50 Fun Facts About Weird History

Which bird did Australian soldiers armed with machine guns fail to wipe out in a 1932 military operation?

Emus were raiding wheat farms in Western Australia, but they scattered so quickly that 2,500 rounds were fired in six days with little effect on their numbers.

What could hundreds of people in Strasbourg not stop doing for weeks during a strange outbreak in 1518?

Dancing spread to somewhere between 50 and 400 people after one woman began in the street, and nobody has ever settled why it happened.

What sweet, sticky substance burst from a giant tank and flooded Boston streets in a deadly 1919 wave?

Molasses surged through the North End in a wave about 25 feet high moving at 35 mph, far too fast for anyone in its path to outrun.

Which flower sold for more than ten times a skilled craftsman's yearly pay during a Dutch craze of the 1630s?

Tulips were traded as bulbs on paper contracts, and when prices collapsed abruptly in February 1637 the whole trade ground to a halt.

In which country was Hawaiian pizza, topped with ham and pineapple, first created in 1962?

Canada is where Greek-born restaurant owner Sam Panopoulos first tried canned pineapple on a pizza, naming it after the brand on the tin.

Under what everyday modern site in Leicester were the lost bones of King Richard III found in 2012?

A car park had been laid over the foundations of the friary church where Richard III was hastily buried without ceremony after dying in battle in 1485.

Which mythical creature, a supporter of the old royal coat of arms, is the national animal of Scotland?

The unicorn was believed to be the natural enemy of the lion, the beast that England's royals had adopted about a century earlier.

Which US president, who refused to shoot a captured bear on a hunt, gave the teddy bear its name?

Theodore Roosevelt loathed the nickname Teddy, but a newspaper cartoon of the 1902 hunt inspired a toymaker to sell stuffed bears under it.

Britain's 1896 war with which island sultanate lasted under 45 minutes, the shortest war on record?

Zanzibar's new sultan had moved into the palace without British approval, and a naval bombardment ended his reign in about 38 minutes.

What did Pope Stephen VI put on trial in Rome in 897, propped up on a throne to face the charges?

A corpse: the body of his predecessor Formosus was taken from its tomb, a deacon answered for it, and it was found guilty and later thrown into the Tiber.

Which Roman was held for ransom by pirates as a young man, then returned with a fleet to capture them?

Julius Caesar was freed for a ransom of fifty talents in the ancient accounts, though modern historians think the story grew in the telling.

What insect, found jammed in a relay of Harvard's Mark II computer in 1947, was taped into the logbook?

A moth gave the operators a joke: engineers already called faults bugs, so they wrote beside it that this was the first actual case of a bug being found.

To which US state were London Bridge's facing stones shipped after a developer bought it in 1968?

Arizona's Lake Havasu City rebuilt the bridge as a concrete frame clad in the original masonry, as a lure for people buying land in the new town.

On an island of which country did Japanese officer Hiroo Onoda keep fighting World War II until 1974?

The Philippines island of Lubang was his hideout for nearly 29 years, and he gave up only when his old commanding officer flew in to relieve him of duty.

Which children's modelling clay was first sold in the 1930s as a putty for cleaning soot off wallpaper?

Play-Doh began in Cincinnati as a cleaner for coal-stained walls, and found a second life as a toy once demand for wallpaper putty shrank after World War II.

Which fizzy drink was invented in wartime Germany when Coca-Cola syrup could no longer be imported?

Fanta was made from whatever was left in the country, including sugar beet, whey and apple pomace, and sold three million cases in 1943.

Which Russian tsar taxed beards in 1698 and made bearded men carry a token to prove they had paid?

Peter the Great wanted Russians to look like Western Europeans, so a man who kept his whiskers had to carry a copper or silver token showing a beard.

Which animal's ivory was used in George Washington's false teeth, which contained no wood despite the myth?

Hippopotamus ivory was carved to hold the teeth, alongside brass, gold and real human teeth, in dentures made by his dentist John Greenwood.

Which animal, a gift from Norway to King Henry III, fished in the Thames on a chain from the Tower of London?

A polar bear arrived in 1252, and London's sheriffs were ordered to pay fourpence a day for its upkeep while crowds watched it fish.

Which ancient monument did Cecil Chubb buy at auction in 1915 for £6,600 and later give to the nation?

Stonehenge was one of several lots in the sale of a family estate, and Chubb, a local man, handed it to the public three years after his winning bid.

Which Paris landmark did con man Victor Lustig pretend to sell to scrap metal dealers in 1925?

The Eiffel Tower was costly to maintain, so Lustig posed as a ministry official and told the dealers that the government secretly wanted it sold for scrap.

Which kitchen appliance was born after a radar engineer reportedly found a candy bar melted in his pocket?

The microwave oven grew out of Percy Spencer's work on radar magnetrons, and one of the first foods he tested on purpose was popcorn.

Which piece of gym equipment began in 1818 as a hard-labour machine for convicts in English prisons?

The treadmill was engineer William Cubitt's cure for idle prisoners, who climbed its turning steps as hard labour; it was also called the everlasting staircase.

Which country's soldiers mistakenly marched into Liechtenstein in 2007 after taking a wrong turn in bad weather?

Switzerland had 171 disoriented soldiers cross the border that night; decades earlier its artillery had accidentally shelled Liechtenstein's only ski resort.

What did astronaut John Young smuggle aboard Gemini 3 in 1965, hidden in a pocket of his spacesuit?

