Weird history facts all gathered right here under our history category. Once you have had your fill of history facts head over to our random fact generator to learn more random factoids!
The wreck of the RMS Titanic was found during the Cold War as part of a secret US Naval investigation of two sunken nuclear submarines. The Navy never expected the oceanographer to actually find the Titanic. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/titanic-nuclear-submarine-scorpion-thresher-ballard/
King Tut is the only mummy from ancient Egypt known to have been mummified with an erection. His member subsequently broke off soon after the mummy was discovered. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.livescience.com/42290-king-tut-mummified-penis-explained.html
The ancient Egyptians, while under the rule of Ptolemy II, would confiscate any books that arrived on ships and make a copy. They would then keep the original in the library of Alexandria and return the copied version to the owner. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
Around 2200 B.C., the Egyptians created the first synthetically created color blue. This Egyptian Blue color glows under fluorescent lights allowing historians to identify the color even when its not visible. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://mymodernmet.com/shades-of-blue-color-history/
Coco Chanel, the founder of fashion and perfume empire Chanel, was a nazi spy during WWII with the code name of ‘Westminster’ due to her connections with British high society. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.biography.com/news/coco-chanel-nazi-agent
The most radioactive places at Chernobyl are no longer the #4 reactor area but the hospital room where they left all the first responders clothes and the equipment they used to clean up all the debris from the explosion. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: http://www.chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/radiation-levels/
In 14th century England, they baptized children with cider because it was cleaner than the water. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/features/facts/index.shtml
The first assassination attempt on Archduke Ferdinand failed spectacularly. The bomb bounced off the car and exploded under the wrong vehicle. The assassin then fled, diving into a nearby dry riverbed and eventually vomiting up his own suicide pill. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/assassination-in-sarajevo/
The HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen is a Dutch naval warship that was stationed
in the East Indies in 1941, when the Japanese attacked. Ordered to
retreat to Australia, the crew camouflaged the ship as a jungle island
and would sail farther away each night. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_Abraham_Crijnssen_(1936)
In 1956, rower Vyacheslav Ivanov won the gold medal at the Olympics and accidentally dropped it into Lake Wendouree at the medal ceremony. His diving attempts failed and the medal was never recovered.
– WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyacheslav_Ivanov_(rower)
Abraham Lincoln lost a combined five times for election to Congress and the Senate before eventually winning the election for President.
– WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.rogerknapp.com/inspire/lincoln.htm
In 1787, the Fugio cent was the first US coin to be authorized by Congress and minted. It was made of .36 oz of copper and bore the phrases ‘Mind Your Business’ and ‘We Are One’.
Source: https://www.frbatlanta.org/about/tours/story-of-money/11-after-revolution/fugio-cent.aspx
The Ouija board was granted a patent because the owner took the board to the US patent office and it spelled out the chief patent officer’s name.
– WTF Fun Facts
Dry cleaning was accidentally invented in 1855 when a French maid knocked over a kerosene lamp onto a dirty table cloth and the owner noticed it was cleaner after the spill.
– WTF Fun Facts
Source: http://margaretscleaners.blogspot.com/2012/01/history-of-dry-cleaning.html
The U.S. Army designed the T-13 “beano” grenade to be similar in shape and weight to a baseball in order to leverage soldiers’ skills in the sport. However, there were problems with the grenade’s fuze design and the weapon was eventually scrapped after WWII ended..– WTF Fun Facts
The Battle of Saragarhi is considered to be one of the greatest last stands in history. 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikh Regiment fought an army of over 10,000 Afghans and killed more than 600 of them before perishing to enemy bullets.
In 1924, Ford had produced over 10 million Model T’s and more than half the cars in the world were Ford.
Source: http://www.autoatlantic.com/Sept08/Sept08_Ford-Model-T-is-100.html
For the last few months of his life, President James Garfield was fed through his rectum by his friend Dr. Doctor W. Bliss.
– WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://nypost.com/2016/09/22/the-inept-doctor-who-killed-president-garfield/