15 Random Facts About History That I'll Bet You Didn't Learn In School

Victorians used to eat arsenic to improve their complexion.

History is weird, y'all.

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^^Me, learning about that time the CIA surgically implanted recording devices in cats. 

So, I decided to compile 15 of my favourite random history facts. Enjoy!

1. Technically, the first President of the United States was not George Washington.

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Before the United States had the Constitution (which established the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches of government), they had the Articles of Confederation. Under this legislation, the central authority of the United States was the Second Continental Congress. John Hanson was the first politician elected as President of the Continental Congress (a largely administrative role). Several other men held the title of President before George Washington's election in 1789 (the Constitution was ratified in 1787).

2. No women competed in the first modern Olympics, and only 22 women competed in the second Olympics.

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The Olympics were revived in Athens in 1896, but women didn't compete until the 1900 Olympics in Paris. The co-founder of the Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, said that women competing in the games would be "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect." The slightly more progressive 1900 Paris Olympics allowed women to compete just five events (tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian, and golf), but female competitors comprised only 2.2% of the 997 total athletes.

3. Victorians ate arsenic to make their complexion paler.

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Hungry for a snack? Try snacking on Dr. Rose’s Arsenic Complexion Wafers! These terrifying chalk-white crackers whitened your skin (prolonged exposures to arsenic can cause vitiligo, a loss of pigment), but it can also severely damage your internal organs! Victorians also used to bathe in "arsenic springs" to achieve their desired complexions.

4. In the Roman Empire, gladiator blood was used to treat epilepsy.

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After a gladiator died in the arena, their blood (and liver) became valuable medical commodities. Pliny the Elder, a Roman author who lived in the first century, wrote that "the blood of gladiators is drunk by epileptics as though it were the draught of life."

5. The "it"-girl of 17th century Rotterdam was a rhinoceros named Clara.

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Clara was an Indian Rhinoceros who, at the age of one month, was adopted by Jan Albert Sichterman, an employee of the Dutch East India Company. Sichterman sold her to Douwe Mout van der Meer, who brought her back with him to the Netherlands. Everyone became obssessed with her. "Rhinomania" swept over Europe. Clara, in a carriage drawn by eight horses, travelled from country to country to meet her many fans. She was on tour for 17 years, and during that time, she inspired paintings, sculptures, clocks, and even a popular hairstyle (women would use ribbons or feathers to mimic the shape of Clara's horn). 

6. Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle were both in the same paranormal investigation society called "The Ghost Club."

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Charles Dickens, despite writing one of the most famous ghost stories of all time, did not actually believe in ghosts. Arthur Conan Doyle, however, absolutely believed in ghosts (and, at one point, fairies). The Ghost Club, founded by Cambridge academics, sought to explore claims of supernatural encounters. The members were often skeptical, challenging claims made by mediums. However, after Dickens' death, the club became less and less skeptical and more and more spiritual. 

7. Oh, and Arthur Conan Doyle's belief in ghosts caused him to fall out with Harry Houdini.

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In his early performing days, Houdini performed as a medium and ran séances. He knew, better than most, how "psychics" could manipulate and mislead an audience. As a result, Houdini dedicated himself to exposing clairvoyants, describing them as "human leeches." He even testified before Congress, campaigning for legislation that would make fortune-telling and séances illegal. Using his expertise, Houdini would publicly expose common tricks used by mediums, debunking their "magical" abilities. 

Despite their different beliefs, Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini had been good friends. However, the two men found themselves on opposite sides of a culture war. The rift widened when Arthur Conan Doyle's wife, Jean Doyle, "communicated" with the ghost of Houdini's mother during a private sèance with Houdini present. Afterwards, Houdini publicly dismissed Doyle's wife as a hoax. Their friendship never truly recovered. 

8. The United States government tried to induce rain by bombing clouds.

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Civil War general Edward Powers had noticed that it often rained in the days following a battle. Based on this anecdotal experience, Powers concluded that noise agitated clouds and triggered precipitation. In his defence, Powers wasn't the only person to think this. Both Plutarch and Napoleon had drawn similar conclusions. 

Twenty years after Powers shared his hypothesis, the US government decided to run an experiment. They armed scientists with dynamite and kites, and put Powers' idea to the test. Unsurprisingly, it did not work. 

9. In the Wild West, frontiersmen were so sex-starved that they'd wait in line just to see a pair of women's underwear.

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The demand for sex work was so high that when sex workers actually arrived in the West, they shifted the entire economy of the frontier. Towns sprung up around brothels, and sex workers (who often became wealthier than the men they served) often provided important social services like sheltering domestic abuse victims, funding education, and even offering worker's compensation to injured men. 

10. Oh, and speaking of underwear, women in the Swiss Army had to wear men's underwear until 2021.

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For decades, all Swiss Army recruits were issued "loose fitting" men's underwear regardless of gender. In an attempt to increase female recruits, the government decided to alter the uniform and allow women to wear women's underwear. 

11. In the 1920s, there was a bizzarre fad called "pole sitting" where people would climb flagpoles and sit on top of them for extended periods of time.

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The most famous pole-sitter was Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly, who once sat atop a flagpole for 49 days. 

12. There's a 2,400-year-old shipwreck at the bottom of the black sea, and it's virtually intact.

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The ship, thought to be Ancient Greek, sank into anoxic waters (meaning that there's no oxygen). The lack of oxygen preserved the fallen ship. Currently, it's the oldest known intact shipwreck in the world. 

13. Mummies used to smell really nice.

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Scientist recreated the embalming fluids used to preserve mummies in Ancient Egpyt, and apparently, it smelled amazing. Archaeologist Barbara Hutton said, ""The dominant aroma is definitely a woody kind of pine-like scent, but it also has a hint of bitumen, a little bit of beeswax, something sweet, and you might even be able to pick up a fresh, citrusy note of pistachio. So it's a very pleasant smell."

14. In the 19th century, tomato ketchup was marketed as a medicine.

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Tomato ketchup was used to treat maladies like indigestion and jaundice. There were even pills made from ketchup extract!

15. Socrates thought that the written word would make people stupid.

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Socrates worried that the written word would "will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves?" In other words, why would you need to learn anything if you could simply reference a scroll? In his opinion, it was far better to learn things the old fashioned way – memorisation and spoken discourse. 

You, after reading (sorry, Socrates) this list:

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