The late American historian Peter Novick once compared the pursuit of historical objectivity to nailing jelly to a wall—an unsatisfying and messy task, since historical objectivity isn’t one clean idea but rather a sprawling tangle of assumptions, attitudes, and agendas.
That feels especially true now, when the question of what’s taught in classrooms and excluded from textbooks and museum collections is hotly debated. But at the same time, the internet has made information more fluid than ever. It can be endlessly reshared, remixed, and reframed by anyone with Wi-Fi and a login.
Every so often, out of that outpouring, we come across a fact that actually sticks—not because an institution declared it worthy, but because it’s simply too good to forget. These are exactly the kinds of facts this list is about. Shared by various people online, they tell stories we might previously only have found in the margins. From the delightfully strange to the quietly heroic, the tragic to the just plain interesting, it’s the kind of history that’s so oddly specific, you can’t simply unread it.
#1
Indian woman pretended to be a man for 37 years to protect her daughter and herself after being widowed at 20
Image source: Raj_Mandal
Jiggly. Unstable. Slippery. That hospital-tray dessert comparison of Novick’s isn’t just clever—it’s accurate. Because framing history in a way that’s easy for everyone to swallow and digest really is as impossible as nailing Jell-O to a wall (or eating it with a fork).
That’s because, as Jessica Friedlander writes, “history is never free from an agenda.” Even the facts themselves require judgment calls. Which ones make the cut? Whose perspective gets centered? Whose voice gets left out? How does the story end up getting told?
In other words, every fact comes wrapped in a choice—what to include, what to leave out, whose version gets told—and no single serving can contain the whole story, because no historical account can capture every possible perspective.
#2
The city of Melbourne was briefly named Batmania, after John Batman, one of the original settlers, before being renamed Melbourne after the British Prime Minister of the time.
Image source: ToErrDivine
#3
Claudette Colvin was the original girl who refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955.
When local civil rights activists heard about it, they decided she was not a good fit as the face of the bus boycott movement. Rosa Parks was already an active civil rights leader and recreated the experience months later to spearhead the bus boycotts in the south and raise awareness for the civil rights movement. Still incredibly risky and daring by Rosa Parks, but the 15 year old Claudette Colvin deserves much more recognition for originating the idea.
Image source: willycw08
Part of history’s slipperiness also comes down to the fact that our interpretation of events is continually changing. Sometimes it’s gradual; sometimes it happens all at once, when some new evidence shakes up what we thought we knew.
That’s partly because writing history is never really finished. As historian Kevin M. Levin has written, researching the past means being willing to “hit brick walls along the way,” revising questions as new evidence turns up. But it doesn’t always take a groundbreaking discovery to change the story. Historians are constantly asking new questions, searching different sources, and finding new meaning in decades- or centuries-old documents.
#4
Only 5% of the Redwood Forest remains.
Image source: BigPappalopalous, Ambient Vista
#5
Albert Einstein was offered the role of becoming Israel’s second President in 1952, but declined the offer.
Image source: MMaxs, Oren Jack Turner
As the American Historical Association (AHA) explains, historians continually reinterpret the past by bringing “new knowledge and experience” to the evidence. In other words, the past may be fixed, but our understanding of it isn’t. Even once a historian settles on an interpretation, it’s fair game for the next generation of scholars to pick apart and rewrite all over again.
And even then, where do you even start? As the AHA also points out, there’s simply too much history for anyone to comprehend—every group of people, every idea, every institution, every civilization has its own tangled backstory. Bringing any kind of order to that vastness is its own impossible task.
So why bother with history at all, if it’s this slippery?
#6
No one ever wrote down a word Jesus said… He’s not mentioned anywhere until decades after his passing.
Image source: ExistentialAngsty, freechristimages
#7
Surprisingly few people seem to be aware that Britain sunk the French fleet during WW2.
Image source: MarshalBrooks84, ledrame-merselkebir
#8
Louis XIV’s court at Versailles had very few toilets despite accommodating thousands of people. As a result, many courtiers would relieve themselves in corners and corridors during parties and leave it for the servants to clear up. Often richer guests bribed servants to bring them chamber-pots, but there simply weren’t enough. Combine this with a large number of pets who weren’t house trained it’s no surprise that foreign dignitaries considered Versailles the ‘filthiest palace in the world’. Eventually the problem became acute enough that Louis ordered the servants to clean the corridors of faeces ‘at least once a week’.
