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‘Weird History’ Is An Account That Shares Interesting, Odd, And Funny Things That Happened Throughout History
Andrew Rader, PhD, is a lot of things. The man is a SpaceX mission manager, MIT-credentialed scientist, game designer, author... And he's also a history fan. In fact, he's so fascinated with the subject, he even created a Twitter account to share the weirdest and most wonderful history-related content he stumbles upon.
Appropriately called 'Weird History', the page regularly features everything from interesting facts to amusing memes you wouldn't normally find in a textbook and has accumulated over 145,000 followers since its inception in 2011. Continue scrolling and check out some of the most popular posts 'Weird History' has had!
More info: Twitter
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But why bother with history in the first place? Well, Peter N. Stearns, a professor at George Mason University, said that even though people live in the present and plan for the future, they still need to learn about the past.
"In the first place, history offers a storehouse of information about how people and societies behave," Stearns wrote. "Understanding the operations of people and societies is difficult, though a number of disciplines make the attempt. An exclusive reliance on current data would needlessly handicap our efforts. How can we evaluate war if the nation is at peace—unless we use historical materials? How can we understand genius, the influence of technological innovation, or the role that beliefs play in shaping family life, if we don't use what we know about experiences in the past?"
Brilliant way to beat the system and prove how stupid it is..
Load More Replies... The law changed pretty quickly after that, took about two months. That was 1979.
Do you have any citations for that? And two months after what, exactly? Monica Soffronow's links suggest homosexuality _remained_ an illness even after its decriminalization in 1944.
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Though homosexuality as such was legalized in Sweden in 1944, it was classified as a psychiatric illness until 1979. Activists tried to change this, partly, and more as a joke, by calling in sick. They were successful. https://www.levandehistoria.se/hbtq/demonstranter_ockuperade_socialstyrelsen_i_protest_mot_sjukdomsstampel
@Argha Chowdhury, please do not mistake actual facts for being merely a personal opinion of mine. Facts are facts, regardless of how you may see it.
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Not true... but circling the truth. https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/09/calling-in-gay-did-70s-swedes-really-get-paid-sick-leave-for-being-homosexual.html
people in Lithuania would do the same... not for solidarity. We are practical people.
I don't like these "facts" in which they say that "the Swedes" did this or that. It sounds like the Swedes were unanimously supporting LGBT and that is just really not true. It's not a story of solidarity: some activists called in sick, that's it. By pink washing history we forget the real pain and struggle that is still going on!
It doesn't say "the Swedes." It says "Swedes." Relax, no one thinks the entire country did this. Sadly we're not that evolved.
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Nice story. Not quite what it’s cracked up to be: https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/09/calling-in-gay-did-70s-swedes-really-get-paid-sick-leave-for-being-homosexual.html
"Nice story. Not quite what it’s cracked up to be" Jace, what do you mean? IF you are referring to the rather click-bait title of this post, sounding as though it was a mass protest, then I agree. However, it IS factually correct and in the article I am referring to above, one of the activists says that trying to call in sick with homosexuality was in jest, it was a ploy to call attention to how ridiculous this situation was for homosexual people. Some people still did it! From the link in your comment: "On Aug. 29, 1979, when between 30 and 40 people showed up at the National Board of Health and Welfare, the new director-general of Social Security, Barbro Westerholm, greeted them and agreed that the classification needed to be removed. The change took effect on Oct. 19, 1979." That is only seven weeks!
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every single day now: Me "mom, I feel gay" Mom "of course you do! you have two moms!" Mama: "we raised this one good"
Feel free to learn something: https://www.levandehistoria.se/hbtq/demonstranter_ockuperade_socialstyrelsen_i_protest_mot_sjukdomsstampel , and: https://www.regeringen.se/artiklar/2018/06/historik-om-utvecklingen-av-hbtq-personers-rattigheter-i-sverige/
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The professor highlighted that some social scientists attempt to formulate laws or theories about human behavior but even these recourses depend on historical information, except for in limited, often artificial cases in which experiments can be devised to determine how people act. "Major aspects of a society's operation, like mass elections, missionary activities, or military alliances, cannot be set up as precise experiments. Consequently, history must serve, however imperfectly, as our laboratory, and data from the past must serve as our most vital evidence in the unavoidable quest to figure out why our complex species behaves as it does in societal settings."
This, fundamentally, is why we can not stay away from history, Stearns said. "It offers the only extensive evidential base for the contemplation and analysis of how societies function, and people need to have some sense of how societies function simply to run their own lives."
So the next time you're browsing 'Weird History', don't think it's just random trivia; it's also broadening your worldview!
