Interesting and Obscure History -

[ButterBar]

Did you know that one time a bunch of ships got captured by guys on horse back?

Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Or that one time a bunch of drunk soldiers from one city stole a bucket and caused a war?

War of the Bucket - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Post interesting and little known history that is amusing.

 

[Clop]

https://www.kokkola.fi/palvelut/kul...kh_renlundin_museo/nayttelyt/vene/en_GB/vene/

Other details that I can't confirm so would count as urban legends are things like:
The retreating Englishmen were chased on ice skates.
The town in question defended itself specifically because the tar reserves and such were owned by the town, not by the Russians like in every other town before it where the local populace didn't give a fuck if you burnt it.
The curator of the museum allegedly told the British museums in response to their requests that "it's our war loot, come and try take it."

 

[Midlife Sperglord]

My grandfather once told me that the founding fathers were rum runners, and that America declared independence mainly over how the British wanted too much control over the rum trade. He also said that got scrubbed from the history books around the time Prohibition happened.

Not sure how much truth is in that, but the way he explained it made sense.

 

[ButterBar]

My grandfather once told me that the founding fathers were rum runners, and that America declared independence mainly over how the British wanted too much control over the rum trade. He also said that got scrubbed from the history books around the time Prohibition happened.

Not sure how much truth is in that, but the way he explained it made sense.

From my understanding there is a lot of truth to it. The colonies were nominally under the mercantilist system which basically meant that the idea was that a colony has to trade exclusively or near exclusively with the homeland and trade in raw materials and goods without much developed home production. This wasnt really enforced much and America had a really big coastline with a lot of coastal towns and different colonial governments that you could go to as a port.

America basically became an ideal location to stop off as a pirate to unload goods or to smuggle in goods that you could basically bribe your way out of if it came to that. Then you get the French and Indian war, Britains strapped on cash and starts enforcing different laws to try and make more revenue from America to pay off their debts from the war. What your grandfather is probably talking about was the navigation acts and the reinforcement of the admiralty court in the colonies as well as reinforcing mercantilist economics as a whole.

It was a big part of it but it wasnt the only one and Rum was a big part of smuggling and an ideal trade good but not the only good smuggled.

Edit: Hancock was the big smuggler of the Founders, the molasses act was one of the unenforced laws and the later sugar act was passed to try and really restrict it.

 

[sasazuka]

Did you know that there's a Russian city, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, that used to be a Japanese city, Toyohara, from 1905 to 1945, back in the days when Russia/the Soviet Union and Japan had a land border on Sakhalin Island after the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05, and the southern half of Sakhalin was a Japanese prefecture called "Karafuto"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

 

[LinuxVoid]

I don't know if Unit 731 is an obscure history phenomena, I think it's taught in Chinese schools.
Unit 731 were a bunch of scientists who wanted to develop new ways of chemical and biological warfare. The best way to do so, in their minds, was to torture, rape and infect chinese POWs until they begged for death.
Then, after WW2, the Americans granted immunity and defended the Japanese from the Soviet trials in exchange for the knowledge gained during the experiments.

Unit 731 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Spoiler: Some guro porn

 

[Rei is shit]

When WW1 started the Germans took one of their ocean liners, the Cap Trafalgar, and turned it into a commerce raider by adding a few guns. But they also removed a couple funnels and painted it up to look like a bitish ocean liner, the Carmania.

By pure chance, the Carmania, which had also been armed with a few guns, was steaming in the same waters that the Trafalgar was patrolling. When the captain of the Carmania spotted his own ship, he knew something was up. The Trafalgar tried to escape by steaming away but the faster Carmania caught up to it. What followed was nearly two hours of these two ocean liners shelling each other. As neither ship had any sort of fire control many of the shots were wild, or smashed through the upper structure of the ships. Try to land more shots both ships veered closer and closer to each other until sailors on each ship were firing machine guns at each other. Eventually the Trafalgar started listing and dropped its life boats - a round had hit just below the waterline and the ship was rapidly sinking. The Carmania was dealing with numerous fires and would barely make it back to port.

 

[nagant 1895]

The Polynesians who migrated to New Zealand and Hawaii brought dogs with them. In the case of the New Zealand kuri dog the animals were used for hunting small game, companionship and occasionally food. However, on Hawaii there was nothing to hunt that required a dog so the only use left to the dog was to look cute and taste good. So a very unique breed emerged called the Poi Dog, so named because it was fattened on taro (poi in the Hawaiian language). While visitors to the islands noted that the Poi Dog was "strong willed" they also noticed it was dumb as bricks and tasted good. They literally bred fat re.tard dogs.
It remains unknown if white girls fucked these dogs though.

 

[Slartibartfast]

In Egyptian mythology (Middle Dynasties), the god Re created was the first being to appear on the first land, born out of blooming flower on a small mound of land that appeared out of Nun (the infinite ocean). It was then that Re created the other gods through an interesting process:

"And Re did couple with his clenched fist, and took that with issued forth and poured it into his mouth, and spat forth the Gods."

