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31 Obscure Trivia Tidbits From History That No Self-Respecting Know-It-All Could Possibly Ignore

By:: Cracked Writers; Jay L'Ecuyer

January 26, 2024

31 Obscure Trivia Tidbits From History That No Self-Respecting Know-It-All Could Possibly Ignore

Today, we’re not only rewriting the history books, we’re giving them some solid punch-ups too. Their first drafts had some funny moments, but after learning what we just learned, we just had to sprinkle in some serious zingers.

31

The first text message was sent December 3, 1992. It was Merry Christmas. 1 2ABC 3DEF 4OHI 5 JKL 6MNO 7PRS в TUV 9 WXY * OOPR # GRACKED.COM ACL STO CLR SND PWR VOL FCN END M MOTOROLA DIGITAL PERSONAL COMMUNICATION — Source

30

The original call signs for Apollo 11 were changed from Snowcone and Haystack to Columbia and Eagle. Which was probably a good thing. The Haystack has landed doesn't have the same ring to it. CRACKED.COM — Source

29

GRACKED.COM The stethoscope was invented by a French doctor named René Laennec because he was embarrassed having to press his ear to women's chests listening to their hearts and lungs. — Source

28

Ancient Rome CRACKED COM In ancient Rome, laundromats pretty much ran on urine. The practice continued even after the invention of soap, as many Europeans preferred the all-natural goodness of bladder water. And long before toothpaste, 9 out 10 Romans agreed that gargling urine was the best way to keep your teeth clean and sparkly. — Source

27

Lewis And Clark CRACKED.COM Lewis, Clark, and their adventuring party tried to have sex with every local woman they encountered, with a respectable rate of success. To their great fortune, plenty of Native communities believed that sex was a great way of absorbing other cultures. All of this fun had its downsides, however. Within months, most of the expedition had been diagnosed with venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea. — Source

26

The Manhattan Project CRACKED.COM One would assume the Manhattan Project had rigorous safety standards, what with the atomic bombs and all. One would be wrong. When scientist Don Mastick tried uncorking a vial of plutonium, it popped open and sent the contents spewing into his mouth. Не washed his mouth out and repeatedly pumped his stomach, then handed the contents to a colleague and told him to go separate out the precious plutonium. — Source

25

Women's Suffrage VOTEGA The women's suffrage movement wasn't just housewives in frocks picketing. Many within the movement were militant and committed acts of actual terrorism. In 1912 Dublin, four suffragettes tried to burn down the Theater Royal during a performance where Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was in attendance. The prime minister had just barely dodged a hatchet thrown at him by a suffragette earlier that same day. — Source

24

The Dark Ages were a terrible time to be alive, between the disease, filth, poverty, and the Black Death. WHAT THE HISTORY BOOKS LEFT OUT It was a time of unprecedented scholarship, discovery, and innovation in the Middle East. Islamic caliphs blanketed every land they conquered with schools, libraries, public works, and the most comprehensive system of social welfare on the planet. CRACKED COM hittp://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages — Source

23

Your English teacher probably convinced you that Shakespeare was a prim and proper fop who wrote elegant plays full of flowery speeches. WHAT THEY LEFT OUT Shakespeare's plays were filled with dirty jokes and crude language, and some of his plots were full-on sick. We're talking kidnapping, rape, dismemberment, murder, and cannibalism. Seriously. Не was the Quentin Tarantino of his day. CRACKED.COM William Shakespeare Henry V. Titus Andronicus; King Lear — Source

22

In 1955, Rosa Parks made headlines - and history-when she refused to give up her seat on the bus. WHAT THE HEADLINES LEFT OUT Parks wasn't the first woman arrested for refusing to give her seat to a white man. She wasn't even the first in her home town. She was carefully chosen to be the face of the civil rights movement. The NAACP was a very smart, media-savvy organization that knew the importance of picking the right spokesperson. CRACKED.COM http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/rosa-parks — Source

21

Animation dates way back to the stone age, using only charcoal, flickering flames, and neuroscience. 21,000 years ago, prehistoric artists would draw rows of images that, when illuminated by flickering firelight, would CRACKED.COM appear to be in motion. This illusion has to do with the way the human brain fills in gaps between the flashes of light. — Source

