16th Largest Military
In 1959, President Eisenhower wanted to show the Soviet Union how great America was, so the USA set up an “American National Exhibition.” There Nixon and Soviet leader Khrushchev got in an argument over Communism vs Capitalism. As it got heated the President of Pepsi stepped in and offered Pepsi to Khrushchev. Khruschev loved it and he wanted to bring Pepsi over to their country. The problem was that their currency wasn’t accepted throughout the world. Instead, Russians agreed to trade vodka for Pepsi. This was all good until the late 1980s when their contract was going to expire and vodka just wouldn’t cut it for payment. So instead Russia traded with Pepsi 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer for $3 billion dollars’ worth of Pepsi, making Pepsi the 6th Largest Military in the world, albeit only briefly. Sadly instead of terrorizing the seas and shooting harpoons at their enemies, Pepsi decided to sell the fleet to a Swedish scrap metal company.
2. In 1918, British MP Noel Pemberton Billing caused a major scandal when he accused actress Maud Allan, and Margot Asquith, wife of the previous Prime Minister, of being at the center of a homosexual ring sabotaging the war effort. Evidence included Allan having performed in a play by Oscar Wilde, and Asquith having attended the performance. He presented his case in an article entitled “The Cult of the Clitoris”, in which he claimed the exiled prince of Albania had a black book, listing all the blackmailed homosexuals in Britain. Maud Allan (who was, in fact, homosexual; Asquith was not) sued for libel but lost. During the trial, one witness claimed to have seen the Albanian prince’s black book and claimed that the judge’s name was in it.
3. Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who had his wares confiscated in 2010. Unable to combat the police, he goes to the local governor to ask for his wares back but is refused even a meeting. In response, Bouazizi sets himself on fire in public. His death was not the sole reason, but certainly, the catalyst for the Arab Spring, which brought forth civil war in many countries, leaders being ousted and in cases like Gaddafi, executed. It saw the rise in ISIS, terrorist acts in the western world, and other conflicts that remain active to this day (as of 2019), all because the police wouldn't give Bouazizi his weighing scales back.
4. Rome made the roads and the roads grew ruts in them. Ruts created by the standard roman war chariot had a width of 4 feet 8 1/2 inches. The Roman chariots were designed to fit the wheels in such a way that two horses could pull the chariots and wagons abreast to each other and the wheels don't sit directly in the horse’s hoof prints. As Europe grew it continued to use the old roads with the old ruts and to keep their wagons from breaking they were designed to fit the old roman ruts. So a 4 foot 8 1/2 inch axle. When rail lines were developed in Europe they were made to match the original axle size of the wagons, as the tools to make this size wagon already existed and it was only a matter of changing the wheel itself to make a basic rail car. When trolleys and simple rail came to the US, it was originally designed by experienced European craftsmen, so it too was designed with the standard 4 foot 8 1/2 inch axle. As the US rail system grew it passed through mountains which had tunnels cut through them to fit the trains that ran on the rails as they passed and turned. So that brings us to the Solid Rocket Boosters and the Space Shuttle. The Solid Rocket Boosters were designed by a company called Thiokol and built in a factory in Utah, then shipped by rail to Florida. This meant the Solid Rocket Boosters’ width had to be planned to fit through these tunnels that the rails passed through the mountains, which were designed to match the European rail line standards, which were based on carts that had to match the old Roman roads, which were rutted by chariots that were designed to fit the width of a horse’s a*s and that is the connection between the width of an old Roman horse’s a*s and the US Space program.
