40 Fascinating Historical Facts You Won’t Learn in School

History was absolutely one of my favorite subjects in school, what about you? There are simply no limits to what you can learn at least about the world and about the wonderfully interesting people who’ve helped shape it. Ever wondered how one thing got its name or what a historical figure we all know was really famous for? It’s pretty wild when you think about it, right?

And this is the thing: History is so important, not just for the past, for learning what you’ve already done wrong so you don’t do it again. But let’s be honest … we don’t always appear to cradle the lessons of our failures, do we? It’s as if history is repeating itself on some weird level.

But the great thing is, some of the most weird, mind-blowing facts about history are the ones that school doesn’t teach. Is there anything that surprised you very much when you learned it? I mean, some things that happen, and people who existed, in history are so strange and unexpected that they leave you scratching your head and saying, “Wait, what?”

Some of these facts will contradict everything you learned about a certain person or event. Other ones will provide you with an insight or perspective that you never even think about. But a few may even make you laugh out loud or shudder yes, history also has a creepy side, I promise! But all these quirky bites of history are nevertheless worth knowing.

Drop one of these the next time you’re gathered with family, or at your next trivia night. You’ll wow them, or at least get them thinking. And who knows, maybe you’ll use them to show your kids you know a thing or two more than just about snacks like some really cool stuff. Ready to dive in?

1. The Horrifying History of Real-Teeth Dentures

Dentures have been a godsend for many people, whether it’s the elderly, toothless individuals, or those recovering from jaw trauma. You can get a full set or just a few implants, thanks to advances in clinical science and materials, making the options better than ever. But you’ve probably heard the old tale about George Washington wearing wooden dentures, right? Well, surprise — that isn’t true!

Now, here’s something you might not know about dentures. Until the middle of the 1800s, they were frequently made from the teeth of dead soldiers. Yes, really. It wasn’t uncommon for people to use human teeth, often bought off battlefield corpses, to make dentures. Imagine wearing teeth that weren’t even your own disgusting, right?

Fortunately, we’ve come a long way since then. Today, modern dentures are made from materials like acrylic resin and metals, which is a huge improvement over that creepy history. So, the next time dentures come to mind, just keep that in the back of your head: it’s a whole lot less creepy today!

2. The Story Behind the Cobra Effect

Have you ever been taught about the “cobra effect”? It’s one of those quirky little bits in history that sounds like it could have come out of a comedy, but that actually carries a pretty serious lesson. Essentially, the cobra effect occurs when a solution to a problem ends up worsening the problem significantly. Intrigued yet? Let me explain where that’s coming from it’s actually quite funny.

So here’s the setup: In the days when India was still a British colony, the government in Delhi had become concerned with the rapidly growing population of highly venomous cobras. The solution they devised was nothing short of brilliant: They put a cash rewards on every dead cobra that people brought in, which seems like a sound plan, right? But here’s where it gets good as the locals caught on, people began breeding cobras specifically to kill them and exchange them for cash. Crazy, right?

Eventually, the British government took note and the reward program came to an end. But rather than solve the cobra problem, the breeders found themselves with a new initiative: they released the cobras they had bred back into the wild, because they were no longer of any value to them. And guess what happened? Delhi had actually seen a boom in cobra population! So, yeah… whoops. And this is how we get the cobra effect a good idea gone wrong, making things far worse than before.

3. Peter Freuchen’s Epic Escape from an Avalanche

One of the great rewards of looking up weird history is stumbling upon those all-around badass people you’ve never heard of. Consider Peter Freuchen as one such example. Have you ever heard of him? This guy was a total legend. An explorer, journalist, author, anthropologist, and a leader of the Danish Resistance during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, he was. Not too shabby, huh? But hold on he’s actually best known for something far crazier than all that.

Now imagine this: Freuchen’s on an Arctic expedition, and he becomes trapped under an avalanche that later freezes solid. He’s completely stuck. No knife, no pickaxe, but he and the ice. What does he do? He literally turns his frozen poop into a shiv. Yeah, you read that right. He chiselled his way from the frozen shit of his own ass. Talk about resourceful!

And it doesn’t stop there. At another point, Freuchen has frostbitten toes that go gangrenous, so what does he do? He amputates them himself. But there’s more; he didn’t stop there. He straight up made himself a peg leg. I mean, this dude was some next-level tough. How many people can say they’ve done that? Peter Freuchen was a real boss.

4. The Molasses Tsunami of Boston

You’ve heard of the Boston Tea Party, right? That iconic protest from the American Revolution? Sure, we spent a good deal of time learning about that in school. But have you heard of the Boston Molasses Disaster? I’m guessing not. It’s one of those weird historical episodes that most people forget about or never learned about in the first place. Let me tell you about it.

And then totally wild it was, on January 15, 1919, in Boston. The vacuum-explained tank, a 90-foot wide cast-iron behemoth filled to the brim with molasses, exploded. And I’m not just talking about a little spill here. It spilled 2.5 million gallons of thick, sticky molasses into the streets. It loomed 15 feet high and sped through streets at 35 miles per hour. Can you imagine how insane that would have appeared? The molasses destroyed everything in its path buildings were brought down and horses drowned and ultimately, 21 people died and 150 were injured.

