History is fascinating; from the development of entire continents and ancient civilizations to architectural heritage and stories about events that shaped the world we live in today. There is so much to learn about it, both people who’ve never held a history book in their hands and avid history enthusiasts would find something new to learn every day.
Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community recently discussed happenings in the past that might have been many people’s “new thing to learn for the day”. When this redditor started a thread about historical events that are so ridiculous they sound fake, netizens shared quite a few stories, ranging from difficult to believe to plain ridiculous. Scroll down to find them on the list below and enjoy a rather amusing history lesson.
#1
The Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference. It would have been rejected for an episode of Veep because it was so ridiculous.
Image credits: AnybodySeeMyKeys
#2
The 1904 Olympic Marathon in St. Louis.
32 athletes took part, but only 14 were able to finish – there was only one water station in the entire 26-mile course. The “winner” was later disqualified because they found out he drove half the race in his car. The new winner (the guy who came in second) had to be carried over the finish line by his trainers because they’d been dosing him the whole time with a strange mixture of strychnine, brandy, and egg whites.
Several people almost died of internal injuries. Multiple runners stole things from passerby. Most people in the race weren’t even Olympic-level athletes, just amateur runners, many of whom didn’t even have to run a full marathon to qualify.
Image credits: Blacl-Owl
#3
Hannibal saved his army by tying torches to the horns of 5,000 cows and driving them one direction. The Romans thought they were the enemy army and converged on them, while Hannibal quietly snuck his 10,000 man force out of the valley by another route.
Image credits: Marxbrosburner
#4
The last guillotine execution in France took place after the first Star Wars movie was released.
Image credits: InfiniteInsomniac
#5
When two perfectly working pistols failed to fire on US President Andrew Jackson who then beat his would-be-assassin so badly that the presidential security detail had to pull him off to save the man’s life.
Image credits: sleepwalkfromsherdog
#6
Operation Mincemeat.
Basically, the British dressed a random dead guy in a military uniform, put fake invasion plans in his pocket, and dropped him on the shore of Spain. The Spanish found the body (and invasion plans) and informed Germany. Germany, believing the invasion plans were real, sent an army to Greece- which is exactly what the Brits wanted, because they were actually going to invade Sicily.
Image credits: ThePinkTeenager
#7
For a very long time the Roman empire was able to acquire silk through trade over ‘the silk road’ to China, but never able to unlock the secrets of producing it domestically themselves. Until 552AD, when two monks preaching in India then travelled to China, where they witnessed the guarded methods of using the live silk worm to spin the famous thread. Knowing the importance of what they’d learned, the monks returned to Constantinople to report directly to the emperor Justinian. He personally met the monks, heard all the details of what they’d seen, then asked them to return to China and find a way of smuggling these worms back to the empire. They agreed, and prepared for the 2 year ~6,500km (4,000mi) trek back to China on foot, hoof and wheel. Once back in China they acquired either eggs or young larvae, since the adults are too delicate for transport, and tucked them into hollowed bamboo canes for the long journey straight back home. Once the monks made it back to Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), domestic silk production slowly ramped up and the need for long journeys along the ‘silk road’ ramped down. Over time, this allowed the same type of silk monopoly which China had enjoyed through the prior centuries to now be established in the Mediterranean, becoming one of the bedrocks of the Byzantine economy for the next 700 years.
It’s crazy to think about these two guys. 1500 years before you or I were born, making their second multi-year, 6,500km trek back from China, smuggling two bamboo canes full of bugs which would fuel the economy of one of the world’s largest civilizations for the next 700 years. I wonder if they knew and understood these possibilities when they went to scoop the worms from their baskets in China…Imagine the anxiety trying to keep them hidden and alive the whole way back!
Image credits: ChipHazardous
#8
The Great Emu War
Image credits: porno_priest
#9
The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, the largest ($ value, inflation adjusted) heist in Canadian history
Image credits: Uwumeshu
#10
The Battle of Pelusium. In short, Persians held cats hostage, forcing an Egyptian pharaoh to declare war to save them.
Image credits: Schwarzes__Loch
#11
Stephen King was so obsessed with the song “mambo no.5” that his wife threatened to divorce him.
Image credits: Zodiark99
#12
The Erfurt Latrine Disaster.
The Erfurt latrine disaster occurred on 26 July 1184, when Henry VI, King of Germany (later Holy Roman Emperor), held a Hoftag (informal assembly) in the Petersberg Citadel in Erfurt. On the morning of 26 July, the combined weight of the assembled nobles caused the wooden second story floor of the building to collapse and most of them fell through into the latrine cesspit below the ground floor, where about 60 of them drowned in liquid excrement.
