BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Stranger Than Fiction: 10 Unbelievable Events That Actually Happened

Image: Diana van Ormondt

They say truth is stranger than fiction, and some of these historical events are living proof of this old adage.

Brace yourself for a rollercoaster ride through history, where the strange and unexpected take center stage in the theater of reality. From absurd battles to mysterious weather phenomena, these 10 astonishing tales will leave you thinking long and hard about the complexities of human history.

Image: Sharon Co Images

Wars are typically waged between nations, but in 1932, Australia faced an unusual adversary: emus. After large numbers of these flightless birds invaded crucial farmland within Western Australia’s Wheatbelt, the government decided to intervene by sending soldiers armed with machine guns to reduce the emu population in the area. However, most attempts were ineffective at most, killing very few birds and costing thousands of dollars in supplies and ammunition.

As soon as the first shot was fired, the seemingly tame emu dispersed way beyond the range of the machine guns, and apparently switched to guerrilla tactics of sorts, avoiding all further military ambushes and frontal attacks while still feasting on the farmer’s crops. The government’s futile attempts were ridiculed and physical barrier methods to manage wildlife were preferred from then on. Sadly, they give no medals for having endured the Great Emu War.

Image: Hannah Skelly

In 1518, the town of Strasbourg, France, was gripped by a strange and inexplicable phenomenon - people suddenly began dancing uncontrollably in the streets. The dancing madness persisted for weeks, with some of the affected succumbing to exhaustion or even death. The authorities at the time did not know how to react, and some people even joined the dancers voluntarily, as they feared it was a punishment from Saint Vitus (and presumably wanted to stay on the safe side).

After many efforts to fight the strange epidemic, the dancing eventually subsided and people in the town could resume their normal lives. While theories range from mass hysteria to hallucinogenic substances and neurological disorders like Sydenham's chorea, the event remains a historical enigma that challenges our understanding of the human mind and collective behavior.

Image: Nima Sarram

In 1908, a massive explosion flattened over 80 million trees in the remote Tunguska region of Siberia. The cause? A mysterious airburst, likely caused by the explosion of a meteoroid or comet in Earth's atmosphere. It is now estimated that the event had an explosive energy of 3 to 5 megatons, equivalent to over a thousand Hiroshima bombs. The resulting shockwave broke windows, and knocked people down hundreds of miles away, reaching an equivalent of an earthquake of 5.0 on the Richter scale in some areas.

A bright glow was observed in night skies in Asia and Europe for days after the event due to high-altitude ice particles that formed as a result of the explosion. For all its magnitude, the explosion left no visible crater and minimal debris beside the devastated forest. The Tunguska Event serves as a stark reminder of the potential cosmic threats that lurk in the darkness of space.

Image: British Library

Miscommunication can often lead to chaos, but rarely on the scale witnessed in the Battle of Karánsebes in 1788. The Austrian army, at the time facing the Ottoman Empire, descended into total anarchy when two different scouting parties mistook one another for the enemy, fired on each other, and raised the alarm.

Making matters worse, the Austrian army was made of men of different nationalities who more often than not could not understand each other. All attempts to end confusion and the ensuing friendly fire on the part of the Austrian emperor himself were in vain, and after a while - deeply demoralized - he was forced to give the order of retreat. When the Ottoman army arrived two days later, they found an empty battlefield and were able to take the city of Karánsebes without any resistance.

Image: Aswathy N

In 1807, eight years before Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte had a humiliating defeat at the hands of a strange opponent - a horde of rabbits. During the celebrations that followed the Treaties of Tilsit - which effectively ended the war between the French and Imperial Russia - Napoleon’s chief of staff Alexandre Berthier had the idea of organizing a rabbit hunt to entertain its guests.

