Cracked Archive - History
5 Iconic Building That Were Barely Saved from Destruction
There is this very elite class of buildings so iconic that they transcend the country that built them. So it's kind of weird how often we almost let the things get destroyed.
- Authors
- By Evan V. Symon
- Published
- Comments
-
675
675 The 6 Most Insanely Huge Musical Instruments
Humanity became great for two reasons: our ability to create beauty through art, and our urge to build increasingly huge, terrifying gadgets. It only makes sense that these two impulses would converge in amazing, if largely useless, ways.
- Authors
- By Isaac Cabe, Jeff Sloan
- Published
- Comments
- 430
The 16 Most Hilariously Ineffective Propaganda Posters
War is hell, and tragedy, and terrible, terrible posters.
- Authors
- By Jacopo della Quercia
- Published
- Comments
- 894
The 6 Craziest Disguises Ever Used in the History of War
It turns out that, unlike the Greeks, more modern armies have downright insane methods of concealment.
- Authors
- By Chris J.
- Published
- Comments
- 667
The 5 Most Half-Assed Attempts to Take Over a Country
For every inspiring revolution by the oppressed, there are several low-rent slapdick operations where the insurgents trip getting off the boat.
- Authors
- By Evan V. Symon , Chris J.
- Published
- Comments
- 615
Sign up for the Cracked Newsletter
Get the best of Cracked sent directly to your inbox!
6 Famous Symbols That Don't Mean What You Think
The entire point of using a symbol is that it conveys meaning and saves space. But sometimes the meaning of a symbol will get lost to history, and we'll just keep right on using it anyway.
- Authors
- By Cezary Jan Strusiewicz
- Published
- Comments
- 1720
6 Historical Events Happening More Recently Than You Think
Apparently, things that we thought only existed in the black and white world were still around until just a few years ago.
- Authors
- By Jacopo della Quercia , Eric Yosomono, Xavier Jackson
- Published
- Comments
- 820
6 Insane Conspiracy Theories (That Actually Happened)
Secret schemes that shaped the world around us are hiding in the footnotes of our history books. You just need to know where to look.
- Authors
- By Jacopo della Quercia , Eric Yosomono, Kenny Thompson, Mohammed Shariff
- Published
- Comments
- 1550
The 6 Coolest Things Said by Soldiers Before Killing People
War is hell. (Or a hell of a lot of fun, depending on who you ask.)
- Authors
- By Jacopo della Quercia
- Published
- Comments
- 1055
The 5 Most Adorable Stories in the History of War
There are two places you'll never expect to find stories of cuteness: the toilet and warfront. But, well, here we are.
- Authors
- By Dustin Koski, R. Jason Benson, Adam Koski
- Published
- Comments
- 661
13 Old War Photographs You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped
Maybe some of the ways we picture WWII looking -- all razor-jawed men charging through the mud in black and white -- isn't entirely accurate. Because we know for a fact that at least some of the soldiers were carrying floppy dong-shaped rifles into battle.
- Authors
- By Eric Yosomono
- Published
- Comments
- 1522
5 Nazi Plans That Prove They Were Dumber Than You Think
Other websites like to tiptoe around the issue, but we've never hesitated to come out and just say it: The Nazis were bad. We're also going out on a limb with this once: They were stupid.
- Authors
- By Jacopo della Quercia
- Published
- Comments
- 1527
5 Ridiculous Origins of Famous Urban Legends
We don't expect our craziest urban legends to exist for good reasons, but we do at least expect their origins to be mysterious. If you can just point to the guy who made up the crazy story in the first place, what are we doing here?
- Authors
- By Pauli Poisuo, M. Asher Cantrell
- Published
- Comments
- 1576
6 Tiny Mistakes That Almost Ended the World
For those of us who grew up in the '80s and '90s, it's difficult to fully understand just how close to annihilation we actually came in the 20th century.
- Authors
- By Chris J.
- Published
- Comments
- 965
5 Baffling Discoveries That Prove History Books Are Wrong
A generation of students found out the hard way that archaeology isn't anywhere near as much fun as Indiana Jones made it look. Still, experts in the field do have their exciting, and even shocking, days at the office.
- Authors
- By Evan V. Symon
- Published
- Comments
- 2068
