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42 Historical Facts Which Appear To Be Too Bizarre To Be True Yet They Are, As Told By Folks In This Online Thread
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
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#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.
Stardust she/her 2 years ago
Every victim was their own person with their own story which ended long before it should’ve. So many stories and chapters of life were gone. So many children lost their chance of living a childhood, so many people never got the chance to better themselves, so many love stories ended, so many things could’ve potentially happened which never did. Once you stop seeing things as statistics and instead focus on the emotions, it becomes terrifying and tragic
El Dee 2 years ago
Incorrect. The Nazis murdered approximately 11 million men, women and children. Most people think about the 6 million Jewish people murdered and forget about the 5 million others made up of disabled, various ethnic groups and communists, Masons and gay people. So, in fact, if we had a minute's silence for each person they murdered it would be 21.9 years..
Undercover 2 years ago
Thank you for this additional comment. The mass murder of jews is incomprehensible and there is no excuse for it! But there were so many types of murdered people... Like Roma and Sinti, they're always forgotten as victims. And the horrible mistreatment of disabled and mentally ill people (even a lot of them were not really mentally ill or disabled) continued till the 1980s. I suffer from mental illnesses and just 80 years prior I would have been killed as hopeless case, and up to the Sixties there was a likelyhood that somebody like me would have suffered a lobotomy and the risk of being legally sterilized was up until the 1980s. I had a lot of therapy, I don't have a lot of money, but I believe that I reached a point where I can give back A LOT!
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that one ace lesbian demigirl 2 years ago
I really do hate the people that try to deny the fact that the holocaust existed.
Barbra E. Nyberg 2 years ago
And all the bs that lead to this is pretty much repeating right now. Notice, and fight against it.
Noname 2 years ago (edited)
Rwanda! Which was 30 years ago. All the indigenous peoples living in the Amazon rainforest basin! Kurds! Caucasians (and yes, they are an indigenous peoples living in Eurasia)
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Heather Menard 2 years ago
What's crazy is there are people that still don't believe it happened.
juni 2 years ago
There are still people that will tell you covid is a hoax. Some people just can't imagine something that didn't happen to them personally exists and sometimes even then they struggle.
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Michael Largey 2 years ago
Sadly, the world was silent for the 11.5 years preceding the Holocaust, too.
Leigh 2 years ago (edited)
when i was in middle school I met a Holocaust survivor who miraculously survived Auschwitz . She showed us the tattoo on her arm and shared her story. It was evident that it pained her to talk about it yet she bravely traveled around so kids would learn about it first hand. We were so horrified to see a human being branded like a.cow. I shall never forget this courageous survivor who had a lasting impact on my life.
the shrimp whisperer 2 years ago (edited)
k guys im back to crying over historical events so who wants to come cry in the closet and be mute for 11.5 years with me
Panda Kicki 2 years ago
And then we can add in all the millions the Japanese killed as well, victoms of ww2 so often forgotten
Penny Hernandez 2 years ago
Let's not forget all the others (Roma, disabled, and on and on who also died (were murdered)) at the same time - likely another 6,000,000.
Kate Jones 2 years ago
It's also insane to think about how many deniers there are. We have empirical proof of the holocaust and yet there are still people who don't think it happened, or think it was less severe than described. I just don't understand these denier people for any thing...flat earthers, covid deniers,...they're all freaking crazy.
Bill Dolman 2 years ago
Americans (rightfully) mourn the terrorist actions of 9/11. The fact is that since WWII lasted in Europe from September 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945, more Jews were murdered every single last day during WWII in Europe (on average) than the number of Americans who died as a result of the terrorist actions of 9/11.
Scott Crosby 2 years ago
If we held a minute of silence for every victim of Stalin or Mao, no living person would hear another word before they died.
Vera Diblikova 2 years ago
But bis today antisemitism is flourishing, and governments are paying millions for Palestina, which buys firearms to kill Israelis.
Francky 2 years ago
Before the holocaust, the Nama and Herero tribes in present day Namibia, were completely annihilated by the Germans. The world never condemned that act to this day because the victims were black. Those tribes do not exist anymore. Do the research.
Melissa 2 years ago
It's horrifying that I have never learned of this genocide until reading your comment.
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Ponyo (they/them) 2 years ago (edited)
i’m just curious but does anyone know exactly how long a moment is. i just want to know for math purposes
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
https://about-history.com/list-of-dictatorships-by-death-toll-the-top-10-biggest-killers-in-history/
TotallyNOTaFox 2 years ago
And that's only for the Holocaust, if we would count every victim of political murder during that time it would be about two times longer
Kathy 2 years ago
If we held a minute of silence for every lifeform, humanoid or otherwise, whose anticipated life span was abruptly and brutally cut short, by human action, since we as a lifeform have existed on this planet - then humans would never utter another sound for the rest of our time here, however long that time may be... Now just let that sink in...
sylvantic 2 years ago
This is true. The holocaust didn’t exist in a vacuum.
