Even the most well-educated of people can’t say they know everything there is to know about history; it’s an endless supply of information, fascinating stories, and curious happenings, that would take forever to familiarize oneself with.
So, while we can’t provide you with all there is to know, we can share some interesting facts, to evoke your curiosity at least. Scroll down to find some of the most fascinating little-known facts, as shared by members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community, and see just how enthralling history can be and just how much there is still left to uncover.
#1
Humans developed agriculture around 12000 years ago. By storing grain, huge numbers of rodents flourished. Cats showed up to eat the rodents, and humans learned that if they took care of the cats, the cats would control the rodents. Therefore, it was the invention of agriculture that led to the domestication of the house cat.
Image credits: redvariation
#2
The Pony Express lasted only a year and a half.
TheAndrewBrown: It does seem to have been marketed heavily, but it was also one of the first ways to communicate across the country. It also went bankrupt because the telegraph was invented and made it obsolete, which led to it being romanticized like a lot of other “old west” stuff was that got replaced by newer technology. But it was a huge deal during that year and a half
Image credits: Civil-Resolution3662
#3
The Netherlands sends Canada 20,000 tulips every year for liberating them during WW2. The Netherlands also has a cemetery dedicated to Canadian fallen troops.
Image credits: redman9000
#4
The Statue of Liberty is a monument to the abolition of slavery, which is why there is a set of broken chains hidden near her feet.
Image credits: BlastLeatherwing
#5
Between 1864 and 1870 Paraguay fought a war with Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina that by some estimates killed as much as 70% of its population, with up to 90% of its adult male population dying or fleeing the country.
Image credits: Fourkoboldsinacoat
#6
Ancient Romans would put sandals on the hands of sleeping people then tickle their face so they would slap themselves.
Image credits: WhimsicalWhispere
#7
The Canadian-Denmark whiskey war was probably the most polite war ever. It involved a small island off the coast of Greenland. The Canadians claimed it by putting the Canadian flag and bottles of Canadian whiskey on the rock, and the Danes would replace it with schnapps and the Danish flag. Both sides reached an agreement to split the island in 2022. I’m guessing this is more well known to Canadians and Danes than some of the rest of us.
Image credits: censorized
#8
The Chinese sparrow hunt in 1960. It was to protect crops but it allowed invasions of locusts that no longer had a predator and this caused the great Chinese famine.
Image credits: NismanNoMurio
#9
Mongolian invasion of Japan was stopped by a typhoon. When they tried again, they were stopped by another typhoon. To this day these were the only two typhoons recorded in that place.
Image credits: treearemadeofbark
#10
From the 1930s to the 1970s, approximately one-third of Puerto Rico’s female population underwent sterilization.
Image credits: hippy_pimp
#11
Abraham Lincoln’s son (Robert Todd Lincoln) was present at three different presidential assassinations. After McKinley, he decided not to accept any more invitations.
Image credits: Remote-Building3208
#12
The reason we have coal is because trees weren’t biodegradable back then, so it just underwent the geological proces and formed underground under pressure and high temperatures.
The fungus that breaks down trees, only evolved 40 million years ago.
Image credits: SpidermanBread
#13
Humanity was likely nearly wiped out about 900,000 years ago when our ancestors were reduced to about 1280 breeding individuals and stayed around that many for 117,000 years.
Image credits: limbodog
#14
During prohibition, grape concentrate bricks called Vine-Glo were sold.
On the packaging, it included a very specific warning: “After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn into wine.”.
Image credits: Cassereddit
#15
When the Waikato tribes had overextended vs Taranaki tribes the future Māori King Pōtatau Te Wherowhero realised they were being lured into an ambush and tried to call his allies back.
It would have turned into a rout but he took up a kō (gardening stick – he didn’t even have his weapons with him) and struck down enemy chiefs in single combat repeatedly, till both sides stopped to watch, and retired for the day.
No wonder they chose him to be the first King.
Image credits: notanybodyelse
#16
Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States of America as an independent country.
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#17
More people died during the production of the V2 rocket than were killed by it as a weapon of war.
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#18
We have historic proof of the Lewis and Clark expedition because they took with them mercury pills. The mercury passed through their digestive tract and we’ve run into mercury ‘deposits’.
Image credits: AudibleNod
#19
A very recent historical fact that is weirdly not talked about as much as it should be — Microsoft had accumulated such a big monopoly over the personal computer market through the 80s and 90s that in 1997 Microsoft was nearly broken apart by the US government. In an attempt to avoid an investigation, Microsoft invested nearly $150 million into a then-failing Apple Computer to give the US government less ammunition in a potential anti-trust case. This saved Apple from bankruptcy and helped them to become one of the biggest tech companies in history. Microsoft, however, profited off of this investment. In 2003, Microsoft sold their shares in Apple for nearly $600 million.
