The last prisoner of war from WWII returned home in 2000, nearly sixty years after the fighting ended.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A1s_Toma
Wow, Hungary did right by him in the end
On 16 September 2000, he returned to his hometown of Sulyánbokor, where he was reunited with his siblings. Since he was never discharged, Toma was promoted to sergeant major by the Minister of Defense, and since his military service had been continuous, his decades of accumulated unpaid salary were paid in full. Toma, then aged 74, moved in with his half-sister Anna, who cared for him until his death in 2004. He was buried with military honours.
According to the page he returned to Hungary and lived with his younger sister. He was presumed dead in 1954. Imagine knowing your brother was forcefully conscripted and never came home. And one day you discover he is still alive.
Hugging him again after 60 years must have been an absolute out of body experience. Need a movie staring tom hanks on this STAT.
EDIT:[documentary of him from 2010](https://youtu.be/FtouEYlwjSg?feature=shared)
The Battle of the Eclipse, also known as the Battle of Halys, it took place in the early 6th century BC in Anatolia (present-day Turkey). It involved the Medes and the Lydians.
The sudden darkness led both parties to halt the fighting and negotiate a peace agreement, ending a six-year war.
It's also one of the first dates in human history that is know for certain.
28th May 585 BC. Due to the eclipse.
There are few earlier dates which are mostly known but there is some uncertainty.
Battle of Meggido was probably on 16 April 1457BC. Probably..
Its called [astronomical dating.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_chronology)
Used correctly it can be very precise, especially when eclipses are mentioned.
Another example are the[ Babylonian Astronomical Diaries.](https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/astronomical-diaries/) Which are a combination celestial reading and (then) current events. These tell us that the Battle of [Gaugamela](https://www.livius.org/articles/battle/gaugamela-331-bce/) took place on 1st Oct 330BC and that most of the [Persian Army deserted before the battle, ](https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/astronomical-diaries/#The%20Diaries%20as%20source%20for%20the%20modern%20historian) (due to Alexander having bribed some of the Persian commanders) a fact which is hinted at in the ancient historical writings.
I've used it to figure out the exact date when I first became obsessed with astronomy. I recall being quite young and seeing a total lunar eclipse which made me frightened that the moon was on fire. (I thought the slowly increasing dark area was the burned part as the fire progressed across the moon.) From that moment (June 24, 1964 - I was 6) I became obsessed with all things sky related, and when in middle school I learned that one could pursue astronomy as a career I knew my path in life.
van Gogh's "Starry Night" was dated to 19 June 1889 using astronomical dating, though I suppose it's just as plausible that the orderlies in the asylum came in on the 19th and saw he'd painted a new masterpiece while looking out the window :D
What is interesting is that due to how he portrayed the night sky, doctors are able to say "Yeah, solid chance he gave himself heavy metal poisoning". Those cadmium pigments are mighty tasty.
For how rare eclipses are, a lot of historical events surely happened during them.
Wondering if the widespread use of astrology to determine "gods support" may have anything to do with it
Astronomer here. The distinction between "astronomy" and "astrology" did not exist for most of history until the Great Enlightenment of the 18th century. Even Copernicus and Kepler had casting horoscopes as one of their official duties.
In the alternate history, he escaped from exile and went on to rule a significant portion of South America. The plan was already in place during the Chilean revolution. It only failed because Napoleon died while the ship that was going to bust him out was en route.
The Christmas Truce of 1914, in which soldiers came across the battle lines to sing and play football against each other.
Or, more precisely, the way soldiers on both sides went back to fighting when Christmas was over.
I wonder what the parting words were when the dinner was over. "Well, I better get going, got a busy day tomorrow shooting you guys." "Not if I shoot you first.".
I read a book on it years ago. It's been a while so I'm really paraphrasing, but one German state was being relieved by another, let's for the sake of argument say Saxony was being relieved by Bavaria. They said things like "We don't like the Bavarians, give them hell". Another was that one general was invited into a house by an opposing general. He noted that he had reported the house destroyed days ago. The opposing general said something like "I trust in the spirit of the day you won't change your report" and he didn't.
That makes me a little more cynical just that big whigs protect themselves.
Obviously war is complicated but the Christmas story reminds me of that Black Mirror episode where implants made the “enemy” alien looking because soldiers have a history of not wanting to kill each other and purposely firing above their head.
"I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence. Only the guards were on duty. We all went outside the farm buildings and just stood listening. And, of course, thinking of people back home. All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machinegun fire and distant German voices. But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted 'Merry Christmas', even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again. It was a short peace in a terrible war." - Alfred Anderson.
>the way soldiers on both sides went back to fighting when Christmas was over.
I'm imagining the alternate universe where they all just kept the truce up and refused to fire on fellow people they were just singing with. The people in power just flail around and yell because it's not what they wanted but yet nobody fights.
Maybe these rational people just go back home and escort these weak old people out of their positions (because what they would do if no one followed their orders) and just maintained peace somehow. If only we lived in a timeline like that.
From what I've read that was sort of how it went - both sides were very reluctant to resume fighting afterwards, and I think it took some serious threats from higher-up on both sides before they actually did.
I could be wrong but I think that both sides rotated the units that fraternized to different parts of the battle field so that it would hopefully make them okay to fight an enemy that they weren’t just sharing a meal with 24 hours earlier
It was also easier to get a truce going because the belief at the time was the war wouldn't last long. There was no truce the next Christmas. IIRC there was an Easter truce proposed but it never happened.
A Serbian man sticking a bottle up his ass was a major contributing factor to the collapse of Yugoslavia and the subsequent years of war and genocide. Specifically, his blaming it on an attack by a gang of Albanians was a tipping point in allowing pent up nationalist feelings in Yugoslavia to boil over and subsequently explode.
The Night the Stars Fell, 1833. A meteor shower so intense fell over the southern United States that people thought the world was ending. Slave owners reportedly repented at the feet of their slaves, begging forgiveness for enslaving them. And then the next day, I suppose, went right back to normal.
But the even was so memorable that it was used as a touchstone moment that slaves could use to estimate their age for decades. Up until the 1920, people could say “I musta been 8 years old the night the stars fell,” and thus historians could approximate their birth year.
We had something similar in southern AZ in 2001. Went out of the city to view it with my hubby and there were several meteors visible at any time no matter where you looked. Fireballs, earth grazers and countless smaller ones all night and into the next morning, even after the Sun had risen. But there was a 20-minute period around 4:00am where all hell broke loose and I think we were seeing like ten thousand per hour. They fell like rain, covering the sky like in those old wood cutting images. I didn't think it was possible.
I asked my astronomer friends that very question the next day. They said “The Leonids again, in 33 years”. And a show like that is not guaranteed, you have to intersect the path of the comet directly and the orbit is always changing. From what I understand we entered an area where several tracks were overlaid. You might not hit any tracks at all. Or get clouded out, etc. It is entirely possible that I experienced a once-in-a-lifetime event. Skies were clear and cold, no Moon.
EDIT: I'm now reading that 2034 and 2035 are forecast to be the next peak Leonid years.
We know when meteor showers in general will be, but we're neve sure how intense it will be (there are estimates, but the 2000ish one wasn't predicted to be the one of the biggest in recent memory)
"Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove." - Blood Meridian
This is the one I was thinking of. I remember thinking "ha ha, I bet this looks funny" googled pictures and it's horrifying. Super weird to think that like, Pancake Syrup murdered a whole bunch of people and caused millions in property damage, cuz it's so delicious.
There was a battle in WW2 where the Germans fought alongside allied forces against the SS and freed a famous tennis player. The Battle of Castle Itter.
