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As long as human beings have been alive, we have been doing bizarre things that barely make sense. Here are lists of a few thousand of them.

Old Stuff

Museums are home to collections of relics from around&nbsp;the world, allowing&nbsp;the general public to&nbsp;interact with history. However, many of those&nbsp;relics fail to hold a candle to certain <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-ancient-world-artifacts/pierce-nahigyan" target="_blank">extraordinary artifacts</a> that have gone missing over the years. From ancient reserves to abandoned <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/world-war-i-relics-and-the-stories-behind-them/daveesons" target="_blank">WWI artifacts</a>, lost treasures are a&nbsp;staple of both fictional and real-life adventures.

Most of the more well-known missing artifacts will likely never get recovered - many were wiped out&nbsp;- but this won&#39;t deter&nbsp;relic hunters who continue to search for treasures to this day. All it takes is one new story about <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/historical-objects-found-in-pawn-shops/brent-sprecher" target="_blank">rare artifacts found in pawn shops</a> to keep the dream alive.

World History

Secret weddings in history are proof that not all proposals end with happily ever after. Throughout history, couples have had to marry either in secret or in a rush to avoid detection from those who would wish to keep them apart. So while it’s true that not all secret or shotgun weddings in history were happy, it is true that many of them were at least interesting.But the clandestine, spontaneous, or secret nature of these weddings does not mean that the marriages were successful or romantic. On the contrary, many secret marriages in history were dysfunctional&nbsp;and shocking, as they were sometimes connected to kidnapping, money, and murder.The stakes were often high for secret weddings and elopements, since the couples married in the heat of the moment or to beat the odds. Other pairs even pretended to marry in order to gain respectability or hide a scandalous affair. With the stakes so high, it isn’t surprising that unhappy events -&nbsp;estrangement, divorce, abuse, abdication, or even worse -&nbsp;would ultimately follow these relationships. And couples weren’t the only ones at risk. Often, it was just as dangerous&nbsp;for accomplices and people who aided in the marriage.These couples throughout history pursued their marriages against all odds. Some ended in happiness,&nbsp;others in tears. But they all had to face disaster in their quest for marital bliss.

Mysteries

From prehistory through modern-day occurrences, history offers some pretty fascinating stories and information. It also, as often as not, leaves observers wanting more. Simply put, history is full of questions - and Redditors want answers.

In a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/hmfoqj/serious_if_you_could_learn_the_honest_truth/" target="_blank">recent Reddit thread</a>, individuals chimed in on which historical mysteries they wondered about and really wanted to be solved. Their contributions ran the gamut from political conspiracies to secret identities to some fascinating &quot;what-could-have-beens&quot; through the ages.

Though we&#39;ve found definitive <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/scientific-explanations-for-famous-mysteries/jim-rowley" target="_blank">answers to many purported mysteries</a> over the years, there remain a number of&nbsp;enigmas that continue to pique imaginations, sometimes opening up more lines of inquiry just when it seems an explanation has been found. Historians do find answers, and you might find a few of those below, but this list doesn&#39;t make any grand assertions about history. Rather, here&#39;s your chance to explore its wonders and enduring questions, with some additional insight into the efforts taken to find answers.

Weapons

Arsenic: it’s been called the “<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/death-by-poison-list-of-famous-poison-victims/notable-famous-deaths?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">king of poisons</a>” and the “poison of kings.” And for good reason –&nbsp;it has a lengthy, storied&nbsp;history, one full of mysterious poisoners and sometimes less-than-sympathetic victims. It's been a tool&nbsp;for thousands of years, used to kill countless people&nbsp;by shutting down their cells; a&nbsp;pea-sized amount of the stuff is enough to cause excruciating death.&nbsp;The ancient Romans&nbsp;used arsenic against their political enemies, and for centuries it was the go-to <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/life-of-giulia-tofana/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">poison for women who hated their husbands</a>. It's&nbsp;odorless and tasteless, so it could easily be sprinkled into someone’s yogurt (a Chinese emperor died that way) or mixed into wine (that’s how the Borgias killed their enemies). Before it could be detected with tests, arsenic poisoning was the perfect crime – just ask Giulia&nbsp;Tofana, the Renaissance poisoner who helped 600&nbsp;women murder their spouses.When it wasn't killing people, arsenic was being used in everyday life as a rat poison, a healer, and even makeup. Just like <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/quack-medical-devices-that-contained-radium/amandasedlakhevener&nbsp;" target="_blank">radium was used as a medicine</a>, an arsenic compound successfully treated syphilis before the discovery of penicillin. Regardless of how many lives it saved, however, arsenic remains one of the deadliest substances in human history.&nbsp;

