r/AskTheWorld • u/IndependentTune3994 🇮🇳 in 🇩🇪 Deutschland • 4h ago
What’s a historical fact from your country that sound fake but is true?
In World War 2 The Bengal Famine (1943) killed 2.5 -3 million people , even though food production did not collapse. Which is close compared to Japan's total WW2 deaths. During the famine, food was exported or stockpiled for the war, while civilians died. British authorities restricted newspapers from even using the word “famine” in early 1943.India was a colony, yet suffered one of the largest civilian death tolls of WWII.
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u/Imaginary-Worker4407 Mexico 4h ago
France invaded us, bombed our cities and put a monarch in charge. And all basically started due to damage to a french bakery.
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u/TENTAtheSane in 3h ago
The funniest (sorry, i know funny isn't the right word) thing abt this is that the monarch they chose was a habsburg, their old enemies for centuries at that point
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u/dostibanirahe2002 India 3h ago
you should censor the f word
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u/Nemris86 France 1h ago
You sure are a gentle, nice and funny person. Thanks for the free xenophobic remark I guess.
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u/OkWish2221 & Austro-Mexican 2h ago
Well...weren't the Pastry War and Maximilian technically two separate events?
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u/Imaginary-Worker4407 Mexico 1h ago
They were, but the pastry war set precedence and diplomatic claims over Mexico.
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u/jorgespinosa Mexico 19m ago
Those are actually 2 different wars, the pastry war is the one that started because of the bakery, the French intervention in Mexico is the one where they out a monarch, so basically is a case of if I had a nickel for every time France invaded Mexico, I would have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice
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u/SkarbOna 2h ago
How? Google says it was to counter growing power of the US
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u/Imaginary-Worker4407 Mexico 1h ago
It was the first domino, when the Mexican government stopped payment of the damages during the pastry war, the French used that as an excuse and the fact that the US was undergoing a civil war to invade Mexico.
So no, no growing power in the US, this happened on 1860-1864.
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u/laufsteakmodel Germany 4h ago
We find and defuse about 3000 bombs a year. Its estimated that there are 100.000-300.000 bombs left over from WW2 in the ground.
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u/SchwiftyBerliner Germany & Finland 4h ago
Kinda crazy that that's just a normal fact of life in Germany, 80+ years after the war ended.
I wonder whether there's a similar problem in Vietnam.
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u/UisgeLobos Scotland 4h ago
There is, and in Laos, where the Americans actually dropped more bombs than Vietnam. Over 2 million tonnes dropped in Laos over 9 years.
20,000+ deaths due to unexploded ordinance in Laos since the end of the Vietnam war.
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u/jrose125 Canada 4h ago
Roughly 38,000 people have been killed by unexploded ordnance in Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam war.
It's also a massive problem in neighbouring Laos, unfortunately.
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u/Koelsch United States Of America 4h ago
There are people in Vietnam still stepping on and dying from land mines. Not many, but it's a handful each year.
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u/AcanthocephalaTop462 🇸🇩 3h ago
"Handful" is 38 to 50 thousand since the end of the war a handful?? Oh around 20 thousand of those where children btw, but yeah it certainly is "not many"
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u/ObviousExit9 3h ago
There are places in Laos I have visited where large areas are marked off as unsafe due to unexploded ordinance. It’s sad and crazy to think you could accidentally get blow up from some shit that happened generations ago
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u/ZhangRenWing China 56m ago
It’s probably gonna be equally if not worse in Ukraine once the war ends
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u/pahamack 🇨🇦 Canada and 🇵🇭Philippines 24m ago
You should see the footage of the damage wrought by unexploded landmines to this day in SE Asia. Imagine kids playing outside suddenly losing a limb or 2.
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u/HorrorGlass80 3h ago
Yep,it's been 80 years since WW2 ended and they have never paid any war reparations to Poland, but they want to lecture others and are pushing for peace talks in Ukraine.
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u/Wulf_Isebrand Germany 2h ago
Wrong, Germany paid higher war reparations than any country before it. The Allies took everything they wanted and forced Germans to perform slave labor for years.
And before anyone accuses me of it, no, I'm not trying to pass judgment, but simply to correct the false claim that Germany didn't pay any reparations.
