Weirdly Fascinating Historical Facts That Might Surprise You

Oftentimes, what we are taught in history books varies from region to region, state to state, and country to country. What is known as one thing may be referred to as another, like the American Civil War, which in the South is referred to as The War of Northern Aggression, The War Between the States, or the War for Southern Independence. But whatever we decide to call something, one thing is certain – we all need to be educated on events, both past and present.

Whether we would like to avoid repeating the mistakes of our ancestors, or because we simply want to retain a bit more knowledge of historical events, learning how things came about is always fascinating. Yet, there are also some moments in history that perhaps we'd like to forget ever happened, like what the Ancient Romans used as mouthwash. It's also a great learning opportunity to take note of some of history's most iconic highlights.

To gather this list of weirdly fascinating historical facts that might surprise you, 24/7 Tempo consulted several insightful sources. These include History Extra, Explore the Archive, The Fact Site, National Archives, and History Daily. While we're on the subject of history, click here for 19 common American history facts that are actually false.

When people think about Albert Einstein's life, it's easy to reflect on how brilliant and inventive he was. In fact, many would argue that Einsten was the most influential scientist to walk the Earth between 1879 and 1955. Despite the fact that he wasn't born in Israel, he was a practicing Jew.

Because of his religion, Einstein was offered the opportunity to become the president of Israel. He turned the offer down in 1952 with a gentle explanation about his inability and unpreparedness to take on such an official and political position. It's abundantly clear that Einstein didn't have to become the president of any country to leave a mark on history.

For long time, government systems everywhere around the globe have been well aware that lottery games are a great way to pull money from citizens. Around 205 BC, the people of the Chinese Han Dynasty were welcome to participate in the earliest ever lottery. It geared them up to win various prizes.

As of now, it's unclear what those exact prizes were, but the Chinese government used money contributed to the lottery to fund big projects. One of those projects was the Great Wall of China. Without the lottery game in place back then, it's unclear if the Chinese government would have had the finances needed to complete one of the world's most beloved and noteworthy structures in history.

Dracula is recognized as one of the creepiest fictional characters of all time. In 1897, a talented author named Bram Stoker wrote and published a haunting book highlighting the escapades of Dracula. The book covered Dracula's insatiable thirst for human blood. Interestingly enough, Stoker didn't come up with his idea for Dracula without a little inspiration.

Stoker was inspired by a man named Vlad the Impaler who ruled as the Monarch of Wallachia. Vlad was in charge of a Romanian region in Transylvania. He handled his business with mercilessness and disturbing fear tactics. Whenever he'd get his hands on an enemy, he would kill them by impaling their bodies with long, sharp sticks.

Then, he would display the impaled bodies as decorations around his castle. He wanted everyone to know how vicious he was so no one would get on his bad side. When Stoker caught wind of Vlad's intense methods, he was motivated to create Dracula — a vampire with no respect for human life.

In the 1800s, the movie industry was starting to gain traction in New York. Filmmakers, actors, and actresses migrated to New York in troves to make their dreams come true. Thomas Edison got in the way of all of that, though. He started enforcing patents on more than 1,000 pieces of technology required to create blockbuster films.

Edison set it up so that moviemakers had to go through him if they wanted to thrive in the entertainment industry. Movie makers decided to abandon New York altogether by fleeing to California. It was their way of escaping Edison's control. Fortunately for entertainment industry dreamers, Edison couldn't control California the way he was controlling New York. The freedom allowed moviemakers to effortlessly move forward in what we now know as Hollywood.

As icky as this might sound, urine was once used as mouthwash for the Ancient Romans. In Ancient Rome, it was widely believed that urine was a fabulous substance for freshening the mouth. That's because it's full of Ammonia, which is one of the most powerful cleansers in the world. People back then simply didn't consider the unsanitary factor. They must not have realized how gross swashing urine in their mouths was.

As of now, tons of mouthwash brands are readily available on store shelves for people to get their hands on. Mouthwashes are jam-packed with ingredients like fluoride, xylitol, Eucalyptol, and hydrogen peroxide. Mouthwash wasn't officially invented until the late 1800s, which means the people of ancient Rome certainly didn't have access to it.

