2019-06-06 13:28
Should we call William Shakespeare the Bard, His Bardness, Barder, or El Barderino?
A South African anthropologist named Thackeray thinks that some of Shakespeare’s poems suggest… Read More
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Live insects had a fashion moment in Victorian Society? A butt was a medieval unit of measurement? In 17th and 18th century England, you could hire a sin eater to eat your sins?
All history is interesting if looked at in the right way. Think of the weirdest, grossest, bizarre thing you can and multiply it by infinity. That's how weird history is.
We tell you the history your teacher never told you..and you wish they did!
2019-05-18 14:46
This is how Medieval dentistry explained the toothache : a worm busy eating a way out of the jawbone into the tooth and peeping out through the cavity.
Not a bad description of what a cavit… Read More
2019-05-03 15:57
When Medieval prostitutes broke the laws regulating clothing, they often dressed as men. Perhaps this is because male fashion was both titillatingly outré and more form-fitting?
Sourc… Read More
2019-04-16 16:18
The Canadian city of Winnipeg staged an enormous Nazi Invasion in 1942.
Nazis driving tanks down Portage Avenue, Winnipeg
On If Day (French: “Si un jour”), the “Nazis… Read More
2019-04-11 11:45
Queen Victoria’s only real friend during her childhood was her almost unknown half-sister Feodora.
Source
Victoria’s half-sister, the beautiful, clever Feodora, was packed off at… Read More
2019-04-10 10:42
No one at the Oxford English Dictionary suspected that their most industrious contributor was a madman, a murderer, and an American. Presumably, in that order.
Dr. W.C. Minor. Source
In an e… Read More
2019-04-05 12:41
Frogmore Cottage, Meghan and Harry’s new home, once belonged to a young man Queen Victoria addressed as ‘your loving mother’ and ‘your closest friend’. She even… Read More
2019-04-04 12:35
A new hairdresser or ornatrix flowed into Ancient Rome every day. As the women flowed in, hair soared in up-dos and business boomed in hair care essentials like decomposed leeches, urine, an… Read More
2019-03-20 20:08
March 20, 2019, isn’t just the first day of Spring. It’s also National Alien Abduction Day, also known as Extraterrestrial Abductions Day.
This is a holiday dedicated… Read More
2019-03-19 16:27
The Roman Catholic Church once denounced the use of forks. “God in his wisdom has provided people with natural forks-his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to Him to substitute artific… Read More
2019-03-12 15:45
White House sheep roamed the famous lawn during WW1, mowing the grass and raising $52,823 for the Red Cross.
Source
A Baaaad Business
President and Mrs. Wilson observed the war effort con… Read More
2019-03-11 20:01
In 1836, the Bank of England was nearly a victim of a Victorian heist of their Gold bullion.
The cartoon from which the Bank of England got its nickname – The Old Lady of Threadneedle… Read More
2019-03-07 13:41
While Medieval Knights get all the glory and attention, spare a thought for the Ribalds, who were in charge of pillaging, wall-scaling and portering.
The Ribald appears in the military in t… Read More
2019-02-28 17:39
Is it time to climb back into the Medieval bed box? As a bed in a closet, they’re ultra space-saving. As a bonus, you can add drawers below for the children.
Since the late medieval pe… Read More
2019-02-27 17:00
Some soldiers built their fortune on Medieval looting and ransoming hostages. Battlefield fallen and captive and the baggage train might as well have been marked “Medieval loot”… Read More
2019-02-25 11:42
Speech in Medieval Ireland held such power that laws existed to control poets and satirists, whose insults could bring on physical illness, blemish, and death. Medieval Irish cursing had qui… Read More
2019-02-19 13:51
Fox tossing was an aristocratic pastime of the 17th century, truly a case of the unmentionable tossing the uneatable. The aim of the game was to launch the fox as high as possible in the air… Read More
2019-02-15 17:52
Oomancy is foretelling the future with eggs. The usual method is to drop the egg white in a plate with water and look for the future in the swirls. In England, the best time is New Year&rsqu&hell…Read More
2019-02-06 12:00
Auto Polo or automobile polo was basically horseback polo but replace the horse with horse power. This “lunatic game” was popularized by an car salesman named Ralph “Pappy… Read More
2019-02-05 12:01
The first airline stewardesses were all nurses and were called the Sky Girls.