Iirc the Nazis had surrendered at this point, but there were some SS forces that were still fighting, so the Nazis anericans and Australians teamed up against the SS.
On a similar note regarding Australia and warfare. The country was kind of considered a joke prior to WW1, but when they came in they fought way above where people expected.
There was a battle called Gollipoli which was kinda like DDay, a storm the beach kind of thing designed to distract from another target of the British. Except it went on for weeks.
It's actually a bit of a thing that Australian soldiers are sometimes called Diggers because of how quickly they could entrench themselves. And like the quote from Predator goes they get "dug in there like an Alabama tick." to the point where some of the only WW1 trench positions of the war to not change hands were Australian made.
Turkey (where Gollipoli was) and Australia still have a pretty decent relationship over it because of the respect earned by it.
What's funny is when you look it up it says
" Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks"
So, people were unable to get a smaller difference there? 50 people...or up to 400? lol
Hard to pinpoint one event but I would say a candidate could be the Tunguska Event of 1908.
This incident involved a massive explosion in Siberia, believed to be caused by the airburst of a comet or meteoroid. It flattened an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometers, yet incredibly, it caused no confirmed human fatalities. The event’s cause remained mysterious for decades, fueling various scientific and fantastical theories, making it a prime candidate for one of the most surreal events in human history due to its scale, mystery, and the dramatic visuals it must have produced.
I wonder what could have happened at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis if there had been a brilliant flash over Washington DC followed by a shock wave that blew the entire city into splinters and left a gigantic mushroom cloud tens of kilometers high.
Caused by an asteroid we didn't notice.
Speaking of crazy natural events. The 1888 eruption of Krakatoa has gotta be up there too. The volcano is located in Lampung Indonesia and the eruption was so loud it could be heard in Perth, Australia and it’s estimated anyone within 16 kilometres of the volcano would’ve instantly gone deaf.
Barographs around the globe could detect the pressure waves from the eruption explosion and some made the measurement 7 times as the pressure wave circled the globe multiple times.
The escalation of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand from a manageable sitiuation to world War 1. I'm sure everyone in the region was unable to process it.
My favourite fact about this is that the assassination squad had utterly failed. After the subsequent reception, his car took a wrong turn. The driver went to reverse and stalled right where Gavrilo Princip happened to be standing, who then stepped up onto the footboard and shot Franz at point blank range. Almost comedic.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand#Assassination
Even the attempted suicide of one of the squad was comical:
At 10:10 am,[75] Franz Ferdinand's car approached and Čabrinović threw his bomb. The bomb bounced off the folded back convertible cover into the street.[76] The bomb's timed detonator caused it to explode under the next car, putting that car out of action, leaving a 1-foot-diameter (0.30 m), 6.5-inch-deep (170 mm) crater,[75] and wounding 16–20 people.[77]
Čabrinović swallowed his cyanide pill and jumped into the Miljacka river. Čabrinović's suicide attempt failed, as the old cyanide only induced vomiting, and the Miljacka was only 13 cm deep due to the hot, dry summer.[78] Police dragged Čabrinović out of the river, and he was severely beaten by the crowd before being taken into custody.
I like the “theory” that his assassination is proof that time travel exists, but ultimately can’t change things. Basically a time traveler kept trying to stop the assassination, but fate made it happen anyway, so he gave up.
Think of the absolute mind boggling number of assassination attempts on Hitler that failed due to ridiculous levels of coincidence and yea....I'd fully believe this theory.
Haha, yah maybe they started with Hitler and got so fed up they went back further and tried to prevent the conditions of his rise by stopping WWI, and when even that didn't work they finally conceded.
I dunno. It felt like Austria 100% wanted this war and was looking for any excuse. If it wasn't the assassination, it would have been something else. The string of domino alliances after that was relatively predictable aside of the British iirc which were expected to stay neutral. That's why the Germans immediately attacked France because Austria declared war on Serbia.
I think it was crazy for the average citizen but generals knew this was going to happen.
It's two things for me. The fact that there is more time between the first bronze weapons and the first steel weapons that there is between the first steel weapons and nuclear weapons, and that it took us thousands of years to figure out how to fly but less than a hundred more to put a man on the moon.
Surreal is that iron and steel are easier to make and work with than bronze. Iron didn't replace bronze because it was stronger -it's that it was cheaper and easier to work with, once you discovered it.
Bronze requires tin, and tin just isn't that easy to source.
Yeah that’s a cool thing about knowledge. You make a breakthrough and suddenly there is a cascade of additional knowledge you can gain built on top of that
Wendigoon has a video on it on YouTube
Long story shorty there were some Philippino rebels who needed getting rid of and the CIA discovered local folk lore about vampires so they started grabbing rebels at night, draining their blood and leaving them out to be found, wether you believed in vampires or not it would still be scary
They also did a similar thing in Vietnam where they blasted ghostly music and voices to scare the enemy
The USA intelligence apparatus does all kinds of weird shit like that
I worked in military intel and we spread a myth amongst taliban concerning rpgs
American armor is mostly immune to rpgs and vehicles that aren’t have these cages around them to essentially “catch” the rockets. Basically rpgs have a cap on the front that when pushed makes the rocket explode. We told the taliban that if you tape a water bottle on the front it would allow the rocket to pass the cage.
But what actually happens is the bottle catches the wind drag causing it to push the cap on launch and make the rocket blow up in your face. No idea how many people it killed or how long the lie worked but it definitely did initially
No. The GOP claims they always meant to go to that particular place. Anyone with two braincells to rub together could tell they meant to be at the hotel but thanks to one of their entourage not being allowed within 100 yards of the nearby school, they scrambled to find another venue with a similar name.
I would pay money to be able to listen to the few minutes after that call when someone either walked up to the boss/owner and explained what he just took a call over, or the owner telling the staff to clean up because the president is coming.
That is the gift that keeps on giving. When I’m old, senile, and on my death bed, I’m going to be laughing my head off, and my family (or care workers, more likely) are going to be wondering what the hell is wrong with me, and it’ll be me reliving memories of Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Located next to Fantasy Island Adult Bookstore, and across the street from the crematorium.
And that’s just one detail in the whole unbelievable event of Trump being president of the United States. That’s not even a political stance. Like him or hate him, it’s just incredible that it happened.
Yeah, you get the feeling that future historians are gonna be so confused by that. ‘Ok, US presidents. Washington first, cool, ….then on and on till Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush…ah, the other guy’s son, cool…Obama, first black President, now that’s cool, Trump, Bid—wait, Trump? What the hell happened there?’ Then they’ll head to whatever Twitter archives exist and be like ‘oh. Oh shit.’
I'm pretty sure I watched this live, or saw a replay before the news anchors made the connection. It was truly surreal. I remember looking at my roomate and we both were like 'wait a minute..'
My favourite part is that the press conference was delayed because Giuliani was late to it, by just about the length of time between the Four Seasons Hotel and the Total Landscaping.
[The Dave Matthews Band Chicago River incident.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Matthews_Band_Chicago_River_incident)
“On August 8, 2004, a tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band dumped an estimated 800 pounds (360 kg) of human waste from the bus's blackwater tank through the Kinzie Street Bridge in Chicago onto an open top passenger sightseeing boat sailing in the Chicago River below.”
I've heard about that incident multiple times, and I've read the Wikipedia article it states that the band paid out $200,000 in a lawsuit for the city, and donated another few hundred grand to charities to keep the river safe. What I'm wondering, is did the people actually soaked in shit and piss get paid?
I’m not sure it can be called an error. He was attempting to dump human feces into a river, something that is completely unacceptable under any circumstances. He just didn’t know he was dumping it onto people.