People seem to be obsessed with cats in this modern era. Numerous social media pages across different platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter are fully dedicated to cats. Users simply spend time posting cat memes and silly videos of kittens tussling around.

The obsession with cats likely isn't going anywhere anytime soon. One historical figure in particular didn't exactly have warm and fuzzy feelings about kittens, though. The former head of the Catholic Church was Pope Gregory IX. He was in charge until he died in 1241. He didn't always use his platform in the most wholesome ways.

At one point, he declared a war on cats. He was especially disturbed by black cats because he was convinced they were devil worshipers. In his mind, they needed to be slaughtered. To this day, black cats have a reputation for being unlucky, cursed, or haunted. Still, folks today aren't willing to execute black cats the way Pope Gregory IX once demanded.

When toothless people wear dentures in 2024, they're wearing fake teeth made of porcelain, acrylic resin, nylon, or bleached metal. Dentures are incredibly believable these days. They're so realistic that it's difficult to decipher whose teeth are real and whose teeth are completely fake. In the 19th century, folks who wanted dentures had to be willing to wear pieces made out of human teeth.

Teeth would be extracted from the corpses of dead soldiers and sold to dentists. From there, dentists would link the soldier's extracted teeth together to sell to their patients. Since oral hygiene wasn't a hot topic of conversation in the early 19th Century, plenty of people dealt with rotting teeth falling out left and right. Dentures made of soldier's teeth were the only option.

These days, the Hollywood industry has zombie entertainment lovers in a chokehold. There are tons of zombie movies hitting theaters every year. Loads of zombie TV shows are added to just about every streaming platform. Back in 1494, Europe experienced something similar to a zombie apocalypse when the French army brought in a disease called "the great pox."

Since antibiotics didn't exist back then, the disease spread like wildfire. It was horrific since it covered people's skin with peeling ulcers. The festering ulcers caused flesh to rot before eventually killing whoever was infected. In some of the most gnarly cases, facial body parts like the nose and lips would completely fall off.

To get through World War II, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi army were heavily dependent on drugs. Hitler was the definition of a full-fledged drug addict during that period. One of the most common drugs he and his army would use was methamphetamine. It helped them keep weight off, handle their daily obligations, and function without much sleep.

It also helped members of the army stomach the horrors of World War II. Aside from that, Hitler loved getting high on a combination of cocaine and oxycodone. Young people who love partying in 2024 might think of cocaine and oxycodone as drugs perfect for dancing the night away. Hitler turned to those drugs to press on with his murderous rampages.

In Ancient Mayan culture, human beings weren't the only ones praised as gods and goddesses. Ancient Mayans were enamored by turkeys for some bizarre reason. Nowadays, people think about Thanksgiving festivities in conjunction with turkeys. That wasn't the case for the ancient Mayans, though.

They were wholeheartedly convinced turkeys carried some sort of symbolic influence on their religion and culture. The Mayans had deeply ingrained beliefs that turkeys Would wreak havoc in their nocturnal dreams if they didn't honor turkeys while they were awake. Only the wealthiest individuals in Mayan culture owned turkeys in 300 BC. Turkeys were domesticated back then so they could be included in various rituals.

When you think of floods, you probably think of watery waves crashing into cityscapes. Back in 1919, Boston experienced a deadly flood, but it wasn't water that everyone was afraid of. Instead, two and half million gallons of molasses flooded through the streets from an accidental tank release.

The molasses rolled out of the tank like a tidal wave. It reached a terrifying 15 feet into the sky, killing 21 people and injuring another 150 people. Tons of homes and structures were displaced after being crashed into by the thick, sugary substance. It was difficult for emergency responders to locate victims who were stuck in the sticky sludge after the initial wave of molasses came down.

The Olympics is known as one of the most iconic and impressive sporting events in our modern world. Athletes who dominate different sports from various countries show up in one place to compete every four years. It's a chance for athletes to showcase the skills they've been practicing with dedication and determination.

