You Might Not Be Familiar With These 32 Fascinating Historical Events That Not Many Talk About

Inspired by Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days, journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, writing under the name Nellie Bly, set out in November 1889 to make the fictional journey a reality, aiming to circle the globe in 75 days. Despite some rough weather on the Pacific crossing that put her two days behind schedule when she reached San Francisco, her employer at the New York World, Joseph Pulitzer, arranged a private train to speed her home. Ultimately, Nellie Bly completed her groundbreaking trip around the world in an astonishing 72 days, arriving back in New Jersey in January 1890, a feat she chronicled in her book.

During the American Civil War, specifically after the Battle of Shiloh, some soldiers' wounds were observed to emit a faint glow, a phenomenon that became known as "Angel's Glow." It is now believed that this glow was caused by infection with the bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens. Interestingly, this particular bacterium produces antibiotics, which likely aided in the survival of these soldiers by preventing more dangerous infections in their wounds.

The Harlem Hellfighters, an African American regiment, earned their fierce nickname from their German adversaries due to their incredible bravery and fighting spirit during World War I; they were also known as the "Black Rattlers" and the French called them "Men of Bronze." This unit distinguished itself by spending an astounding 191 consecutive days in front-line trenches, more continuous combat time than any other American unit of comparable size. Tragically, their valor came at a high cost, as they also endured more casualties than any other American regiment, with over 1,400 losses.

The explicit goal of Canada's Indian residential school system was to assimilate Indigenous children, a process that involved isolating them from their families, cultural heritage, and spiritual traditions. Over the system's more than 160-year existence, around 150,000 children were taken from their homes and placed in these institutions, which operated across most provinces and territories. These boarding schools were predominantly administered by various Christian churches, with funding provided by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs, especially after the Indian Act of 1876, and attendance was made compulsory in 1894; the last federally-funded school did not close until 1997.

Soon after the American Revolution began, Morocco extended a significant early gesture of recognition to the fledgling United States by allowing American ships access to its ports in 1777. This act made Morocco one of the very first countries to acknowledge the new American republic. This early relationship eventually led to the signing of the Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship in 1786, one of the longest unbroken friendship treaties in U.S. history.

The worst maritime disaster in United States history occurred on April 27, 1865, when the commercial side-wheel steamboat Sultana exploded and sank on the Mississippi River. This tragic event resulted in an estimated 1,864 casualties. The steamboat was severely overcrowded at the time, carrying many Union soldiers recently released from Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, which contributed significantly to the immense loss of life.

Nine months before Rosa Parks' famous act of defiance, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 2, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus. This brave act by Colvin, a pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement who later became a retired nurse aide, was an early challenge to segregation laws, though Rosa Parks' subsequent action, supported by the NAACP, ultimately sparked the pivotal 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.

The Whiskey Rebellion, a period of violent protest in the United States from 1791 to 1794, occurred during George Washington's presidency. Farmers on the western frontier strongly opposed the "whiskey tax," the first tax levied by the new federal government on a domestic product, which was intended to help pay off Revolutionary War debts. These farmers, accustomed to distilling surplus grains into whiskey, resisted the tax, leading to a significant challenge for the young nation's authority

One of the deadliest industrial disasters in U.S. history occurred on March 25, 1911, when a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. The tragedy claimed the lives of 146 garment workers – 123 women and girls, and 23 men – who perished from the fire itself, smoke inhalation, or by falling or jumping from the building. Many of the victims were young, recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women and girls, with ages ranging from as young as 14, like Kate Leone and Rosaria "Sara" Maltese, up to 43-year-old Providenza Panno. This horrific event became a pivotal moment in labor history, highlighting the dangerous working conditions many faced and leading to significant reforms in workplace safety.

During World War II, between November 1944 and April 1945, Japan launched about 9,300 "Fu-Go" balloon bombs towards North America, hoping to cause widespread panic and forest fires. These weapons were large paper balloons, 33 feet in diameter, filled with hydrogen and carried across the Pacific by high-altitude air currents, now known as the jet stream. Each balloon carried incendiary devices and an anti-personnel bomb, using a clever sandbag system to maintain altitude, though only about 300 were ever found or seen in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Things really started heating up between American colonists and British officials after a group of locals, led by folks like Abraham Whipple and John Brown I, decided to take matters into their own hands in June 1772. The British ship HMS Gaspee, which had been a real pain enforcing unpopular trade laws (the Navigation Acts) around Newport, Rhode Island, got stuck in shallow water while chasing another boat, the Hannah. This gave the colonists their chance; they rowed out, attacked, and burned the Gaspee right down to the waterline. Coming just a couple of years after the Boston M******e, this bold move definitely pushed everyone closer to the brink of the American Revolution.

