50 Fun Facts About Funny History

In 1932 the Australian Army went to war against which animal, and lost?

Soldiers with Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds managed 986 confirmed kills; the commander compared the birds to tanks.

How many emus did the Australian Army confirm killed in the entire Emu War?

About 20,000 emus had invaded the wheatbelt; the survivors carried on eating the crops and the government switched to fences.

Which senator was mockingly dubbed the 'Minister of the Emu War' in the Australian parliament?

As defence minister he had ordered the cull after ex-soldier farmers asked for machine guns.

The 1859 Pig War between the US and Britain began when an American farmer shot a pig for doing what?

The pig belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company; the only casualty of the whole 'war' was the pig.

Per US park rangers, what was the biggest threat to peace during the joint occupation of San Juan Island?

The two garrisons spent years visiting each other's camps for holidays and sports days.

The 1325 War of the Bucket was fought between Bologna and which other Italian city?

Despite the name, the war was really about a captured castle; the bucket was carried off as a trophy afterwards.

The 1838 Pastry War's namesake French chef had a shop worth under 1,000 pesos. How much did he demand in damages?

France eventually demanded 600,000 pesos for all its grievances and blockaded Veracruz to collect.

The shortest war in recorded history, between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896, lasted roughly how long?

Britain fired at 9:02 and stopped at 9:40; one British sailor was injured.

The 1784 Habsburg-Dutch Kettle War got its name because the only shot fired hit what?

The Dutch ship Dolfijn fired once, the pot took the hit, and the Habsburg ship Le Louis surrendered.

Michigan lost the 1835 Toledo War to Ohio but was consoled with what territory when it became a state?

Michigan voters thought it a terrible deal at the time; the copper and iron up there proved otherwise.

The only serious injury of the Toledo War was inflicted by an Ohioan named Two Stickney, who did what?

His brother was named One Stickney; the sole 'battle' was at Phillips Corners.

In January 1919 a wave of what swept through Boston's North End at 35 mph, killing 21 people?

A tank holding 2.3 million gallons burst; residents said the area smelled sweet on hot days for decades.

The London Beer Flood of 1814 released a wave of what after a 22-foot vat burst?

Up to 323,000 gallons swept into the St Giles slums, killing eight; the coroner ruled the deaths an act of God and the brewery got a tax rebate.

In July 1518, dozens of people in Strasbourg started doing what for weeks, unable to stop?

It began with one woman, Frau Troffea, in the street; the city council eventually let doctors take over.

In 897 Pope Stephen VI put his predecessor Formosus on trial. What was unusual about the defendant?

The corpse was dug up, dressed in vestments and propped in a chair; a deacon answered on its behalf. It lost.

Roman writers claimed Caligula planned to give which office to his horse Incitatus?

The horse allegedly had a marble stable, an ivory manger and 18 servants; historians think it was Caligula's joke at the Senate's expense.

'Defenestration', throwing someone out of a window, entered English after events in which city?

In 1618 Protestant nobles tossed two royal governors and their secretary out of Hradčany Castle; they survived, reportedly landing in a dung heap.

The astronomer Tycho Brahe lost part of his nose in 1566 in a duel over what?

He wore a prosthetic nose for the rest of his life; a 2012 analysis of his exhumed body found it was brass, not silver and gold.

Charles VI of France had a delusion recorded across Europe for centuries. What did sufferers believe?

Some reportedly refused to sit down or had iron rods sewn into their clothes for protection.

How did Oregon's Highway Division dispose of a dead 45-foot sperm whale at Florence in 1970?

Blubber rained down 800 feet away and crushed a car; the engineer in charge had been picked because his boss was out hunting.

Around 1781 Benjamin Franklin wrote a mock scientific proposal urging the study of what?

He suggested a drug to make it smell 'agreeable as perfumes' and closed with the pun that other sciences were 'scarcely worth a fart-hing'.

The 532 AD Nika riots that burned half of Constantinople began with fans of what?

The Blues and Greens united against Emperor Justinian, chanting 'Nika' (victory); tens of thousands died.

Joshua Norton of San Francisco declared himself what in 1859?

Restaurants honoured his home-made currency, and 'Emperor Norton' inspired characters by Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson.

One of Emperor Norton's first imperial decrees, in October 1859, ordered what?

When Congress ignored him he ordered General Scott to march in and clear the halls. Congress did not comply.

In medieval Europe, which animals were most often put on trial in secular courts?

Wild beasts were never charged; domesticated animals were tried in secular courts and pests like rats in church courts.

