25 Strange Facts From History You Probably Didn’t Learn In High School

History is as vast as it is fascinating

Published 9 years ago in Wow

History is as vast as it is fascinating

1
The University of Oxford dates back to 1249 -- teachings in the location had begun earlier at around 1096 -- meaning that the famous institution is older than Aztec civilization, which began with the 1325 founding of Tenochtitlan.

2
James Madison, fourth President of the United States, was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed around 100 pounds.

3
There was once an estimated 5,000 castles in Japan during the Sengoku, or Warring States, Period. Following the end of the feudal age in 1868, most of them were destroyed. Today, there are about one hundred.
4
The Sullivan Ordinance, a municipal law, barring managers of a public place to allow women from smoking in their venues, was passed on January 21, 1908, in New York City. Katie Mulcahey was the only person to break this ordinance, but she was released and the ordinance was vetoed a few weeks later.

5
In 1952, the first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, asked Albert Einstein if he would be willing to lead next. Although Einstein was "deeply moved," he turned down the offer.
6
Painter James Montgomery Flagg modeled Uncle Sam after a modified version of his own face.
7
The popular Snickers candy bar was named after Frank and Ethel Mars's family horse and was first introduced in 1929.

8
Sylvia Plath's father, Otto Plath, was a Professor of Biology at Boston University. An expert on bees, he penned a 1934 book titled "Bumblebees and Their Ways."
9
In 1860, 76 Samurai embarked on a journey to the United States as diplomats. Their three-month tour began in San Francisco and ended with a few weeks in New York.
10
David Fagen was among the 7,000 African American soldiers sent abroad during the Philippine-American War. Fagen defected the U.S. Army to join the Philippine Army, where he eventually rose through the ranks as Captain. His decision was believed to be based off of the poor treatment of African Americans in the military at the time.

11
Betty White was born in 1922 before the invention of sliced bread in 1928. So, yes. Betty White is older than sliced bread.
12
Nineteenth-century doctors enlisted the help of vibrators to relieve them from fatigued hands as professional hand-job providers for women suffering from "hysteria."
13
A 1912 issue of Popular Mechanics stated that a foundling hospital in Paris held a "raffle of live babies" in order to raise money. Winners underwent an investigation to determine whether or not they were suitable foster parents before receiving their "prizes."

14
We can purchase sweet tea at McDonald's for a buck, but it was originally considered a mark of the wealthy. Tea, ice, and sugar were all very expensive in the early 20th century.
15
According to the book "The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe," foot tickling for sexual arousal, or preparation for sexual activities, was quite popular among Russian aristocrats. Anna Leopoldovna reportedly had at least six ticklers at her feet.
16
Pliny wrote in the early encyclopedia Natural History 28.58: "Strains and bruises are treated with wild boar's dung gathered in the spring and dried....Fresh dung also may be smeared on."

17
In his youth, Abraham Lincoln was an accomplished wrestler. He reportedly faced only one loss out of about 300 matches, and is currently honored in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
18
Topsy was an elephant brought from Southeast Asia to America in the 1870s. She was falsely advertised as the first American-born elephant. During her career, she killed a few people, including a spectator and some circus workers, and as a result was poisoned, strangled, and electrocuted to death before a crowd on January 4, 1903.
19
Hat making in the past exposed many workers to toxic mercury, and the condition was officially known as "mad hatter disease." Hatter's shakes, or tremors, were common in both the US and Europe.

20
In 1817, Abraham Thornton was charged with the murder of Mary Ashford, but was acquitted on the right to trial by battle the following year. The accuser, Ashford's brother, had declined the offer of battle. Right to such an acquittal was abolished in 1819.
21
The Great Molasses Flood struck Boston on January 15, 1919 when a 90-foot tank containing 2.5 million gallons of crude molasses exploded due to an overnight rise in temperature.
22
Nahienaena of Hawaii, a high-ranking princess, was in love with her brother Kamehameha III.

23
One of the greatest pirates to ever grace the waters was a woman. Former Cantonese prostitute Ching Shih married well-known pirate Cheng I and took over after his death.
24
In 1989, the Pentagon revealed that a one-megaton nuclear bomb had fallen into the Philippine Sea in 1965. It was carried by a United States Navy Douglas A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft on the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga. It still hasn't been found.
25
According to an interview with Genevieve Bell (Director of Intel Corporations Interaction and Experience Research) in the Wall Street Journal, the introduction of trains in the U.S. was met with a sort of moral panic. Many people believed that "women’s bodies were not designed to go at 50 miles an hour. [They feared their] uteruses [would] fly out of [their] bodies as they were accelerated to that speed.”