History

Christianity truly began to take hold in Britain around the turn of the 7th Century, with the arrival of Anglo-Saxons. Prior to this, human habitation on the British Isles went back more than 30,000 years. Yet most British history we know through films, books, and popular consciousness concerns Christian Britain. What was Britain like before Christianity? Savage? Refined? Confused? All of these things? Read on for crazy facts about pre-Christian Britain.&nbsp;(Author's Note: Ireland was left almost entirely off this list because it's not part of Britain. Northern Ireland was left off due to the controversial nature of its status within the British Isles.)

Human beings have been in the business of government for a long time. Since we first developed language, we have been arguing over the correct way to organize the state. Should the government help its citizens, or should it be minimally involved? Should it maintain a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/tags/military" target="_blank">standing military</a>, or raise armies when necessary? And just who ought to be in charge of the whole thing?

Throughout human history, societies have had some...&nbsp;creative answers to these questions. Not only are there <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-government-agencies/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">bizarre agencies within governments</a> that otherwise function, sometimes the whole government is strange.&nbsp;From the needlessly complicated to the downright bizarre, there have been dozens of strange governments attempted, with varying degrees of success.

The governments on this list aren&#39;t just historical curiosities, they are maps of human attempts to relate to one another. Some may laugh at them, but they were all, at one time or another, sincere attempts to solve society&#39;s problems.

Interesting

Buried treasure. Lost gold. Hidden cash. Loot. Few things fire the imagination like the idea of a vast hoard&nbsp;of gems, precious metal, art, or cold hard cash being just a few shovelfuls of dirt away from being found. Maybe you dream of going on a treasure hunt or finding that treasure chest you&#39;ve heard about. These real-life stories of lost treasure and treasure hunting seem to offer lots of options for the gold fiend in you - but what&#39;s the real scoop, and should you even attempt to find these sparkly objects?

There are as many stories of hidden stores of loot as you&#39;ve got time to hear them. Pirate caches, plunder, sunken treasure, ill-gotten diamonds, famous mob scores, ancient gold, lost mines - chances are, there&#39;s a rumor of hidden treasure close&nbsp;to wherever you live. But how many of the famous buried treasures from throughout history are actually real, and not legendary? How many are really still out there, and haven&#39;t been taken by the ravages of time or water? Is it possible to get at the ones that are?

Here are some of the most legendary treasures that might still be out there, waiting to be found. They&#39;re all over the world, on land or under the sea, and carry their own treasure chest of stories and legends with them.

PLEASE NOTE: We do not advise that you attempt to retrieve any of these hidden treasures. They might not be there, and you could easily come to harm. Lots of people already have.

Secrets

Though people pretend it&#39;s&nbsp;written in stone, history features tons of famous mysteries -&nbsp;many of which remain unsolved. From the location of Genghis Khan&#39;s tomb to the instructions for making a Byzantine weapon that inspired&nbsp;Game of Thrones, this list collects&nbsp;the best-kept secrets in history. Some secrets remained hidden for centuries until an accident uncovered them, such as a solid gold Buddha hidden in plain sight. Surprisingly enough,&nbsp;that&#39;s not the only million-dollar secret on this list. Other top-secret information, from the Manhattan Project to Britain&#39;s World War II intelligence operations, eventually came out after the war, stunning the public.&nbsp;

From the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/unsolved-ancient-mysteries-from-around-the-world/jeffrichard" target="_blank">many unsolved ancient mysteries</a>&nbsp;that still baffle people to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/government-cover-ups/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">all those&nbsp;shady government cover-ups</a>, historians&nbsp;have shared&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8bzcon/what_was_historys_best_kept_secret/" target="_blank">history&#39;s most explosive secrets on Reddit</a>. And more than one of&nbsp;these secrets even changed the course of the world. Some of the unanswered questions in history still make headlines today, including the identity of the man in the iron mask or what certain mysterious Egyptian hieroglyphics&nbsp;mean.

