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45 Historical Tidbits That, Like Your Partner in a Heated Spat, Just Love to Drum Up the Past

You would bring these up wouldn’t you, History?!?!

45 Historical Tidbits That, Like Your Partner in a Heated Spat, Just Love to Drum Up the Past

October 05, 2024

We get it, History. You happened. So you don’t need to chime in every two seconds with a billion memories. It comes off as a little needy. Yes, we talk about the present and the future once in a while, but like it or not, they’re part of the overall timeline too.

You know what? Since your confidence clearly needs a little boost today, here are some of your weird and random happenings to prove that you’re always on our minds.

Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.

45

A war almost started in 1579 over the omission of a bear penis on a coat of arms. D GRACKED.COM The bear in the coat of arms of Appenzell, Swit- zerland, is represented with a visible penis, but a calendar printer in Saint Gallen left it out by acci- dent, enraging the North- east canton. — Source

44

One portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls was determined to be a treasure map. W snake island treasure smalt pay S lake of shadows dragon mountains black lake irate bay CRACKED.COM Found in 1952, the copper scroll was not a literary work like the others, in- stead it listed the locations of valuable treasure like silver and gold that have been buried or hidden. — Source

43

Hitler granted his childhood doctor, Eduard Bloch, special protection by the Gestapo. CRACKED.COM When Hitler's mother couldn't afford cancer treat- ment, Bloch reduced his prices. Teenage Adolf de- clared undying gratitude, and when Austria was an- nexed, Hitler kept his word to the Jewish doctor. — Source

42

Jean-Paul Sartre declined his Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964. GRACKED COM Не said, a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution. Не consistently declined all other such official hon- ors people tried to grant him over the years. — Source

41

The ancient Olympics always had a sacrifice for Zeus. CRACKED.COM The third day of the an- cient Olympic Games be- gan with a team of priests slaughtering 100 bulls. The thighs were burned, and the rest was served in the victory banquet. — Source

40

The original live action Dumbledore, Richard Harris, was a charting musician. CRACKED.COM Не had a hit single back in the 1960s with the song MacArthur Park, which managed to reach number four on the UK charts and number two on the Billboard Hot 100. — Source

39

The third founder of Apple, Ronald Wayne, left after less than two weeks. non Tour PUS Bus Just 11 days after helping found Apple, he sold his 10% stake in the company for $800, and within a year would receive another $1,500 to agree to forfeit all claims to the company when it was converted to a corporation. — Source

38

The first phase of the Hundred Years' War was ended by a hail storm. GRACKED.COM Called Black Monday, a hail storm killed an estimated 1,000 English soldiers in Chartres, France in 1360. King Edward of England con- sidered it a sign from God and soon after he signed the Treaty of Bretigny. — Source

37

An American gymnast competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics with a wooden leg. CRACKED.COM George Eyser won six med- als: 3 gold in long horse vault, 25 ft. rope climb, and parallel bars; two silver in the 4-event all-around and pommel horse, and one bronze medal in the hori- zontal bar. — Source

36

The Titanic's captain was indirectly responsible for the disaster. The Titanic's captain, Ed- ward Smith, was first the captain of the Olympic when it collided with a warship, the repairs of which delayed Titanic's maiden voyage that ended in catastrophe. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

35

A restaurant at Wall Street operated on the honor system. a DE 3000 OI The Exchange Buffet ran successfully from 1885 to 1963 and oper- ated on the honor sys- tem, where customers would tally their own bills. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

34

Uncle Sam was given a wife in the 1920s that had a radio show. Aunt Sammy was created by the US Dept of Agriculture as a radio show for farm wives, and would gossip about social activities & gardening. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

33

Egyptians liked to mummify animals so much, they almost made some extinct. And if anyone objected, they probably wouldn't have got it - to them, mummification was a great honor. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

32

The epic bank heists you see in Westerns almost never actually happened. BANK BANK S DOLLAR There were fewer bank robberies in a roughly 40-year span in 15 states in the Old West than there are in a year in modern-day Dayton, он. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

31

The standard pop culture pirate flag is actually just one guy's personal flag. It belonged to John Calico Jack Rackham, who had a pretty uneventful two-year pirate career. His only lasting influence is, well, that flag. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

30

Dinosaurs - at least some of them- laid eggs that were colored. Which is surprising, because scientists thought colored eggs only appeared once birds showed up - - but that's apparently not the case. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

29

The Statue of Liberty almost had a massive phonograph installed inside. That was Thomas Edison's idea, when the statue was still being planned - he wanted to broadcast speeches through the entire bay. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

28

NASA's first woman astronaut was asked some truly ridiculous questions. JTCS AND For example, NASA engineers assumed Sally Ride would want a makeup kit in space, so they asked for her help in developing it. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Mao Zedong initiated a campaign to crack down on people with the wrong opinions. CRACKED.COM In the Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao Zedong in- vited people to openly ex- press their opinions and have free discussions. Once this happened, he cracked down on those who said the wrong things. — Source

26

Sharks have been around longer than trees have. Sharks started popping up about 450 million years ago, while trees showed up 100 million years later. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

In 1969, Pat Sajak cut off Nixon to play Christmas music. Nixon made a very long pause in a Christmas speech to the troops in Vietnam, so Sajak cut off the broadcast and put on some music. When Nixon resumed talking, Sajak just left the music on, thinking soldiers would rather listen to that than the President. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

In the 17th century, coffee was thought to make men impotent. At one point, in an attempt to restore their husbands' virility, a bunch of London women petitioned against coffee houses. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Russian prisoners tattooed images of Lenin and Stalin as protective amulets. While the USSR existed, some prisoners believed guards weren't allowed to shoot Lenin's and Stalin's faces, so they got those tattooed on their chests. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

