29 Fascinating And Surprising Historical Facts That Feel Like They Can't Be True (But Totally Are)
1.The world’s oldest known joke dates back to 1900 BCE in Sumer and it was...a fart joke.
Here it is: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap." I'm thinking the punch line was lost in translation?
(The image above is an example of Sumerian writing from the time period of the fart joke and was recorded for posterity, but it's slightly more sophisticated — it's about medical practices.)
2.Queen Elizabeth I owned over 2,000 pairs of gloves.
It wasn't because she was obsessed with gloves, though. Most of her collection was given to her as diplomatic or political gifts.
3.The Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (where Mexico City now stands) was larger and more sophisticated than many European cities when the Spanish arrived in 1519.
With an estimated population of 200,000–300,000 inhabitants, Tenochtitlan was significantly larger than London (which only had 50,000–70,000 people), and Paris (about 200,000).
Tenochtitlan's infrastructure was better, too, with advanced aqueducts, causeways, floating agricultural fields, and even efficient waste management systems.
The Spaniards' siege and the aftermath all but destroyed the great city that was.
4.In 1518, a "dancing plague" in Strasbourg caused people to dance uncontrollably for days.
It started when a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing uncontrollably. Within days, dozens of others joined her, and the phenomenon grew to involve hundreds of people. The "dancers" seemed unable to stop, with some collapsing or even dying from exhaustion, strokes, or heart attacks.
Why did they do this, you ask? Some conjecture it was a case of mass hysteria, while another theory suggests that the dancers may have ingested bread contaminated with ergot, a toxic fungus. Ergot contains chemicals similar to LSD...so, yeah.
5.The guillotine was used as a method of execution in France until 1977.
France outlawed capital punishment in 1981, officially ending the usage of the guillotine.
6.Ancient Egyptians invented toothpaste over 5,000 years ago.
Their formula was a little different than Colgate's — it included powdered ashes from oxen hooves, myrrh, egg shells, pumice, and water.
7.Marie Curie is the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences (physics and chemistry).
The pioneer in radiology was the first woman, the first double winner, and only in two sciences!
8.In the 19th century, dentures were often made using the teeth of deceased soldiers.
A famous example? Looters, uh, looted the teeth of the thousands of dead soldiers at the Battle of Waterloo and sold them for top dollar.
Real teeth were in such demand, in fact, that many poor people sold their teeth right out of their mouths.
9.Before the Revolutionary War, the American colonies would vote by voice, often at places like carnivals where they may or may not have been drunk by the time voting happened.
To vote, you just called out your choice. As you can imagine, this voting method was very susceptible to corruption!
(I couldn't find an image of pre-Revolutionary War voting, but I thought the one above was interesting — it's a polling booth in 1840s NY!)
10.Ancient Romans used urine as a cleaning agent for laundry.
They didn't have soap back then, so they had to improvise. And, it turns out, stagnant urine was full of ammonia, which we still use to clean today.
11.Ketchup was originally sold as a medicine in the 19th century.
In the 1830s, ketchup was sold as a medicine that could cure indigestion, diarrhea, and even jaundice. While the medicinal claims were later debunked, the condiment caught on. Man, I wish I lived in a time when a bunch of ketchup on fries was considered health food!
12.The original London Bridge is now located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
Entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch bought the bridge in 1968, dismantled it, and then shipped it piece by piece to the US and reconstructed it as a tourist attraction.
13.The first computer programmer was Ada Lovelace in the 19th century.
No, she wasn't programming on a MacBook Air — it was the 1800s — but she became a colleague of Charles Babbage, who had designed a calculating machine and was working on an even more sophisticated one. In working with Babbage and fellow mathematician Luigi Menabrea, Lovelace discovered that these machines could carry out complex sequences of mathematical operations. The example she wrote to demonstrate her idea is regarded as the first ever computer program.
14.The Great Wall of China is not a single continuous wall but a series of interconnected fortifications.
Also, it was built (and rebuilt) over a long period of time, so the sections are often different based on the engineering and military practices of each time.