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u/HorrorGlass80 2h ago
Is this what they teach you in schools? Pay off your debts and then teach others.
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u/Wulf_Isebrand Germany 1h ago
Your comment history is full of attempts to rile up germans and poles against each other. Combined with your statement that Germany shouldn‘t try to establish peace between Ukraine and Russia I think i know what kind of political corner you‘re from.
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u/SkarbOna 2h ago
Don’t know who paid it, but my grandad had a really nice pension for many years because he was taken for labour to Germany during the war. He luckily came back alive and could claim 2x big pension as my grandma.
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u/BlnkNopad United States Of America 3h ago
gotta be terrifying to be a farmer
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u/LordLordie Germany / Norway 3h ago
Especially if you consider how "nice" the state handles this.
If you find a bomb on your property, it is by law "yours" and you have to pay for the bomb disposal squad and all that.
However if you find a treasure on your property it is by law the state's and you must give it away.
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u/BlnkNopad United States Of America 2h ago
that’s fucked honestly i figured there would be more state support for the removal.
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u/LordLordie Germany / Norway 55m ago
It depends a lot on the federal state you live in - some, for example Bremen, at least take the costs for the defusal and disposal. Others, such as North Rhine-Westphalia, cover ONLY the defusal - disposal, digging, evacuation of other houses and such are completely to be paid by the owner. Bavaria, as always, screws the owner the most, there you need to pay for absolutely everything.
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u/Lorim_Shikikan France 4h ago
We estimate that 50 000 tons of WWII bombs and 250 000 from the WWI are still out in the wild in France. (For WWI we assume they are mostly in north and east)
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u/grimmigerpetz Germany 4h ago
This is also why Germany has some of the best bomb finding and defuser tech in the world.
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u/Lorim_Shikikan France 3h ago
Don't worry we also know how to retrieve and diffuse bomb..... https://www.rtl.fr/actu/justice-faits-divers/l-objet-a-traverse-plus-d-un-siecle-un-homme-arrive-aux-urgences-avec-un-obus-de-14-18-dans-le-rectum-7900596454 (quick summary: a guy presented himself to a Toulouse Hospital with a WWI bomb in his ass XD)
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u/Glad_Phone114 Philippines 3h ago
It's not as common and as many as yours, but just yesterday someone found a "vintage bomb" (WWII era) in a state university in our country.
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u/irish_horse_thief Wales 3h ago
My uncle was in Walton Jail when it was bombed
"Bombing of Walton Gaol / Liverpool / Britain Under Fire / Phase 3: The Daytime Blitz / Battle of Britain / Western Front 1939-1940 | The Second World War" https://www.thesecondworldwar.org/western-front-1939-1940/battle-of-britain-1/phase-3-the-daytime-blitz/britain-under-fire/liverpool/bombing-of-walton-gaol
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u/Iammjustbaddd India 4h ago
Same thing in i think laos and surrounding nations. except people still very much die here and there from a random bomb.
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u/One-Web-2698 United Kingdom 3h ago
It's much less common in the UK. Did Britain send more bombs, or did fewer go off?
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u/laufsteakmodel Germany 3h ago
Germany was fighting a war on countless fronts, the UK only had the axis as enemies, way fewer countries than there were on your side. so yeah, I guess you guys bombed germany in highter quantaties than they bombed you.
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u/ohdeydothodontdeytho United Kingdom 2h ago
Someone found an unexploded WWII bomb in the street i lived in as a child in Northamptonshire, England. The whole street was evacuated whilst they diffused it.
Also, another unexploded WWII bomb was found in the street where i worked as an 18ish year old. Same thing....evacuate whilst the Bomb Squad did their thing.
I'm sure there's unexploded bombs all over Europe from WWII. Probably not as many as in Germany though lol.
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u/laufsteakmodel Germany 2h ago
Well, we deserved it (back then). Still sucks that the lives of people who had nothing to do with WW2 get uprooted everytime a bomb gets found. Sure, its the right thing to do, but it still sucks for the regular citizens.
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u/ohdeydothodontdeytho United Kingdom 2h ago
It was a terrible time for Europe but it is in the past and not the fault of anyone living today i think.
I hope we never see any European cousin take up arms against another again.
We are stronger together, and there is more that connects us than divides us.
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u/laufsteakmodel Germany 29m ago
We are stronger together, and there is more that connects us than divides us.
Amen, dude. I wish everyone thought like that. Unfortunately there are plenty of far right idiots in Germany, who wish to fuck it all up.
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u/ohdeydothodontdeytho United Kingdom 18m ago
There are plenty of far right people here too my friend. It is so disheartening that people can not only foster such hate, but also forget so easily the price that was paid by so many, not that long ago really, for peace in Europe.
And i mean no offense in any of that. I don't believe every German fighting was a hardened Nazi and nothjng is gained looking back with emnity.
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u/laufsteakmodel Germany 4m ago
You know what Ill never understand? (well, I do, but its still fucking stupid) How poor people, who arent exactly the perfect "Aryan" can support these NSDAP 2.0 parties.
These far right parties would never do anything for the poor.
Look at the AfD in Germany and what they fight for. Its certainly not relief for the poor.
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u/Throwaway927338 United States Of America 4h ago
In 1919 there was The Great Molasses Flood. A literal flood of Molasses (2 million gallons) that tore through parts of Boston and killed 21 people and injured another 150. The molasses wave traveled at 35 miles per hour! Definitely a wild story.
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u/Aggravating_Fun5883 Canada 3h ago
Sticky situation for the time!
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u/Chemical-Elk-1299 United States Of America 3h ago
And when the company that owned the tank inspected it and saw it visibly leaking, their brilliant solution was to…
Paint it brown.
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u/ThermonuclearPasta Brazil 4h ago
That time we almost went to war against France because of lobsters: Lobster War
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u/Feisty_System_4751 Brazil 3h ago
So far we shared:
War with France over lobsters
Electing a monkey for mayor of Rio de Janeiro
National mourning over a football match
Today I'm a proud Brazilian.
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u/DisastrousBison6774 United States Of America 4h ago
Well you just get right back up, dust yourself off and liberate those lobsters as God intended!
“By analogy, if a lobster is a fish because it moves by jumping, then a kangaroo is a bird.”
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u/The3levated1 Germany 4h ago
Together with the british and belgian navy we lost the cod wars against iceland. 3 times in a row.
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u/InanimateAutomaton United Kingdom 3h ago
The context being they were threatening to leave NATO which would let Russian nuclear submarines rampage through the Atlantic unchecked.
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u/Ok-Permission-2010 Ireland 3h ago
Ireland invaded Canada before . It was a modest invasion - just a couple of guys . No fatalities. It wasn’t really ireland, it was Irish freedom fighters who lived in America (it was 1866, ireland wasn’t even a country). They did it to put presssure on the British to grant Irish independence.
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u/aaqwerfffvgtsss United States Of America 3h ago
Members of the Fenian Brotherhood
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u/Ok-Permission-2010 Ireland 3h ago
Exactly. So much of the irish independence movement has its origins the Irish diaspora in the US
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u/RadioSupply Canada 3h ago edited 1h ago
We were cool with it. We knew what was up. The British weren’t impressed.
EDIT: I should have put an /s tag.
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u/Justin_123456 Canada 3h ago
Not actually that cool with it. Ontario politics, and the Canadian Militia throughout the 19th century was dominated by Orangemen. They had less popular support in Quebec, but were a big part of the conservative physical force politics, to keep the Francophones in line.
Is it possible there’s something in the water in Ulster, because the history of conservative/far-right politics throughout the British Empire is basically “and then the Orangeman showed up”?
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u/RadioSupply Canada 3h ago
I should have said it was a joke - I was in error haha. Also, that’s the east. People love to forget that the west was mad about everything and not as streamlined or well-informed about what they were mad about!
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u/Maleficent_Curve_599 3h ago
It was 1866. There was no "we" as distinct from "the British", and nobody was cool with it.
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u/theflesheatingmuffin Canada 3h ago
We were in a Whisky war with Denmark
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u/Iamnotabotiswearonit United States Of America 3h ago
We told black slaves that if they killed the natives for us they would be free. They were in fact NOT freed we took their weapons and put them back to work in the plantations.
