Meme-ing history is fun, but sometimes, history can be just as funny on its own. We thought this would be a great opportunity to highlight the moments in history that seem like they are memes, but might actually be real. So, here are some of the funniest history events and legends that are just as hilarious as the pics on this IG page!
First up, it's the infamous fall from a horse performed by the second king of the Korean Joseon Dynasty, King Taejong. We know of this comical story thanks to the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, the 1,893 historic records detailing the life of kings during that period.
The unfortunate incident happened when the King was hunting. The historians of that era had to document everything and the kings weren't allowed to interfere. King Taejong tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to erase his shame from the records, but the historians kept copying and hiding the records. Ironically, today, King Taejong is best known for falling off a horse and trying to destroy all of the proof of his fateful fall.
The story of the hanging of the Hartlepool monkey may be more fiction than fact, but it's still a big part of the identity of the people of Hartlepool. During the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century, a French ship wrecked on the coast of the town. The only 'person' the good folk of Hartlepool found inside the wreckage was a monkey dressed in a miniature military-style uniform.
Believing the monkey might be a spy, the town folk decided to execute the monkey, since that was the law for all French soldiers on British soil. Whether they actually did it remains unknown, since some accounts claim that the monkey kept climbing up the rope.
According to the ancient historian Herodotus, King Xerxes of Persia punished the sea by flogging it. Sound too ridiculous to be true? He had a pretty good reason. Wanting to invade Greece, he ordered a bridge to be built across the Dardanelles Strait.
When the storm destroyed the bridge, Xerxes ordered his soldier to whip the sea 300 times with chains and poke it with red-hot irons. They even threw handcuffs into the water that symbolized the sea's submission to Xerxes. For a more tangible punishment, he executed the engineers of the bridge.
Did you know the seventh president of the U.S., Andrew Jackson, had a parrot named Poll? And did you know there's a story about how the parrot started shouting curse words during Jackson's funeral?
Although historians call the story "uncontroverted but also unauthenticated," one witness claimed to have heard Poll go at it like a sailor while her owner was lying peacefully in a casket. Another fun fact: Jackson was supposedly the one who taught the parrot the naughty words.
How much do you know about the tiny country of Liechtenstein? Today, you'll know at least one fact: in 1866, their army of 80 soldiers came back with 81 men after the soldiers made a friend. According to historians, it was an Italian man who defected to Liechtenstein to look for work opportunities.
The soldiers supposedly didn't have much to do since they were stationed to guard the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy. They just admired beautiful mountains, smoked pipes, drank wine and beer, and chilled.
In 1979, U.S. president Jimmy Carter was supposedly attacked by a "possessed" swamp rabbit while fishing in his boat in Georgia. The media most likely sensationalized the event, as Carter himself said he only shooed the rabbit away.
But the story got such big wings that even after the president passed away last year, The Onion ran a headline: "48-Year-Old Rabbit Finally Finishes The Job".
