Weird & Funny Facts From History

Throughout history there had been lots of events carried out by humans based on ignorance and lack of understanding. Let's take a look at some of the funny weird facts from history!

Witch-trials have a long, dark history.

via: Wikipedia

You’ve probably heard of the Salem witch trials, but the hunt for witches goes back much further than that. One anthropologist has estimated that, in medieval times, as many as 600,000 “witches” lost their lives.

via: Wikipedia

Animals were also regularly put on trial in the medieval ages—and given a death sentence.

Flour-print dresses?

via: Pinterest

During America’s Dust Bowl (in the early 1930s), sewing flour sacks into clothing became quite popular. So popular, in fact, that flour companies began selling flour in decorative bags intended for future repurposing into clothing.

Coffins used to need built-in safety nets.

via: Oobject.com

In the 19th century, before medical professionals had the tools to discern comas or paralysis from death, the fear of being buried alive was very real. Patented ‘safety coffins’ were invented so that mistakenly buried people could alert those above ground to their predicament.

This Papal decree backfired horribly.

via: Wikipedia

During Pope Gregory IX’s term, he declared that cats were associated with devil worship, resulting in their mass extermination.

via: Wikipedia

Ironically, it is believed that this large-scale expunging of felines helped to spread the Bubonic Plague, which ravaged Europe in the 1300s and killed over a hundred million people. No cats meant the rat population (which carried the plague) ran wild.

The most ineffective senator ever:

via: Wikipedia

Roman emperor Gaius (also known as Caligula) went out of his way to humiliate the Roman senate by making one of his favorite horses a senator.

The horrifying extent of Europeans’ Native American decimation.

The Europeans’ arrival in the Americas caused the Native American population to drastically decline from approximately 12 million in 1500 to roughly 237,000 in 1900.

Cannibalism was a health fad once upon a time.

via: Encyclopedia Britannica

Wealthy Europeans in the 1500s and 1600s ate parts of corpses, believing them to have medicinal properties. Blood, power ground up from the human skull, and human fat were all used to cure various ailments.

via: Egyptominia

Tomb raiders even desecrated Ancient Egyptian tombs to steal the remains of mummies, which the aforementioned wealthy Europeans proceeded to consume.

This funeral was extremely unconventional.

via: Wikipedia

Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna held an entire state funeral for his leg after it was amputated.

A real-life vampire scare took place in New England.

The “New England Vampire Panic” was an event in the 19th century where people thought that “consumption” (i.e. Tuberculosis) was actually the result of vampires. It got to the point where people would dig up those who died of Tuberculosis and stake them through the heart. 

Which of these funny & weird facts was your favourite? Please leave a comment below.

The Truth Behind The Death Of Legendary Martial Artist Bruce Lee

Wikimedia CommonsBruce Lee’s death has caused much controversy over the years.

Growing up one of the many street tales was about the mystery surrounding the death of the martial arts Legend Bruce Lee. There has always been an infamous street tale of how he died because he tore his muscles due to excessive strength. But that's not really the case. The facts are below.

When Bruce Lee awoke on the morning of July 20, 1973, he was an active, healthy 32 year old. He spent the day meeting with producers about his next film, then headed to a friend’s house for an afternoon visit. By nightfall, the greatest martial artist in a generation lay dead on a mattress on the floor, and the world was left to wonder: How did Bruce Lee die?

The culprit was just one thing Lee did that summer day — a small decision with consequences no one could have anticipated.

The Day Of Bruce Lee’s Death

The trouble started two months earlier when Lee collapsed on May 10 during an automated dialogue replacement session for his movie Enter the Dragon. He was rushed to the hospital, where he complained of a severe headache and was wracked by seizures.

Doctors recognized the symptoms of cerebral edema, a condition in which excess fluid in the brain causes swelling and pain, and were able to treat him immediately with mannitol. After a brief hospital stay, he felt much better — this wasn’t, he told his friends, how Bruce Lee would die.

Wikimedia CommonsBruce Lee in 1967.

On his release, he promptly resumed his usual fitness regime and continued eating his usual diet: a strictly enforced combination of vegetables, rice, fish, and milk that excluded all baked goods, refined flour, and most refined sugars.

Until July 20, he seemed to be recovering extremely well from his cerebral edema and, aside from complaining of an occasional headache, gave his friends no reason to worry.

