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30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group
History lessons in school may have seemed boring to some, but it is useful to know how far we’ve come and where we came from. It may seem boring because the events took place a very long time ago or they just don’t seem relevant to us personally. But the history that is taught at school isn’t the only truth and doesn’t encompass all the things that happened in the past.
There are so many events and people that we don’t get to hear about and maybe they didn’t have a big impact on the world, but those stories are so interesting to listen to or read about. Today you will find out some history facts that you may not have heard of before, and they come with a twist, as Redditor Doyouareisstupid asked, “What is the weirdest/most disturbing fact about our world’s history that you know?” It’s a perfect read for the spooky season we are now in because people have knowledge about some unbelievable things that occurred years ago. So enjoy and upvote the answers that surprised you the most.
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Most people have 16 great great parents, Cleopatra had 2. She's lucky to have developed working lungs, let alone be competent enough to accomplish anything. That was a family tree was a wreath
40% of all homeless people in America still goes to work every day
That literally ever race of people that have ever existed on this planet have been slaves to another at some point in history and most of them have overlapping time frames with other races.
And this is never talked about.
Adolph hitler was an animal rights advocate who banned the live boiling of lobsters.
There are books in the Harvard University library which are bound in human flesh
One is titled : "How to cover a book in human skin and get away with it"
The US Government has a literal gigantic dossier of classified operations hidden from the public, no brainer. What's shocking are things they've actually declassified.
Among these documents is the detailing of one of the largest human experiments in history, when the US dropped a bacteria-infused fog on the city of San Francisco to test how well "germ-based" biological warfare could prove by masking it with natural fog, which occurred back in the 1950s.
It was widely successful. A specific case is that of Edward Nevin, who passed away from Serratia marcescens, a bacteria that makes bread turn red. It had spread to his heart from a UTI and he passed away
In 1977, the government released a thoroughly detailed report at the testament of Nevin's grandson. Nevin's grandson tried to sue the government for wrongful death, but the court held that the government was immune to a lawsuit for negligence and that they were justified in conducting tests without subjects' knowledge. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Army stated that infections must have occurred inside the hospital and the US Attorney argued that they had to conduct tests in a populated area to see how a biological agent would affect that area.
Imagine what they're hiding.
Gee, you mean nations commit horrible atrocities even on their own citizens? Gasp, shock, faint ----- and, yes, that was sarcasm.
Some ancient cultures knew that they could control population growth by denying fertile females both fats and carbohydrates. This process guaranteed that embryos would not mature in the womb due to the lack of food energy derived from carrying mothers. The embryos would self-abort. A certain ratio of body fat is required for successful pregnancies.
There are more people in slavery today than at any other time in history.
here's a list: As of 2018, the countries with the most slaves were: India (18.4 million), China (3.86 million), Pakistan (3.19 million), North Korea (2.64 million), Nigeria (1.39 million), Indonesia (1.22 million), Democratic Republic of the Congo (1 million), Russia (794,000) and the Philippines (784,000).
That we've been on the brink of a global nuclear exchange several times. And that in one case (Cuban blockade), it was only because a single man (Vasily Arkhipov), disagreed with standing orders, that a nuclear exchange was likely averted.
Due to Fresh drinking water being so scarce on the Galápagos Islands, some bird species, such as the Galapagos Hawk, have adapted by drinking the blood of other animals.
Cleopatra lived closer to the moon landing than to the building of the pyramids.
That’s insane. I remember watching Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon.
From the fall of the Roman empire up until the mid 19th century, not a single city in Europe had a sewer system to dispose of human feces.
City planners didn't build sewers until it was proven in 1855 that the cause for all the cholera epidemics was drinking water contaminated by human feces.
The Mayans partied hard. They would take alcohol and hallucinogenic enemas.
In Social Studies they had us watch a special on them and I vividly remember an artists rendering of a Mayan doing a handstand while getting an enema.
The original keg-stand.
Russia still has not recovered its population prior to WWII
Ireland hasn't recovered from the potatoes famine. There were 8 million in Ireland in 1841, now there are about 6.
Up until the early 1980s doctors did not think newborn babies could feel pain. They didn't use anesthetic only used muscle relaxers on newborns.
I will never stip being shocked at the idiocy of doctors. Anybody with half a neuron knows that they feel pain. Since they show it. There was no reason to think otherwise except laziness
It was also 'easier' to assume no pain. You could perform cool operations and not feel bad about the results.
