Random Actual History Facts So Dumb They Sound Like Fiction - But Aren’t (15 items)

• (#6) Jack Daniel Perished Because He Stubbed His Toe

  From Redditor u/Fact-Crab:

  Jack Daniel (yeah, that Jack Daniel) died from an infected stubbed toe caused by him kicking a safe containing money to which he had forgotten the combination.

  Context: You can see the safe that took Mr. Daniel's life on the Jack Daniel Distillery tour in Lynchburg, Tennessee. His story is a grim reminder of how far medical knowledge has come. After stubbing his toe, the resulting infection required first the amputation of Daniel's foot, then his leg, before he succumbed to gangrene.
• (#3) Europeans Ate A Lot Of Mummies

  From Redditor u/FredrickTheWriter69:

  The reason there [aren't] a lot of mummies around anymore? It's because we ate them.

  Context: Egyptian mummies were a popular ingredient in all sorts of European medicines, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries. As summarized by the University of Durham's Richard Sugg, “The question was not, ‘Should you eat human flesh?’ but, ‘What sort of flesh should you eat?’” The Smithsonian writes, "Thomas Willis, a 17th-century pioneer of brain science, brewed a drink for apoplexy, or bleeding, that mingled powdered human skull and chocolate."
• (#10) Two French Kings Were Taken Out By Doors

  From Redditor u/Ramtalok:

  Not one but two kings of France perished by smashing their heads on the top part of a door, or lintel.

  Charles VIII in 1498 (the shock probably caused something else but still).

  Louis III was pursuing a fair lady (who was actually trying to escape him) on his horse on August 5, 882, when she passed a door. The horse went through, but not the king, who broke his skull and died instantly.

  Context: Not much to add here. Some 616 years after Louis III's ignominious end, Charles VIII (known as "Charles the Affable") bumped his head on the way to a tennis match. He lost his life after falling into a coma.
• (#12) During WWII, The Allies Concocted A Plan To 'Feminize' Hitler Via Hormone-Laced Food

  From Redditor u/Alistair_TheAlvarian:

  There was a real plan to spike Hitler's food with estrogen to try to turn him into a woman and make him give up on war.

  Context: The idea here was that a more "feminine" Hitler would be less aggressive. According to Professor Brian Ford of Cardiff University, Allied agents positioned around the fuhrer made the plan "entirely possible" to pull off. And, as Time notes, "unlike poisons, estrogen would not have been detected by Hitler’s cadre of food tasters."
• (#11) Bobby Leach Went Over Niagra Falls In A Barrel - And Perished From Slipping On A Banana Peel

  From Redditor u/lucif_woods:

  The second person to go down Niagara Falls in a barrel and live later perished by slipping on an orange peel.

  Context: According to the BBC, reports differ on whether Bobby Leach slipped on an orange peel or a banana peel. It was not the initial slip that did Leach in, but the gangrene that infected his leg afterward.
• (#1) In 1184 AD, Some 60 Nobles Of The Holy Roman Empire Plummeted Into A Latrine - And Perished

  From Redditor u/FenrirIII:

  In 1184, a number of nobles from across the Holy Roman Empire were meeting in a room at the Church of St. Peter, when their combined weight caused the floor to collapse into the latrine beneath the cellar and led to dozens of nobles drowning in liquid excrement.

  It is referred to as the "Erfurt latrine disaster."

  Context: Between 60 and 100 people are believed to have perished in this incident, which took place in St. Peter's Church on July 1184. Unfortunately, during this era (and for many centuries to come), the only septic system that existed was building a giant pit under a structure - or allowing it to drain off into a moat.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking