HistoryNOV 1, 2021

People Share What Historical Events They Wouldn't Believe Had Happened If It Weren't Actually Documented

Justinas Keturka and Rokas Laurinavičius

226

Our history is filled with weird tales, and the best part is that some of them are true. Interested in these crazy moments, Redditor u/day-tripper96 made a post on the platform, asking other users: "What's a bizarre historical event you can't believe actually took place?" And people instantly flooded the comment section with answers.

From the CIA training a cat to spy on the Soviets to the great Emu War, continue scrolling to check out the most memorable ones together with Bored Panda's treat — an interview with Dr. Darren R. Reid, a historian who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Dundee and is now a lecturer at Coventry University.

#1

People Share What Historical Events They Wouldn't Believe Had Happened If It Weren't Actually Documented

The fact that Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States of America will always shock and appall me.

ThaUniversal, Wikimedia.Common

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696points

As you might understand, history isn't just about funny gags. While it has plenty of those, the subject can offer us much more.

"History gives us perspective," Dr. Reid told us. "It helps us to understand how our own experiences fit into a much broader pattern of human behavior; why do we go to war, why do we love, and why do we cause so much pain when we are trying to do the right thing."

"These are big questions with no easy answers, but understanding how and why our ancestors acted can help us to understand why we, as individuals and as a society, act as we do."

#2

I can’t believe i haven’t seen the siege of Weinsberg in 1140 after so much scrolling. It was negotiated that the women would be allowed to leave unharmed with whatever they could carry on their shoulders (with the intention that the men would continue to be sieged and ultimately killed/arrested). So the women carried out the men. Conrad III wasn’t even mad, he actually applauded their deception and allowed it.

AlanMooresWizrdBeard, Wikimedia.Common

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528points

However, once you start diving deeper, you quickly realize that historians have done so much work, it's impossible for one person to become an expert in every stage of every civilization.

"Start by learning about whatever time period or topic speaks to you," Dr. Reid suggested.

"Don't try and nail down specific periods or important people because every period and every person's history is just as valid as everyone else's. Find what speaks to you and work out from there, always being open to engaging with stories, histories, and peoples that you come across whose experiences and perspectives take you out of your intellectual comfort zone."

#3

I know it's not very old, but it still amazes me that a science fiction author can talk about wanting to create a fake religion and then proceeds to create a fake science fiction religion and it somehow has actual followers???

Heterozygoats, Wikimedia.Common

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383points

Following your own curiosity and intuition, you are bound to discover something you will be able to share in a similar post when it comes up. Just don't be afraid of challenges.

According to Dr. Reid, even though academic literature can be intimidating for newcomers, historians are increasingly exploring new ways of bringing their research to life for new audiences. "Many [of them] produce podcasts, for example, that provide a much more accessible gateway into a vast range of periods and peoples," he explained.

"Historians are also starting to take control of mediums that haven't always represented the past as accurately as they could have. For example, I co-directed a documentary about Charlie Chaplin and mental health called Looking for Charlie: Life and Death in the Silent Era (to be released for free - streaming in the first week in November)."

Dr. Reid suggested that works such as this are likely to become more and more popular in the near future, providing deep insights into topics, but in an accessible way that will hopefully give people the best of both worlds.

#4

The life of Zheng Yi Sao, a prostitute that became the most successful pirate lord in history, commanding 500 ships at the height of her power and battling Empire of China to a stalemate. She negotiated her surrender with honors and died peacefully at old age.

Zaihron, Wikimedia.Common

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292points

#5

During the siege of Tenochtitlan, the conquistadors built a trebuchet. However, the conquistadors, being an exploratory expedition, had not brought any military engineers with them. So they winged it. Surprisingly, they did build a trebuchet, which fired exactly one shot, directly upwards, which promptly came down and smashed the trebuchet. This event is chronicled in both the journals of the conquistadors present as well as the Aztec records.

VolJin, Wikimedia.Common

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288points

#6

During WW1, English and German troops stopped the fighting for one day on Christmas Eve and played a game of football, exchanged gifts, and held conversations..only to go back to killing each other the next day

R-S-S, Wikimedia.Common

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287points

#7

The Erfurt Latrine Disaster of 1184 where a bunch of nobles met in a church, where it turned out the wooden floor couldn't hold their weight, so it broke and they tumbled into the latrine in the cellar, and about 60 people drowned in poop.

Rasmoss, Wikimedia.Common

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234points

#8

Putting a man on the moon with a small fraction of the computing power used to write this message.

