Since the dawn of civilization, a lot of important things have happened. Here are lists of about the many winding routes we took to get where we are today.

Historical Contexts

Whoa Facts

Archaeology aims to open a window into the past by unearthing artifacts that show exactly <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-archaeological-finds/garri-chaverst" target="_blank">how humans&#39; ancestors used to live</a>. But sometimes, experts have discovered archaeological finds that rewrote history. Rather than confirm&nbsp;a commonly held belief (cavemen weren&#39;t intelligent!), these&nbsp;finds would upend it (cavemen made art and crafted advanced tools!). More recent historical artifacts that rewrote history have changed&nbsp;the way people think about ancient civilizations and humanity as a whole.

Some of these discoveries might seem minor at first glance. A new burial ground might seem like another collection of bones, until you consider what its placement means about early humans&#39; intelligence. A strange metal mass could be a piece of trash, until historians discover it can calculate the planets&#39; orbits. These eye-opening, and downright weird, discoveries continue to expand people&#39;s view of their world. From ancient fossils to strange structures, every object can help modern humans understand the past a little more. Read on to discover a few of these important artifacts in history, and be prepared to be amazed.

18 Bizarre Archaeological Finds That Rewrote History As We Know It

General

18 Weird Archaeological Finds That Rewrote History

Nathan Gibson

Exploring the strange and fascinating lives of rulers, royals, and royalty all around the world and throughout history.

We Will Never Be Royals

World History

In 2013, the unveiling of <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2260655/Kate-Middleton-Rotten-official-portrait-Duchess-Cambridge-artist-Paul-Emsley-unveiled.html">the first official&nbsp;portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge</a> caused an international response fit for, say, an actual important international event. People all over the world&nbsp;went crazy with&nbsp;judgment and jeers, critiquing every aspect of the painting. But Kate Middleton's portrait looks like a Rembrandt compared to some of the heinously ugly royal portraits&nbsp;that came before it. The&nbsp;historical artists who&nbsp;crafted many of these horrendously unflattering <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/portraits-of-historical-royals-vs-real-life/alby-thompson" target="_blank">royal portraits</a>&nbsp;are lucky they aren't alive to experience the wrath of the Twitterverse. If they were, their paintings, and they themselves, would probably be torn to shreds for the travesties they committed to canvas.&nbsp;To be fair, it isn't always the fault of the artist that a&nbsp;painting comes out looking like the stuff of nightmares&nbsp;(<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Dinasty_Habsburg_%28Spain%29_family_tree_by_shakko_%28EN%29.jpg">we're looking at you, Habsbergs</a>).&nbsp;Sometimes, a royal is just plain ugly, and an artist has to grit his teeth and muscle his way through. Perhaps that's why a few monarchs&nbsp;make their way onto the list numerous times...by numerous different artists...There are also artists throughout history who created intentionally&nbsp;bad portraits, as a means of criticizing&nbsp;a royal individual or family.&nbsp;Ultimately, whether the result of bad artistry&nbsp;or <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weird-royals-in-history/danielle-ownbey">royal inbreeding</a>, these royal&nbsp;embarrassments are our enjoyment. Want more?&nbsp;Take a look at <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/firsthand-descriptions-what-royals-really-looked-like/setareh-janda" target="_blank">our roundup of written, firsthand descriptions of historical royals</a>.

26 of the Most Heinously Unflattering Royal Portraits in History

Danielle Ownbey

History is a murky concept at best, and it gets murkier the further back one goes. That’s why it’s often so surprising to learn about famous historical figures who lived at the same time, let alone <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/historical-events-happening-at-the-same-time/kellen-perry" target="_blank">historical moments that happened at the same time</a>. Sometimes, it’s even more surprising to learn about historical figures who were born at the same time, which, rude as it may sound, often gives one a true sense of just how damn old some people are!History is full of amazing paths that crossed. Thanks to all the famous world leaders who were alive at the same time, humanity&nbsp;has had some&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/unlikely-friendships-throughout-history-v1/katherine-ripley" target="_blank">unlikely friendships throughout history</a>, like the one between&nbsp;Elvis and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/how-and-why-richard-nixon-invented-the-war-on-drugs/stephanroget" target="_blank">Nixon, who invented the&nbsp;war on drugs</a>. As they say, it’s a small world, after all,&nbsp;and it also happens to be a world filled with interesting people -&nbsp;many of whom walked the Earth at the exact same time.

Famous Historical Figures Most People Have No Idea Lived At The Same Time

16 Historical Figures You Never Realized Lived At The Same Time

Stephan Roget

Looking closer at films, TV shows, docs, and miniseries that explore, recreate, and occasionally flub up real historical events.