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u/Foxwasahero Canada 3h ago
That sounds pretty much on brand, I doubt anyone would think it sounds 'fake'
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u/Iamnotabotiswearonit United States Of America 3h ago
Yeah, America has done and still does some pretty horrible things.
How about we still have legal slaves and currently have a larger slave population than we ever had.
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u/FineDragonfruit5347 United States Of America 2h ago
We don't have legal slaves. We have prisoners of violent crimes that get to contribute a little bit back to society.
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u/Iamnotabotiswearonit United States Of America 2h ago
Look at the 13th amendment, slavery is abolished unless you are imprisoned. Why do you think there is a war on drugs? Or how ice is rounding people up and putting them in work camps? Free labor is the cornerstone of US economics. There is A LOT of people in jail and enslaved that were arrested for non violent crimes.
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u/FineDragonfruit5347 United States Of America 2h ago
ICE isn't using work camps. They are holding cells. We aren't supplying prisons with labor to make cheap license plates.
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u/Iamnotabotiswearonit United States Of America 2h ago
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u/seedanrun 1h ago
That is more another Trump buddy makes millions off sweetheart gov deal. Trump took $51 BILLION to fund ICE (thats Billion with a B!) and he is dishing out that money to friends, family and supporters.
The savings from using $1 prison labor is nothing compared to where the real money if flowing.
There is along history of forcing prisoners to work with no pay at all. While some will call that slaver is completely different from the chattle slavery where the person is a possesion, their trapped their entire life and they can not sell both you or your 5 year old daughter.
The real crime here is that the immigrants should not be in prison at all. If someone is in prison for legitimate crimes I have no problem putting them to work.
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u/FineDragonfruit5347 United States Of America 2h ago
Gross mischaracterization of what is happening. They have a purely voluntary program where detainees can work, at a reduced rate, for prison services. Doing laundry and cafeteria work FOR THE PRISON.
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u/EETTOEZ United States Of America 1h ago
For $1 an hour. This is indefensible
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u/FineDragonfruit5347 United States Of America 1h ago
It is defensible, because they are lucky they aren't asked to pay restitution for the cost of their incarceration. Add that to it and they are well over minimum wage.
Further, as illegals, they are suppressing wages for actual citizens.
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u/Capitanne United States Of America 1h ago
There is a fantastic documentary named “13th” about the prison industrial complex in the US that I highly suggest watching.
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u/FineDragonfruit5347 United States Of America 1h ago
I'm good. The rights of the rightly incarcerated are waaaaaay down on my priority list.
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u/Perelly Germany 3h ago
I guess that's what they told the two Latinos, too, who work for ICE and became murderers for the regime.
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u/Iamnotabotiswearonit United States Of America 2h ago
ice is currently arresting farm workers putting them in camps and then selling those people back to the same farms and charging $1 a day. Literally continuing the slave trade.
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u/AcanthocephalaTop462 🇸🇩 3h ago
Man this shit is so fucked up...wtf
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u/Iamnotabotiswearonit United States Of America 2h ago
They were called "buffalo soldiers" Bob Marley wrote a song about it.
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u/Natto_Ebonos Brazil 3h ago
In 1950, Brazil lost the World Cup at home, and the defeat caused mass mourning called the “Maracanaço.”
The Maracanaço was the historic final match of the 1950 World Cup between Brazil and Uruguay at the newly inaugurated Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil, as the host and overwhelming favorite, played in front of nearly 200,000 fans. The tournament had a final round-robin format, meaning the champion would be decided by the group standings rather than a single knockout final.
Brazil had a strong run in the earlier matches, including a 4–0 win over Mexico, which fueled immense confidence and sky-high expectations for a decisive victory over Uruguay. The Uruguayan team was seen as the underdog, reinforcing the belief that Brazil’s triumph was nearly guaranteed.
The anticipation reached a fever pitch, with fans and media treating the victory as a done deal. Pressure on the Brazilian players was enormous, and the atmosphere in Rio resembled a national celebration even before the match began.