Image source: anon
Historian Jason Steinhauer has argued that the real value of studying history lies less in memorizing a fixed set of facts or acing a test and more in this slippery process itself. He says that the “process of historical inquiry—and what it teaches students along the way—is history’s greatest reward.”
This is because studying history teaches us that society is never stagnant, and pushes us to ask how and why things change, who’s driving that change, whose interests it serves, and who gets left out of the story entirely. Through history, he says, we also learn that our actions have consequences.
By analyzing past events, Steinhauer continues, we learn to ask probing questions and challenge our own assumptions. Often, in doing so, we also come to recognize that humans are capable of being both very good and very bad. Taken together, these lessons can encourage us to be more careful readers: skeptical of one-sided stories and more aware of our own biases.
“Most critically,” he writes, “history teaches us who we are.” It’s the backdrop that gives our personal stories meaning.
#9
103 years ago, on January 11, 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy with diabetes, became the first person to receive an injectic insulin as a treatment for diabetes.
Image source: Scientiaetnatura065
#10
In the 1780s a brewery in London had a vat of porter burst and released around 1.5 million litres of beer in a wave that flattened two houses and took lives of eight people. The London Beer Flood. Some of the victims passed in the cellars they lived in. There was a trial and the whole thing was ruled an “act of God”, so nobody paid a penny.
Always think about that one when people complain about their local pub running out of a tap.
Image source: ukdruminggirl, public domain
#11
The first US cyclist to win a Tour de France was female.
Image source: Traditional_Bill_381, dvidshub
And that’s exactly why some of the lesser-known facts featured on this list matter. Some are quietly devastating, and a few are so outlandish that they might make you laugh out loud. Some might make you question what you always assumed was fact, while others might introduce you to a side of history you’d simply never come across before.
The past itself may be fixed, but the stories we encounter about it aren’t. And sometimes, a detail that once sat quietly in an archive, a book, or the margins of a much bigger story finds a whole new audience when someone decides it’s worth sharing.
So scroll on, and let us know which ones stick with you.
#12
More planes were destroyed in WW2 than currently exist on earth today.
Image source: Dickcheese_McDoogles, flickr
#13
In the 16th century Czech peasants led a successful peasant uprising and defeated the combined armies of the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. 3 times. With a blind general organising them. Using wheelbarrows and big sticks. They were allowed to worship how they wanted after the big boys gave up.
Edit: 15th century.
Image source: lookedlikejesus
#14
Buzz Aldrin – the second person to set foot on the moon – claimed $ 33.31 in travel expenses: Houston > Cape Kennedy > the Moon > Pacific Ocean > Hawaii > Houston.
Image source: augenwiehimmel, NASA
#15
Also, the loudest sound ever known to exist was the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, which many experts believe was loud enough to be heard around the globe…several times.
What I mean by that is the sound wave from the eruption circled the earth, then did it AGAIN ~32 hours later (the time it takes a sound to circle the earth at sea level) because it was so loud.
Image source: changemymind69
#16
John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, enjoyed skinny dipping in the Potomac on an almost daily basis.
Image source: Low-Use-9862, ves.gov/id/528668?q=John+Quincy+Adams Author
#17
President John Tyler (born: 1790) was the tenth U.S. President and served from 1841 to 1845.
He had a (biological) grandson who passed away in 2025.
Image source: renoCow, George Peter Alexander Healy
#18
America has produced two Formula 1 world champions. The first of those, Phil Hill, as a small boy, lived next door to Shirley Temple.
Image source: Historical_Stress_64, oldtimeradiodownloads
#19
Canadians were the ones that rescued the Americans from Iran during the Iranian Revolution. When Ben Affleck made Atlas, he made a choice to focus on make-believe American involvement while completely ignoring historical fact.
Image source: OddSell
#20
Most of the present-day Southwestern United States was Mexican territory before the Mexican-American War. Thus, Latinos did not cross the southern border; with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the border crossed them. Who are the true “aliens”?
Image source: AdvertisingReal4470
#21
After WWII, food was still rationed in Britain until 1954. That shows how messed up Europe was by the war, which helps explain why the US became a superpower.
Image source: avecfrites
#22
Mine is Lafayette, who believed in liberty so much he came to help out the Americans during our revolution on his own dime and helped immensely in securing naval support and money from France which were crucial for our winning the war. He returned to America on a farewell tour as an old man and was given a hero’s welcome as one of the last surviving heroes of the revolution- that’s why so many streets and counties are named for him today. He even brought back American soil for his tomb to be buried in – he truly loved America and saw it as a beacon of hope for Europe. During World War 1 when France was overrun by the Germans and desperate for help, our General Pershing finally arrived in Paris after years of occupation, and he went straight to Lafayette’s tomb. He said, “Lafayette, we are here!”.
