30 Historical Tales That Sound Like A Plot Twist In A Work Of Fiction
History is full of fascinating stories that we often never learn in school. Some accounts may sound fictional, but they’re entirely real. Incredible stories like the London Beer Flood, death by laughter, the East German balloon escape, and the largest man-made whirlpool are all based on true events. We’ve explored a Reddit thread where people shared such mind-boggling tales from the past. Read on for the strangest, most unbelievable (yet factual) historical accounts.
#1
Image source: ingloriousmongo, The death of President Andrew Jackson in Washington, 1845
President Andrew Jackson’s funeral in 1845, his pet parrot had to be removed because it was swearing loudly.
#2
Image source: 6lesbian9, Thomas Lawrence
Louis the 19th was King of France for 20 minutes.
The shortest war ever recorded was around 40 minutes long.
During the Salem Witch Trials, dogs were also accused of witchcraft. 2 dogs were executed because of it.
#3
Image source: timmyboyoyo, Unknown author
The London Beer Flood of 1814: a 22-foot-tall beer vat blew out and at least 100,000 to as much as 323,000 imperial gallons give or take flooded slum-dwellings, killing 8 people. Five of those people k**led were at the time at a celebration of life service for someone else
#4
Image source: Villeneuve_, Unknown artist
Apparently, death from laughter is an incredibly rare but a completely legit cause of death.
In the third century BCE, Chrysippus, a Greek Stoic philosopher, died of laughter after he saw a donkey eating his figs.
And Chrysippus’ is not the only isolated case. Among the few other cases, a fifth-century BCE Greek painter, Zeuxis, is said to have died laughing at his painting of the goddess Aphrodite for which an old woman (who had commissioned the painting) had insisted on modelling. Also, Cleopatra, the ruler of Egypt in the first century BCE, claimed that her retainer died laughing at her husband’s death.
According to the linked Wikipedia article, the most recent case is that of Ole Bentzen, a Danish audiologist, who saw a funny scene in a comedy film and laughed so hard that his heart rate rose to a point where he had a fatal heart attack, in 1989.
From what I understood from reading up on this topic, it’s not the act of laughing itself but rather a fatal repercussion from a fit of laughter, such as cardiac arrest, asphyxiation or aneurysm, which causes death. For instance, Ole Bentzen suffered a heart attack as a consequence of the terrible fit of laughter he had. It’s possible that such was the case of Chrysippus (and others) as well.
(I always thought of ‘I’m gonna die laughing!’ as a hyperbole, and I myself use it quite liberally. But I guess every hyperbole has a grain of truth to it.).
#5
Image source: MakingWickedBacon, wikipedia.org
The East German balloon escape.
In 1979, two families escaped East Germany to West Germany by a homemade hot air balloon.
#6
Image source: FrankieMint, Hellbuny
In 1980 Lake Peigneur in Louisiana drained like a bathtub with the plug removed. Oil Drillers on a rig in the lake had hit a mine shaft below. The rig, barges, a tugboat and part of a nearby island got sucked into the largest man-made whirlpool ever.
#7
Image source: anon, Charles Dixon
During WW1 The German navy built a ship and painted it to make it look like a British ship called the RMS Carmania in order to infiltrate and destroy British convoys. On the ships first outing, the first enemy it encountered was the real RMS Carmania, which promptly sunk it.
#8
Image source: TatterCatYT, Gary Bendig
In 1993 a man taught geese to follow his ultralight aircraft glider. They didn’t know how to migrate, so he flew all the way to an area where geese generally migrate to with his geese following.
#9
Image source: Zacoftheaxes, James Akin
Timothy Dexter was frequently given terrible business advice that would somehow through a stroke of luck pay off. He sold coal to Newcastle and made a profit.
He became insanely wealthy, dressed in a strange manner, and acted weird in the company of the incredibly wealthy elite he had accidentally stumbled into.
He spent a lot of time basically gaslighting his own wife for his own amusement. For quite some time he acted as if she had died and was a ghost, even introducing her to other people as his “wife’s ghost”. He at one point even faked his own death so he could see how people would react at his funeral.
He also wrote a book that was a long winded rant about everything that upset him. The book included no punctuation. He made a second edition with several pages of punctuation attached to the end that the reader could “distribute as they saw fit”.
Basically a real life s**tpost.
#10
Image source: BlatantConservative, Lindsley, Harvey B.
The life of Harriet Tubman, one of the rare examples of someone who is a household name for being a bada*s who was actually about ten times more bada*s than people know about.
