19 Ridiculous Historical Facts That Sound Really Absurd

Some Redditors suggested recalling historical facts that are so unbelievable and absurd that they would look strange even in the context of a fictional story or a movie. And people began to send one fact after another. It turned out that history is full of ridiculous accidents. We offer you finding out the collection of 19 strange historical facts that sound quite ridiculous.

• 1. In 1939, in the USA, some American Nazis hung a sign "No Jews allowed" on the store. A Jew passed by – a short guy (163 cm), seemingly harmless - and tore the sign off.

  The Nazis decided to beat him ... and found out that this was Joseph Greenstein, known as the Mighty Atom, one of the most prominent American strongmen. In short, this is a person who bends horseshoes with his bare hands and drives nails into metal sheets with his palm. Needless to say, after meeting with him, the Nazis found themselves in a very deplorable state.

• 2. Adolf, one of the eleven children of Charles and Mary Sax, had a history of accidents as a child. It is unclear how he even survived to adulthood. At age three, he fell from the third floor to the stone floor below, hitting his head. He accidentally drank a cup of vinegar. He swallowed a large sewing needle.

  He received burns and injuries in his father's workshop when a barrel of gunpowder exploded there. He fell into a hot cast-iron pan and burned his side. He slept in a room where lacquered furniture was drying, but miraculously escaped poisoning and suffocation. He was walking down the street and a piece of tile fell on his head. He fell into the river and nearly drowned. Then this same child, whom some power tried to kill so hard, but still failed, grew up and invented the saxophone.

• 3. How did the marathon at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis take place? The runner who finished first deceived everyone - he drove a car for most of the marathon, and then ran beautifully to the finish line (it was revealed later). The runner who came in second was so high on brandy and rat poison (which he was given as doping) that he could not cross the finish line himself and his trainers picked him up and simply carried him.

  When the First Guy's deception was exposed, the Rat Poison Guy got the gold. The third finalist was not particularly memorable, which is even strange. The fourth was a Cuban postman who raised funds for the Olympics by running around his country. He came to New Orleans and immediately squandered all the money in the casino.

  He participated in the race in classic shoes and long trousers, cut off at the knee length for convenience. And, by the way, this postman would certainly have taken first place if he had not decided to take an hour's nap on the side of the road (after he ate rotten apples that he found there).

  Runners from South Africa took 9th and 12th places. They ran barefoot. In fact, no one sent them to the Olympics, they were students who happened to be in the city, found the event amusing and decided to participate. As for the Guy who occupied the 9th place, angry dogs pursued him for about a kilometer, so he broke away from his friend and accelerated.

  Half of the marathon runners have never done anything like this before. Several people have died. During the entire run in St. Louis, only one stop was organized in order to drink water. Well, the icing on the cake: the Russian delegation arrived at these Games a week late because they were still using the Julian calendar.

• 4. Stalin could have survived the heart attack if he had not shot all the good doctors in the USSR. That’s karma.

• 5. At night, a guy bursts into the house of the Prime Minister of Canada with a knife. He wants to kill the prime minister. The wife hears someone walking up the stairs, trying to wake her husband. He answers her – that’s nonsense, you are mistaken, go to bed! She gets up and goes to check the house - and sees a killer with a knife.

  She grabs an Inuit figurine of a loon and smashes the criminal on the head with all her might. Here the Prime Minister wakes up and runs to help his wife. Just imagine - these are two 60-year-old people, and they beat the crap out of some young guy who is in his twenties. It was later confirmed that this guy had serious mental problems. Less than 5 years later, he was successfully treated for schizophrenia, released from the hospital, and formally apologized to the couple.

• 6. Once the Roman Empire declared war on Neptune, the god of the seas and oceans. It was during the reign of Caligula. He gathered an army, led them to the seashore and ordered them to throw spears and arrows into the water.

• 7. In 1912, there was an attempt to assassinate Theodore Roosevelt. Immediately after the shot, Roosevelt smiled and said he was fine. And then he continued the 90-minute speech - and only after that he went to the hospital.

