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© History Oasis / Created via Midjourney
Some of the funniest events in human history. Enjoy!
In July 1518, Frau Troffea began dancing in Strasbourg’s streets. Within a month, 400 others were also involuntarily dancing. Physicians prescribed more dancing as treatment. The dancing plague killed dozens through exhaustion, heart attacks, and strokes before ending in September.
Romans collected urine in public vessels called “full ones.” Emperor Nero taxed this collection. The ammonia in the pee was used as teeth whitener and laundry detergent. Physician Pliny the Elder recommended Portuguese urine as superior for dental care.
The Sun King owned 413 documented beds, including a 13-foot-wide state bed where he conducted morning meetings. Court records show he bathed only three times in his 77-year life. His personal perfumer, Jean Frangipani, created custom scents to mask his “royal odors”.
On January 15, 1919, a 50-foot-tall storage tank at 529 Commercial Street burst at 12:30 PM. The 2.3 million gallons of molasses formed a 25-foot wave moving at 35 mph through Boston’s North End. Rescue efforts took four days. The stench of molasses wouldn’t leave the states for decades.
English landowner Charles Hamilton hired a man in 1781 to live in his Painshill garden for seven years. The contract required the hermit to never cut his nails, hair, or speak to anyone.
During the St. Louis Olympics marathon, Fred Lorz collapsed at mile 9. His manager drove him 11 miles closer to the finish line, where Lorz continued running. After “winning,” he admitted to his deception when questioned about his remarkable recovery time. Officials awarded the gold to Thomas Hicks, who had been given strychnine and brandy by his coaches.
President Andrew Jackson’s African gray parrot, Poll, had a large vocabulary of profanity. During Jackson’s funeral at The Hermitage on June 10, 1845, Reverend William Menefee Norment recorded that the bird “let loose with a string of curses that made the ladies blush and prompted the men to remove it from the house.”
On August 27, 1896, British warships bombarded the Sultan’s palace in Zanzibar at 9:02 AM after Sultan Khalid refused to vacate. By 9:40 AM, the palace was destroyed, 500 Zanzibari defenders were killed, and Sultan Hamad bin Muhammed was installed. The British only had one wounded soldier.
Documented in the 10th-century text “De Mirabilibus Mundi,” Vikings collected urine specifically from red-haired boys to make “Greek fire.” They fermented it in barrels for seven days, added ground charcoal and sulfur, creating an early form of chemical weapon used to burn enemy ships and settlements.
On June 23, 1976, Los Angeles secretary Jannene Swift legally married “Greystone,” a 50-pound rock from her garden. Judge James Reese performed the ceremony after Swift filed legal challenges against California marriage restrictions. The marriage certificate, signed by Swift and two witnesses (not the rock), became a minor legal curiosity.
An email campaign urged people to write “Jedi” as their religion on the national Australian census. Over 70,000 Australians identified as Jedi. Census officials implemented “Jedi deflation” methodologies to recode these entries rather than creating a new official religious category.
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