So far, nothing out of the ordinary for the time, but when the rabbits were simultaneously freed along the edges of a grassy field, instead of scattering as expected, all these fluffy beasts began running toward their amused hunters. But the fits of laughter didn’t last long, as the now-hunted hunters realized that there was nothing they could do to stop the relentless animals as they swarmed their positions and had no other choice than to flee. Some accounts state that Berthier had gathered around 3000 rabbits, so not even mighty Napoleon was a match for this unexpected army.

Apparently, the chief of staff's mistake was buying tame rabbits from local farmers, accustomed to being fed by humans, instead of trapping wild hares for the hunt. If we learned anything from the Great Emu War, the lesson is clear: never underestimate animals!

Image: Mitsuo Komoriya

In the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia - the largest in at least 1,300 years - 1816 became known as the "Year Without a Summer." The volcanic ash floating in the atmosphere led to climate abnormalities worldwide, resulting in crop failures and widespread famine in the most affected areas.

In Europe and North America temperatures plummeted, and most crops suffered irreparable damage due to the persistent frost. In the United States, a "dry fog" was observed in the eastern regions, dimming sunlight so much that sunspots were visible to the naked eye. Also, the high level of volcanic particles present in the atmosphere caused strange optical effects in the following years, such as strong red hues during sunsets, which can be observed in many paintings produced at the time.

Image: Tiana Attride

It seems that wars against unusual adversaries are a fashionable trend in human history because the Roman Emperor Caligula declared war in the year 40 AD on no one other than the god Neptune himself, king of the raging seas.

Known for his eccentricity, Caligula allegedly ordered his legionnaires to "attack" the sea with swords and spears, after which he declared victory against the powerful god and told the men to gather seashells as trophies of war. One can only imagine that the soldiers had a fun -albeit puzzling- day.

Image: Tim Mossholder

In the late 1980s, Pepsi briefly possessed the sixth-largest navy in the world. In exchange for commercializing Pepsi products in the Soviet Union, the company received 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer.

However, the fleet was composed of obsolete and unseaworthy vessels that were destined to be turned into scrap almost immediately. The payment was made in the only resources the USSR could gather easily at the time, and it provided a way to establish profitable international relations - and open up to the world.

Image: Garry T

The American Civil War started and concluded with a curious connection to Wilmer McLean, an American wholesale grocer from Virginia. The conflict's first major battle, the First Battle of Bull Run, took place in McLean's farm in 1861. A cannonball fell directly through the kitchen fireplace of the McLean’s house, which was being used as headquarters for the Confederate Army, destroying the dinner that was being prepared by the stationed officers - something that was noted not without humor by the Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard.

The McLean family moved to Appomattox, Virginia trying to escape the war, but just four years later, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant in McLean's parlor, marking the conclusion of the Civil War. Unintentionally, McLean was a prime witness of one of America’s most defining conflicts. Later, he said of this: "The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor."

Image: Snowscat

Genghis Khan's vast empire and brutal military campaigns had an unexpected impact on the Earth's climate. A recent study suggests that the Mongol invasions in the 13th century led to a significant reduction in global carbon dioxide levels, as large areas of cultivated land returned to forests.

This had the unintentional effect of scrubbing as much as 700 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere, roughly equivalent to the global annual consumption of gasoline today. This drastic ecological shift highlights the effect that land use, and particularly deforestation can have on our planet at a large scale.

No, Atlantis is not on this list

Did you ever wonder where countries get their names from? So did we!

Image: Andrew Stutesman

Some things are never questioned simply because they’ve always been that way. But even countries have origins—and so do their names. Some names are quite straightforward from the beginning: The United States of America is exactly that—a union of states in America. But others, like Brazil or India, are not quite as simple. Scroll on to learn about the origin of ten countries’ names. You might just pick up a cool little fact to share with your friends.

Image: Xavier von Erlach

It might seem curious that a country so vast is named after a small settlement—but it is. The name Canada likely comes from the Huron-Iroquois word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement." The first official use of Canada as a name came in 1791, when the Province of Quebec was divided into the colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. In 1841, the two colonies were united under a single name: the Province of Canada.