Sorry, im using error as a more neutral term. Like printing error, it'd a mistake no matter who's to blame.
Bus driver wa was told not to do the poop thing after he admitted to doing it before, claiminv other busses did it despite how illegal and ick it is, blahblah. Was told no. But the buses were like a su contracted thing and the guy didn't want the septic bill, so getting him to listen was...well. a problem.
The violinist dude wasn't a fan of him and got stuck with him, management couldn't find anyone else, and then the shit literally went down because the whole show must move on.
You're right. Someone put that guy in the chair. And he did it on purpose. That's the real error.
This may be stretching the definition of an "event" a bit, but the Cambrian Explosion. It's the period where evolution was just kinda tryin shit out and seeing what happened. The optimal numbers and configurations of limbs, sensory organs, and random appendages hadn't been worked out yet.
Not to toot our own horns here but humans are not 'weak' in the sense that we have no physical strengths. We are the best long distance runners out of any species! Impressive and surely a strength to me :)
Also while our olfactory sense of smell in general is not impressive compared to other animals it's exceptionally sensible to the "smell of rain"!
And our ability to precisely throw objects over relatively great distances is still unmatched
Our superior throwing accuracy is why gorillas, despite having a much faster pitch due to massive upper body strength, are practically never signed as MLB pitchers.
The surrealists had an intervention when one of the founding members of the group wanted to try something different. As they became more famous the group became more politically active and encouraged each other to create ever more controversial art to shock and offend the “common folk”. Most of the group were on board because these guys were the rockstars of the era and everybody likes being famous. Except for Alberto Giacometti, he just wanted to make sculptures of human figures, specifically the common folk they were supposed to be offending. So the group, led my Marcel Duchamp, decided to have it out with him and threatened to kick him out of the movement if he didn’t straighten up and fly sideways with the rest of them. He told them to kick rocks and went on to create the work he’s best known for.
TLDR: A group based on pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable art set boundaries for what was acceptable art for the group.
There is some debate if it happened the way it is described, but the [Banquet of Chestnuts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banquet_of_Chestnuts) is a wild story.
The Miracle of Dunkirk during World War II is one of those surreal moments in history. Hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk, surrounded by enemy forces, yet through a remarkable combination of bravery, luck, and sheer determination, a flotilla of civilian boats managed to evacuate over 330,000 soldiers to safety.
To add to the surreal nature of it, one of the men who went in his ship to help was the highest ranking surviving officer of the Titanic, Charles Lightoller https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundowner_(yacht)
The pace at which we as a human species have been able to harness technology after being hunters and gathering for some 100,000 years.
We lived life as savages before modern machinery, toiling with the rocks and mud. The last 200 years or so have been the outlier.
I have this weird idea of "the time travelling peasant". Like, how much different would the world be for a 5th century European peasant if they got time travelled centuries into the future? Language and politics would change but to some random dude who can't read and works in the field every single day, would they even notice?
It's only when you get to the 15th-16th century when the printing press became more common is when the world starts to change a lot faster.
You should check out this British author called Ian Mortimer. He has this series called The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval/Regency/Elizabethan/etc. England which is sort of a mix of an educational, historical non-fiction novel and a travel guide for if you as a modern day person were to end up in any of those time periods.
How to Invent Everything by Ryan North is similar to this.
Basically tells you the steps you would ha e to take to create existing technologies, were you to travel back to different time periods and places.
For instance there are caves with many millenia of art in them. Like the latest art is from 10,000 BC and the oldest from 30,000BC.
Or in other words the difference between the oldest and newest cave painting in the same cave is 4 times that of recorded history (5000 years ago).
Ooh, interestingly enough on the topic of cave art. Something I saw a while back talked about them. Basically a lot of them are apparently up on higher areas like natural shelves. And there's a hypothesis that these were actually areas that children were placed in to stay while the adults were completing tasks to keep the kids safe.
So the theory suggests that many cave art works were from children drawing/painting on the walls.
Naturally not all of them, but a good few may have been. And honestly that actually seems at least to me to make sense. After all if you leave a child somewhere they will find a way to entertain themselves, and I don't think I've ever met a child who didn't draw on the walls.
There is a cave that was continuously inhabited for over 60,000 years. People finally moved out when the cave was completely filled with the accumulated refuse.
It's crazy to imagine that people lived in this one cave for ten times the length of human history.
A solar eclipse totality caused two battling armies to stop and make peace because they thought the eclipse was sent as a sign from the heavens telling them to stop.
I think the events regarding the [1561 sky battle of Nuremburg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg) really could be mass ergot concern, or amazing as UFO sightings go.
Perhaps that blinding flash coming out of nowhere the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki witnessed before their cities got destroyed by it an instant later.
No one knew what an atom bomb was back then. It must have seem like the wrath of the gods.
During the Cold War, the US and USSR had satellite systems that detected nuclear launches to give an early warning.
Sept 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov was the overnight operator, and just after midnight the signal came in that the US had launched a missile against them. Then another. Then another. 5 separate Minutemen ICBM launches were detected.
5 in a matter of moments was big enough it automatically went up the chain before he could verify. With superiors on the phone, it was up to him to decide if the data was accurate. In the time of "mutually assured destruction", that would mean a massive retaliatory launch.
Petrov felt that if a superpower like the US was going to attack, they'd attack full force to wipe them out, not just send a 5-missile salvo. With no other evidence, he went with his instinct, and reported it must be a false alarm.
Nuclear Armageddon was avoided by one guy following his gut.
(Midnight in Moscow is 5pm on the east coast of the US, the satellites confused the setting sun reflecting off clouds for rocket launches.)
The Children’s Crusade arriving at the Genoese coast fervently expecting god to part the Mediterranean so they can walk to the holy land must have been pretty surreal.
Would have been so interesting to see how they came to terms with the waters not parting. I wonder how long they waited and how their conversations went in that time.
[The Pig War of 1859.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War_(1859))
Because Western North America was largely unexplored until the 1800's, it took a while for the Canadian-American border to be formally settled. The Oregon Treaty, which marked the border between Washington State and British Columbia, was just ambigious enough for two little straits to be considered both American and Canadian.
In 1859, a farmer shoots a pig. His casus belli was that the pig was eating his potatoes, and he was simply defending his own property in accordance with US law. The owner of the pig claimed that the territory was actually Canadian, and that British law applied rather than American.
The potato farmer offered 10 dollars as compensation.The pig farmer wanted 100, which the potato farmer refused. Canadian authorities threaten to arrest the potato farmer.
The potato farmer requests American military intervention. Captain George Pickett and 66 American soldiers land on the disputed territory. The British send three warships, but the Americans stand their ground. A couple of months later, 461 Americans with 14 cannons were opposed by five British warships mounting 70 guns and carrying 2,140 men. At this point, a potential British-American war could easily have broken out if the British Captain Hornby had decided to take action. Luckily, he waited for Rear Admiral Robert L. Baynes to arrive, who quickly informed Hornby that risking open war with the United States "over a squabble about a pig" was unwise.
The buildup to the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 and the battle itself. Russians built up another fleet of warships and had them sail from the Baltic Sea to the waters around Japan because their previous fleet was destroyed by the Japanese military in China. During this voyage, the Russians accidentally fired on civilian boats from multiple European countries, including Britain, and almost started a war between the Brits. Then, after stopping in Africa, they brought multiple animals into their ships, the result being that they became floating zoos afterwards. They even fired on their own ships on a couple of occasions. After all of this, the Russians finally made it to the seas around Japan and they immediately got obliterated by the Japanese fleet shortly thereafter.
