27 Curious History Facts And Stories That May Surprise Even The Most Knowledgeable

Article created by: Indrė Lukošiūtė

History isn’t just about dates and dusty pages; it’s also about the stories that shape our understanding of the world. But while some make it into textbooks, many interesting ones don’t. Thankfully, social media is helping to bring these lesser-known moments to light, giving us new ways to connect with the past.

One Instagram page that does this brilliantly is ‘History Uncovered.’ We’ve combed through their posts and gathered some of the most fascinating facts and photos below. Scroll down to check them out and upvote your favorites!

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#1 A Guidance Counselor Once Told Judith Love Cohen To Go To Finishing School And Become A "Lady." Instead, She Earned Degrees From Usc, Became An Aerospace Engineer, Worked With Nasa, And Designed A Computer That Helped Save The Apollo 13 Astronauts

Meanwhile, she raised a family — including a son who grew up to be actor Jack Black — and wrote children's books encouraging young girls to aspire to careers in STEM

Image credits: realhistoryuncovered

#2 A Man Willed His $2.4 Million Fortune To The French Village That Saved Him From The Holocaust

The small French village of Chambon-sur-Lignon has just received a surprise $2.4 million gift in the will of a 90-year-old Austrian man named Eric Schwam who passed away on Christmas Day. Shocked officials soon learned that Schwam was paying the town back for saving him and his family 80 years earlier. He's asked that the town use the money to fund education initiatives and scholarships for the local children

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#3 "Jules, This Is Brian. Listen, I'm On An Airplane That's Been Hijacked. If Things Don't Go Well, And It's Not Looking Good, I Just Want You To Know I Absolutely Love You. I Want You To Do Good, Go Have Good Times. Same To My Parents And Everybody, And I Just Totally Love You, And I'll See You When You Get There."⁠

Three minutes before United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11, passenger Brian Sweeney used an Airfone to leave a heartbreaking final voicemail message to his wife Julie. At the time, she was in the middle of teaching a high school class, so she missed his call. Though Julie was soon pulled away from her students to learn that her husband had died in the attacks, she didn't realize that he had left her a message until she got home. ⁠

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#4 On July 17, 1967, A Florida Lineman Named Randall Champion Accidentally Touched A High-Voltage Line — Which Sent 4,000 Volts Of Electricity Through His Body And Stopped His Heart

Luckily, his friend and fellow lineman J.D. Thompson was close enough to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until paramedics arrived. Thanks to Thompson's quick thinking, Champion survived the incident, and even reported to work the following week.⁠ ⁠ Unbeknownst to Champion and Thompson, a photographer for the Jacksonville Journal was standing just below them to capture this daring rescue. From the ground, Rocco Morabito snapped one of the most moving images in history — "The Kiss of Life."⁠

Image credits: realhistoryuncovered

#5 Seven Baby Tasmanian Devils Were Just Born In The Wild On Mainland Australia For The First Time In 3,000 Years

At the time, they were hunted to extinction by dingoes. But today, they are still at risk. Tasmanian devils are endangered on the island of Tasmania, having lost 90 percent of their population since 1996 due to a contagious form of cancer. Only about 25,000 remain. Their reintroduction to the Australian mainland hopes to counteract the drastic population decline of the past 25 years

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#6 The Pizza Chain Founder Paid Rosa Parks Rent From 1994 Until Her Death In 2005

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#7 In December 1997, Julia "Butterfly" Hill Climbed A 1,000-Year-Old California Redwood Tree As Part Of Efforts To Keep It From Being Knocked Down By Loggers

Initially, she only intended to stay there for a couple of weeks. But instead, Hill didn't touch the ground for 738 days, far surpassing the previous record for the longest tree sit of 90 days. During her protest, she lived on platforms 180 feet above the ground, surviving off of food and water brought up by other environmental activists and enduring the freezing rain and winds of a particularly brutal El Niño season. Hill also faced near-constant harassment and threats from employees of Pacific Lumber Co., the logging company trying to cut the tree down. But despite the many setbacks she faced, her protest was ultimately successful and she was able to save the tree.⁠

Image credits: realhistoryuncovered

#8 A Postman In Texas Just Found Undelivered Letters From A World War II Soldier In His Truck-Then Hand Delivered Them To His Sister In Arkansas

A postman in Texas named Alvin Gauthier was recently looking through the parcel bin in his truck when he came across a Christmas card sent in 1944. Soon, he discovered a series of other undelivered letters sent between 1942 and 1944, all written by the same man, a soldier named Marion Lamb who was stationed overseas during World War II. A Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War, Gauthier immediately knew that he had to track down Lamb's family and put these letters in their hands.⁠ ⁠ On his day off and using his own money, Gauthier then spent five hours making the 379-mile drive to the home of Lamb's sister, Jo Ann Smith, in Jacksonville, Arkansas. Soon after Gauthier arrived at Smith's front door, she hugged him, broke down in tears, and read the words her brother had written 80 years before. "I could have stuck them in the mail, but it's kinda like sometimes you have to go above and beyond," Gauthier said. "Just go the extra mile ... or 379 miles."⁠

