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37 Weird History Facts

By:: Cracked Writers; Brian C. Miller

October 17, 2023

37 Weird History Facts

We did our best to wrangle up some interesting, forgotten history facts and put them somewhere that’s easy to read while you’re in the bathroom. Yeah, that’s right, we’re on to you; we know what your “conference calls” really are. Not to worry, though, we won’t tell anyone.

36 Can warring ships just call a truce?

In WWI, two enemy captains just decided not to fight. SS Gwendolen, the British ship The captain of the British ship and the German ship patrolling Africa's Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) didn't want their decade-long friendship ruined. So when WWI started, the British captain shot the German ship once and faked the capture of its captain. Then they got back to hanging out and drinking as usual. CRACKED COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

35 What's the deal with the Hatfield-McCoy feud?

A rare genetic condition probably stoked the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Several descendants of the McCoys were found to have von Hippel-Lindau disease, which causes adrenal tumors that make you short-tempered and violent. So, at least on the McCoy side, the feud was probably fuelled by tumors pressing on the adrenal glands of those involved. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

34 Lyndon Johnson was our first reality TV president.

The first African American presidential secretary was announced on a game show. $ MR. DALY Instead of letting the world know about his appointment through a boring press conference, Lyndon Johnson wanted to use What's My Line?, a hit game show where people guessed what job guests had. The secretary, Geraldine Whittington, said OK, and history was made. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

33 Did bananas inspire the fall of the Berlin Wall?

When the Berlin Wall fell, banana sales exploded. Titanic ME - Zonen-Gaby (17) im Glück (BRD) Meine erste Banane пл I - I I East Germany only got mushy brown bananas, so when the Wall came down, East Germans went crazy for unripe green bananas. There's a joke that they rose up for bananas, not democracy, and whenever a long line forms, Germans say, Are they handing out bananas or what? CRACKED COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

32 Civil War soldiers brought guns to a fist fight.

A Civil War battle stopped so the soldiers could watch a fistfight. In the Battle of the Wilderness, a Confederate and a Union soldier hiding in the same gully began to duke it out after trying, and failing, to capture each other. Soon, both sides stopped firing and got closer so they could cheer on their dude. (The Union guy lost, and got captured.) CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

31 Why are Salt Lake City's streets so wide?

Salt Lake City has the widest streets of any major U.S. city. At 130 feet, they're twice as wide as Manhattan's. CRACKED.COM Brigham Young, the Mormon president who planned the city, chose the wide streets so settlers could turn their cattle around without resorting to profanity. — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

30 The thriving Belgian bone trade industry

For years after the Battle of Waterloo, companies would dig up the bones of fallen soldiers, grind them up, and sell them as fertilizer. Bones are rich in calcium which farmers believed was beneficial to plants. The practice went on for a couple decades and only stopped when the farmers were criticized for fertilizing their lands with the bodies of their relatives. GRACKED.COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

29 Hi I'm Jeffrey Dahmer and this is "Cannibalism"

The infamous Milwaukee serial killer and cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer, was a class clown in high school. 75 72 69 66 63 MILWAUKEE COUNTY MILWAUKEE COUNTY p SHEKIFF b DEPARTMENT His pranks and antics I - were known as doing a Dahmer around school. CRACKED.COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

28 Great, where are we gonna find a peasant at this hour?

In WWI, a random Russian got kidnapped by his own country's peace negotiators. 6281 The team negotiating Russia's withdrawal from WWI planed to bring a peasant (to represent the common people), but on the way to the train, they realized they forgot him. So they snatched a badly dressed guy off the street, and next thing he knew, he was talking to European princes. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

27 Cool, thanks for fat reindeer, Boris.

A WWII submarine had a reindeer onboard for six weeks. The British sub HMS Trident carried Pollyanna the reindeer, a personal gift from a Soviet admiral, back to England. She ate so much food (plus some navigation charts) that she got too big to walk out, and had to be lifted out with a winch (a sailor with a broom helped). CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

26 Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

WWII landmines are being dug up, and reused, by ISIS. Because the Sahara's dry, hot climate is great for preserving things, plenty of the 17 milliom landmines left there after WWII still work. So ISIS has been digging them up and MacGyvering them into IEDs. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

