20 Historical Events That Sound Too Crazy To Be True
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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