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Well-Dressed Wolf 2 years ago (edited)
I don’t think anyone has ever tried to overshadow the loss of life caused by the Japanese in WWII. However, it is shameful to speak of another massive loss while discussing another massive loss. It makes it look like you’re trying to distract from the Holocaust and its victims by saying their loss wasn’t as big as another. Why do we need to say “oh yeah? Well if we do that for the people that xyz killed…” We aren’t talking about them. Right now, we’re talking about the Holocaust.
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#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.
#3
Elizabeth II was on the throne for over a quarter of the United States' existence.
#4
There were archaeologists in *Ancient* Egypt studying about *even more* ancient Egypt.
RoanTheMad 2 years ago
To put this into context: There was more than a thousand years between the Pyramids being built (around 2630 BC) and Tutankhamun being Pharaoh. (1332 BC) and another more than a thousand until Cleopatra ruled Egypt (51 to 30 BC) which means Cleopatra was alive around 2050 years ago. meaning as of 2023 she lived closer to our modern time than she did to the pyramids being built.
#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.
#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.
Paulo Freitas 2 years ago (edited)
I raise you One better, ( i dunno the dates by head now, neither the name of the gentleman in question, but any of you interested can Google him ) there was a Japanese gentleman that was in Hiroshima when the Americans droped the 1st Atomic bomb, the man in question survived and decided to go to his family house in..... Nagasaki lol, and Guess what, he survived again, its the only man on the Guiness book of world records to have survived 2 Atomic bombs.
#7
University of Oxford is older than the Aztec Empire.
Headless Roach 2 years ago
The yoghurt in Nathaniel's fridge is older than the Aztec Empire, too. 🤎
#8
We live closer in time to TRex than TRex did to Stegosaurus. Dinosaurs were here forever.
#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
#10
The entire country of Malta was awarded the George Cross for its efforts in WWII. It's still on their flag.
#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.
#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.
#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.
#14
Sharks have been on earth far longer than trees. The first sharks arose over 100 million years before the first tree.
TotallyNOTaFox 2 years ago
So they appeared around the time Saturn got it's rings... Coincidence, I THINK NOT!
#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.
#16
The head of German military intelligence during WW2 was providing the Allies with intel.
Onion Cutting Ninja 2 years ago
Thank goodness for people like this who had incredible courage during this terrible war.
#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.
#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.
#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.
werewolf394 2 years ago
This is why there are so many Americans who claim to be of Irish descent - because Ireland was so badly affected by the famine that millions left the country. My grandmother on my mother's side and my great-grandmother on my father's side both left Ireland years ago.
#20
Albert Einstein turned down the presidency of Israel.
#22
Carrots don't improve eyesight, that's World War Two propaganda made up by the British to cover up the existence of radar
Jill Bussey 2 years ago
If your diet is deficient in Vitamin A, then yes, eating carrots will help. But it's a fine line. The misunderstanding may also arise because there is a source of Vitamin A called carotene.
#23
Joe Biden was born closer to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination than he was his own inauguration.
LizzieBoredom 2 years ago
Joe Biden was born 5 years after Amelia Earhart went missing so he's in the clear.
#24
It took 60 million years for nature to develop bacteria that could digest trees. In fact that is where coal comes from
Pedantic Panda 2 years ago
This seems badly worded to me. The fact is that 300 million years ago, the bacteria and fungi that today help break down dead trees, didn't exist. As a result, dead trees didn't decompose but became coal due to being buried and exposed to millions of years of heat and pressure.
#25
That there was a molasses flood in Boston in 1919 that was 25 feet high and killed 21 people.
Jeff Gabrisl 2 years ago
I remember reading about beer flood in England when a fermentation tank burst. People died from alcohol poisoning. I'm not sure if it's true, but it always makes me think of this joke: Kelly Fitzgerald was late getting home from his job at the brewery one night and his wife was worried. He was supposed to be home at 5pm, and it was 9pm when she heard a knock at the door . When she opened the door it was the brewery owner. The owner said " Kelly had an accident at work, he fell into one of the fermentation vats, and now he is at St Peter's gate, I'm so sorry" His wife cried and said: "I hope he didn't die in pain" The owner replied: "I doubt it, he got out 4 times to take a p**s"
#26
There was a convent of French nuns that just began meowing one day for no particular reason.