And as if that weren’t enough, it took weeks to clean up all the molasses, and the smell of it stayed for decades especially on hot summer days. Just picture it: you’re strolling around Boston in the heat and suddenly you get hit with that sweet, sticky smell. It’s one of those moments in history that leaves you asking, “How the hell did this happen?”

5. The Pug Secret Society

All right, you’re about to read about a secret society so bizarre you’ll be left wondering, “How didn’t we hear about this earlier?” Secret societies have been part of civilization for centuries, but this? It is certainly one of the weirdest. Have you ever heard of the Order of the Pug? Yep, you heard it right a pug society. Let me explain.

In 17th century England, things began with a papal bull issued by Pope Clement XII that prohibited Catholics from becoming Freemasons (widely known to have its fair share of prominent secret societies throughout history). Well, a group of Roman Catholics weren’t going to take this lying down, so they formed their own secret society in protest and called it Mops-Orden, or The Order of the Pug. Why pugs, you ask? Well, it’s said that the founder, Clemens August of Bavaria, picked the pug as their symbol because the little dogs were seen as loyal and trustworthy two big must-haves for any secret society, I suppose.

Now, here’s where things get even crazier. But perhaps the strangest entry requirements came from The Order of the Pug, where new members would enter the common room by literally scratching at the door in a dog collar. Can you imagine? The whole thing is one of the weirdest, most bizarrely charming secret societies detaining in history, hands down. It is true, who knew pugs are troublemakers right?

6. Giants or Fossils? The Greek Belief

Well, listen, who knows if giants ever existed? I mean, they’re such a big (pun definitely intended) part of Ancient Greek mythology, no? The Greeks were quite confident that they were real, especially upon discovering some large bones buried in the ground. You know, if you find a giant skeleton and have no idea what that is, wouldn’t your first thought be, “Whoa, GIANTS”?

Actually, those bones were most likely from prehistoric animals, woolly mammoths or mastodons, and, in fact, big, ancient fossils make a lot more sense. But back then, what could they think? Perhaps they did find the bones of giants! Or… they were simply just imaginative. Who’s to say? Myth and reality blur pretty much and sometimes closer than you think (don’t you think)?

7. 1932 War When Emus Beat the Army

All right, this reads like a plot from a comedy sketch, but I swear to you it’s true. Yes, the Australian army really did lose a war to a bunch of emus. I’m talking about the Great Emu War of 1932 yes, you heard that correctly. How is that even a thing, you say? Well, let me tell you.

The whole thing began with a wildlife management operation. In 1932, emus those big, flightless birds were causing an immense amount of destruction to crops in Australia. What does the Australian government do, then? They send in the military. The army, armed with machine guns, was supposed to come in and reduce the emu population and drive the birds out of the farming areas. Seems like a foolproof plan, huh? Except here’s the kicker: emus are smarter than you think.

Roughly 20,000 emus had moved inward during the breeding season, and when the soldiers attempted to pursue them, the birds divided into smaller flocks and ran. The army simply couldn’t match up to them. After a little over a month of “combat,” they settled on the end date. Eventually, however, about 968 emus were killed, and the birds were pretty much like, “Okay, we won this one.” Can you imagine? An entire army beaten by a bunch of birds! Who knew emus were so tough?

8. The Surprising Origin of the Vibrator

The modern-day vibrator is a pretty darn amazing device. It’s there for us when we need it and it makes our lives a slightly easier. But how did we get here? And it didn’t make our list of weird facts from history for nothing. In Victorian times, doctors routinely treated women for “hysteria” an alleged affliction that could entail things like irritability, anxiety, and stomach bloat.

Doesn’t sound like any good time, does it? Medically speaking, doctors would… induce orgasms to treat it. Yep, that’s right.

But this is where it gets even weirder. So many women were arriving with this “hysteria” that doctors became fatigued from doing it manually. Enter Dr. J. Mortimer Granville, who in the 1880s invented the vibrator to, you know, lighten the load on those poor, overworked doctors. Talk about a game changer! Thanks, Doc!

9. How Scientists Made a Cat a Telephone?

One of the strangest and most disturbing experiments ever conducted took place at Princeton University in 1929. Researchers Ernest Wever and Charles Bray converted a live cat into a working telephone. To pull this off, they surgically removed part of the cat’s skull and most of its brain, then attached electrodes to its auditory nerve and body. When they spoke into the cat’s ear, the sound was transmitted through a telephone receiver, as if the cat itself were a phone line.

As bizarre as all of that sounds, this mad-scientist-style experiment set the stage for a major scientific breakthrough. The experiment ultimately inspired the development of cochlear implants, a technology now used to help people with hearing loss. So, as unsettling as the “cat phone” experiment was, it unexpectedly led to a qualified blessing a life-changing innovation. What a bizarre way to make scientific progress, right?