Tag Archives: History
WTF Fun Fact 12749 – The Invention of Kidney Dialysis
The Badass Sergeant Who was His Own One Man Army
In 1814, some 20,000 troops of the British East India Company launched an assault on the Kingdom of Ghorka in what is today Nepal, seeking to expand their influence into the Indian subcontinent’s mountainous northern territories. To their surprise, the British encountered unexpectedly fierce resistance from local mountain warriors known as Ghorkalis, and the conflict… Read More »
That Time Over 1000 People Were Crammed Onto One Plane in a Desperate Rescue Attempt
The Boeing 747 is among the most iconic and celebrated aircraft in history. Since first taking to the skies in 1969, the world’s first “Jumbo Jet” has become synonymous with luxury and reliability in air travel, the more than 1,500 aircraft produced having carried over 4 billion passengers over the last 50 years. But sadly… Read More »
How Hitler’s Flatulence Helped End WWII
After the Second World War, a common joke was that Adolf Hitler was the best general the Allies ever had. His string of disastrous decisions, from halting his forces around Dunkirk, delaying his invasion of Russia, and refusing to pull the 6th Army out of Stalingrad, handed the advantage to his enemies time and time… Read More »
WTF Fun Fact 12732 – Everyone Thinks Archimedes Created A Death Ray
WTF Fun Fact 12729 – Astronaut Life Insurance
How do The Persians Teach Alexander the Great and When Did He First Become “Great”?
We’ve all heard of him. Alexander the Great has been for many centuries a household name in much of the world- an impressive feat for a king who’s been dead for two millenia and reigned only for a little over a decade. In western countries, his defeat of the Persian Empire in the 320s BC… Read More »
Germany’s Forgotten Genocide That Provided a Blueprint for the Nazis
When we think of Germany and genocide, we typically think of the Holocaust, wherein some 15 million Jews, Roma, homosexuals and others deemed “undesirable” by the Third Reich were systematically exterminated between 1941 and 1945. But policies of mass murder go back much further in German history than many dare admit. For some 30 years… Read More »
WTF Fun Fact 12728 – Frederic Tudor’s International Ice Shipment
How Do We Know How Old Things Like Dinosaur Bones Are?
There’s an old joke told in natural history museums about a new tour guide showing around a group of visitors. Stopping before a dinosaur skeleton, he informs the group that the fossil remains are 80 million years and three weeks old. “How do you know that?” asks one of the visitors. “Because it was 80… Read More »