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Somehow, thinking back about history lessons brings back nothing but a feeling of insurmountable boredom. Yup, the history lessons we’ve had at school brought no joy with all the dates of historical events and horribly bland teaching. Thankfully, later on, the internet was invented (kidding, we’re not that old here!), and we found out how exciting and jaw-dropping our history truly is! And, to share this discovery with you, we’ve compiled a list full of the coolest and the most incredible historical facts. Yup, some of these cool facts are definitely unbelievable, but you’ll see that for yourself.

So, this list will take you down the road of the unexplained as some of these weird historical facts seem to be related more to aliens than to humans. However, if kooky isn’t really your cup of tea, this list also boasts a myriad of fun historical facts. You know, something that wasn’t oh so funny when it actually happened, but now, in retrospect, it looks purely hysterical. In fact, these pieces of interesting history might shed a whole new light on humanity for you! Not necessarily its good part, but exciting nonetheless.

Now, the main question here is this - are you ready to dig deeper with these interesting historical facts? If so, then scroll on down below and check them out! Be sure to give the most unbelievable facts your vote and share this article with all the history buffs you know.

#1

Portrait of Marie Curie Marie Curie, the famous nobel prize-winning physicist’s notebook still can not be handled safely as it is still radioactive.

sciencealert.com , Henri Manuel Report

#2

Man in white T-shirt counting quarantine days on paper The word 'quarantine' comes from 'quarantena', meaning “forty days” in 14th century Venetian. The Venetians imposed a 40-day isolation of ships and people arriving in their lagoon during the Black Death.

mcgill.ca , cottonbro studio Report

#3

Since 1945, all British tanks have been equipped with tea-making equipment and facilities.

warisboring.com Report

#5

Charlie Chaplin in movie 'Modern Times' (1936) Charlie Chaplin enrolled in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition and he came 20th in rank.

Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image , amazon.com Report

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#6

Portrait of a man, said to be Christopher Columbus Columbus didn't actually 'discover' America. The Vikings' had early expeditions to North America around the year 1000 A.D.

npr.org , Metropolitan Museum of Art, online collection (The Met object ID 437645) Report

#7

The Germans and British soldiers paused the war for a day during Christmas Day 1914. They sang, drank and celebrated together.

history.com Report

#8

Doctors used heroin to treat cough.

medicine.yale.edu Report

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#9

Camels laying on ground in the background of the pyramids of Giza The pyramids of Giza were built when pre-historic woolly mammoths were still walking the earth.

britannica.com , Pradeep Gopal Report

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#10

'The Starry Night' landscape painting by Vincent van Gogh painted in 1889 Vincent van Gogh painted his masterpiece "The Starry Night" in 1889, the same year that Nintendo formed as a corporation.

vincentvangogh.org , Google Arts & Culture Report

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#11

The 1928 Olympic Stadium, designed by Jan Wils, won the gold medal in architecture at the 1928 Olympics The Olympics used to award medals for art.

olympics.com , en.wikipedia.org Report

#12

Portrait of sitting Thomas Edison Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb.

britannica.com , loc.gov Report

#13

A lot of history's disasters were caused by sleep deprivation.

npr.org Report

#14

Illustration of Ching Shih in a fight in 1836 One of the most successful pirates in history is a woman - Ching Shih.

atlasobscura.com , en.wikipedia.org Report

#15

There is more time separating Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex than Tyrannosaurus Rex and us.

usgs.gov Report

#16

Portrait of Pope Gregory IX Pope Gregory IX declared war on the cat population.

historycolored.com , commons.wikimedia.org Report

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#17

In the battle of Pelusium, the Persians knew that Egyptians worshipped cats and were forbidden to kill them. So the Persians used them as shields.

worldhistory.org Report

#18

In Renaissance France, a woman could take her husband to court if he was impotent.

jstor.org Report

#19

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912 The 1985 discovery of the Titanic stemmed from a secret United States Navy investigation of two wrecked nuclear submarines.

nationalgeographic.co.uk , Francis Godolphin Osbourne Stuart Report

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#20

Soldiers sick with Spanish flu at a hospital ward, Camp Funston, Fort Riley, Kansas In WW1 an estimated 37 million people lost their lives and in the last year of WW1 the Spanish flu broke out. The flu took an estimated 50 million lives worldwide.

cdc.gov , National Museum of Health and Medicine Report

#21

The Tusculum portrait of Julius Caesar 46 BC was 445 days long and is the longest year in human history. Nicknamed the annus confusionis, or “year of confusion”, this year had two extra leap months inserted by Julius Caesar.

uh.edu , en.wikipedia.org Report

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#22

During the Victorian period, it was normal to photograph relatives after they died.

bbc.com Report

#23

Portrait of Albert Einstein in 1947 Albert Einstein could’ve been the president of Israel.

britannica.com , en.wikipedia.org Report

#24

Space travel was first proposed in the 1600s.

