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Somehow, thinking back about history lessons brings back nothing but a feeling of insurmountable boredom. Yup, the history lessons we’ve had at school brought no joy with all the dates of historical events and horribly bland teaching. Thankfully, later on, the internet was invented (kidding, we’re not that old here!), and we found out how exciting and jaw-dropping our history truly is! And, to share this discovery with you, we’ve compiled a list full of the coolest and the most incredible historical facts. Yup, some of these cool facts are definitely unbelievable, but you’ll see that for yourself.

So, this list will take you down the road of the unexplained as some of these weird historical facts seem to be related more to aliens than to humans. However, if kooky isn’t really your cup of tea, this list also boasts a myriad of fun historical facts. You know, something that wasn’t oh so funny when it actually happened, but now, in retrospect, it looks purely hysterical. In fact, these pieces of interesting history might shed a whole new light on humanity for you! Not necessarily its good part, but exciting nonetheless.

Now, the main question here is this - are you ready to dig deeper with these interesting historical facts? If so, then scroll on down below and check them out! Be sure to give the most unbelievable facts your vote and share this article with all the history buffs you know.

#1

Portrait of Marie Curie Marie Curie, the famous nobel prize-winning physicist’s notebook still can not be handled safely as it is still radioactive.

sciencealert.com , Henri Manuel Report

#2

Man in white T-shirt counting quarantine days on paper The word 'quarantine' comes from 'quarantena', meaning “forty days” in 14th century Venetian. The Venetians imposed a 40-day isolation of ships and people arriving in their lagoon during the Black Death.

mcgill.ca , cottonbro studio Report

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domamullen7 avatar
PandaRave
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nowhere near enough time when the fleas and rats can keep mating and spreading. Poor Venetians had the right idea, but just no idea how to really do it.

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#3

Since 1945, all British tanks have been equipped with tea-making equipment and facilities.

warisboring.com Report

#5

Charlie Chaplin in movie 'Modern Times' (1936) Charlie Chaplin enrolled in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition and he came 20th in rank.

Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image , amazon.com Report

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#6

Portrait of a man, said to be Christopher Columbus Columbus didn't actually 'discover' America. The Vikings' had early expeditions to North America around the year 1000 A.D.

npr.org , Metropolitan Museum of Art, online collection (The Met object ID 437645) Report

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amybuck2005 avatar
Nathaniel
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There were already people there, before the Vikings. I think they discovered it before the Vikings.

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#7

The Germans and British soldiers paused the war for a day during Christmas Day 1914. They sang, drank and celebrated together.

history.com Report

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$cagsy
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They also held a football match which the Germans probably won on penalties.

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#8

Doctors used heroin to treat cough.

medicine.yale.edu Report

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#9

Camels laying on ground in the background of the pyramids of Giza The pyramids of Giza were built when pre-historic woolly mammoths were still walking the earth.

britannica.com , Pradeep Gopal Report

#10

'The Starry Night' landscape painting by Vincent van Gogh painted in 1889 Vincent van Gogh painted his masterpiece "The Starry Night" in 1889, the same year that Nintendo formed as a corporation.

vincentvangogh.org , Google Arts & Culture Report

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#13

A lot of history's disasters were caused by sleep deprivation.

npr.org Report

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Deborah Harris
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I read this as sheep deprivation ... I guess I need more sleep :D

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#14

Illustration of Ching Shih in a fight in 1836 One of the most successful pirates in history is a woman - Ching Shih.

atlasobscura.com , en.wikipedia.org Report

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littletyne72 avatar
Scout Finch
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would measure my success by the size of my booty. I'll be here all week.

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#15

There is more time separating Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex than Tyrannosaurus Rex and us.

usgs.gov Report

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domamullen7 avatar
PandaRave
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Paleontology makes things so lame. I just wanted a reality where Cavemen, Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and stegosauruses duked it out during the Ice Age but instead the timeline is so boring.

