Cracked Archive - History

5 Words You Use Every Day With Shockingly Dark Backstories
There are common words that you've probably used thousands of times in your life whose origins lay not in an inspired bard trying to expand the way we communicate, but in some dickholes messing with other people or just plain being nasty.
- Authors
- By Augustus Johnson
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555
12 Early Uses of Electricity That Proves History Was F#@%ed
When mankind first figured out how this mysterious thing called electricity worked, everyone went a little crazy for a while there.
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- By Salla Maaria
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506
6 People Saved by Literally the Last Person They Expected
When the time came to tell their rivals to eat shit, they instead turned around and said, 'Sure thing, buddy, let me help you with that.'
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- By Robin O'Lachlan, Alex Hanton, Eric Yosomono
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1093
The 5 Most Ridiculous Outfits Ever Worn Into Battle
If you're going into battle, you've got two wardrobe options: You can dress in something practical -- camouflage, body armor, boring shit like that -- or you can slap on a SpongeBob costume.
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- By George Oduor
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914
32 Little Facts About History
We asked our readers to drop some knowledge bombs about history that don't turn up in your text books.
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- By Cracked Plasticians
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2807
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5 Famous Historical Events You Won't Believe Happened Twice
If we just hadn't forgotten about all of these lesser-known, yet way crazier versions of huge news stories, maybe we could have avoided some of the tragedy.
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- By Steve Shapiro
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980
24 REAL R-Rated Easter Eggs Hidden in Famous Pop Culture
Sometimes, instead of being rewarded for finding something, we have our mind groped by the cold sweaty palms of a pervert.
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- By Cracked Plasticians
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1111
5 Horrifying Ways the Universe Has Repaid Good Deeds
Sometimes karma just decides to take a holiday and leaves us to sort ourselves out.
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- By Xavier Jackson
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1391
5 Ridiculous Myths Everyone Believes About the Wild West
There were never quick-draw artists who could shoot a six gun out of your hand with another six gun. But the basics were true, right? Well ... not exactly.
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- By J. Wisniewski, Kevin Nakamura
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1360
5 Insane True Stories That Prove Humans Can Survive Anything
There is no shortage of extraordinary tales of human endurance out there just waiting to be made into Oscar-baiting movie scripts.
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- By Jacopo della Quercia , Ricardo Rivera
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613
6 Sacred Icons of American Culture That Aren't Even American
No matter what metaphor you use to describe the United States' heterogeneous origins, there are nonetheless those facets of American culture that are widely regarded as uniquely (and sacredly) American. Well, guess what? They came from everywhere else.
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- By Steve Shapiro
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1357
6 Mind-Blowing Things Recently Discovered From WWII (Update)
Nazis keep popping up where we least expect them -- and we don't mean at Donald Trump rallies.
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- By Chris Sansone
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1250
6 Hilarious Pranks Pulled by Soldiers in the Middle of War
The horrific history of warfare is littered with wacky pranks that are alternately admirable and utterly insane.
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- By Xavier Jackson, Douglas A. McDonnell
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499
5 Famous Wars That Showed Up in the Last Place You'd Expect
Some should've told these people to get a friggin' map.
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- By Evan V. Symon
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586
The 5 Shadiest Crimes Ever Pulled Off by Famous Corporations
Some of our most recognizable corporations are sitting on more machine gunnings and convoluted criminal conspiracies than you can throw at the last 30 minutes of a Die Hard movie.
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- By Evan V. Symon
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1127