In 1992, a group of Australians set themselves the goal of winning the national lottery jackpot at all costs. They invested $5 million in lottery tickets ($1 per ticket) to cover almost every possible combination and won $27 million.

II

One nun really needed a ladder, and she had no one to turn to. The pious woman began to earnestly pray to the patron saint of carpenters, Saint Joseph. Soon a man appeared on the doorstep, who offered his services and in a couple of months made a beautiful strong spiral staircase. When the work was completed, the man simply disappeared without receiving any payment or gratitude, and all attempts to find him were unsuccessful. It is curious that the staircase is made without any props, without a single nail, and at the same time makes a 360-degree turn.

III

Elephants rape and kill rhinos. Only in one national park Pilanesberg (South Africa) 63 such cases were registered.

IV

In 1995, the New York magazine Newsweek published an article "Why the Web Can Never Become Nirvana" mocking the future of the Internet. The author of the article ridiculed the idea that someday people will get the news, buy airline tickets and study online. This article can still be read on the publication's website.

V

There is a territory between Egypt and Sudan that is not claimed by any state. It is called Bir Tawil and is a quadrangle with an area of ​​about 2000 kilometers. In theory, this territory should now belong to Egypt. However, in 1958, Egypt demanded that Sudan return to the 1899 borders and transfer the Halayib Triangle, refusing Bir Tawil in return. Sudan refused. So Bir Tawil turned out to be the only "no man's land" outside of Antarctica.

VI

In 1730, the French pirate Olivier Levasseur was sentenced to the gallows. Just before the execution, he unexpectedly threw a note with a cryptogram into the crowd, shouting: “Find my treasures if you can!” The treasure has not yet been found.

VII

During the excavation of an ancient Roman temple in London's Southwark, a jar of ointment was discovered, which is at least 2000 years old. The substance retained its structure, it even left fairly clear fingerprints.

VIII

The largest robbery in Japan took place in 1968. One day, a bank car carrying a large amount of money was stopped by a policeman on a motorcycle. He said that according to his information, a bomb was planted in the car and ordered everyone to get out. He then climbed inside "to defuse the explosive device." Suddenly, the car filled with smoke and the bank employees who were escorting the valuable cargo fled in a panic. And the “policeman” calmly left. During this heist (crime scene pictured below), 300 million yen was stolen and remains unsolved to this day.

IX

Most of the borders of the Middle East were set by a couple of European aristocrats in 1916. The Frenchman François Georges-Picot and the Englishman Mark Sykes developed the so-called "Sykes-Picot Agreement", which demarcated the spheres of interest of Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy in the Middle East after the First World War.

X

In 1967, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared without a trace. Went for a swim with friends in the bay and vanished. He could not drown, as he was an excellent swimmer, there were no sharks in those places, and the cheerful prime minister had no reason to commit suicide. Holt's body was never found. This disappearance has entered Australian folklore. The expression "make Harold Holt" means to the locals to disappear suddenly and mysteriously.

XI

In May 2013, an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York was forced to make an emergency landing to expel a Whitney Houston fan who had driven passengers and crew to despair. The woman, without stopping with a good obscenity, yelled the famous hit “I Will Always love you” and flatly refused to shut up. She sang even when the police took her out of the salon:

History is rich in interesting facts, many of which are little known. So, a little digression into history.

Tobacco enema. This picture shows the "tobacco enema" procedure, which was very popular in Western Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Like smoking tobacco, the idea of ​​blowing tobacco smoke through the anus for medicinal purposes was adopted by Europeans from the North American Indians.

One of the weight units of antiquity was scruple, approximately equal to 1.14 grams. It was mainly used to measure the weight of silver coins. Later, scruple was used in the pharmaceutical system of measures. Today it is not used, but is preserved in the word "scrupulousness", which means extreme accuracy and accuracy in small things.

Fifty years ago, English referee Ken Aston was driving home reflecting on some of the problems of international communication. He
stopped at a traffic light and then it dawned on him - this is how yellow and red cards appeared in world football.

Count Potemkin offered Catherine II to write out convicts from the English government for the development of the Black Sea steppes. The queen was seriously carried away by this idea, but she was not destined to come true, and English convicts were sent to Australia.

Caesar's resourcefulness. During the invasion of Africa, the army of Julius Caesar suffered from failure from the very beginning. Severe storms scattered the ships in the Mediterranean, and Caesar arrived on the African shores with only one legion. Leaving the ship, the commander stumbled and fell face down, which was a good sign to return back for his superstitious soldiers. However, Caesar did not lose his head and, grabbing handfuls of sand, exclaimed: “I hold you in my hands, Africa!”. Later, he triumphantly conquered Egypt with his army.

The Russian scientist Vasily Petrov, who was the first in the world to describe the phenomenon of an electric arc in 1802, did not spare himself when conducting experiments. At that time, there were no such devices as an ammeter or voltmeter, and Petrov checked the quality of batteries by feeling from electric current in the fingers. And in order to feel very weak currents, the scientist specially cut off the top layer of skin from the fingertips.

At the actor who played Superman, the children tried to shoot to test his invulnerability. American actor George Reeves became famous for playing the title role in the television series The Adventures of Superman in the 1950s. One day, a boy approached Reeves, who was holding a charged father's Luger in his hands - he intended to test Superman's superhuman abilities. George narrowly escaped death by persuading the boy to give him the weapon. The actor was saved by the fact that the boy believed that a bullet could bounce off Superman and hit someone else.

In the 1950s and 1960s, American aircraft often violated Chinese airspace for the purpose of reconnaissance. The Chinese authorities recorded every violation and each time sent a “warning” to the United States through diplomatic channels, although no real action followed, and such warnings were counted by the hundreds. This policy has given rise to the expression "the last Chinese warning", meaning threats without consequences.