5. USA and North Korea almost went to war once over a tree. The US forces wanted to chop down a few branches because they could not see the DPRK guard post. The US chopped some branches and angered the North Koreans. The North Korean guards killed two US soldiers. In retaliation, the USA launched Operation Paul Bunyan and its mission was to chop down the tree. As few US soldiers were sent to the tree to chop it down and a U.S. infantry company of 20 utility helicopters and seven Cobra attack helicopters circled behind them. Behind these helicopters, B-52 Stratofortresses came from Guam escorted by U.S. F-4 Phantom IIs from Kunsan Air Base and South Korean F-5 and F-86 fighters were visible flying across the sky at high altitude. At Taegu Air Base, F-111 bombers of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Mountain Home Air Force Base were stationed, and F-4C and -D Phantoms from the 18th TFW Kadena Air Base and Clark Air Base were also deployed. The aircraft carrier USS Midway task force had also been moved to a station just offshore. In addition, a 64-man task force of the South Korean Special Forces accompanied them, armed with clubs and trained in taekwondo, supposedly without firearms. However, once they parked their trucks near the Bridge of No Return, they started throwing out the sandbags that lined the truck bottoms and handing out M16 rifles and M79 grenade launchers that had been concealed below. Several of the commandos also had M18 Claymore mines strapped to their chests with the firing mechanism in their hands and were shouting at the North Koreans to cross the bridge. The mission was a success.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Ice Cream Ships
During World War 2, the Japanese were struggling and failing, to produce enough of anything. But, they still felt they had a chance to win if they could just get a single large victory. One commander remarked that he lost faith in this when he discovered that the US had 2 specially designed “Ice Cream Ships.” These were boats that were formally designed to make concrete on the move and use that for building ports and airstrips in the Pacific. We made too many, however, so the US Brass decided to convert two of them to make ice cream to be served to US troops fighting in the pacific where they had few tastes of home. The Japanese naval officer was aghast that we had so many products that we could afford to waste money, fuel, food, and sailors on ships that had no purpose (or armaments) aside from giving our soldiers a luxury like ice cream, in the tropics, during a war that he, until then, thought his side was winning. According to his recollections, his men were short of food, clothing, boots, ammunition, fuel, ships, guns, aircraft, training, and everything but the US had so much we could waste it on ice cream. Add to the fact that these ships were chosen because the giant concrete mixers came on each ship in sets of three allowing the GIs and sailors to choose between Vanilla, Chocolate, and whatever fruit was available (often frozen strawberries) was another nail in the coffin of his opinion.
7. 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 feces ‘at least once a week.’
8. Phryne was once the richest woman in the world. She was an Ancient Greek prostitute. Apparently she had a very odd complexion, making her green-yellow. She was so rich, she offered to pay to rebuild the walls of Thebes, provided they installed a plaque that read: “Destroyed by Alexander, restored by Phryne the courtesan.” The Thebans turned her down. As was the style in those days, Phryne eventually got taken to court for impiety, a capital offense. If you lose a trial in Ancient Greece for a capital offense, they make you drink hemlock, a deadly poison. Her trial wasn't going well, she was pretty impious after all, but she had an ace up her sleeve. Well, it was definitely somewhere in her shirt. Phryne ripped off her robe and bore her breasts to the jury. It is said that the jury was so moved by her green-yellow breasts, they declared that she was a prophet of Aphrodite, and acquitted her.
9. More planes were destroyed during World War 2 than what currently exists on earth today. US made about 30,000 heavy bombers in WWII with 15,000 being made in 1944 alone and the USA manufactured about 200,000 combat aircraft in total during the war. At one point, a B-25 bomber was rolling off the line every 25 minutes. Not just America, during the Battle of Britain the UK was producing more aircraft than Germany despite suffering from constant bombing. This, coupled with the fact that British pilots who were shot down over the UK could return to action instead of spending the war in a POW camp, meant that Germany could not win a war of attrition.
10. The first ship ever sunk in war by a submarine was during the American civil war. No one in the submarine survived though. H.L. Hunley was a fully functional naval submarine used by the Confederacy in the Civil War. Powered by hand cranks and armed with buoyant torpedos, it was the first submersible vessel in history to successfully sink an enemy ship. The first time a submersible was ever used in combat was during the American Revolution in 1776. It was named Turtle.
11Spherical Earth
It was well known among educated people in the 15th century that the earth was not flat. There are writings older than Aristotle that mention earth as a sphere, and these writings were relatively common during Columbus's period. What Columbus was trying to prove was that the earth was small enough for a voyage from Europe to India to be possible.
