People Share The Weirdest Things About Their Country's History

I don't know about the primary education system outside of the United States, but when you're in elementary through high school in the U.S., your history classes can get very repetitive. Despite the wide breadth and depth of our nation's history, my history classes always seemed to cover the same narrow focus over and over.

My history classes were very whitewashed and focused on projecting American exceptionalism.

In other words, boring.

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But in high school, I had a history teacher that knew our approved curriculum was just a rehash of the same information. So he made it interesting by sharing the trivia and hidden histories of the topics we were required to cover.

Like President William Howard Taft had a custom bathtub added to the White House which may have led to the unsubstantiated rumors that Taft—reportedly 6'2" and about 350lbs at his heaviest—got stuck in one of the standard sized White House tubs.

Taft's custom tub could accommodate four average sized adults, as shown in the famous 1909 photo of the tub. It was reported the tub was 7' by 41" and could hold 600 gallons of water.

National Archives

Taft’s original tub was removed from the White House during a renovation in 1952.

So, history can be interesting if the information is new and intriguing. And not all of the responses were from Australians—just very, very many of them.

Reddit user Arandombritishpotato asked:

"What is the weirdest thing about your country's history?"

Release of András Toma, Russia/Hungary, 2000

"The last WWII POW [prisoner of war] to be released was a Hungarian veteran named András Toma who wasn't released all the way until 2000."

"The reported reason for that—he was captured by Russians in 1944, who thought he was insane and speaking gibberish, so Toma was held captive at some Siberian mental asylum and just forgotten."

"Until a Slovak doctor came around in 2000 and noticed that he was, in fact, just speaking Hungarian."

~ Count_of_Borsod

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Irish Word Spacing, Middle Ages

"Ireland: we invented the space between words in Europe, soallyoursentencesdonotlooklikethis."

~ MichaSound

"It is true that medieval European languages were almost all written without spaces. Scriptio continua."

~ SpacemanWaldo

"Bless them for inventing it."

"I'm learning Thai which is still written without spaces between words and it's pretty time consuming to read (for a second language learner like me)."

~ touchkind

Poland vs. Japan, 1941

"Poland—we declared war on Japan and they refused to accept our war declaration."

~ Hot-Disaster-9619

"Polish government did not surrender in 1939 and escaped to France, where Polish Armed Forces in the West were forming, and finally, after the fall of France, escaped to London."

"Polish government-in-exile and its armed forced were an ally to UK and its allies."

"After Japanese attack on USA and UK forces in December 1941, both these countries declared war on Japan."

"Poland—just as US and UK allies—also declared war on Japan at 11 December 1941. Japan didn't accept this, arguing that this declaration was forced by UK. Polish forces did not take part in the fight against Japan in the Pacific arena."

"Diplomatic relations between Poland and Japan were very good before the war, for example intelligence agencies of both countries cooperated."

~ BronkyOne

Holger Danske, Denmark, mid 1100s

"In the cellar of one of our castles, we have a sleeping statue of a viking warrior called 'Holger Danske' [Ogier the Dane] and he supposedly will arise and defend Denmark if we are in danger."

"He obviously didn't think much of the Nazis since he slept right through that one, but I'm excited to see if the Americans can light a spark in him or something."

"That's probably more a myth than history."

~ Miews

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Treaty Of Friendship And Peace, United States/Morocco, 1786

"People think the French were the first country to recognize the United States' independence from Britain, but it was actually Morocco."

"Kind of a funny story actually. Ben Franklin was handling a good chunk of the diplomacy overseas, and had heard about the Moroccan Sultan's offer of diplomacy from a sketchy French merchant the French government had told him wasn't trustworthy."

"So it took a few years for us to get our sh*t together and send over an ambassador."

"I really wanna visit there someday. They've been pretty solid allies from the beginning."

~ abdomino

"The treaty we signed with them is still the longest standing treaty in US history."

~ FiveCatPenagerie

Disappearance of Harold Holt, Australia 1967

"We had our Prime Minister disappear while he was swimming."

"Never found him."

"So in his honour, we named a swimming pool after him."