Image credits: amerkanische_Frosch
#13
The Field of the Cloth of Gold, where an English King and a French one tried to out-bling each other. The fact that two monkeys covered in gold leaf were far from the most ostentatious display is a good indication of how tasteful it was.
Image credits: notatravis
#14
Russia sending their baltic fleet to fight the Japanese Navy. Yes, the Baltic is on the other side of the planet. No, the baltic sailors had never seen ocean, or naval war, ever. Yes, it was a sh*tshow. It lasted for months, they attacked everything from Danish fishing vessels to each other, again and again. Thinking the ship next to them was a Japanese torpedo-boat, outside of F**** Nigeria, it wasnt, it was also Russian. Luckily they were so inept that 99% of all shots fired went into the ocean.
Image credits: alexdaland
#15
The first chancellor of modern day Germany, Konrad Adenauer, traveled to Moscow in 1955 to treat with Chruschtschow. He achieved his main goal of ~10000 POWs returning to Germany. The legend goes that this feat was made possible because he outdrank Chruschtschow because he drank a lot of olive oil before which mellowed out the effects of the vodka they were drinking.
So 10000 people got to go home because one dude knew how to handle booze
Image credits: Papageno_Kilmister
#16
The Immovable Ladder.
In Jerusalem there is a tiny christian church called the Church of the Holy Sepulcher that is shared by six different, very old, denominations.
There is so much animosity between the groups that they were forced into an agreement where any change to a common area had to be agreed to unanimously (the Status Quo).
During repairs sometime before 1757 a construction worker left a simple wooden ladder behind on a roof landing.
It has been over 260 years and the church leaders still refuse to agree on how to remove the ladder, so there it sits.
Fun fact: to stop the denominations from fighting over the keys to the front door, the Sultan ruling Jerusalem entrusted the keys to a muslim family that still, to this day, open and close the church.
#17
In 1982, Larry Walters strapped a bunch of weather balloons to a lawn chair and flew 16,000 feet in the air over LA. That’s about half the height of commercial airline cruising altitude. Just a guy up there in a lawn chair taking in the sights. And he landed safely.
Image credits: SayNoToStim
#18
The Gombe Chimpanzee War. It sounds like something right out of a Planet of The Apes movie.
Image credits: DeadalusJones
#19
The Dutch ate their Prime Minister. And his Brother.
Image credits: Bad-North
#20
Cadaver synod. New pope digs up the old pope, puts him on trial, finds him guilty, and punished the corpse. For whatever reason they don’t teach you about that in catholic school.
Image credits: WoodchipperTesticles
#21
The Boston Molasses disaster
Image credits: GoliathLandlord
#22
Roman emperor Caligula declared war on Neptune, god of the sea, and ordered his troops to “fight the sea waves” to show Neptune whos boss. I can only imagine the soldiers faces while listening to such absourdity.
The fact that some madman was the most powerful person in the Roman empire at some point in history is fascinating.
#23
Fats Domino was kidnapped by the mafia to play at the Don’s birthday, we woke up the next morning on a street corner, hung over with a bag of money
Image credits: Bowtie327
#24
Video of President Bush Vomiting on the Prime Minister of Japan Kiichi Miyazawa, January 8, 1992.
Actually, there is one event which occurred back in January of 1992, which I as a senior in High School knew would sound like a far fetched tale after enough time had passed. President George Bush, who was 67 years old at the time and on an official visit to Japan engaged in trade talks, would on the morning of January 8, 1992 play a game of tennis doubles with the Emperor of Japan and the prince. Yet just hours later on the same day during dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan Kiichi Miyazawa, suddenly vomit onto the Prime Minister’s lap and then faint. The Prime Minister of Japan was dumbfounded but remained calm. President Bush regained consciousness but took several minutes to do so, he was able to leave banquet on his own, though the secret service personnel were trying desperately to assist. The next morning President Bush would try to down play the event and resume his schedule. Yet the image of the President Bush vomiting in Japan never left the media in 1992. In fact since it was a campaign year, it became an image which was exploited. For the rest of 1992 the image and video would become a source of jokes and though this occurrence of gastric distress really was not humorous in any mature way.
