CuriositiesMAR 12, 2024

38 Wikipedia Pages That Are So Wild People Online Can’t Believe That They’re Real

We have all relied on Wikipedia's knowledge at least a few times in our lives, no matter whether we admit it or not. After all, Wikipedia has an article on nearly every topic you can think of. In fact, it even has articles on topics you wouldn't even imagine! And they range from mildly interesting to extremely wild. So, today, let's take a trip through the list of wild Wikipedia articles and broaden our horizons on strange topics.

More info: Reddit

#1

38 Wikipedia Pages That Are So Wild People Online Can’t Believe That They’re Real

I personally really like Lampo (dog) It's about a dog from Italy that became famous for travelling Italy by trains all by himself.

ArtemisAndromeda, LepoRello

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121points

#2

The timeline of Irish inventions

There’s a 300 year gap between the invention of whiskey and the next listed invention.

GotPC

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119points

#3

There's a wikipedia page on the human race.

That's not weird. The weird part is that, per Wikipedia style guidelines, it's written in the third person, which, in context, makes the whole thing sound like it was written by aliens.

Notmiefault, Jimmy Chan

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101points

As probably everyone knows, Wikipedia is a non-profit multilingual online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The page uses the "wisdom of crowds" principle, where it’s believed that large groups of people are collectively smarter than individual experts. So, Wikipedia relies on volunteers to improve the quality and accuracy of the pages over time and on writers to back up factual statements with valid sources.

#4

A real life Forrest Gump. Made one clueless financial decision after another and kept getting richer. Was fooled into shipping "coal to Newcastle" (where the saying came from) but made a serious profit because it arrived right before a miner's strike.

Got tired of his wife and told people she died. When they visited and saw her walking around the house, he just said that was her ghost.

Agitated_Ad7576, Paramount Movies

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78points

#5

Christopher Lee's Life.

GeneralDefenestrates, movie-screencaps

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67points

#6

List of unusual deaths. This page catalogs instances throughout history where individuals have met their demise in bizarre, unexpected, or seemingly improbable ways. From historical figures to ordinary people, the list includes deaths resulting from strange accidents, curious circumstances, and sometimes even tragicomic events. Some entries may seem like they're straight out of fiction, but they are based on documented accounts and historical records. It's a fascinating, albeit morbid, exploration of the unpredictable nature of life and the strange ways in which it can end.

Pauloc99

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63points

Yet, the editing isn’t as simple as it sounds. There are some rules to abide by if you want to make some edits to the encyclopedia. For instance, not putting in fake information, avoiding opinions, and sticking to valid facts. To make sure these rules are implemented, Wikipedia administrators sometimes protect certain pages from direct editing if they believe they can be subjected to online vandalism.

The Wiki administrators can usually identify the IP address and rough location of people editing articles, letting them spot suspicious behavior patterns. So, if a person gets caught misbehaving, their account can be suspended, even if the person isn’t identified.

#7

The Unkillable Soldier. Wiki’s first paragraph really says all you need to know about him.

ThePurgingLutheran, Specna Arms

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51points

#8

The names of traditional Scottish foods are wild. I was first introduced to this page by someone who was playing "Scottish dish or STD?" >Cullen skink >Collops >Festy c**k.

gambalore, Nestor Correa Mayo

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50points

#9

There's an operating system called TempleOS that's created by a sole programmer called Terry A. Davis.

it's nuts because not only he developed an operating system, which is incredibly hard to do especially for one person, but he even created his own compiler, kernel, and a programming language to go with it.

most crazy part was that Terry has schizophrenia and had visions of God, which lead him to make an operating system that's supposed to act as the Third Temple. the OS runs on 16-colour display and 640x480 resolution "as God intended".

also on TempleOS there's a random text generator that is supposed to be God directly communicating to you.

RixTart

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50points

Still, even with all these rules and protections, there have been many times when Wikipedia had some funny or even harmful mistakes in its articles.