Load More Replies...I have encountered many physicians and nurses that are convinced that mentally handicapped people do not feel pain. It made me sick to hear that for the first time.
As someone with a special needs nephew, I can state unequivocally that this assumption is most decidedly untrue
Load More Replies...All those babies circumcised without anaesthesia. They use it now, but it's still a fairly recent addition to the procedure.
People still think that its ok to cut off a piece of a newborn. Thats so fkd up. Poor baby girls and boys. Stupid decisions.
Load More Replies...Back in 19th century, it was common belief that black people did not feel pain as much as white people. Probably made up to support racist ideology and justify slavery? Apparently there are still people who believe it now, even though anyone can see it's not true.
Partly for torture. Black women were subject to painful gynecological surgeries and experimentation by "the father of gynecology" without anesthesia. Black people are most numerous sufferers of sickle cell disease, a very painful disease, and docs and nurses are taught to see these patients as drug-seekers and that they exaggerate their pain. Studies have been done that whites are given more and stronger pain meds than blacks who rate their pain the same level for the same conditions. Its so sick. We are literally ALL the same. Every race. Every color. All human. All bleed red. All feel pain.
Load More Replies...I actually knew this and i still cant figure out why they thought that.
I had profs from that era and it came up in a course Q&A. His answer (the old fart) was "Well, that's what we were taught"... Given his age, he learned it in the 1950s. So who taught him? No idea. And this is why you ask a lot of questions.
Load More Replies...I'm sure there are many misconceptions today too we will find unbelieveable stupid in the future.
The same still applies when it comes to animals. A lot of people don't believe (or want to believe) that they feel pain just as humans do, and that justifies whatever horrendous things humans do to animals.
Finally someone mentions THAT! I was reading these comments and kept thinking - hey, anyone giving thoughts about other creatures???? We humans are not the only ones... but obviously the most stupid ones
Load More Replies...I refused to have my son circumcised at birth because the nurse told me they don't give any form of anesthesia, they just cut away the skin. That's not okay. This was in 2004.
Same here. Although at 18 months, he has to have it removed because of kidney and bladder issues. But he was put under general anesthesia. I couldn't fathom having it done without. I just thought that is ridiculous and how a doctor could believe that. They scream when they get shots, have blood draws etc etc
Load More Replies...There is only one group of animals that cannot feel pain. That is sponges. Every other animal - from elephants to fish to lobsters to fleas to intestinal worms - have a fully developed system for nociception. Fear and pain are the two mechanisms that animals use to avoid danger. It would be an evolutionary miracle for a conscious, mobile creature to survive without these mechanisms. It's why C**A (a disorder in humans in which they cannot feel pain) is considered such a dangerous disease. The people that claim this make up whatever anti-science and anti-logic bullshit they want to justify animal cruelty. Don't believe it. It drives me insane!
Load More Replies...I was a nurse in a newborn nursery and witnessed to agony of the male babies when they were circumcised without pain meds or anesthesia. I refused to have my two boys circumcised.
I worked in the birthing center of a hospital. Watching little boys being circumcised was traumatic, to say the least. 6 hours old and this boy is strapped to a "form" with a "c-bell" around the top of his penis. The Doc comes over and removes his foreskin, while the kid is screaming bloody murder. Don't try to tell me newborns don't feel pain. They just don't remember it.
Up until TODAY drs think gyno procedures are painless or that women don't feel pain in their reproductive organs. Also no anesthetic is used for DIU implantation, cervix biopsies or colonscopies.., among others...
This is a, but not the main reason I don't use ta**ons. [The main being I have ptsd so.].
Load More Replies...My mom was a caretaker for seriously brain damaged adults in the 90s. One of her residents (who was nonverbal and had the mental capacity of an infant) fell and required stitches at one point. The doctor didn't give her any numbing medication during or pain relievers afterward. I was only 10 at the time and was absolutely appalled that a doctor would treat someone like that.
Yup. I had major-life saving surgery when I was 6 months old. I'm currently using EMDR to overcome the trauma.
My guess is, they were afraid of testing the correct amount of anesthetic (really difficult for low body mass subjects) and by saying "they don't feel pain" they were avoiding discussions with parents and lawsuits over overdosed anesthetics at the same time...
My son was circumcised when he was a couple days old and he felt it. He hated it, and he let everybody know it too. That was in the hospital!