Image credits: bbbbbthatsfivebees
#20
Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day.
Image credits: Idea_not_loading
#21
The magician Harry Houdini hated people who claimed to be psychics and clairvoyants so much that he once testified before congress in an attempt to get fortune readings and things like that made illegal.
#22
Bicycle face.
“In the 19th century, a mysterious condition called “bicycle face” was created to scare women from riding bicycles – **flushed cheeks, hard clenched jaw, bulging eyes** are just some of the symptoms”.
#23
When there are talks about colonization, the countries that always come to mind are England, Spain and France.
It’s pretty weird for me that most people forget the Netherlands and Portugal as they both had very impactfull collonies around the world.
I could understand if the case was that people would refer first to the oldest ones but, if that was the case, the Portuguese colonies should be refered as well, as they go as far back as the 1500’s.
#24
More than half the people who have ever died (Almost 50 Billion), are thought to of died from female mosquito bites.
#25
In the 1920s Liberia had a general election, which the True Whig party won with 243,000 votes.
There were 15,000 registered voters for the election.
#26
Pink was originally considered a masculine colour and was only popularised as a feminine colour in the 1940s.
#27
Antarctica wasn’t officially confirmed as a continent until 1820. Meaning that humans confirmed Uranus as a planet 40 years before Antarctica was confirmed as a continent.
#28
Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the Bible by hand that removed the whole first testament and any and all mentions and references to miracles and the supernatural. It’s called a Jefferson Bible and you can still get them.
#29
Portugal had a Death Queen and it is an insane real love story.
If you like Romeo& Juliette, search for the story of Dom Pedro and Dona Inês for the real life version of it.
Long story short: Dom Pedro was 1st in line to be the next king of Portugal so his father, the King, arranged a marriage suited for his position with a Spanish noble lady. But the future King fell in love with one of the ladies in waiting of his bride, Dona Inês.
They got married in secret and had a bunch of kids. The King didn't like that and sent his Knights to kill her. Dom Pedro went bat s**t crazy, found the Knights and killed them and ripped of the heart of one of the Knights.
Then he got the corpse of Dona Inês, put it on the throne and made the nobles pay allegiance to her by kissing her hand.
He still became King in the end. There is a lot more too this story but all of it is crazy but true facts. Portuguese Royals history is full of stuff that could be part of Game of Thrones.
#30
In WW2 the soviets played tango music to trapped Germans because they thought it sounded sinister.
#31
The “orchestra hit” sound effect popular in 80s and 90s pop/R&B music like Janet Jackson (and more recently by Bruno Mars) is a sample from Stravinsky’s piece The Firebird. So any time you hear the orchestra hit you’re hearing Stravinsky.
#32
The supreme court decided that Tomatoes are a vegetable not a fruit in 1893.
Image credits: iwrestledarockonce
#33
Coca Cola still uses coca leaves in their formula but just for the flavor. They are the only US company that is legally allowed to import coca leaves. The processed leaves are then sold to a pharmaceutical company.
Image credits: sn0m0ns
#34
Many people know about Neanderthals, but there were also other human species as well. Homo heidelbergensis and Denisovans the other ones that we know of that exited in the time of Homo Sapiens.
Image credits: space_llama_karma
#35
For Americans: the Coal Wars were a series of armed conflicts from the 1890s to the 1930s in which the exploitation of mining workers led to riots and then outright battles between the workers and the armed mercenaries hired by mining companies to terrorize and kill them. It culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, which ended when the United States Army was deployed on domestic soil to eliminate the strikers.
And then our nation collectively memory holed it because we wouldn’t want other exploited workers to get ideas.
Image credits: TimeViking
#36
In the early 1900s, the Tennessee Children’s Home Society was an illegal orphanage that kidnapped babies from poor households and sold them.
If you're interested, read the book Before We Were Yours.
Image credits: Reach-for-the-sky_15
#37
The Roman Emperor Caligula loved his horse, Incitatus, so much that he gave him a marble stall, an ivory manger, a jeweled collar, and even a house. Caligula also allegedly planned to make his trusty steed a senator before his assassination.
Image credits: scruffish
#38
Richard Nixon conspired with Saigon to win the 1968 presidential election. He interfered with the Johnson administration’s attempt at a peace treaty. This was literal treason and I feel that very few people know about it. The NYT wrote a piece about it in 2017.
Image credits: AlertOtter58
#39
During the Irish famine the Choctaw Nation from the USA sent financial aid to them and while a small amount at the time it was seen as a great gesture in return during Covid many Irish people donated money to the Navajo Nation to help them. There’s a statue in County Cork to commemorate it as well.
