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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."
Ha, so the medieval version of the 'keyboards' they walk across today!
How do we know the cat didn't write the manuscript and just put his/her signature on it?
When they poured concrete on our drive way in the middle of the city, an appartment building. A cat walked straight over it leaving paw prints that can still be seen, 30 years later. The weirdest part, nobody had seen the cat before nor has seen it since. It just appeared to do his sabotage.
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But not rewritten. Beloved pet. Manuscript would have been unbound at this time.
Seen this before and love this picture. Imagine what the medieval expletives were...
I wonder if thia cat was there to hunt the rats that would nibble on the pages of the books (which is why the margin is so large, to protect the literature).
Scribes often kept cats to keep vermin from eating the manuscripts.
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Are you sure it was a medieval kitty and not just a hurried excuse from the museum cleaner after their cat ran amok...
It says everything you need to know about cats...and people. Despite ruining this manuscript no doubt she got fed after this..
There is also an amusing manuscript that has a blank space with a note scribbled on the side saying something like: "Here nothing is missing, but a cat peed on here last night. Cursed cat!"
A book from State Archives in Dubrovnik, Croatia. https://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/otisci-srednjovjekovne-macke-iz-dubrovnika-ocarali-svijet-523563
Are we sure it’s a medieval cat and not one watching someone read it yesterday ?
Cats are awesome because they prance about on their doodie-shoveling paws, tracking fecal microorganisms on all your hard surfaces. They playfully paw you with their dookie -diggers, then they lick you with their raspy tongues that just got finished licking poo-paws. Then when you stand they sidle up to you and smear their dirty, puckered anuses on your ankle or calf.
Troufaki, fortunately this kitty was likely not killed as there is a fair chance that it was a pet in a monastery. Numerous images of cats are prevalent throughout Medieval artwork and Medieval manuscripts such as the book of Kells: https://www.tcd.ie/visitors/the-role-of-cats-in-the-book-of-kells/ There is even a famous poem "Pangur Bán" written by an Irish monk in the around the 9th century that is practically an ode to the monk's cat. Cats were oftentime kept as pets by monks to hunt mice in the monasteries. However, I do understand that cats began to be viewed more ambivalently (superstitions surrounding black cats/cats being linked to the devil and witches) so I'm also curious to know more about when this view came about.
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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.
