ADVERTISEMENT

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.

More info: Reddit

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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

VeseliM , Lars Larsson Report

Final score:
326points
Add photo comments
POST
leodomitrix avatar
Leo Domitrix
Leo Domitrix
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Incest --- a game the whole family can play" (attributed to Cicero)

Vote comment up
56
56points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#2

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 40% of all homeless people in America still goes to work every day

Flutfar , (Mick Baker)rooster Report

Final score:
314points
Add photo comments
POST
jmscargill avatar
Scagsy
Scagsy
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And if that isn't a reflection on a broken society, I don't know what is.

Vote comment up
369
369points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#3

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

KnightofDis , muammerokumus Report

Final score:
310points
Add photo comments
POST
andreavilarmelego avatar
Ozacoter
Ozacoter
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly. In medieval spain the moors in Al Andalus actually prefered blond germanic slaves. So much that the word slave in spanish (and likely in english) "esclavo" comes from "eslavo" (as in an slavic person)

Vote comment up
137
137points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#4

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Australia went to war with Emus. The Emus won.

LuinAelin , Ed Dunens Report

Final score:
309points
Add photo comments
POST
harlequin avatar
Xottel
Xottel
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There were no human casualties. The "army" just retreated eventually.

Vote comment up
95
95points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#5

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Adolph hitler was an animal rights advocate who banned the live boiling of lobsters.

TommyHawking , Chloe Media Report

Final score:
240points
Add photo comments
POST
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#6

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Sharks have been around longer than trees.

truthsayer2021 , Andrew Kuchling Report

Final score:
235points
Add photo comments
POST
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#7

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group There are books in the Harvard University library which are bound in human flesh

Flaky_Sandwich9353 , Gord Webster Report

Final score:
222points
Add photo comments
POST
nicolasschirvel avatar
Nicolas Schirvel
Nicolas Schirvel
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One is titled : "How to cover a book in human skin and get away with it"

Vote comment up
165
165points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#8

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

Shirozaru , Ben Schumin Report

Final score:
221points
Add photo comments
POST
leodomitrix avatar
Leo Domitrix
Leo Domitrix
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Gee, you mean nations commit horrible atrocities even on their own citizens? Gasp, shock, faint ----- and, yes, that was sarcasm.

Vote comment up
118
118points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
#9

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

NagromTrebloc , Gideon Report

Final score:
215points
Add photo comments
POST
vickyz avatar
Vicky Z
Vicky Z
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Controlling women's wombs for thousands of years and still nothing has changed

Vote comment up
340
340points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#10

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group There are more people in slavery today than at any other time in history.

aljoharaalfayez , Nicolas Sanguinetti Report

Final score:
206points
Add photo comments
POST
bbarb918 avatar
Barbara L Bristow
Barbara L Bristow
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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).

Vote comment up
138
138points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#11

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

Madjack66 , IAEA Imagebank Report

Final score:
202points
Add photo comments
POST
vickyz avatar
Vicky Z
Vicky Z
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The fact that some critical decisions that will affect the whole humanity are on the hands of a few people, is scary

Vote comment up
149
149points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#12

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

Johndoe448 , Paul Krawczuk Report

Final score:
202points
Add photo comments
POST
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#13

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Cleopatra lived closer to the moon landing than to the building of the pyramids.

Dragonwithamonocle , Ivan Radic Report

Final score:
197points
Add photo comments
POST
mrkette avatar
Mary Rose Kent
Mary Rose Kent
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That’s insane. I remember watching Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon.

Vote comment up
53
53points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#14

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

PhilippTheSmartass , Steve Snodgrass Report

Final score:
186points
Add photo comments
POST
robert-thornburrow avatar
Robert T
Robert T
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

TIL how to spell Bazalgette. Always sounded like it should be Basiljet to me. First modern sewer system was in London, before that the River Thames was the sewer!

Vote comment up
49
49points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#15

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

Riff_Moranis , amber.kennedy Report

Final score:
180points
Add photo comments
POST
andreavilarmelego avatar
Ozacoter
Ozacoter
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They also had a violent empire that had slavery and conquered, raped and pillaged their neighbours. Which is completely normal for the time. But everybody talks about the europeans as if we were the only ones to commit atrocities

Vote comment up
70
70points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#16

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Russia still has not recovered its population prior to WWII

YNot1989 , Pedro Szekely Report

Final score:
173points
Add photo comments
POST
timpillinger avatar
Tim Pillinger
Tim Pillinger
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ireland hasn't recovered from the potatoes famine. There were 8 million in Ireland in 1841, now there are about 6.