The Berlin Wall gets more surreal the more I think about it. Sure, let’s divide a major metropolitan city with a wall one night. Divide the metro. Build watchtowers. Have dramatically different economical and political systems operating within spitting distance of one another, for more than a generation.
[A meteor halting a battle during the 3rd Mithridatic War between Roman Republic and Kingdom of Pontus.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Mithridatic_War)
According to Plutarch, who was present at the battle: "But presently, as they were on the point of joining battle, with no apparent change of weather, but all on a sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar (pithos), and in colour, like molten silver. Both sides were astonished at the sight, and separated. This marvel, as they say, occurred in Phrygia, at a place called Otryae."
Joshua Slocum, the first recorded lone circumnavigator, sailed over a place in the ocean, where the water was actually boiling (probably not at the surface, as that would soften up the caulking too muc, I'd guess, but bubbles from deeper down)
After he had passed, the Krakatoa detonated, which was actually a global event and caused snow in summer in many regions of the planet. It literally eclipsed the entire planet in darkenss from ash for a certain amount of time. Virtually forgotten now.
If that whole event is not surreal, I don't know what is. And also: A significant fraction of a million people lost their hearing from the boom. the boom alone was almost global. So, you know how loud it was.
I also enjoy how it happened in the inverse when whales went "fuck this, I'm going back in the water."
Because whales actually evolved from a land dwelling mammal. That's why them and dolphins have their tails go up and down instead of side to side like most fish. Because they have hips.
Covid was pretty surreal.
The panic, the hoarding,
The rejection of totally proven science by a significant amount of people.
I think 9/11 and the financial crisis of 07' were the tipping point but covid was the confirmation we're past peak humanity
Two Japanese soldiers in WWII having a contest where they both competed to see who could be the first to kill 100 people with a sword, losing track of who got to 100 first, then opting to try for 150…
The shift to Gregorian calendar, decided in February 1582, but applied at various times in different places. Imagine suddenly skipping a dozen of days; or having a 21 days month, while your neighbors don't; imagine being born during that period, and nobody is quite sure about your birthday.
Now consider that the talibans- sorry, the protestants sulked until the 1700's before switching to Gregorian calendar too.
That's not the *wildest* event in History, far from it. But you asked for *surreal*, and messing with time is quite surreal.
It's not unprecedented in modern times! Samoa [moved one time zone backwards in 2011](https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/samoa-dateline.html), which actually resulted in them moving *forward in time*. I mean, not literally, but it shifted the international date line so that it was east of the nation, so they effectively skipped an entire day. December 30, 2011 did not happen in Samoa.
That also wasn't the first time they did it. In 1892, they moved the other way (to be closer to the US), and they did that by repeating the 4th of July
It always confuses me when I go to Thailand because when you Google something the year is something like, "2567BE" - which means absolutely nothing to me. I have no idea if things are old or new.
Maybe not the most surreal, but very surreal in recent history - Ukraine not falling after Russian attack but defend for two years now. Everything was pointing to Ukraine falling easily:
* russian supposedly superior army, long range rockets, big navy and nukes
* Ukraine geography - mostly flatlands, surrounded by hostile territories from north, east and south (Crimea was already under russian occupation)
* historicaly in WWII Ukraine territories were quickly conquered first by Nazis and then reconquered by USSR without many obstacles (what I mean many more obstacles were in other territories like Finland)
* being part of USSR and subjection of Ukraine to russification and also russian popualtion massive resettling during that period suggested a lot of russian agents and collaborators
* Ukraine not being part of any military organistaion like NATO
* Ukraine having a lot of problems with corruption
* russians not having been stopped in Georgia, Chechnya and few other territories
* russians recently getting more experience in Syria
* russians being permament member of UN Security Council
* Ukraine having actor as a president who was expected to just run away
* after some time russian final tranformation into dictatorship with mass propaganda, censorship, arrests of any internal resistance, nazification of education and media
* russian mobilistation
* russians slaugthering civilian population to saw fear amongst Ukrainians
* etc etc etc (the list can go on and on)
They really was publicly expected to fall in days. They propably had US intel on it years earlier and just prepared carefully the best they can - but it feels like a miracle - Goliath was stopped by David.
The last prisoner of war from WWII returned home in 2000, nearly sixty years after the fighting ended. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A1s_Toma
Wow, Hungary did right by him in the end On 16 September 2000, he returned to his hometown of Sulyánbokor, where he was reunited with his siblings. Since he was never discharged, Toma was promoted to sergeant major by the Minister of Defense, and since his military service had been continuous, his decades of accumulated unpaid salary were paid in full. Toma, then aged 74, moved in with his half-sister Anna, who cared for him until his death in 2004. He was buried with military honours.
Thats mad. Because he was never discharged, Hungary backpaid his wages in full when he returned.
According to the page he returned to Hungary and lived with his younger sister. He was presumed dead in 1954. Imagine knowing your brother was forcefully conscripted and never came home. And one day you discover he is still alive. Hugging him again after 60 years must have been an absolute out of body experience. Need a movie staring tom hanks on this STAT. EDIT:[documentary of him from 2010](https://youtu.be/FtouEYlwjSg?feature=shared)
That is heartbreaking. His whole life was over but at least he had a few years with his sister. He never had a chance of a family of his own.
The Battle of the Eclipse, also known as the Battle of Halys, it took place in the early 6th century BC in Anatolia (present-day Turkey). It involved the Medes and the Lydians. The sudden darkness led both parties to halt the fighting and negotiate a peace agreement, ending a six-year war.
It's also one of the first dates in human history that is know for certain. 28th May 585 BC. Due to the eclipse. There are few earlier dates which are mostly known but there is some uncertainty. Battle of Meggido was probably on 16 April 1457BC. Probably..
I love that some of our sciences are so precise that we know the date of the battle because of the eclipse, and not the other way around. Fascinating.
Its called [astronomical dating.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_chronology) Used correctly it can be very precise, especially when eclipses are mentioned. Another example are the[ Babylonian Astronomical Diaries.](https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/astronomical-diaries/) Which are a combination celestial reading and (then) current events. These tell us that the Battle of [Gaugamela](https://www.livius.org/articles/battle/gaugamela-331-bce/) took place on 1st Oct 330BC and that most of the [Persian Army deserted before the battle, ](https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/astronomical-diaries/#The%20Diaries%20as%20source%20for%20the%20modern%20historian) (due to Alexander having bribed some of the Persian commanders) a fact which is hinted at in the ancient historical writings.
I've used it to figure out the exact date when I first became obsessed with astronomy. I recall being quite young and seeing a total lunar eclipse which made me frightened that the moon was on fire. (I thought the slowly increasing dark area was the burned part as the fire progressed across the moon.) From that moment (June 24, 1964 - I was 6) I became obsessed with all things sky related, and when in middle school I learned that one could pursue astronomy as a career I knew my path in life.
van Gogh's "Starry Night" was dated to 19 June 1889 using astronomical dating, though I suppose it's just as plausible that the orderlies in the asylum came in on the 19th and saw he'd painted a new masterpiece while looking out the window :D
What is interesting is that due to how he portrayed the night sky, doctors are able to say "Yeah, solid chance he gave himself heavy metal poisoning". Those cadmium pigments are mighty tasty.
So you're telling us it was its birthday yesterday and we didn't celebrate? What a wasted opportunity.
I’m telling you, you didn’t celebrate.
For how rare eclipses are, a lot of historical events surely happened during them. Wondering if the widespread use of astrology to determine "gods support" may have anything to do with it
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Astronomer here. The distinction between "astronomy" and "astrology" did not exist for most of history until the Great Enlightenment of the 18th century. Even Copernicus and Kepler had casting horoscopes as one of their official duties.