1930, the first female flight attendants. Source
The Sky Girls
Airlines weren’t interested in women pilo… Read More
2019-01-30 17:08
The Middle Ages was the wild west for relic theft. Carrying off saints’ bits was so common in the Middle Ages that they called it “furta sacra” (holy theft).
The elabo… Read More
2019-01-25 16:12
In the 19th century, tea drinking was regarded as reckless, uncontrollable and a waste of precious time for poor women in Great Britain and Ireland.
The tea habit
The habit spread quickly… Read More
2019-01-23 21:21
The cult of a bearded female saint called Wilgefortis once nearly rivaled that of the Virgin Mary.
German image of St Wilgefortis. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain
Wilgefortis was often depi… Read More
2019-01-21 13:36
Special break out of jail free Monopoly sets were sent to prison camps during WWII.
A mockup of what Monopoly boards sent to WWII POW camps might have looked like. Source
Just how involved… Read More
2019-01-17 18:17
Douglas Bader, RAF pilot and incorrigible escape artist, literally had his leg handed to him by the German army in WWII.
Bader climbs into the cockpit of his Spitfire. Source
Bad Show
Dangl… Read More
2019-01-16 20:57
If there ever was an athletic event that should be a movie, it’s the 1904 Olympic Marathon. The “performance enhancing” rat poison and brandy! The runner who stopped for an… Read More
2019-01-15 14:29
In the Great Whiskey Fire of 1875, a crazy cocktail of fire, whiskey and malt liquor flowed down Dublin’s Ardee-street, Chamber-street, Cork-street, and Mill-street.
Contemporar… Read More
2018-12-13 13:59
The 13 mischievous troll brothers of Christmas, called the Yule Lads, have thrilled and terrified Icelandic children for hundreds of years.
The thirteen Yule lads, plus their awful mother a… Read More
2018-12-05 20:01
Barbie’s first career was as a “golddigger, exhibitionist, and floozy” cartoon in the Hamburg tabloid, Bild-Zeitung.
The sexy and witty cartoons of Lilli in Bild Zeitu… Read More
2018-12-05 10:59
If there’s something weird in space, does anyone know? Paul Quast has published the first space catalogue of every message and artifact humans have beamed up.
It’s hard to tell w… Read More
2018-11-28 16:52
Two bothers, the “Dumb and Dumber” of Spain, tried to sell a fake Goya to a Sheikh, only to be paid in fake money.
The fake Goya and the fake money seized by Spanish Police Photo… Read More
2018-11-27 12:03
Definitely my favorite Medieval trial by ordeal, the Trial by Cake involved swallowing a dry lump of consecrated bread, or “corsned,” without choking, turning pale or shaking.&nb&hell…Read More
2018-11-23 14:14
In 1994, a Maryland man became a modern mummy using ancient Egyptian techniques.
MUMAB, a cadaver body mummified in the Egyptian style by scientists in 1994 on display at the Bowers Museum a… Read More
2018-11-22 10:35
Barred from working in Nazi Germany as a Jewish actor, Leon Reuss (born Leon Reiss) tricked the Nazis into celebrating him as an Aryan idol.
From Leo Reuss around 1919 (© Bildarch… Read More
2018-11-15 11:51
A prisoner filed a lawsuit against Satan and his staff in United States District Court. It was dismissed on procedural grounds.
Gerald Mayo, a 22 year old… Read More
2018-11-08 11:42
Big Nose George Parrott was an 1880s Wild West outlaw who grew up to become a pair of shoes.
The shoes made from the remains of Big Nose George. CARBON COUNTY MUSEUM
As for his nasal nicknam… Read More
2018-11-05 13:54
Divine Clothing
While many of us have had a near-spiritual experience in thrift shops *, Medieval rich people often used clothing donations to pave their route to Heaven.
The usual brown,gra… Read More
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