Strange History

Sepia photograph of José Batlle y Ordóñez, a heavy-set man in a dark coat, standing at a ballot table surrounded by men in suitsStrange History

Uruguay Renamed Christmas Family Day in 1919. Pope Leo Just Visited Anyway

Jonah Okafor · November 9, 2026
A gold pocket watch by Breguet, Paris, about 1810, with a white enamel chapter ring and a skeletonised movement visible through the dialStrange History

The First Chronograph Was Lost for 200 Years and Credited to Someone Else

Jonah Okafor · November 8, 2026
Black and white photograph of an open car and mounted guards passing crowds on a Brussels street during Baudouin's accession in July 1951Strange History

In 1990 Belgium Declared Its King Unable to Reign, for About a Day and a Half

Jonah Okafor · November 7, 2026
Black and white photograph of a Qantas Boeing 707, registration VH-EBA, on the ground at Heathrow in 1961; a sister ship of the jet in the 1971 ransomStrange History

A TV Movie Taught a Sydney Man to Hold a Qantas Jet to Ransom in 1971

Jonah Okafor · November 4, 2026
William Hogarth's 1740 engraving The Distrest Poet: a writer at a desk in a shabby attic room, a milkmaid demanding payment at the door while his wife mends clothes by the fireStrange History

The Man From Formosa Had Never Seen It: Psalmanazar Fooled London in 1704

Jonah Okafor · November 3, 2026
Wood engraving of the Pied Piper in a dark cloak and feathered cap playing his pipe as a crowd of children follows him out of a walled townStrange History

The Pied Piper Is a Fairy Tale. Hamelin's 130 Missing Children Were Not

Jonah Okafor · October 31, 2026
Hand-coloured etching by Thomas Rowlandson, 1800, of a London night watchman in a greatcoat holding a lantern and a rattleStrange History

A Man Shot a Ghost in Hammersmith in 1804. The Law Took 180 Years to Decide If He Was Guilty

Jonah Okafor · October 30, 2026
Photograph of Royal Marines lined up at English Camp on San Juan Island before leaving in 1872Strange History

Britain and America Nearly Went to War Over One Pig and Stayed Twelve Years

Marcus Delacroix · October 30, 2026
Albumen photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan, 1867: two men of Clarence King's Fortieth Parallel Survey sit and stand among knobbly tufa rock formations at Pyramid Lake, NevadaStrange History

Two Prospectors Salted a Mesa With Diamonds in 1872 and Fooled Tiffany's

Priya Raman · October 29, 2026
Engraving from 1896 of a British cruiser firing on the sultan's palace in Zanzibar harbour, with smoke rising from the waterfront and the lighthouse behindStrange History

The Shortest War in History Lasted 38 Minutes, and Zanzibar Was Billed for the Shells

Marcus Delacroix · October 28, 2026
Hellenistic bronze statue of a sleeping winged boy lying on a rock, 3rd to 2nd century BC, of the kind the divers mistook for drowned bodies (this one is in New York, not from the wreck)Strange History

Divers Raised the Antikythera Mechanism in 1901. It Sat on a Shelf a Year

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 28, 2026
William Hogarth's etching Cunicularii, or the Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation (1726): doctors gather round Mary Toft's bed while rabbits run across the floorStrange History

Mary Toft Gave Birth to 17 Rabbits in 1726. The King's Surgeon Believed Her

Jonah Okafor · October 28, 2026
Lithograph of 1835 showing winged bat-people, unicorns and other animals beside a lake and waterfall on the moon, sold by the New York Sun as a view of Herschel's discoveriesStrange History

The New York Sun Found Bat-Men on the Moon in 1835 and Sold Out Every Day

Hannah Lindqvist · October 27, 2026
Police photograph of the five lines of pencilled capital letters found on the back cover of the Rubaiyat linked to the Somerton ManStrange History

The Somerton Man Lay Unnamed for 73 Years, Then a Hair in a Bust Named Him

Jonah Okafor · October 27, 2026
Hand-coloured print of a crowded London barber's shop in 1811, with men being shaved and wigs dressedStrange History

Why the Barber's Pole Is Red and White: It Was Once Covered in Real Blood

Jonah Okafor · October 27, 2026
Oil painting of Princess Caraboo by Edward Bird, 1817: a young woman in a white turban with feathers and a yellow dress, standing on a shoreStrange History

Princess Caraboo of Javasu Was a Cobbler's Daughter From Devon

Tomás Ferreira · October 26, 2026
Albrecht Dürer's 1514 engraving of a peasant couple dancing, arms flung out and feet kickingStrange History

Strasbourg's 1518 Dancing Plague: The Council Hired a Band

Hannah Lindqvist · October 26, 2026
Satirical print titled The Hobby Horse, 1819, showing young men in top hats riding and falling off two-wheeled running machines in a parkStrange History

The Summer That Never Came in 1816 Produced Frankenstein and the Bicycle

Hannah Lindqvist · October 25, 2026
Lithograph of the Chinese junk Keying, a three-masted trading junk from Canton, as it appeared in New York harbour in 1847Strange History

The Pirate Queen Who Beat China's Navy, Then Surrendered on Her Own Terms and Kept the Money

Jonah Okafor · October 25, 2026
Manuscript miniature of Charles VI of France enthroned in a blue robe covered in gold fleurs-de-lis, holding two sceptresStrange History

The King of France Believed He Was Made of Glass, and England Nearly Got the Crown

Tomás Ferreira · October 24, 2026
Engraved 1851 plate comparing the planetary systems of Ptolemy, the Egyptians, Tycho Brahe and CopernicusStrange History

Tycho Brahe Died 425 Years Ago Today, and It Took Two Exhumations to Clear Kepler

Jonah Okafor · October 24, 2026
Painting of a storm cloud sweeping over the Connecticut River valley at Northampton, Massachusetts, with the river's oxbow bend in sunlight belowStrange History

New England's Dark Day of 1780: Noon Went Black and Tree Rings Explain Why

Priya Raman · October 23, 2026
Photograph of a wild emu feeding on dry open ground in outback AustraliaStrange History

Australia Sent Machine Guns Against 20,000 Emus in 1932 and the Emus Won

Jonah Okafor · October 23, 2026
Sepia photograph from 1902 of the interior of the basilica of St John Lateran in Rome, looking toward the Gothic canopy over the high altarStrange History

The Pope Who Dug Up His Predecessor and Put the Corpse on Trial

Jonah Okafor · October 22, 2026
1234