Watching History

Here is a list of the best films depicting the era of Napoleon in Europe include films about the Napoleonic war and the battle of waterloo. The Napoleonic Era is technically the fourth stage of the French Revolution, the chaotic series of events that started in the summer of 1789 with the Tennis Court Oath and the Storming of the Bastille prison. It begins in 1799 with General Napoleon Bonaparte's coup of 18 Brumaire, replacing the French Government with a Consulate and ends with Bonaparte's defeat at Waterloo in 1815.Napoleon's various invasions and occupations across Europe during this time - including Germany, Russia, Austria, Spain and Italy - inspired many of these films, creating a general air of unpredictability and anxiety across the continent. Some of the likewise directly deal with the military side of Napoleon's Empire, such as The Duellists&nbsp;(which follows two French officers in Napoleon's army) and Master and Commander&nbsp;(about the crew of a British warship following an ambush by a French privateer.)What are the best Napoleon movies? This is an Open List, so if you notice any great Napoleonic Era movies missing, add them at the bottom of the page. And be sure to vote for your favorite films to push them to the top of the list!You can also click here for the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/all-napoleonic-war-movies-or-list-of-napoleonic-war-movies/all-genre-movies-lists">Complete Guide to All Napoleonic War Films</a>, or for <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/actors-who-played-napoleon/celebrity-lists" target="_blank">The Best Actors Who Played Napoleon Bonaparte</a>.

Barry Lyndon

The Best Napoleonic War Movies Ever Made

Film

The Best Napoleonic Ware Movies Of All Time, Ranked By Fans

Ranker Film

Lists about the fascinating, often brutal customs and rituals about the legendary Norse seafarers.

A Viking's Life for Me

The history of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/vikings-history" target="_blank">Vikings</a> is replete with myths, misinformation, romantic notions, and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/historically-inaccurate-viking-tropes/setareh-janda" target="_blank">pop-culture laziness</a>. The <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/interesting-viking-facts-just-learned/setareh-janda?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">facts about the Vikings</a> are just as interesting as their&nbsp;myths, and have the added advantage of being true. Far from the violent, unwashed, horned-helmeted brutes of cultural depictions, the Vikings were explorers, farmers, traders, and colonists. They had a diverse religion, stratified society, and rich culture.

Of course, Viking history is also full of violence. From their brutal raids on England to their slave trading and drug-fueled combat, the Norse people of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/society/text/what_happened.htm" target="_blank">Viking Age</a> (between the 790s and 1066 AD) cut a swath through history. They also left a mark in the form of prosperous cities, archaeological ruins, and breathtaking sagas.

16 Things You Might Not Know About Vikings

Mike Rothschild

Lists about the zany little things we believe anyway.

Very Superstitious

Myths & Legends

If there&#39;s a redhead in your life, you&#39;re probably&nbsp;not wondering if they&#39;re a witch, a vampire, or an alien. But&nbsp;beliefs about redheads historically&nbsp;weren&#39;t&nbsp;so accommodating. Legends and myths about people with red hair can be found in the ancient - and sometimes present -&nbsp;cultures of countries like Egypt, Germany, and Greece, among others.

The real science behind red hair is a <a href="https://unrealfacts.com/what-causes-red-hair/">mutation of the gene</a> known as&nbsp;Melanocortin 1 Receptor, or MC1R. Red hair is a recessive trait and the <a href="http://www.sophisticatededge.com/what-is-the-rarest-hair-color.html" target="_blank">rarest of all hair colors,</a> seen in fewer&nbsp;than&nbsp;1% of people in the world. The uniqueness of redheads&nbsp;can build&nbsp;their mystery and allure. Famous redheads include beauties like Julianne Moore and&nbsp;Lucille Ball, as well as&nbsp;influential&nbsp;men like&nbsp;Ron Howard&nbsp;and&nbsp;Prince Harry.&nbsp;

Clearly, any&nbsp;myth about redheads probably deserves a little scrutiny. Before you accuse your red-haired acquaintances of hellfire-stealing or having no soul, take into consideration these outlandish myths about redheads from history.&nbsp;

11 Totally Unfounded Things People Believed About Redheads

The 11 Weirdest Historical Myths About Redheads

Erin McCann

Lists of fascinating facts and lesser-known details about the lives of people whose names you learned in History class (or should have).