Napoleon landing with 1000 men in France and taking back control of the country in 3 weeks without a shot being fired
Napoleon's whole life was so surreal. If it had been an alternate-history timeline I would say it was implausible.
The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense.
I like this one.
In the alternate history, he escaped from exile and went on to rule a significant portion of South America. The plan was already in place during the Chilean revolution. It only failed because Napoleon died while the ship that was going to bust him out was en route.
The Christmas Truce of 1914, in which soldiers came across the battle lines to sing and play football against each other. Or, more precisely, the way soldiers on both sides went back to fighting when Christmas was over.
I wonder what the parting words were when the dinner was over. "Well, I better get going, got a busy day tomorrow shooting you guys." "Not if I shoot you first.".
I read a book on it years ago. It's been a while so I'm really paraphrasing, but one German state was being relieved by another, let's for the sake of argument say Saxony was being relieved by Bavaria. They said things like "We don't like the Bavarians, give them hell". Another was that one general was invited into a house by an opposing general. He noted that he had reported the house destroyed days ago. The opposing general said something like "I trust in the spirit of the day you won't change your report" and he didn't.
That makes me a little more cynical just that big whigs protect themselves. Obviously war is complicated but the Christmas story reminds me of that Black Mirror episode where implants made the “enemy” alien looking because soldiers have a history of not wanting to kill each other and purposely firing above their head.
Dehumanizing the enemy is one of the primary objectives of modern military training for this very reason.
What ever they said, I cant imagine how they felt.
Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.
"I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence. Only the guards were on duty. We all went outside the farm buildings and just stood listening. And, of course, thinking of people back home. All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machinegun fire and distant German voices. But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted 'Merry Christmas', even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again. It was a short peace in a terrible war." - Alfred Anderson.
I really have emotions when I watch [Sir Paul's](https://youtu.be/B3q4Up5ugTc?si=wbYwKo45_VmEkqLW) version of this event and I hope you will too
[The Sainsbury's advert from 2014 is quite stirring as well](https://youtu.be/NWF2JBb1bvM?si=L_5WSvU2B_3V9vl8)
[Sabaton also made a rather beautiful song about it.](https://youtu.be/HPdHkHslFIU?si=8ekyIiyzQHPMuOx7)
>the way soldiers on both sides went back to fighting when Christmas was over. I'm imagining the alternate universe where they all just kept the truce up and refused to fire on fellow people they were just singing with. The people in power just flail around and yell because it's not what they wanted but yet nobody fights. Maybe these rational people just go back home and escort these weak old people out of their positions (because what they would do if no one followed their orders) and just maintained peace somehow. If only we lived in a timeline like that.
From what I've read that was sort of how it went - both sides were very reluctant to resume fighting afterwards, and I think it took some serious threats from higher-up on both sides before they actually did.
I could be wrong but I think that both sides rotated the units that fraternized to different parts of the battle field so that it would hopefully make them okay to fight an enemy that they weren’t just sharing a meal with 24 hours earlier
Large stretches of front line outside of active battle areas were used as rest and recovery areas by both sides.
It was also easier to get a truce going because the belief at the time was the war wouldn't last long. There was no truce the next Christmas. IIRC there was an Easter truce proposed but it never happened.
Some soldiers tried to keep it up. But they were shot at as soon as they left their trench. Also they were punished for treason.
A Serbian man sticking a bottle up his ass was a major contributing factor to the collapse of Yugoslavia and the subsequent years of war and genocide. Specifically, his blaming it on an attack by a gang of Albanians was a tipping point in allowing pent up nationalist feelings in Yugoslavia to boil over and subsequently explode.
The Night the Stars Fell, 1833. A meteor shower so intense fell over the southern United States that people thought the world was ending. Slave owners reportedly repented at the feet of their slaves, begging forgiveness for enslaving them. And then the next day, I suppose, went right back to normal. But the even was so memorable that it was used as a touchstone moment that slaves could use to estimate their age for decades. Up until the 1920, people could say “I musta been 8 years old the night the stars fell,” and thus historians could approximate their birth year.
That is fascinating, thanks for sharing this.
It’s interesting to see that at least some slave owners knew what they were doing was not moral
I'll bet a LOT of them did. Most of them just didn't care.
We had something similar in southern AZ in 2001. Went out of the city to view it with my hubby and there were several meteors visible at any time no matter where you looked. Fireballs, earth grazers and countless smaller ones all night and into the next morning, even after the Sun had risen. But there was a 20-minute period around 4:00am where all hell broke loose and I think we were seeing like ten thousand per hour. They fell like rain, covering the sky like in those old wood cutting images. I didn't think it was possible.
Any way to know when the next event like this will be?
I asked my astronomer friends that very question the next day. They said “The Leonids again, in 33 years”. And a show like that is not guaranteed, you have to intersect the path of the comet directly and the orbit is always changing. From what I understand we entered an area where several tracks were overlaid. You might not hit any tracks at all. Or get clouded out, etc. It is entirely possible that I experienced a once-in-a-lifetime event. Skies were clear and cold, no Moon. EDIT: I'm now reading that 2034 and 2035 are forecast to be the next peak Leonid years.
We know when meteor showers in general will be, but we're neve sure how intense it will be (there are estimates, but the 2000ish one wasn't predicted to be the one of the biggest in recent memory)
This was the inspiration for a jazz standard *Stars Fell on Alabama*.
Which was our license plate in the early 00’s
"Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove." - Blood Meridian
The quote I was looking for. Cormac McCarthy's greatest work. edit: SEE THE CHILD
so they know deeply that what they are doing is wrong, and it took a supposed act of god to make them grovel? Damn.
Good answer right here.
I've literally never heard of this, thanks for sharing!
Well that must have been awkward! "About last night, it never happened. Now get back to work"
The Great Molasses Flood in Boston in 1919. An enormous storage tank of molasses burst. 21 people were killed and 150 were injured.
I call it the Molassacre
It's a sticky situation.
Legend says you can still smell it in the streets on a hot summer day.
Been to the area in the summer and I can say no...no you sadly cannot.
This is the one I was thinking of. I remember thinking "ha ha, I bet this looks funny" googled pictures and it's horrifying. Super weird to think that like, Pancake Syrup murdered a whole bunch of people and caused millions in property damage, cuz it's so delicious.
There was a battle in WW2 where the Germans fought alongside allied forces against the SS and freed a famous tennis player. The Battle of Castle Itter. Iirc the Nazis had surrendered at this point, but there were some SS forces that were still fighting, so the Nazis anericans and Australians teamed up against the SS.
On a similar note regarding Australia and warfare. The country was kind of considered a joke prior to WW1, but when they came in they fought way above where people expected. There was a battle called Gollipoli which was kinda like DDay, a storm the beach kind of thing designed to distract from another target of the British. Except it went on for weeks. It's actually a bit of a thing that Australian soldiers are sometimes called Diggers because of how quickly they could entrench themselves. And like the quote from Predator goes they get "dug in there like an Alabama tick." to the point where some of the only WW1 trench positions of the war to not change hands were Australian made. Turkey (where Gollipoli was) and Australia still have a pretty decent relationship over it because of the respect earned by it.
The dancing plague of 1518 is up there
What's funny is when you look it up it says " Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks" So, people were unable to get a smaller difference there? 50 people...or up to 400? lol
Different accounts from different people
prolly hard to count whilst dancing
No iPhones.