Then, on July 1, 1867, the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick joined to form "one Dominion under the name of Canada."

Image: Scottsdale Mint

This South American country’s name first appeared on a Venetian map in 1536. Argentina means "(made) of silver" or "silver-colored" in Italian, derived from the Latin argentum, meaning silver. The name was originally associated with the legend of the "Silver Mountains," which was widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin.

In 1860, a presidential decree officially established the country’s name as the Argentine Republic, and that year’s constitutional amendment recognized all names used since 1810 as legally valid.

Image: Fidel Fernando

A close connection with rabbits is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word Spain. But that connection plays a role in the origin of the country’s name. The earliest version, Hispania, is believed to have come from the Phoenician word i-spn-ya, which the Romans interpreted as "land of rabbits" or "region rich in rabbits."

Other theories suggest that Hispania may derive from a Punic word meaning "land of metals" or from an Iberian or Basque root referring to the region's geography, but rabbits is the widely popular theory.

Image: Vincent Guth

Norway’s name origin makes sense—it comes from the Old English word Norþweg, first mentioned around 880, meaning "northern way" or "way leading to the north." This is how the Anglo-Saxons referred to the Atlantic coast of what is now Norway. The same idea aligns with the leading theory about the origin of the country’s name in the Norwegian language.

Image: Nathan Anderson

The name India is derived from a corruption of the word Sindhu, the ancient name of the Indus River. Neighboring peoples, particularly the Persians, pronounced the "s" as "h" and referred to the land as Hindu. The Greeks later adapted this to Indos, which led to the Latin India.

The name India was known in Old English, but under French influence, it was sometimes replaced by Ynde or Inde. The form Indie appears in the first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare, both from the late phase of Early Modern English.

Image: Bob Walker

Quite fittingly, the name Australia is derived from the Latin australis, meaning "southern," and specifically from the hypothetical _Terra Australis_—a "southern land" postulated in pre-modern geography.

The name was popularized by the explorer Matthew Flinders in 1804, and it has been in official use since 1817, replacing New Holland, an English translation of the Dutch name first given in 1643 to the continent.

Image: note thanun

The name of this Central African republic comes from the name given by the Portuguese to the Wouri River, which they called Rio dos Camarões, meaning "river of shrimps" or "shrimp river," in reference to the once-abundant Cameroon ghost shrimp. Today, the country’s name in Portuguese remains Camarões.

Image: niko photos

This beautiful country takes its name from the pau-brasil tree, which was once plentiful in its coastal forests. Pau is a colloquial Portuguese word for "wood" or "tree," and brasil comes from brasa, meaning "ember"—a reference to the tree’s reddish sap, once used for dyeing cloth. Today, the wood of the pau-brasil is prized for making cello and violin bows.

Image: Jeremy Cai

Someone who has never seen a picture of Greenland could be forgiven for thinking the country is covered in green, lush pastures—after all, the name implies just that. So how did this ice-covered island come to be called Greenland? It got its name from the Norwegian adventurer Erik Thorvaldsson, better known as Erik the Red, in 985 A.D.

The popular explanation is that the name was a kind of public relations strategy to encourage settlement. However, ice core and mollusk shell data indicate that between 800 and 1300 A.D., the island’s temperatures were considerably warmer than they are today—so perhaps Erik was simply reacting to a greener landscape that has long since vanished.

Image: Ariana Prestes

Moldavia was a historic principality along the Danube River, ruled successively by the Ottomans, the Russians, and the Romanians before becoming the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic after World War II. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it adopted the name Moldova, after the Moldova River.

Local lore attributes the name to a Transylvanian prince whose favorite hunting dog, Molda, drowned in the river. While this makes for a charming origin story, the name more likely derives from a Proto-Indo-European root, melh, meaning "dark," or from the Gothic word mulda, meaning "dust."