20

Chuck Е. Cheese's existence was an accident. PIZZA TIME TM C CHUCKECHEESE'S Nolan Bushnell was planning on creating a coyote mascot for his pizza place that was initially called Coyote Pizza. Bushnell then bought a coyote costume, but they received a rat costume instead. They just went with it. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

When The Thinker statue is brought up in conversations, you imagine a huge, lonesome statue of a thinking man. However, the original statue is a very small part of a sculpture known as The Gates of Hell. Can you spot it? CRACKED COM — Source

18

Ernesto Che Guevara was also nicknamed El Chancho (The Pig)... Because he seldom bathed. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

By the time Bonnie and Clyde were at the height of their notorious crime spree they both walked with a limp. Clyde had chopped off two of his own toes while in prison, and Bonnie had been injured so badly in a car wreck that she could no longer walk unassisted, and often had to be carried. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

What really crashed in Roswell in 1947? Pictured is a radar target from a balloon. The US Army Air Force was working on a balloon project at the time to monitor Soviet nuclear tests. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Frank Sinatra always carried spare dimes in his pocket after the kidnapping of his son. ONE DIME The kidnappers demanded all communication be via payphones, and Sinatra was determined to always be prepared, a habit he kept for the rest of his life. Не was even buried with ten dimes in his pocket. GRACKED.COM — Source

14

A WWII submarine had a reindeer onboard for six weeks. The British sub HMS Trident carried Pollyanna the reindeer, a personal gift from a Soviet admiral, back to England. She ate so much food (plus some navigation charts) that she got too big to walk out, and had to be lifted out with a winch (a sailor with a broom helped). CRACKED.COM — Source

13

The team searching for the Challenger's wreckage found cocaine worth millions. Experts spent nine weeks scanning 420 square miles of ocean with sonar. They found ordinary trash, a refrigerator, half of a torpedo, eight shipwrecks, and more. Oh, and a duffel bag with 25 kilos of cocaine (that came from who knows where), worth about $13 million. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Hurricane Katrina flung over a thousand coffins all around New Orleans. Even worse, many were ripped open, which scattered the remains inside. A lot of the coffins ended up in remote or inaccessible spots, like swamp and forest areas (some got stuck in trees). People are still searching for and identifying the remains. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

The first man returning from space was met by potato farmers. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin parachuted from his space capsule down to the village of Saratov, and walked up (in his orange spacesuit) to a woman farming potatoes with her granddaughter. They freaked out the moment they saw him, then he calmly told them who he was. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

At Mao and Stalin's first meeting, the USSR stole Mao's poop. On Stalin's personal orders, the sewage pipes in the house where the two met were rerouted to special storage boxes. The thinking was that an analysis of the chemicals in his poop would reveal secrets about Mao's psychology. (Did it work? Nobody knows.) CRACKED.COM — Source

9

For most of American history, the majority of the country's immigrants have been German. Between 1870 and 2000, 7 million of the immigrants to the United States were from Germany. Mexico was in second place with 6 million. GRACKED.COM — Source

8

CRACKED.COM Spartan women owned about 40% of the lands in Sparta. This is due to their inheritance system which allowed the father to divide his property among his children - both son and daughter. — Source

7

During the Great Depression, only 2 people on Wall Street actually committed suicide by jumping out of a building. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

1.2 MILLION AMERICANS HAVE DIED IN WARS. Nearly half were from the Civil War CRACKED.COM — Source

5

During the Civil War, generals were 50% more likely to die in battle than privates. Unlike modern warfare, generals back then had to lead by example - by being the first person to charge into battle. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

A plague that killed 25% of the population probably dealt the killing blow to the Roman Empire. The plague appeared in 542 A.D., and whittled down the Empire's tax base and pool of new soldiers. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

CRACKED.COM Between 1882-1968, there were only 5 states in the U.S. in which no lynchings took place. (Alaska, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut) — Source

2

Over 1,400 African Americans held political positions right after the Civil War. These included secretaries of state, mayors, congressmen, and (briefly) even one state governor. It wasn't until later that poll taxes and literacy tests kept African Americans from being represented. GRACKED.COM — Source

1

AROUND 400,000 MUSLIMS FOUGHT FOR BRITAIN IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR. The Muslim role in the War to End All Wars is rarely discussed, but many fought and died for the victory of the Allies. The Indian Army consisted of 1.3 million soldiers, among them were 800,000 Hindu soldiers, 100,000 Sikhs and 400,000 Muslims. CRACKED.COM — Source

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