Kingh82, Wikimedia.Common

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233points

#9

Mel Blanc (the voice actor who voiced every male character on Looney Tunes, as well as characters like Barney Rubble on The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely on The Jetsons) was in a head-on collision driving his sports car in a dangerous intersection known as “Dead Man’s Curve” in Los Angeles in 1961 (the same “Dead Man’s Curve” from the Jan and Dean song). His legs and pelvis were fractured, and he was left in a coma. For weeks, doctors tried everything to get Blanc to wake up. Eventually, when things were looking bleak, one of his neurologists decided to address one of Blanc’s characters instead of Blanc himself, asking him “How are you feeling today, Bugs Bunny?” After a slight pause, the previously-comatose Blanc answered, “Eh... just fine, Doc. How are you?” Mel Blanc made a full recovery.

When he got out of the hospital, he sued the city of Los Angeles for $500,000, finally leading to the city reconstructing Dead Man’s Curve.

Ant-Fan66, Wikimedia.Common

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226points

#10

The Cobra Effect. Basically during the British rule of India, they were concerned about the number of snakes in the capital, so they ordered a bounty on Cobras. For a while their population definitely declined, but soon people started breeding snakes just to collect the bounty. When the British became aware of this, they cancelled the bounty and so the breeders/snake catchers had huge numbers of now-worthless snakes which they let go in the wild, in turn actually increasing the population of Cobras in Delhi.

vpsj, Wikimedia.Common

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224points

#11

1866: Lichtenstein goes to guard a spot with 80 men, returns with 81 men.

WolfTotem9, Wikimedia.Common

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217points

#12

The dancing plague of 1518, so from what I remember about what I learned, a few people randomly just started dancing in the town center for no apparent reason, even seeming a bit distraught not really having fun, well randomly people started joining seemingly against their will, I think it was reported that nearly 400 people were eventually involved and danced for literal days without stop, this event was apparently well documented and a few people even died from literal exhaustion, pretty much ended like it started too, everyone just kinda stopped.

Sullisk, Wikimedia.Common

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204points

#13

In 1920, President Paul Deschanel of France fell through the window of the train while traveling on the Orient Express. He stumbled up to the nearest signal box in his pajamas and told the signalman that he needed help and that he was the President of France. The signalman reportedly replied 'And I'm Napoleon Bonaparte.'

Bunnystrawbery, Wikimedia.Common

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193points

#14

Europe declaring war on Napoleon.

Not France...Napoleon.

septembervirghoe, Wikimedia.Common

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187points

#15

Henry starting a whole new religion because he wanted a divorce and the Pope gave him the finger

tarnishedhuntress, Wikimedia.Common

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180points

#16

When Teddy Roosevelt was shot before he was supposed to give a speech.

The bullet was slowed down by the folded up 50-page speech, so it did not kill him. The bullet was inside him and he was bleeding, but he still went on and gave the speech, which was 84 minutes long.

He started it off with "It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose" and showed the crowd the speech with the hole in it.

-eDgAR-, Wikimedia.Common

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180points

#17

The Halifax Explosion. 100 years ago two ships did a sh**t job of passing each other while entering / leaving Halifax Harbour, in Nova Scotia. One of them was LOADED with explosives destined for WW1. They collided and one of them burned for a while, then exploded. The blast was a ~2/3 again larger than the one we saw in Beirut last year.

Thousands died or were blinded by shattering windows. There was a local tsunami (which followed a brief moment where the seabed was exposed to air), and then a monster snowstorm covered the relief effort in snow.

Largest human-made explosion even until the nuclear bomb, and I think it remains the largest maritime accident ever.

kayriss, Wikimedia.Common

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179points

#18

Good old Operation Mincemeat.

Basically, during WWII, the British find some dead body of some poor guy, dress it up like a British officer, attach some fake intel onto him, then throw him into the ocean, hoping he floats to enemy territory to mislead them.

It worked.

mitchade, Thomas Vimare

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167points

#19

What they did to the guy who told them that you need clean hands before you put them inside someone. (Ignaz Semmelweis)

Heep-0-Creajee

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167points

#20

Lincoln stopping a fight with a gentleman before it started, with a broadsword.

Most people know Lincoln was incredibly tall, but he was also immensely strong. A lifetime of grit, graft, and chopping wood made his wiry frame tight with corded muscles.

A gentleman of parliament challenged Lincoln to a duel for his honour, one day. Lincoln picked the weapons. Broadswords.

Lincoln showed up to the field of the duel the following day, and with one enormous one handed swing overhead, lopped a sizeable limb off a tree. From a standing start.

The gentleman backed out of the duel moments after witnessing the man dismember a tree as casually as one might behead a floret of broccoli.

ReaverRogue, archive.org

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156points

226