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40 Bits of Historical Trivia to Scream From the Back of Your Horse As You Sprint From Charlestown to Lexington in the Middle of the Night

Wow, we sure had to invent a lot of stuff because of guns and bullets, huh?

40 Bits of Historical Trivia to Scream From the Back of Your Horse As You Sprint From Charlestown to Lexington in the Middle of the Night

October 12, 2024

The first-ever special effect in a movie happened in New Jersey, but everyone fuhgedds aboudit.

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Product PLAY-DOH Original WALLPAPER CLEANER Purpose It was a successful wallpaper cleaner until easy-to-clean vinyl wallpapers came into style. The co — Read More: The 5 Most Insane Original Uses For Famous Products

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Product STETHOSCOPE Original TO AVOID TOUCHING A Purpose FEMALE PATIENT'S CHEST The doctor wanted to examine a woman's heartbeat but didn't want to pu — Source: Past Medical History

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Product METAL DETECTOR Original BULLET LOCATER Purpose Alexander Graham Bell (of telephone fame) made the first crude metal detector to (unsuccessfull — Source: Alexander Graham Bell

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Product SILLY PUTTY Original RUBBER SUBSTITUTE Purpose During WW2, the U.S. asked manufacturers to develop a new form of rubber since their supply was — Source: USA Today

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Product CORKSCREWS Original BULLET REMOVER Purpose Bullets used to commonly get stuck in guns, and people needed a safe way to dislodge them, which is — Read More: The 5 Most Insane Original Uses For Famous Products

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40 Bits of Historical Trivia to Scream From the Back of Your Horse As You Sprint From Charlestown to Lexington in the Middle of the Night — Source: 24 Adaptations That Ignored The Source Material

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Product POP ROCKS Original INSTANT SODA Purpose ROxS TASTE TASTE berry ORED ME dberry DED William A. Mitchell was experimenting on an instant soft dri — Source: LA Times

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The Women

Classic Hollywood Movies Original VS. Remake 1939 The Women This comedy-drama with a huge, all-female cast, received great reviews, and is still highly regarded. Its forgotten remake was critically panned, but we want yet another remake, just for the usual crowd to whine about movies being woke now. 2008 CRACKED.COM

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Product VIAGRA Original HEART DISEASE Purpose SYMPTONS pjuer The medicene was ineffective against the intended issues, such as hypertension and angina — Source: Mental Floss

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Product AUTO-TUNE Original SEISMIC WAVE Purpose ANALYSIS Seldt PAUs Raf May 9l 8s De Tes K Lang Pnnt Lornic 3 V an AUTO-TUNE EVO recon 10 Create rol N — Source: Vice

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Historical Firsts in Practical Effects Frame tinting 1903 The Great Train Robbery would tint three frames of film red as a gun was fired, to give the blast a visual pop. This was later used by Hitchcock in 1945's Spellbound. CRACKED — Source

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Off with her head! Not for real, though.

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The first-ever special effect 1895 Shot at Edison Labs in New Jersey, 1895's Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots was the first film to use a visual effect. They used stop- action for her beheading, and since no one had ever seen special effects, viewers thought they actually killed the actress. CRACKED — Edison Manufacturing Company
Guinness World Records

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Miniatures helped filmmakers shoot much larger settings (and play with toys).

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The first use of miniatures 1899 In the 1899 short film The Windsor Hotel Fire by Albert E. Smith and J. Stewart Blackton, tiny victims fell from miniature cardboard buildings while squirt guns were used as fire hoses. CRACKED — Library of Congress
Listverse

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The first PG-13 rating. 1984 CRACKEDGO COM Even though it clocked in at 134 acts of violence per hour (Guinness counted), Red Dawn was the first film

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The first GPS device. 1964 CRACKEDCON Not surprisingly, James Bond is the first movie character to use a tracking device and fire up his archaic Garmi

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The first copyrighted motion picture. 1894 CRACKED COM W.K. Dickson copyrighted Fred Ott's Sneeze, a 5-second film of Thomas Edison's assistant snorti

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19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)

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Progressive!

19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)

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The first item bought online was a CD of Sting's Ten Summoner's Tales, in August 1994. ESSE 000 VISA 122 3172 042 VISA STING The buyer used his Visa

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The first ever post on Reddit was a link to a story about the Downing Street memo. reddit REDDIT.COM comments other discussions (3) This is an archive

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Men's and women's clothes buttons are on opposite sides due to historical tradition. CRACKED.COM Men needed quick access to their weapon using their right hand, while wealthy women were dressed by servants with the button configuration being flipped for easier access by the servants. — Source

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Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts Charlie Chaplin 1914 Beginning in 1914, Chaplin became known as one of Hollywood's first stars, and had the second- ever million dollar contract. As a vaudevillian and slapstick comic, he did all of his own stunts. CRACKED — Source

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Babies in pain, ignored.