In Ancient Greece, athletes performed in the Olympics completely nude. One of the reasons they skipped clothing was because they wanted to imitate gods and goddesses. Another reason is because they believed clothing caused toxins from their sweat to be trapped against their skin. By shedding their garments, they stopped any "toxins" from reabsorbing into their skin.

When thinking about some of the oldest colleges and universities in history, you probably wouldn't guess that any school could be older than the Aztec Empire. In reality, the University of Oxford was designed before the Aztec Empire even came to be. For some context, the University of Oxford was established in 1096, the Aztec Empire wasn't established until 1428.

It wasn't just a shabby singular classroom placed on a random hill, either. A full campus was built with three resident halls and student housing options. Young adults who wanted to pursue higher education clamored for opportunities to enroll. The University of Oxford has been labeled the oldest continually operated university in history.

When people think of King Tut, they often think of the influential young pharaoh who took over as an Egyptian leader in 1332 BC. He was elevated to the position when he was only nine years old, and tasked with the responsibility of guiding his people. One bizarre historical fact, many people wish they didn't know was that King Tut's parents likely happened to be siblings.

Tut had a slew of health issues and he had such a short life. Because of those clues, it's widely believed he was born out of an incestuous relationship. Tut passed away at 19 years old, and even by 14th century BC standards dying at 19 was considered rather young.

Alexander the Great was only 32 years old when he died. The method by which he died was extremely disturbing to think about. In 323 BC, he got severely sick and endured 12 days of debilitating pain. The physical hardships he went through were so excruciating that the people around him thought he died, and they proceeded to bury him.

The reality is that Alexander wasn't dead… yet. He was completely mentally aware but physically paralyzed. Because of that, he was unable to communicate with anyone. When he was buried alive, he knew exactly what was happening – but he was unable to stop it.

When former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln was murdered, it became a stain in American history books. On the night of Lincoln's death, Henry Rathbone jumped into action as the assassination was taking place. After John Wilkes Booth fired the first shot, Rathbone attempted to tackle him to the ground — but he was too late.

The damage was done and Booth still got away. The guilt of failing to protect Lincoln began eating away at Rathbone. His mind began deteriorating and he eventually murdered his wife before attempting to kill himself. His suicide attempt was unsuccessful, and he was checked into a mental institution where he stayed until his death.

Ching Shih grew up in South China and as an adult, worked as a prostitute, until she crossed paths with Zheng Yi, the Commander of the Red Flag Fleet. Yi was instantly enamored by her and in 1801, when Shih was 26, he paid for her in full so he could marry her. Yi had a lot of respect for Shih and taught her how to thrive as a full-fledged pirate. She ended up garnering respect from other pirates and she successfully raided more than 300 warships.

In 19th-century Asia, death by elephants was a common method of execution to rely on. Government officials used it on people who'd been sentenced to death. Death by elephants wasn't a quick way to go and was an extensive form of torture.

The Asian government realized how easy it was to train elephants to do their bidding. They taught elephants how to slowly twist off limbs, crush skulls, break bones, and use their tusks to puncture different body parts and organs. Getting accused of a crime and getting sentenced to death in 19th-century Asia would have been a nightmare for just about anyone.

For years, people have been convinced that Cleopatra committed suicide by inviting a cobra to bite her. Her suicide went down in 30 BC, but it is highly unlikely that it was due to a fatal strike from an Egyptian cobra bite. Instead, historians now believe she stabbed herself with a hairpin that was dipped in a poisonous ointment.

Cleopatra felt the need to end her own life swiftly and abruptly. It was because she felt extremely threatened by an emperor named Octavian. He had ruthless plans to parade her through Rome as his prisoner. She avoided any potential for such humiliation by killing herself before that could happen.

Every year, students are taught that Christopher Columbus was the first European explorer to discover America. In reality, European Vikings discovered America before Columbus ever actually showed up. In 1000 A.D., a Viking chief named Leif Eriksson of Greenland guided his people to America for the first time, years before Columbus ever did. Native Indians already populated the land.

The Vikings took their explorations even further and ended up discovering parts of Canada as well. Somehow, Columbus has continued to gain notoriety and credit. Click here to uncover details about the 33 weapons that shaped World War II history.