Yes, the historical details you learn in school are fascinating, but everyone is aware of them. It’s the facts not many people know that make history truly fascinating!
For example, did you know that the longest year in history was over 400 days long?! And did you know that Hitler contributed to the creation of a car that is still in use today?
It makes you wonder how many things about the world’s history you actually know…
Well, here we’d like to educate you on some of the lesser-known history facts that they don’t teach you at school!
Prepare to be amused & amazed with this huge round-up of the top 100 craziest history facts you could ever know!
Winston Churchill had a Doctor’s note to drink an “indefinite” amount of alcohol in Prohibition America.
In addition to his famous speeches, cigars, stylish hats, and defiant hand gestures, Winston Churchill is well known for his passion for booze. Whiskey, in particular.
Churchill suffered from recurrent episodes of depression and chest pain following a traffic accident in 1931.
As a result, he was given a doctor’s note for his stay in the US in 1932. This allowed him to drink an “indefinite” amount of alcohol for his duration of time in the Prohibition-era United States.
In Ancient Greece, they believed redheads became vampires after death.
This was partially because, in contrast to the bronze Mediterranean Greeks, redheads have extremely pale skin and are sun sensitive.
In addition to the reality that Greek mythology contained a good deal of vampire folklore.
WWII led to the creation of America’s National School Lunch Program in 1946.
America was just out of a massive war that was depleting its resources. So why in the world would they be giving schoolchildren free food?
It is well known that food rationing persisted in Britain for nine years following the war.
This is due to the fact that the government realized by giving the children free meals, they would have a healthier draft pool if they ever needed it again.
Abraham Lincoln was a wrestling champion.
Abraham Lincoln was a passionate wrestler before becoming the 16th President of the United States. Out of 300 fights, he only lost one.
The purpose of the guillotine was to establish “equality in execution.”
One image that is commonly associated with France and the French Revolution is the guillotine.
Until its advent and widespread use, the regular methods of execution in France were rather savage. Penalties such as drawing and quartering were frequent.
The idea to use the guillotine as the main method of execution was part of the movement for equality in France that spurred the revolution.
This made citizens from all backgrounds equal in terms of death and execution.
The Soviet Union tried to snuff out the memory of Genghis Khan.
During the Soviet-era rule of the late 20th century, simply mentioning the great conqueror’s name was a crime against the USSR.
The Soviets banned pilgrimages to Khentii, the place of his birth, and took his story out of school textbooks.
In the early nineties, after Mongolia attained independence, he was reinstated as Mongolia’s national hero.
He was depicted on Mongolian banknotes and in popular culture and art.
Ferrets, dogs, and monkeys were the most popular pets in the Roman Empire.
The Romans employed ferrets to hunt down rodents like mice and rats instead of cats.
In addition, they employed dogs as guards and sentries and employed monkeys for amusement….. Because monkeys are funny.
Tablecloths were originally designed to be used as one big, communal napkin.
Though it’s not customary for children to wipe their mouths on tablecloths at the dinner table, that was their original purpose!
After a sloppy feast, guests were supposed to wipe their faces and hands on a tablecloth.
It would be deemed impolite to not do this!
An eye colour change occurred in a firefighter who had been exposed to so much radiation at Chernobyl.
On April 26, 1986, Vladimir Pravik was among the first firefighters to enter Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
There, his task was to contain the flames shooting out of the structure.
He was exposed to an astonishingly deadly dose of radiation while working his shift dousing the extremely radioactive flames of the burning reactor core.
His eyes turned blue instead of brown from the deadly dose.
After suffering from severe radiation poisoning for fifteen days, Vladimir perished, along with most of the first responders to the Chernobyl disaster.
Before Julius Caesar invaded Britain, many Romans didn’t believe it existed.
The first Roman to invade Britain was Julius Caesar. In the years 55 and 54 BC, he carried it out twice. Within the Roman Empire, views on Britain were largely divided until this point.
Some people thought that Britain was just the tip of another enormous northern continent. Others thought it was a place full of unbelievable riches, whilst most thought it just didn’t exist.
In a military sense, Caesar’s first invasion of Britain was a grave mistake.
Yet his invasion of the nation was a huge public relations success because of how legendary Britain is. He became legendary in the eyes of many Romans as a result.
Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian.
She belonged to the Ptolemy dynasty, which descended from Ptolemy, a general of Alexander the Great.
Her ancestors ruled over Egypt from the city of Alexandria. Named after… you guessed it, Alexander the Great.
Bonus information regarding the Ptolemy dynasty: Ptolemy was the name given to every male member of the dynasty. It makes learning about them really confusing.
The first person in her dynasty to speak Ancient Egyptian was Cleopatra.
The language of the ancient Egyptians is regarded as one of the hardest in history to learn. Well, Cleopatra was able to master it.
In addition to eight additional languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Troglodyte, Ethiopian, Syriac, Ancient Greek, Ancient Iranian, and Ancient Parthian.
More than 70 cities bear Alexander the Great’s name.
On the surface, that might sound a little egocentric, but Not to be overlooked, though, is the fact that Alexander the Great annexed more than two million square miles of land. And all of this was accomplished before he turned thirty.
So, yes, more than 70 cities might be a bit much.
But, if you’re a boy wonder with the world literally knelt at your feet, why not go a little crazy? Am I right?!
Roughly 97% of history is thought to have been lost to time.
Really, I can’t think of a more fitting fact to conclude this article with. Mainly because the chances are, you’ll only remember 3% of these history facts when you tell your friends later.
Not to mention all the lost historical accounts of the world, history is so subjectively documented. So it’s no surprise that what we know of our history is just a snapshot of the whole thing.
History was not written down until about 6,000 years ago. Additionally, 200,000 years ago marked the emergence of modern humans.
This 194,000-year gap is, in itself, huge.
However, considering all the historical writings lost over the years when written history did exist, it makes the mind wonder…
That’s the end of these Part 1 100 fun history facts!
We hope you learned something new that school didn’t teach you about history!
What was your favorite fact about history on this list? Or is there one we should really know? Tell us in the comments below!