nasa.gov Report

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#25

Hiroo Onoda (right) offers his military sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (left) on the day of his surrender, 11 March 1974 A Japanese soldier never realized WWII was over until 1974.

bbc.com , Malacañang Palace Report

#26

Buddhist monks used to mummify themselves alive.

atlasobscura.com Report

#27

Mauritania National Flag Mauritania is the world’s last country to abolish slavery, and the country didn’t make slavery a crime until 2007.

qz.com , aboodi vesakaran Report

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#28

Portrait of Robert G. Heft, the designer of the current United States 50-star flag, on December 5, 2009 A 17-Year-Old high school student designed the current U. S. flag.

americanhistoryco.com , Gage Skidmore Report

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#29

The Leaning Tower Of Pisa in Pisa, Italy The Leaning Tower of Pisa was never upright.

leaningtowerpisa.com Report

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#30

Pineapples In 18th Century England, pineapples were a status symbol.

bbc.com , Justine Alipate Report

#31

Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is generally considered to be the shortest war in history, lasting for a grand total of 38 minutes.

historic-uk.com Report

#32

Nördlingen, Luftaufnahme (2016) Nordlingen is a German town built inside a 14 million-year-old meteorite crater.

smithsonianmag.com , Wolkenkratzer Report

#33

Before alarm clocks, knocker-uppers was a profession where they had to go and wake up by knocking on the doors of the townsman houses.

bbc.com Report

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#34

4% of the Normandy beaches are made up of shrapnel from the D-Day Landings.

bldgblog.com Report

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#35

John F. Kennedy, Anthony Burgess, Aldous Huxley, and C.S. Lewis all died on the same day.

medium.com Report

#36

Portrait of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) 100 imposters claimed to be Marie Antoinette’s dead son.

history.com , en.wikipedia.org Report

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#37

Captain Morgan was a real person.

historic-uk.com Report

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#38

 Richard Nixon flashes his iconic "victory" sign in Paoli, PA during his triumphant presidential campaign Richard Nixon was an extremely talented musician. He played five instruments in total: piano, saxophone, clarinet, accordion, and violin.

history.com , Ollie Atkins Report

#39

During the Great Depression, people made clothes out of food sacks.

en.wikipedia.org Report

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#40

A genuine and realistic c.1595 portrait of queen Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (c.1561/62–1636) In her later years, Queen Elizabeth I’s teeth were black and decayed from too much sugar.

sciencedirect.com , Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger Report

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#41

The oldest surviving film 'Roundhay Garden Scene' The world’s oldest film is only 2 seconds long.

historyofinformation.com , Louis Le Prince Report

#42

In 1834, ketchup was sold as a cure for indigestion by an Ohio physician named John Cook.

bestfoodfacts.org Report

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#43

Mr. Potato Head Funny Face Kit, 1952 The first toy advertised on TV is Mr. Potato Head.

bigcommerce.com , National Institutes of Health Report

#44

The first one GB hard drive was made in 1980 and had a price of forty thousand USD.

mydatarecoverylab.com Report

#45

Hollywood sign One of the reasons Hollywood moved from New York to Los Angeles is to escape Thomas Edison’s patents.

jstor.org , Alex Barnes Report

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#46

The Titanic ready for launch The shipbuilders Harland and Wolff insist that the Titanic was never advertised as an unsinkable ship.

britannica.com , Robert Welch Report

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#47

In the Salem witch trials, the accused witches weren’t actually burned at the stake. The majority were jailed, and some were hanged.

history.com Report

#48

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton lost the nuclear launch codes.

bbc.com Report

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#49

Photograph of President Truman giving Winston Churchill, who is smoking a cigar, a picture from the 1945 Potsdam Conference Winston Churchill smoked 8 to 10 cigars a day.

biography.com , National Archives and Records Administration Report

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#50

The British Royal Air Force accidentally sunk a ship full of holocaust victims in 1945.

theconversation.com Report

#51

Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. were both born in 1929.

britannica.com , britannica.com Report

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#52

Statue of Gandhi Gandhi wrote Hitler a letter imploring him to rethink the war.

time.com , Prashant Purbey Report

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#53

England’s king George I was actually German.

britannica.com Report

#54

Turkey Turkeys were once worshipped like gods.

history.com , Kranthi Remala Report

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#55

The former head of Cuban intelligence, Fabian Escalante, told a British documentary team the CIA had tried to kill Fidel Castro more than 600 times, over a period of about 40 years.

abc.net.au Report

#56

Portrait of Jeannette Rankin Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to congress before women could vote.

history.house.gov , Bain News Service Report

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#57

The Soviet Union and the United States were supposed to go to the Moon together during the Cold War.

history.com Report

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#58

Ancient pharaoh sitting monument in Egypt Egyptians used slabs of stones as pillows.

egypttoday.com , AussieActive Report

#59

Portrayal of Genghis Khan in a 14th-century Genghis Khan created one of the first international postal systems.

