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With real-life facts often being far stranger than fiction, there’s nothing like a good history book to get your noggin’ joggin’ and make you appreciate life from a whole different perspective. I might have started my love affair with history as a subject with the amazing Horrible History book series, but I’ve since then graduated to thick and dusty tomes.

However, I still have a yearning for the more fun and unusual aspects of history that first drew me in. And that’s where the Weird History Twitter page comes into play. A page with 172k followers that’s been active since September 2011, Weird History is the brainchild of Andrew Rader who does, well, pretty much everything: from book-writing to cool space stuff.

Have a look through some of the coolest recent posts made by the Weird History project, upvote the ones that you liked best, and later on consider absorbing some more delicious knowledge from Bored Panda's previous articles about the Twitter account here and here.

More info: Twitter (Weird History) | Twitter (Andrew) | Instagram | FacebookYouTube | Andrew-Rader.com

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Leah Helbig
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Our world was built from the back of the horse. They are one of the most important creatures who ever lived.

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Andrew has a PhD from MIT in long-duration spaceflight, is an expert in space exploration, and has authored a host of academic and technical papers. What’s more, he’s an avid writer, having published books for adults and children alike, and he creates tabletop games in his spare time.

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

That is an unimaginable long time, yet such a tiny fraction of how long life exists on earth...

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The Canadian, who now lives in Los Angeles in California, has also been extensively featured in the media, including in The New York Times and by Vice. And finally, adding to his great list of achievements, he’s a real trivia aficionado (even having taken home awards) and he’s the curator of the Weird Science account, too.

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

That might be because in the 1930s, people were still catching tuberculosis from cow's milk. Sick cows can transmit the bacteria through non-pasteurized milk, so if the hospital had its own herd then they could make sure all the beasts were healthy and not infecting the patients.

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Cip IESAN
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In the prehistoric times, the customer service complaint was a wooden club...

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Since 2014, Andrew has been working at SpaceX as a Mission Manager, while previously he had got 4 years of experience as a Spacecraft Systems Engineer at COM DEV. One of the coolest things about him (at least for me) is that he was a candidate for the Canadian Astronaut Corps back in 2009 and as recently as 2017.

What’s more, he was being considered as one of the potential candidates for a one-way mission to the Red Planet as part of the Mars One project in 2014. It should be clear by now that Andrews’s passion for science and history aren’t just for show—he’s dedicated his life to the pursuit of truth, knowledge, and pushing the limits of mankind. And Weird History… it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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Cip IESAN
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The president and the prime minister of many states are not allowed to share the same aircraft. And, during the war, the medics weren't allowed to share the same foxhole.

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Chris Wade
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I mean... As far as prison cells go, that surely isn't that bad, right? lol

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Chris Wade
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fast forward 82 years later and people moan about having to wear a cloth/paper mask on planes.

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J. F.
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And it took a long time to re-discover the need of taking vitamin rich food on sea travels

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Ryan Deschanel
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cousins are nice, but when a little horde of bloodthirsty bolcheviks want tu slaughter your family, they are not here to help you.

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Kai Wee Toh
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

...and then they replaced the cocaine with something more potent and addictive - refined white sugar.

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Julia Atkinson
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Combines the pleasure of horseriding with the anxiety of being accidentally blinded by your mount

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

It's beautiful there. I visit it once in a while with my kids.

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

well, that's basically only time of home i could afford, so they weren't that wrong

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Sarah Grape
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I thought he said redcoats; though regulars make more sense, red was a popular color for coats

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Kirsten Kerkhof
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A tendency to decapitate the pilot. How many people had to die before they concluded it was a design/idea fault and not just bad luck on the part of the pilot?

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

Most english words have origins in other germanic or lating languages.

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Luis Hernandez Dauajare
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fun fact: when Titanic sank, the White Star Company refused to pay officers and crew members for services provided during the sinking. And the family of one of the band members who died actually was charged for the loss of his uniform.

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

In France they call it the "iron harvest". About 900 tons of unexploded ordnance is recovered every year. If you drive around the battlefields it is perfectly common to see a handful of old hand grenades or mortar rounds sitting on the verge at a farmers' gate, waiting for the bomb disposal people to come on their latest run to pick them up.

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

More beavers need to be relocated to the American West. By trapping water behind dams they make water tables rise, which helps reduce wildfires and increases reservoir levels.

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Chris Wade
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Surely a while after him the name "sandwich" stuck but people have been putting stuff between slices of bread (or variations of bread) for thousands of years.

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

Just another example how over time cultures change. Today not wearing pants within the city limits is deemed barbarian.

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

It says a quarter past nine and not a quarter to five. Title is wrong!

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Madison Sadler
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow! That's really cool! I'm going to show this to my band teacher lol

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

It was common for the boys to be injured by flying pins.

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

It was a photoshoot to promote the upcoming international tour. They're dressed as typical London city gents. This was basically the 'uniform' worn by city finance workers long after the rest of society swapped wearing morning dress with modern lounge suits. Remarkably, city workers were still wearing this outfit into the 1980s. Just occasionally you see some older gents still wearing it when they go up to their clubs. I've seen one or two in the last few years!

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Luis Hernandez Dauajare
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Antikythera mechanism. It was apparently designed to determine the times for the Olympics.

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

Istanbul was Constantinople Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople Been a long time gone, Constantinople Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night

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Dave P
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

the famous building was a bank vault for storing Jewels, it is shallow cave with an ornate outdoor carving, at originally a massive oak door.

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

Last public horse carriages in that place. My grandma was born in 1925 and she remembers taking the horse "bus" from her city to her grandparents village.

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

One account from early travelers said that the queen of a Mount Builders' city wore nothing but pearls...

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clive apps
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Endeavour was one of the rejected choices for the original starship name

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Chris Wade
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm willing to wager Robert started the whole Yeti/Bigfoot/Sasquatch craze.

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Tequila4Two
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wait, what? Where? I live my whole life in The Netherlands, first time I have heard of this.

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

The origin of the name Case Western Reserve university in Ohio, originally in Connecticut's territory

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Chris Wade
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I mean, my heart goes to him for losing his leg but, surely, this is weird haha

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

This map is comparing the wrong scales Europe is a larger land mass than the continental USA, so the Roman empire would be much larger still. Comparison map https://moverdb.com/us-states-europe-population/

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Thomas brennan
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That tweet ain't quite right. The HMS Resolute was abandoned while searching for the Franklin Expedition. A US whaling vessel found the Resolute wreck and it was repaired and returned by the US. The desk was made out of the timbers of the Resolute as a thanks for the kind gesture.

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Luis Hernandez Dauajare
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Johnson always played a recurring joke, in which he invited someone for a ride and then drove into the water. The guest usually freaked out, because he did not know it the car was amphibious.

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

The French nuclear tests in the atolls of Polynesia were crimes against humanity.

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

The caption on the lower right reads "ship-train in the year 2000" and the one on the upper left "Hildebrand's German chocolate"... I guess this was some kind of marketing scheme? Collectable cards depicting future technological advances?

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