Is Real Life Stranger Than Fiction?

You learned about George Washington, WWII, and Christopher Columbus in school, but what about the Straw Hat Riot, The Great Emu War, or The Dancing Plague? For reasons beyond us, history curriculums leave the more outlandish parts out, but these are the events that remind us how wild and wacky real life truly is. You don't need fiction when you have history. Here are 20 historical events that sound too crazy to be true.

T. H. Matteson on Wikimedia

1. The Great Emu War

In 1932, the emu population in Australia had gotten out of hand and they were invading farms and destroying crops. As a result, the Australian army was sent on a mission to gun down the emus with machine guns, but the birds turned out to be surprisingly difficult targets. The military "lost" the war against the emus. 

Jon Hunter on Unsplash

2. The Dancing Plague 

One extremely bizarre and horrific event in 1518 saw hordes of people in Strasbourg, France uncontrollably dancing to the point of exhaustion and death. Although the cause remains unknown, historians believe it was either a mass hysteria or ergot poisoning. 

Pieter Brueghel the Elder on Wikimedia

3. The Great Molasses Flood

The Great Molasses Flood occurred in Boston in 1919 after a massive industrial tank burst. Tidal waves of molasses flooded the city at a speed of 35 miles per hour, killing 21 people and injuring 150. 

Boston Daily Globe on Wikimedia

4. The Shackleton Expedition

In an incredible feat of endurance and teamwork, the Shackleton Expedition of 1914 is remembered as one of the most incredible tales of survival against all odds. After the troop's ship got stuck in the ice, the men on board were forced to abandon it. They withstood the harsh Arctic climate for nearly two years, but every single one of the 28 men survived the ordeal.

Underwood & Underwood on Wikimedia

5. The Story Of Tsutomu Yamaguchi

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was just an ordinary Japanese businessman, except for the fact that he survived not one, but two atomic bombings. He was in Hiroshima when the first one hit, survived and returned home to Nagasaki when the second one hit. He survived that one as well. 

朝日新聞社 on Wikimedia

6. MKUltra

MKUltra was the CIA's illegal human experimental program during the Cold War intended to find ways of controlling the enemy's mind. Psychedelics like LSD were administered to doctors, military personnel, patients, and even to the general public through the water without their knowledge. 

Dr. Sidney Gottlieb's on Wikimedia

7. The Cat Spy

In the 1960s, the CIA launched a program that would use cats implanted with recording devices to spy on the Soviets. However, the mission was an immediate failure after the first cat ran into the street and was immediately hit by a taxi. 

Ceyda Sefer on Pexels

8. The Great London Beer Flood

The Great London Beer Flood of 1814 saw over 300,000 gallons of beer flowing through the streets of London after a vat burst. Eight people drowned.

engin akyurt on Unsplash

9. The Pirate Republic

A bizarre and short-lived historical period in the Bahamas saw the Caribbean nation run by pirates in the early 18th century. Although it was a rough and violent place, the pirates actually created a version of democracy that was far more fair than many of the governments of the time. It was dismantled by the British Crown as it made the region a no-go zone for trade and commerce. 

Unknown author on Wikimedia

10. Napoleon's Bunny Attack

In 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte organized a rabbit hunt for his men in France. However, in an act of delicious irony, the thousands of rabbits swarmed and chased the emperor and his men. 

Jacques-Louis David on Wikimedia

11. The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic

One of the most perplexing events in history saw an outbreak of uncontrollable laughter along with respiratory problems, restlessness, pain, and fainting. It started at a girls' boarding school in 1962 and eventually spread to surrounding villages until upwards of 1,000 people were affected. No definitive cause was found and medical professionals eventually chalked it up to mass hysteria caused by stress.

Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

12. The Cadaver Synod

In 897 AD, Pope Stephen VI put his deceased predecessor, Pope Formosus on trial. Pope Stephen VI ordered the exhumation of his nine-month-old corpse and the decaying body was dressed in papal attire and propped on a throne where he was accused of several offenses, and found guilty on all counts.

Unspecified on Wikimedia

13. The Kentucky Meat Shower

The Kentucky Meat Shower is, unfortunately, exactly what it sounds like. In 1867, chunks of meat started raining down in Bath County, Kentucky and lasted for several minutes. Scientific analysis identified it as lung tissue from a horse. The most widely accepted theory for what caused it is vultures regurgitating some of their meal whilst flying overhead. 

Rene Terp on Pexels

14. Unsinkable Sam

Oscar the Cat a.k.a. Unsinkable Sam used a third of his nine lives when he survived the sinking of three different warships during WWII. The first ship he was on, The Bismark, was sunk by the British Navy and only 115 out of 2,200 men survived, including Oscar. After that, he was aboard the HMS Cossack which was torpedoed by a German U-boat, and finally, the British ship HMS Ark Royal, which was also torpedoed.

Alihan Gülyağcı on Pexels

15. Operation Mincemeat

Operation Mincemeat was a WWII British intelligence mission so outlandish, it sounds like a movie plot. A body with a briefcase containing fabricated top secret documents revealing plans for an Allied invasion of Greece and Sardinia as opposed to Sicily was planted off the coast of Spain where German troops were guaranteed to find it. As a result, the Germans diverted large numbers of troops and the Allies were able to invade Sicily much more easily. 

Ewen Montagu Team on Wikimedia

16. The War On Cats

Many people hate cats, but perhaps no one hated them quite as much as Pope Gregory IX who declared a war on cats in the 13th century. He believed they carried Satan's spirit. After his order, there was, sadly, a mass extermination of cats in Europe. Some historians believe this can be directly linked to the plague as there were no longer enough cats to control the rat population.

Lloyd Henneman on Unsplash

17. The Battle Of Los Angeles

The Battle of Los Angeles occurred in 1942 during a period of intense anxiety in the Western US following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After military radar detected an unidentified object in the sky flying rapidly towards the city, the Coast Artillery Brigade fired anti-aircraft shells and machine guns into the sky for hours, only to find no trace of enemy aircraft or artillery after the "battle." The official explanation was "jittery nerves," but it's fueled alien conspiracies for decades. 

LA Times. on Wikimedia

18. The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials occurred in Massachusetts in 1692 after two girls began experiencing fits of screaming, visions, and contortions. After no physical cause was found, the doctor chalked it up to bewitchment, and the girls were pressured to reveal who influenced them. Soon enough, the "afflictions" spread to other towns, and over 200 people were tried and imprisoned or executed. 

unattributed on Wikimedia

19. The Straw Hat Riot

The Straw Hat Riot of 1922 was a violent upheaval that occurred after some young workers attacked men wearing straw hats in NYC. There was an unwritten fashion rule that men should switch from straw to felt hats by a certain date in September and these men decided to take on the role of fashion police. The incident escalated into a riot that lasted for several days and resulted in many injuries.

Unknown author on Wikimedia

20. The Decoy Paris

During WWI, France built a faux Paris 15 miles north of the real city to decept German bomber planes which still relied on visual cues as radar did not yet exist. However, the war ended before the decoy Paris could be completed or put to the test.

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