Timeline
In the order it happened
54 stories by the year of the event, not the date we published them.
Before 1800
19th Century
- c. 1831 Accounts Disagree on Lincoln’s Famous Wrestling Match · USA
- 1838 A Pastry Chef's Complaint Helped Spark a Real War. Guess Where? · Mexico
- c. 1842 A Feared Emir Spared a Man Because He Couldn't Stop Laughing · Uzbekistan
- 1858 A River Smelled So Bad That Parliament Ran Away. So They Rebuilt London. · UK
- 1859 Two Nations Nearly Went to War Over One Pig. · USA
- 1865 More Died Than the Titanic. Nobody Remembers. · USA
- 1867 Holy Charms Fell From the Sky. So Japan Started Dancing. · Japan
- c. 1870 A Whole Town Faked Wild West Shootouts for Tourists · USA
- 1888 Rumors Said Foreigners Were Eating Babies. Seoul Panicked. · Korea
- 1896 A New Sultan Moved In. Britain Opened Fire. · Zanzibar
- 1897 Three Men Flew a Balloon to the North Pole. They Vanished for 33 Years. ❄️ · Sweden
- 1898 Two Lions Stopped a Railway by Eating the Workers Building It. · Kenya
World Wars Era
- 1900 They Built a Cannon Out of Five Nations' Junk to Survive a 55-Day Siege · China
- 1903 Their Ship Sank in Antarctic Ice. Then a Miracle Gunboat Arrived. · Argentina
- 1904 A Battleship Came for the Rebels. Their Cannon Was Fake. · Brazil
- 1906 A Shoemaker Bought a Used Uniform and Took Over a Town Hall 🎖️ · Germany
- c. 1906 A Prison Built So No Two Inmates Could Meet 🏝️ · India
- 1908 A Blast Flattened 80 Million Trees. No Crater. No Answer. ☄️ · Russia
- 1908 Six Cars Raced From New York to Paris in 1908. It Took 169 Days. · USA
- 1909 He Flew Across the English Channel in 1909 Despite Severe Burns 🛩️ · France
- 1914 Their Warship Sank in Flames. So 50 Sailors Stole a Ghost Ship. · Germany
- 1914 Enemy Soldiers Stopped a War to Play Football · Belgium
- 1914 A Former President Paddled Into an Unmapped River. It Nearly Killed Him. · Brazil
- 1914 Earthquakes Shook This Volcano Island for Days. Then It Joined the Mainland. · Japan
- 1915 The Navy Named Two Warships Meow and Bow-Wow. They Won a War. 🐱 · Tanzania
- 1916 He Survived Poison, Bullets, and a Frozen River. · Russia
- 1917 Two Ships Collided. It Leveled an Entire City. · Canada
- 1919 A Wave of Molasses Killed 21 People in Boston · USA
- c. 1920 They Glowed in the Dark. It Was Killing Them. ☢️ · USA
- 1928 He Swore This Dam Was Safe. Hours Later, It Wiped Out an Entire Valley. · USA
- 1932 He Survived Dynamite and Ran 150 Miles in -40° Arctic Snow ❄️ · Canada
- 1932 Australia Lost a War... to Birds · Australia
- 1932 A Pearl Farmer Burns His Own Pearls in Public · Japan
- 1939 Scientists Tormented 22 Orphans for an Experiment · USA
- 1941 A City's Greatest Minds Let Lice Drink Their Blood to Survive the Nazis 🩸 · Poland
- 1942 They Rammed an Explosive-Packed Warship Into a Nazi Dock. Then Walked Away. · France
- 1943 A Fake ID in a Dead Man's Pocket Saved Thousands of Soldiers ⚰️ · UK
- 1944 They Banned Pets on Ships. So Troops Enlisted a Bear. · Poland
- 1945 US and German Soldiers Fought on the Same Side · Austria
Cold War Era
- 1950 Four Students Broke Into Westminster Abbey to Steal a Stone · UK
- 1952 He Had Never Run a Marathon. He Entered One at the Olympics. · Czechoslovakia
- 1955 A Ship That Couldn't Sink Was Found With No One Aboard. · Samoa
- 1960 An Earthquake Trapped a Lake Above a City. They Drained It With Shovels. ⛏️ · Chile
- 1960 What Happens When a Submarine's Window Cracks Seven Miles Down? · Switzerland
- 1960 How Do You Build a Whole New Capital City in 41 Months? 🏗️ · Brazil
- 1961 A Single Switch Stopped a Nuclear Blast on US Soil ☢️ · USA
- 1962 A Nuclear Launch Needed All 3 Officers to Agree. He Said No. · USSR
- 1976 A Country With No Army Took On the Royal Navy. And Won. · Iceland
- c. 1981 A Drug Lord Smuggled 4 Hippos Into Colombia. Now There Are Hundreds. · Colombia
- 1984 The Worst Industrial Disaster in History Happened While a City Slept. ☠️ · India