25 God knows I can't learn anything unless I'm horny as hell.

Germans trained WWII tank operators with porn. Mollo: Wohltätig ist des Wassers Macht, Nottma falls Du an Glysantin gedacht. Wasser ist ein Kühlmittel is umspült wie eine frische Brause unablässig das Gehäuse nd führt die Hitze, die durch Verbrennung und Reibung ntsteht, zu den Kühlern. Es speichert im Winter außerdem ie Wärme wie ein Sammler den Strom und hält dadurch en Motor startbereit. 20 Liter braucht Dein Tiger. Bei 85° fühlt er sich sauwohl Wasser ist ein Sprengmittel Wenn es zu Eis friert, dehnt es sich u.n 10% aus. Wenn die Wände nicht nachgeben können, werden sie mit Urgewalt gesprengt. — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

24 The Dook of the Unknown Soldier

In WWI and WWII, a French village mourned a latrine. During WWI, the villagers of Bourg, France, where general Patton ran a tank school, thought a sealed pit with two crossed sticks was a U.S. soldier's grave. It was a latrine, and the sticks meant keep away. Patton didn't correct them. When he came back in WWII, it was still treated like a grave. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

23 It was a different time.

On the Manhattan Project, safety standards basically didn't exist. In a key experiment, the plutonium was contained by one technician holding a screwdriver. But the screwdriver slipped, and the plutonium killed the technician. This happened twice. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

22 It's the same thing that took out George Washington.

During the French Revolution, they caught Louis XVI because GNAT his face was on money. IBRE 17 NES s ASSIGNATS DES FRANCOIS NAT par le décr vvil 1790, sanctionné LOUISXVL.ROT m CU SMDF While running to the countryside, Louis and Marie Antoinette (both disguised) were stopped by a postmaster who thought he recognized Marie. Once he compared the guy with her to a 50-franc note, he was sure. Pretty soon, they were arrested, then beheaded. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

21 "Sir, this man is full of shit."

At Mao and Stalin's first meeting, the USSR stole Mao's poop. On Stalin's personal orders, the sewage pipes in the house where the two met were rerouted to special storage boxes. The thinking was that an analysis of the chemicals in his poop would reveal secrets about Mao's psychology. (Did it work? Nobody knows.) CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

20 "just facilitating a global wave of misinformation and maybe just a dash of fascism"

THE FIRST EVER TWEET WAS SENT OUT ON 21 MARCH 2006. jack Follow @jack just setting up my twttr 12:50 PM - 21 Mar 2006 106,353 Retweets 80,147 Likes 3.1K 106K 80K This historic and thought- provoking tweet was sent out by Twitter's co-founder Jack Dorsey. CRACKED COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

19 I'm a simple purveyor of atoms, how was I to know what they'd be used for?

Greetings From The BX Secret B G TENNA City During WWII, Oak Ridge TN was commissioned to develop and build the first atomic bomb. The vast majority of the city's workers had absolutely no idea what they were working on and only found out after the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. CRACKED.COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

18 That's why Charlie Chaplin never got the respect he deserves.

Due to fire, decay, negligence, or deliberate destruction, 75% T US 42 la - of all American CRACKED.COM silent movies на RA no longer exist. — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

17 Posthumously pwnd

CRACKED.COM BILLY THE KID was denied a pardon.* in 2010 The Kid was allegedly promised a pardon by 1879 New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace in exchange for testifying about a murder he witnessed, but the pardon was never granted. In 2010 Governor Bill Richardson decided to re-affirm Billy's status as a criminal and deny the original pardon. — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

16

Walt Disney himself helped to design a Mickey Mouse gas mask Though few remain, you can find several on display in various museums in the United States. CRACKED.COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

15

Hurricane Katrina improved children's health in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina stirred up the sediment in Lake Pontchartrain to such a degree that when it overflowed, the sediment carried along helped bury the lead-contaminated soil of New Orleans, resulting in reduced amounts of lead in children's blood. CRACKED COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

