History is endlessly interesting and, as the saying goes, you must study the past or you are doomed to repeat it.
Even if you consider yourself a history buff, these fascinating facts may still be completely new to you.
AskReddit users gave us all some interesting history lessons.
1. That’s incredible.
“Abraham Lincoln’s son (Robert Todd Lincoln) was present at three different presidential assassinations.
After McKinley, he decided not to accept any more invitations.”
2. What are the chances?
“In 1895, the entire state of Ohio had only 2 cars.
Both cars managed to still smash into each other.”
3. Wow! That’s kind of crazy.
“The first known political cartoon is Egyptian, and shows Hatshepsut, the only woman pharaoh, pegging her lover and chief architect Senmut.”
4. Don’t mess with Jackson.
“Former US President Andrew Jackson was approached by a man who pulled a gun on him.(smaller history fact this was the first assassination attempt on a US President) The man pulled the trigger and the cap went off but the gunpowder failed to light.
The man pulled a second gun and fired, but the gunpowder again failed to light. The assassin tried to get away, but not before Andrew Jackson got him and beat the shit out of him with a cane.”
5. The whole country.
“The entire country of Malta was awarded the George Cross for its efforts in WWII.
It’s still on their flag.”
6. I wish this would have really happened.
“During the Cold War, there was an idea to drop XL condoms labeled Medium onto the Soviets to make them think we were anatomically superior and be more afraid of fighting us.
Easily my favorite part of American history.”
7. Do you know the capital?
“General Omar Bradley was stopped by MP during the Battle of the Bulge in WW2 due to them thinking he was a Nazi infiltrator.
The irony was that he was stopped because he correctly identified the capital of Illinois as Springfield when the officer thought it was Chicago.”
8. Unbelievable.
“Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, Freud, and Tito were all living in the same area of Vienna in 1913.”
9. Lost at sea.
“In 1967 Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared while swimming in the ocean.
He was presumed drowned, so naturally that year we named a swim centre after him in memoriam.”
10. A crazy story.
“In 1908, there was a car race around the world that started in NYC. The route would start in NYC to San Francisco to Valdez, Alaska, across the Bering Strait, through Russia and Europe, with the finish line in Paris.
Cars were relatively new and road infrastructure was limited to only metropolitan areas and even then, a lot of it was cobbled stone.
But what you might have thought, is how in the world can a car get across the Pacific? Duh, they would drive across the Bering Strait during the winter when it froze into an ice bridge silly!
The race began in Feb 1908 and immediately ran into challenges. To list a few; cars breaking down multiple times, lack of usable roads, car-hating people giving wrong directions and oh yeah, SNOW. The first team reached San Francisco in 41 days. But quickly realized that the proposed route from San Francisco to Alaska did not exist. So the organizers allowed teams to ship their cars to Valdez, Alaska then continue on the Ice Bridge.
Once in Valdez, the teams found out that there is in fact, no ice bridge across the Bering Strait anymore because it melted ~20,000 YEARS AGO. Small oversight.
Organizers then allowed teams to ship their cars across the pacific to Japan then Russia to carry on.
Despite all unpredictable and hilariously predictable odds, the winning team arrived in Paris 169 days later.”
11. I didn’t know that.
“American military members were also killed during the nuclear bombings of Japan.
When American high command was informed of their presence their response was something like:
“Targets remain unchanged.”
12. He already knew.
“Once FDR died, Truman didn’t know about the Manhattan Project, but when he found out he subtly tried to tell Stalin they were working on something big.
Stalin was like “Yeah dude, I knew before you did.” Since he had so many spies in America.”
13. A brutal time.
“During the Viking era, there was a leader named Sigurd. He allied with a Viking warlord named Thorstein. He wanted to conquer more land and expand his territory. He had already been very successful in doing so. This was until he feuded with another leader called Máel Bucktoothed or Máel Tusk, as his front two teeth were abnormally large and bucktoothed.
They decided to settle their matters on the battle field and both agreed on bringing 40 men each for the battle. However, Sigurd ignored the terms and brought 80 men. Bucktoothed had realised he had been betrayed but did not give up. They killed a number of Sigurd’s men, but alas, they were overpowered and were all killed.
Here’s the catch; after the battle, Sigurd ordered his men to behead all the enemies and tie them to their saddles as trophies. However, as Sigurd rode home in victory, the severed head of Bucktoothed pierced his leg, which lead to an infection, killing him soon after.”
14. Not too bright.
“Colombia has a period in history literally called the “Dumb Homeland” period because of how incredibly dumb politicians acted at the time.”
15. American Badass.
“Before Abraham Lincoln became a politician, he was a champion wrestler.
With more than 300 bouts under his belt, Lincoln only lost one match in his career and was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall Of Fame in 1992.”
16. What a coincidence.
“Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day.
July 4th, 1826. The 50th Anniversary of them both signing the declaration of Independence.
Adams’s last words were: “Thomas Jefferson survives.”
He was wrong by about 5 hours.”
Wow, those are very interesting.
Do you know of any fascinating history facts?
Share them with us in the comments!
