No matter how real they are, some history facts are hard to believe since they seem too ridiculous to be true.
1. In 2015-16 New Zealand voted for a new flag for the country and the highest votes went to an image of a kiwi firing lasers from it’s eyes.
The flag was created by Lucy Gray in 2015 as a proposed flag of New Zealand. Don’t believe me? Just Google “New Zealand laser kiwi flag.”
2. During WWII, the Russians trained dogs to run under tanks with time bombs attached to their backs but this plan backfired miserably.
When the dogs were set free on the battlefield they ended up turning around and blowing up Russian tanks instead of the German tanks.
3. Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper who killed around 500 Soviet soldiers during the Winter War of 1939, was struck in the jaw by an explosive bullet and was seriously injured but he survived the ordeal.
In fact, he was presumed dead when he was found and thrown onto a pile of dead bodies. But, miraculously, a fellow soldier noticed his leg twitching and that’s how he survived. He lived for 96 years.
4. Charles VIII and Louis III, two kings of France died by smashing their heads on the top part of a door or lintel.
5. William I, the first Norman monarch of England, who reigned from 1066 until his death in 1087 exploded at his own funeral.
6. Jack Daniel (the whiskey distiller) died after an infected stubbed toe.
7. Rick Duggan, a man from New York tracked his friends down during the Vietnam War and went to the combat zone to give them beer and letters from home.
8. A Skylab satellite’s guidance system crash landed in Australia due to technical glitches but, instead of getting the satellite back, Skylab had to pay a $500 littering fine.
9. Bobby Leach became the second person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a large steel barrel but, his death was rather unfortunate.
He died after slipping on an orange peel in 1926.
10. Olga of Kiev, was known for her subjugation of the Drevlians, a tribe that had killed her husband Igor of Kiev. FYI, she was a “saint” in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic church.
After her husband was killed by an opposing tribe, Olga of Kiev buried 20 men alive, burned another 20 alive after she lured them into a bath house and slaughtered 5000 members of the opposing tribes after she got them piss drunk.
11. Some people planned on spiking Hitler’s food with estrogen to try to turn him into a woman and make him give up on the war.
Clearly, no one went ahead with that plan.
12. A century and a half ago, people believed that women’s uteruses would go flying if they rode the train.
13. Chrysippus, a Greek philosopher died from laughing too much which eventually resulted in asphyxiation.
14. President Andrew Jackson had a pet parrot who unfortunately learned too many cuss words from him.
In fact, at Jackson’s funeral, the parrot had to be removed as it wouldn’t stop cussing.
15. In 1969, Honduras and El Salvador had a 3-day long war over a football match.
Existing tensions between the two nations coincided with rioting during a 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifier.
16. King George II was so constipated while taking a poop that his heart physically burst.
He died on the toilet on October 25, 1760 from an aortic dissection.
17. Benjamin Hornigold, a pirate in the late 1600s and early 1700s, robbed a merchant ship because he and his crew wanted hats.
18. A public swimming pool was named after Harold Holt, the 17th PM of Australia, after he allegedly drowned at a beach.
He disappeared while swimming in the sea near Portsea, Victoria. He was presumed dead by drowning in 1967.
19. In 1932, Australia declared war against emus (yup, the bird) and lost.
20. Supposedly, the Titanic look-outs didn’t have binoculars.
It is believed that they had accidentally left them behind in Southhampton, but they were found in a safe onboard.
21. Aeschylus, an ancient author of Greek tragedy, died after an eagle dropped a tortoise on his bald head.
22. In 1518, a woman started dancing for no reason and soon close to 400 people joined her.
23. Carrots don’t actually improve eyesight.
24. Fidel Castro, former PM of Cuba loved milk a lot. So much so, that when his cow, Ubre Blanca, died he got her taxidermied.
He also had a marble statue of her built and a full eulogy and obituary written for her in the state newspaper.
25. In 1184, the floor of a room at the Church of St. Peter collapsed due to the combined weight of a number of nobles who were present for a meeting.
26. Albert Einstein could have become the President of Israel but he turned down the offer.
He turned down the offer in 1952 as he thought he wasn’t qualified for the role.
27. In the early 19th century, a monkey was hanged in Hartlepool, England because people thought it was a French spy.
It is believed that the locals had never seen a monkey or a French person before so they assumed the monkey was ‘speaking’ French. There is also a statue made in honour of the monkey.
28. The US and the UK believed that Hitler’s poor judgement would bring an end to the war quicker.
For this very reason, they dropped many plans of assassinating him.
Fact is often stranger than fiction.
All images sourced from here.