Top 10 Bizarre Historical Events That Sound Like Fiction

Sometimes you hear about the funniest and weirdest things in history, and it literally sounds like something out of a sitcom, but no, it really happened. Hello everyone and welcome back to our channel, I'm your host Emily and today we're counting down our list of the Top 10 Bizarre Historical Events That Sound Like Fiction. Number 10. Violet Jessop Survived 3 Sinking Ships. Violet Jessop had some horrible luck, or great luck, however you want to look at it. In 1911 she began working as a stewardess on the White Star Line RMS Olympic. Violet was on board September 20th, 1911 when Olympic left from Southampton and collided with the British warship HMS Hawk. Despite damage the ship was able to make it back to port without sinking. She continued to work on Olympic until April 1912 when she was transferred to its sister ship the Titanic. Violet boarded the RMS Titanic as a stewardess on April 10th, 1912. Four days later, on April 14th, it struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank about 2 hours and 40 minutes after the collision. She was later ordered into lifeboat 16 and as the boat was being lowered, one of Titanic's officers gave her a baby to look after. The next morning, Violet and the rest of the survivors were rescued by the RMS Carpathia and taken to New York City on April 18th. Then, in the first world war, Violet was a stewardess for the British Red Cross. On the morning of November 21st, 1916, she was aboard the HMHS Britannic, the younger sister ship of Olympic and Titanic that had been converted into a hospital ship, when it sank in the Aegean Sea after an unexplained explosion. Britannic sank within 55 minutes, ending the lives of 30 of the 1,066 people on board. Now its just incredible that she survived all 3 incidents without getting injured and I can't believe that after that first sinking she would go on a boat again because I know I wouldn't. 9. Carbon Dioxide Went Down Due To So Many Deaths Genghis Khan was the founder and first Khagan of the Mongol Empire which later became the largest adjoining land empire in history. Having spent the majority of his life uniting the Mongol tribes, he launched a series of military campaigns which conquered large parts of China and Central Asia. In the 13th century he ended the lives of so many peasants that the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were significantly reduced as a result. During his 21 year reign, his destructive armies were responsible for the deaths of up to 40 million people. With so many people gone and nobody left to farm the lands owned by the peasants, nature went back to its true form and grew back into carbon absorbing forests. Its estimated that 700 million tons of carbon were wiped from the atmosphere, which to put in perspective is around the same amount of carbon dioxide generated in a year through global gasoline consumption. That's just crazy. 8. The Unlucky Town of Saint Pierre In the late 1890s and early 19thousand, Saint Pierre Martinique was known as a beautiful town. But there was a darkness looming over it, a volcano. Citizens of the area were so used to the volcanic activity that no one took it seriously when the fresh steaming vent holes and earth tremors started during April 1902. The minor explosions began at the summit of the volcano, ash began to rain down continuously, and the nauseating stench of sulfur filled the air, but for some reason they stayed in the town. Even worse, more than 100 snakes slithered down and invaded the town. Yeah, snakes. And they ended the lives of 50 people, and people still stayed living there. Then on May 5th a landslide of boiling mud and water from the Itang Set Crater billed into the river Blanche and 23 workmen died. This was followed by a tsunami that ended the lives of hundreds of people. This naturally caused concern in the town, and many people wanted to leave. So yeah, people just stayed there and went on with their lives while all this was happening. Even after the whole snake situation, it couldn't be me. Now 3 days later, on May 8th, Mount Pelee finally exploded, sending an avalanche of white hot lava straight towards the town. Within 3 minutes, Saint Pierre was completely obliterated of its 30,000 population and there were only 2 people who survived. 7. The Great Stink Yes, this is a real thing. The Great Stink was an event in central London during July and August of 1858 in which the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent that was present on the banks of the River Thames. The problem had been mounting for some years with aging and inadequate sewer systems that emptied directly into the Thames. The ensuing melee, which was further aggravated by pointless rumours, made people believe that the bad odour was capable of causing communicable diseases such as cholera. The smell combined with possible side effects prompted authorities to seek help of a civil engineer, Joseph Bazalgette. His proposal ensured that the sewage was no longer dumped on the shores of the Thames. Joseph's work ensured that sewage was no longer dumped onto the shores of the Thames and brought an end to the cholera outbreaks. His actions are thought to have saved more lives than the efforts of any other Victorian official. And his sewer system operates into the 21st century, servicing a city that has grown to the population of over 8 million. Number 6, World War 1 Christmas Truce. During Christmas of 1914, a truce was held between Germany and the UK. They decorated their shelters, exchanged gifts across no man's land and played a game of football between the soldiers. The event, dubbed as the Christmas Truce, was considered to be a series of unofficial ceasefires during World War 1 in 1914. The event was celebrated as a peace offering on the Western Front. The idea for the temporary hiatus was put forth by Pope Benedict XV on December 7th, 1914. Both Germany and the United Kingdom refused to declare an official ceasefire, however, soldiers from both sides declared a temporary ceasefire on their own. They gathered together and celebrated the season of joy by singing carols. They also exchanged gifts that included cigarettes and plum puddings. And a good gesture, soldiers from both sides played a friendly game of soccer. This is so sweet and cute to me, like, awww. Number 5, A Baboon Was Employed. Jack, a Chakma baboon, worked as a railway signal changer in South Africa for 9 years. Yup, you heard that right. He was initially employed as a pet assistant to a disabled railway signalman named James Wyde. James, who was a double leg amputee, purchased Jack and trained him to push his wheelchair and operate rail signals under his supervision. The idea of a baboon manning the signals caused an investigation to be initiated in the authorities, though skeptical, after witnessing his job competency officially employ Jack. The celebrity employee was paid 20 cents a day and half a bottle of beer every week. Throughout the 9 years of his employment, Jack never committed a single mistake. Now, I don't know if this is amazing or exploiting an animal, but it's absolutely insane. Number 4, The Dancing Plague. The Dancing Plague was a case of dancing mania that occurred in modern-day France in the Holy Roman Empire from July 1518 to September 1518. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took dancing for weeks. The outbreak began in July 1518 when a woman by the name Ruth Tafaya began dancing fervently in the street in Strasbourg. She kept up this constant dancing for a week straight. Soon, three dozen others joined in on the dancing chaos. In August of that same year, the Dancing Plague had claimed 400 victims. Dancers were beginning to collapse and it is said some even died due to stroke or heart attacks. No one knew what was causing this reaction, which meant no one understood how to remedy the situation either. Now by early September, the outbreak began to subside as the dancers were sent to a mountain shrine to pray for absolution. Now there are many theories behind the phenomenon, the most popular being stress-induced mass hysteria suggested by John Waller. Other theories include ergo and religious explanations. Number 3, The Doctor with a 300% mortality rate. Robert Liston, a surgeon in the 1800s, performed an operation with a 300% mortality rate instead of saving the patient he ended the lives of three people. He was renowned for being one of the fastest surgeons alive, which at that time was a very good thing. Anesthesia as we know it didn't exist, so patients were awake for the entire procedure, meaning the shorter it was, the better. Robert was performing a leg amputation, but worked so fast that he accidentally cut off fingers on his assistants hand. Both the patient and the assistant died later of gangrene, most likely due to the saw being unclean. And what about the third death? Well, doctors and other spectators would often watch these surgeries from the gallery, which was much more up close and personal than medical galleries today. During the procedure, Robert accidentally swiped an elderly doctor with a blade, slicing the fabric of the doctor's suit coat. Thinking he had been cut open, the doctor went into shock and died of a subsequent heart attack. Thus, three people died during an operation that was meant to save one life. Number 2, Clog Toilet Sink Submarine. During World War 2, the German submarine U-1206 joined the war in early April 1945. Commander Karl Adolf Schlitt proudly captained the crew into battle. However, they forgot one crucial weapon in their war with the allied forces- a plunger. At the time, the British submarines would store the excrement on the boat and dump it once they returned to land. German submarines were far more advanced and had a complicated toilet system that would shoot waste into the sea. But after being at sea for a few weeks, the submarine's toilet system malfunctioned, leading to a smelly problem. The situation soon became dire as seawater and sewage poured into the sub and began mixing with the ship's battery. With no choices left, Schlitt ordered the submarine to resurface immediately. Unfortunately, they resurfaced near Scotland and caught the attention of the nearby British Royal Navy. Within moments, they were attacked and died. Now this is actually kind of funny because what do you mean that happened with the toilet? And coming in at number 1 is The Disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt. On December 17th 1967, Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia, disappeared while swimming in the sea near Porsta, Victoria. Harold knew the area well and had swum there many times before. He did not hesitate in entering the water, despite a large swell and visible currents. He swam with one other person as the others he was with considered it unsafe, and he swam into deeper waters and was dragged out into sea. The others called out to him, but he did not raise his arms or cry for help. He soon slipped under the waves and out of sight. The Victoria police were contacted and initiated what became one of the largest search operations in Australian history. The entire Australian defence force was put on high alert. An enormous search operation was mounted and around the beach, with helicopters, watercraft, police divers, two naval diving teams, and more than 340 people were involved in the search. Strangely, his body was never recovered, he was presumed to have died, and his memorial service was 5 days later, attended by many world leaders. Now its generally agreed that the disappearance was a simple case of an accidental drowning, but a number of conspiracy theories surfaced. In 1968, a story in the Sunday Observer claimed that Harold had been assassinated by the US Central Intelligence Agency, supposedly because he intended to pull Australia out of Vietnam. Also suggestions were made that Harold had his life ended by the North Vietnamese after being incapacitated by a nerve agent of course, or that he had faked his own death to be with a lover. In 1983, British journalist Anthony Gray published The Prime Minister was a Spy, in which he claimed that Harold was a long-life spy for the People's Republic of China. According to Anthony, Harold faked his own death to defect to China and was collected by frogmen who dragged him to a waiting submarine. So what happened? I guess we'll never know. But it seems he just went poof. Well that's all for our list of the Top 10 Bizarre Historical Events That Sound Like Fiction. Which one on our list do you think is the most ridiculous? Let us know in the comments down below, and hey, why not like and subscribe while you're down there. I'm your host Emily and we'll see ya next time. Peace.