  It turned out that the bullet was stuck in the pectoral muscle, without hitting the vital organs. It was held up by a steel spectacle case and a 50-page copy of the speech in his breast pocket.

• 8. Have you ever heard of a clown fight with firemen that took place in 1855 in Toronto? Here is how it was. Local firefighters and several clowns from a touring circus got into an argument at a brothel and got into a fight. The clowns have won. The firefighters decided to take revenge, and attacked the circus performers a little later, already at the circus.

  This time the firefighters, who also brought help from among the townspeople, won. And the battle was truly bloody. Since the police withdrew and did nothing to solve the problem, the city authorities eventually fired the entire police office – completely all of them - and recruited a new one.

• 9. Hitler, Tito, Stalin, Trotsky and Freud lived in the same district of Vienna in 1913. This would be the perfect plot for a sitcom.

• 10. The last known killing with a bow in combat was during the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940. Jack Churchill fired an arrow into the chest of a German soldier. Jack also carried bagpipes and a Scottish sword.

• 11. Battle of Caransebes September 17, 1788. The Austrian army, which was waiting for the arrival of the Turkish troops, was effectively dispersed after a few drunken soldiers started a fight, which was soon joined by the rest of the army.

  Losses increased due to false reports of the arrival of the Turks, which led to a mass stampede of the Austrian army from the battlefield. Turkish troops arrived on the battlefield two days later, finding the dead and wounded and a huge amount of supplies there. They did not understand what happened to the Austrian units, but after discovering the positions of the Austrians, they reached Karansebesh quickly and easily took it.

• 12. One day Napoleon was attacked by rabbits. The story goes that in honor of the Treaty of Tilsit, a rabbit hunt was organized and for this purpose almost several thousand animals were collected (or maybe there were several hundred, the data varies). In general, on the day of the hunt, the rabbits were placed in cages around the perimeter of the territory where it was planned to hunt.

  They were released from their cages on the signal, but the rabbits ran straight at the hunters instead of being frightened. At first it seemed funny, but then people had to flee. Napoleon fled from the rabbits in a carriage.

• 13. The British Secret Service created a sabotage device consisting of a dead rat with explosives in its ass. The meaning is the following: the Germans see a dead rat, pick it up with a shovel and throw it into the oven. The explosive ignites and the building explodes. The Nazis would have had to call in sappers every time they saw a dead rat.

• 14. The Spanish conquistadors found platinum while searching for gold and threw it into the sea, because they believed that platinum was inferior to silver.

• 15. During the Second World War, the bear cub Wojtek served in the Polish army. He helped his fellow soldiers, bringing them heavy ammunition and saving the valuable time.

  Bear was recruited as a soldier when his unit was forced to board an English ship that did not allow animals. The indignant Poles quickly made him a soldier. Wojtek survived the war and died of old age at Edinburgh Zoo in 1963.

• 16. Operation Acoustic Kitty. In the 60s, the CIA spent months and tens of millions of dollars on an experiment: a cat was implanted with a special device, and then trained to sit motionless next to people for a long time.

  This was supposed to allow the CIA to eavesdrop on the private conversations of foreign diplomats and other officials. So, the first day of the official trial launch of the project came - the cat was released, she went out into the street and was immediately hit by a taxi.

• 17. During the siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521, Cortes built a trebuchet to save on gunpowder. However, the first projectile fired rose into the air and immediately fell down, completely destroying the gun. This is one of the last recorded military uses of the trebuchet.

• 18. Surgeon Joseph Lister performed an operation in 1851 that resulted in a 300% death rate. He amputated the patient's leg. In the process, he accidentally cut off the fingers of one of his assistants. Both assistant and patient later died of gangrene. And one of the spectators in the surgical theater died of fright.

• 19. The ancient Greek legislator Draco was the author of harsh laws known as "draconian." He was a respected member of society.

  He was loved so much that he died at a celebration in his honor, when the citizens of Greece threw their hats and capes to him - it was an expression of love and respect. However, the crowd threw on so many hats that Draco suffocated under them and died. Most likely, this is folklore, but it sounds beautiful and truly absurd.