When you dive into&nbsp;history&#39;s best-kept secrets and biggest questions,&nbsp;don&#39;t expect many answers.

Fads

The ancient hobbies of years gone by are fascinating and fraught with interesting facts that many of us might not know today. People of the past didn&rsquo;t have the modern luxuries most of the developed world has now, so for entertainment, a fair amount of imagination had to be invoked. Bizarre and outrageous hobbies arose during the time of ancient Egypt, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/free-time-for-medieval-peasants/kathy-benjamin" target="_blank">the Middle Ages,</a> 19th-century Victorian England, and even during the 1950s in America.&nbsp;

From Victorian mummy unwrapping parties, macabre 19th-century Parisian visits to the morgue, and even Egyptians taming cheetahs, throughout history, there have been more than the odd hobby or two. The fame of a few ancient hobbies has carried over into the 21st century, with many of them still being enacted in today&rsquo;s modern times. Let&rsquo;s take a look at some of the truly bizarre hobbies that sound made up but aren&rsquo;t.&nbsp;

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020, it shouldn&rsquo;t come as news to anyone that markets will occasionally run short of something, and not just the staples like food, water, and toilet paper - sometimes it&rsquo;s a lot stranger than that. The 21st century has already witnessed a kimchi shortage, a hazelnut shortage, and the brief disappearance of all Twinkies, and that&rsquo;s just a sampling of the many items humanity has temporarily run out of in the wake of recent mitigating circumstances.

These shortages can come in many forms and be incited by wildly different events. The <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/things-the-world-is-running-out-of-090915/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">world is simply running out of certain products</a>, like helium for party balloons, which has led to an ongoing dwindling of availability that will probably never be reversed. Other shortages, however - like a memorable incident in which <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/stories-from-the-day-russia-ran-out-of-vodka/lyra-radford" target="_blank">Russia ran out of vodka for an entire day</a> - are a lot sillier, though not without their own degree of seriousness.

Explainer

Nobody ever thinks that when they put up a monument to someone that they&#39;ll have to take it down later because the memorialized disgraced themselves. But there are many examples of paintings, monuments, and <a href="/list/most-amazing-statues-in-the-world/amber-hubert/edit" target="_blank">statues</a> that were removed after a person&#39;s shame came to light.

Sometimes it was for evasion of paying one&#39;s taxes, like former <a href="/list/most-useless-vice-president/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">Vice President Spiro Agnew</a>. Other times it was a dictator being removed from the history books, like Lenin or Stalin. And a few times, like in the case of Bill Cosby&#39;s statue being removed from Walt Disney World, it&#39;s because of <a href="/list/bill-cosby-allegations-according-to-costars/jordan-breeding" target="_blank">horrific allegations</a> making them an international symbol of ridicule and disgust. Perhaps the most prolific of these was British DJ and philanthropist Jimmy Savile, who had dozens of monuments and memorials destroyed or defaced after his <a href="/list/kids-entertainers-who-are-perverts/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">crimes against children</a> were confirmed by British authorities.

Here are 17&nbsp;disgraced statues, monuments, paintings, and memorials that were taken down or otherwise altered because of disgraceful actions by their subjects. Some were destroyed, others simply changed, and a few are still locked away somewhere, possibly ready to be put back up if and when the public is more forgiving.

Are you happy with the holidays we currently have? Or do you think it's time to bring in some new blood? We don't necessarily have to start from scratch -&nbsp;there are dozens of holidays from history&nbsp;we could just revive. It turns out there are plenty of old-fashioned&nbsp;holidays&nbsp;people basically don't celebrate anymore.This list features alternatives to Groundhog Day, a Thanksgiving prequel, cross-dressing for fun and profit, and much, much&nbsp;more. Looking for a change from the tired old traditions your family has been pretending to enjoy all these years? Any one of the following old-school holidays is guaranteed to shake things up.