Down in History

Historical Figures

If you&#39;ve heard of <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/hannibal-9327767" target="_blank">General Hannibal (247-183&nbsp;BCE)</a>, you&#39;re probably thinking of the guy who rode several elephants into Italy, and that would be correct. In reality, though, there&#39;s more to Hannibal Barca&#39;s life story than his fabled crossing of the Alps with war elephants. This general&nbsp;made it a habit of outright embarrassing the Roman Army, defeating them by a landslide&nbsp;on multiple occasions. It wasn&#39;t until Rome drew upon the skills of another name from the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/notable-general_s)/reference" target="_blank">list of notable&nbsp;generals</a>&mdash;Scipio Aemilianus Africanus (AKA&nbsp;Scipio Africanus the Younger)&mdash;that they were finally able to defeat Hannibal.

Hannibal Barca&#39;s team&nbsp;was nearly unstoppable, unparalleled in the ancient world. He was the General of all the teams of the ancient Punic Empire, the capital of which, Carthage, rivaled Rome in strength and influence. The Carthaginian Army was augmented by barbarian tribes that Hannibal had enlisted to help in his fight against Rome.

Hannibal himself was strong willed, and these&nbsp;lesser-known Hannibal Barca facts prove it. The timeline of Hannibal&#39;s life, from his early days to his ultimate defeat, tells the story of a man with a single purpose: to destroy the Roman Empire. None would ever come so close to achieving that goal as Hannibal&mdash;that is,&nbsp;until the breakup of Rome hundreds of years later.

Facts About Ancient Military Genius Hannibal Barca, Rome's Greatest Adversary

14 Lesser-Known Facts About Ancient Military Genius Hannibal Barca

Christopher Myers

People have been living all around the world for literally thousands of years. Here are some of the most interesting things human beings have ever done (that we know about).

Fascinating Ancient History

Fun facts and fascinating trivia about historical, bygone, and modern foods for people who love eating food.

Chew on This

A look at some of the oldest known, recorded, and/or existing things on earth.

Old School Cool

Old Stuff

Archaeologists often make gruesome, significant, and fascinating discoveries, but some of their finds are downright repulsive &ndash; sometimes they unearth ancient <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-people-ate-in-colonial-america/setareh-janda" target="_blank">foods</a>.&nbsp;These foods date back thousands of years, making them actual archaeological discoveries,&nbsp;and most of them sound pretty disgusting.&nbsp;

Archaeologists find&nbsp;food all the time, whether it&#39;s&nbsp;hiding in ancient tombs, resting on the bottom of the sea in a sunken ship, or tied around the neck of a mummy. These ancient food discoveries range from the palatable &ndash; such as preserved honey found in Egyptian pyramids &ndash; to the completely revolting &ndash; 5,000-year-old butter pulled out of a bog &ndash; to the culturally significant &ndash; 4,000-year-old preserved noodles discovered at Lajia&nbsp;site, also known as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/bodies-at-lajia-the-pompeii-of-china/nicky-benson" target="_blank">China&#39;s Pompeii</a>.&nbsp;

Take a look&nbsp;through the oldest foods archaeologists have discovered, and contemplate facing these choices at a sadistic buffet. What would be the absolutely worst food to eat today?&nbsp;

The Oldest Foods Ever Discovered By Archaeologists, Ranked By How Terrible They Would Be To Eat

Genevieve Carlton

Graveyard Shift

Many of the most impactful armistices in history are still celebrated as world holidays. But for every well-known declaration of peace, there are dozens of truces about which no one knows. Most recountings of military truce facts are rather dull. Every so often, though, the past surprises us with a ceasefire tale worth telling.

Shared holidays, mutual threats, and strange circumstances all play a part in making enemies agree to a ceasefire&nbsp;during combat. On certain occasions, opposing armies find themselves working together - even if arrangements don&#39;t last for long.

Indeed, war stories aren&#39;t always defined by <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/world-war-2-heroes/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">heroic generals</a> or <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/world-war-2-pictures/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">harrowing combat visuals</a>; sometimes, it&rsquo;s all about getting along.&nbsp;

The Strangest Reasons For Truces In Military History

Kings & queens, princes & princesses. They're made of blood and bones like the rest of us, but they're told they can do whatever they damn well please. Sometimes, this causes problems.

Royal Pains

King Henry VI&nbsp;began his reign at a young age and inherited both the English and French crowns. During his reign, he had periods of debilitating mental instability. Some have even dubbed him&nbsp;Mad Henry. At times, his unpredictable periods of mental illness left him completely unable to speak or move, let alone rule, while the country was deep in a war for the English crown.

Despite the&nbsp;best efforts of those around him, Henry managed to do some unfortunate things during his reign, with some pretty serious consequences (like losing the crown). Henry VI&#39;s mental illness was intermittent&nbsp;but ongoing. Check out this list for everything we know about his undiagnosed illness.