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#9 A Megalithic Monument In Spain That's Older Than The Pyramids Was Uncovered From Its Watery Hiding Place By A Drought. At 7,000 Years Old, The "Spanish Stonehenge" Is Actually Some 2,000 Years Older Than Stonehenge Itself

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#10 "I Went To This Site Aiming To Find At Least One Nice Dinosaur Skeleton. We Ended Up With 80 Skeletons And More Than 100 Eggs."⁠

During an exploration of a dinosaur graveyard in southern Patagonia, paleontologists found over 100 eggs in a massive nest — and some still had embryos inside. Furthermore, this discovery offers the first indisputable evidence pointing to the fact that some dinosaurs lived in herds. These 193-million-year-old findings prove that dinosaurs had a complex social structure and even shared in raising the whole community.

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#11 A 19-Year-Old Steve Buscemi When He Was A New York City Firefighter In 1976

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#12 In 1925, Residents Of The Small Town Of Nome, Alaska Faced A Potentially Fatal Epidemic And Very Few Options To Save Them From Death. ⁠that Is, Until Balto Showed Up, A Sled Dog Who Rose To The Occasion And Saved The Small Town From Certain Death

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#13 "I Never Knew Marilyn Monroe… I Knew And Loved Norma Jeane."⁠

James Dougherty was 21 years old when he married a teenage Norma Jeane Baker — who would go on to become one of the most famous women in modern history. At the time, however, Baker was just 16 and set to return to an orphanage unless she found a husband quickly. Her foster mother set her up with Dougherty, but though their relationship began as one of convenience, the pair soon "loved each other madly." Just two years after they wed on June 19, 1942, Dougherty was deployed to the Pacific Theater of World War II. While he was gone, a photographer discovered Norma Jeane Baker working in a factory — and soon, Marilyn Monroe was born. ⁠ ⁠ Dougherty was on a ship in the Yangtze River outside of Shanghai when he was served with divorce papers. Monroe wanted to sign a contract with 20th Century Fox, and it stipulated that she couldn't be married, because the executives didn't want her to get pregnant. Their divorce was finalized in 1946, and Dougherty remarried shortly after to a woman who wouldn't let him watch any of his ex-wife's films. Although Monroe moved on as well, famously marrying Joe DiMaggio and then Arthur Miller, Dougherty was still devastated when she died in 1962. "She was too gentle to be an actress," he later lamented. "She wasn't tough enough for Hollywood." ⁠

Image credits: realhistoryuncovered

#14 Archivists In The UK Just Opened An Unsealed Package From 1807 And Found A Sweater In Pristine Condition Inside

A carpenter from the Faroe Islands sent the sweater, hand-knit by his wife with a black and white floral pattern on a red backdrop, to a friend in Denmark. However, the British Royal Navy seized the parcel amid ongoing wars between the two nations and it sat unopened in the UK National Archives until now. This package is one of more than 160,000 unopened letters and parcels seized by the British Royal Navy between 1652 and 1815 that are now being unsealed as part of a massive project that's expected to take 20 years.

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#15 "My Name Is Ralph C. Lincoln And I Am Honored To Be An 11th Generation Lincoln Who Also Shares The Same Great-Grandfather As One Of America’s Greatest Presidents."

"If you visit Fayette County in Pennsylvania, you will find a small, obscure cemetery where members of the Lincoln family are buried, including Abraham Lincoln’s great uncle Mordecai, who served in the Revolutionary War, and his son Benjamin. Mordecai Lincoln is my 5th generation great-grandfather, which makes me a third cousin of the President."⁠

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#16 Norwegian Farmer Øyvind Tveitane Lovra And His Son Were Recently Cleaning Up A Field On Their Property In Rogaland When Lovra Picked Up What He Thought Was A Scrap Of Metal From A Piece Of Farm Equipment

Upon closer inspection, he realized it was actually the hilt of a sword. The weapon is 15 inches long — about half its original size — has a T-shaped handle, and dates to between 900 and 1050 C.E. What's more, X-rays revealed an inscription on the blade that suggests it may be a famed Ulfberht sword, a weapon of exceptionally high quality that has never been seen in the Rogaland area before.

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#17 Drought In The Amazon Reveals Dozens Of Carvings Of Human Faces That Had Been Hidden For 1,000 Years

As extreme drought in Brazil causes the Amazon's water levels to drop to historic lows, dozens of ancient rock carvings have been revealed on previously submerged rocks along the river's banks. Carved between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago, these haunting engravings of anthropomorphic faces vary in shape, size, and expression, while their original purpose and meaning remain shrouded in mystery.

