Peter Dugre lists at Ranker - the ultimate source for lists and rankings in all categories

Peter Dugre - Lists at Ranker

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

History

<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/bizarre-hobbies-of-dictators-tyrants-and-brutal-leaders/harrison-tenpas">Powerful leaders</a> walk around everyday&nbsp;with bull's-eyes on their backs. And the&nbsp;world would likely be a much different place had many of the&nbsp;failed takeover plots and assassination attempts on the world's most controversial leaders&nbsp;worked -&nbsp;forever altering&nbsp;the course of history. However, nobody can say what would have happened&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-happened-after-hitler-committed-suicide/philgibbons">if Hitler hadn't escaped</a>&nbsp;the explosions intended to take his life and the attempted takeovers aimed at ending his reign, or if any of the over 600 <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/crazy-fidel-castro-assassination-attempts/hugh-landman">assassination attempts on&nbsp;Fidel Castro</a> would have succeeded and completed shifted Cuba's future. Nearly all of the world's leaders have endured threats and attempts on their lives, and below are just a few examples of the times some of them got away.

10 Murder Plots That Would Have Radically Changed History (If They Succeeded)

General

10 Thwarted Takeover Plots That Would Have Changed Everything

Peter Dugre

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

We Will Never Be Royals

Royalty

Long before the concept of &quot;designer babies&quot; created in a lab&nbsp;became the stuff of science fiction, inbreeding in royal families was viewed as a way to ensure genetic purity. Intermarriage ensured that no &quot;common&quot; blood sullied pure, aristocratic bloodlines. Inbred royalty - what could go wrong?

A lot, actually. Birth defects caused by inbreeding were rampant in royal families from Russia to Portugal and even in ancient Egypt, where the practice of sibling marriage was considered godly behavior. Royal family hereditary diseases and deformities caused by inbreeding - <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/porphyria-vampire-disease/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">such as porphyria</a>, among others - get handed down through thin gene pools, particularly in the&nbsp;many cases where intentional close marriage is used to&nbsp;ensure&nbsp;that&nbsp;royal blood (and its recurrent flaws) are kept in the family. For example,&nbsp;Queen Victoria, a <a href="https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Habsburg-Jaw-And-Other-Royal-Inbreeding-Deformities-and-Disorders" target="_blank">major proponent </a>of pure bloodlines, married her <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/prince-albert-facts-queen-victoria-husband-children-death-cousins-wedding-marriage-itv/" target="_blank">cousin Albert</a>, and the two had nine children who then passed hemophilia to royal families throughout Europe.&nbsp;

While all these families hoped close intermarriage would keep their royal families stronger, in many cases, illness, madness, infertility and deformities caused by inbreeding ended up tearing them apart.

Royals Who Suffered From Hereditary Mutations And Defects Caused By Inbreeding

Person

Crazy Hereditary Mutations and Royal Inbreeding Deformities

Things to See Around the World

Weird History

Donald Trump isn&#39;t the first leader to propose reinforcing a border with a giant impenetrable barrier. Famous walls in history date back millennia. Many were built all over the globe to protect civilizations from perceived enemies. Here are some of the&nbsp;great walls in history, why they were built, and whether or not they worked.

The 11 Most Significant Walls In World History

The 11 Most Important Walls in History

One of the most powerful lessons we can learn from&nbsp;history is that love stinks. Throughout history, vindictive, spurned, and just plain crazy lovers have resorted to some pretty terrible behavior. Many of the partners on this list are abusive, and all of them are appalling. From murderous emperors to spiteful exes, this list of&nbsp;the&nbsp;craziest relationships in history may put your own broken heart in perspective.

6 Of The Most Dysfunctional Romantic Relationships In History

The 6 Most Dysfunctional Romantic Relationships In History

Lists about life in the Empire of Japan from 1939, at which point it was already at odds with China, to the aftermath of the devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki post-1945. 

WWII Japan

Lists about the many cruel and sadistic ways people have inflicted pain on other human beings around the world and throughout history.

Pure Torture

Many nations committed many terrible acts during WWII. However,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/japanese-wwii-war-crimes/mel-judson" target="_blank">Japanese transgressions</a>&nbsp;in that period stand out as especially horrific and brutal. Not only did the Japanese use inhuman methods as part of their interrogations, but full units were set up for experimenting&nbsp;on living&nbsp;human beings. The following is a list of truly sickening methods and human experiments committed by <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/japanese-troops-using-pows-for-wwii-target-practice/mel-judson" target="_blank">the Japanese Imperial Army</a> during WWII.