#27
The last execution by guillotine was in the 70s
David 2 years ago
I feel like method of execution is determined more for the sensitivity of the people not being executed. Guillotine supposed to be 'barbaric' but in reality is probably painless or close to. Quick - catastrophic - fatal. Body goes into shock (I assume) and dead before it figures out what happened. I kind of don't get the current problems with injections. Just put them under like for an operation - then take them deeper. I've had my intestines removed from my body (temporarily of course) and never felt a thing. Not speaking in favor of execution. Just saying the modern methods seem weird to me.
#28
The last "official" civil war widow died in 2020.
#29
It’s estimated between 70-85 million people died in WW2. It’s been estimated 300-500 million people died of smallpox in the 20th century alone.
Apatheist Account2 2 years ago
You know what stopped smallpox? A vaccine. Some people are fortunate to be alive and have the choice not to take them.
#30
The Universe is unfathomably young at 13.8 billion years old. Humanity is actually very early to the party and there is a good chance we may be one of the first intelligent life forms in the universe if not the first. This chance increases if we find Red Dwarves with habitable planets because unlike Sol, Red Dwarves will last up to 10 trillion years.
On a Universal scale we are right at the birth of our Universe and it could be why we have yet to find evidence of other intelligent life, outside of just sheer size.
#31
Human spaceflight, laptop computers and mobile phones all pre-date the creation of the vertically aligned roll-aboard suitcase.
#33
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the iPhone than the construction of the pyramids.
#34
President Teddy Roosevelt was shot at point blank and gave his hour plus long speech.
#35
The last known pneumonic plague outbreak in the United States happened in 1924 in Los Angeles. It was limited to a small area, hence why it was classed as an outbreak. It was thought to be either an STI, due to the patient zero complaining about a fever and a sore groin.
What happened was patient zero was cleaning out his house and found a dead rat. He dispose of it, not knowing it was infected with pneumonic plague.
However, officials soon discovered a strange increase rate of an unusual form of pneumonia. Given the field of Pathology was around, they requested blood samples and discovered the cause was Yersinia pestis.
With the information provided, measures were finally taken to deal with the outbreak, such as Rat extermination including allowing stray cats and dogs to hunt down any rat. In today's money, the cost would be around 5 to 9 million. There was also mass burning, common to control a disease outbreak.
#36
In 1972, as much as 26 feet of snow fell on small towns in Iran killing 4000 people.
#37
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day. July 4th. On the 50th Anniversary.
Michelle C 2 years ago
John Adams’ last words were, reportedly, “Thomas Jefferson still lives!” unaware that he had died hours before Adams passed.
#38
Wooly Mammoth were alive when the first Egyptian pyramids were built.
The cotton gin was a commercial failure for Eli Whitney.
During the Siege of Castle Ritter, American and German troops fought together against German SS troops.
In WW2, the Italian navy independently broke most of the major powers encryption codes, including their allies codes. They even broke the German enigma code before the British did.
Stalin knew about the American nuclear weapons before Truman.
#39
Rudy Guiliani passed the bar exam.
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
Back in the day when he still had ll his marbles. He’d probably use his melting hair dye to doodle d***s or something on it now. The only “bar exam” he can pass now would be him drinking everyone else under the table in an actual bar
#40
Pope Gregory IX declared war on cats.
He believed that cats were agents of devil worshippers.
Stardust she/her 2 years ago
As a result of that, felines nearly went extinct in Europe and the population of rats increased which probably led to the plague
#41
Andrew Jackson, while being president, said "John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation, I will secede your head from the rest of your body."
#42
Hitler and Stalin both lived in Vienna in 1913.
Thorsten Massow 2 years ago
And if they both had visited Freud, talking about their problems (Hitlers troubled family-history, his failed art studies, Stalins drinking father etc.) this might have changed the 20th century timeline quite a bit. Maybe an idea for an alternate history novel...
What do you think ?
Kathy 2 years ago
Quite interesting, although not as enlightening as I hoped it would be... If only my fellow pandas would keep politics out of the comments, it might even have been a pleasant read... *Sigh*...
Auntriarch 2 years ago
About to read a book about lemon growing in Italy, with recipes!
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Matias Marczak 2 years ago
Not as many Deja vus as I was thinking, maybe my memory is going bad.
Kathy 2 years ago
Quite interesting, although not as enlightening as I hoped it would be... If only my fellow pandas would keep politics out of the comments, it might even have been a pleasant read... *Sigh*...
Auntriarch 2 years ago
About to read a book about lemon growing in Italy, with recipes!
Load More Replies... Matias Marczak 2 years ago
Not as many Deja vus as I was thinking, maybe my memory is going bad.
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