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#16

Portrait of Pope Gregory IX Pope Gregory IX declared war on the cat population.

historycolored.com , commons.wikimedia.org Report

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#17

In the battle of Pelusium, the Persians knew that Egyptians worshipped cats and were forbidden to kill them. So the Persians used them as shields.

worldhistory.org Report

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Potato Panda
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Don't worry, they didn't actually use real live cats, they just painted cats on the sheilds

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#18

In Renaissance France, a woman could take her husband to court if he was impotent.

jstor.org Report

#19

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912 The 1985 discovery of the Titanic stemmed from a secret United States Navy investigation of two wrecked nuclear submarines.

nationalgeographic.co.uk , Francis Godolphin Osbourne Stuart Report

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#20

Soldiers sick with Spanish flu at a hospital ward, Camp Funston, Fort Riley, Kansas In WW1 an estimated 37 million people lost their lives and in the last year of WW1 the Spanish flu broke out. The flu took an estimated 50 million lives worldwide.

cdc.gov , National Museum of Health and Medicine Report

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lara
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And they are still not sure of the total number. Excellent book by John Barry "The Great Influenza."

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#21

The Tusculum portrait of Julius Caesar 46 BC was 445 days long and is the longest year in human history. Nicknamed the annus confusionis, or “year of confusion”, this year had two extra leap months inserted by Julius Caesar.

uh.edu , en.wikipedia.org Report

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Timmy Pillinger
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Roman elections were at a fixed time I'm but the chief priest who was elected got to decide on any leap days weeks or months so they sometime altered when the election was by adding time to the calendar

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#22

During the Victorian period, it was normal to photograph relatives after they died.

bbc.com Report

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Scout Finch
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Isn't that wild? It also was really expensive. Watch "Ask a Mortician" on YouTube. She has an episode about it.

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#23

Portrait of Albert Einstein in 1947 Albert Einstein could’ve been the president of Israel.

britannica.com , en.wikipedia.org Report

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The pizza girl is here!
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Israel has prime ministers, not presidents. They also have presidents but he wasn't offered that.He denied the offer, he was offered it because he was jewish. Instead of him, David ben gorion was the first prime minister of Israel.

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#24

Space travel was first proposed in the 1600s.

nasa.gov Report

#26

Buddhist monks used to mummify themselves alive.

atlasobscura.com Report

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$cagsy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They changed the system after some monks reported difficulty in mummifying themselves when they were dead.

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#27

Mauritania National Flag Mauritania is the world’s last country to abolish slavery, and the country didn’t make slavery a crime until 2007.

qz.com , aboodi vesakaran Report

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lara
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It may be a crime everywhere but it is still "practiced".

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#29

The Leaning Tower Of Pisa in Pisa, Italy The Leaning Tower of Pisa was never upright.

leaningtowerpisa.com Report

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Vix Spiderthrust
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Mussolini tried to fix it by pouring concrete into the foundations, which made it worse.

#30

Pineapples In 18th Century England, pineapples were a status symbol.

bbc.com , Justine Alipate Report

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$cagsy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They're gonna be again with the rate that inflation is going up.

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#31

Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is generally considered to be the shortest war in history, lasting for a grand total of 38 minutes.

historic-uk.com Report

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Henry Russell
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

the british went bombed the palace with only one casualy for them and 500 for the zanzibar . the palace was immediatly destroyed and a white flahg was raised above what was left of the palace

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#32

Nördlingen, Luftaufnahme (2016) Nordlingen is a German town built inside a 14 million-year-old meteorite crater.

smithsonianmag.com , Wolkenkratzer Report

#33

Before alarm clocks, knocker-uppers was a profession where they had to go and wake up by knocking on the doors of the townsman houses.

bbc.com Report

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Catpawsarethebest
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Always wondered how the knocker-uppers knew when to wake up. Did they have other knocker-uppers? Who might also have knocker-uppers? Maybe those knocker-uppers were people who went to bed late and they woke up the next set of knocker-uppers so they could be awake to wake the later knocker-uppers and so on?

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#34

4% of the Normandy beaches are made up of shrapnel from the D-Day Landings.

bldgblog.com Report

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#35

John F. Kennedy, Anthony Burgess, Aldous Huxley, and C.S. Lewis all died on the same day.

medium.com Report

#36

Portrait of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) 100 imposters claimed to be Marie Antoinette’s dead son.

history.com , en.wikipedia.org Report

#38

 Richard Nixon flashes his iconic "victory" sign in Paoli, PA during his triumphant presidential campaign Richard Nixon was an extremely talented musician. He played five instruments in total: piano, saxophone, clarinet, accordion, and violin.

history.com , Ollie Atkins Report

#39

During the Great Depression, people made clothes out of food sacks.

en.wikipedia.org Report

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lara
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Flour sacks, actually. The flour companies began printing lovely designs: flowers, colorful butterflies, that type of thing on the bags because they knew people were using them. The sacks were very well made, tightly woven and very useful.

