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- Halley's Comet appeared in the sky when Mark Twain was born in 1835. The comet moves in a seventy-five or seventy-six-year orbit, and, as it neared Earth once again, Twain said “I came in with Halley’s Comet and I expect to go out with it.” Sure enough, he died on April 21, 1910, just as the comet made its next pass within sight of Earth.
- In 1908 Russia showed up 12 days late to the Olympics because the world switched calenders while they did not. To accommodate the Russian team, some events were rescheduled so that the Russian athletes could participate. This led to a longer duration for those Olympics, which lasted from April 27 to October 31, making it the longest Olympic Games in history.
- In 2014, Pope Francis released doves in the Vatican to symbolize his hopes for peace in the world. As soon as the doves began to fly, a seagull and a crow swooped down and attacked them in front of everyone.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/26/pope-doves-attacked-by-crow-seagull-st-peters-square - In 1920, President Paul Deschanel of France fell through the window of the train while travelling on the Orient Express. He stumbled up to the nearest signal box in his pyjamas and told the signalman that he needed help and that he was the President of France. The signalman reportedly replied 'And I'm Napoleon Bonaparte
- Michael Malloy AKA Mike the Durable AKA Iron Mike.
During the Great Depression, five men took out a life insurance policy on a homeless alcoholic that they were sure was going to drink himself to death. The owner of a bar allowed him to drink for free, but he kept drinking and didn’t die. So they tried to poison him with antifreeze. Didn’t work. The turpentine, horse liniment, rat poison, methanol….still didn’t work. A sandwich made with rotten sardines and tacks. Still no luck.
Then they took his drunk body out in the cold and poured water on him. He lived.
Then they ran him over with a car. He was in the hospital for three weeks, but survived.
Then they poisoned him with carbon monoxide, and he finally died.
They were all convicted of murder.
"So they tried to poison him with antifreeze."
Fun fact: Ethyl Alcohol is an antidote to Ethylene Glycol poisoning. They both bind to the same receptors are metabolized by the same enzyme, but alcohol takes priority. A serious alcoholic, when drunk, would just pass the glycol through their system with no issue. - Good old Operation Mincemeat.
Basically, during WWII, the British find some dead body of some poor guy, dress it up like a British officer, attach some fake intel onto him, then throw him into the ocean, hoping he floats to enemy territory to mislead them.
It worked. - The Cadaver Synod, in the year 897. Pope Stephen decides that the previous pope was a heretic, so puts him on trial posthumously. Only, he physically puts Dead Pope on trial, as in, disinters his corpse, props the rotting body up in a chair and denounces it for heresy, pronounces him guilty, cuts his fingers off (so he can't issue posthumous blessings) and chucks his body in the Tiber. Only Dead Pope fetches up on shore and people start attributing miracles to it. Stephen is quickly deposed, later dies in prison, and the Catholic church is all like, "let's just pretend this never happened."
- The Dancing Plague of 1518. Hundreds of people randomly dancing for weeks on end with no accepted scientific explanation.
- That many times throughout history, people have witnessed it rain frogs or other animals like fish. And it is probably real.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_of_animals - Battle of Karansebes
That time in the 1700s when the Austrian army got confused, waged a huge battle against itself within its own lines, and lost an estimated several hundred to few thousand men (and a lot of equipment and money) in the process. They then retreated.
The Ottomans, whom they were originally intending to fight, showed up two days later. - Hannibal saved his army by tying torches to the horns of 5,000 cows and driving them one direction. The Romans thought they were the enemy army and converged on them, while Hannibal quietly snuck his 10,000 man force out of the valley by another route.
- That time Denmark and Canada (I think) had a "war" over an island. Everytime a Navy vessel drove by they picked up the flag of the over nation, planted their own and left a bottle of alcohol. They came to an amicable agreement, drew a border across the island, and that was that. Nothing unusual at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Island
- The Toronto Circus Riot of 1855. The Fire Department and some clowns get into a disagreement at a whorehouse, and get into a punch-up. The clowns win, but the firemen return to the circus later and start attacking in revenge. The firemen win the day but violence is stopped when the militia come in. The police do nothing, so the city fires all the police (and I mean everyone) and starts a new police force.
Crazy Historical events
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Jon 🐇
history is so weird! :O
There are so many stories that read like fiction!
by Mutant. 25+; ; Report
pezncrisis
this was a fun read! :D
I'm glad you like it. I'm supposed to choose one of them now for a commonplace journal
by Mutant. 25+; ; Report
My personal favorites could be raining frogs, the dancing plague and maybe the pope failing to demonstrate his "hope"
by pezncrisis; ; Report
I choose the dancing plague and russia not showing up as a little fun fact.
I will use the raining animals for the science topic. (I have 14 topic prompts).
The rest may still be useful for something else
by Mutant. 25+; ; Report