I think that was the philosophy Hitler used when he had babies and small children thrown into the gas chambers alive
See I had an operation when I was born in 1985 and I'm in Australia and I was actually curious if I was one of them, but according to my mother, I was not.
Maybe they were trying to be safe. From what I know, anaesthesia carries risks. (PS: I do not have much knowledge on the subject)
All you have to do to refute that theory is to pinch a baby. You don't even have to pinch it very hard. That child will let you know.
Don’t be too shocked. Deliberate ignorance still walks the earth. One of Trumps cronies believes that a woman who is raped can just decide to not get pregnant. Not by means of an abortion, but simply because her uterus knows that sperm was rape sperm, so she just decides “No”. So rape all you want guys! If she gets pregnant it’s because she wanted to. 😐. Science. Mmiright.
To the people saying this is fake, it's really not. I was born - and underwent several surgeries as a baby - only a couple of years after it became commonplace to use anesthesia and pain relief in infants. There was no screaming or thrashing because the infant was still given a paralytic (which is common in surgeries to stop patients shifting in their sleep). Anaesthesia in infants only became commonplace when it was shown that those not given anesthetic were much fussier afterward and had much longer recovery times than those who were given anesthetic. I was only a couple of years away from having my ribcage cracked open and my heart cut and played with while fully conscious, which my doctors had done to many of their previous patients. It is a horrifying thought.
Another way of thinking was that babies and toddlers felt pain, but that they wouldn't *remember* it soon later, so it didn't matter. In the late 70s I almost got an eye procedure done to me without anesthesia or sedation because of this belief. (The procedure was stopped by my mother who couldn't stand to hear my panicked screaming and rushed to halt the operation.)
Male doctors think that newborns, kids, females were inferior to perfect male form, and so they acted accordingly FOR CENTURIES.
This is actually a misconception. They knew babies felt pain, but believed that anesthesia was more dangerous than the pain.
I wonder what the docs were thinking when the poor babies started screaming??? :'(
The babies were still given paralytics to keep them still (common practice for surgeries).
Load More Replies...You're right. It's very sad that anyone would down vote the truth. People actually think that babies can't feel pain. Even when being aborted? They can and it's very obvious by the down votes that people are not willing to admit or talk about it. Which is sad. I'm all for choosing whatever you want. But to lie or act like pain is not involved in it is just wrong and I will never understand why anyone would lie or deny it?
Load More Replies...Fetal pain perception starts at around 24 weeks gestation. https://www.acog.org/advocacy/facts-are-important/fetal-pain
Load More Replies...Rainbow Valley of Mount Everest is named for the rainbow colors of clothing of passed away people there
Spartans bathed their newborn babies in red wine instead of warm water
And the babies slept very quietly after their baths! But seriously, water was often contaminated in the ancient world, and alcohol killed bacteria so it might actually have been a good idea. Did you know that Roman army was able to conquer much of the known world because they carried huge vats of low-quality wine and mixed it with whatever drinking water they found? It killed enough pathenogenic microbia that the armies didn't get sick en masse in dubious areas.
The United States injected unknowing Puerto Rican’s with cancer cells to see how the illness worked
In the Tuskegee Study, the U.S. government injected African Americans with syphilis so that they could find how it spreads and works its way through the body. And they just left them infected rather than giving them penicillin afterwards.
The founding fathers of the USA didn't know dinosaurs existed.
And it took even longer from that point to now to work out that we still have dinosaurs in the form of birds and reptiles.
The ability to tell time (circadian rythm) is an evolutionary reaponse.
Cells that learned to replicate at night and rest during the day ultimately survived.
I'm bastardizing it but I find that amazing.
One way that chronobiologists and sleep researchers have used to identify and study circadian rhythms is to spend extended periods isolated from natural light, temperature fluctuations, or other stimuli that could signal the time of day. Today, some laboratories have special facilities to achieve this isolation, but early researchers used caves. Nathaniel Kleitman conducted the first cave experiment in 1938 when he and a graduate student spent 32 days isolated from the outside world in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. The researchers imposed a 28-hour cycle on themselves consisting of ten hours of work, nine of leisure, and another nine hours of sleep. Bedtime shifted four hours later each day during the Mammoth Cave study. Despite the alternative schedule and the absence of external cues, Kleitman found that body temperature continued to fluctuate in an approximately 24-hour cycle, suggesting the existence of an endogenous clock.