22

During the 1930s, weekends were abolished in Russia (and the whole USSR). The new calendar had days of rest scattered kind of randomly, and those days were different for different groups of workers. The scheme was nixed in 1940. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

21

President James Monroe and his Treasury Secretary dueled with fireplace tongs and a cane. During a contentious White House meeting, Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford became so angry at President James Monroe that he began whipping his cane at the President, forcing Monroe to use fireplace tongs to defend himself. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

A corned beef sandwich was smuggled into space. Astronaut John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich into space aboard the Gemini 3 mission. Не hid the sandwich in his spacesuit pocket and shared it with the other crew members. NASA banned smuggled sandwiches from future missions. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Aluminum became more precious than gold and silver in the 19th century, because it was harder to obtain. The French government once displayed Fort Knox-like aluminum bars next to the crown jewels, and the minor emperor Napoleon III reserved a prized set of aluminum cutlery for special guests at banquets. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

British parliament debated a resolution for bankers to be sewn into sacks with snakes and dumped into the Thames river. One of the first recognisably modern financial crises was the South Sea Bubble in 1720. Many thousands of British citizens, including Sir Isaac Newton, invested their savings in a scam and were impoverished when it burst. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

In the years preceding the French Revolution, the price of bread cost 88% of a laborer's income. The average 18th-century worker spent half his daily wage on bread. But when the grain crops failed two years in a row, the price of bread shot up to 88 percent of his wages. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Greek and Roman sculptures were painted in bright colors The pigments have faded over time. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

15

The hand of the Statue of Liberty sat in an NYC park for six years. They sent the hand (with the torch) to be displayed in the US to raise the funds needed for finishing the statue - it took years, but it worked. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

14

It turns out that dinosaurs could get arthritis, too, the same way we do. That's what multiple studies say - and, for example, a T-Rex found in 1990 (nicknamed Sue) might have been suffering from gout. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

13

A surprisingly high number of 18th-century pirates were actually from Africa. The reason for that is pretty simple - a pirate ship was one of the few places at that time where a slave could actually free themselves. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Ancient Egyptians mummified cats SO they could follow people in death. Plus, cats represented gods, and gods were happy to get, uh, offerings of cats. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

11

The first female state senator to be elected in the United States ran against her own husband. GRAGKED.COM Martha Hughes Cannon was a Mormon polygamous wife, earned four degrees by age 25, opened a private prac- tice, was a suffragist, and beat her husband to be a Utah State Senator in 1896. — Source

10

In 1978, Australian pilot Frederick Valentich and his plane disappeared during a supposed UFO encounter. CRACKED COM His last communication was Melbourne, that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again... (two seconds open micro- phone)... it is hovering and it's not an aircraft... — Source

9

America's First Bank Robbery was nearly the perfect crime. DAY GRACKED COM $162,821 ($3.8 million to- day) had been taken from vaults of the Bank of Penn- sylvania in 1798. The cul- prit Isaac Davis was caught because he deposited the money back into the same bank. — Source

8

There was a futuristic floating McDonald's on a barge in Canada way back in 1986. It was set up for the 1986 World Expo in Vancouver, and orders were brought out on a conveyor belt. But after the Expo, it was left to rot for years. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

RADIO FAX Hendensato CRACKEDC Back in the '30s, companies sent newspapers into people's homes wirelessly, using radio and fax machines. Instant news b — Source: Smithsonian

6

Back in the day, Jamaica used to be the base of operations for Jewish pirates. Today, if you go to Kingston's Hunts Bay Cemetery, you can find tombstones that have the skull and crossbones sign plus Hebrew text. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Butter used to be associated with witches in Ireland back in the day. BUTTER 1 FIRST QUALITY 1 NET WT. 4OZ. (113g) BUTTER Butter was used in Celtic pagan rituals, 1/2 CUP START MEASURE HERE 1/4 CUP-> 1/3 CUP-7 and also, a witch could steal a neighbor's لم ESPOON MEASURE: 7 8 6 4 5 3 butter luck using magic. ABELED FOR RETAIL SALE CRACKED.COM NOW YOU KNOW — Source

4

Man, politics were brutal back in the day.

CRACKED THOMAS JEFFERSON CALLED JOHN ADAMS AN UGLY HERMAPHRODITE. Jefferson hired journalist James Callender to write nasties about Adams, so he went all out and wrote that Adams was a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman. — Merriam Webster / Time

3

Bill Nye got his break into the entertainment industry by winning a Steve Martin look-alike contest in 1978. This was after being reject- ed to join NASA's astro- naut training program in the late 1970s four times, where he stumbled into a new career path that launched his career into stardom. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

2

WHAT'S THE DEAL: HISTORY OF A/C The World's Air CRACKED CO CON Carrier saw the potential and continued to refine his system. The first public mass exhibition of the technology was at the 1904 World's Fair. Which was also where many people experienced their first hamburger. Big day for the USA. — Source: Energy.gov

1

ITALIAN COMMANDER IGNORES WWII FOR MUSIC 1940 Gen. Soddu Out as Chief II of Italy's Albanian Army it W CRACKED.co Italian General Ubaldo Soddu had a bigger appetite for pasta than war; for his entire 4 week career as General, Soddu would retire to his tent early to compose music for imaginary movies while a World War raged on outside. The defeats under General Soddu led Mussolini to call on Hitler for support, delaying the German invasion of Russia, which ultimately ended with a victory for the Allies. — More: 5 Slapstick Failures by Modern Military Commanders

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