Eccentrics, Oddballs, and Legends of the Past

History isn't just full of stuffy politicians and serious generals who followed all the rules. If you dig just a little bit beneath the surface of your old school textbooks, you'll find a colorful cast of characters who marched to the beat of their own incredibly bizarre drums. These people didn't care about societal norms, and their baffling antics left their contemporaries scratching their heads in absolute amazement.

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt on Wikimedia

1. Diogenes of Sinope

Your local homeless guy may seem uncouth, but at least he doesn’t wander around Athens during the day carrying a lit lantern. Ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes thought highly of himself and lived in a giant barrel. He once offended the mighty Alexander the Great and used the bathroom in public forums.

Sailko on Wikimedia

2. Emperor Elagabalus

This teenage Roman ruler completely shocked the empire by appointing a hair stylist as his chief tax collector and marrying a Vestal woman. You'd never know what to expect at his lavish dinner parties. He poured piles of poisonous rose petals on dinner guests and released hungry leopards into crowds.

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3. Tarrare

An insatiable medical marvel from France, this man could swallow baskets of apples, corks, and even live cats whole without ever gaining any weight. He’d swallow cages full of chickens, keep them alive in his belly, and regurgitate them hours later. He traveled around as a street performer.

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4. Jemmy Hirst

English eccentric Jemmy Hirst rode around in public on a bull named “Jupiter” as if it were a horse. He constantly invited foxes inside his house and fed them like guests. When he passed away, he requested that eight aging maids carry his coffin at his funeral.

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5. Hetty Green

The “Witch of Wall Street” was a woman who appeared to be penniless. But she had one of the largest fortunes in her pocket. She refused to bathe in warm water, wore the same ragged black dress until it fell off her body, and searched high and low for a lost 2-cent stamp.

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6. Lord Timothy Dexter

American businessman Lord Timothy Dexter became rich by selling things to the wrong place. He once sold warming pans to the West Indies because he thought they were cold. His autobiography had no punctuation whatsoever, too.

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7. Mary Toft

British charlatan Mary Toft convinced doctors that she was giving birth to rabbits. Physicians actually believed that women could deliver rabbits until they got caught bringing one into her house. Her stunt caused hysteria all throughout England.

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8. Joshua Abraham Norton

After losing all his money in a bad rice investment, this San Francisco resident declared himself Emperor of the United States. The locals completely embraced his delusion. Going so far as to print custom money for him and letting him eat at expensive restaurants for free.

Notwist on Wikimedia

9. William Buckland

This nineteenth-century geologist harbored a truly bizarre ambition to eat his way through the entire animal kingdom. He served his horrified guests delicacies like panther, bluebottle flies, and even crocodile during his eccentric dinner parties. Rumor has it that he even casually swallowed the mummified heart of a French king during a casual visit to an estate.

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10. The Green Children of Woolpit

Originating from nowhere, two green children appeared out of nowhere. They refused to touch normal food for days until the villagers offered them fresh green beans, which they ate voraciously. One child passed away, but the other lost her green tint after learning English.

Rod Bacon on Wikimedia

11. Simeon Stylites

Extreme Christian ascetic Simeon Stylites literally lived on top of a pillar for over three decades. He sat atop a small platform in Syria and preached to followers below. He relied on local villagers to haul baskets of basic food up to him using a long rope system.

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12. Princess Caraboo

British practical comedian Princess Caraboo tricked tourists into believing that she was royalty from the island of Javasu. She fooled people by speaking gibberish and dressing up in brightly colored clothes. The entire grand illusion crumbled when a lodging-house keeper recognized her as a regular cobbler's daughter from Devon.

Edward Bird on Wikimedia

13. Francis Egerton

Animal-loving Francis Egerton hosted dinner parties for his dogs.

He even dressed them in leather shoes and cute little outfits before seating them at his dinner table. If his dogs acted up, he would banish them from the table.

Edwin Longsden Long (died 1891) on Wikimedia

14. Marquis de Luisa

This wealthy Italian heiress loved to shock her neighbors. She did this by walking through the streets of Venice completely naked underneath a fur coat. She kept two large cheetahs as pets and often used them as living accessories during her daily strolls.

Miguel 412 on Wikimedia

15. Grigori Rasputin

This infamous Russian mystic managed to survive poisoning, shooting, and a beating in a single night before finally drowning in an icy river. He exerted an incredible amount of influence over the royal family. Mainly because they believed he could heal their sick son.

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16. John Mytton

A British millionaire who was incredibly bored, this man once arrived at his own dinner party riding on the back of a real bear. He spent his massive inheritance on wild pranks. Including setting his own nightshirt on fire just to cure a stubborn case of hiccups.

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17. Sarah Winchester

Convinced that the ghosts of rifle victims were haunting her, this wealthy widow spent decades building an interconnected mansion with no blueprint. She ordered construction crews to work around the clock. This allowed her to create stairs that led nowhere and doors that opened into solid walls.

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18. Charles Waterton

This English squire transformed his massive estate into the world's very first wild nature reserve while behaving like an animal himself. He loved to hide under the dinner table and bite his guests' legs to pretend he was a vicious dog. He also mastered the art of climbing trees in his bare feet well into his late seventies.

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19. Thomas Carlyle

The famous Scottish essayist had an extreme hatred of noise. To this end, he constructed a soundproof room at the top of his house. He couldn't stand the sound of neighbors' roosters crowing, so he tried to buy up all the local birds to secure some peace.

Julia Margaret Cameron on Wikimedia

20. Jeanne de Clisson

After the French king executed her husband for treason, this noblewoman sold her lands and bought three large warships painted entirely black. She became a ruthless pirate known as the "Lioness of Brittany" and spent years hunting down French vessels. She personally dealt with any aristocrat she captured, leaving only a few alive to tell the king exactly who did it.

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