Image source: Rachellemarechal
#23
Winston Churchill’s fame stemmed from his escaping a POW camp during the Boer War. He had been a war correspondent when an armored train he was riding was ambushed. He attempted to fight off the attackers and was captured.
As the son of a highly-influential Member of Parliament, he was considered a prize captive. He informed his captors he would have to escape and soon did so, eventually being sheltered by the only farmer loyal to the Empire for miles around and repatriated.
He returned to England a hero.
Image source: anon
#24
Three hunderd and fifty years ago, Manhattan was traded for a tiny volcanic island called Run Island, Indonesia.
Image source: darkmimosa
#25
Ancient Greek and Roman statues only look plain to us because the paint has worn off. They were originally painted in bright colours, and we now know how to find out which colours, by careful study under various lights. Slightly more recent (e.g. Renaissance) sculptures were never painted, possibly because their sculptors never knew that the works they were emulating had ever been colourful. If they had known, the practice would probably have continued.
Image source: bopeepsheep
#26
The Liechtenstein went to war with 80 men, suffered no wounded or casualties, and came back with 81 having made an Italian friend along the way.
Image source: theguy4785
#27
Alexander Graham Bell shared this earth with Betty White for approximately 8 months.
Image source: MohnJilton
#28
Titanic passenger and millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim. During sinking he refused a seat in a life boat with the words: “Tell my family I played straight to the end. No woman should be left aboard this ship because of Ben Guggenheim was a coward.”
Image source: Wild_Neighborhood605
#29
30,000 Pygmies got eaten during the Congo War
Bantu militias don’t see them as people. They view them as another forest creature akin to the gorillas and chimpanzees that live nearby. There is also a degree of mysticism about consuming pygmy meat.
Whenever food gets scarce, pygmy goes on the menu. They butchered entire villages to feed refugee camps and militias.
It’s not known about because the main group doing the pygmy eating is also the main secruity force now.
I interviewed several Congolese who ate pygmy when I worked at the UN, and they were remarkably respectful. It was how a hunter might treat deer. They had no hate for them.
It’s the most complete dehumanisation I’ve ever encountered and no one knows about it.
Image source: SoutieNaaier
#30
Karl Marx had a son with an unpaid servant. He never acknowledged his son.
Image source: gamename
#31
That The Netherlands had about 1 million Belgian refugees entering the country in 1914, at the start of the Great War. The Netherlands only had about 6 million inhabitants then.
99 out of 100 Dutch people do not know this.
Image source: Despite55
#32
A Parisian was given a small fine for “getting medieval” on his wife.
Paris baker Henri Littière had a major marital problem: his wife was desperate to be faithful, but just couldn’t help herself. She had three affairs in as many months before he decided that something must be done. He visited a museum and came out with sketches of medieval chastity belts.
These he gave to a man who made false arms and legs for veterans of the First World War, asking him to create a secure means of “keeping Mme. Littière from consummating her infidelities.”
He brought his wife to the final fitting, and she pronounced herself satisfied with the comfort of the velvet-covered steel contraption and joked with her husband that he mustn’t lose the key.
Some time later one of her former lovers came to visit. One thing led to another and he saw the apparatus she was wearing. He went straight to the police, and Mr. Littière appeared in court on charges of *cruelty*.
Although Mrs. Littière testified that she found it impossible to be faithful, the judge gave the baker a three-month suspended sentence and a 50-franc fine.
Image source: anon
#33
The way we see the ancient Roman ruins in the modern time, is the same way the ancient Romans saw the ancient Egyptians. Really puts into perspective how long ago the Egyptian empire existed.
Image source: Irishman283
#34
Victorian England – 1837 – 1901
American Old West – 1803 – 1912
Meiji Restoration – 1868 – 1912
So gentlemen thieves, rootin tootin cowboys, and honorable samurai all existed at the same time.
Image source: fishjam
#35
In 1951 Doctors removed Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells during treatment, creating HeLa, the first immortal human cell line, which helped develop the polio vaccine, advance cancer research, gene mapping and IVF, without her consent.
Image source: OkAccess6128
#36
Paraguay’s first leader, José Rodríguez de Francia, banned white (hispanic) men from marrying white women with the goal of eliminating the domineering white upper class. Because of his efforts Paraguay is over 95% mixed race and the most spoken language is the indigenous American language Guaraní rather than Spanish.