12. Even 60 years after his death, George Washington was such a popular American president that when freed and given the opportunity to choose their surnames, more African-American slaves chose the last name of Washington than Lincoln.
13. Japan bombed Australia during World War 2. In the initial raid on Darwin (1942-02-19) they dropped more bombs than on Pearl Harbour, although the loss of life was far lower. They conducted ~100 raids on Northern Australia over the next 2 years.
14. One of the largest fault lines in America isn't in California but in Missouri. The New Madrid fault triggered a series of earthquakes in the area in 1811-1812 that not only destroyed homes, livestock, and natural habitat but created a crater that became the Reelfoot Lake. In December 1990, residents in the New Madrid area and surrounding counties were warned about a possible earthquake happening that would destroy the area. Schools were canceled, businesses closed for the day, and some people evacuated. Nothing happened. The New Madrid fault still occasionally has minor earthquakes, and there are still studies that say there is a chance it could cause a quake that could destroy parts of Missouri and the surrounding states.
15. The night of November 15, 1917, is known as ‘The Suffragists Night of Terror.’ 33 women fighting for the right to vote were picked up from in front of the White House and put in prison. They suffered beatings, being forced to stand/hang all night with their hands tied above their heads, being thrown around and smashed into iron furniture, and humiliation at the hands of guards. One woman was knocked out after having her head bounced off an iron bench and her cellmate became so distraught (under the impression the unconscious woman was dead) that she suffered a heart attack. She was denied medical care until the next morning. These women were picked up off the street and thrown in jails where they were abused with no access to the council, all because they dared to ask Woodrow Wilson to allow them to vote.
16Claudette Colvin
Rosa Parks was a plant. A 16-year-old pregnant girl named Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat months before Rosa Parks did. In fact, she knew Rosa Parks personally. The problem was that an underage pregnant girl who resisted arrest violently (she scratched one of the officers who was removing her from the bus) was a hard sell for the face of a civil rights movement. The case went to trial, and MLK and the company supported her as much as they could, but they didn't try to get it national attention. Instead, they simply recreated the scenario with Rosa Parks, a respectable member of society who was cool and calm when getting arrested.
17. The construction and use of the Warwolf was supposedly the largest trebuchet ever built. When it was disassembled it would fill up 30 wagons. King Edward the first built it to siege a Scottish castle, but before it was even built, the Scottish people tried to surrender. To which Edward responded with a prompt no (in actuality he responded with “You do not deserve any grace, but must surrender to my will” in other words, I built this trebuchet over 40 days and I am most definitely going to use it) and proceeded to use the trebuchet anyways.
18. Galvarino was a Chilean warrior who had both his hands cut off by the conquistadors for raising arms against the Spanish. Instead of letting himself serve as a message of helplessness in the face of the invaders, he strapped swords to his stumps and went on the warpath. One theory states that when he got defeated again, the Spanish were impressed by him and offered him to surrender, but he spit in the commander’s face so they literally fed him to their dogs.
19. During the early 20th century, there was an outbreak of Spanish flu in the Americas which caused large amounts of suffering and death among afflicted throughout the world. Eleven victims were claimed by the flu living in the town of Longyearbyen in the North Sea. However, the very cold temperature there created a layer of permafrost at burial depth which accidentally preserved remnants of the flu. This made it illegal to die there as turning up the ground would likely re-release the disease. However, scientists studying epidemics such as the Spanish flu use samples from deceased in Longyearbyen.
20. The Battle of Bull Run, during the American civil war, was called “The Picnic Battle”, because so many civilians from Washington went on picnics on the sidelines and watched. But once the battle actually started, and the Union started losing, they all ran away, running over injured soldiers and dead bodies and generally disrupting the battle. Picnics like these were actually a relatively common thing during the Civil War and happened at Gettysburg too.
