Most of the events on the following list actually happened at some point in history, despite the fact that the majority of them sound like old wives tales meant to scare people and make them run away from the history books. I strongly believe that some of them could make great Hollywood movies. Who knows? Maybe we can inspire some producers! Meanwhile, let’s dig deep into some of the weirdest historical events from all around the globe.
…psst! Don’t forget to leave us a comment with the one you consider the most bizarre!
1. The 1515 Dancing “Plague”
Apparently, in 1518, all the people from the city of Strasbourg had a passionate desire to dance. The pandemonium started when Frau Troffea entered the street and started to discreetly sway, spin, and shake. After continuing her solitary dance marathon for almost a week, some three dozen additional Strasbourgeois soon joined in and began contracting the fatal disease.
Doctors were shocked about this, and they couldn’t even get a proper “treatment” for the disease. This hysteria lasted for three months, and a lot of people got heart attacks, exhaustion, and even strokes before it was completely gone. To this day, it is not known what caused this disease, and it was by far one of the weirdest historical events of all time.
Did you hear about this?
2. The current U.S. flag was designed by a 17-year-old student
Did you happen to know who designed our amazing flag? If the answer is no, I am not even surprised because few people know that it was a 17-year-old boy that made a sketch of the flag back in 1958. Despite the fact that it sounds weird, Robert did this for a school project, and it got rejected because his teacher said it had too many stars.
The kid got a B for the project, but he wasn’t discouraged at all! He went further and sent his project to the White House, where his drawing was chosen out of more than 2000 designs that were given to the president. Can you imagine how happy that kid was? On a funnier note, we’ve heard that his teacher changed his grade from a B to an A afterwards.
3. Violet Jessop- the sole survivor of Titanic And the Britannic
Known for her nickname “Miss Unsinkable,” Violet Jessop was a famous nurse on the White Star Line’s trio of Olympic-class transatlantic passenger ships. She was hired to work as a stewardess on the Olympic ship on its fifth voyage, but unfortunately, the ship crashed. Violet was lucky enough to get out of it without a single injury, and soon after the tragedy, she embarked on the Titanic. On the “Unsinkable” Titanic’s maiden voyage, Jessop assisted a number of women and children in boarding lifeboats before getting into one herself.
She even held a newborn baby on her lap while they floated aimlessly in the deep, frigid waters until the Carpathia rescued them. And the adventure was not over because Jessop embarked as a WWI nurse on the Britannic, the third ship in the fleet, unharmed by her prior experiences.
Up until a German U-boat mined it, the British military operated the commercial ship as a hospital in the Aegean Sea. The ship exploded and sank pretty soon with all its passengers on board, including Violet. Because she was one of the luckiest people alive, she managed to escape the disaster one more time without being harmed.
I think she was brave enough to continue her journey because she continued her career on cruise ships until she was 42 years old. What do you think about these historical events? Did they surprise you in any way?
4. For a moment in 1914, enemy soldiers of WWI stopped fighting to celebrate Christmas together
It’s a fact that Christmas brings people together, despite how hard the relationships between them are. This happened to the German and British soldiers that stopped fighting for a bit, crossed the middle ground, and started to share plum puddings, sing carols, and play a friendly soccer game on the 25th of December.
At first, when the British troops saw the Germans, they thought it might be an ambush, but they soon realized that the Germans were unarmed and that they wanted to be nice for Christmas.
This event was considered among the weirdest historical events because, after a slight sense of happiness, some of the soldiers had to carry the murdered comrades from the battlefield.
5. The marvelous furry hero who started in the Nazi navy in WWII and survived 3 sinking ships
We’ve mentioned Violet Jessop, who was nicknamed “The Unsinkable,” and it was almost hard to believe that she managed to survive three huge disasters. And now we must remind everybody about “Unsinkable Sam,” who was a brave cat that survived three sinking ships during his “service.”
His first journey was on the Nazi ship Bismarck, which was sunk by another famous ship, the Cossack, in 1941. After the sinking of the ship, a cat was floating on a piece of wood, and some members of the British crew saw it and took it with them. The cat traveled with them on the Cossack until the ship sank and killed almost 200 people, but not the lucky cat.
Sam survived the third attack as well, and then he “retired” in Belfast. He was a long-lived cat because he lived 14 years after the sinking of the Bismarck (he was almost 3 years old when the event took place).
6. Alexander the Great named 70 cities after himself
We all know that Alexander the Great was among the most important leaders in world history, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do any weird stuff during years of reigning. Apparently, he wasn’t satisfied with just his conquests because he wanted people to remember him and his name, so he named 70 cities after himself and one of them after his horse.
Surprisingly, the commander’s name is not mentioned in his most expensive war in India. Instead, Alexander decided to honor his adored horse, Bucephala, who died in the battle, by naming the battleground close to the Hydaspes River.
What do you think of Alexander the Great’s boldness? Did you know about this historical event?
7. Hitler killed more white people than anyone before (or after) him
The Holocaust was undeniably one of the worst historical events that happened, and nobody could ever forget about it. Regarding Hitler, there is a further intriguing truth that is frequently disregarded, which is that over 95% of his victims are thought to have been white, despite the fact that he is portrayed in movies and other media as the ultimate embodiment of bigotry and white supremacy. Furthermore, a lot of modern historians contend that the reason Hitler is so despised is that he mostly targeted white people for death.
He is also chastised for the majority of his victims being white Europeans rather than Asian, African, and Arab victims of British colonialism (as well as other traditional forms of colonialism such as French, Belgian, Dutch, Italian, and Wilhelmine Germans).
8. During The 1521 Battle Of Tenochtitlan, The Conquistadors built a catapult that would break up
In 1521, Hernan Cortes and his army caused the collapse of the Aztec Empire. Despite the fact that during most battles, their weaponry was technologically advanced compared to others, one of them ended in a manufacturing disaster. Apparently, they built a catapult that was ruined soon after the first use, even if it took almost five days to build it.
They were running out of gun powder, and something had to replace the firearms while fighting against the Aztecs. Can you imagine that this event was so disastrous that the soldiers on the battlefield wrote about it in their diaries? At that time, this historical event was not necessarily funny, but it is now for sure.
If you enjoyed reading this article about weird historical events, you should check out more! Today’s suggestion is: 11 Geniuses Who Never Made Money Off Their Inventions.
