‘John the Blind King of Bohemia insisted on fighting in battle.’ People Talk About Real Historical Events That Are Almost Too Crazy to Believe

Studying history is the best!

Because there are so many stories that are so incredible that you’ll have your mind blown on a daily basis!

And these AskReddit users were nice enough to talk about historical events that are almost too crazy to believe.

Take a look!

“Nicholas Alkemade fell 18,000 feet without a parachute from a burning plane in 1944 and suffered no serious injury.

Germans almost didn’t. Finding him in just a flight suit but no parachute. They initially pegged him as a spy who’d been dropped behind their lines and had stashed his chute and gear.

As such, he was likely to be executed. Except Alkemade was so insistent his captors went and found the wreckage of his aircraft – with the burnt remains of his chute stashed behind his gun position. Germans told him the news and shared vodka with him to celebrate.”

“Michael Malloy AKA Mike the Durable AKA Iron Mike.

During the Great Depression, five men took out a life insurance policy on a homeless alcoholic that they were sure was going to drink himself to d**th.

The owner of a bar allowed him to drink for free, but he kept drinking and didn’t die. So they tried to poison him with antifreeze. Didn’t work. The turpentine, horse liniment, rat poison, methanol….still didn’t work. A sandwich made with rotten sardines and tacks. Still no luck.

Then they took his drunk body out in the cold and poured water on him. He lived.

Then they ran him over with a car. He was in the hospital for three weeks, but survived.

Then they poisoned him with carbon monoxide, and he finally d**d.

They were all convicted of m**der.”

“In 2014, Pope Francis released doves in the Vatican to symbolize his hopes for peace in the world.

As soon as the doves began to fly, a seagull and a crow swooped down and attacked them in front of everyone.”

“John O’Neill, the FBI agent in charge of investigating Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden in the 1990s, grew frustrated with the bureaucratic politics within the FBI and between the FBI and CIA that he felt hampered his mission.

He decided to take to leave the FBI and take a higher paying job in the private sector.

In August 23, 2001 he became the Chief of Security at the World Trade Center. He was ki**ed in the attacks just a few weeks later.”

“The Battle of Castle Itter in WWII was fought between the Waffen SS and a group comprised of American and German soldiers, local resistance fighters, and several French celebrities, including Paul Renaud who had been the Prime Minister of France during WWI.”

“Theodore Roosevelt found his boat was stolen.

So he built a new boat, tracked the thieves down and arrested them. He then proceeded to walk them multiple days, without sleeping, so they could receive a trial instead of just shooting them on the spot.

It was in the middle of a harsh winter so he didn’t handcuff them (for fear they’d get frostbite) so instead he just kept himself awake by reading Tolstoy with a gun trained on them the whole trek.”

“John the Blind King of Bohemia insisted on fighting in battle and had his aides tie their horses together so they were not separated.

He asked to be taken to where the battle was the loudest. The next day they were all found d**d with their horses still tied together.”

“The masses marching to the Berlin Wall and tearing it down only happened because earlier that day during a press conference, an East German official (Günther Schabowski) accidentally incorrectly said leaving East Germany was legal, effective immediately.

“As far as I know this becomes effective..it is right away, immediately” is still a famous thing to say in Germany.

It would eventually have happened anyway BUT it wasn’t legal yet. However people just did it anyways because the guy got visibly confused during the press conference, and said the wrong thing.”

“In 1903, The New York Times published an article about flying machines. They stated that it would take the combined efforts of all Mathematicians and mechanics 1-to-10 million years for powered flight to be achieved.

Anyway, about 9 weeks later, the Wright brothers achieved powered flight for the first time.

here is the article

They were also overly cynical afterwards, In 1910 they said that flight would only ever be for billionaires, of course we had commercial flights by around the 1960s achievable for many.”

“The Battle of Halys.

In roughly 6th century BC, the Medes and the Lydians were at war. The war had lasted for six years and climaxed at the Battle of Halys. During the battle, a solar eclipse began.

Both sides believed that the Gods were angry at their long and bloody war, and were taking the sun away from them. They declared peace that day, literally throwing down their weapons and embracing their newly former enemies as the sun was returned. They declared a formal peace shortly after.

But yeah, a war ended because of a solar eclipse.”

The truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.