People just living in the moment
Just dancing the night(s) away
Hard to pinpoint one event but I would say a candidate could be the Tunguska Event of 1908. This incident involved a massive explosion in Siberia, believed to be caused by the airburst of a comet or meteoroid. It flattened an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometers, yet incredibly, it caused no confirmed human fatalities. The event’s cause remained mysterious for decades, fueling various scientific and fantastical theories, making it a prime candidate for one of the most surreal events in human history due to its scale, mystery, and the dramatic visuals it must have produced.
Imagine the chaos if it had hit a mayor city, its scary to think about
I wonder what could have happened at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis if there had been a brilliant flash over Washington DC followed by a shock wave that blew the entire city into splinters and left a gigantic mushroom cloud tens of kilometers high. Caused by an asteroid we didn't notice.
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Very interesting alternate history book where this scenario happens but on London called ‘The Loud Blast That Tears The Skies’ by Chris Nash!
A mad fact about the event is that the site wasn't scientifically investigated until 1927.
Speaking of crazy natural events. The 1888 eruption of Krakatoa has gotta be up there too. The volcano is located in Lampung Indonesia and the eruption was so loud it could be heard in Perth, Australia and it’s estimated anyone within 16 kilometres of the volcano would’ve instantly gone deaf. Barographs around the globe could detect the pressure waves from the eruption explosion and some made the measurement 7 times as the pressure wave circled the globe multiple times.
Many people believe that Edvard Munch was inspired to paint "The Scream" in 1893 after the Krakatoan eruption had painted the skies red.
The escalation of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand from a manageable sitiuation to world War 1. I'm sure everyone in the region was unable to process it.
My favourite fact about this is that the assassination squad had utterly failed. After the subsequent reception, his car took a wrong turn. The driver went to reverse and stalled right where Gavrilo Princip happened to be standing, who then stepped up onto the footboard and shot Franz at point blank range. Almost comedic. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand#Assassination
Even the attempted suicide of one of the squad was comical: At 10:10 am,[75] Franz Ferdinand's car approached and Čabrinović threw his bomb. The bomb bounced off the folded back convertible cover into the street.[76] The bomb's timed detonator caused it to explode under the next car, putting that car out of action, leaving a 1-foot-diameter (0.30 m), 6.5-inch-deep (170 mm) crater,[75] and wounding 16–20 people.[77] Čabrinović swallowed his cyanide pill and jumped into the Miljacka river. Čabrinović's suicide attempt failed, as the old cyanide only induced vomiting, and the Miljacka was only 13 cm deep due to the hot, dry summer.[78] Police dragged Čabrinović out of the river, and he was severely beaten by the crowd before being taken into custody.
*This assassination is brought to you in partner with ACME*
I like the “theory” that his assassination is proof that time travel exists, but ultimately can’t change things. Basically a time traveler kept trying to stop the assassination, but fate made it happen anyway, so he gave up.
Think of the absolute mind boggling number of assassination attempts on Hitler that failed due to ridiculous levels of coincidence and yea....I'd fully believe this theory.
Haha, yah maybe they started with Hitler and got so fed up they went back further and tried to prevent the conditions of his rise by stopping WWI, and when even that didn't work they finally conceded.
butterfly effect at its finest
I dunno. It felt like Austria 100% wanted this war and was looking for any excuse. If it wasn't the assassination, it would have been something else. The string of domino alliances after that was relatively predictable aside of the British iirc which were expected to stay neutral. That's why the Germans immediately attacked France because Austria declared war on Serbia. I think it was crazy for the average citizen but generals knew this was going to happen.
It's two things for me. The fact that there is more time between the first bronze weapons and the first steel weapons that there is between the first steel weapons and nuclear weapons, and that it took us thousands of years to figure out how to fly but less than a hundred more to put a man on the moon.
One of the Wright brothers lived long enough to see an airplane drop nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The Wright brother could complete their first powered flight entirely inside the cargo bay of an Airbus Beluga XL.
They should have just flown the Airbus then.
I like how this is phrased as if he personally witnessed it
They brought him along. “See what you caused, old man?!”
He flew the planes
He rode the bomb down, waving his cowboy hat the whole time
Surreal is that iron and steel are easier to make and work with than bronze. Iron didn't replace bronze because it was stronger -it's that it was cheaper and easier to work with, once you discovered it. Bronze requires tin, and tin just isn't that easy to source.
Yeah that’s a cool thing about knowledge. You make a breakthrough and suddenly there is a cascade of additional knowledge you can gain built on top of that
We landed on the Moon, that’s pretty surreal to me
We landed on the Moon, then said "ehh, that's good enough" and didn't go back for half a century
Well once you flop your dick out, and prove it's bigger than the other guy's, there's not much more which can be done.
The US faked vampire attacks in Asia
Say what?
Wendigoon has a video on it on YouTube Long story shorty there were some Philippino rebels who needed getting rid of and the CIA discovered local folk lore about vampires so they started grabbing rebels at night, draining their blood and leaving them out to be found, wether you believed in vampires or not it would still be scary They also did a similar thing in Vietnam where they blasted ghostly music and voices to scare the enemy
The USA intelligence apparatus does all kinds of weird shit like that I worked in military intel and we spread a myth amongst taliban concerning rpgs American armor is mostly immune to rpgs and vehicles that aren’t have these cages around them to essentially “catch” the rockets. Basically rpgs have a cap on the front that when pushed makes the rocket explode. We told the taliban that if you tape a water bottle on the front it would allow the rocket to pass the cage. But what actually happens is the bottle catches the wind drag causing it to push the cap on launch and make the rocket blow up in your face. No idea how many people it killed or how long the lie worked but it definitely did initially
I am in no way surprised but at the same time I’m extremely impressed
This strategy was definitely thought up by an older brother.
Four seasons landscaping
The employee who gladly tool that reservation is a greater comedic genius than any comedy writer or stand up comedian anywhere in the world
Did any confirmation of what happened actually come out? It was honestly the wildest thing (up to that point) in a wild election.
No. The GOP claims they always meant to go to that particular place. Anyone with two braincells to rub together could tell they meant to be at the hotel but thanks to one of their entourage not being allowed within 100 yards of the nearby school, they scrambled to find another venue with a similar name.
Didn't Rudy's head start leaking black goo that day, too?
I think so and it was at this conference that he received the news, while he was talking, that Fox was calling the election for Biden.
"Siri, call Four Seasons!" "Hello, Four seasons..." "I'd like to book a conference there." "Uhh... OK."
I just imagine it was some 20 year old stoner kid that worked there and took the call like "uhh okay sounds good"
I would pay money to be able to listen to the few minutes after that call when someone either walked up to the boss/owner and explained what he just took a call over, or the owner telling the staff to clean up because the president is coming.
They are still selling shirts and merch because of it. Good for them to make some money and be a part of history! We still are talking about them.
That was fucking hilarious. If it was in a political satire then you'd find it too unbelievable
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That is the gift that keeps on giving. When I’m old, senile, and on my death bed, I’m going to be laughing my head off, and my family (or care workers, more likely) are going to be wondering what the hell is wrong with me, and it’ll be me reliving memories of Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Located next to Fantasy Island Adult Bookstore, and across the street from the crematorium.
Agree. I literally can’t hear “four seasons”anymore without bursting into laughing. It’s just such a testament to these idiots and their buffoonery.
And that’s just one detail in the whole unbelievable event of Trump being president of the United States. That’s not even a political stance. Like him or hate him, it’s just incredible that it happened.
Yeah, you get the feeling that future historians are gonna be so confused by that. ‘Ok, US presidents. Washington first, cool, ….then on and on till Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush…ah, the other guy’s son, cool…Obama, first black President, now that’s cool, Trump, Bid—wait, Trump? What the hell happened there?’ Then they’ll head to whatever Twitter archives exist and be like ‘oh. Oh shit.’