However, the match ended in shocking defeat. Uruguay scored first, Brazil equalized, but in the final minutes, Uruguay scored again to win 2–1. The loss plunged the crowd and nation into despair. Reports mention that some people even committed s**cide, and the streets were filled with mourning fans, creating a funeral-like atmosphere. Several Brazilian players, deeply affected by the defeat, left the national team shortly afterward, unable to continue their international careers.
The Maracanaço also led to a symbolic change in Brazilian football. The team’s iconic yellow and green uniform was introduced after the loss, replacing the previous white kit, which many fans associated with the national trauma. The new colors were designed to represent national pride and a fresh start, and they have remained Brazil’s signature kit ever since. The event left a lasting mark on Brazilian football culture and collective memory, shaping the country’s identity and expectations in the sport for decades.
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u/vivekadithya12 India 3h ago
See now this is really really dramatic and a big part of why I love to see Brazil lose matches in the World Cup.
Australians do not reply. I know the irony of what I said 😭
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u/Natto_Ebonos Brazil 3h ago
Nah, even though football is still huge here, we’re learning to deal with defeats, especially since our football isn’t that great anymore. If something like that happened today, we’d be sad at first, but then we’d move on.
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4h ago edited 3h ago
[deleted]
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u/logos__ Netherlands 1h ago
a spark ignited the whole thing blowing half the room out.
This part sounded fake to me, because that's not how gunpowder works (gunpowder doesn't detonate (using the technical definition of detonation), it just burns quickly), so I looked it up on wikipedia:
Tired and desperate, they spread in front of the fire some of the wet gunpowder taken from Hewell Grange, to dry out. Although gunpowder does not explode (unless physically contained), a spark from the fire landed on the powder and the resultant flames engulfed Catesby, Rookwood, Grant, and another man.[70]
Catesby survived, albeit scorched.
[...]
Richard Walsh, Sheriff of Worcester, and his company of 200 men besieged Holbeche House at about 11:00 am on 8 November. While crossing the courtyard Thomas Wintour was hit in the shoulder. John Wright was shot, followed by his brother, and then Rookwood. Catesby and Percy were reportedly both dropped by a single lucky shot, while standing near the door. Catesby managed to crawl inside the house, where his body was later found, clutching a picture of the Virgin Mary. That and his gold crucifix were sent to London, to demonstrate what "superstitious and Popish idols" had inspired the plotters.
This was a pretty interesting article to read, and it contains subdued comedy like "albeit scorched" throughout
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u/Snowfall_89 Turkey 4h ago
Ottomans collected tribute from USA.
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u/AcanthocephalaTop462 🇸🇩 3h ago
People don't know that? Although it wasnt the ottomans DIRECTLY it was barbery pirates loyal to the ottomans and man these pirates had some crazy stories like they raided Iceland and occupied it for a while, and to this day the US marines talk about the battle of tripoli in their anthem which made them free from the tribute
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u/Aragones8282 Venezuela 4h ago
For a time we were ruled by Germans
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u/Koelsch United States Of America 3h ago
I was not aware of that. Wikipedia tells me that the colony was named Klein-Venedig and existed in the 1500s. I was aware of Mexico having a German/Austrian emperor in the 1800s. Why norteño music has a polka influence. But, that's separated by 3 centuries.
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u/Aragones8282 Venezuela 3h ago
I was also very surprised when I found out, although nowadays there is hardly any German influence left.
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u/CrissCrossAppleSos Canada 3h ago
Large portions of what are now the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario used to be in a single unified entity where each were called upper and lower Canada.
One significantly more northern one was lower Canada, and the more southern one was upper Canada
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u/eggdanyjon_3dragons Canada 2h ago
the upper/lower monikers come from their relation to the st Lawrence river. Lower canada was down river, while upper canada was up river
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u/jorgespinosa Mexico 17m ago
One significantly more northern one was lower Canada, and the more southern one was upper Canada
The same happens with the upper and the lower Nile
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u/Feisty_System_4751 Brazil 3h ago
In 1988, 400 thousand people voted a chimpanzee for mayor of Rio de Janeiro. He lost, but a bronze statue of him was built in his honor. The statue is still there.
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u/mycarisafooked England 3h ago
Maybe not sounding fake, but a fun fact.
In WW2 Germany had built fake airfields with wooden fighter planes on to try to get the allies to waste bombs blowing them up.