In mid-1932, a large group of around 43,000 people, including 17,000 World War I veterans and their families, converged on Washington, D.C. This demonstration, known as the Bonus Army March, saw about 15,000 of these veterans set up camps in the capital. Their demand was for the early cash payment of service bonus certificates they had been promised for their wartime service, a payment not scheduled to mature for several more years. This event occurred during the depths of the Great Depression, adding urgency to the veterans' plight.

In August 1946, a rebellion known as the Battle of Athens (or the McMinn County War) erupted in Athens and Etowah, Tennessee, as citizens, including some returning World War II veterans, rose up against their local government. The residents leveled serious accusations against local officials, including claims of predatory policing, instances of police brutality, widespread political corruption, and voter intimidation. This armed confrontation was a direct response by the community to what they perceived as an entrenched and abusive local power structure.

Originating in Guizhou, Southern China, the 1957–1958 Asian flu pandemic, caused by an influenza A virus subtype H2N2, spread globally. This worldwide health crisis is estimated to have caused between 1 and 4 million excess deaths, ranking it among the most lethal pandemics in history. Just a decade later, a related viral strain, H3N2, would trigger the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968–1970.

Due to the song's popularity and the garbled, hard-to-understand lyrics of the Kingsmen's 1963 recording of "Louie Louie," some people became convinced the song contained obscene content. This suspicion led to an FBI investigation between February and May 1964 to determine if the song violated laws against transporting obscene material across state lines. Ultimately, the FBI's limited inquiry found no evidence of obscenity in the famous rock and roll track.

Approximately 74,000 years ago in Sumatra, Indonesia, a colossal supervolcanic event known as the Toba eruption took place, forming what is now Lake Toba. This was the most recent and by far the largest of at least four caldera-forming eruptions at that site, with an estimated volcanic explosivity index of 8. It ranks as the largest known explosive volcanic eruption in the Quaternary period and one of the most powerful in Earth's entire geological history.

On September 9, 1739, the largest slave rebellion in the Southern Colonial era, known as the Stono Rebellion (or Cato's Conspiracy), erupted in the colony of South Carolina. The uprising resulted in the deaths of 25 colonists and between 35 and 50 enslaved Africans. Evidence suggests the leaders of the revolt were likely from the Kingdom of Kongo in Central Africa, as indicated by their Catholic faith and, in some cases, their ability to speak Portuguese.

From March 1916 to February 1917, the United States Army conducted a military operation known as the Pancho Villa Expedition (officially the Mexican Expedition, but initially called the "Punitive Expedition"). This incursion into Mexico aimed to capture or disperse the paramilitary forces of Mexican revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa. The expedition was a direct response to Villa's earlier raid on the American town of Columbus, New Mexico, which itself was part of the broader series of conflicts known as the Mexican Border War.

Between roughly 1890 and 1930, a series of intense and often violent labor disputes known as the Coal Wars took place in the United States. These armed conflicts primarily occurred in the eastern part of the country, especially within the Appalachian region, as coal miners fought for better wages and working conditions. However, significant violence related to these labor struggles also erupted in Colorado, particularly after the beginning of the 20th century.

Though ultimately unsuccessful in its primary goal of achieving the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent, Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 became legendary as an incredible story of survival and endurance. This journey, considered the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, was Shackleton's vision after Roald Amundsen had already reached the South Pole in 1911, leaving the trans-continental crossing as, in Shackleton's view, the "one great main object" remaining. Shackleton, who had first led an Antarctic expedition at age 33 aiming for the South Pole, faced unimaginable challenges when his ship was crushed by ice, leading to a remarkable fight for survival by his crew.

A startling political conspiracy known as the Business Plot, or sometimes the Wall Street Putsch, unfolded in the United States in 1933. Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified that a group of wealthy businessmen approached him with a plan to lead a veterans' organization in a coup d'état aimed at overthrowing President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The alleged goal was to install Butler himself as a dictator, highlighting a moment of extreme political tension and fear during the Great Depression.