What was the General Crisis? It was a period of unbelievable global strife, rebellion, death, and revolution that took place over the course of the 17th century. At the time,&nbsp;a succession of dreadful&nbsp;natural, military, and financial disasters inflicted death and destruction on a global scale. As a result of regional warfare, famine, oppressive weather conditions, and financial collapse, the entire globe was restructured in the wake of the Crisis. China, France, England, and the Netherlands all completely restructured their ruling systems, to name just one of its effects.&nbsp;For the average person, the General Crisis was a horrible time to be alive. If you didn't die of starvation as a result of the Little Ice Age destroying all of your crops, you might've met your maker on one of the many, many active battlefields of the moment.The following terrible General Crisis facts illustrate the remarkable depths of the worldwide catastrophe that befell mankind during one of the worst centuries in the history of humanity. If you ever wondered when the worst time in human history was to be alive, look no further than the General Crisis.

Artifacts

Historical artifacts and photographs never fail to fascinate &ndash; they&#39;re like mysterious keys to other cultures &ndash;&nbsp;but this roundup of some of the strangest and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-historical-artifacts/pierce-nahigyan" target="_blank">most mesmerizing artifacts</a> from history might&nbsp;just take the cake. From a piece of bread that dates back to <a href="/list/facts-about-pompeii/theodoros-karasavvas" target="_blank">Pompeii</a>&nbsp;to some truly disturbing melted wax figures from a fire at Madame Tussauds wax museum in London, these images are sure to incite some reaction, be it delight or disgust.

Artifacts are objects made by human beings that &ndash; with the passage of time &ndash; come to represent a cultural or historical moment in the popular imagination. Which is why really weird artifacts are still so interesting;&nbsp;what do they reveal about the societies that created them?

For that matter, in the future, what will our cultural artifacts say about us?

Weird

People tend to get super serious during political discussions because politics are a pretty serious matter - most of the time. Amidst the world of powerful people doing powerful things is an arena full of stories about funny election results, zany ways election ties were settled, and the many weird ways people got elected in the first place. The political figures in these stories may have done important things once they were officially in power, but their journeys to elected office are far more entertaining than what they did with their position once they held it.&nbsp; &nbsp; Some of these political stars earned their “Seriously?!” positions by not quite winning their seats of power. Unlike the days when politicians could just pull out their pistols or swords to settle their disputes - a practice that was almost universally outlawed in the 18th century - modern stalemates are usually settled by games of chance. Depending on the location, tie-breakers are typically broken with a flip of a coin, a name pulled out of a box, a roll of the dice, a pick of a card, or any other game that relies on luck rather than skill. &nbsp; Of course, those who gained their power through actual wins had a fair amount of luck on their sides, too. While it would be nice to say the rest of these victories were well-earned, this list of weird election results tells a slightly different story - and honestly, you couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried.

Bugs

Items made of spider silk have a strange but alluring appeal around the world&nbsp;despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that&nbsp;many people around the world live in terror of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/10-amazing-things-about-spiders/analise.dubner" target="_blank">eight-legged creatures</a>.&nbsp;Spider silk clothing is considered the rarest type of garment, since thread made of spider silk is extremely difficult to make. Certain spiders, like the gorgeous <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/giant-orb-weaver-spiders/eric-vega" target="_blank">Golden Orb Weaver</a> whose silk is frequently used, sadly don't thrive outside of the wild, and are hard to domesticate and control.Despite its fragility, uses of spider silk throughout history are&nbsp;both extensive and impressive. Some cultures have been very creative in their uses of the humble spider web, creating everything from fishing lures to violin strings to bandages to canvases for paint.&nbsp;Items made from spider webs have seen use in the fields of science, medicine, spirituality, and art.Although these fascinating items from the past may have been way ahead of their time, spiderweb silk might yet be the &quot;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/in-the-future-well-all-wear-spider-silk" target="_blank">textile of the future.</a>&quot; Items&nbsp;using spider silk&nbsp;are high-craft rarities and&nbsp;not mainstream, but&nbsp;fascinating uses of spiderwebs are creeping into the modern era, with scientific research&nbsp;utilizing more&nbsp;gossamer&nbsp;technology. There's even&nbsp;talk of spider-based <a href="https://www.livescience.com/46519-spider-silk-bulletproof-clothing.html" target="_blank">bulletproof clothing</a>, and more on the horizon.&nbsp;

Places/Travel

From a lion holding a sword to three legs connected at the thigh to&nbsp;a carnivorous eagle absolutely demolishing a snake, there are a host of culturally specific and indisputably distinctive&nbsp;images&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-prettiest-flags-in-the-world?ref=search" target="_blank">on other nations&#39; flags</a>.