A corned beef sandwich came out in orbit and was shared for a few bites, and NASA later made clear that such snacks were barred from future missions.

Falling pieces of which spacecraft earned NASA a $400 littering fine from an Australian shire in 1979?

Skylab came down east of Perth, and the Shire of Esperance's joke fine went unpaid until 2009, when a radio host raised the money from his listeners.

Which country's army enlisted a bear named Wojtek, who carried artillery shells at Monte Cassino?

Poland's soldiers gave Wojtek his own paybook, rank and serial number, and after the war he retired to Edinburgh Zoo, where old comrades came to visit.

What kind of animal was Hanno, the pet that the King of Portugal gave to Pope Leo X in the 1510s?

An elephant, and a white one: visitors could watch the pope play with Hanno on Sundays, and the artist Raphael designed a memorial when the animal died.

Which country had a February 30 in 1712, added to undo a muddled attempt at changing calendars?

Sweden went back to its old calendar that year by adding a second leap day, the only known time the date has really been used.

The shooting of which farm animal nearly brought the US and Britain to war in the San Juan Islands in 1859?

A pig that kept raiding an American settler's garden was shot, and the standoff that followed drew in troops and warships before arbitration settled the border.

Which body part of sea captain Robert Jenkins gave its name to a war between Britain and Spain in 1739?

An ear was allegedly sliced off by a Spanish coastguard captain searching his ship for contraband, eight years before the fighting began.

Which astronomer wore a false nose after losing part of his own in a sword duel with his cousin?

Tycho Brahe was 20 when the duel was fought in the dark; he also kept a tame elk, which died while visiting a nobleman's home.

Which painter was brought in for questioning when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911?

Pablo Picasso was named by his friend, the poet Apollinaire; the real thief was a museum worker who had helped build the painting's glass case.

Which crime writer vanished for eleven days in 1926 and was found at a Harrogate hotel under another name?

Agatha Christie had registered under a false surname, 184 miles from home, while the hunt for her filled the newspapers.

In which city did Joshua Norton live after declaring himself Emperor of the United States in 1859?

San Francisco humoured him for two decades: local newspapers printed his decrees, and before long were inventing extra ones of their own.

Which food did a 1957 BBC April Fools' report show a family picking from trees after a mild winter?

Spaghetti hung from the branches in the three-minute Panorama film, which put the bumper crop down to the disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.

Which board game did British intelligence use to smuggle silk escape maps to prisoners of war in World War II?

Monopoly sets sent by fake charities hid maps, a compass, a file and real money, because the game's British maker could also print on silk.

Which vegetable did British wartime propaganda credit for pilots' night vision, to keep radar a secret?

Carrots were being pushed by the Ministry of Food too, which had encouraged so much planting that Britain faced a 100,000-ton surplus by 1942.

Which animals did the US plan to fit with tiny timed firebombs and release over Japanese cities in World War II?

Bats were to be dropped while hibernating, over a thousand to a casing, so that they would wake, hide in wood and paper buildings and set them alight.

The only shot fired in a 1784 clash between Austria and the Dutch Republic hit what, giving the war its name?

A soup kettle aboard the Austrian ship Le Louis took the single shot from a Dutch warship on the River Scheldt, and the crew promptly surrendered.

Which humble object, said to have been taken as a trophy from a well, names the 1325 war between Bologna and Modena?

A bucket taken from a well outside a city gate was the trophy in some accounts, but the popular story that its theft started the fighting is a myth.

Which animals did the Japanese shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi protect with welfare laws that earned him his nickname?

Dogs got special care because Tsunayoshi was born in the Year of the Dog; his kennels around Edo housed tens of thousands of strays, fed on rice and sardines.

Which animal walked 900 km from Marseille to Paris in 1827 as a gift from Egypt's ruler to King Charles X?

A giraffe later known as Zarafa made the walk in 41 days, drew a crowd of 30,000 in Lyon on the way, and then lived in a Paris garden for 18 years.

Which Pacific nation skipped December 30, 2011 altogether by moving across the International Date Line?

Samoa went straight from Thursday to Saturday, and so swapped being among the last places to see each new day for being among the first.

Which Mexican general, wounded by cannon fire in 1838, had his amputated leg buried with full military honours?

Santa Anna later wore a cork replacement, which American troops captured in battle in 1847; it is still held by a military museum in Illinois.

Which fish did England's King Henry I reportedly gorge on, against his doctor's advice, before he died?

Lampreys were blamed by the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, who wrote of a surfeit of them, though historians doubt the meal is what really killed the king.

What did Prussia's King Frederick William I require of every recruit to his famous Potsdam regiment?

Unusual height was the entry rule for the Potsdam Giants: the minimum was about 6 ft 2 in, and one Irish recruit was reportedly over seven feet tall.

Which Roman emperor was crowned winner of an Olympic chariot race in AD 67 despite being thrown from his chariot?

Nero drove a ten-horse team, left the race after his fall, and still took the crown on the grounds that he would have won had he finished.

Which future US president chose cavalry broadswords for an 1842 duel that ended with the rivals making peace?

Abraham Lincoln, as the man challenged, picked the long blades because his opponent was an excellent marksman and Lincoln stood seven inches taller.

Which animal, sent to the White House to be Thanksgiving dinner in 1926, became President Coolidge's pet Rebecca?

A raccoon was not a dish Coolidge had ever eaten or had any appetite to try, so Rebecca stayed on and liked to nestle in his lap by the fireplace.