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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

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?"

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."

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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!

#3

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

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."

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Jon S.
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love this, I may suggest it at work. My company manages several historical ruins

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Calane E. Vanya
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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).

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

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.

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

Living to be over 90 years old back then was quite the accomplishment. She was already 30 when the Declaration of Independence was signed!

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

Also lost a finger, which is why you rarely see Scotty’s right hand

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

I can imagine the hipsters of theses times, stopping on the street to conspicuously consult it.

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Laugh or not
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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

Karen’s have been the plight of customer service since the dawn of time

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

They didn't stop them but changed the course of the bomb away from London.

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

All I'm saying this looks like both a fantastic idea and a catastrophic disaster all at the same time

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

well thats going to be a necessity for survival when global warming hits inland :P

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

I want to try that water wheel bike. Would probably be too heavy to use but still.

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Fred L.
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Waterbikes do exist, though the ones I know are three-wheelers with hollow fiberglas wheels.

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

Since there is no firm surface to push off from, it would be more like balloon flailing.

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

Well we do have the inflatable hamster wheel for pools....

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

they predicted global warming and started creating ideas to counterpart it. Impressed... by all those people who claim it's non-existent.

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

its kinda a thing but with a surfboard and one of those kite glider things.

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

That sure looks like fun. I think it would work with slight adjustments. Can't wait to try.

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

Movie 'Just Imagine' 1930 imagines 1980 with little private art deco planes and traffic cops in hot air balloons.

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

But women will still be forced to wear artificially constricting clothing.

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

Well that's one way to deal with rising sea levels

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

Clearly we're in the wrong timeline. Balloon pack seems like a reasonable precursor to jetpack.

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Kady Maree Mcgrath
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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)

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

The fun fact is correct, but the sculpture is not of mr Bluetooth, but Ogier the Dane

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

irrelevant detail. greeks - and other people with similar architecture - painted the temples, so they were quite colorful (the pillars remained white, mostly)

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Note: this post originally had 113 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.