The old saying goes, "Truth is stranger than fiction."
That's what the internet is there for.
Reddit user, u/TheFuzzyTrash, wanted to hear what people would never think could actually happen when they asked:
What is an incredibly fake sounding history fact, that is 100% true?
Most of the time historical oddities arise from unique situations.
Summon The Tortoises To Fight Back!
"Napoleon was once attacked by a horde of bunnies."
"Wait what?"
"Yep. He once wanted to hunt so he ordered his people to gather hares for a hunting party. The servants gathered hundreds and when the event started, they released the hares. Instead of running away from them, the hares decided to attack the hunters, Napoleon included."
Teenagers Gonna Teenage
"An eccentric roman emperor named Elagabalus used to "prank" his dinner guests by hiding lions in rooms around the house."
"He was actually a teenager during his rule, so it makes a little more sense"
"I like this guy."
"Everyone hated him and he was assassinated at 18."
My Words Are Bulletproof
"Teddy Roosevelt was giving a speech when an assassin took a shot at him. Teddy's speech was so thick, it stopped the bullet from killing him. Teddy not only CONTINUED the speech, but mocked the assassination attempt during it. Another fun teddy fact is that he was awarded the medal of Honor and the Nobel Peace prize, so he simultaneously holds the highest honor in both peace and violence."
"His speech was thick? What do you mean?"
"Written speech, folded up in his pocket."
Turns out a lot of silly stuff happened during World War II. While there's no shortage of films, video games, and documentaries dedicated to this intense period of world events, you might still be surprised about how much you don't know about it.
Wait, Who Are You--Wait, Who Am I--?
"Rommel once got lost during a reconnaissance flight and landed at a forward hospital Base to get his bearings. Only to discover it was a British Base. The Base in turn thought he was a foreign allied General coming for inspection and turned out for parade. He did a quick parade inspection and got out of there before anyone realised what had happened."
"The real funny thing about this story is he didn't realize he was in a British hospital until he was already touring the place. It finally dawned on him that everyone looked at him strangely whenever he spoke to them, and he suddenly noticed that everyone was speaking English. The funniest part is he finished the tour before he quickly got the hell out of there."
Rise Of The Undead Soldier
"100 russian "zombies" managed to make a couple thousand german soldiers retreat in ww1."
"Edit: Im talking here about the battle of Osowiec fortress, also known as the attack of the dead men. This particular fortress gave the germans some issues as artillery didnt do much. So Germany being Germany they decided to use chlorine gas. This gas is very nasty to get in contact with if you don't have gas masks, which the russians did not have. After the gas was mostly gone the germans went on an all out offensive thinking that all the defenders were dead. However roughly 100 soldiers managed to survive by wrapping wet clothes around their face. This however did not fully stop the gas. So when the germans encountered the russians they came to see soldiers with bloody cloths wrapped around their face coughing up bits of their own lungs. And these soldiers were shooting at the germans. The germans who assumed that all the russians had died got frightened at seeing this enemy and retreated."
I Scream, You Scream...
"During World War II, the US Navy had a ship dedicated entirely to serve ice cream to other ships in the fleet. It's purpose was to boost moral, but I think it served more to demoralize the Japanese. Imagine you are Japanese admiral. You are scrapping the bottom of the oil barrel just to keep your main battleship swimming while the Americans are dedicating resources to a barge of ice cream fun."
And then there's these stories which, upon reading, are far too insane to make up. You could ask a dozen first graders to write whatever they want and they'd never get close to these tales.
Has He Heard Of Goats?
"Fidel Castro wanted to breed tiny cows that his people could keep as indoor, milk producing, pets."
Oh Look. ACTUAL Voter Fraud.
"The most fraudulent election reported in history. In 1927 Charles D. B. King won the presidential election in Liberia with 234,400 received votes. But at that time Liberia just had 15,000 registered voters."
"That guy made it into the Guinness Book of Records."
...Ugh.
"Himler (the right hand of Hitler and commander of the SS) came up with the idea for the gas chambers as a more humane way to be executed so that his soldiers didn't have to shoot all the prisoners, something traumatizing for them"
"Good guy Himler at the forefront of mental health"
History is like storytime, except it's all real. Your world history teacher was right all along, it turns out.
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