‘Weird History’ Is An Account That Shares Interesting, Odd, And Funny Things That Happened Throughout History (40 New Pics)
Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it, so the saying goes, so one would think our history classes would be a lot more interesting and vital. Alas, that’s rarely the case. Fortunately, the internet finds a solution to everything.
The “Weird History” Twitter account gathers trivia, fun facts, and interesting images from the past in an attempt to make the entirety of human existence more digestible to the average person. So “scroll” through and upvote whatever surprised you and add your own historical fun facts in the comments section.
More info: Twitter
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The world is such a big place that everyday things are happening, making it almost impossible for anyone to keep track. Not to mention, humans have wild imaginations, so we constantly concoct and invent scenarios in our heads. A regular topic of discussion for history aficionados is the question of “What if?” This can really be applied to any well-known event, but it can be even more interesting to look at something less known.
For example, when the modern state of Israel was formed, Albert Einstein was offered its presidency. It’s unclear if his physics abilities would have translated to a political career in any meaningful way, but the spectacle would have been interesting. However, as you can probably already guess, he declined the offer.
Back to USA. In New York City, Owens was invited to a reception in his honor at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, but hotel policy prohibited him from using the front door. Jesse Owens was also denied the opportunity to visit President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House, though his white teammates were invited.
One of the better links to the past that we still observe regularly are the Olympic games. Obviously, they are quite different from the ancient games, as we include a lot more events, we don’t hold them exclusively in Greece and the participants aren’t naked. But even the modern games do change more often than we think. In the 1920s, for example, tug of war was a legitimate event where national teams competed to pull a rope.
FYI: This monument honors the legendary 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the Harlem Hellfighters. The black granite obelisk is a replica of a 1997 memorial that stands at Sechault in Northern France, where the 369th soldiers distinguished themselves during World War I. https://www.nycgovparks.org/
Reportedly, Britain did quite well, with its team often consisting of London City police. In the years where tug of war featured, they won two gold and one silver medals. How exactly being a police officer made you better at pulling a rope is unclear, but the results speak for themselves. These days new events are being added as the sports and activities of the world change and adapt to modern demands.
While it makes sense when we think about it for a moment, often it’s easy to forget that almost everything we see and do has links to the past. Take, for example, ketchup. Originally, it was made with mushrooms and looked, tasted, and smelled a lot different from the tomato-based condiment we find everywhere today. We are all probably familiar with the concept of comfort eating, but originally, it was also used as medicine.
And it’s not just simple condiments that have a lot more behind them than it would seem at first glance, the Easter Island heads are a good example. First, it’s wrong to call them just heads, these monolithic statues have bodies that extend deep into the ground. And there aren’t just a handful of them in one spot, there are, in total, 887 of them across the island. Each weighs approximately twelve tons or over 28’000 pounds, raising questions about how and why the locals decided on this particular item of decor.
Speaking of ancient statues, if you were like me, you had an obsession with ancient Egypt as a child. But have you ever noticed that many statues from that time period are missing their noses? The precise answer is unclear, as time and erosion could have specifically targeted this part. However, it could be a result of human intervention. Statues represented rulers and dynasties, if one had usurped power, which would happen often enough at the time, it would make sense to diminish the influence of your opponent. But this one may just remain a mystery, unfortunately. If you want to read more interesting historical facts, check out Bored Panda’s other articles here, here, and here.
And Carrie Fisher, overflowing with personality and humor, as always.
Eerie how color shrinks the perceived time gap between then and now, compared to monochrome photos
It’s known as Ram Setu and according to the Ramayana (a holy book in Hinduism), Sri Ram along with the help of Hanuman and several monkeys created it by dropping rocks on the ocean and walking across it so that they could reach Lanka and save Sita from Ravaan. (I don’t think this is true but still felt like sharing)
I feel like the ancient greeks would totally get along with us lol
In all honesty I’d be more frightened to see a large baboon chasing me then a dog, have you seen the teeth on those things? Brrrrrrr
Well yeah who looks at a random liquid and goes 'hmm you try it'
Probably the same try and error process like with other foods - "Oh, this mushroom tastes delicious, this one killed Og immediately, and that one lets you see god for a week..."
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This "fact" is unverifiable - There is obviously no evidence to back up the statement, except cave paintings, and how would they paint a picture saying 'Duh, we didn't think of drinking it for thousands of years.' For comparison, Wikipedia says this: "The origins of yogurt are unknown, but it was probably invented by Neolithic people in Central Asia and Mesopotamia around 5000 BC, when the first milk-producing animals were domesticated." with a link to an article in French saying the same thing. This still isn't proof either way, but at least it indicates researchers made an effort to locate the earliest evidence of yogurt and estimate how old it was and when evidence of domestication appears.
There is a scientific paper discussing the use of milk in paintings about 50k years ago (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279492246_A_Milk_and_Ochre_Paint_Mixture_Used_49000_Years_Ago_at_Sibudu_South_Africa). So the early use of milk in paint seems established. According to the paper the milk was likely taken from dead lactating animals. Adult Lactase Persistence developed around 5000 years ago, very likely as an effect of humans drinking milk, so they must have started drinking milk before that. Earliest evidence dates back to 10000 years ago.This is the evidence the message is based on. But I agree that the absence of evidence doesn't mean something didn't happen.
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I find this one difficult to believe. If you have cows for "thousands of years" you have calves and you see the calves drinking the milk. You see human mothers and other animals producing milk for their young. You eat the cows so you know they are not highly toxic. How on earthy would you go "thousands of years" without anyone thinking maybe you could drink it? It kind of defies credibility. Humans drink milk from a wide variety of mammals.
So we discovered drinking milk because someone mixed up their paint water cup and their drinking water cup? Given how many painters have cleaned their brush in their coffe and then drunk from the paint cup…story checks out.
Milk and lime when mixed together makes a quite adequate paint. It used to be used on houses and barns.
Nobody would drink milk if it weren't for the miserable dairy lobby.
Hmm, more likely the other way round. Been drinking milk for thousands of years before some artist decided to slop the excess on the walls rather than making yoghurt or cheese
Probably by seeing calves drink it and linking that to human breast feeding.
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Note: this post originally had 119 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