Image credits: Genybear12
#40
William Price
After cremating his son in 1884, he was arrested by those who believed cremation was illegal under English Law
He successfully argued that there was no legislation that specifically outlawed it, which paved the way for the Cremation Act 1902 and reintroduced Cremation into society as an alternative to burial.
I am directly related to him through my father’s side of the family.
Image credits: dolly3900
#41
Stegasaurous died out 145 million years ago, T Rex 72-65 million years ago, the Stegasaurous was as old to the T-Rex as the T-Rex is to us.
Grasses evolved about 70 Mya.
Image credits: Ok-disaster2022
#42
The tale of the dancing plague of 1518. In Strasbourg (modern-day France), a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing uncontrollably in the streets. Within a month, about 400 people had joined her. The phenomenon, now believed to be a case of mass hysteria or ergot poisoning, resulted in several deaths from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion.
#43
For over 100 years it was 100% legal to hunt members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) in Missouri.
For context they were Abolitionists, and the state decided they were growing so fast that they might soon vote to outlaw slavery.
#44
United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) had the CIA create a successful coup d’état in 1954 against a democratically elected president who was left leaning. The operation was code named PBSuccess.
#45
The first woman to receive a US military pension served in the American Revolution. Her name was Margaret Corbin. .
#46
The Victorians used to use treadmills as a method of punishment to prisoners and make them walk on them for 8 hours everyday. It’s weird we use them in gyms these days to help keep fit and never think about it like that.
#47
The Romans had communal bathrooms in which they would sit in a U shape and talk about business (as you do). Keep in mind that these bathrooms were mostly used by important people within the community.
Upon finishing the drop of the deuce, they would grab a sponge on a stick, found in a barrel of water beside the toilets, wipe their poopy butt with it, and then return it to the water barrel for the next person to use.
#48
The An Lushan Rebellion (755-763) caused the deaths of about 30 million people, which was equal to about 10% of the world’s human population at the time.
#49
The Catholic Church hired castrated pre-pubescent boys for centuries in order to retain the singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. They banned the practice in 1878.
#50
In general, most of the “peaceful” movements that resulted in freedoms we enjoy today (civil rights, labor organizing, anti-war protests, the anti-colonialist movements led by Gandhi and Mandela, etc), required **significant** direct action and targeted political violence in order to succeed.
#51
In the USA in 1900, the life expectancy was 46 years for men and 48 years for women.
On Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong broke a critical switch with his suit backpack that was needed for igniting the ascent engine. Buzz Aldren stuffed a pen into the switch to enable it to function for liftoff.
#52
The Great Emu War in Australia (1932) – soldiers armed with machine guns fought emus to protect crops. The emus won.
#53
A drunk driver wrecked a car into the most isolated tree in the world in the Sahara desert in the 70s. Killing it.
#54
Enrico Dandolo, the doge of Venice who was the first person to ever conquer Constantinople, was 90+ years old and blind when he did it. (With the help of the 4th crusade). He also go the entirety of Venice excommunicated for sacking a rival Christian city across the Adriatic.
#55
During WW2, the USA produced so many Purple Hearts, anticipating heavy losses in taking mainland Japan, that the surplus was still being used until the late 1990s.
#56
The guy who negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo technically had no right to complete the finalized treaty. Polk was unhappy with his negotiations and recalled him, but he ignored Polk’s order and continued negotiating. Polk was displeased with the result but submitted the treaty to the Senate anyway. In the end, a divided Senate approved the treaty with an odd assortment of people supporting it for very different reasons and opposing it for very different reasons.
#57
*Cracker*, when used as a slur for white people, doesn’t refer to the food. It refers to a slave owner cracking his whip.
#58
On property owned by a Mr. Wilber McLean, the American Civil War’s first engagement took place. In order to escape the war, he made the decision to relocate farther out into the countryside following the fight. Four years later, General Lee turned himself in to General Grant at Mr. McLean’s home. That was his land, where the fight began and finished.
#59
The late queen of England had two mentally disabled cousins who were abandoned in a mental hospital (Which was literally once called “The Asylum for Idiots”) and never claimed as part of the family, and they were even listed as dead for 47 and 26 years, respectively, before the truth came out.
George V was euthanized against his will because they thought it was more dignified to have his death reported in the morning news than the evening.
In Medieval Germany it was common for priests and nuns to literally enter symbolic marriages to Jesus and numerous religious books from the era mention the wedding nights.
There was a species of Tortoise on the Galapagos that was never fully catalogued at the time of Darwin’s expedition because it was so delicious no specimens made it back to the UK.
#60
That American orphanages used to trick vulnerable mothers into signing away custody of their children; then sell those babies to wealthy families. Many babies died. Etc.
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