Unbelievable historical events that actually happened
28th of December 2021
History is boring to some of us and that is because our teachers wants us to know both the important and unimportant stuffs, especially the boring stuff. History is more than just dates and policies, there are some really interesting and weird events that has happened in history which your teachers wouldn't tell you about probably because they also have no idea that history could be this interesting
Join me in this adventure and we'd find out how amazing history could be.
1. Albert Einstein was almost president
Isreal officially became a nation on the 14th of May 1948, since then the national legislature of Israel elects Israel's president who serves it's one-seven year term.
Surprisingly, the title of the second president of Isreal nearly went to Albert Einstein in 1952. Einstein who although Jewish was not an Israeli citizen. Still the government offered him the presidency but Einstein politely declined.
He felt he was not qualified enough to lead a nation, he decided that the combination of his old Age (73 at the time), terrible people skills and inexperience would hinder him from serving efficiently.
2. 6th century global cooling
The year 536 CE was a dark time for the world literally. Historical documents from the 6th century describes a dark veil over the sky between Europe and part of Asia. Various records describes the bluish fog over China and summers full of frost and snow in European regions.
Researchers refer to this as the 536 event and it's not clear what caused these events to occur. These events lasted for about 18 months, bringing out cold temperatures, drought, famine and so on.
In Europe about 1/10th of the population was decimated while 80% of Chinese population perished from starvation.
Experts theorized that a massive Volcanic eruption caused the events or perhaps it was the result of a comet hitting the earth.
3. The Dancing plague
Dancing all the time doesn't sound like a terrible illness but the dancing plague of 1518 ended up causing a lot of misfortune. The pandemic began in Strasbourg which is now known as France.
About 400 people showed signs of the disease which involved them dancing nonstop for days. Many people collapsed and passed away due to stroke, exhaustion and other causes.
The outbreak began with one woman and the majority of those infected later on were all females. This outbreak occurred in a few other regions of western Europe as well.
One explanation said the fungus in the weed was to blame while other experts think it must have been stress induced psychosis- people in these areas were often living in rough conditions, prone to starvation and disease, it makes sense that the stress and their quality of living caused such hysteria.
4. Exterminate the cat
Pope Gregory IX served as pope in 1227 until his passing in 1241. One of the things people know him best for was his view of cats. Pope Gregrory IX declared that cats were involved in devil worship and witchcraft, and he called to have them all exterminated in 1233.
This depleted population of cats is believed to have allowed rats and mice to thrive therefore spreading the Black death more effectively.
5. Animals in court
The above image is a perfection depiction of the title "animal in court" but it's not what you think- animals didn't take over the court of law. Here is what happened;
The first animal cruelty conviction occurred in 1822 at the trial of Bill Burns. Burns a British citizen was found beating his donkey and was taken to court. Prosecutor Richard Martin brought Burns's donkey to court as if to testify against it's owner.
That year the UK parliament passed the cruel treatment of cattle act. This law was enacted to prevent the cruel and improper treatment of cattle which includes animals such as Ox, cows, sheeps, and other cattle.
Tha parliament later created cruelty to animals acts 1849 because they forgot to include bulls in the original law.
Source- Cruel treatment of Cattle act 1822
There are so many events in history that serves as a marvel for those who are interested in past events. If you could go back in history to experience one of these events first hand; which would it be?
All Images used cited above
History is fascinating and now we learn more about what has happened in our past, and there have been some strange things!