Funny/Interesting stories from history.

Making this thread for people to post factual tidbits you have come across whilst reading history.

Maybe not funny but those types of things you take note off. Maybe they say something about humanity being unchanging? Or is just an instance of times where history is worse, stranger, quirkier than fiction.

Im thinking in the style of how basically one of the first examples writings is basically a customer complaint that wouldn't be to strange to see on yelp.
Or how Empress Irene is said to have brought her son Constantine VI back to the room where he was born and had his eyes gouged out. (She's like Cersei in Game of Thrones but meaner)

Alright I found this tidbit in an article about failed hangings. It takes place in Marseille in the early 14th century, written down in 1315.


We have Raymond of Uzes and a man called Etienne. Regular guys basically, and they are arguing the location of the relics of Mary Magdalen and where they are buried.
Raymond claims they are located in Saint-Maximin in Provence, whilst Etienne believes they are in Vezelay in Bourgogne.
This discussion goes out of hand for some reason and Raymond murders Etienne.

Raymond is convicted and sentenced to hang. As would be the norm.
Anyway when he drops at the gallows the gallows drops with him and the whole thing collapses.
This of course can only mean one thing for the good people of Marseille. Divine intervention, of course Maria Magdalene wanted to protect the truth sayer and had saved him. Raymond is let go.

Keep that in mind when worrying about modern day discussions on the interwebs or in politics being ridiculous, it doesn't end in a murder and execution.

(FYI Supposed relics of Mary Magdalene are held both at Saint-Maximin and Vezelay, and that was true in 1300 as well)

The First Emperor of China was basically a fantasy book villain. He even had black-clad special agents riding across the countryside rooting out dissent, and is ultimately believed to have died after drinking noxious chemicals which he had commissioned from alchemists as an elixir of life. It probably contained mercury.

At one point, when he was merely king of Qin, he was the target of a rather unedifying assassination attempt. A man named Jing Ke was sent to kill him, gained an audience with the king, later emperor, by virtue of bringing with him the severed head of a rebellious general, and a map. The map's case, though, concealed a poisoned dagger.

Jing Ke attacked the emperor, who was undefended as no armed guards were allowed in his presence. He had a sword, but it was a long ceremonial one and he struggled to draw it in the confined space. So he was reduced to running around and around a pillar, chased by his would-be-murderer, until his personal physician threw a case of medicine at Jing Ke, distracting him long enough for the emperor to get his sword out. The emperor managed to stab Jing Ke in the thigh, and by this time the commotion had attracted his guards, and so he lived.

But the image of the bona fide unifier of China being chased around a pillar like something out of the Keystone Kops is one I can't help but find hilarious.

Someone has found a 1200 year old Viking sword in Norway, which is in such good condition the experts reckon that if it was polished up and refurnished it could still be used today.

http://www.thelocal.no/20151021/hiker-finds-1300-yr-old-viking-sword

Came across this gem here Interview with a Soviet tanker. He operated on Sherman tanks so thats quite interesting. (Quality of these articles may vary)




. Here is an incident from Hungary. We had a trophy German "letuchka" (light maintenance truck). We had penetrated into the German rear in column. We were going along a road and our light truck had fallen back. Then another light German truck, just like our own, attached itself to the back of our column. A while later our column halted. I was walking down the column, checking vehicles.
"Is everything in order?" Everything was fine. I approached the last vehicle in the column and asked, "Sasha, is everything OK?" In response I heard "Was?" What was this? Germans! I immediately jumped to the side and cried out "Germans!" We surrounded them, a driver and two others.
We disarmed them and only then did our own light truck come up the road. I said, "Sasha, where were you?" He responded, "We got lost." "Well, look," I said to him, "Here is another light truck for you!"


I can only imagine the Germans before this:

"Hans, admit it we are lost! We should have gone the other way"

"No we arent. Look! There is a column of our guys, see I told you this was the way"

In 1934 there was a referendum in the Saar region, which in 1919 had become french territory after the treaty of versailles required it to be. This referendum was about the region remaining french, or becomming German once more.

The treaty of Versailles stated that after somewhat years a referendum for exactly this purpose should be held, which was indeed the fact in 1934. In January of 1935 the results poured in. A whopping 90% of the then 800 thousand inhabitants voted for reunification with Germany. The French were perplexed, yet ignored the results, even though the Hitler administration kept referring to the referendum and its outcome.

Eventually Hitler decided that later in 1935 he had enough and ordered his then still in build up phase Wehrmacht to occupy the region. They were under strict orders to march backwars if even the slightest of confrontation would occur.

Funny thing is, French and British media proclaimed this as German aggression, while the French themselves ignored the referendum's outcome let alone took action when the 'aggression' took place.

Similar referendums were held in parts of Czechoslovakia , the Austrian nation and parts of Poland. The chechs weren't blind to the results, the poles were and even closed off land ways to the German towns that were situated in Poland. When Poland was eventually defeated, the French and Brits were at war With Germany, yet not with Russia. That had fought Finland, took half of Poland and would later in 1940, annex the Baltic states. Something to think about and very interesting part of WW2

http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=1983

https://search.socialhistory.org/Record/ARCH01755