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‘Weird History’ Is An Account That Shares Interesting, Odd, And Funny Things That Happened Throughout History
Andrew Rader, PhD, is a lot of things. The man is a SpaceX mission manager, MIT-credentialed scientist, game designer, author... And he's also a history fan. In fact, he's so fascinated with the subject, he even created a Twitter account to share the weirdest and most wonderful history-related content he stumbles upon.
Appropriately called 'Weird History', the page regularly features everything from interesting facts to amusing memes you wouldn't normally find in a textbook and has accumulated over 145,000 followers since its inception in 2011. Continue scrolling and check out some of the most popular posts 'Weird History' has had!
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But why bother with history in the first place? Well, Peter N. Stearns, a professor at George Mason University, said that even though people live in the present and plan for the future, they still need to learn about the past.
"In the first place, history offers a storehouse of information about how people and societies behave," Stearns wrote. "Understanding the operations of people and societies is difficult, though a number of disciplines make the attempt. An exclusive reliance on current data would needlessly handicap our efforts. How can we evaluate war if the nation is at peace—unless we use historical materials? How can we understand genius, the influence of technological innovation, or the role that beliefs play in shaping family life, if we don't use what we know about experiences in the past?"
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The professor highlighted that some social scientists attempt to formulate laws or theories about human behavior but even these recourses depend on historical information, except for in limited, often artificial cases in which experiments can be devised to determine how people act. "Major aspects of a society's operation, like mass elections, missionary activities, or military alliances, cannot be set up as precise experiments. Consequently, history must serve, however imperfectly, as our laboratory, and data from the past must serve as our most vital evidence in the unavoidable quest to figure out why our complex species behaves as it does in societal settings."
This, fundamentally, is why we can not stay away from history, Stearns said. "It offers the only extensive evidential base for the contemplation and analysis of how societies function, and people need to have some sense of how societies function simply to run their own lives."
So the next time you're browsing 'Weird History', don't think it's just random trivia; it's also broadening your worldview!
#3
Pixie 4 years ago
His name is Chiune Sugihara. From Wikipedia: "In 1985, the State of Israel honored Sugihara as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions. He is the only Japanese national to have been so honored. The year 2020 is "The Year of Chiune Sugihara" in Lithuania. It has been estimated as many as 100,000 people alive today are the descendants of the recipients of Sugihara visas."
#13
#14
Calane E. Vanya 4 years ago
legal or not, slavery is still present in many countries around the world. I think I even heard that there are more slaves today than ever in the past. I think not many communities are civilized (for various reasons).
#17
#19
#20
Rabbit Carrot 4 years ago (edited)
In the painting they’re depicted as father and daughter, not husband and wife as many believe. In reality the woman is the painters sister Nan and the man is their dentist Dr. Byron McKeeby. No, they didn’t get married.
#21
Mme de Poppadom 4 years ago
Wonder what they looked like before he painted them over. *ba dum tss*
#22
Tomasz Jackowski 4 years ago
this feels like a screenshot from a video game :D what a crossover.
#27
Rabbit Carrot 4 years ago (edited)
Living to be over 90 years old back then was quite the accomplishment. She was already 30 when the Declaration of Independence was signed!
#28
Olivier Caissy 4 years ago (edited)
Also lost a finger, which is why you rarely see Scotty’s right hand
#29
Justine Nicole 4 years ago
That's actually Ernest Hemingway that said that. But still a good quote!
#30
François Carré 4 years ago
I can imagine the hipsters of theses times, stopping on the street to conspicuously consult it.
#32
Laugh or not 4 years ago
The 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall. In the 3rd of octobre, they let the balloons fly one by one. It was beautiful.
#34
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
They didn't stop them but changed the course of the bomb away from London.
#37
Kady Maree Mcgrath 4 years ago
Fun fact: Zeus's Das ate his brothers and sisters but his mother gave Zeus's dad a rock instead of Zeus and apparently his dad threw up his siblings and they were all grown and dressed (as the legend says)
#38
Mme de Poppadom 4 years ago
Wonder if the Aztecs would hang these from the backs of their pickup carts?
#40
Weronika Natalia Doliwa 4 years ago
"especially at meal times!" .... sooo a solid glass of alcohol :)
#41
Kenneth Pedersen 4 years ago
The fun fact is correct, but the sculpture is not of mr Bluetooth, but Ogier the Dane
#48
Rabbit Carrot 4 years ago
Same! Maybe they could’ve turned it into a giant slide. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
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K.Kobayashi 4 years ago (edited)
Wrong caption. These are proposed designs for "The Great Tower of London" which was in response to the Eiffel Tower. Which is why some of them look like the Eiffel Tower with extra stuff added to it to make it look different. The actual design they selected was similar to the Eiffel Tower, but more slender and taller. It was called the Watkin's Tower, and construction was started but never finished, and eventually demolished.
UncleRussian 4 years ago
The third one looks very similar to the current one but more metal. I like it
Randy Klefbeck 4 years ago
Eiffel also was responsible for the inner supporting structure of the Statue of Liberty.
TheHolyFatherOfToast 4 years ago
some of these look like spaceships. That scene in tomorrowland could actually come true if the right one was chosen
CM Miranda 4 years ago
One of these looks like the Empire State and another looks like the Tower of London
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What do you think ?
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
It's a welcome break from the "Look how I photographed and photoshopped something into incredible art", " She did something and it went viral with 50 random people on the internet" and "Look how cute this is."
Nevits Yibble 4 years ago
I found many of the comments in this post were just as interesting to read!
Kady Maree Mcgrath 4 years ago
As soon as I saw this post I was on it and reading away. These were interesting
Meyer Weinstock 4 years ago
I used to foist such factoids on my students. Sometimes, years later, they would say that those were the only things that they remember. -Dr M, retired history professor
Oskar vanZandt 4 years ago
I have always loved history... not the dates and special events or whatever, but the social aspect of it.
MrTree1779 4 years ago
So *many* of these are factually, historically, inaccurate. Please at least do some minimal Wikipedia-based research before posting things like this.
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
It's a welcome break from the "Look how I photographed and photoshopped something into incredible art", " She did something and it went viral with 50 random people on the internet" and "Look how cute this is."
Nevits Yibble 4 years ago
I found many of the comments in this post were just as interesting to read!
Kady Maree Mcgrath 4 years ago
As soon as I saw this post I was on it and reading away. These were interesting
Meyer Weinstock 4 years ago
I used to foist such factoids on my students. Sometimes, years later, they would say that those were the only things that they remember. -Dr M, retired history professor
Oskar vanZandt 4 years ago
I have always loved history... not the dates and special events or whatever, but the social aspect of it.
MrTree1779 4 years ago
So *many* of these are factually, historically, inaccurate. Please at least do some minimal Wikipedia-based research before posting things like this.
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