21Bat Bombs
A dentist friend of Eleanor Roosevelt proposed bat bombs. He said that not only were the Japanese terrified of bats, but bats could also roost in difficult to access areas of Japanese buildings. Combine this with a timed incendiary device and the wood-and-rice-paper construction of Japanese buildings would cause catastrophic damage. The Army Air Force spent six months trying to build bat bombs and achieved little aside from burning down the test range at Carlsbad Army Air Field Auxiliary Air Base when some of the bats escaped, nested under a fuel tank, and exploded 6,000 miles from the intended target. After the debacle at Carlsbad, the USAAF fobbed the project off to the Navy, who wisely passed it along to the Marines. To everyone's surprise, the Marine Corps was able to get the project to work, even carrying out a successful test at Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. Unfortunately, the project lost out to the atomic bomb and was canceled in early 1944.
22. The Apollo 10 mission was involved in several mysteries, from spooky “music” heard by the crew on the far side of the Moon, to the ongoing search for Snoopy and possible recent sightings of its long-lost S IV-b stage. However, the most fascinating mystery of Apollo 10 has to be the infamous “Rogue Turd Incident.” A mysterious piece of turd appeared out of nowhere and was spotted by Commander Tom Stafford. He was heard saying “There’s a turd floating through the air.” Within the 500-page-plus transcript of the Apollo 10 mission, pages 414-415 detail the astronaut’s encounter with a floating turd. The culprit remains a mystery to this day.
23. The longest piano piece of any kind is Vexations by Erik Satie. It consists of a 180-note composition which, on the composer's orders, must be repeated 840 times so that the whole performance is 18 hours 40 minutes. Its first reported public performance in September 1963, in the Pocket Theater, New York City, required a relay team of 10 pianists. The New York Times critic fell asleep at 4 a.m. and the audience dwindled to 6 people. At the conclusion, one person shouted “Encore!”
24. There's a community in the UK, in and around Hartlepool who are known as “Monkey Hangers.” According to local folklore, the term originates from an incident in which a monkey was hanged in Hartlepool, England. During the Napoleonic Wars, a French ship of the type chasse marée was wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool. The only survivor was a monkey, allegedly wearing a French uniform to provide amusement for the crew. On finding the monkey, some locals decided to hold an impromptu trial on the beach; since the monkey was unable to answer their questions and because they had seen neither a monkey nor a Frenchman before, they concluded that the monkey was, in fact, a French spy. Being found guilty the animal was duly sentenced to death and hanged on the beach.
25. Elmer McCurdy was a really inept train robber. He once tried to blow up a safe to get to some silver coins and ended up melting the safe and the coins. Another time, he tried to rob a train, but all they were able to get was some whiskey and like $15 from the conductor. After that, he holed up at a farm, drank all the whiskey, and got into a shootout with the Sheriff and died in 1911. But that’s not the end of his story. They took him to the funeral home and embalmed him with a lot of arsenic because they thought it’d be a while before someone claimed him. They were right. No one claimed him. So the funeral director decided to make money off him and put him on display as the Oklahoman Outlaw and charged money to see him. People had to put the money in his mouth. The funeral director’s kids used to put Elmer on roller skates and scare other children with him. Eventually, two men came to claim their brother Elmer. They were actually sideshow operators. Elmer was on the circuit now. He went places. He was sold a few more times, ended up in a “museum”, and they rented him out. He was in a movie theatre lobby as a hophead who tried to hold up a store and was shot, in order to promote an anti-drug film. Decades went by and he started looking a little rough, all desiccated and missing a couple of fingers and his hair. They then rent him out to a display at Niagara Falls, and they send him back because they think he’s a really creepy waxwork. Yes, it’s been so long no one remembers now that he’s a real dead guy. He gets sold to the Pike, an amusement park in Long Beach, California. He’s hung up in Laff In The Dark, their ghost/funhouse ride. In December 1976, they’re filming an episode of “The Six-Million Dollar Man” in Laff In The Dark, moving stuff around, and they move this painted neon orange dummy and its arm breaks off. It’s a real arm. He’s eventually taken to the coroner, eventually identified, and then eventually buried in Boot Hill in Oklahoma under concrete, so he won’t go wandering again.