His name is Chiune Sugihara. From Wikipedia: "In 1985, the State of Israel honored Sugihara as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions. He is the only Japanese national to have been so honored. The year 2020 is "The Year of Chiune Sugihara" in Lithuania. It has been estimated as many as 100,000 people alive today are the descendants of the recipients of Sugihara visas."
legal or not, slavery is still present in many countries around the world. I think I even heard that there are more slaves today than ever in the past. I think not many communities are civilized (for various reasons).
In the painting they’re depicted as father and daughter, not husband and wife as many believe. In reality the woman is the painters sister Nan and the man is their dentist Dr. Byron McKeeby. No, they didn’t get married.
Wonder what they looked like before he painted them over. *ba dum tss*
this feels like a screenshot from a video game :D what a crossover.
Living to be over 90 years old back then was quite the accomplishment. She was already 30 when the Declaration of Independence was signed!
Also lost a finger, which is why you rarely see Scotty’s right hand
That's actually Ernest Hemingway that said that. But still a good quote!
I can imagine the hipsters of theses times, stopping on the street to conspicuously consult it.
The 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall. In the 3rd of octobre, they let the balloons fly one by one. It was beautiful.
They didn't stop them but changed the course of the bomb away from London.
Fun fact: Zeus's Das ate his brothers and sisters but his mother gave Zeus's dad a rock instead of Zeus and apparently his dad threw up his siblings and they were all grown and dressed (as the legend says)
Wonder if the Aztecs would hang these from the backs of their pickup carts?
"especially at meal times!" .... sooo a solid glass of alcohol :)
The fun fact is correct, but the sculpture is not of mr Bluetooth, but Ogier the Dane
we can beat that easily. in 2008 we, estonians, spent 980000 USD to our slogan. you guessed it right, let me present our masterpiece: "Welcome to Estonia!". kind of sad, but true story.
No-one could get around the end that's in the sea. Look at all those rocks sticking out the water!
It would probably cost 100,000 now if you were to purchase it at auction.
Fun fact, more people live in caves at the moment (especially in China) than at any point in history
but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health - what have the romans ever done for us?
Wife “Nicholas, just give it a seco.....well now you’ve just ruined it”
The Iron Age started in Africa and the Middle East before King Tut’s time
Actually, no. It was James Cameron who thought he was too nice to be a believable killer. He wanted someone more famous. The studio co-founder always had Schwarzenegger down for a role. Cameron auditioned Schwarzenegger for the Kyle Reece role (even though he didn’t want him for it) but on meeting him knew he’d make an excellent Terminator.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ILI27rfwtM
This is a picture of a longship found in Norway and exhibited at the Viking Museum in Oslo though
At school I had to summarise 'Romeo & Juliet'. Not being very good at this kind of thing, my teacher got; Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl get married. Boy and girl die. Families cry and build statue. Got 6 out of 10for orininality.
Black Adder, last episode. It captures the 'Push' and the deadly silence in the years that past with a gorgeous scene of the Poppy Fields.
Do villains have to timeshare this, or do they just engage in battle over who gets to use it as a lair? Asking for a friend.
I find this fact highly dubious. The ancient Greeks had forks. And I'm pretty sure forks were designed for spearing meat. Pasta in Italy has a history going back to the Etruscans and no connection with china (it doesn't take a lot of effort to boil flour and egg!). I presume it was eaten as sheets, like bread or with a spoon, like pottage.
It's a welcome break from the "Look how I photographed and photoshopped something into incredible art", " She did something and it went viral with 50 random people on the internet" and "Look how cute this is."
I found many of the comments in this post were just as interesting to read!
As soon as I saw this post I was on it and reading away. These were interesting
I used to foist such factoids on my students. Sometimes, years later, they would say that those were the only things that they remember. -Dr M, retired history professor
I have always loved history... not the dates and special events or whatever, but the social aspect of it.
So *many* of these are factually, historically, inaccurate. Please at least do some minimal Wikipedia-based research before posting things like this.
It's a welcome break from the "Look how I photographed and photoshopped something into incredible art", " She did something and it went viral with 50 random people on the internet" and "Look how cute this is."
I found many of the comments in this post were just as interesting to read!
As soon as I saw this post I was on it and reading away. These were interesting
I used to foist such factoids on my students. Sometimes, years later, they would say that those were the only things that they remember. -Dr M, retired history professor
I have always loved history... not the dates and special events or whatever, but the social aspect of it.
So *many* of these are factually, historically, inaccurate. Please at least do some minimal Wikipedia-based research before posting things like this.