WORST HISTORICAL CHILDCARE WITHHOLDING PAIN RELIEF FOR SURGERY Until the mid-1980s, babies weren't given any pain relief during surgery as people thought they couldn't feel pain, even though there was proof that they could. CRACKED — OMfotovideocontent/Shutterstock
The Boston Globe

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CRACKED.COM THE PAST WAS LOUSY WITH, UH, LICE. Being louse-free is a modern luxury. Historical remedies included mercury, dog fat, and other stuff as gross as the lice themselves. — Source: 25 Details From History That Are Just So Gross

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My Brother Sam is Dead CRACKED COM This historical fiction over the Revolutionary War was fairly disliked by adult figures for its depiction of violen — Comedy Central

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WEIRD WORLD In Iceland, a Big Mac meal got preserved as an important historical artifact. The last McDonalds in Iceland closed in 2009, and the 12-year-old Big Mac in question is now a historical curiosity - the last of its kind. CRACKED.COM — Source

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Arthur Conan Doyle felt writing Sherlock Holmes was dull hack work. He saw historical fiction as his real work, and Sherlock Holmes as stuff that pa

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Grabbing the blade isn't always a bad idea. Historical fighting manuals include half-swording techniques, where you grab the blade for a stronger thrust, or to use your sword as a hammer. — Source: Skallagrim on YouTube

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Is a historical scientist a scientist from history or someone who studies historical science? BRACKETING PARADOX CRACKED COM Nuclear physicist, hist

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Ocakli Ada Castle ORIGINAL RESTORATION Sile, Turkey- ca. 100 The town that planned this restoration stands by their decision to turn a historical trea

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WHAT'S THE DEAL: HISTORY OF A/C lcy Reception CRACKED.C .COM Another problem Gorrie probably didn't anticipate? People considered his creation to be changing the weather, and with it... defying god. Just part of the USA's long history of a normal, functional relationship with religion. — Source: Smithsonian

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The fastest growing city in human history sex-centupled its population in 37 years. CRACKED.COM In 1980, Shenzhen in China had a population of 30,000. In 2017, that had sex-centupled to nearly 20 million. It is believed to be the fastest growing city in human history. — Source

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Robert Hooke discovered elements of gravitational theory before Newton.

Sir Isaac Newton erased his rival Robert Hooke from history. CRACKED.COM Despite pioneering the ex- perimental method and discovering many ele- ments of gravitational the- ory first, Hooke never got his due. Newton also lived 25 years longer, allowing him to edit history. — Telegraph

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Armageddon comes from the site of the first recorded battle in history.

The first recorded battle in history was the Battle of Megiddo in 1457 В.С. It left such an impression on the Levantine people there that they believed the final battle of humani- ty would take place there as well. That's where the word Armageddon comes from. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — The Battles of Armageddon

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A “fireproof” building was the deadliest single-building fire in U.S. history.

The Iroquois Theater in Chicago was billed as Absolutely Fireproof in advertisements when it opened. EVERY en NIGHT - son Then BLUEBEARD Room It lasted 37 days be- fore being destroyed in what is still the deadliest single-build- ing fire in U.S. history, leaving 602 dead and 250 injured. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

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Nothing to do - start a war

Just 8% of recorded human history is considered peaceful. Of the 3400 years of recorded history, only 268 are considered peaceful. At least 108 million people were killed in wars in the twentieth century. — NY Times

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Ancient tree, ancient history.

Parliament oak The Parliament Oak in Warsop, England, is thought to be over 1,000 years old and is really important in history. It was the place where King John and King Edward I held two parliaments in the 12th and 13th centuries. CRACKED — Ann Ballinger/Wiki Commons
Atlas Obscura

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CRACKED.COM 97% OF HUMAN HISTORY HAS BEEN LOST. Humans appeared 200,000 years ago. Writing is about 6,000 years old. This means that only 3% of our species' history has been recorded. — Source

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Damnnnn, you spicy little jackasses.

CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY The first audible curse words in film The 1929 Paramount film Glorifying the American Girl has the first curse words in cinema history. They say damn six times, and jackass twice. — Paramount Pictures
Swegz/YouTube

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Remember Paul HISTORY THE Revere's midnight ride? He galloped through the colonies shouting, The British are coming! The British are coming! He wa

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