Liechtenstein abolished its army in 1868 for what reason?

The principality had become fully independent only two years earlier when the German Confederation dissolved.

Britain lost all of the 20th-century Cod Wars to which country?

Iceland threatened to leave NATO, which would have cost the alliance a key anti-submarine chokepoint; there was one confirmed death in two decades.

First across the line in the 1904 Olympic marathon, Fred Lorz was disqualified because he had done what?

He had already posed with Alice Roosevelt and was about to get the gold; he said it was a practical joke.

1904 Olympic marathon winner Thomas Hicks was kept going with brandy, egg white and what?

It counts as the first recorded use of performance-enhancing drugs at the modern Games; he hallucinated and had to be carried over the line.

Cuban runner Andarín Carvajal came fourth in the 1904 marathon despite stopping to eat what?

He had lost his money gambling, hitchhiked to St. Louis, and ran in cut-off street trousers.

The 335 Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ended by treaty in which year?

Nobody had fired a shot; a local historian wrote to the Dutch embassy and the ambassador came over to sign a peace.

King Henry I of England reportedly died in 1135 after eating too many of what?

'A surfeit of lampreys' is the traditional verdict; modern medicine suspects listeria.

Per Herodotus, what did Xerxes order done to the Hellespont after a storm wrecked his bridge?

He had fetters thrown into the water as well, then built the bridge again.

Rebecca, a pet who lived at the White House under Calvin Coolidge, was what kind of animal?

She was sent from Mississippi to be Thanksgiving dinner in 1926; Coolidge, who had never eaten raccoon, kept her instead.

What gift, made from the milk of every cow in town, did Cheshire, Massachusetts send Jefferson in 1802?

It bore the motto 'Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God'.

The 1922 riot in New York City that lasted eight days erupted because young men were doing what?

Custom said boaters were out of season by mid-September; gangs used sticks with nails to hook them off and eight days of brawling followed.

The 1926 to 1936 'Great Stork Derby' in Toronto was a contest to see which woman could do what?

A prankster lawyer's will left his fortune to the winner; four mothers with nine children each split it.

Mike the Headless Chicken of Fruita, Colorado survived how long after a botched beheading in 1945?

The axe missed the jugular and left most of the brain stem; his owner fed him with an eyedropper and toured him at 25 cents a look.

The 1856 Guano Islands Act lets US citizens claim unoccupied islands for their country if they contain what?

Guano was prized fertiliser; the law is still on the books and several US territories were claimed under it.

The 1942 'Battle of Los Angeles' saw the US Army fire anti-aircraft guns for hours at what?

Four enemy planes were reported shot down; there were none. Five civilians died in the panic.

At the Battle of Karánsebes in 1788, the Austrian army suffered heavy losses fighting whom?

Drunk hussars refused to share schnapps with infantry, a shot was fired, someone yelled 'Turks!', and the whole camp opened fire in the dark.

In 1992, Pepsi's Number Fever promotion in the Philippines caused riots after it accidentally did what?

The grand prize was a million pesos; five people died in the unrest that followed.

During the First World War, Woodrow Wilson kept what grazing on the White House South Lawn?

They trimmed the grass to free up groundskeepers, and their wool was auctioned for the Red Cross.

William Henry Harrison holds the record for the shortest US presidency. How long did he serve?

He was the first president to die in office, triggering a constitutional muddle over whether Tyler was really president.

Historian Anthony Barrett suggested the tales of the horse Incitatus most likely originated from what?

Ancient sources agree the horse was never actually made consul; Caligula seems to have enjoyed winding up the Senate.

The 1969 'Football War' between El Salvador and Honduras lasted about how long?

Despite the nickname, the causes were land reform and migration; the football matches were the spark.

The 1739 War of Jenkins' Ear was named after a body part allegedly severed by whom?

Robert Jenkins' ear was reportedly cut off in 1731; opposition MPs later waved the story about to whip up war fever against Spain.

In March 1876, chunks of what fell from a clear sky over Bath County, Kentucky?

The farmer's wife who witnessed it said it was 'snowing meat'; one theory blames a passing flock of vomiting vultures.

In 1962, a girls' boarding school in Tanganyika was forced to close by an epidemic of what?

It began with three pupils and spread to 95 of the school's 159 girls, then to nearby villages, before fading out 18 months later.

The ghost word 'dord', printed in Webster's 1934 dictionary as a synonym for density, arose from what?

The slip read 'D or d, cont./density' and was taken as a single word; the error sat between Dorcopsis and doré for years.