As time progressed the election ended in a defeat for President Bush, the image and memory of the event began fading. By the mid 1990s it was something you could bring up and most people would remember it. Today, the event is hardly known to many people who grew up long after this time. When I was discussing this event not too long ago, a person thought it was just something being stated as a joke rather than a true historic fact. I realized than, I had indeed been correct when I told my father all those years ago that people would never believe this happened years from now.
Image credits: Cool_Albatross_6249
#25
That thing at Kitty Hawk where 2 guys in a bike shop cobbled together a glider and attached an internal combustion engine and started flying?
Image credits: Legion357
#26
Ancient Egyptians went on strike building a royal necropolis in the year 1152 BC and were the first to ever strike. And in a pleasant turn of events, the workers received higher wages and returned to the project.
To be clear, they were not slaves or anything, just the craftsmen of their time, but I still found it odd that even thousands of years ago there is documented evidence of striking being successful rather than companies attempting to squash down modern strikes.
Image credits: ptwinc
#27
The Great Windham Frog War.
In 1754 Windham, Connecticut was still a frontier settlement. One hot night the residents awoke to gruesome sounds that convinced them that the local Indians were attacking. Throughout the night they strove to drive off the attackers with steady gunfire. In the morning they crept out, to find thousands of dead frogs who had spent the night competing for the dwindling water.
Rather than being ashamed, this has become a central part of the town’s character. The town’s symbol is a frog and the bridge is decorated with large frogs at each corner.
Image credits: DdraigGwyn
#28
In the 1600s, Japanese Samurai fought with Mexican soldiers in Acapulco. We know this because it was recorded by the grandson of an Aztec king.
#29
Pepsi becoming a world superpower has to be up there right? .
Image credits: PurpleDrax
#30
That time Denmark and Canada (I think) had a “war” over an island. Everytime a Navy vessel drove by they picked up the flag of the over nation, planted their own and left a bottle of alcohol.
I heard it stopped not that long ago.
Image credits: FairyQueen89
#31
When America went to war with Spain, the Spanish forgot to tell their territory, Guam. The US sent a single warship to the island where they took 13 shots at the fort. The leaders on the island rowed out to apologize they couldn’t return their “salute”, they had no gunpowder.
That is why Guam is a US territory.
Image credits: Wetworth
#32
Stanislov Petrov literally saved the world from nuclear destruction by not calling in a missile launch when he was in command. He figured it MUST be a malfunction even though all his computers told him it was not.
It was a malfunction. Had he called it in, there would have been several billion dead.
#33
The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)
Hong Xiuquan, who failed the imperial exam for the third try to become a civil servant, had a breakdown and dreamed that he was the brother of Jesus Christ.
He later led a revolution resulting between 20 and 30 millions of deaths. That’s the bloodiest civil war in the world and the toll of death surpass the totality of casualties in WW1.
British diplomats at the time wanted to support the revolution but later discovered that Hong Xiuquan literally never read the bible and they thus deemed it would be disastrous if he were to get the throne.
This historical event feels like a fever dream everytime I hear about it.
#34
The guy who founded Scientology once engaged in a multi-day naval battle with a log. He would then go on to commit an act of war against Mexico.
Image credits: Duck_Whistle
#35
When they blowed up that whale and it just made things worse.
Image credits: Bubbly_Damage1678
#36
The Peking to Paris race. It was a car race from Peking China to Paris France in 1907. The winner was the Italian team lead by Scipione Borghese. In honor of the victory the color of his car, rosso corsa became the standard color for Italian race cars and the primary reason most sports cars are red.
#37
The Straw Hat Riot of 1922 was a riot that occurred in New York City at the end of the summer as a result of unwritten rules in men’s fashions at the time, and a tradition of taunting people who had failed to stop wearing straw hats after autumn began. Originating as a series of minor riots, it spread due to men wearing straw hats past the unofficial date that was deemed socially acceptable, September 15. It lasted eight days, leading to many arrests and some injuries.
#38
The Mongol Invasions of Japan
In the 13th century the Mongols were an absolutely unstoppable force wherever they turned their attention. The had captured the Korean Peninsula and were threatening Japan, putting together an enormous invasion fleet.
While sailing the relatively short distance to Japan they were struck by a typhoon and the fleet was absolutely devastated, sparing Japan from invasion.
Only seven years later the Mongols put together an even larger invasion force with larger storm-worthy ships. They were utterly destroyed by another typhoon.
#39
During one of the first Japanese delegations to the US, one of the Japanese guys was in culture shock (first time seeing the US) and confused about how to conduct himself politely, so at a fancy dinner when he finished his cigarette he put it up his sleeve to not appear rude leaving it out and set fire to himself