King Henry VI Facts We Didn't Learn In History Class

14 Crazy Facts About Mad King Henry VI's Insanity

Katie Mach

Ancient History

Modern democracies love to reference ancient democracies when stressing the&nbsp;value&nbsp;of participatory&nbsp;politics. The Athenian direct&nbsp;democracy and the Roman Republic are seen as milestones on the path toward more egalitarian forms of governance, yet&nbsp;these&nbsp;ancient democracies eventually failed.&nbsp;

The Roman Republic traditionally spans from 509 BC to 27 BC, at which point it became the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/popular-items-from-the-roman-empire-vs-today/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">Roman Empire</a>. It was&nbsp;the Athenians who coined the term democracy&nbsp;- &quot;rule by the people&quot; - to describe the system they developed in the sixth century BC. Athenian democracy lasted until 322 BC, when the city was conquered by the Macedonians under Alexander the Great.

In both Rome and Athens, elites and oligarchs exploited long-standing weaknesses in the political system&nbsp;to seize power for those on top, disrupting democratic processes enough to create enduring problems. In both cases, this went on for hundreds of years until all remaining&nbsp;vestiges of democracy ceased to exist.

The Actual Reasons Ancient Democracies Failed

Megan Summers

Lists about social, medical, scientific, and questionable experiments by humans on willing participants, unwitting victims, and even innocent animals.

Let's Just See What Happens

History

Nowadays, the ambitious and wild Biosphere&nbsp;2 experiment is only remembered&nbsp;as a footnote to the Pauly Shore film&nbsp;Bio-Dome, which is a shame. The Biosphere 2 project was ambitious, idealistic, and apocalyptic; it was some <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/funny-ig-nobel-prize-winners/rylee_en">pretty crazy science</a>&nbsp;wrought with drama, intrigue, cults, and billionaires. There&nbsp;are many&nbsp;wild Biosphere 2 stories as a testament to this fact. In short, its movie should have been a David Fincher thriller instead of a low-budget comedy.

The Biosphere 2 experiment was a closed&nbsp;artificial ecological system.&nbsp;It was three acres and five ecosystems - ocean, rainforest, desert, mangrove wetlands, and savannah grasslands - the world&#39;s largest formal experiment.&nbsp;The plan for Biosphere&nbsp;2&nbsp;was to test human interaction with the environment by sealing eight&nbsp;people in the closed Biosphere for two&nbsp;years, from September 26, 1991 to September 26, 1993. <a href="http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/41/turner.php">Wearing outfits designed by Marilyn Monroe&#39;s former dressmaker</a>, the participants - called Bionauts&nbsp;- stepped into the&nbsp;closed ecosystem where they&nbsp;would be closely monitored by Mission Control. The whole project was undertaken&nbsp;in&nbsp;the hopes of proving biomes were sustainable environments that could potentially lead to Martian colonization.&nbsp;Read on to discover some crazy things you didn&#39;t know about Biosphere 2.

10 Insane Facts About Biosphere 2, The Largest Contained Experiment Ever

10 Insane Facts About Biosphere 2, The World's Largest Experiment

Andy Miller

Franz Helm's 16th-century military manual,&nbsp;Buch von den probierten K&uuml;nsten, includes some crazy illustrations of the strategies he lays out therein&nbsp;–&nbsp;most notably what appear to be cats wearing jetpacks. Helm, a German artillery master, wrote his manual replete with illustrations involving&nbsp;strapping rockets to doves and cats, presumably to effectively wage war against one's enemy.Using animals in <a href="https://www.military-history.org/articles/war-culture-animals-of-war.htm" target="_blank">warfare</a> or in some other form of torture&nbsp;or abuse wasn't unique to the 16th century (take a look at the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/history-of-the-name-bulldog/nicky-benson" target="_blank">history of the bulldog</a>, the sad reality of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/history-of-turnspit-dogs/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">turnspit dog</a>, or the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/katzenklavier-cat-organ/cleo-egnal" target="_blank">cat piano</a> if in doubt),&nbsp;but cats wearing jetpacks is a pretty weird image even for the Early Modern era, a time when <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/renaissance-book-of-miracles-apocalypse/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">visions of the apocalypse</a> included 400 flying dragons and an uptick in birth defects.So, are these cats really wearing jetpacks? No, but they're really weaponized with fire and intended to be used in battle.&nbsp;

Why Are These 16th-Century Cats Wearing Jetpacks?