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#18 "It Is Amazing To Literally Rewrite What We Know Of History, Adding A New Queen To Our Records."⁠ ⁠

Archaeologists in Egypt just discovered the existence of a previously-unknown queen named Neith after unearthing a pyramid built in her honor at Saqqara. She was likely named after the goddess Neith, who was worshipped from the Predynastic Period until the Romans took control of the kingdom. She was the goddess of creation, wisdom, weaving, war, and many earlier Egyptian queens were named after her due to her importance

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#19 Approximately 1,700 Years Ago, An Ancient Roman Tossed A Chicken Egg Into A Wishing Well In What's Now The Town Of Aylesbury, England

Symbols of fertility associated with the gods Mithras and Mercury, eggs were often offered up as sacrifices in this manner during the Roman era. But unlike the others, the "Aylesbury egg" has somehow remained completely intact after nearly two millennia. Researchers have just used CT scans to discover that its yolk, albumen, and air sac have been preserved, making it the only specimen of its kind in the world.

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#20 For More Than Two Years, Danish Explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen Was Trapped In The Arctic With A Single Inexperienced Crewmate — After The Rest Of Their Expedition Left Without Them

From 1910 to 1912, they survived by eating their sled dogs and abandoned rations from previous expeditions while evading bears, wolves, and foxes. Once, when a polar bear broke into their cabin in the middle of winter, they had to fight it off with only an axe while they frantically tried to heat up their frozen shotgun by the fire so it could shoot.

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#21 Employees From Kazakhstan's Emergency Situations Department Were Recently Performing Routine Inspections In The Country's Akmola Region When They Stumbled Upon A Bizarre Sight

A human face carved into a granite boulder. The carving is about the size of a sheet of paper and dates back at least 3,000 years, but it may be even older. Experts believe that the site was part of a ritual complex during the Bronze Age or early Iron Age, but they're still uncovering more about this "incredibly rare" discovery

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#22 This 1,800-Year-Old Iron Mask Was Once Worn By A Roman Soldier Heading Into Battle

The Roman city of Hadrianapolis, in what's now northern Turkey, was founded in the 1st century B.C. and named after a Roman Emperor. Today, it's known as the home of the "Mona Lisa of Roman Mosaics" and for its stunning ruins, including churches, a theater, and a military garrison. And archaeologists have found a breathtaking part of Hardianapolis's military history, with this fragment of a Roman soldier's iron face mask that dates back 1,800 years

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#23 On The Night Of April 22, 1987, Ruthie Mae Mccoy Called 911 To Report That Someone Was Breaking Into Her Apartment Through Her Bathroom Mirror

She called 911 twice that night, as did two of her neighbors who heard her screams, but nobody came to her aid. McCoy was found two days later in a puddle of blood with one shoe on and one shoe off — m*rdered by two k*llers who had actually come in through the bathroom mirror. In 1992, her story helped inspire a horror classic about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand who traveled through mirrors in the Chicago projects.⁠

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#24 Founded By Alexander The Great's Father King Philip II In 356 B.c.e., The Historic City Of Philippi Has Become One Of The Most Important Archaeological Sites In The Region

Over the last century, archaeologists have uncovered everything from a theater to a forum to baths from the Greek era, while the Roman layer of the city was designed as a miniature of Rome itself. Now, archaeology students digging at Philippi have made another astonishing find: the head of an 1,800-year-old statue of Apollo. This follows the 2023 discovery of a Hercules statue right nearby, and experts believe that both sculptures were part of an enormous fountain that sat in the city square.⁠

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#25 Ringling Brothers' "Congress Of Freaks" Poses For A Photo In 1931, Including Frank Lentini "The Three-Legged Man" And George And Willie Muse "The Men From Mars."

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#26 On December 12, 1972, Baroness Marie-Hélène De Rothschild And Her Husband Guy Hosted The Legendary Surrealist Ball At Their Chateau In France

With a guest list that included Audrey Hepburn and Salvador Dalí, dinner plates covered in fur, and a dessert that looked like a naked woman, the night was equal parts opulent and bizarre

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#27 A Rare View Of The Statue Of Liberty's Head As Seen From Its Torch

Until 1916, visitors were allowed to climb up the torch and enjoy spectacular views like this one, but for more than a century, the torch has been closed to the public — and the little-known reason for that is far more dramatic than most people realize. ⁠ ⁠ On July 30, 1916, a group of German saboteurs set fire to what was then the United States' largest munitions depot on Black Tom Island, right in the shadow of Lady Liberty. The blaze set off a massive explosion that shattered glass windows across Manhattan and Brooklyn and created an earthquake-sized rumble that woke people up as far away as Maryland. The explosion also caused shrapnel to hit the Statue of Liberty, causing permanent damage to the torch.

Image credits: realhistoryuncovered

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