Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Break Down Which Actual Historical Events Are Stranger Than Fiction

Ever heard of the Great Emu War of 1932?

Well, if you haven't, now you have. It's a very real event, believe it or not.

It was fought between the Australian Army and emus that were destroying crops. The Australians lost and the emus continued to wreak havoc.

Emus: 1 Humans: 0

If that sounds too weird to be true, then just know that the Great Emu War has some competition. People shared their favorite odd but true historical events after Redditor AquaTax asked the online community,

"What historical events are so absurd that they would be too strange for a fiction story or a movie?"

"She screamed and tried to fight him off..."

"Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer, once snuck up on his own wife, Marcia Winslow, as they were getting out of their car after a party and began to strangle her."

"She screamed and tried to fight him off until she realized it was him, at which point he stopped and tried to convince her that it wasn't him strangling her, it must have been someone else."

"She stayed with him for several years after that incident."

rubyredrising

Ummm... has anyone checked on Marcia? How's she doing?

"They were displaced from their normal hunting grounds..."

"The Germans and Russians once called a temporary (unofficial) ceasefire in World War I because of wolves invading the battlefield."

"They were displaced from their normal hunting grounds and looking for something to eat, which turned out to be local livestock, corpses, children, and unwary or incapacitated soldiers."

"It got so bad that everyone stopped shooting at each other for a while so they could hunt them down, proving once more that the threat of being eaten is stronger than any political ideal."

Arafel9162

The wolves were trying to teach them a lesson, weren't they?

This sounds like a prequel to The Grey.

"In Anne Frank's original diary..."

"In Anne Frank's original diary, she openly talked about her changing body, periods, and her questions about sex but they were edited out of the final print."

AlienationsYT

The day I learned this blew my mind.

These Actors Were Perfectly Cast In Their Roles | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

Sometimes an actor comes along that is able to reach the audience on a deeper level. The actor that immediately comes to mind is Robin Williams. Although it ...

"John Tyler..."

"John Tyler, the 10th U.S. president, still has a living grandchild."

Boi_inc

Yep! He's in his 90s, and still kicking. John Tyler, you rascal.

"It was just a coincidence..."

"Thomas Crapper actually did invent the first reliable modern toilet. (The kind with a raised cistern.) But the word crap/crapper was already a very old slang term by that point."

"It was just a coincidence. Or maybe he felt like he had no choice. But crap and crapper have nothing to do with Thomas Crapper."

SoldMySoulForHairDye

Okay, but this is perfect. We hope Crapper just rolled with it.

"John Adams..."

"John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day. The day? The 50th anniversary of the Fourth of July. Adams's last words were, 'Thomas Jefferson still survives.'"

wizardvictor

Oh, the irony.

John, someone's gotta tell you...

"The Fire Department and some clowns..."

"The Toronto Circus Riot of 1855."

"The Fire Department and some clowns get into a disagreement at a whorehouse, and get into a punch-up. The clowns win, but the firemen return to the circus later and start attacking in revenge."

"The firemen win the day but violence is stopped when the militia come in. The police do nothing, so the city fires all the police (and I mean everyone) and starts a new police force."

splitdipless

This paragraph just grew more and more absurd the more I continued reading.

"That time in the 1700s..."

"Battle of Karansebes."

"That time in the 1700s when the Austrian army got confused, waged a huge battle against itself within its own lines, and lost an estimated several hundred to few thousand men (and a lot of equipment and money) in the process. They then retreated."

"The Ottomans, whom they were originally intending to fight, showed up two days later."

HyvalTheEmolga

What?

How?

Huh?

Explain yourselves, Austria

"The last known kill..."

"The last known kill by bow and arrow in combat was actually during the battle of Dunkirk, 1940. Jack Churchill landed a well-placed arrow into a German soldier's chest."

"He also chose to carry bagpipes and a Scottish longsword."

WasteNot2532

This led a crazy life. Just check out his Wikipedia page.

He was known for the motto: "Any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed."

"In 1184..."

The latrine disaster of Erfurt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_latrine_disaster

"In 1184, the King of Germany Heinrich VI held court in the Petersberg Citadel in Erfurt. On the morning of 26 July, the weight of the assembled nobles caused the wooden second-story floor of the Peterskirche to collapse."

"Most of them fell through into the latrine cesspit below the ground floor and about 60 of them drowned in liquid excrement."

Supraspinster

Oh, there's a joke here.

It'd be so bad of me to make it....

History is fascinating–and full of odd incidents like these, because life is crazy.

Just think: You'll be the star of your next dinner party as soon as you whip these facts out.

Have some historical facts of your own to share? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

US restauranteur Guy Fieri arrives before President Donald Trump to attend UFC 327 at Kaseya Center in Miami.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson / POOL / AFP via Getty Images; @gifdsports/X

Guy Fieri Speaks Out After Getting Backlash For Embracing Tate Brothers At UFC Fight—But Not Everyone's Buying It

In a moment that felt less Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and more “who signed off on this,” Guy Fieri found himself at the center of backlash after a very public embrace of two of the internet’s most polarizing figures.

Food Network star Guy Fieri is facing social media backlash over his friendly greeting of controversial “manosphere” influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate at a recent UFC fight, prompting him to release a statement claiming he doesn’t actually know them and does not support them “in any way.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Robot chasing wild boars
ABC News/X

Robot Chases Wild Boars Out Of Polish Neighborhood Before Waving Goodbye In Surreal Viral Video

Robots have received a lot of attention in the media lately, particularly for situations like the delivery robot that circled around a houseless man without a second thought, reminding us of its lack of humanity and empathy.

But a humanoid robot in Warsaw, Poland, made headlines for a much different reason this week, protecting a neighborhood from a pack of wild boars that had wandered into the community.

Keep ReadingShow less
Danny Pintauro attends the opening night of "The Sound Inside" at Pasadena Playhouse.
Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

'Who's The Boss' Star Danny Pintauro Reveals New Side Job To Show There's 'No Shame' In It—And Fans Are Applauding

Hollywood often frames reinvention as a return to fame, but Danny Pintauro is defining it on his own terms. The former child star recently revealed that he’s making a living as a delivery driver for Amazon Flex—and he’s not shy about it.

Pintauro, 50, first found fame as a child star on Who’s the Boss?, where he played Jonathan, the son of Judith Light’s Angela Bower, alongside Tony Danza as her housekeeper, Tony Micelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rosie O'Donnell
Neil Mockford/WireImage

Rosie O'Donnell Hilariously Shuts Down Rumors She'll Be On 'Dancing With The Stars' After AI Photo Goes Viral

With the dawning of AI, we're basically in a time where we have no idea what's real or fake anymore—and sometimes it's really, really funny.

Case in point, an AI-generated photo of Rosie O'Donnell with a headline screaming that she'd be returning to the U.S. to make her big debut on Dancing With the Stars.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshots of Instagram video by Jo Frost
@jofrost/Instagram

'Supernanny' Star Jo Frost Warns Of Impact Of Social Media On Kids In Impassioned Plea For UK Ban

At the beginning of 2026, the United Kingdom's House of Lords supported a proposal to prohibit those under 16 from access to social media to include the sites Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram. Any such ban would be introduced as an amendment to the government's schools bill.

Childcare author and television personality Jo Frost has now shared her opinion on the proposal. Ironically, on Instagram on Tuesday, Frost made an appeal to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to ban social media for children under 16.

Keep ReadingShow less