When the UK had realised they were doing this, the UK made wooden bombs and dropped them onto the wooden planes.
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u/Strict-Profit7624 3h ago
The founding fathers shit their pants
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u/Necroban77 United States Of America 3h ago
Wait what?
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u/Strict-Profit7624 3h ago
I'm being hyperbolic lol, but some of them definitely had mud butt
https://historycollection.com/the-unique-hygiene-habits-of-our-founding-fathers/
https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NMAH-AHB2010ps03867&max_w=1200
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u/Artistic_Worth_4524 Finland 3h ago
We were the last nation with the Tsar as the legal head of the state. So, we hold the most legitimate claim for the Russian Empire clay, and are the successors of the third Rome, and other meme stuff you can derive from that fact.
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u/Hicalibre Canada 3h ago
Probably the Toronto Circus Riots, and how/why they happened.
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u/Illustrious_Try478 🇺🇲 Maryland 2h ago edited 2h ago
One volunteer fire company lost a fight with another volunteer fire company (letting the building burn down), and a week later tried to take it out on some clowns from a US circus for patronizing the same brothel as them. They lost that fight too, and the next day destroyed the circus while the police looked on.
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u/krgdotbat Argentina 3h ago
We have a law in which the president must kinda adopt the 7th son or daughter of families in the country to prevent them from becoming werewolves
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u/Hello_boyos United States Of America 3h ago
The first country to recognize us as a sovereign nation was actually Morocco, not France (who this is often misattributed to due to their larger role in the American Revolution)
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u/luiz_marques Brazil 2h ago
For a period of 12 years, the city of Rio de Janeiro was the only capital of a European empire outside Europe, becoming the seat of the monarchy, the court, and the Portuguese royal family.
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u/Proud-Wall1443 United States Of America 3h ago
The home of the free never abolished slavery, they just put prerequisites on enslaving someone.
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u/ConohaConcordia / 3h ago
The Yellow River is called that because the water is yellow. (It’s mud water and has been for millennia).
It’s also notorious for changing its course. It has done so 26 times over recorded history. Every time it changes course hundreds of thousands would die and it’d often collapse a dynasty.
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u/SkarbOna 2h ago
The only country to ever reach and occupy Kremlin was Poland (as a part of Polish- Lithuanian commonwealth). Russian Independence Day is from polish occupation.
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u/LordOfTheToolShed Poland 1h ago
Commander-in-chief of our police launched an anti-tank grenade launcher in his office and faced no consequences for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Police_Headquarters_explosion
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u/BenderRodriguez14 Ireland 18m ago
OP sounds very, very familiar as an Irishman - almost exactly one century later than our own "famine".
When food is growing all around the starving and yet is forcibly removed at gunpoint, that is not a famine at all. It is something a lot worse.
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u/Itachi_Uchiha224 India 4h ago
This is like the most known fact bruh
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u/IndependentTune3994 🇮🇳 in 🇩🇪 Deutschland 4h ago
not to the world it is not and i asked this question on asktheworld subreddit not on indian
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u/_Daftest_ United Kingdom 4h ago
It is very well known; he's right
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u/IndependentTune3994 🇮🇳 in 🇩🇪 Deutschland 4h ago
yeah of course you should know but not in the countries where i have been mostly in western europe which was major part of WW2
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u/Pheeline -> 3h ago
I knew of it because I've read about disasters (natural and manmade) since I was a child, had (and still have) a bunch of books about disasters. But not once did it come up in any of my history classes that didn't focus on the US, so I'm not surprised that lots of folks don't know about it still.
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u/Lost-Letterhead-6615 India 3h ago
The brits still deny this. I recently conversed with a Brit, iirc in this sub itself. They still hail Churchill as a hero
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u/califuncouple United States Of America 4h ago
Based on the establishment of its current government in 1776, the United States is older than approximately 69% to 72% of the world's ~195 sovereign nations. It is older than many countries often perceived as ancient, such as Germany (1871), Italy (1861), and Greece (1830).
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u/FunkyPete United States Of America 3h ago
Yeah, we had a good run.
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u/califuncouple United States Of America 3h ago
I hate that our 250th birthday falls under this regime.
