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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!
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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?"
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."
I believe Oscar Schindler was homered as well. He was interred in Israel, the only member of the Nazi Party to be buried there.
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Similarly a Nazi ambassador, John Rabe, saved thousands of Chinese civilians from the Japanese three years previously. They call him Nanking's Schindler. It is worth remembering there were some good people on every side during the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe
We shouldn't forget Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese consul who also issued visas to many people against the orders of the Salazar regime, enabling them to flee a war torn Europe. He thus helped save around 30,000 refugees, of which 10,000 were Jews, and has also been honored by the Righteous Among the Nations. He was forgotten by history, and died almost destitute, but he should be remembered for his courage, his sacrifice and his humanity. I'm glad to see that some countries like Luxembourg are honoring him, he saved so many and nobody was there to save him.
push your governemnt or at least a municipal to turn it into a tourit attraction. Sugiharra's residence was almost abandoned until few "japanaese" coulture centre opened up (let's say 20+ years ago), then they tried pushing it to become a tourist trap and thus step by step the legend of Chiune Sugihara is taking traction.
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I went to his museum which is in Yaotsu, Japan. Really incredible what the guy did. He was also dishonored for violating his orders and latr stripped of his position. He then lived a quiet life and received no recognition for decades until some of the Jews he had saved tracked him down, to which he had humbly said, he just did what he believed was right. A true hero.
It's unfortunate that Sugihara was mistreated by the Japanese government after WW2. It wasn't stated, but implied because of going against the government. He lost his job with foreign affairs after the war and only now with recognition from the world, the government praises him, but never was an apology given to him or his family.
There is a book from Jan Brokken about the Dutch and Japanese consul in Lithuania who saved them. It’s written by Dutch author Jan Brokken and translated in English as ‘The Just’. Really worth reading!
There's a small park named after him in Petach Tikva, an Israeli city who's name means "an opening of hope"
Integrity, courage, and sound ethical judgment are the character traits we, as humanity, need more than ever when warfare is changing with technology. There is no need to be so messy about it anymore, with drones making it seem like a game to the operators. Please read this article and think about our choices: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53917791
Finally somebody who respects Jews they were even blamed for the Black Death
I see nothing weird here, although, Sugihara is an honorable person indeed.
a friend's family lived in Holland well before WWII even started. Nico was 10 years old 1939. 'they wanted to leave before the Nazi invaded their country. They knew China was giving passports to get to Japan. Japan was also giving passports so they went to Malaysia. They stayed there for quit a few years before coming to the United States. Nico is still living.
Similarly in March 1938, Lieutenant General Kiichi Higuchi of the Imperial Japanese Army proposed the reception of the Jewish refugees from Russia to General Hideki Tojo. Despite German protests, General Tojo approved and had Manchuria, then “ a puppet state of Japan”, admit them. On December 6, 1938, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita, army minister Seishiro Itagaki, Naval minister Mitsumasa Yonai, and Finance Minister made a decision of prohibiting the expulsion of the Jews in Japan, Manchuria and China. Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees (无国籍难民限定地区) As an immediate result , about 14,000–15,000 European Jews were granted asylum in the Japanese quarter of Shanghai (the European quarters, in contrast, admitted practically no Jews). About 1000 Polish refugees who had not been able to obtain visas were also given asylum in Japanese quarter.
Wonderful information, that man is up in Heaven, where he belongs !!!
What a kind and wonderful person. Too bad we haven't heard of him before. Instead all we get in the news is garbage!
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
Note: this post originally had 113 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
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.
