Recently over on r/AskReddit, u/thereisnomeme21 asked, "What are some crazy historical events that nobody talks about?"
Being that I love going down a good historical event rabbit hole, I was instantly intrigued (and honestly, kind of shocked that I hadn't heard of some of these!).
Here are 13 absolutely wild historical events that are rarely talked about, from songs that were investigated by the FBI to meat spontaneously falling from the sky:
1. "In the late 1970s, Howard Hughes, who hadn't been seen in years, was supposedly building this huge prototype ship that was going to vacuum valuable minerals from the sea floor. Turns out it was a CIA cover story. An advanced Soviet submarine had sunk in deep Pacific waters, [and] they wanted to try to retrieve it. They spent years and millions [of dollars] on a top-secret ship. It had to remain top secret because the Soviets would do almost anything to prevent a new submarine falling into enemy hands." —u/3kniven6gash
2. "The Kentucky meat shower. [In] 1876, chunks of red meat fell from the sky without explanation. It was examined, and was possibly lung tissue from horses or human infants. Some people even ate it." —u/Skevinger
3. "The MOVE bombing in 1985. The Philadelphia Police literally bombed a building from a helicopter and incinerated two city blocks." —u/selviano
4. "The Radium Era, where people were actually ingesting radium." —u/yamsnavas2
5. "Ernest Shackleton’s voyage to Antarctica that went wrong. Most amazing survival expedition story I’ve ever read about." —u/Android_Replicant
6. "The Great Molasses Flood (also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster). It was a horrific event that occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston. A large storage tank filled with 2.3 million US gallons of molasses, weighing approximately 13,000 short tons, burst, and the resultant wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 miles per hour, killing 21 and injuring 150." —u/Back2Bach
7. "The supposed hysteria over Orson Welles’ 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast was made up by local newspapers because they were afraid of being replaced by radio." —u/SnooChipmunks126
8. "The Montreal biker war in the '90s and the life of Maurice 'Mom' Boucher." —u/wharblgarble
9. "The Johnstown Flood. Some of the top industrialists in the region built a resort in Pennsylvania and filled a reservoir without properly reinforcing a previously existing dam. In 1889, the dam burst, and a raging flood swept through the river valley, completely destroying some smaller villages, and all but wiping out Johnstown, a city of 30,000 people." —u/IgnoreMe304
10. "There was the 1958 Tybee Island mid-air collision, which resulted in a Mark 15 nuclear bomb that was lost in the ocean nearby Tybee Island. To this day, it has never been found." —u/hiero_
11. "The FBI investigated the song 'Louie Louie' because the lyrics were unintelligible. They thought it could be some kind of communist plot." —u/BarryStarkweather
12. "There was a multi-year pandemic in 1957–58 that people just forgot. I've heard much more about the 1918 pandemic than this one." —u/dethtron5000
13. "Angel's Glow. After one of the battles in the American Civil War, some of the soldiers' wounds started to glow in the dark. Those that glowed healed faster than those that didn't." —u/viking_knitter
Any other historical events that are rarely spoken about come to mind? Let us know in the comments!
Note: Responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.