Image source: BlessedBeLilyLee
#37
The Federal Reserve in the United States was created in 1913.
It is a private bank ( not Federal) and it has no reserves.
Image source: CommonSensei-_, 00659
#38
Most people think the maximum number of years a person can be the US President is eight, which is incorrect. The 22nd Amendment states that a President can only be ELECTED as the President twice (eight years). However, if someone replaces a US President with no more than two years remaining of his/her term, they are allowed to complete those two years, plus be elected twice, for a total of 10 years. If their term has greater than two years, they may complete it, but will only be allowed to run for one additional term.
Image source: EveryFamilyhasCrazy
#39
Thomas Jefferson and John Adam’s continuously wrote to each other until their last breath, which happened within hours of each other on the same day, July 4th.
That’s one of my favorite stories in history.
Image source: DisneyDadData
#40
Wine in medieval Europe was actually very sour. To make it sweeter it used to be mixed with honey, that’s until sugar began to be imported and instead they poured sugar into the stuff.
Image source: riorucuz
#41
Not really a “fact” per-say, but this is one of my favorite historical stories. So Alexander the Great goes to see this horse with his dad, King Philip II, and the thing is just a hell of a beast. In written accounts the horse, named Bucephalus, was massive and completely untamed. The dude who owned Bucephalus told Philip that he wanted basically a ton of money for the horse. Alexander, who was probably a teenager at this time, made a wager. He said he would try to tame the beast, and if he couldn’t, they would pay the money. See what Philip and the owner didn’t realize, but Alexander *did*, was that the poor horse’s own *shadow* was spooking him. So Alex walks up to the animal, turns it toward the sun so it could no longer see the shadow that distressed it so, and hopped on like the bad conquerer he was. Bucephalus was the horse that Alexander rode into most of his battles.
Image source: friendsareshit
#42
The only reason the U.S. was able to buy Louisianna from the French was because the French were broke from fighting during the Haitian Revolution.
Image source: DeadFromNewYork
#43
252 million years ago, it rained for 2 million years straight.
Image source: Chief_doge
#44
Theodore Roosevelt learned Jiu Jitsu after going blind in one eye after a boxing match.
Image source: anon
#45
The term “blue bloods” came from European monarchs in the middle ages. They avoided the sun so religiously that the veins in their face and neck literally looked blue due to their almost transparent skin.
Image source: Di3lsAld3r
#46
The coliseum in Ancient Rome had an extendable shade awning with piped in water to mist attendees on hot days.
Image source: fingers621
#47
About 94% of the people presently on the planet were born during the time Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne (68 years).
Image source: 7LeagueBoots
#48
Clothes in the Medieval period were colorful as hell. In fact, if one thing is consistent about human behavior throughout history, it’s that we love colorful things. Houses and castles were also colorful!
We often see grey castles in TV shows because that’s what we expect, but that’s not how it was. Castles and statues and houses tended towards garish rather than drab.
Image source: anon
#49
In the 1930s, between 800,000 and 2 million people in the Southwest US were deported to Mexico. Most were US citizens, and most were children.
Image source: DrRonnieJamesDO
#50
Survivors of the Batavia wreck (1629) and mutiny were stranded on the mainland as punishment and are the reason for blond-haired Aboriginals in the area (Yamatji and surrounding peoples). Ergo, Dutch men were the first Europeans to colonize Australia, 150 years before the British.
On a similar note, the French claimed the western half of Australia in 1772, well before the British did, so when we successfully voted to seceed from Australia in 1933 by a two thirds supermajority we should have asked the French for help instead of relying on the British (who refused to get involved).
As for exploration, the Chinese are thought too have discovered Australia in the 1400s (eg Ming treasure fleet) but it wasn’t profitable enough for them to bother with, which is the same reason as the Dutch from the 1600s on.
Image source: ausecko
#51
The first ship sunk in war by a submarine…was during the American civil war. No one in the submarine survived though so there’s that.
Image source: Toasttimebitches
#52
Hardly anyone knows that Texas was it own country.
10 years.
6 presidents
Ended when the last president put a gun in his mouth.
Image source: dinosaregaylikeme
#53
Literally anything about Baron Von Steuben. He was a Prussian who became a general in the American army during the revolution and he was just the coolest guy? The dude literally showed up in Valley Forge riding a sleigh and with his gaggle of French boyfriends and chefs. He didn’t know English, so he had to have Hamilton and Green translate his swearing when he’d shout at the troops (his job was to train Washington’s armies to something that’d actually work). He was probably Charles Adams, John Adams’ son, which is why Adams’ hated the Baron so much. He once threw a pantless party that involved flaming shots. His aides, Benjamin Walker and William North were adopted as ‘his sons’ and were probably his boyfriends too.
