Of all the sciences created by humankind, history is probably the most flexible and ambiguous. As you may know, history is written by the winners, and you are unlikely to have any doubts that if, say, the South won the Civil War, today we would study from slightly different history textbooks. Yes, and "Gone with the Wind" would hardly have been written, let alone filmed.
And yet, even with all the relativity of historical assessments of different events, there are facts which, upon hearing them for the first time, we will definitely say "You cannot be serious!" However, any more or less careful fact-checking will confirm that this is indeed the case. History - you know, she's a very capricious old lady.
A few weeks ago, a new thread appeared in the AskReddit community, the topic starter of which asked people "What is a historical fact that seems unbelievable?" As of today, the thread has over 700 upvotes and almost a thousand and a half comments as well, containing both obvious fakes and really incredible but true things - as well as fierce disputes over how to separate the first from the second.
Bored Panda has carefully done everything ourselves. First, we thoroughly went through the original thread, selected the most popular and incredible facts and stories told in the comments, and then just as carefully and meticulously checked each fact apiece. If at least some doubt arose, the fact was mercilessly sent to the wastebin.
So now, meet our selection of the most incredible, but 100% true random and not only historical things. Please feel free to scroll to the very end and, of course, add some similar facts you know - but fact checking is definitely a must! Just have a good and amazing read!
More info: Reddit
#1
If we held a minute of silence for every victim of the Holocaust, the world would be silent for 11.5 years. It’s crazy to visualize the mass amount of human loss from this event.
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478points
#2
Ancient Thebes once assembled an elite military force consisting of 150 pairs of gay male lovers. They were believed to fight better because they wouldn't want to act cowardly or unmanly in front of their boyfriends. They went undefeated in war for years.
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439points
#3
Elizabeth II was on the throne for over a quarter of the United States' existence.
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393points
#4
There were archaeologists in *Ancient* Egypt studying about *even more* ancient Egypt.
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363points
#5
Read about this a few years ago:
In 1943 a group of German sailors on a U-Boat emplaced a weather station on the Canadian coast (Labrador) so the Germans could more accurately predict the weather for military operations (since weather in the Northern hemisphere generally moves west-to-east.) The weather station was marked with fake signs indicating that it was a Canadian military facility and for unauthorized personnel to keep out.
The weather station was eventually discovered by the Canadians....
...In 1977.
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315points
#6
The first battle of the American Civil War was fought on land owned by a Mr. Wilmer McLean. After the battle he decided to move further out in the country to avoid the war...where four years later Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant in Mr. McLeans house. The war started and ended on his property.
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300points
#8
We live closer in time to TRex than TRex did to Stegosaurus. Dinosaurs were here forever.
273points
#9
King George III known as the ‘Mad King’ apparently suffered severe mental illness the majority of his life. He was tied to chairs, gagged, bled, left in freezing rooms to try and ‘treat’ him.
In 2005, DNA testing on his hair found extremely high levels of lead and arsenic. Medications he was being given for other ailments sent him insane for a slow likely painful death
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256points
#10
The entire country of Malta was awarded the George Cross for its efforts in WWII. It's still on their flag.
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237points
#11
The rings of Saturn are younger than Stegosauruses.
Stegosauruses roamed the earth ~150-180 million years ago. Saturn's rings have only existed for ~100 million years.
224points
#12
Bobby Leach was the second person to ever go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. He survived, but his injuries kept him hospitalized for six months.
He died 15 years later from injuries sustained after he slipped on an orange peel.
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219points
#13
The first 200 000 years or so of being highly sentient human beings are lost in history. We only know the last circa 2000-4000 years from texts.
The first recorded joke - a fart joke that is 4000 years old - uses the term "since time immemorial" (or the sumerian version). Even though one should not take that literally, it suggests that you could travel back in time to find people consider their civilization ancient already.
And it was. When that joke was written down in cuneiform, the pyramid of Djoser had already been standing for 700 years. And when **that** pyramid was built, the city of Catal Höyuk was 3000-5000 years old!
And still, that was built during *the latest 2.5% of human history*.
We have lost so goddam much that it hurts to think of it.
214points
#14
Sharks have been on earth far longer than trees. The first sharks arose over 100 million years before the first tree.
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202points
#15
There are funguses that cover entire forest floors that work like a neural network, for both themselves and the trees. If the fungus is say, ingured by a dog on one end, trees on the other end will increase their bark for additional protection.
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197points
#16
The head of German military intelligence during WW2 was providing the Allies with intel.
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188points
#17
Between the 16th and 18th century, slave ships from Africa raided the Mediterranean and enslaved up to a million people. Sometimes entire islands were captured and taken away. Raids were made on seaside towns of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, England, the Netherlands and as far away as Iceland, capturing men, women and children. It was so bad that people stopped living on long stretches of coast in Spain and Italy.
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183points
#18
Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt went for a swim in the ocean and just disappeared. To honour him we now have the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre.
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174points
#19
In 90 years from 1841 to 1930 Ireland's population halved, from 8.4 million to about 4 million. The Famine started the decline, but emigration sustained it - Ireland's population didn't start growing again until the 1960s, and there are still about 2 million fewer people living there (Eire and NI) than in 1841.
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170points