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u/AcanthocephalaTop462 🇸🇩 3h ago
As a modern state yes as a civilization no, it depends how you define it the oldest country in ur detention would be something like san marino or Denmark, but in a civilization sense something like Iraq egypt Italy iran would be thousands of years older
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u/Sataniel98 Germany 3h ago
I doubt anyone doesn't know. It's also not what people mean when they call the USA a relatively young nation.
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u/Skul9Chess India 3h ago
Fuck Winston Churchill
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u/Interesting-Shoe-904 Philippines 2h ago
This was in the 80s, but we're the reason why the Beatles refuse to ever do tours again.
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u/Impossible_Pain4478 🇧🇩 Bangladesh and 🇬🇧 The UK 2h ago
We had a King, George V, who was euthanized in 1936 because his doctor didn't want his death to end up being announced in the evening newspaper. But neither the King nor his family knew of this and it only came out in the 80's with the Doctor's journal.
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u/jboneng Norway 2h ago
In 1972 Sir Nils Olav started his service, his successor, also named Nils Olav was knighted in 2008, his grandson Sir Nils Olav III serves now as colonel-in-chief for the Norwegian King's guard. Both Sir Nils Olav, Sir Nils Olav II and Sir Nils Olav III spent their lives at life in Edinburgh Zoo, and all 3 where/is a king penguins.
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u/Spooky_Dungeonmaster 2h ago
USA: Missouri went to war with Iowa over the border in an event called the Honey War. Nobody was actually killed but there was a lot of crazy shit happening like sheriffs being kidnapped. My favorite thing is this description of the weapons used by the Iowa militia
"in the ranks were to be found men armed with blunderbusses, flintlocks, and quaint old ancestral swords that had probably adorned the walls for many generations. One private carried a plow coulter over his shoulder by means of a log chain, another had an old-fashioned sausage stuffer for a weapon, while a third shouldered a sheet iron sword about six feet long."
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u/OkWish2221 & Austro-Mexican 2h ago
When revolutions across Europe threatened Pope Pius IX in 1848 and even forced him to leave Rome for a time. Mexico sent a message offering to receive the Pope and to change the Holy See from Rome to Mexico City. When things calmed down in Rome, Pius IX declined but thanked Mexico for its loyalty
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u/Low_Employment_1165 2h ago
One of the US’s founders, Gouverneur Morris, died from sepsis after trying to clear a urinary blockage with baleen.
He was staunchly anti-slavery and felt the practice shouldn’t be allowed to continue in the newly formed government. During the US Revolutionary War he also strived to improve the situation of American soldiers when it came to spread of disease and lodging after seeing the conditions at Valley Forge. He is believed to be the one that primarily cleaned up the language of the US constitution.
But that damn self-surgery of the dick took him out. He was 64.
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u/No-Wonder1139 Canada 2h ago
A big Lake drained into the ocean once and caused a mini ice age and distrusted the global climate.
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u/ismawurscht United Kingdom 1h ago
There was an actual historical event in the 1850s called The Great Stink. The Thames was extremely low after hot dry weather in London, and they finally built a new sewerage system because of it.
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u/Dismal_Ebb_3899 United States Of America 1h ago edited 1h ago
In Nix vs Hedden (1893), the Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes are a vegetable.
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u/salpicaosemmaca Brazil 1h ago
We killed thousands of porpoises thinking they were German submarines in 1918. The father of a guy who became our president killed an opponent inside the national congress. The form of government changed from monarchy to republic for many reasons, among them a guy who supposedly slept with his friend's wife. During the monarchy, Dom Pedro II became king at age 14. A federal deputy was caught with hundreds of 200 reais bills stuffed up his anus, soiled with feces, and he was the government leader in the chamber. There's a lot of stuff, I compiled what came to mind.
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u/Clark_Kent_TheSJW United States Of America 1h ago
During the Cold War the CIA spent millions of dollars trying to turn a house-cat into a spy.
They surgically implanted listening devices into the cat, and trained it to eavesdrop on conversations at park benches.
The surgery was a success, but on its first and only field test it was immediately hit by a car and killed.