For example, it was written that David Beckham was a Chinese goalkeeper back in the 18th century or that The Duchess of Cornwall's Christian name is Cow-miller. Also, there have been many blunders reporting the death of a very alive person.

And even though some of you might say that some of the articles in this list should be in the blunders list instead of this one, you would be mistaken. Yes, we agree that some of them sound quite unbelievable, but they’re true!

So, upvote the articles you think are the wildest! And maybe you know some we haven’t put in here? Share them with us in the comments!

#10

Unusual articles is an absolute goldmine.

jhemsley99, Ylanite Koppens

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47points

#11

My favorite one is perhaps the one about Nils Olav. It's my favorite Wikipedia article ever.

HelpfulDeparture, Lee Carson

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42points

#12

The talk page for the article on Saladin has been a war between Arab, Turk, and Kurd nationalists arguing over his ethnicity since Wikipedia started.

*checks*

Yup. Still going on. The simple seven word sentence that he was most likely Kurdish is backed by 5 whole citations just because the article for years was defined by flame and edit wars over the topic.

Lord0fHats, Oleksandr P

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41points

#13

The wikipedia page titled, "Timeline of the Far Future", is kind of mind-blowing. It describes the year 10^10^10^56th: "Around this vast timeframe, quantum tunnelling in any isolated patch of the universe could generate new inflationary events, resulting in new Big Bangs giving birth to new universes.".

Some_Wastelander, Pixabay

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39points

#14

Former Major League Baseball(MLB) Player Rube Waddell.

Here is the first paragraph under the **Early baseball career** heading.

**"Waddell's career wound through a number of teams. He was notably unpredictable; early in his career, he once left in the middle of a game to go fishing. He also had a longstanding fascination with fire trucks and ran off the field to chase after them during games on multiple occasions. He would disappear for months at a time during the offseason, and it was not known where he went until it was discovered that he was wrestling alligators in a circus. He was easily distracted by opposing fans who held up puppies, which caused him to run over to play with them, and shiny objects, which seemed to put him in a trance. An alcoholic for much of his short life, he reportedly spent his entire first signing bonus on a drinking binge; as a pun of the baseball term "southpaw" denoting a left-handed pitcher, the Sporting News dubbed him a "sousepaw". His eccentric behavior led to constant battles with his managers and scuffles with bad-tempered teammates"**

MTVChallengeFan, Pixabay

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39points

#15

Tycho Brahe was a world renown astronomer who had gold in his mouth and died at a party because he refused to excuse himself from a conversation to go to the bathroom and relieve himself.

bewblover305, Hakeem James Hausley

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38points

#16

Cavader Synod

A pope had the corpse of his predecessor exhumed and put on trial.

ohdearitsrichardiii, KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA

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37points

#17

I've always been a fan of List of lists of lists.

SchreiberBike, Suzy Hazelwood

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35points

#18

Ken McElroy. A man who terrorized Skidmore Missouri but could never be convicted. And by *terrorized* I mean multiple counts of theft, arson, assault, and rape. Finally the town had enough, banded together, and shot him in broad daylight. No one talked to the police and no one was ever charged for his murder. Here is a small Wikipedia excerpt to let you know what kind of monster he was: > McElroy fathered more than 10 children with different women. He met his last wife, Trena McCloud (1957–2012), when she was 12 years old and in eighth grade and he was 35. He raped McCloud repeatedly. McCloud's parents initially opposed the relationship, but after McElroy burned their house down and shot the family dog, they begrudgingly agreed to the marriage. She became pregnant when she was fourteen, dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and went to live with McElroy and his second wife Alice.

TheTrub, cottonbro studio

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35points

#19

The 1972 Iran blizzard dropped 26 feet of snow in 6 days. It buried at least 4,000 people, and some villages were completely wiped out with no survivors.

MagicCuboid

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34points

#20

Great Molasses Flood

I didn't think it was real.

AlliepantswW22

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33points