That's exactly what it sounds like too.

 

[Chexxchunk]

In Egyptian mythology (Middle Dynasties), the god Re created was the first being to appear on the first land, born out of blooming flower on a small mound of land that appeared out of Nun (the infinite ocean). It was then that Re created the other gods through an interesting process:

"And Re did couple with his clenched fist, and took that with issued forth and poured it into his mouth, and spat forth the Gods."

That's exactly what it sounds like too.

brb gotta try something

 

[OB 946]

Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

The Allies fought against the Soviets in 1918 and lost, which essentially directly led to the Cold War 30 years later.

Chicago Tylenol murders - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

The reason there's those tamper proof seals on everything now is because in 1982 someone went around grocery stores in Chicago putting cyanide capsules in Tylenol bottles. In one instance, 3 people from the same home were killed. Johnson and Johnson issued a voluntary recall of 31 million bottles worth over a quarter billion dollars and CPD drove around with loudspeakers day and night telling the public to not take Tylenol. J&J's market share collapsed from 34% to 8% overnight. There were multiple leads that went nowhere, including one person that demanded $1m from J&J to stop the killings which was later proved to be an insane guy. To this day investigators have no idea who did it, although one theory is that the Unabomber did it, due to the fact that there were several "copycat" killings on a possible route from Chicago to his mountain cabin spaced out enough to be plausible. Ted has denied this allegation.

Lake Karachay - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

This is the most polluted place on Earth. Standing near the shore will kill you in less than an hour. It is Lake Karachay, the site of a radiological disaster magnitudes worse than Chernobyl. In the 50s the Soviets set up secret research cities, mainly for nuclear research. One of those cities had a sizable experimental nuclear reactor, and since what the fuck do Soviets know about workplace safety, instead of making concrete casks for the waste, they instead shipped it to this nearby lake and dumped it wholesale. This was fine until a severe drought exposed several tons of radioactive sludge, which proceeded to dry up and blow as radioactive dust all over the countryside. In response the Soviets built thousands of concrete cubes and dumped them in the lake to keep the sediment from blowing around. Another great thing about radioactive particles being in the water is groundwater pollution. The radioactive contaminants managed to leech into the nearby Techa river, which supplies drinking water and food to a not insignificant number of downstream villages. When the dump site was finally declassified in 1992, international watchdogs came in to asses the situation, and found that 65% of the population living along the Techa river suffers from chronic radiation poisoning, and that the concentration of radioactive material in the fish makes the fish themselves a carcinogen. The contamination of groundwater is estimated to be creeping at roughly 80m a year, and even conservative estimates state that the entire Techa river valley will need to be evacuated in the next decade. The Russian government's current plan is to fill the entire lake with concrete, and drill several holes, line them with concrete, and fill them with the polluted water before capping them with oil well concrete caps. Currently there are no precise measurements as to how many cubic meters of water will have to be moved and sealed, but the project is moving extremely slowly, and there is significant doubt if it is even possible, considering the amount of groundwater that will have to be pumped out and relocated.

 

[BScCollateral]

The first attempt to dock a Soyuz in orbit failed because the pilot approached the target vehicle upside down.

 

[ButterBar]

So because its shit on the Soviets the thread now I might as well post this.

The Most Senseless Environmental Crime of the 20th Century

Fifty years ago 180,000 whales disappeared from the oceans without a trace, and researchers are still trying to make sense of why. Inside the most irrational environmental crime of the century.

www.google.com

Soviets killed a ridiculous amount of whales that they barely even used for anything except fertilizer and oil and killed so many because of Soviet economics dictating that productivity was in number of whales killed so many were basically just killed and left to rot.

 

[nagant 1895]

So because its shit on the Soviets the thread now I might as well post this.

The Soviets did lots of weird crap like that. They measured the production of electric motors in tonnage rather than units so the gosplan standard electric motors were the heaviest in the world per unit of power output. Unlike the whales situation, where it sort of just ends there as far as the economy is concerned. this meant everything else had to be designed around this so everything from aircraft to beard shavers needed to account for these crazy heavy motors.

 

[дядя Боря]

Operation "Snowball": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totskoye_nuclear_exercise

in 1954, Soviet Union blew up a nuke to see how military can cope and work with and around nuke explosions. The next war (at the time) was planned to be fought in Europe and a lot of smaller tactical nukes were produced to be fired from artillery, eventually. Fucking great.

Tens of thousands were affected, including a whole bunch of civilians. I guess they found out a bunch of shit how nukes fuck up buildings and animals and people. Socialism is great.

 

[BScCollateral]

So because its shit on the Soviets the thread now I might as well post this.

Every thread should be "Shit on the Soviets" thread.

But I kid, and it's only fair to point out that Georgy Beregovoy was the first and (IIRC) only cosmonaut who earned a Hero of the Soviet Union before going to space. The man fought Hitler, was shot down, declared dead, and made his way through enemy lines (he was ground attack) three times.