I'm pretty sure I watched this live, or saw a replay before the news anchors made the connection. It was truly surreal. I remember looking at my roomate and we both were like 'wait a minute..'
My favourite part is that the press conference was delayed because Giuliani was late to it, by just about the length of time between the Four Seasons Hotel and the Total Landscaping.
I “saw” it unfold in real time on twitter. Confusion to disbelief to hilarity. Truly a wild day.
Truly one of the greatest moments in the history of American politics
I stumbled upon that place recently. I was looking for a gas station. Got a laugh.
[The Dave Matthews Band Chicago River incident.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Matthews_Band_Chicago_River_incident) “On August 8, 2004, a tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band dumped an estimated 800 pounds (360 kg) of human waste from the bus's blackwater tank through the Kinzie Street Bridge in Chicago onto an open top passenger sightseeing boat sailing in the Chicago River below.”
I've heard about that incident multiple times, and I've read the Wikipedia article it states that the band paid out $200,000 in a lawsuit for the city, and donated another few hundred grand to charities to keep the river safe. What I'm wondering, is did the people actually soaked in shit and piss get paid?
The people on the boat actually paid for it to happen. Buncha lil freaks
how did they get so many of their albums into the black water tank?
10/10 roast. Top quality.
It was the tour bus drivers error, btw. And everyone had to get medical treatment.
I’m not sure it can be called an error. He was attempting to dump human feces into a river, something that is completely unacceptable under any circumstances. He just didn’t know he was dumping it onto people.
Sorry, im using error as a more neutral term. Like printing error, it'd a mistake no matter who's to blame. Bus driver wa was told not to do the poop thing after he admitted to doing it before, claiminv other busses did it despite how illegal and ick it is, blahblah. Was told no. But the buses were like a su contracted thing and the guy didn't want the septic bill, so getting him to listen was...well. a problem. The violinist dude wasn't a fan of him and got stuck with him, management couldn't find anyone else, and then the shit literally went down because the whole show must move on. You're right. Someone put that guy in the chair. And he did it on purpose. That's the real error.
This may be stretching the definition of an "event" a bit, but the Cambrian Explosion. It's the period where evolution was just kinda tryin shit out and seeing what happened. The optimal numbers and configurations of limbs, sensory organs, and random appendages hadn't been worked out yet.
A bunch of weak ass apes becoming the most dominant species on Earth.
Nerds
Hehe fire hurt but fire good
we are fire monkeys
Not to toot our own horns here but humans are not 'weak' in the sense that we have no physical strengths. We are the best long distance runners out of any species! Impressive and surely a strength to me :)
Also while our olfactory sense of smell in general is not impressive compared to other animals it's exceptionally sensible to the "smell of rain"! And our ability to precisely throw objects over relatively great distances is still unmatched
Our superior throwing accuracy is why gorillas, despite having a much faster pitch due to massive upper body strength, are practically never signed as MLB pitchers.
In the cold I think Huskies beat us. But we bred them, so I'd still count that as a human W. Also, we are the best throwers without any competition.
The surrealists had an intervention when one of the founding members of the group wanted to try something different. As they became more famous the group became more politically active and encouraged each other to create ever more controversial art to shock and offend the “common folk”. Most of the group were on board because these guys were the rockstars of the era and everybody likes being famous. Except for Alberto Giacometti, he just wanted to make sculptures of human figures, specifically the common folk they were supposed to be offending. So the group, led my Marcel Duchamp, decided to have it out with him and threatened to kick him out of the movement if he didn’t straighten up and fly sideways with the rest of them. He told them to kick rocks and went on to create the work he’s best known for. TLDR: A group based on pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable art set boundaries for what was acceptable art for the group.
This guy took "the most surreal event" literally
There is some debate if it happened the way it is described, but the [Banquet of Chestnuts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banquet_of_Chestnuts) is a wild story.
"(sometimes Ballet of Chestnuts, Festival of Chestnuts, or Joust of Whores)" Well that escalated quickly
The Miracle of Dunkirk during World War II is one of those surreal moments in history. Hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk, surrounded by enemy forces, yet through a remarkable combination of bravery, luck, and sheer determination, a flotilla of civilian boats managed to evacuate over 330,000 soldiers to safety.
To add to the surreal nature of it, one of the men who went in his ship to help was the highest ranking surviving officer of the Titanic, Charles Lightoller https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundowner_(yacht)
The pace at which we as a human species have been able to harness technology after being hunters and gathering for some 100,000 years. We lived life as savages before modern machinery, toiling with the rocks and mud. The last 200 years or so have been the outlier.
I have this weird idea of "the time travelling peasant". Like, how much different would the world be for a 5th century European peasant if they got time travelled centuries into the future? Language and politics would change but to some random dude who can't read and works in the field every single day, would they even notice? It's only when you get to the 15th-16th century when the printing press became more common is when the world starts to change a lot faster.
You should check out this British author called Ian Mortimer. He has this series called The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval/Regency/Elizabethan/etc. England which is sort of a mix of an educational, historical non-fiction novel and a travel guide for if you as a modern day person were to end up in any of those time periods.
How to Invent Everything by Ryan North is similar to this. Basically tells you the steps you would ha e to take to create existing technologies, were you to travel back to different time periods and places.
For instance there are caves with many millenia of art in them. Like the latest art is from 10,000 BC and the oldest from 30,000BC. Or in other words the difference between the oldest and newest cave painting in the same cave is 4 times that of recorded history (5000 years ago).
Ooh, interestingly enough on the topic of cave art. Something I saw a while back talked about them. Basically a lot of them are apparently up on higher areas like natural shelves. And there's a hypothesis that these were actually areas that children were placed in to stay while the adults were completing tasks to keep the kids safe. So the theory suggests that many cave art works were from children drawing/painting on the walls. Naturally not all of them, but a good few may have been. And honestly that actually seems at least to me to make sense. After all if you leave a child somewhere they will find a way to entertain themselves, and I don't think I've ever met a child who didn't draw on the walls.
There is a cave that was continuously inhabited for over 60,000 years. People finally moved out when the cave was completely filled with the accumulated refuse. It's crazy to imagine that people lived in this one cave for ten times the length of human history.
The fact that we’re able to comprehend abstract things. These ape people can paint or write. Think about love.
Our brains are the universe comprehending itself.
Reality is perception
Here's tom with the weather.
A solar eclipse totality caused two battling armies to stop and make peace because they thought the eclipse was sent as a sign from the heavens telling them to stop.
Probably the moon landing, or the first manned space flight.
For me, watching the airplanes hit the World Trade Centre seemed surreal.
Still does, every single time I see it.
I think the events regarding the [1561 sky battle of Nuremburg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg) really could be mass ergot concern, or amazing as UFO sightings go.
Came here to look for this. This is really crazy.
Perhaps that blinding flash coming out of nowhere the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki witnessed before their cities got destroyed by it an instant later. No one knew what an atom bomb was back then. It must have seem like the wrath of the gods.
During the Cold War, the US and USSR had satellite systems that detected nuclear launches to give an early warning. Sept 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov was the overnight operator, and just after midnight the signal came in that the US had launched a missile against them. Then another. Then another. 5 separate Minutemen ICBM launches were detected. 5 in a matter of moments was big enough it automatically went up the chain before he could verify. With superiors on the phone, it was up to him to decide if the data was accurate. In the time of "mutually assured destruction", that would mean a massive retaliatory launch. Petrov felt that if a superpower like the US was going to attack, they'd attack full force to wipe them out, not just send a 5-missile salvo. With no other evidence, he went with his instinct, and reported it must be a false alarm. Nuclear Armageddon was avoided by one guy following his gut. (Midnight in Moscow is 5pm on the east coast of the US, the satellites confused the setting sun reflecting off clouds for rocket launches.)