Unbelievably Inhumane Japanese Torture Methods Used During World War II

Unbelievably Inhumane Japanese Torture Methods in WWII

The little parasitic ergot fungus loves to live off rye grain. Unfortunately, it turns out, so did the peasant class in Europe and America. Before modern medicine, the crazy symptoms caused by ergot poisoning&nbsp;in history (including delusions and convulsions)&nbsp;were thought to be either God’s wrath or the spells of witches. Now there's tremendous speculation that&nbsp;historical events caused by ergot poisoning are many and significant.&nbsp;The rye fungus (which can also live on barley and wheat)&nbsp;happens to be closely related to&nbsp;LSD - in fact, this&nbsp;fungus&nbsp;was actually the source from which LSD was first derived in the laboratory. Besides symptoms of stomach-wrenching cramps, muscle spasms, nausea, seizures, vomiting, fever,&nbsp;and burning gangrenous limbs, ergot causes manic hallucinations. It's now that ergot poisoning had a role in everything from the Salem witch trials to the French Revolution. (Warning: Do not&nbsp;try ergot at home. It ain't pretty.)

The Secret Role That a Crazy Hallucinogenic Fungus Played in History

Graveyard Shift

The 21st Century started&nbsp;with a host of&nbsp;revolutions and popular uprisings. As the 1990s ended, so did the tenuous period of post-cold war peace (which, who are we kidding, with the Balkans conflict and Rwandan genocide, didn&#39;t even really exist).

The events of September 11, 2001 plunged the world into a state of chaotic sectarian violence and constantly shifting alliances. Meanwhile, long-simmering social, political, and cultural tension the world over exploded as social media allowed people to empower and educate themselves, giving rise to a spate of 21st century revolutions. The emergence of new&nbsp;hegemonies&nbsp;like Putin&#39;s Russia, Bush&#39;s USA, and an emboldened China&nbsp;only served to exacerbate problems.&nbsp;

Protestors took to the streets in a&nbsp;series of uprisings in the Arab Spring of 2011, conflicts met with brutal violence by regimes, the after effects of which&nbsp;still incite violence, oppression,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/people-who-were-disappeared/annechastain" target="_blank">disappearances,</a> and chaos in 2016. Syria exists in a state of perpetual melee, hence the rise of&nbsp;ISIS and countless other rebel groups, making a nation previously unknown to many Westerners short-hand for dangerous brutality. And this is but one of the most brutal 21st century rebellions.&nbsp;

The&nbsp;globe has proven to be a volatile home for humans this century. Strap on your riot gear for a look at these rebellions and uprisings of the 21st century.

10 Brutal Revolutions, Rebellions, and Uprisings of the 21st Century

The Most Brutal Rebellions and Uprisings of the 21st Century So Far

It's always made the world go-round, but how did people of the past let others know how much they had before the days of fast, shiny cars and cheesy name brand apparel? And why do economies keep collapsing? Study up to see why history repeats itself.

Money Matter$

Interesting

Some last wills and testaments shatter family bonds, particularly when vast sums of wealth get <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/people-who-left-money-to-their-pets/katherine-ripley" target="_blank">left to the family dog</a> and not to the&nbsp;humans on the family tree that are hoping to reap the low-hanging fruits of inheritance.&nbsp;Then, there are those final wishes handed down by the eccentric that leave executors scratching their noggins and offspring carrying out the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/funny-and-strange-bequests-in-wills-stories/linda-meyers" target="_blank">bizarre orders</a> of deceased relatives.&nbsp;

The craziest wills in history -&nbsp;like the wills of historical figures&nbsp;and some just plain weird wills of history from&nbsp;obscure but eccentric individuals who check &quot;write a crazy will&quot; off of their list before kicking the bucket -&nbsp;often leave a lasting legacy of lunacy. In death, some of these crazy will writers cemented their quirks for posterity by continuing their march to the&nbsp;beat of a different drummer&nbsp;into the afterlife.&nbsp;

11 Historic People Who Had Crazy Last Wills

The 11 Craziest Last Wills from History

Royals need friends, too. Sometimes,&nbsp;they choose soothsayers, sorcerors, or the like&nbsp;to advise them (or to do their dirty work). More often than not, the results aren&#39;t good for those&nbsp;who live under the rule. Royal henchmen also often have their own agenda, which doesn&#39;t always bode well for others. However, not all royal advisors were&nbsp;villainous. Some, such as court magicians, clairvoyants, or self-proclaimed wizards, were simply strange&nbsp;people who spun&nbsp;alluring tales of their ability to predict the future and cure all manner of maladies.&nbsp;

From the famed Rasputin to the lesser-known Charles-Henri Sanson, the following are notorious henchman and performers of wizardry who&nbsp;got blood on their hands so the royals didn&#39;t have to,&nbsp;cast a dark influence over entire nations, or got up to some generally bizarre stuff on the backs of their inflated sense of self-importance. &nbsp;

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