15.The first known vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria in ancient Egypt to dispense holy water.
It worked a lot like modern vending machines — you inserted a coin, pushed down a lever, and got your soda...I mean holy water!
16.Beethoven continued to compose music even after becoming completely deaf at age 40 (16 years before his death).
Despite being deaf, he still managed to compose one of his most famous symphonies — "Symphony No. 9," aka The Ninth. It goes without saying that it is pretty damn impressive!
17.A common ingredient in medicine until the 20th century was — yuck! — human remains.
The remains were most commonly ground up into a fine powder that could be made into pills or stirred into drinks! People thought that ingesting a certain part of the body would help to cure illnesses in that part of their own body. For example, crushed skull powder was believed to cure headaches.
18.Napoleon Bonaparte was once attacked by a herd of rabbits during a hunting trip.
The story came from the memoirs of French general Baron Thiébault, who said that while on a hunting trip, a herd of rabbits swarmed Napoleon, seemingly mistaking him for a source of food. He was forced to retreat to his carriage to escape the "bunny onslaught."
19.Pablo Picasso’s full name has 20 words.
Here's the name he was baptized with: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano María de los Remedios de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso.
Do you think when his mom was mad at him she called him by his full name?
20.The first human flight was achieved by the Montgolfier brothers in a hot air balloon in 1783.
Talk about brave! The brothers flew 3,000 feet above Paris for a distance of about 5.6 miles. After 25 minutes, the balloon landed safely outside the city.
21.The longest-reigning monarch in history was Louis XIV of France, who ruled for 72 years and 110 days.
How did he manage this? He ascended to the throne at just 4 years of age, and ruled competently enough to avoid any coup attempts.
22.The Eiffel Tower was initially intended to be dismantled after 20 years.
The reason? It was only built as a temporary structure for the 1889 World's Fair (and was only permitted for use until 1909).
The tower survived for different reasons than you're likely imagining. It wasn't because it had become a landmark, but because (at least initially) of its value as a radiotelegraph station.
23.The world’s first recorded police force was established in ancient Egypt around 3000 BCE.
Back then, Egypt was split into 42 jurisdictions, and the pharaoh would appoint an official for each one whose job was to ensure justice and security. Each official had a chief of police he worked with whose title was sab heri seker, or, when translated to English, “chief of the hitters." Sounds like police work hasn't changed much over the years!
24.The shortest war in history, between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896, lasted only 38 minutes.
The war was fought over who should succeed the recently deceased pro-British Sultan. A Prince — Khālid bin Barghash — refused to let the British install another pro-British ruler and occupied the Sultan's palace. But when the Royal Navy fired on the palace, sending it up in flames and killing 500 of Khālid's men, that was pretty much all she wrote.
25.Ancient Greek athletes competed in the nude to honor Zeus and display the human form.
Interestingly, they also did it to allow for ease of movement (this was long before spandex, LOL), and to not give the upper class an advantage by rolling in wearing fancy sporting clothes. Want one more fun fact? Gymnastics is derived from the Greek work "gymnos," meaning naked.
26.The oldest known written laws, the Code of Ur-Nammu, date back to around 2100 BCE.
It was written by a Sumerian king and covered, among other things, protection of property, family law (to divorce, a man was required to pay a kind of spousal support), and punishment for false allegations.
27.The Statue of Liberty was originally intended to represent an Egyptian peasant woman.
The statue’s designer, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, originally envisioned building a colossal monument featuring a robe-clad Egyptian woman to celebrate the inauguration of the Suez Canal in Egypt. But when the Egyptians passed on the idea, Bartholdi pivoted to pitch it for the centennial celebration of the US/French alliance.
28.The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been slowly straightening over the past few decades due to engineering efforts.
Since 1990 — when it was feared the tower was on the verge of collapse — an international team has worked to reverse the lean. Since then, the tower has been straightened by nearly two inches. It doesn't sound like much, but it's made a huge difference!
29.Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952 but declined.
Unsurprisingly, Einstein wanted to continue his career in science, especially considering his political experience was practically zilch.