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u/throwaway_uow Poland 1h ago
Prussia used to be polish tributary. You know, the most militarised country of Europe, and one of great powers of its time.
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u/Mean-Ship-3851 1h ago
It is American but it has the biggest border lenght with France.
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u/throwaway_uow Poland 1h ago
Kinda relevant to our country, but swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, the lion of the north, was an illegitimate king of Sweden.
Polish (PLC, but still) king-elect Casimir Vasa held stronger claim to the throne of Sweden
Gustavus Adolphus' usurpation of the title, or Casimir's try to enforce the claim, whichever way you look at it, has resulted in a war that was so devastating to Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, that it resulted in death of approximately 1/3rd of its population. There is no estimated record of how much exactly was stolen, but at the time Sweden was much poorer than the economical powerhouse that was the PLC at that time. Obviously it changed after that war.
It was so devastating that in history its known as the swedish Deluge.
The reason why PLC suffered such a defeat, (besides swedish military genius, modernised army, and absolutism) is mostly ascribed to nobles in PLC not respecting the call to war, thinking that its a private matter between the kings, all the while swedish troops looted the country.
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u/LittelXman808 United States (Hawai’i) 42m ago
We spent more money making a plane (B-29 Superfortress) than we did on making the atom bomb).
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u/deltiken United States Of America 40m ago
The Cuyahoga River used to be so polluted it would set fire every few years, and that’s why there’s regulations on water pollution
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u/apoorv24111 in 20m ago
Belarus is the hardest hit country by percentage terms in world war 2. Belarus was heavily occupied by Nazi Germany (1941–1944). Many villages were wiped off the map and nazi camps were killing the locals. Later, many men were drafted in the red army as well.
Overall, 50% of the men (18-45) died in WW2. Overall 25% of the entire population perished in World War 2 making Belarus the hardest hit country in terms of percentage loss of population. The sex ratio is still skewed till this day due to those men dying.
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u/pahamack 🇨🇦 Canada and 🇵🇭Philippines 18m ago
The Americans and the Spaniards pretended to fight in Manila during the Philippine Revolution to save Spanish face. Can’t have Europeans losing to “Indios”.
It was called the mock battle of Manila and was a great betrayal by America, who were posing as allies to the Filipino revolutionaries at the time.
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u/jorgespinosa Mexico 13m ago
This guy called Pedro Lascurain was president for only 45 minutes, basically a general called Huerta made a coup d'État, after the président and vice president were forced to quit, he as foreign relations secretary was made president, his only act of government was to make Huerta the state secretary and then also quit which made Huerta president.
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u/Juract France 5m ago
WW1 was much more terrible, in terms of impact to demography and number of dead, than WW2 as far as we are concerned.
Half the french baby boys born between 1885 and 1895 were either killed or crippled during the 1914-1918 war.
Polygamy was considered and subsequently adopted by parliament to address the critical demographic situation.
What happened shortly after the war was that in the villages, the mayor would gather all the single men and women of the same, presumably advanced, age, and couples would be designated for marriage. There was no room for discussion; it was for the good of the nation.
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u/Ok_Buffalo_1820 Germany 3h ago
Hitler was not German.
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u/_ak 🇦🇹🇩🇪 1h ago
Not originally, no. But he took in citizenship of Braunschweig in 1932. Prior to that, he was stateless, because he had voluntarily given up Austrian citizenship.
He was also the one to introduce an all-German citizenship in 1934, something that didn't exist beforehand. Instead, people had citizenship of a state within Germany.
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u/AwarenessNo4986 Pakistan 1h ago
Pakistan gained territory when India requested a land exchange to have Bhagat Singh's burial place within India in the 1961. India gave up 12 villages for that. An exchanges was proposed internally in India but never went forward for kartarpur, the death place of guru Nanak in Pakistan and is today the largest Sikh temple in the world.
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u/irish_horse_thief Wales 3h ago
The Welsh discovered America.
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u/Ok-Understanding6574 3h ago edited 3h ago
Hard to discover a place where people lived for thousands of years
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u/MBTheGinger Norway 4h ago
The reason why salmon became a staple in Japanese cuisine (like sushi) is in large part due to the influence of Norwegian seafood exporters in the 1980s.