Wait, what? That really happened?

[krugerrand123]

That the roman emperor Elagabalius found a meteor and made it the most powerful god and that he would hang out at bordellos to pick up men.

That the founder of the state of Georgia was against slavery.

 

[Archemetis]

Snakes (Or more specifically, Adders) don't hunt for hedgehogs.

Hedgehogs hunt for snakes.

Not so much historical but what can you do with interesting facts?


As for history, the real first man in 'space' got there via helium balloon, he then proceeded to jump out and sky dive back down to earth.

It's said his testicles are the size of pumpkins.
Because as far I know he is still alive.

 

[exdeadman]

The Battle of New Orleans was one of the primary reasons for the invention of Morse Code and the Telegraph, it took place 14(?) days after the Civil War ended.

 

[Thaluikhain]

As far as I know, Chlorine gas doesn't do damage physical damage. It's just that it is so heavy that it rests in the lungs and prevents oxygen from getting into the lungs, effectively chocking the person.

Not true. Chlorine will react with water (this includes water in sweat, and more importantly, the moisture of your eyes and lungs) to form hydrochloric acid (and also oxygen, but that's not relevant).

Chlorine is rather more dense than air, yes, to the extent that soldiers standing upright on the firing steps would be affected less than injured soldiers lying in the bottom of the trench. If it was merely denser than air and displaced oxygen it'd take a truly massive amount to kill anyone standing up in open ground.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Paul Revere rode through towns on his horse, while ringing bells and firing shots off from his musket not to warn people of the British army, but to warn the British that they weren't going to take our guns away. USA! USA! USA!

Even ask Sarah Palin.

OT: Paul Revere did not actually shout "The British are coming!" because back then we were all still British. It wouldn't have made sense.

 

[Falseprophet]

Just wanted to gather some attention for Carl Gustaf von Rosen [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Carl_Gustaf_von_Rosen], Swedish aviation pioneer who was one of the greatest champions of noble lost causes who ever lived. Although related to Luftwaffe head Hermann Göring, von Rosen spent most of his life fighting tyrants both fascist and communist, and especially fighting distress. He flew relief supplies to Ethiopia for the Red Cross during the Italian invasion, flew bombing runs for the Finns during the Winter War, and relief missions in the Congo for the UN.

During the ill-fated Biafran War, he and a few friends gave Biafra an airforce They were able to destroy most of Nigeria's air force, including many advanced Soviet planes, on the ground [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,941667-1,00.html].

He died at the age of 68, still flying relief missions for Ethiopia during their war with Somalia. Someone needs to make a movie of this guy's life.

 

[Jewrean]

Jesus Christ 7 people corrected me. Note that I said according to an article on cracked and also I made it clear I wasn't sure what world war it was for those of you insisting that I shouldn't call Germans Nazis if they were in World War 1. FYI: I didn't know which WW it was. It could have been 2. I didn't know.

 

[Player 2]

The Humanity Declaration [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanity_Declaration], in which the emperor of Japan in WW2 admitted (half-assedly and in archaic Japanese that the commoners wouldn't understand) that he was, in fact, a human. He later went on record saying stupid shit like "You can't prove that I'm not the descendant of gods".