The job of any flag is to <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-country-flags/ranker-travel" target="_blank">honor the history and culture</a> of the people for which it flies. Just like&nbsp;the red and white stripes on the United States&nbsp;flag <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-the-United-States-of-America" target="_blank">represent the original 13 colonies</a> and the 50 stars represent the 50 states, the crests, emblems, and icons on foreign flags symbolize the identities&nbsp;of their populations. Here&#39;s a look at a few flags that, while unusual at first glance, reveal rich and intriguing features&nbsp;about their respective nations.

Imagine drinking a beer that's brewed with decade upon decade of history, or visiting a hotel that's more than a thousand years old. Those hypothetical situations&nbsp;are the reality for some of the world's oldest corporations and establishments.The oldest businesses still around today have truly stood the test of time. True, some have changed their approach, and their ownership has changed hands many times. But their legacies are impressive tributes to human ingenuity. Is the temple-building business drying up? Become a general construction company instead. Are grandfather clocks going out of style? Move into producing wrist- and pocket-watches as well.With their fascinating origin stories and remarkable modern-day reputations, the oldest companies still in business deserve to be celebrated.

There have been a lot of dumb things countries have fought over. You might think entire nations wouldn't have petty disputes like two suburban dads passive-aggressively trying to stick it to their neighbor&nbsp;- let's just see what the Homeowner's Association has to say about that new Ficus, Bob&nbsp;- but you would be wrong. So wrong. Some of the silliest disputes in history have been between two or more countries.There are plenty of weird reasons countries have gone to war. There have been disputes over the proper ownership of a camel (yes, one camel), soccer hooligans, somewhat unsurprisingly, causing an actual war between El Salvador and Honduras, and golden stools up for grabs. Check out this list of weird historical disputes and vote up the craziest things countries have fought over.

Who doesn’t love to party down on a federally mandated holiday? Usually the people who know what actually happened on said holiday.The dark history of Thanksgiving is helped spur&nbsp;people to think about what they’re actually celebrating, and once you look into the back stories of many different celebrations, you realize that there are a lot of holidays based on genocide. America celebrates most of them, but there are plenty of holidays that shouldn't exist that are still celebrated&nbsp;all across the world.&nbsp;You would be hard-pressed to find someone who was purposefully celebrating Thanksgiving as an excuse to stick it to America’s indigenous people one more time, but it’s still important to remember the terrible fate Native Americans&nbsp;suffered as colonists began to claim land that they didn’t rightfully own.Most people do their best to not think about the terrible catalysts behind their traditions, and that’s understandable. Who needs one more horrible thing to think about during the day? But if you’d like to dive deep into the world of misery that created some of your favorite holidays, this collection of horrific events that helped create some of the world’s most popular holidays is right here waiting for you.If you know about another holiday with less-than-positive beginnings, leave a comment about it and prove that you’re the next Howard Zinn.

Weird History Around the World

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Historical Photos

There is a lot of content and context left out of our history textbooks. They are often filled with blocks of academic text and the occasional <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-photos-from-history/mick-jacobs" target="_blank">weird photo</a>, but seldom do we see some of history&#39;s rarest photos.&nbsp;

Even if you consider yourself a history buff, there are still lots of historical photos you&#39;ve probably never seen before. Like <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/colorized-photos/ashley-reign" target="_blank">colorized photos from history</a>, these old pictures gathered by the folks of Reddit can give you a different perspective on the annals of the past.&nbsp;

Historical Photos You've Never Seen Before: Rare Photos From History

Historical Photos Most People Have Probably Never Seen Before

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Niagara Falls Frozen Solid, 1848

A Marine Hand-Feeding A Kitten During The Korean War, 1952

The New Jersey Hindenburg Disaster, May 6, 1937

Edward Llewellen After Catching The World Record Black Sea Bass, August 26, 1903

There is a lot of content and context left out of our history textbooks. They are often filled with blocks of academic text and the occasional weird photo, ...