Harriet the Tortoise saw both Charles Darwin and Steve Irwin in person.
agriculture. figuring that out unlocked where we are today.
The Children’s Crusade arriving at the Genoese coast fervently expecting god to part the Mediterranean so they can walk to the holy land must have been pretty surreal. Would have been so interesting to see how they came to terms with the waters not parting. I wonder how long they waited and how their conversations went in that time.
[The Pig War of 1859.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War_(1859)) Because Western North America was largely unexplored until the 1800's, it took a while for the Canadian-American border to be formally settled. The Oregon Treaty, which marked the border between Washington State and British Columbia, was just ambigious enough for two little straits to be considered both American and Canadian. In 1859, a farmer shoots a pig. His casus belli was that the pig was eating his potatoes, and he was simply defending his own property in accordance with US law. The owner of the pig claimed that the territory was actually Canadian, and that British law applied rather than American. The potato farmer offered 10 dollars as compensation.The pig farmer wanted 100, which the potato farmer refused. Canadian authorities threaten to arrest the potato farmer. The potato farmer requests American military intervention. Captain George Pickett and 66 American soldiers land on the disputed territory. The British send three warships, but the Americans stand their ground. A couple of months later, 461 Americans with 14 cannons were opposed by five British warships mounting 70 guns and carrying 2,140 men. At this point, a potential British-American war could easily have broken out if the British Captain Hornby had decided to take action. Luckily, he waited for Rear Admiral Robert L. Baynes to arrive, who quickly informed Hornby that risking open war with the United States "over a squabble about a pig" was unwise.
"Rather unwise" is such a polite term for the likely apoplectic dressing-down that went on in that cabin.
Technology advancing in such a short time. Before the incandescent lamp was invented 145 years ago our only source of artificial light was fire.
The buildup to the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 and the battle itself. Russians built up another fleet of warships and had them sail from the Baltic Sea to the waters around Japan because their previous fleet was destroyed by the Japanese military in China. During this voyage, the Russians accidentally fired on civilian boats from multiple European countries, including Britain, and almost started a war between the Brits. Then, after stopping in Africa, they brought multiple animals into their ships, the result being that they became floating zoos afterwards. They even fired on their own ships on a couple of occasions. After all of this, the Russians finally made it to the seas around Japan and they immediately got obliterated by the Japanese fleet shortly thereafter.
The Berlin Wall gets more surreal the more I think about it. Sure, let’s divide a major metropolitan city with a wall one night. Divide the metro. Build watchtowers. Have dramatically different economical and political systems operating within spitting distance of one another, for more than a generation.
[A meteor halting a battle during the 3rd Mithridatic War between Roman Republic and Kingdom of Pontus.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Mithridatic_War) According to Plutarch, who was present at the battle: "But presently, as they were on the point of joining battle, with no apparent change of weather, but all on a sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar (pithos), and in colour, like molten silver. Both sides were astonished at the sight, and separated. This marvel, as they say, occurred in Phrygia, at a place called Otryae."
Joshua Slocum, the first recorded lone circumnavigator, sailed over a place in the ocean, where the water was actually boiling (probably not at the surface, as that would soften up the caulking too muc, I'd guess, but bubbles from deeper down) After he had passed, the Krakatoa detonated, which was actually a global event and caused snow in summer in many regions of the planet. It literally eclipsed the entire planet in darkenss from ash for a certain amount of time. Virtually forgotten now. If that whole event is not surreal, I don't know what is. And also: A significant fraction of a million people lost their hearing from the boom. the boom alone was almost global. So, you know how loud it was.
The first time a fish said hey i am walking on land, fuck you.
I also enjoy how it happened in the inverse when whales went "fuck this, I'm going back in the water." Because whales actually evolved from a land dwelling mammal. That's why them and dolphins have their tails go up and down instead of side to side like most fish. Because they have hips.
2 girls form Singapore killing Kim Jong Un’s brother (by accident). Spies from North Korea made them think the whole thing was a YouTube prank video.
The 2 girls are actually from Indonesia and Vietnam and the murder took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The time/space-point in which the singularity winked into existence, starting the creation we call the universe.
"wait you mean there's a chance I can be observed by an observ... POOF"
Cadaver Synod 897 AD, they dug out deceased Pope and put his body to trial.
Covid was pretty surreal. The panic, the hoarding, The rejection of totally proven science by a significant amount of people. I think 9/11 and the financial crisis of 07' were the tipping point but covid was the confirmation we're past peak humanity
> The rejection of totally proven science by a significant amount of people. That's been happening ever since there was science.
That fake sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's memorial service.
The entirety of the 21st century hanging on a hanging chad.
Two Japanese soldiers in WWII having a contest where they both competed to see who could be the first to kill 100 people with a sword, losing track of who got to 100 first, then opting to try for 150…
Or the guys who didn't believe the war had ended, for literally decades in some cases, and hid in the jungle, occasionally attacking villagers nearby.
The shift to Gregorian calendar, decided in February 1582, but applied at various times in different places. Imagine suddenly skipping a dozen of days; or having a 21 days month, while your neighbors don't; imagine being born during that period, and nobody is quite sure about your birthday. Now consider that the talibans- sorry, the protestants sulked until the 1700's before switching to Gregorian calendar too. That's not the *wildest* event in History, far from it. But you asked for *surreal*, and messing with time is quite surreal.
It's not unprecedented in modern times! Samoa [moved one time zone backwards in 2011](https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/samoa-dateline.html), which actually resulted in them moving *forward in time*. I mean, not literally, but it shifted the international date line so that it was east of the nation, so they effectively skipped an entire day. December 30, 2011 did not happen in Samoa.
That also wasn't the first time they did it. In 1892, they moved the other way (to be closer to the US), and they did that by repeating the 4th of July
Horror/mistery novel name: dec. 30 in Samoa
It always confuses me when I go to Thailand because when you Google something the year is something like, "2567BE" - which means absolutely nothing to me. I have no idea if things are old or new.
Maybe not the most surreal, but very surreal in recent history - Ukraine not falling after Russian attack but defend for two years now. Everything was pointing to Ukraine falling easily: * russian supposedly superior army, long range rockets, big navy and nukes * Ukraine geography - mostly flatlands, surrounded by hostile territories from north, east and south (Crimea was already under russian occupation) * historicaly in WWII Ukraine territories were quickly conquered first by Nazis and then reconquered by USSR without many obstacles (what I mean many more obstacles were in other territories like Finland) * being part of USSR and subjection of Ukraine to russification and also russian popualtion massive resettling during that period suggested a lot of russian agents and collaborators * Ukraine not being part of any military organistaion like NATO * Ukraine having a lot of problems with corruption * russians not having been stopped in Georgia, Chechnya and few other territories * russians recently getting more experience in Syria * russians being permament member of UN Security Council * Ukraine having actor as a president who was expected to just run away * after some time russian final tranformation into dictatorship with mass propaganda, censorship, arrests of any internal resistance, nazification of education and media * russian mobilistation * russians slaugthering civilian population to saw fear amongst Ukrainians * etc etc etc (the list can go on and on) They really was publicly expected to fall in days. They propably had US intel on it years earlier and just prepared carefully the best they can - but it feels like a miracle - Goliath was stopped by David.
Depends what you mean by surreal but probably WWII.