The day of Bruce Lee’s death was a busy one. He was in Hong Kong, where many of his movies were made, and had been meeting with producer Raymond Chow for most of the day discussing his upcoming movie. He was reportedly filled with enthusiasm, acting out scene after scene with energy despite the scorching summer heat.

After the meeting, Bruce went to the apartment of a friend — or, as some would later clarify, his mistress, Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei. They were alone for several hours, then made dinner plans with Lee’s producer to finalize his movie deal.

Around 7:30 in the evening, shortly before they were due to depart, Lee complained of a headache. Ting Pei gave Lee an Equagesic, a common painkiller containing aspirin and a tranquilizer known as meprobamate. After taking it, he went to lie down.

After a few hours, when Lee didn’t come down for dinner, Ting Pei went up to check on him and found him unresponsive. She called Chow back to the home, and he attempted to wake Lee without success.

They were forced to call a doctor, who spent ten more minutes attempting to revive Lee. Unable to recall the martial artist to consciousness, they sent him to a nearby hospital in an ambulance.

By the time the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Lee was dead.

A Shocked World Wonders: How Did Bruce Lee Die?

Wikimedia CommonsBruce Lee and his son Brandon Lee.

Because Lee’s body showed no external signs of injury, an autopsy was performed, revealing that Bruce Lee’s death was the result of severe brain swelling: a buildup of fluid had resulted in a 13 percent increase in brain size.

Chow claimed that Bruce Lee’s death was the result of an allergic reaction to the painkiller he had been given, and the autopsy report seemed to partially substantiate his claim.

The coroner officially ruled Bruce Lee’s death the result of a second cerebral edema brought on by taking Equagesic. He called Lee’s end “death by misadventure,” which, unlike death by accident, implies that death occurred due to a dangerous, voluntary risk — though Equagesic was not generally considered dangerous to take.

Though several subsequent investigations backed up the coroner’s report, that didn’t stop a flood of conspiracy theories.

Now you know that Bruce died not because of excess muscles but because of an allergic reaction caused by a pain killer he was using, which led to cerebral edema (The swelling of the brain).

Hope you enjoyed this article?

"If I Were" Or "If I Was" Which Is Correct?

We all know that grammar isn't easy at all, especially if a language isn't your mother tongue or your first language. So we wouldn't judge you. But let's take a look at these two phrases: "If I Were" and "If I Was"

It’s easy to confuse the two phrases. “If I was” and “If I were” are often used interchangeably even by native English speakers, but which one is correct? The short answer: they’re both right AND wrong. It depends completely on how you’re using the statement.

“If I were”

You use the phrase “if I were…” when you are using the subjunctive mood. You may or may not have heard of this grammatical tense (it’s not taught very often in English studies when English is your first language), but you probably use it all the time. The subjunctive is used to talk about hypothetical situations or things that are contrary to fact. “If I were” is also used when you are wishing for something. For example, “If I were taller, I would play basketball.” The subject of the sentence is imagining a hypothetical situation where they are taller, and imagining about what that would mean for that version of themselves.

“If I was”

Alternatively, you should use the phrase “if I was…” when referring to something that actually happened. For example, “If I was late for curfew when I was a teenager, my parents grounded me.” This variation is a lot less common, but it does come up.

A good trick to decide which you want to use is to determine if the thing you are talking about is something that actually happened or something that you are wishing or imagining might have happened. If it really happened, use “if I was,” but if not, go with “if I were.”

World War I: Direct And Indirect Causes Of WW1

German infantrymen aim machine guns from a trench near the Vistula River in 1916. (AP

The first world war began in August 1914. It was directly triggered by the assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand and his wife, on 28th June 1914 by Bosnian revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip.

This event was, however, simply the trigger that set off declarations of war. The actual causes of the war are more complicated and are still debated by historians today.l

Indirect Causes Of WW1

Alliance

An alliance is an agreement made between two or more countries to give each other help if it is needed. When an alliance is signed, those countries become known as Allies.

A number of alliances had been signed by countries between the years 1879 and 1914. These were important because they meant that some countries had no option but to declare war if one of their allies. declared war first. (the table below reads clockwise from the top left picture)

1879 The Dual Alliance Germany and Austria-Hungary made an alliance to protect themselves from Russia	1881 Austro-Serbian Alliance Austria-Hungary made an alliance with Serbia to stop Russia gaining control of Serbia	1882 The Triple Alliance Germany and Austria- Hungary made an alliance with Italy to stop Italy from taking sides with Russia
1914 Triple Entente (no separate peace) Britain, Russia and France agreed not to sign for peace separately.		1894 Franco-Russian Alliance Russia formed an alliance with France to protect herself against Germany and Austria-Hungary
1907 Triple Entente This was made between Russia, France and Britain to counter the increasing threat from Germany.	1907 Anglo-Russian Entente This was an agreement between Britain and Russia	1904 Entente Cordiale This was an agreement, but not a formal alliance, between France and Britain.