A massive storage tank containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses catastrophically burst in Boston's North End on January 15, 1919, unleashing a destructive wave through the streets at an estimated 35 miles per hour. This disaster, known as the Great Molasses Flood, tragically took lives of 21 people and injured 150 others. The sheer force of the 13,000-ton molasses tide became a part of local legend, with residents claiming for decades that the distinctive sweet smell still lingered in the area on hot summer days.

Throughout the Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910, the U.S. Army maintained a significant presence along the border, leading to several military clashes with various Mexican groups. A notable escalation occurred in 1916 after Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico, prompting U.S. forces to enter Mexico. In a unique turn, American and Mexican government forces actually joined together to fight Villa's rebels during the Battle of Ciudad Juárez on June 16, a significant engagement considered the last major battle of what became known as the Mexican Border War, though smaller incursions continued for a few more years.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, on November 9, 1917, during World War I, an act of vigilante violence known as the Tulsa Outrage occurred when members of the Knights of Liberty attacked members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). This incident followed the arrest of 11 IWW men by Tulsa police after a raid on their headquarters. After a brief trial, these men were taken to the edge of town and subjected to tarring and feathering by a group including W. Tate Brady. This event happened in a climate where local county councils, created to support the war effort, often targeted groups like union organizers, and while local media praised the vigilante action, national media largely condemned it.

In late 1932, Australia saw a rather unusual military operation dubbed the "Great Emu War" by the media, after farmers in Western Australia's Wheatbelt raised concerns about large numbers of emus destroying their crops. The government dispatched soldiers from the Royal Australian Artillery, armed with Lewis machine guns, in an attempt to control the emu population. Despite their efforts and the termination of many birds, the emus persisted, and the crop damage continued, leading to the operation being widely regarded as unsuccessful and somewhat farcical.

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles directed and narrated a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds" for The Mercury Theatre on the Air Halloween episode, broadcast live on the CBS Radio Network. This performance became notorious for reportedly causing panic among some listeners who believed an actual Martian invasion was underway, even though the true extent of this panic is debated and the program likely had a relatively small audience. The realistic news-bulletin style of the broadcast contributed to the confusion and fear experienced by those who tuned in.

On May 31, 1889, the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, 14 miles upstream from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, unleashed a devastating flood upon the town after several days of heavy rain. The rupture released 14.55 million cubic meters of water, creating a flow rate temporarily matching that of the Mississippi River, and tragically ended the lives of 2,208 people, causing an estimated $17 million in damages. This event, known as the Johnstown Flood, prompted a major relief effort by the American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton, with support pouring in from across the U.S. and 18 other countries, and it later influenced a shift in American law towards stricter liability for dam owners.

In a frightening incident on February 5, 1958, the U.S. Air Force lost a 7,600-pound Mark 15 nuclear bomb near Tybee Island, Georgia, after an F-86 fighter collided with the B-47 bomber carrying it during a night training exercise. To prevent a crash and potential explosion of the bomber, the crew jettisoned the weapon into the waters of Wassaw Sound. Despite numerous searches, the bomb was never recovered and was eventually declared lost.

Seeking to pressure the British government to withdraw from Ireland, the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish republican group based in the United States, launched a series of raids against targets in Canada, then part of British North America. These incursions, which targeted military fortifications and customs posts, occurred in 1866 and again between 1870 and 1871. Ultimately, none of these cross-border actions by the Fenians achieved their intended political objectives.

A powerful series of intraplate earthquakes, known as the 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes, struck the central United States, beginning with a major tremor of magnitude 7.2–8.2 on December 16, 1811, and a significant aftershock later that same day. Two more earthquakes of comparable intensity followed in January and February 1812, centered near the Mississippi River town of New Madrid in what was then Louisiana Territory (now Missouri). These events remain the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in the contiguous United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

In January 1917, the German Foreign Office sent a secret diplomatic message, now known as the Zimmermann Telegram, proposing a military alliance with Mexico if the United States were to enter World War I against Germany. The deal suggested that, with German assistance, Mexico could reclaim lost territories including Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. British intelligence intercepted this communication, and its subsequent revelation, particularly after German official Arthur Zimmermann publicly confirmed its authenticity in March 1917, caused widespread outrage in America and significantly contributed to public support for declaring war on Germany in April of that year.

The United States declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812, initiating a conflict fought in North America between the U.S. and its allies against the United Kingdom and its allies. Known as the War of 1812, hostilities continued even after peace terms were established in the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814. The war officially concluded only when the U.S. Congress ratified the peace treaty on February 17, 1815.