Chain across the Baltic
In 1989 two million people formed a human chain stretching 675km from Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius.
Firing the anvils
On the day that Texas joined the Confederacy, a dissenting Texas Ranger was forced to fire anvils into the air with gunpowder. He was not the first to do this.
Pride vs. the cyclone
Three American and three German warships spent months in a standoff in Apia Harbour in Samoa. And then a cyclone hit.
Telepathic snail mail
In 1850 Jacques-Toussaint Benoît claimed to be able to send messages via telepathically linked snails. He could not.
Switching sides
In the early morning of September 3, 1967, the entire country of Sweden switched from driving on the left to driving on the right.
Early warning
To detect and map enemy planes during World War II, the British Royal Air Force employed a sophisticated network of radar stations, spotters with binoculars, stock market brokers, and a women’s auxiliary with croupier sticks.
Dreadnought vs. human torpedo
The Austrian dreadnought SMS Viribus Unitis was gifted to Yugoslavia in 1918, and then blown up by an Italian manned torpedo less than a day later.
Telegraph code
T CODE CD CNDNS LG MSGS TO SV MON WN SDG TM BI CBL.
Exiled Americans
In a bid to free up jobs after the onset of the Great Depression, hundreds of thousands of people were deported from the United States to Mexico. The majority were American citizens.
Fashionable limp
Queen Alexandra had a scar and a limp – and British fashion followed suit.
Cryptography gardening
If you want to decipher an encrypted message, it’s helpful to plant some plaintext seeds.
Iron currency
In the late 19th century CE Sierra Leone and surrounds, high quality iron needles tied into bundles served as currency.
Cities at the bottom of the sea
423,000 people live in Flevoland, a province of the Netherlands. Before 1957, the entire area did not exist.
Chicago River, reversed
120 years ago engineers permanently reversed the flow of Chicago River.
Feed sack dresses
When US farmers bought seeds or flour during the Great Depression, the most important question was this: what patterns were printed on the sack?