Imperialism

Imperialism is when a country takes over new lands or countries and makes them subject to their rule. By 1900 the British Empire extended over five continents and France had control of large areas of Africa. With the rise of industrialism countries needed new markets. The amount of lands ‘owned’ by Britain and France increased the rivalry with Germany who had entered the scramble to acquire colonies late and only had small areas of Africa. 

Militarism

Militarism means that the army and military forces are given a high profile by the government. The growing European divide had led to an arms race between the main countries. The armies of both France and Germany had more than doubled between 1870 and 1914 and there was fierce competition between Britain and Germany for mastery of the seas. The British had introduced the ‘Dreadnought’, an effective battleship, in 1906. The Germans soon followed suit introducing their own battleships. The German, Von Schlieffen also drew up a plan of action that involved attacking France through Belgium if Russia made an attack on Germany. The map below shows how the plan was to work.

Nationalism

Nationalism means being a strong supporter of the rights and interests of one’s country. The Congress of Vienna, held after Napoleon’s exile to Elba, aimed to sort out problems in Europe. Delegates from Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia (the winning allies) decided upon a new Europe that left both Germany and Italy as divided states. Strong nationalist elements led to the re-unification of Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871. The settlement at the end of the Franco-Prussian war left France angry at the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and keen to regain their lost territory. Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to differing nationalist groups, all of whom wanted freedom from the states in which they lived.

Moroccan Crisis

In 1904 Morocco had been given to France by Britain, but the Moroccans wanted their independence. In 1905, Germany announced her support for Moroccan independence. War was narrowly avoided by a conference which allowed France to retain possession of Morocco. However, in 1911, the Germans were again protesting against French possession of Morocco. Britain supported France and Germany was persuaded to back down for part of French Congo.

Bosnian Crisis

In 1908, Austria-Hungary took over the former Turkish province of Bosnia. This angered Serbians who felt the province should be theirs. Serbia threatened Austria-Hungary with war, Russia, allied to Serbia, mobilized its forces. Germany, allied to Austria-Hungary mobilized its forces and prepared to threaten Russia. War was avoided when Russia backed down. There was, however, war in the Balkans between 1911 and 1912 when the Balkan states drove Turkey out of the area. The states then fought each other over which area should belong to which state. Austria-Hungary then intervened and forced Serbia to give up some of its acquisitions. Tension between Serbia and Austria-Hungary was high.

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THE VERY BEGINNING: How The Earliest Man Probably Looked Like.

The earliest man did not look anything like the modern day man. In terms of physiology, if placed in our present world he would look really hideous.

The first specimen of Paranthropus boisei, also called Nutcracker Man, was reported by Mary and Louis Leakey in 1959 from a site in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.

(Image: © Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation.)

Humans are unique among life on this planet, and much remains a mystery as to how we evolved. What steps came first? Why did we evolve this way and not that direction? Why are we the only human species left? What other paths might we have gone down in our evolution? And what directions might we go from here?

Why did we grow large brains?

Image of the brain.

(Image: © Dreamstime.)

There is no question that our large brains have provided humans an extraordinary advantage in the world. Still, the human brain is an incredibly expensive organ, taking up only about 2 percent of the body's mass yet using more than a fifth of the body's energy, and until about 2 million years ago none of our ancestors had a brain larger than an ape's when compared to body size. So what kicked off the push for a larger brain? One possibility is that increased smarts helped our ancestors make better tools. Another is that larger brains helped us interact better with each other. Perhaps radical changes in the environment also demanded that our ancestors deal with a shifting world.

Why do humans walk on two legs?

Our ancestors evolved an upright posture well before our large brains or stone tools even appeared. The question, then: Why stand and walk on two legs when our ape cousins get by on four limbs? Walking as bipeds might actually use less energy than movement on all fours does. Freeing up the arms might also have enabled our ancestors to carry more food. Standing upright might even have helped them control their temperature better by reducing the amount of skin directly exposed to the sun.

What happened to our hair?

