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Ah, history—my first true love, right next to fantasy fiction. There really is nothing like opening up an expertly written, emotionally-riveting history book on a rainy evening with the flames merrily crackling in the fireplace, the wind howling outside your windows, and learning about historical events.

Right among the top history lovers on Planet Earth lies Andrew Rader, a polymath who’s as skilled as his interests are varied. Andrew is the man and the legend behind the incredibly successful Weird History Twitter page that’s chock full of fascinating, intriguing, and even hilarious, well you guessed it, historical facts. The unexpected and sometimes weird things he shares are enough to make a history buff like me squeal with joy.

Go brew yourself a mug of tea or a cup of coffee, scroll on, and upvote your fave fun facts about odd history! When you’re done, you’ll find our delightful post about the Weird History page that the Bored Panda team put together previously right over here.

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

Since founding the Weird History page on Twitter way back in 2011, Andrew’s amassed a following of nearly 159k followers. Since our previous post about the page back in August 2020, the number of fans has grown by nearly 14k people.

And it’s all because of the awesome posts that Andrew makes that entertain and educate us at the same time.

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

The title shows how little the author knows about suffragettes. One of their goals was to fight the sexual exploitation of women.

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

He became a Grandmaster in 1950 at age 39. Like Bobby Fischer, he won the US Chess Championship 8 times, which is still an all-time record.

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Andrew’s incredibly passionate about a variety of different subjects and you can feel that passion in his Twitter posts. Currently, he’s a Mission Manager at SpaceX. He’s more than qualified for this position, seeing as he’s got a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from MIT specializing in long-duration spaceflight.

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He’s someone you could easily look up to if you’re in need of some motivation.

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What’s more, Andrew won the Discovery Channel’s 2013 competitive TV series, Canada’s Greatest Know-It-All. So there’s no doubt that he’s smart and knows his stuff. Basically, the complete opposite of the people that the r/IAmVerySmart subreddit pokes fun at.

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Linus Nilsson
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Such an incredibly sad picture. All these small children, never getting to know their parents.

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Jaekry
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

WOW! How is this not on some list of world wonders... Then again, neither is Angkor Wat in Cambodia which is truly special and exquisite, but Christ the Redeemer in Brazil is, no idea why? It's a relative modern statue. (And off rant.)

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Andrew’s also a published author, having written ‘Beyond the Known’ about the history of exploration: from the very beginning of humanity all the way into our spacefaring future. What’s more, he’s written plenty of other books, including the ‘Epic Space Adventure’ series and the ‘Rocket Science’ book for kids.

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Steve Wilson
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Einstein told Chaplin “People admire you even though you don’t say a word”. To which Chaplin replied “People admire you even though they don’t understand a word you say”.

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But that’s far from everything, the founder of the ‘Weird Science’ account is also a game designer, occasionally dabbles in YouTube videos, and even co-hosts a weekly podcast called Spellbound. The podcast is about a variety of topics ranging from science and history to economics and psychology. The Canadian who was born in Ottawa is now based in Los Angeles and considers himself “an avid trivia player, space enthusiast, science nerd, and history buff,” according to his website.

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engineer_nope.avi
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Authur Conan Doyle is a man way ahead of his time. There are a lot of examples that Holmes used that would become real years after the books.

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The line between a good and a bad historian can be blurred sometimes because, well, history is a pretty blurry subject. There are so many perspectives and interpretations to consider, alongside the validity of historical sources, fact-checking (and double-checking, and triple-checking), and considering the overall historical narrative of any single event.

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And don’t forget about all of the sources that end up being destroyed or being locked up in archives! Dabbling in history can be either a nightmare or an adventure (or both…), depending on your point of view and how invested you are.

Even though what makes a historian good is similar to what makes us look up to any high-quality scientist, the fact is, history just isn’t as straightforward as history is. Sure, you have objective things like dates and the names of the people who participated in events, but you also have intangible, immeasurable things like motivations and aspirations.

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engineer_nope.avi
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Technically, they still do. I mean, have you ever seen someone eating a pez and smoking at the same time?

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Kristof De Smet
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Intense study? Want of employment? Seems I should have been there a few times.

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In essence, history deals with emotions, perspectives, and delves deep into the brilliant, scary, and bewildering things that make us human: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the weird. So it’s a constant battle to be cold and objective while analyzing the fiery depths of human emotions. Neither one approach is enough (being too detached means you’ll miss out on the real reasons behind events while being too emotionally invested will lead to biases), but balancing both and using them in tandem is where real quality lies.

