28 Fascinating Historical Tidbits Almost Buried by the Sands of Time
Combing history’s beaches with our fact detector
![28 Fascinating Historical Tidbits Almost Buried by the Sands of Time](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/3/2/1042432_320x180.jpg)
As the years go by, the sands of time pile higher and higher. So you can see how easy it can be for wildly interesting historical facts to get buried along the way. It’s a real thorn in our side around here. That’s why we equipped our fact finders with the highest quality tools that our budget could muster up — a toddler’s sand shovel and pale. Here’s what they found…
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![THE U.S. CONSTITUTION IS RIDDLED WITH MISTAKES. We democracy Roderly the and People with of Articl All We're not talking here about stuff such as not giving everyone the right to vote- we mean the many misspellings contained in the Constitution. Just ask the delegate from Pensylvania. GRACKED.COM NM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/8/6/1040986.jpg)
![AN AMERICAN PATROTIC SONG TOPPED THE CHARTS AT THE HEIGHT OF THE BRITISH INVASION. Do you think the '60s were all about The Beatles? Nope! The Ballad of the Green Berets, by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, was the #1 song on the Billboard chart for 1966. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/8/5/1040985.jpg)
![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.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/8/4/1040984.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM BRITISH TANKS HAVE LONG INCLUDED TEA- MAKING FACILITIES. ORT S ST 17 @ 59 С Before 1945, Brits had to stop and climb out of their tanks for their tea breaks. Since that time, they've been able to remain safely and cozily (or cosily) secluded, thanks to a built-in boiling vessel.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/8/3/1040983.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM THE CURRENT U.S. FLAG WAS DESIGNED BY A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT. 17-year-old Robert G. Heft made a 50-star flag for a school assignment when Alaska and Hawaii were given statehood. Не got a В-, which was changed to an A when the government adopted his flag.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/2/1040972.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM WARNER BROS. WAS FOUNDED AS THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE WAS ENDING. The empire existed from the 14th century until the Republic of Turkey was established in October 1923. By then, Warner Bros. had been operating for several months. WARNER BROS. PI](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/4/1040974.jpg)
![DURING WORLD WAR II, THE USSR TOOK THE BRUNT OF THE FIGHTING - AND OF THE DYING. You see very heroic Americans fighting the Reich in movies. And while that is true, you're not told that for every American killed in action, about 21 Soviets died. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/3/1040973.jpg)
![BARELY ANYONE SMOKED POT IN THE 1960s. Ah, the '60s. Flower power, peace and love, everyone was high... Except that by 1969, only 4% of Americans had ever tried marijuana, and a whopping 34% didn't even know what its effects were. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/9/1040979.jpg)
![On the Manhattan Project, safety standards basically didn't exist. In a key experiment, the plutonium was contained by one technician holding a screwdriver. But the screwdriver slipped, and the plutonium killed the technician. This happened twice. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/8/2/1040982.jpg)
![During the French Revolution, they caught Louis XVI because GNAT his face was on money. IBRE 17 NES s ASSIGNATS DES FRANCOIS NAT par le décr vvil 1790, sanctionné LOUISXVL.ROT B CU While running to the countryside, Louis and Marie Antoinette (both disguised) were stopped by a postmaster who thought he recognized Marie. Once he compared the guy with her to a 50-franc note, he was sure. Pretty soon, they were arrested, then beheaded. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/8/1040978.jpg)
![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](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/8/1/1040981.jpg)
![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](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/7/1040977.jpg)
![King George V's time of death was chosen for its PR value. When George lay dying in 1936, the royal family wanted the morning journals, not the lower-class evening ones, to announce his death. So he got a lethal dose of morphine and cocaine at 11:55 p.m. on January 19. Не apparently wasn't asked, and probably wouldn't have approved. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/8/0/1040980.jpg)
![In WWI, a random Russian got kidnapped by his own country's peace negotiators. 6281 The team negotiating Russia's withdrawal from WWI planed to bring a peasant (to represent the common people), but on the way to the train, they realized they forgot him. So they snatched a badly dressed guy off the street, and next thing he knew, he was talking to European princes. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/9/1040969.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM Because of their use of easily degradable papyruses, everything ever written by the Phoenicians is lost. 2019 To have a bit of an idea of what we may have missed, let t'sremember that they were the inventors of the alphabet.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/6/1040976.jpg)
![Ernesto Che Guevara was also nicknamed El Chancho (The Pig)... Because he seldom bathed. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/7/1040967.jpg)
![Andrew Jackson's parrot had to be expelled from his owner's funeral... Because it wouldn't stop swearing. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/1/1040971.jpg)
![Like wearing pajamas? You have WWI air raids to thank. In WWI, people were being driven out of their homes by night-time air raids, and they needed warm, practical, and decent-looking sleepwear. So pajamas became hugely popular: they were loose, covered you up, and could be very stylish. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/0/1040970.jpg)
![Isaac Newton was a waiter. Until he got an undergraduate scholarship, he waited tables at Cambridge. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/5/1040975.jpg)
![Just weeks before he died after slamming his Porsche head-on into another vehicle, JAMES DEAN made a PSA for the National 130 Safety Council, warning of the dangers of reckless driving. TAKE IT EASY DRIVING. THE LIFE YOU SAVE MIGHT BE MINE. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/2/1040962.jpg)
![The first submarine dates way back to the 1620s and was made by Cornelius van Drebbel. Called the Drebbel I, it was basically an enclosed GRACKED COM rowboat and was proprelled just like one.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/1/1040961.jpg)
![Walt Disney himself helped to design a Mickey Mouse gas mask Though few remain, you can find several on display in various museums in the United States. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/8/1040968.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM BILLY THE KID was denied a pardon.* in 2010 The Kid was allegedly promised a pardon by 1879 New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace in exchange for testifying about a murder he witnessed, but the pardon was never granted. In 2010 Governor Bill Richardson decided to re-affirm Billy's status as a criminal and deny the original pardon.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/5/1040965.jpg)
![Due to fire, decay, negligence, or deliberate destruction, 75% T US 42 la - of all American CRACKED.COM silent movies на RA no longer exist.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/0/1040960.jpg)
![Greetings From The BX Secret B G TENNA City During WWII, Oak Ridge TN was commissioned to develop and build the first atomic bomb. The vast majority of the city's workers had absolutely no idea what they were working on and only found out after the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/3/1040963.jpg)
![THE FIRST EVER TWEET WAS SENT OUT ON 21 MARCH 2006. jack Follow @jack just setting up my twttr 12:50 PM - 21 Mar 2006 106,353 Retweets 80,147 Likes 3.1K 106K 80K This historic and thought- provoking tweet was sent out by Twitter's co-founder Jack Dorsey. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/5/9/1040959.jpg)
![The infamous Milwaukee serial killer and cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer, was a class clown in high school. 75 72 69 66 63 MILWAUKEE COUNTY MILWAUKEE COUNTY p SHEKIFF b DEPARTMENT His pranks and antics I - were known as doing a Dahmer around school. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/6/1040966.jpg)