Image source: GideonIsmail
#54
Henry V of England took part in the hand-to-hand comabt at the Battle of Agincourt (25 October, 1415), standing alongside his (massively outnumbered) men as they fought for survival against the French.
At one point in the battle his brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was wounded and lay exposed on the front line, so Henry took his household guard and went to defend his brother. He stood over his wounded brother, fighting in the front rank against the French, until Humphrey could be dragged away to safety.
Henry received an axe blow to the head during the fighting, but his helmet protected him. Part of his crown, which was affixed to his helmet, was sliced off by the blow.
Idk, I think all of this is pretty cool.
Image source: doylethedoyle
#55
Everyone knows of the Salem Witch trials but not that many people know that around the same time they prosecuted and burned “werewolves” in Europe. One famous case was Peter Stumpp who admitted to being a werewolf using a belt to turn into a werewolf and eat children.
Image source: historymajor44
#56
Mansa Musa was a king of Mali who underwent a Hajj to Mecca bringing with him so much gold that while passing through Egypt he crashed the local economy.
Image source: spiritbearr
#57
In 1989 Pepsi had the 6th largest navy.
Image source: GameDude_Redd_YT
#58
Alexander Hamilton cheated on his wife, and when other people found out, he wrote a 95-page document named the Reynolds Pamphlet. It explained every little detail about how he cheated. This is what i think went through his head while writing this:
“Oh, people know i cheated on my wife? They cant out me if i out myself first!”.
Image source: anon
#59
Marie Antoinette’s last words were “I’m sorry”. She accidentally stepped on the foot of the executioner before she was beheaded.
Image source: PygmeePony
#60
There were no humans on Madagascar until 500 AD and they came from Borneo not Africa.
Image source: Dragonsbreath67
#61
When Cortez entered the Aztec capital it was said that Montezuma called him a literal God and thought that he was the mythical/religious Queztecoatl returning as the legends foretold. But Montezuma was using the overly formal version of the Aztec language of Nahuatl and it was dripping in sarcasm and insults. “Oh you MUST BE a GOD, we are NOT worthy of your greatness.” Etc.
Montezuma did fear him as an outsider with influence, especially over the tribes that the Aztecs (Mexica) had subjected to years of tribute, but he didn’t think that Cortez was a God. Just another military threat.
Image source: Maniacboy888
#62
Lots of people in history were bisexual and many were fairly open about it. Queen Elizabeth II’s uncle the Duke of Kent was a bisexual and it was an open secret even in the 1930s.
Image source: viktor72
#63
In late medieval England, it was the fashion for women to have insanely high foreheads, to the extent that they would cut off a lot of the front half of their hair. Like, they were legit just half-bald. Even the then queen, Elizabeth Woodville, got in on the action.
Image source: anon
#64
I’m no historian but when the Russian army began their offensive back through Prussia, there are reports of the Reds coming across Field Hospitals. Obviously the Wermacht was unable to evacuate all of them and the Russians wanted the hospitals for their own wounded. So, to preserve bullets they merely hauled the German wounded out into the frigid winter and hosed them down to freeze.
On many levels it’s the coldest fact I know.
Image source: BrobaFett
#65
During the hunt for the German battleship *Bismarck*, a Polish destroyer that was part of the British destroyer flotilla sent to harass her, *ORP Piorun*, allegedly flashed the message “I am a Pole” (other sources have stated the message was “Three salvos in honor of Poland”) before opening fire on the battleship.
It seems the ship’s crew were eager for some payback for the Invasion of Poland, as *Piorun* would exchange fire with the much larger ship for over an hour, all by herself, and only begrudgingly agreed to back off when she started running dangerously low on fuel.
Image source: TheSorge
#66
Portland OR was almost named Boston. It came down to a coin flip.
Image source: thegnight
#67
There was that one time the Austrian Army attacked itself and lost 10000 people.
Image source: Shadowbound199
#68
Fidel Castro was a mad ice cream fanatic and could eat two tubs after a full meal you should watch sam’o’nellas video on it it’s short but still good.
Image source: colaa-chan
#69
In France, the mistress of a King (Henri the second) wanted to be young forever and so she drinked Gold in order to do it and well… She, of course, passed at 66 years old poisoned by it.
Learned that once and i thought it’s not every day you hear something like that.
Image source: ArcaVolt
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