If you lined up this history of earth on a 12 hour clock, modern humans making an impact on the planet would be about 1/10 of a second ago.
Adolf Hitler was saved from drowning at age nine in a fountain by a priest
Not so much disturbing as it is funny (at least to me).
The Kettle War. Long story short, Spain (The Holy Roman Empire) and the Netherlands (The Seven Republics of the Netherlands) were beefing. One boat from Spain engaged in a fight with a Dutch naval ship. One shot was fired. The only victim of that cannonball was a pot of soup that was cooking. The Spanish ship then surrendered.
Ireland exported potato’s during the great potato famine.
Someone won a Nobel Prize by doing large-scale research on large historical and current famines, and found the same pattern in every one: There was always enough food to feed everyone, but in a famine, large numbers of people just had no access to the food. They were either deprived of food, or weren't given enough resources to afford food.
That in UK, some time in the 12th century, two children of unusual GREEN skin colour appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, England.
The girl later communicated she and her brother had come from Saint Martin's Land, a subterranean world inhabited by green people. This actually happened!
The baltic states conquest was buried in history (not many people know it) because ww2 and the holocaust happened at about the same time.
The Germans smuggling Lenin into Tsarist Russia, to bring it down.
imagine like being putting your luggage through the scanner at the airport and inside they find trotsky
Ho chi minh was an OSS intelligence asset during the Japanese occupation of Indochina. He was almost executed by nationalist Chinese in 1943 for promoting Leninist teachings in southern China; until Washington threatened to withdraw American support for Chiangs kai shek. You made the man what he was and gave him the resources to throw off the Japanese, French and Americans.
He was also present in Versailles in 1919 as they were drawing up the treaty to decide Germany's fate. There is a photo of a dinner being held and he is one of the waiters in the picture.
I find it disturbing that there have been multiple natural disasters that have cause mass extinctions.
Why is this disturbing to you? What I find disturbing is that we’re going through another mass extinction now and we’re the ones doing it. Rhinos, elephants, whales. Most megafauna will be dead by the end of this century, and it’ll be the humans that brought it about.
I usually like this type of lists but this one is seriously lacking credible sources and some entries are downright false.
I always have this thing that if I find it interesting, I look it up to find out more about it. Cleopatra and the Dutch eating their prime-minister for instance. And those seem to check out. The latter a little less click baity as it is put there, but still very gruesome. The not anesthesising babies is sadly true. Homeless people still having jobs is a fact that's easily checked (not every homeless person is carless or roofless). And the rest just didn't really resonate. I mean, someone saved Hitler from drowning? Yeah. Well. Great. Whether it's true or not, it doesn't impact history.
Load More Replies...The only thing that stood out from this article was the appalling spelling mistakes.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Clouds of radiation were released and the Pacific water was contaminated. The US had Navy ships that went through the radiation contaminated clouds. We had a family friend whose son was on one of those ships.
With all these very modern government experiments and deprivation of their subjects, it amazed me that people today actually trust their politicians and will argue that the government knows what's best. Their advisors know what's best. Behind every despotic action in history is a scientist Dr type with a god complex to justify atrocities and societal breakdown
In fairness, it would be nice to have a post where people shared all of the accomplishments and advances from world history.
I usually like this type of lists but this one is seriously lacking credible sources and some entries are downright false.
I always have this thing that if I find it interesting, I look it up to find out more about it. Cleopatra and the Dutch eating their prime-minister for instance. And those seem to check out. The latter a little less click baity as it is put there, but still very gruesome. The not anesthesising babies is sadly true. Homeless people still having jobs is a fact that's easily checked (not every homeless person is carless or roofless). And the rest just didn't really resonate. I mean, someone saved Hitler from drowning? Yeah. Well. Great. Whether it's true or not, it doesn't impact history.
Load More Replies...The only thing that stood out from this article was the appalling spelling mistakes.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Clouds of radiation were released and the Pacific water was contaminated. The US had Navy ships that went through the radiation contaminated clouds. We had a family friend whose son was on one of those ships.
With all these very modern government experiments and deprivation of their subjects, it amazed me that people today actually trust their politicians and will argue that the government knows what's best. Their advisors know what's best. Behind every despotic action in history is a scientist Dr type with a god complex to justify atrocities and societal breakdown
In fairness, it would be nice to have a post where people shared all of the accomplishments and advances from world history.