cambridge.org , en.wikipedia.org Report

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#60

Table with white tablecloth and food on it Tablecloths were originally designed to be used as one big, communal napkin.

atlasobscura.com Report

#61

Women were once banned from smoking in public.

history.com Report

#62

The U.S. government poisoned alcohol during prohibition.

prohibition.themobmuseum.org Report

#63

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln is in the Wrestling Hall of Fame.

nwhof.org , Alexander Gardner Report

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#64

The automobile was first invented and perfected in Germany and France in the late 1800s.

history.com Report

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#65

The Great Molasses Flood killed 21 people and injured 150 others in Boston.

history.com Report

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#66

Historians became a professional occupation in the late 19th century.

jstor.org Report

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#67

Parliament House Althing in Reykjavík The world’s oldest parliament is from Iceland and is called Althing.

britannica.com , Jóhann Heiðar Árnason Report

#68

Portrait painting of William Henry Harrison The shortest term for a U.S. president was only 2 months.

whitehouse.gov , James Lambdin Report

#69

Since the end of WWI, over 1,000 people have died from leftover unexploded bombs.

smithsonianmag.com Report

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#71

Mary actually had a little lamb.

modernfarmer.com Report

#72

Photo portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon B. Johnson gave interviews from the bathroom.

Presidents: A Biographical Dictionary , Arnold Newman Report

#73

Sparkler and U.S.A flag July 4th isn't the real Independence Day.

constitutioncenter.org , Stephanie McCabe Report

#74

In 1913 Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky, and Tito all lived in Vienna for a couple of months.

bbc.com Report

#75

When the USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine on 30 July 1945 survivors were left in the water for four days, during which time around 600 men died of exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks. Estimates of the number who died from shark attacks range from a few dozen to almost 150.

smithsonianmag.com Report

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#76

Napoleon took an estimated 150,000 horses with his army as he rode into Russia in 1812, only an estimated 1,600 came back.

history.com Report

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#77

Mickey's first appearance in Steamboat Willie (1928) Walt Disney didn't draw Mickey Mouse.

kcur.org , amazon.com Report

#78

In WWI French made a fake Paris to try and fool German bomber pilots.

npr.org Report

#79

The Dutch declared a war against the Royalists but no battles happened. It went on for 335 years.

atlasobscura.com Report

#80

Close-up photo of lottery ticket The earliest known lottery was during the Chinese Han Dynasty between 205 – 187 BC.

lotterycritic.com Report

#81

In 1710, Native American leaders traveled to Britain to visit the Queen.

npg.si.edu Report

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#82

Marie Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake."

history.com Report

#83

Portrait painting of Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson had a vulgar parrot.

washingtonpost.com , Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl Report

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#84

Joseph Stalin edited photos for censorship.

history.com Report

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#85

The Kentucky meat shower is still unexplained.

scientificamerican.com Report

#86

Between 1900 and 1920, Tug of War was a legitimate event at the Summer Olympics.

olympics.com Report

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#87

A depiction of a fox tossing tournament of the early 18th century Fox Tossing was once a popular sport.

historycollection.com , en.m.wikipedia.org Report

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#88

Pope Pius II’s 'The Tale of Two Lovers', an erotic novel, was the 15th century’s most popular book.

museumfacts.co.uk Report

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#89

Portrait painting of Paul Revere Paul Revere never actually shouted, "The British are coming!"

history.com , John Singleton Copley Report

#90

Thanksgiving, as most Americans have been taught is not exactly accurate. In truth, native people did not willingly hand off their country to the invaders.

smithsonianmag.com Report

#91

White concrete buildings near the Aegean Sea in Mýkonos, Greece, during daytime The Aegean Sea owes its name to a man who jumped in it and died.

santonet.gr , Johnny Africa Report

#92

The supposed Iron Maiden torture device never actually existed.

livescience.com Report

#93

The earliest known bronze gun, that employed gunpowder, was from the early Yuan dynasty and dates back to 1332.

depts.washington.edu Report

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#94

The Circus Maximum in Rome is still the largest capacity sports arena ever built.

britannica.com Report

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#95

Silver fork on white ceramic plate Using forks used to be seen as sacrilegious.

leitesculinaria.com , Julian Wallner Report

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#97

Humanity received the first extraterrestrial signal in 1977.

astronomy.com Report

#98

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, Founding Fathers and the 2nd and 3rd Presidents of the United States respectively, died within hours of each other on July 4.

history.com Report

#99

George Washington opened a whiskey distillery after his presidency.

smithsonianmag.com Report

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#100

The 1929 Wall Street crash did not cause a rash of suicides.

history.com Report

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#101

The oldest Bible is over thousands of years old.

codexsinaiticus.org Report

#102

Helicopter hieroglyphs were once found in an Egyptian petroglyph.

atlasobscura.com Report