Vote comment up
174
174points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#17

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

mukelynnvinton , Kelly Roselle Report

Final score:
165points
Add photo comments
POST
andreavilarmelego avatar
Ozacoter
Ozacoter
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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

Vote comment up
208
208points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#18

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Rainbow Valley of Mount Everest is named for the rainbow colors of clothing of passed away people there

Ryukotaicho , Sean MacEntee Report

Final score:
156points
Add photo comments
POST
piirating avatar
Thistle
Thistle
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

oh yeah i've heard of this, there were a lot of people that died there...

Vote comment up
26
26points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#19

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Spartans bathed their newborn babies in red wine instead of warm water

FireyorLeafy , Daniella Segura Report

Final score:
145points
Add photo comments
POST
donotreplytokjk avatar
Otter
Otter
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

Vote comment up
219
219points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#20

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The United States injected unknowing Puerto Rican’s with cancer cells to see how the illness worked

captnslog97 , Lorie Shaull Report

Final score:
138points
Add photo comments
POST
mrkette avatar
Mary Rose Kent
Mary Rose Kent
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

Vote comment up
145
145points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#21

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The Dutch once ate their Prime Minister.

ioconnor94 , waferboard Report

Final score:
137points
Add photo comments
POST
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#22

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The founding fathers of the USA didn't know dinosaurs existed.

yuwannano , David Kryzaniak Report

Final score:
137points
Add photo comments
POST
mrkette avatar
Mary Rose Kent
Mary Rose Kent
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

Vote comment up
71
71points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#23

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

ok-MTLmunchies , vastfield Report

Final score:
133points
Add photo comments
POST
elijahrockwell avatar
Eli Rockwell
Eli Rockwell
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

Vote comment up
46
46points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#24

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

Doc580 , Neil Turner Report

Final score:
125points
Add photo comments
POST
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#25

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Adolf Hitler was saved from drowning at age nine in a fountain by a priest

DrySky8514 , Mauro Girotto Report

Final score:
114points
Add photo comments
POST
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#26

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

ImANuckleChut , Jonas Bengtsson Report

Final score:
114points
Add photo comments
POST
andreavilarmelego avatar
Ozacoter
Ozacoter
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not correct. Spain was never part of the Holy Roman Empire. But we shared leaders.

Vote comment up
47
47points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#27

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Ireland exported potato’s during the great potato famine.

CategoryTurbulent114 , Bryan Alexander Report

Final score:
107points
Add photo comments
POST
donotreplytokjk avatar
Otter
Otter
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

Vote comment up
171
171points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#28

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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!

Mulks23 , Ines Hegedus-Garcia Report

Final score:
98points
Add photo comments
POST
neondisco avatar
NeonDisco
NeonDisco
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's a folklore story passed down generations, like the Bible but believable.

Vote comment up
72
72points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#29

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The baltic states conquest was buried in history (not many people know it) because ww2 and the holocaust happened at about the same time.

TayoDaAsian , www.twin-loc.fr Report

Final score:
97points
Add photo comments
POST
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#30

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The Germans smuggling Lenin into Tsarist Russia, to bring it down.

willubemyfriendo , 7C0 Report

Final score:
75points
Add photo comments
POST
baconycakes1337 avatar
Bacony Cakes
Bacony Cakes
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

imagine like being putting your luggage through the scanner at the airport and inside they find trotsky

Vote comment up
63
63points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#31

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 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.

samuelson098 , Unknown Report

Final score:
38points
Add photo comments
POST
wookiee74 avatar
Chewie Baron
Chewie Baron
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

Vote comment up
10
10points
Vote comment down
reply
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#32

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group I find it disturbing that there have been multiple natural disasters that have cause mass extinctions.

Lunar_denizen , Mike Beauregard Report

Final score:
32points
Add photo comments
POST
mrkette avatar
Mary Rose Kent
Mary Rose Kent
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

Vote comment up
52
52points
Vote comment down
reply
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu
#33

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The Dulles brothers were at the Treaty of Versailles.

bsmisko , Levan Ramishvili Report

Final score:
19points
Add photo comments
POST
View More Replies... View more commentsArrow down menu

Anyone can write on Bored Panda. Start writing!

Follow Bored Panda on Google News!