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Like a detective, a historian constantly evaluates how valid and trustworthy sources are while offering a fresh perspective on facts and figures that might be taken for granted by their other colleagues. At its core, history is the search for Truth (yes, with a capital ‘T’) while knowing that it’ll always be just out of reach. It’s a good thing we have ‘Weird History’ to fall back on when we’re tired from serious analyses and need a fun and interesting pick-me-up.

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LC Greenwood
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow. A lot of ignorance and racism in these comments. Do better people. Seriously

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Mario Gonzalez
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can you give some examples of racism in these comments? I haven't been able to locate any yet.

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I'manoob!
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How dare they invent negative numbers. I'm still having a hard time solving equations with positive numbers lol

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Marcellus the Third
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A big argument is that because they got stuck on their tea, they never developed glassware and hence lenses/ glasses/ telescopes/ microscopes and a lot of natural sciences didn't develop, and other consequences (out-of-view navigation leading Columbus to America etc; not essential as the Vikings proved once but helpful).

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Oskar vanZandt
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

An impressive inventive culture... have been meaning for ages to learn more about China's history and culture.

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Cori
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Okay. But how can such scientifically advanced people think ground up rhino horn and other assorted animals body parts make for effective medicine?

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s. vitkovitsky
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tons of plants contain useful chemicals, like salicylic acid in willow bark, etc. Probably many animal parts do, too. But yeah, a lot of the animal stuff is bunk, or at least nowadays anything useful in animal parts can be reproduced chemically, without the parts (like thyroid extract).

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jk nbt
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

you left out gunpowder, moron... a wise & ancient people they are

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Teucer T
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not really. While the chemical was formulated by Taoists, it was used as a medicine at the time. The explosive "greek fire" was in use long before the 9th century, abd it wasn't until the Chinese saw greek fire that they refined the formula further into gunpowder.

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M O'Connell
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Breeding carp for particular features, carp were turned into koi, and the fancy goldfish we have today.

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Dieter Smith
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They created toilet paper and the need to panic buy their own invention

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ASP
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Coffins? The ancient Egyptians had burial boxes (not just the sarcophagus for royalty), and they were used in Mesopotamia. In the 700 the Celts were using them in Wales (for aristocrats only)..

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ASP
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Chinese have absolutely been using coffins since several centuries B.C. but I'm not sure Mesopotamians and Egyptians didn't develop them independently. I'm not sure what contact the Wales may have had with China, but there's a chance they developed them independently as well, although much later. Seems like a multinational idea, perhaps?

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Bora
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Did the Chinese invent goldfishes? I'm really surprised.

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Neva Nevičica
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Napkins? What, they were first to wipe their hands and face with a cloth? I am kind of doubtful. If nobody holds the patent for the towel, i am informing you that i invented it :D

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Teucer T
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Goldfish? They invented goldfish? Does that mean Norway invented sardines and Australia invented sharks?

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Ben Steinberg
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And a complicated history question is, why, given their technological standing, didn't they industrialize around the time England did?

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M O'Connell
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think the reasons are similar to why the Arabs went from being the keepers of the light of mathematics, science, and art during the middle ages, to seeming technologically backward. Chinese and Arabic are both impossible to print using the same movable metal type methods that appeared in Germany. Arabic is a calligraphic script, there are no "letters" to put together into words. Chinese is a non-alphabetic language, meaning you had to have a block for each individual word, which greatly complicated matters. In Europe, easily obtainable cheap printed books raised the collective knowledge level substantially.

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Edwin Lesperance
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

goldfish? I thought they are natural! And goldfish crackers were invented in Switzerland.

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François Carré
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, they call themselves "the Middle Empire" for some reason. This side of the planet has the most inhabitants and has basically played the main role in the last 3000 years of human history, with all due respect to Westerners and their 250 year short success story.

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Yeah, you heard
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

With an eighth of the worlds population, you'd expect them to have made an eighth of the worlds inventions. So this lust is unremarkable.

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TexasWoman
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3 years ago

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Negative numbers, running water? Where's the coronavirus invention?

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CatOfTheDark
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The guy whose head is in the center looks like Rowan Atkinson to me for some reason.

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engineer_nope.avi
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Man, imagine if the people back then being able to look at today's computers. Their minds would be blown.

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N G
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Children often replicate what they see adults doing in the form of "play" to help them process what has happened/is happening.

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Giovanni
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only the stick was shared, you would use it to skewer a sponge from a bucket full of them and then you would let the used sponge fall in the sewer.

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Ksenia M
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've seen this fact mentioned so many times. Just to be clear, this a taxes and regulations issue. Nobody actually thought that beer as not an alcoholic drink, which is obvious since any beer bottle has alcohol content stated on it and beer ads have health warnings. Also, Bud? Come on!

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engineer_nope.avi
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The company existed a century before the movie came out so it's just a coincidence.

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Note: this post originally had 111 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.

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