Melissa Sartore

Weird History

Humans have been around for around 350,000 years, but it has only been a short time since they began to group together in what we call civilizations. In all of our history on this planet, humans have only civilized themselves for approximately 10,000 years thanks to the development of agriculture, animal husbandry, and eventually writing.

Of the thousands of civilizations that have existed, most have disappeared. Few have remained in the same place they originated such as the Chinese or Egyptians, while most have died out. Many ancient civilizations&nbsp;existed throughout human history, but some lasted longer than you might believe. The <a href="/list/ancient-cities-that-are-still-standing/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">oldest known civilizations</a> in the world may not be around any longer, but they stuck around long enough to give the world the wheel, government, religion, and everything else humans developed over the past 10,000 years.

The Oldest Known Civilizations In The World

The Oldest Known Civilizations, Ranked By How Old They Are

Jonathan H. Kantor

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.

Weird History Around the World

The<a href="https://historydaily.org/history-of-cats-how-did-we-domesticate-felines" target="_blank"> history of cat</a> worship primarily centers around ancient Egypt, but that&#39;s not the only place where reverence for all things feline existed. So who worshipped cats? There are many societies that bowed to our feline friends - Li Shou was a Chinese cat god that protected crops from being eaten by mice, and a black cat called Ovinnik was a god in ancient Poland.&nbsp;

Did you know that wealthy cat owners draped their feline companions in jewels in ancient Egypt? Or that an entire battle was surrendered, simply because the Egyptians didn&#39;t want any harm to come to cats scattered on the battlefield? Read on to discover all the purrfect facts about cat worship throughout history and vote up the strangest facts.

Purrfectly Odd Things You Didn't Know About Cat Worship in History

Things You Didn't Know About Cat Worship in History

Candice Darden

Why are women still having to ask to be treated like human beings?

Time's Up

It's impossible to meet the incredibly unrealistic and changing beauty standards of our world, and many of us have already&nbsp;spent way too much time trying to pluck, paint, or contour ourselves into stacking up. It may not be a surprise to learn that this is basically a timeless issue,&nbsp;but some of the beauty ideals of the past are really hard to imagine as fun or glamorous.Beauty standards through history have shifted into so many forms that some of the hottest styles of the past are <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/stomach-churning-things-you-didnt-know-about-chinese-foot-binding/jeffrichard">basically horrifying</a>, or at least way more trouble - and danger - than they are worth. Sure, makeup is a pain, but at least we aren't shaving back our hairlines or <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/crazy-american-trends-and-fads-from-the-interwar-years/david-sharp">painting our legs with gravy juice</a> anymore. Check out this list for some of the weirdest historical beauty standards ever.

18 Of The Strangest, Most Dated Beauty Trends From History

18 Strange Beauty Standards from History That Would be Totally Gross

World History lists at Ranker - The ultimate source for hundreds of world history lists and rankings

World History lists on Ranker

Band of Brothers

Saving Private Ryan

Schindler's List

Lists about life for soldiers and civilians alike during the Second Great War, which raged around the world from 1939-1945.

WWII

Looking closer at some of the best, most realistic, most brutal depictions of war in the history of entertainment.

Wars on Screen

All about Spielberg's epic & heartbreaking WWII drama, celebrating 25 years in 2023.

Historical Entertainment

The best World War 2 movies remind us that perhaps no single event has had a greater impact on the future of filmmaking than World War II. It arrived at the dawn of a new era in glossy, professional mainstream filmmaking, and it affected literally every facet of daily life in North America, Europe, and Asia, where most of the world's films were being produced. World War 2 has remained a constant subject of fascination for filmmakers from the 1940s to the present day. A few of these WW2 films are even based on a true stories.Though &quot;WWII Films&quot; could be classified as a separate genre from the general heading of &quot;War Movies,&quot; they take on a lot of different styles, forms and tones. There are authentic WWII recreations, epic takes on the history of the entire period, personal stories about the soldiers, spies, revolutionaries and resistance fighters who fought the war and, naturally, sagas about the civilians of the time whose lives were forever changed by the conflict.Many of the WW2 films on this list - from &quot;Patton&quot; to &quot;Casablanca&quot; to &quot;Saving Private Ryan&quot; - have secured their place among the most famous films of all time. Which of these good films are the best? Rerank your own list to nominate your favorites for this CrowdRanked collection of the best <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/all-world-war-2-movies-or-list-of-world-war-2-movies/all-genre-movies-lists">WWII films</a>, and then be sure to vote on your favorites. Also check out this list of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/top-war-movies">best war movies ever</a>&nbsp;and the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-war-movies-on-netflix/ranker-streaming" target="_blank">best war movies on Netflix</a>.