14

CRACKED.COM A two-inch drop caused the Apollo 13 crisis. An oxygen tank was dropped, but inspections turned up only inconsequential damage, so it was approved for use on Apollo 13. However, combined with a perfect storm of design flaws and other errors, this led to an electrical spark while performing a routine procedure during the mission, and BLAM! Houston, we've had a problem. — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

13

The first submarine dates way back to the 1620s and was made by Cornelius van Drebbel. Called the Drebbel I, it was basically an enclosed GRACKED COM rowboat and was proprelled just like one. — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

12

The U.S. was still paying a Civil War pension in 2016. Irene Triplett in 2016 The sum was $73.13 per month, paid to one Irene Triplett (b. 1929), the daughter of a soldier who fought on both sides of the Civil War. When she was born, her father Mose was a spry 83. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

11

The first man returning from space was met by potato farmers. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin parachuted from his space capsule down to the village of Saratov, and walked up (in his orange spacesuit) to a woman farming potatoes with her granddaughter. They freaked out the moment they saw him, then he calmly told them who he was. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

10

Hurricane Katrina flung over a thousand coffins all around New Orleans. Even worse, many were ripped open, which scattered the remains inside. A lot of the coffins ended up in remote or inaccessible spots, like swamp and forest areas (some got stuck in trees). People are still searching for and identifying the remains. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

9

The team searching for the Challenger's wreckage found cocaine worth millions. Experts spent nine weeks scanning 420 square miles of ocean with sonar. They found ordinary trash, a refrigerator, half of a torpedo, eight shipwrecks, and more. Oh, and a duffel bag with 25 kilos of cocaine (that came from who knows where), worth about $13 million. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

8

King George V's time of death was chosen for its PR value. When George lay dying in 1936, the royal family wanted the morning journals, not the lower-class evening ones, to announce his death. So he got a lethal dose of morphine and cocaine at 11:55 p.m. on January 19. Не apparently wasn't asked, and probably wouldn't have approved. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

7

Vaseline originated as a byproduct of the oil drilling - Vaseline - - - - process. - - HON In 1859, British chemist Robert Augustus Chesebrough visited a small town in Pennsylvania where petroleum had been discovered. Не noticed Vaseline's skin-healing properties after seeing how oilers used it to heal cuts and burns. CRACKED.COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

6

In 1915, a German diplomat fell asleep on a train... and sparked a chain of events that convinced Americans to join World War I. CRACKED.COM Heinrich Albert, German diplomat and paymaster of a German spy ring, took a nap holding a briefcase containing their espionage plans. Jolted awake when the train stopped, he rushed out and left his briefcase behind, which was recovered by a US Secret Service agent. The US government leaked the contents to the media, and that effectively turned the public opinion against Germany. — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

5

37 Weird History Facts — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

4

MOUNT RUSHMORE WASN'T ORIGINALLY INTENDED TO BE A NATIONAL MONUMENT. THE INITIAL IDEA WAS JUST то HAVE GIANT SCULPTURES THAT WOULD ATTRACT THOUSANDS OF TOURISTS TO SOUTH DAKOTA. GRACKED COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

3

Ariel-1, Britain's very first satellite, was put into orbit on April 26, 1962. It was accidentally destroyed weeks later after the US military detonated a 1.4 megaton nuclear weapon called Starfish-Prime in the upper atmosphere. GRACKED.COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

2

The earliest pillows CRACKED.COM were made of stone. Ancient Egyptian Pillow Neck-rests from Tutankhamen's tomb Ancient Chinese Pillow Originally more about keeping the head away from crawling bugs or protecting an elaborate hairstyle during sleep than a cushion, they evolved into elaborate works of art for the wealthy. They only become a cloth-covered stuffing-filled accessory after the textile revolution. — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

1

Apollo missions increased the moon's temperature by 1-3 degrees Fahrenheit. Dust on the surface is lighter than the soil underneath, and astronauts walking and driving during their explorations disturbed the top layer. With more of the darker soil showing through, the Moon absorbs more heat. CRACKED.COM — Source: These 47 Facts Will Make You A Walking History Channel

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