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#40

A genuine and realistic c.1595 portrait of queen Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (c.1561/62–1636) In her later years, Queen Elizabeth I’s teeth were black and decayed from too much sugar.

sciencedirect.com , Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger Report

#42

In 1834, ketchup was sold as a cure for indigestion by an Ohio physician named John Cook.

bestfoodfacts.org Report

#44

The first one GB hard drive was made in 1980 and had a price of forty thousand USD.

mydatarecoverylab.com Report

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Ashley Conover
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

To give you an idea for reference, in 1994, the computer I used mostly, had a 400 MB hard drive. So, even in 1994, 1 GB was a lot, but certainly not impossible. So, $40K 24 years earlier, sure. In 1980 though, tapes were more commonly used for large data storage. There was a time of divergence though when the UK was mostly tape and the US was disk, due to Sony making disk drives and being big in the US. For example, there is a lot of 8 bit software that was written to normal audio cassettes. You can put them in a tape player and it's similar to modem sounds. also, in 1994, a cdrom had about 650-800 MBs of storage, which was twice as big as the hard drive on that PC. Can you imagine only a few years later what CD burning brought to the table when the prices started finally coming down. -My best friend's response. He's a computer geek. He can build them, write programs, etc.

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#45

Hollywood sign One of the reasons Hollywood moved from New York to Los Angeles is to escape Thomas Edison’s patents.

jstor.org , Alex Barnes Report

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#46

The Titanic ready for launch The shipbuilders Harland and Wolff insist that the Titanic was never advertised as an unsinkable ship.

britannica.com , Robert Welch Report

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$cagsy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

'Hello, Harland and Wolff here. Yes, we have a lovely ship for sale. Will it sink, you say? Um... yes... it might. Why do you ask?'

#47

In the Salem witch trials, the accused witches weren’t actually burned at the stake. The majority were jailed, and some were hanged.

history.com Report

#48

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton lost the nuclear launch codes.

bbc.com Report

#50

The British Royal Air Force accidentally sunk a ship full of holocaust victims in 1945.

theconversation.com Report

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lara
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are questions as to whether or not it WAS an accident. The people were on their way to what was then called Palestine and GB was more concerned with Arab attacks than they were in saving people.

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#51

Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. were both born in 1929.

britannica.com , britannica.com Report

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#52

Statue of Gandhi Gandhi wrote Hitler a letter imploring him to rethink the war.

time.com , Prashant Purbey Report

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domamullen7 avatar
PandaRave
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Gandhi had the worst takes during WWII. The douche was wondering why the Jews didn’t just give themselves up and why Britain stopped appeasing Germany

#53

England’s king George I was actually German.

britannica.com Report

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amybuck2005 avatar
Nathaniel
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What an amazing "fact" ffs, given all of European royalty marrying each other, most of our Kings and Queens could be considered foriegn.

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#54

Turkey Turkeys were once worshipped like gods.

history.com , Kranthi Remala Report

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Laner
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Thanksgiving was banned for the eternity by Turkey God

#55

The former head of Cuban intelligence, Fabian Escalante, told a British documentary team the CIA had tried to kill Fidel Castro more than 600 times, over a period of about 40 years.

abc.net.au Report

#56

Portrait of Jeannette Rankin Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to congress before women could vote.

history.house.gov , Bain News Service Report

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#57

The Soviet Union and the United States were supposed to go to the Moon together during the Cold War.

history.com Report

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#59

Women were once banned from smoking in public.

history.com Report

#60

The U.S. government poisoned alcohol during prohibition.

prohibition.themobmuseum.org Report

#62

The automobile was first invented and perfected in Germany and France in the late 1800s.

history.com Report

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Timmy Pillinger
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Arguably the first automobile was invented in Cornwall at the beginning of the 19th century by Richard Trevithick. It was steam powered slow and clunky and there's a reason why later pioneers are remembered and and he isn't.

#63

The Great Molasses Flood killed 21 people and injured 150 others in Boston.

history.com Report

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$cagsy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A witness said: 'I don't know what went wrong. It all happened so fast.'

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#64

Historians became a professional occupation in the late 19th century.

jstor.org Report

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Jessica Wood
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Technically one of the duties of bards was to preserve history through oral storytelling.

