the battle. People over 2500 years ago must have thought their gods were mighty mad

#71

The latrine disaster of Erfurt.

https://ift.tt/2CXVtv0

In 1184, the King of Germany Heinrich VI, held court in the Petersberg Citadel in Erfurt. On the morning of 26 July, the weight of the assembled nobles caused the wooden second story floor of the Peterskirche to collapse. Most of them fell through into the latrine cesspit below the ground floor and about 60 of them drowned in liquid excrement.

#72

Over Guadacanal, during the initial US landings, Japanese twin-engined torpedo bombers attacked the American transports and ran into USN fighters. In the process, one of the fighters ran out of ammo before the attack finished. Instead of returning to base and landing on his carrier (like a sane person), he proceded to lower his landing gear, and land on a Japanese bomber instead. Over the course of a few impacts, he successfully rammed it into the waves, before flying off back home.

One of the top USN dive bomber pilots was named Dick Best. At his first real battle (Midway), he sank the Japanese flagship with 1 bomb. One of his wingmen got a near miss, the rest was all him. Because decapitating the striking arm of the IJN wasn't enough for him, he came back later that day and bombed a 2nd carrier, helping sink that one too.

About an hour after landing, he decided that he'd done his part, developed tuberculosis, and quit the war.

#73

The time a Union general challenged Karl Marx to a duel for being too conservative

#74

The Darien Scheme

Scotland tried to colonize the isthmus of Panama in November 1698. Within 8 months, 900 out of 1200 colonists were dead of disease and starvation. The survivors abandoned the colony and fled to New York.

Unbeknownst to the original group, 2 resupply ships with 300 more settlers were on their way. When that group arrived, they found a burned village and hundreds of graves. While they were there, one of their ships burned and they fled to Jamaica. When they got to Jamaica, the English government denied them entry.

The original group returned to the site and found a burned ship but resumed trying to build a fort.

None of this news made it back to Scotland and they had sent another 1000 people to strengthen the colony. They expected to find an established fort but were asked to come ashore and start building.

After some infighting and arrests, they established a fort but were eventually besieged by the Spanish. The colony was abandoned in January 1700.

The debts incurred by this scheme were so high that Scottish nobles pushed for Scotland to unite with the Kingdom of England, forming the United Kingdom.

#75

The assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand. If a screenwriter wrote a fictional script with the same chain of events he’d be laughed out of the room.

#76

Winston Churchill orchestrated a spy organization known as the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" during WW2, whose mission statement was to "set Europe ablaze."

Members included Ian Fleming, Christopher Lee, and Roald Dahl.