Photo taken by Matthew Bowden. There are no usage restrictions for this photo

Humans are unique for looking naked compared to our hairier ape cousins. So why did this nakedness evolve? One suggestion is that our ancestors shed hairiness to keep cool when venturing across the hot savannahs of Africa. Another is that losing our fur coats helped free us parasite infestations and the diseases they can spread. One unorthodox idea even suggests human nakedness developed after our ancestors briefly adapted for a streamlined life in the water, although most aquatic mammals of roughly human size actually possess dense fur.

Why did our closest relatives go extinct?

A Neanderthal Family.

(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Roughly 24,000 years ago, our species, Homo sapiens, was not alone in the world — our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, (Homo neanderthalensis) were still alive. The so-called 'hobbit' found in Indonesia might also have been a member of the genus Homo, and it apparently survived until as recently as 12,000 years ago. So why did they die and we survive? Did infections or radical shifts in their environments kill them off? Or did our species do away with them? Some evidence exists for both scenarios, but no conclusion is agreed upon.

Is human evolution accelerating?

Analyses of a partial skeleton of a female Ardipithecus ramidus nicknamed Ardi, suggest the early human would have stood at just under 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall with both primitive traits, such as a small brains size similar to living chimpanzees and those shared with later hominids, such as bipedal posture.

(Image: © © 2009, J.H. Matternes.)

Recent evidence suggests that humanity is not only still evolving, but that human evolution is actually accelerating, speeding up to 100 times historical levels after agriculture spread. A number of scientists challenge the strength of this evidence, saying that it remains difficult to ascertain whether or not certain genes really have recently grown in prominence because they offer some adaptive benefit. Still, if human evolution is accelerating, the question becomes why? Diet and diseases may be some of the pressures that caused humans to change.

What is the hobbit?

Homo floresiensis

(Image: © National Geographic Society/ Peter Schouten)

 Isthe 'hobbit' — the nickname given to diminutive skeletons found on the Indonesian isle of Flores in 2003 — in fact an extinct human species, enough to be called Homo floresiensis? Are these skeletons just examples of deformed Homo sapiens? Are they a different species than us, but perhaps not an extinct human species and instead as separate as chimpanzees are? Solving this mystery could help shed light on the radical paths human evolution may have taken.

Why did modern humanity expand past Africa about 50,000 years ago?

An adult male chimpanzee standing bipedally while using a tool to dip for ants in the Goualougo Triangle.

(Image: © Morgan/Sanz, Goualougo Triangle Ape Project, Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, Republic of Congo.)

Roughly 50,000 years ago, modern humans expanded out of Africa, spreading rapidly across most of the world's lands to colonize all continents except Antarctica, reaching even the most remote Pacific islands. A number of scientists conjecture this migration was linked with a mutation that transformed our brains, leading to our modern, complex use of language and enabling more sophisticated tools, art and societies. The more popular view suggests hints of such modern behavior existed long before this exodus, and that humanity instead had crossed a threshold in terms of population size in Africa that made such a revolution possible. Did we have sex with Neanderthals?

Some Neanderthals may have had pale skin and red hair similar to that of some modern humans.

(Image: © Michael Hofreiter and Kurt Fiusterweier/MPG EVA)

Did we interbreed? Does our species possess any genes leftover from our extinct cousins? Scientists have suggested that perhaps the Neanderthals did not die out, but instead were absorbed into modern humanity.

Who was the first hominid?

Analyses of a partial skeleton of a female Ardipithecus ramidus nicknamed Ardi, suggest the early human would have stood at just under 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall with both primitive traits, such as a small brains size similar to living chimpanzees and those shared with later hominids, such as bipedal posture.

(Image: © © 2009, J.H. Matternes)

Scientists are uncovering more and more ancient hominids all the time — here meaning bipeds including humans, our direct ancestors and closest relatives. They strive to find the earliest one, to help answer that most fundamental question in human evolution — what adaptations made us human, and in what order did they happen?

Where do modern humans come from?

(Image: © stock.xchng)The most bitterly debated question in the discipline of human evolution is likely over where modern humans evolved. The out-of-Africa hypothesis maintains that modern humans evolved relatively recently in Africa and then spread around the world, replacing existing populations of archaic humans. The multiregional hypothesis contends that modern humans evolved over a broad area from archaic humans, with populations in different regions mating with their neighbors to share traits, resulting in the evolution of modern humans. The out-of-Africa hypothesis currently holds the lead, but proponents of the multiregional hypothesis remain strong in their views.