‘Weird History’ Is An Account That Shares Interesting, Odd, And Funny Things That Happened And Here’s 50 Of Their Best Posts
Ah, history—my first true love, right next to fantasy fiction. There really is nothing like opening up an expertly written, emotionally-riveting history book on a rainy evening with the flames merrily crackling in the fireplace, the wind howling outside your windows, and learning about historical events.
Right among the top history lovers on Planet Earth lies Andrew Rader, a polymath who’s as skilled as his interests are varied. Andrew is the man and the legend behind the incredibly successful Weird History Twitter page that’s chock full of fascinating, intriguing, and even hilarious, well you guessed it, historical facts. The unexpected and sometimes weird things he shares are enough to make a history buff like me squeal with joy.
Go brew yourself a mug of tea or a cup of coffee, scroll on, and upvote your fave fun facts about odd history! When you’re done, you’ll find our delightful post about the Weird History page that the Bored Panda team put together previously right over here.
More info: Twitter (Weird History) | Twitter (Andrew) | Instagram | Facebook | Andrew-Rader.com
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Since founding the Weird History page on Twitter way back in 2011, Andrew’s amassed a following of nearly 159k followers. Since our previous post about the page back in August 2020, the number of fans has grown by nearly 14k people.
And it’s all because of the awesome posts that Andrew makes that entertain and educate us at the same time.
The title shows how little the author knows about suffragettes. One of their goals was to fight the sexual exploitation of women.
He became a Grandmaster in 1950 at age 39. Like Bobby Fischer, he won the US Chess Championship 8 times, which is still an all-time record.
Andrew’s incredibly passionate about a variety of different subjects and you can feel that passion in his Twitter posts. Currently, he’s a Mission Manager at SpaceX. He’s more than qualified for this position, seeing as he’s got a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from MIT specializing in long-duration spaceflight.
He’s someone you could easily look up to if you’re in need of some motivation.
This is actually a modern artwork created in 2014 by the artist Kimball for an exhibit at the Mexican Museum of Design, one that explored the character of Batman through the lens of Mexican creativity.
It is a bust made by artist Christian Pacheco. A creation made for the exhibition of the 75th anniversary of Batman.
He was only seen when local noble Tajoom Ich’aak B’aaknal was absent :O
So we have a couple votes for Kimball as the artist and at least one for Pacheco. Anyone can shed light on this?
I'm ancient fanged Batman. dananananananananana Aincent Fanged Batman!!
Have you ever noticed how ancient Chinese and ancient Mayan designs look so similar?
time traveler Batman (yes he had fangs on his mask then, made him look scary)
Probably more like Catman, or more specifically, Pantherman. Guess they worshipped cats just like the Egyptians did.
This is a jaguar warrior. grrrr. I guess Black Panther is closer than Batman.
What’s more, Andrew won the Discovery Channel’s 2013 competitive TV series, Canada’s Greatest Know-It-All. So there’s no doubt that he’s smart and knows his stuff. Basically, the complete opposite of the people that the r/IAmVerySmart subreddit pokes fun at.
Such an incredibly sad picture. All these small children, never getting to know their parents.
Andrew’s also a published author, having written ‘Beyond the Known’ about the history of exploration: from the very beginning of humanity all the way into our spacefaring future. What’s more, he’s written plenty of other books, including the ‘Epic Space Adventure’ series and the ‘Rocket Science’ book for kids.
Einstein told Chaplin “People admire you even though you don’t say a word”. To which Chaplin replied “People admire you even though they don’t understand a word you say”.
But that’s far from everything, the founder of the ‘Weird Science’ account is also a game designer, occasionally dabbles in YouTube videos, and even co-hosts a weekly podcast called Spellbound. The podcast is about a variety of topics ranging from science and history to economics and psychology. The Canadian who was born in Ottawa is now based in Los Angeles and considers himself “an avid trivia player, space enthusiast, science nerd, and history buff,” according to his website.
Authur Conan Doyle is a man way ahead of his time. There are a lot of examples that Holmes used that would become real years after the books.
"Burn, Hollywoodland, Burn" would've been a mouthful for Chuck D.
I hope they remember some poacher face in the past and trample them in the future
The line between a good and a bad historian can be blurred sometimes because, well, history is a pretty blurry subject. There are so many perspectives and interpretations to consider, alongside the validity of historical sources, fact-checking (and double-checking, and triple-checking), and considering the overall historical narrative of any single event.
And don’t forget about all of the sources that end up being destroyed or being locked up in archives! Dabbling in history can be either a nightmare or an adventure (or both…), depending on your point of view and how invested you are.
Even though what makes a historian good is similar to what makes us look up to any high-quality scientist, the fact is, history just isn’t as straightforward as history is. Sure, you have objective things like dates and the names of the people who participated in events, but you also have intangible, immeasurable things like motivations and aspirations.
That's some good pilot skills. Nowadays if you do this, there would be a fine.
Technically, they still do. I mean, have you ever seen someone eating a pez and smoking at the same time?
Intense study? Want of employment? Seems I should have been there a few times.
In essence, history deals with emotions, perspectives, and delves deep into the brilliant, scary, and bewildering things that make us human: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the weird. So it’s a constant battle to be cold and objective while analyzing the fiery depths of human emotions. Neither one approach is enough (being too detached means you’ll miss out on the real reasons behind events while being too emotionally invested will lead to biases), but balancing both and using them in tandem is where real quality lies.
Like a detective, a historian constantly evaluates how valid and trustworthy sources are while offering a fresh perspective on facts and figures that might be taken for granted by their other colleagues. At its core, history is the search for Truth (yes, with a capital ‘T’) while knowing that it’ll always be just out of reach. It’s a good thing we have ‘Weird History’ to fall back on when we’re tired from serious analyses and need a fun and interesting pick-me-up.
Do you guys think this might be an inspiration for snowmobiles? Just curious
The guy whose head is in the center looks like Rowan Atkinson to me for some reason.
Man, imagine if the people back then being able to look at today's computers. Their minds would be blown.
I've seen this fact mentioned so many times. Just to be clear, this a taxes and regulations issue. Nobody actually thought that beer as not an alcoholic drink, which is obvious since any beer bottle has alcohol content stated on it and beer ads have health warnings. Also, Bud? Come on!
The company existed a century before the movie came out so it's just a coincidence.
Great post, I am really interested in ancient cultures :D I just wished there was a bigger description for each entry, because they definitely piqued my curiosity!
Ancient history is am excellent topic... Especially since there is the whole "history is written by the winners" thing which, while not being actually true, means that the details depend on who you're talking to.
Load More Replies...Very Interesting. Some of the comments weren't as informational as they were meant to be.
So interesting! learning something new everyday! feels good to get back on BP, haven't posted anything in a couple months til now.
Sadly, I cannot find or follow this Twitter account. Twitter finds it in search, I click it, it gives an error.
Great post, I am really interested in ancient cultures :D I just wished there was a bigger description for each entry, because they definitely piqued my curiosity!
Ancient history is am excellent topic... Especially since there is the whole "history is written by the winners" thing which, while not being actually true, means that the details depend on who you're talking to.
Load More Replies...Very Interesting. Some of the comments weren't as informational as they were meant to be.
So interesting! learning something new everyday! feels good to get back on BP, haven't posted anything in a couple months til now.
Sadly, I cannot find or follow this Twitter account. Twitter finds it in search, I click it, it gives an error.