#65

Parliament House Althing in Reykjavík The world’s oldest parliament is from Iceland and is called Althing.

britannica.com , Jóhann Heiðar Árnason Report

#67

Since the end of WWI, over 1,000 people have died from leftover unexploded bombs.

smithsonianmag.com Report

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Szirra
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Left over from WW1? There were some other wars with left overs after, including a lot of landmines all over the globe. This needs clarification.

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#69

Portrayal of Genghis Khan in a 14th-century Genghis Khan created one of the first international postal systems.

cambridge.org , en.wikipedia.org Report

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#71

Mary actually had a little lamb.

modernfarmer.com Report

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$cagsy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

True, but it met a grisly end. Mary had a little lamb, She tied it to a pylon. 10,000 volts shot up it's a**e and turned it's wool to nylon. True story.

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#73

Sparkler and U.S.A flag July 4th isn't the real Independence Day.

constitutioncenter.org , Stephanie McCabe Report

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Nathaniel
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Depends in the country. And it is the day the USA celebrates independence.

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#74

In 1913 Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky, and Tito all lived in Vienna for a couple of months.

bbc.com Report

#75

When the USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine on 30 July 1945 survivors were left in the water for four days, during which time around 600 men died of exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks. Estimates of the number who died from shark attacks range from a few dozen to almost 150.

smithsonianmag.com Report

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Kim Kermes
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They were returning from delivering the A bombs to Tinian Island, a very secret mission. Part of the reason for the delay in rescue is that secrecy. Interesting story.

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#76

Napoleon took an estimated 150,000 horses with his army as he rode into Russia in 1812, only an estimated 1,600 came back.

history.com Report

#78

In WWI French made a fake Paris to try and fool German bomber pilots.

npr.org Report

#79

The Dutch declared a war against the Royalists but no battles happened. It went on for 335 years.

atlasobscura.com Report

#80

Close-up photo of lottery ticket The earliest known lottery was during the Chinese Han Dynasty between 205 – 187 BC.

lotterycritic.com Report

#81

In 1710, Native American leaders traveled to Britain to visit the Queen.

npg.si.edu Report

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pamela nichols
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Native American leaders thought white men were men of honor. Broken treaties after broken treaties prove almost fatal. Annihilation was their goal. The quest for ownership of everything is the ultimate goal.

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#82

Marie Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake."

history.com Report

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Szirra
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She looked like she could have said it and that was enough for the time.

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#83

Portrait painting of Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson had a vulgar parrot.

washingtonpost.com , Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl Report

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Timmy Pillinger
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are so many vulgar things about Andrew Jackson why not just have one more

#84

Joseph Stalin edited photos for censorship.

history.com Report

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#85

The Kentucky meat shower is still unexplained.

scientificamerican.com Report

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Bob La Capra
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Kentucky meat shower was an incident occurring on March 3, 1876, when what appeared to be chunks of red meat fell from the sky near Olympia Springs in Bath County, Kentucky. The most popular explanation is that a group of vultures regurgitated their meals after being startled into taking flight. The exact type of meat was never identified.

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#86

Between 1900 and 1920, Tug of War was a legitimate event at the Summer Olympics.

olympics.com Report

#87

A depiction of a fox tossing tournament of the early 18th century Fox Tossing was once a popular sport.

historycollection.com , en.m.wikipedia.org Report

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#88

Pope Pius II’s 'The Tale of Two Lovers', an erotic novel, was the 15th century’s most popular book.

museumfacts.co.uk Report

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#89

Portrait painting of Paul Revere Paul Revere never actually shouted, "The British are coming!"

history.com , John Singleton Copley Report

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MOONIE
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

sooo. . What happened. See, yall just be saying "this didn't happen like this :/" then never explain its kinda sus

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#90

Thanksgiving, as most Americans have been taught is not exactly accurate. In truth, native people did not willingly hand off their country to the invaders.

smithsonianmag.com Report

#91

White concrete buildings near the Aegean Sea in Mýkonos, Greece, during daytime The Aegean Sea owes its name to a man who jumped in it and died.

santonet.gr , Johnny Africa Report

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Blitzø
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Agean, the father of Theseus, jumped from his castle into the sea to kill himself after Theseus failed to raise white sails on the ship he returned to inform his father he was still alive. Assuming his son was dead, King Agean jumped from the palace roof in despair.

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#92

The supposed Iron Maiden torture device never actually existed.

livescience.com Report

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