Things she did other than the Underground Railroad:
1) She financed and recruited for John Brown’s Harper’s Ferry slabe revolt raid, and the only reason she didn’t fight in person was she was bedridden with malaria
2) During the Civil War, she joined the Union Army as a cook/nurse
3) She somehow class shifted into a spy/scout and helped Union leaders plan raids into Confederste territory, and she assassinated several Confederates
4) She rose in the ranks until she commanded a small raiding force of 300 Union troops from the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the second black US Army unit ever.
5) Her command, Company C, 54th, raided southern plantations, slaughtered slave drivers, and freed captive slaves
6) In the Combahee Ferry raid, where the 54th freed 700 slaves, she was also in command of three Union frigates, and when a Confederate division was advancing on them she fired broadsides from the three naval warships directly into the enemy troops.
7) She survived the war, and immediately turned around and started fighting for women’s suffrage.
#11
Image source: NieDrogg, Bernhard Walter
4 Auschwitz prisioners stole n**i uniforms, and a car. Only one of them was speaking german so he was wearing the highest rank uniform. When they left the camp they’ve encoutered 2 patrols. 1st patrol (with some high ranked guy) just hailed to them. 2nd patrol with 2 low rank soliders told them they can’t leave becouse orders etc. Guy speaking german started screaming at them so loud and so realisticly they just said “we’re sorry, go ahead”.
#12
Image source: destinationisengard, Bos174
The death of Ken Rex McElroy.
He terrorized Skidmore, Missouri for decades. Stalking, assaulting, murdering and r***d two 14 year olds who were his “wives.” He had an expensive attorney so he was never charged. The law never helped the poor town.
One day, the town gathered for a meeting on how to deal with McElroy. Details get a little vague here, but apparently someone alerted the room that McElroy was in the bar up the street. Quietly and calmly, everyone got up and walked over to the bar. As McElroy got into his truck, someone shot him in the back of the head. The town just went back to their business.
When the witnesses (like the entire town) were questioned, everyone claimed they didn’t see anything. No one as ever been arrested.
#13
Image source: Radioactive_Requiem, Unknown author
Joshua Norton was just this random crazy guy from San Francisco who hated all this political nonsense that was going on at the time and figured he could do the job better at it himself, and thus “The Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico” was born. While he held no real power, the people liked him so much that they treated him like royalty anyways.
Any currency issued under his name was treated like real money at many establishments.
One day, he was arrested by a private security force because of his mental health, which enrage practically all of San Francisco. The Police Chief let him go because he had committed no crime, and Norton gave an Imperial Pardon to the guy who arrested him. After this incident, any police officer Norton passed would salute him.
Another time, when a riot had formed and was getting pretty violent, Norton simply stood in front of the mob and calmly prayed, which manged to disperse the mob.
And that’s not even a fraction of the crazy stuff that he did.
#14
Image source: shipping_addict, Stubby: Terrier Hero of Georgetown
Sergeant Stubby. During world War 1, a soldier found a stray dog when training on the Yale University campus, and took a liking to him. The soldier snuck the dog onto the ship when he had to leave campus and when the dog was found by the commanding officer, he was allowed to stay because he had learned how to salute.
Stubby was injured a few times during the war, but he was useful with alerting his squad of surprise mustard gas attacks and gunshots before the human ear could detect the sound. He also found and comforted wounded soldiers and caught a German soldier by the leg of his pants until American soldiers got to him.
AKA. The bestest boi to ever live.
#15
Image source: TheMarvelite, Pixabay
Jeanne de Clisson (1300-1359) was married to a French nobleman who was beheaded for treason by the French King. Enraged, she sold their estate and purchased three black warships with red sails, and became a pirate queen of the English Channel who targeted French ships. She became known as “The Lioness of Brittany” and in her 13 years of piracy she would slaughter every member of a ship’s crew except for one so that last survivor could go back and tell the French king what had happened.
#16
Image source: echoskybound, Leslie Cross
In 1971, a teenage girl named Juliane Koepcke was on a plane that was struck by lightning and disintegrated in the air. She plummeted 3,000 meters strapped to her seat, and landed in the Amazon rainforest.
Her mom had been on the flight with her, and Juliane searched in vain for her mom, but Juliane was the sole survivor of the crash. She survived 11 days alone, treating her maggot-infested wounds with fuel and using tracking techniqies her father had taught her, before she found a boat that she used to make her way back to civilization.
What an absolute legend.
#17
Image source: Naweezy, Unknown author
Jack. A Baboon who was employed to change rail signals.
“After initial skepticism, the railway decided to officially employ Jack once his job competency was verified. The baboon was paid twenty cents a day, and a half-bottle of beer each week. It is widely reported that in his nine years of employment with the railroad, Jack never made a mistake.”