~ Dumpstar72

"It's a sweet pool too, has a 10m diving platform and everything."

"Harold didn't die for nothing."

~ MrSlipperyFist

House Hippos PSA, Canada, 1999

"House hippos, Canada."

~ Fragrant-Policy4182

"The least effective PSA ever, which immediately made every kid believe in house hippos because they didn't pay attention to the last part."

~ Vandergrif

- YouTubeyoutu.be

Slavery Outlawed, Brazil, 1888

"Brazil—we were the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery."

"There are even people alive whose parents were legally enslaved."

~ noo-facee

Zambian Space Program, 1964

"Zambia—we had a cult that wanted to go to the moon and Mars."

"They made their own spacesuits and rockets."

~ Acrobatic-Fortune-99

* Spearheaded by elementary school teacher Edward Makuka Nkoloso, the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy—a title and organization invented by Nkoloso—had the goal of reaching the moon before the Russians or Americans.

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March Across the Belts, Dano-Swedish War, 1658

"Once Sweden almost took over Denmark because they walked over the frozen sea a particularly cold winter."

"So a law was made, that if it ever happened again, and the sea freezes, we are then allowed to beat every Swede who tries to cross, to dead with a stick."

~ Miews

* An an old law, which is still in effect, says that every Dane is entitled to beat any Swede with a stick, if the Swede comes walking across the frozen Øresund.

The law was made after Swedish forces walked across Øresund in 1658 and started invading Denmark, starting on Funen Island while moving towards Copenhagen.

Rum Rebellion, Australia, 1808

"Back in colonial days in Australia, rum was used as currency and the distribution of rum was controlled by the military."

"When the governor—William Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame—tried to limit the use of rum as currency and break the military’s monopoly, the military overthrew him and set up a military junta."

~ DalmationStallion

"Ah, forgot about the good old Rum Corps coup! Extra fun fact about that event, that is the only military takeover in Australia's history!"

~ Brozy386

Coffee Restrictions, Finland, 1700s-2015

"Coffee, that devil's bean, arrived to Finland around 1700 and has since been banned not once, not twice, not thrice but four times in Finland."

"Apparently it was too much fun for the common folk, it was considered unhealthy and needed to be banned. Every time the ban was lifted."

"And now, an average Finn consumes 10 kg of coffee per year! Also people used to drink coffee with salt here."

~ emilypeony

* Finns consume more coffee annually than any other country.

Power Usage Surge, United Kingdom, 1960s

"After Eastenders (Popular TV soap in the UK) finishes here, the national grid has to actually compensate for the extreme increase in demand for electricity due to everyone going for a cup of tea at the same time."

~ velvetxxtemptress

"Same whenever there is a big football game on (England playing or a Cup Final etc) at half-time as people use the break to put the kettle on."

~ TehBigD97

"That's not such a big issue nowadays. EastEnders only gets about 3.5m real-time viewers now. That's way down on when it started."

"There are so many channels, streaming services, recording capabilities, and archived iPlayer-type services that no one show can have the real-time live audience impact of 60 years ago, which was the heyday of mass viewing."

"In the 1960s, there were only 3 channels, and one of them was a bit too highbrow for mass audiences. A popular soap opera like Coronation Street [Corrie] on ITV, or a top sitcom like Steptoe and Son on BBC1, could get 20m live viewers."

"The ad break in the middle of Corrie and the end of either show caused a significant surge in electricity use, but nowadays, only special event shows like royal weddings or international football matches can even approach the live viewing figures of 60 years ago, despite the fact that there are 15 million more potential viewers in the UK since then."

"Steptoe and Son were so popular that one left-leaning British Prime Minister persuaded the BBC to postpone its broadcast on election night until after the polling stations closed, in case too many working-class voters stayed at home. Those days are long behind us."

~ TheRichTurner

The Great Emu War of Australia, 1932

"We declared war on emus."

"They won."

~ reflect-the-sun

"When you're led by someone named Major Gwynydd Purves Wynne-Aubrey Meredith, yeah, no sh*t the emus won."

"I suspect the majority of the war was spent at high tea."

~ Mad-Mel

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What hidden history would you add to the list?