The target had a strobe light on the bottom to orient him. This is the opposite of navlights standard, which puts a white strobe on top. I would bet my next paycheck that if the target used a standard navlight arrangement (red on left, green on right) he would never have goofed that up.

And oh, he was out of communication during the rendezvous.

And on his first orbit, getting acclimated to space.

Flying a spaceship that had killed its only previous pilot.

 

[Kamov Ka-52]

There was that time that the US strapped a 10-20 ton yield nuclear weapon to a recoilless rifle,

Or when they stuck a 10kt W44 on to an RUR-5 ASROC to use as a nuclear depth charge against submarines,

Or the time where they put a W25 1.5Kt yield nuke in an unguided rocket for usage against massed Soviet bombers

Or when they put a W31 2-40 kt yield in MIM-3 Nike surface to air missile

The US has also had a number of nuclear artillery shells: The W9 warhead fired from the M65 Atomic cannon and the the W48 and W33 designed for standard caliber artillery pieces

Also they stuck an 11kt yield W34 warhead on a torpedo too.

 

[Techpriest]

There was that time that the US strapped a 10-20 ton yield nuclear weapon to a recoilless rifle,
View attachment 730372
Or when they stuck a 10kt W44 on to an RUR-5 ASROC to use as a nuclear depth charge against submarines,
View attachment 730374
Or the time where they put a W25 1.5Kt yield nuke in an unguided rocket for usage against massed Soviet bombers
View attachment 730376
Or when they put a W31 2-40 kt yield in MIM-3 Nike surface to air missile
View attachment 730378
The US has also had a number of nuclear artillery shells: The W9 warhead fired from the M65 Atomic cannon and the the W48 and W33 designed for standard caliber artillery pieces
View attachment 730380
Also they stuck an 11kt yield W34 warhead on a torpedo too.

Insane nuclear weapons are always fun.

In more fun dumb shit, there was a time where the Austrian army fought itself, retreated in a total panic, and left the bemused Turks to retake the now unguarded town they were late to reinforce.

It all starts when the Austrian hussars (basically scout horsemen at this point in history) cross the river from the Austrian camp, looking for Kebab to remove. Lacking any Kebab, they wander around, and then find a giant cart full of schnapps. War was off the table after that, it was party time. To keep their prize safe from the enemy who was miles away, they build a makeshift stockade around the whole area, and proceed to get absolutely trashed. Some other Austrian troops, wondering what was taking them so long, crossed the river as well, and found the hussars piss drunk and barely into the vast quantity of alcohol. When they refused to share, a fight started across the river between the infantry and the hussars, which escalated into shooting, which alarmed the rest of the camp. People were shouting the turks were coming, obviously fighting with the forces that were scouting ahead. Some drunken hussars crossed the river, shouting and firing their weapons into the air, followed by a few officers who were shouting for them to halt - which to the non-german speaking members of the austrian army, sounded a lot like 'Allah!'.

That's when the panic started for real. Austrian troops started shooting at the hussars, and infantry chasing them, and each other as they were running out of the way. People were screaming about the Turks being in the camp, some fires got started, nobody had any idea what was going on, and the soldiers did the most logical thing they could - they ran the fuck away. About a thousand Austrians were killed in the friendly fire incident, with a bunch more wounded from either being ran over by the hussars, trampled in their tents by other soldiers, catching bullets fired in panic from other units, and plenty of other close quarter panicked violence. The Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II, was with this army, and ended up getting pushed off of his horse into a creek during the panicked retreat while trying to figure out what the hell was happening. Over 100,000 Austrian soldiers retreated from themselves.

Two days later, the Turks show up, and find the result of the battle, and understandably start laughing their asses off after interrogating the wounded soldiers and (probably still drunk) hussars, before taking the now undefended city without incident.

And yes, this really happened. It's very well documented in various contemporary sources.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

White and red beets became the source of sugar in Europe after Napoleon got tired of there not being any sugar available due to the Brits blockading trade with the new world during the Napoleonic wars, the creation of the sugar beet also made it so that sugar was cheap and plentiful enough that everyone could get their hands on it.

Napoleon eventually got his revenge by making the Brits incredibly obese and suffering from the 'beetus.

 

[OB 946]

The Soviets did lots of weird crap like that. They measured the production of electric motors in tonnage rather than units so the gosplan standard electric motors were the heaviest in the world per unit of power output. Unlike the whales situation, where it sort of just ends there as far as the economy is concerned. this meant everything else had to be designed around this so everything from aircraft to beard shavers needed to account for these crazy heavy motors.

My favorite was the 5 year plan to increase beef production.

Basically in the 50s the Soviets wanted to become a beef exporter like America, so they made a 5 year plan to increase beef production. What ended up happening was that the final year of the plan, they slaughtered all their cows, including dairy and breeding stock, and refused to sell the meat to locals and only to foreigners. The result was that for one year they were a net exporter of beef, and the year after their stock was so depleted that they had to import breeding stock from the US.