#18
Image source: anon, Unknown author
Edgar Allen Poe wrote a novel in 1838 in which 4 shipwrecked survivors, at the point of starvation, choose to resort to cannibalism. So they k**l the young cabin boy, Richard Parker, and eat him.
In 1884, a ship called the Mignonette sank. 4 crewmembers survived. At the point of starvation, they k**led and ate the youngest of them: Richard Parker.
#19
Image source: LordofHopeHomestuck, Frank Hurley
The escape from Antarctica by the members of the Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. The stuff they went through was unbelievable. Their boat, the Endurance was crushed by ice floes. They were stranded on the floes for over a year in temperatures well below freezing. They then took to three boats around 22 feet in length across the antarctic ocean looking for land. There were about 10 men in each boat. They missed reaching land by just a few miles at times. Two thirds of them got stranded on Elephant Island surrounded by ice while one of the boats went out in search of rescue. That boat made it through the Drake Passage, one of the deadliest places in the ocean. All but three of them got stranded with little food and water while the three men who left became the first people the cross South Georgia on foot. They found civilization. Rescued the men who came through the Drake Passage. Waited months until they could rescue those on Elephant Island. Every single person who came on the initial voyage survived with the worst lasting consequence being a single foot amputation.
#20
The great molasses flood of 1919, a tank filled with 2m gallons of molasses burst and sent a tidal wave of molasses through the streets of Boston, 21 people were k**led.
#21
Image source: AKReddits, Lavi Cella
Not exactly historical but: A poodle named Cachy, in Caballito, Buenos Aires, fell from 13 floors and fatally hit 75-year-old Marta Espina, k**ling both instantly. In the course of the events, 46-year-old Edith Sola, who came to see the incident, was fatally hit by a bus. An unidentified man, who witnessed Edith’s death, had an heart attack and also died, on his way to the hospital.
#22
Image source: anon, Tim Bieler
In the Middle Ages gays and lesbians would become nuns and monks to avoid persecution, and since religion was a heavy influence in those days it was seen as noble that they were dedicating themselves to god, they would have “special friends” and since no one could get pregnant it wasn’t that big of an issue.
#23
Image source: Florgio, ISS Expedition 23 crew
The Carrington Event.
In 1859 the Earth was hit by a geomagnetic storm from the sun. It caused auroras as far south as Rome. Telegraph wires caught fire and in general it was chaos.
If this happened today it would likely cause massive blackouts for weeks or even months and cause trillions in damage.
#24
Image source: ferret-fu, Anonymous print. Collection Michel Hennin
The entire life of Julie d’ aubigny. Bisexual swordmaster, heartthrob turned opera singer who lived her life entirely for the lolz. Beat the s**t out of dudes in sword duels, and doing it topless whenever anyone doubted she was a lady. Got in trouble for making out with ladies at royal balls. Once became a nun to f**k a nun and then set fire to the convent.
S**t is so wild, it’s insane there’s not a blockbuster movie about her.
#25
Image source: Catlenfell, Georgina Shaw Baker
Unsinkable Sam. A cat that survived the sinking of three different ship during WWII.
#26
Image source: TheBestPeter, The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England
An English king named Ethelred, later called the Unready, took some troops to defend against a Viking invasion.
The weather was bad, so a lot of the Vikings’ ships crashed as they were landing. Ethelred thought that it would be dishonourable to attack them as they were stumbling onto shore, so he kept his troops back until the Vikings had a chance to get together and form proper battle lines before he attacked them. The better prepared Vikings then won the fight and slaughtered a bunch of Ethelred’s men and he and the rest were forced to run away while the Vikings went around pillaging.
#27
Image source: ThePumpk1nMaster, Imperial War Museum
Wojtek was a bear who fought N**s in return for cigarettes and beer. He didn’t die until 20 years after WW2.
#28
Image source: _iPood_, Paycho Stories
In 2007 a paraglider got trapped in the updraft of two joining thunderstorms and was lifted to an altitude of 33,000 feet. She landed over three hours later about sixty kilometers north of her starting position having survived extreme cold, lightning and lack of oxygen.
#29
Mad Jack Churchill, the man with the only confirmed longbow k**l in WWII. Guy and his squad did a death march towards the germans whole playing bagpipes, got captured and sent to a concentration camp. He then escaped, got caught again, and then escaped a different concentration camp. Also he always carried a scottish longsword with him.
Theres so much other weird s**t he did after the war, and its amazing to me that hes entirely real.
#30
Image source: xubax, St. John “Jock” Horsfall
The allies planted a dead body with fake battle plans to trick the Germans into thinking that the allies were going to attack Sardinia when they were in fact going to attack Sicily.
They built an entire life for this dead, fake, military man, dumped him in the ocean, and successfully distracted the Germans.
Got wisdom to pour?