20 Historical Facts More People Should Know

Sharks have existed longer than trees
20 Historical Facts More People Should Know

Every subject has its core principles that everyone learns: the powerhouse of the cell, Aunt Sally and all of her bullshit excuses, Dickens invented orphans, etc. Of course, that’s true of history as well. Everyone knows about Genghis Khan, the French Revolution and the World War and its sequel. Most people graduate high school with those basics under their brain belt and never give it another thought, going on to study something practical in college and/or get some kind of real job where nobody cares if you know Lincoln’s shoe size. (It was 14. Dude could dunk on all of us.)

Then there are those of us who fall down nightly Wikipedia holes and don’t emerge until the functional people are waking up. We troves of pointless trivia aren’t very useful, but at least we’re also not productive. That’s not to say you couldn’t learn from us. Some of the littlest known historical facts are super interesting. When user Turret_Cube asked r/AskReddit, “Historians of Reddit, what is one cool history fact that people barely know about?” Reddit’s gnomes of the nonfiction section proved that in droves.

MMaxs 6y ago Albert Einstein was offered the role of becoming Israel's second President in 1952, but declined the offer.
platyviolence 6y ago That sharks have been around longer on earth than trees.
ugfiol 6y ago That time when 3 guys all declared themselves the pope and tried to excommunicate each other at the same time.
Jimiheadphones 6y ago That underneath London there is still a layer of ash from when Boudica and her 120000 troops set fire to the capital (and most of Britain) as revenge on the Romans. This happened around 60 A.D.
Dickcheese_McDoogles 6y ago More planes were destroyed in WW2 than currently exist on earth today.
Toasttimebitches 6y ago The first ship sunk in war by a submarine...was during the American civil war. No one in the submarine survived though so there's that
Teletran_Gamer 6y ago Not sure how known this is but, I find it to be a cool story. During the Second World War, a Polish Corps bought a Brown Bear while travelling through Iran. During the battle of Monte Casino, in Italy, the bear was seen helping move crates of ammunition. The bear was called Wojtek and made a private in the Polish army.
FrightenedOfSpoons 6y ago Japan bombed Australia during WWII. In the initial raid on Darwin (1942-02-19) they dropped more bombs than on Pearl Harbour, although loss of life was far lower. They conducted ~100 raids on Northern Australia over the next 2 years. My uncle flew Spitfires out of Darwin during that period.
stuckinthemiddle5252 6y ago In World War II, the Allies were about to invade Sicily and Hitler knew it. So in order to keep Hitler from stationing all available troops on Sicily to fight off an invasion, the British hatched a plan to fit a dead body with a British Royal Marines uniform and with letters that said that the Allies were going to invade Greece and that they were using Sicily as a decoy. This was called Operation Mincemeat. They then dropped the body off the coast of Spain, which was closely aligned with Germany. The Spanish found the body
jeremyalves25 6y ago The heir to the last Tsar of Russia, Alexei, got his hemophilia from queen Victoria who was his great grandmother on his mother's side and the first known carrier of the gene. Makes one think that the Russian revolution would have been different if queen Victoria wasn't a hemophiliac.
 . 6y ago Winston Churchill's fame stemmed from his escaping a POW camp during the Boer War. Не had been a war correspondent when an armored train he was riding was ambushed. Не attempted to fight off the attackers and was captured. As the son of a highly-influential Member of Parliament, he was considered a prize captive. Не informed his captors he would have to escape and soon did so, eventually being sheltered by the only farmer loyal to the Empire for miles around and repatriated. Не returned to England a hero.
 6y ago In late medieval England, it was the fashion for women to have insanely high foreheads, to the extent that they would cut off a lot of the front half of their hair. Like, they were legit just half-bald. Even the then queen, Elizabeth Woodville, got in on the action.
historymajor44 6y ago Everyone knows of the Salem Witch trials but not that many people know that around the same time they prosecuted and burned werewolves in Europe. One famous case was Peter Stumpp who admitted to being a werewolf using a belt to turn into a werewolf and eat children. Не was also accused of having sex with his daughter.
bopeepsheep . 6y ago Ancient Greek and Roman statues only look plain to us because the paint has worn off. They were originally painted in bright colours, and we now know how to find out which colours, by careful study under various lights. Slightly more recent (e.g. Renaissance) sculptures were never painted, possibly because their sculptors never knew that the works they were emulating had ever been colourful. If they had known, the practice would probably have continued.
Athena_Nikephoros 6y ago Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Sigmund Freud, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Tito all lived in the same neighborhood of Vienna for a brief period in 1913. I've always thought that would make a great sitcom, along the lines of Heil Honey, I'm Home
Gideonlsmail 6y ago Literally anything about Baron Von Steuben. Не was a Prussian who became a general in the American army during the revolution and he was just the coolest guy? The dude literally showed up in Valley Forge riding a sleigh and with his gaggle of French boyfriends and chefs. Не didn't know English, so he had to have Hamilton and Green translate his swearing when he'd shout at the troops (his job was to train Washington's armies to something that'd actually work). Не was probably fucking Charles Adams, John Adams' son, which is why Adams' hated the Baron
 6y ago Louis XIV's court at Versailles had very few toilets despite accommodating thousands of people. As a result, many courtiers would relieve themselves in corners and corridors during parties and leave it for the servants to clear up. Often richer guests bribed servants to bring them chamber-pots, but there simply weren't enough. Combine this with a large number of pets who weren't house trained it's no surprise that foreign dignitaries considered Versailles the 'filthiest palace in the world'. Eventually the problem became acute enough that Louis ordered the servants to clean the corridors of faeces 'at least once
allycakes 6y ago I think it's starting to become a bit more well known but JFK was high for most of his presidency. Не had some debilitating health conditions but needed to project an image of health and strength so he took lots of heavy drugs. In fact, his doctor was known as Dr. Feelgood.
ToErrDivine 6y ago The city of Melbourne was briefly named Batmania, after John Batman, one of the original settlers, before being renamed Melbourne after the British Prime Minister of the time.
A11U45 6y ago Mozart wrote a song called Leck mich im Arsch (lick me in the ass).

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