If you’ve paid attention in history class, you will find that the historical facts they taught us were fascinating. However, most of the facts that we’ve known from school are common knowledge. It’s way more interesting to learn about the facts that not many people know about. For example, did you know about the fact that the most extended year in history lasted over 400 days? And, did you know that Adolf Hitler helped design a vehicle that all of us still drive today?
This article should help you learn about some of the lesser-known historical facts you didn’t learn at school. You can take credit for being the one who knows a couple of interesting facts in your circle of friends. Here are some of the craziest history facts you should know about!
Augustus Caesar Was the Richest Man to Ever Live
Augustus Caesar, also known as “Octavian,” ruled Rome as its first emperor during 63 B.C.-A.D. 14. Augustus is the nephew and heir of Julius Caesar. An interesting fact about Augustus Caesar is that he was the wealthiest man to have ever lived. His net worth was estimated at around $0.46 trillion when adjusted for inflation. His financial advisor during that time must have the easiest job in the world!
Some say that the wealthiest man ever was Mansa Musa. However, his wealth was said to be too great to count. Meanwhile, Augustus’s net worth could be measured and is accounted for
Thomas Edison Didn’t Invent Most of His Patented Stuff
It’s no secret that Thomas Edison was one of the most brilliant minds in the past. However, he has a dark secret that you may not know about. The brilliant Thomas Edison, who received credit for inventing the light bulb, was one of the world’s intellectual property thieves! Edison has around 1,093 things on which he smashed a patent, and most of these 1,093 are inventions that he stole from other brilliant minds.
One of the geniuses who experienced Edison’s wrath as an intellectual thief was Nikola Tesla. He also stole from Wilhelm Rontgen and Joseph Swan. Interestingly, Thomas Edison wasn’t even the brilliant mind behind the light bulb, just like what our schools taught us! It was Joseph Swan who originally invented the lightbulb.
Einstein As A President?
Speaking of brilliant minds, Albert Einstein was one of the most brilliant minds in history. His scientific achievements and discoveries still continue to be unraveled to this day, and he deserves credit for having explained the world around us. It’s certainly reasonable to want someone as brilliant as Albert Einstein to be a leader; however, it’s a bit interesting that people actually pushed for him to become president.
People weren’t pushing for an Einstein presidency in the United States. Rather, it was Israel who wanted to make him their president. Though he wasn’t a citizen of Israel, their government still made the push and offered him the spot, but he quickly turned it down. Einstein turned it down respectfully as he said that he lacked the necessary skills to become an effective government leader.
Roman Emperor Caligula’s Senator Was His Favorite Horse
If you didn’t have an idea who Caligula was, this should be a great way to know him. Caligula was a Roman emperor, and he received credit for being the most brutal leader during his time. He fed criminals to vicious animals and had “conversations” with the moon. It certainly won’t take you long to know that something wasn’t right about Caligula.
An interesting fact about Caligula is that he liked horses. One of his horses was Incitatus, and he loved him so much that he gave it everything that a horse could ask for! How much did Caligula adore his majestic horse? Well, he adored Incititatus so much that he made him a senator.
Pope Gregory IX’s War Against Cats
Pope Gregory IX was the head of the Catholic Church from 1170 until 1241. During his rule, Pope Gregory IX achieved a lot of wonderful things for the Roman Catholic Church. He even received credit for issuing the Decretales and the Papal Inquisition. Despite his achievements as the head of the Catholic Church, one weird act seems to have stained all of the wonderful things he’s done as Pope.
Pope Gregory IX was the Pope who declared cats to be the agents of all those who worship the devil. It certainly wasn’t a good time to be a cat lover as the Pope decreed that they be exterminated. However, the Pope only declared black cats as the ones to be eradicated so cat lovers were still able to keep cats as pets, just not ones that were black.
A 38-Minute War
The Anglo-Zanzibar War was a brief conflict between the East African sultanate of Zanzibar and the British Empire. Following the untimely passing of the previous sultan, the Zanzibari Prince occupied the sultan’s palace and disregarded the British empire’s preferred successor, which clearly wasn’t him. What followed was a full-blown war that lasted no longer than 40 minutes.
You heard that right. The Anglo-Zanzibar war didn’t even last a day. Both parties definitely deserve a ton of credit for not allowing things to get out of hand. Though it’s technically considered a war, the amount of destruction was minimal. In case you want to know, the 38-minute Anglo-Zanzibar war resulted in a victory for the British Empire.
Wealthy Spartans
During the Classical Age, Ancient Sparta was an immensely wealthy country. Their massive wealth had something to do with their conquest and domination of the neighboring race, the Helots.
One interesting fact about the wealthy lifestyle of Spartans is that when a Spartan boy becomes a man, the state awards him his own public farmland. The Spartan man is also awarded his share of Helot slaves to work on the farmland.
Basically, every Spartan citizen was a member of the conventional upper class. They were incredibly wealthy that they didn’t even need financial advisors at the time; they simply took what they thought was theirs.
Spartan Women Were Also Incredibly Wealthy
As we said, the Spartans would often go on conquests to dominate neighboring races and countries. With this fact, Spartan men would often perish during battle. Interestingly, the Spartan inheritance law was incredibly progressive and way ahead of its time. If a Spartan man passes, all of his state-given farmland will go back to the state. However, all of the private land under his ownership would go directly to his wife.
You’d certainly expect that a militaristic culture would result in Spartan men’s untimely passing. In turn, their widows would end up incredibly wealthy due to the inheritance.
Real-life Inspiration forDracula
The Count of Dracula was released back in 1897 and it was hailed as the most terrifying novel in history. Interestingly, the Count was based on a real person! There’s certainly no need to worry as it isn’t based on a real-life vampire, instead, it’s based on none other than Vlad the Impaler.
Vlad had quite a terrifying reputation. He impaled his enemies on long sticks that he planted all over his castle and lands. Vlad eventually perished at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula drew inspiration from the long history of his murky descendants.
The First Wheeled Office Chair
One of the most underrated things we use today is our office chairs. It’s a fact that almost all office chairs that come out of the production line today are already wheeled. But, little did we know that the person who deserves credit for starting this trend was Charles Darwin. When Charles Darwin was tackling his most radical ideas, he was doing so in an office chair that was wheeled!
Darwin’s wheeled office chair certainly didn’t resemble the ergonomic, wheeled office chairs that we have today. It’s a customized luxury armchair that he decided to stick wheels to. He was a renowned workaholic, and he spent most of his time studying and making notes. Darwin must’ve grown exhausted going around his study and lab area and figured that it’d be easier if he cruised around his office on wheels.
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