Berdashi. In almost all Indians of North America, there were so-called berdashi, or people with two souls, who were referred to as the third sex. Berdashi men often performed only female functions - they cooked, worked agriculture, and Berdashi women took part in the hunt. Because of the special status of the berdash, men who had sex with them were not considered homosexuals, but the berdash themselves were not allowed to build relationships with each other. In some tribes, they were given a cult status, as it was believed that they were closer ordinary people to the world of spirits and gods, so Berdashi often became shamans or healers.

In Sparta, after the death of the king, two institutions were closed for 10 days - the court and the market. When the Persian king Xerxes learned about this custom, he declared that in Persia such a custom would be impossible, since it would deprive his subjects of two favorite activities.

In 1913, 19-year-old student Terry Williams created mascara by mixing soot with petroleum jelly. His discovery was first used by a sister named Mabel, after whom the first and most popular mascara in the history of cosmetics is named.

Previously, a monument to Minin and Pozharsky stood in the center of Red Square. When the Mausoleum was built, the monument pointed to it. One night, someone wrote on the monument "Look, prince, what scum, it started up in the walls of the Kremlin!" After this incident, the monument was moved.

Almost all peoples, nations and countries have historical facts. Today we want to tell you about various interesting facts that were in the world, which many people know about, but it will also be interesting to read again. The world is not perfect, just like a person, and the facts about which we will tell will be bad. You will be interested, as each reader will learn something informative within their interests.

After 1703, Poganye Prudy in Moscow began to be called ... Chistye Prudy.

During the time of Genghis Khan in Mongolia, anyone who dared to urinate in any body of water was executed. Because the water in the desert was valued more than gold.

On December 9, 1968, the computer mouse was introduced at a display of interactive devices in California. A patent for this gadget was received by Douglas Engelbart in 1970.

In England, in 1665-1666, the plague devastated entire villages. It was then that medicine recognized the usefulness of smoking, which supposedly destroyed the deadly infection. Children and teenagers were punished if they refused to smoke.

It wasn't until 26 years after the founding of the FBI that its agents got the right to bear arms.

In the Middle Ages, sailors deliberately inserted at least one gold tooth, even sacrificing a healthy one. What for? It turns out that for a rainy day, so that in case of death he could be honorably buried away from home.

The world's first mobile phone is the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x (1983).

Fourteen years before the sinking of the Titanic (April 15, 1912), a story by Morgan Robertson was published that foreshadowed the tragedy. Interestingly, according to the book, the ship "Titan" collided with an iceberg and sank, exactly as it actually happened.

DEAN - The head of the soldiers in the tents, in which the Roman army lived for 10 people, was called the dean.

The most expensive bathtub in the world is carved from a very rare stone called Caijou. They say that it has healing properties, and the places of its extraction are still kept secret! Its owner was a billionaire from the United Arab Emirates, who wished to remain anonymous. The price of Le Gran Queen is $1,700,000.

The English admiral Nelson, who lived from 1758 to 1805, slept in his cabin in a coffin that had been cut from the mast of an enemy French ship.

The list of gifts for Stalin in honor of the 70th anniversary was printed in advance in newspapers more than three years before the event.

How many types of cheese are produced in France? The famous cheese maker Andre Simon mentioned 839 varieties in his book “On the Cheese Business”. Camembert and Roquefort are the most famous, and the first one appeared relatively recently, only 300 years ago. This type of cheese is made from milk with the addition of cream. Already after 4-5 days of ripening, a mold crust appears on the surface of the cheese, which is a special fungal culture.

famous inventor sewing machine Isaac Singer was simultaneously married to five women at once. In general, from all the women he had 15 children. He named all his daughters Mary.

27 million people died in the Great Patriotic War.

One of the unusual records in car travel belongs to two Americans - James Hargis and Charles Creighton. In 1930, they covered more than 11 thousand kilometers in "reverse", driving from New York to Los Angeles, and then returning back.

Two hundred years ago, not only men, but also women participated in the famous Spanish bullfights. This happened in Madrid, and on January 27, 1839, a very significant bullfight took place, because only representatives of the weaker sex took part in it. The most famous as a matador was the Spaniard Pajuelera. Women were banned from bullfighting in the early 20th century, when Spain was ruled by the Fascists. Women were able to defend their right to enter the arena only in 1974.

The first computer to include a mouse was the Xerox 8010 Star Information System minicomputer, introduced in 1981. The Xerox mouse had three buttons and cost $400, which equates to nearly $1,000 in 2012 inflation-adjusted prices. In 1983, Apple released its own one-button mouse for the Lisa computer, which was reduced to $25. The mouse gained wide popularity due to its use in Apple Macintosh computers and later in Windows for IBM PC compatible computers.

Jules Verne wrote 66 novels, including unfinished ones, as well as more than 20 novels and short stories, 30 plays, several documentary and scientific works.

When, in 1798, Napoleon was heading for Egypt with his army, he captured Malta along the way.

During the six days that Napoleon spent on the island, he:

Abolished the power of the Knights of the Order of Malta
- Carried out administration reform with the creation of municipalities and financial management
-Abolished slavery and all feudal privileges
- Appointed 12 judges
-Laid the foundations of family law
-Introduced primary and general public education

65-year-old David Baird ran his own marathon to raise money for research into prostate and breast cancer. For 112 days, David traveled 4115 kilometers, while pushing a wheelbarrow in front of him. And so he crossed the Australian continent. At the same time, he was on the move for 10-12 hours a day, and for the entire time of jogging with a wheelbarrow he covered a distance equal to 100 traditional marathons. This courageous man, having visited 70 cities, collected donations from Australian residents in the amount of about 20 thousand local dollars.

In Europe, lollipops appeared in the 17th century. At first they were actively used by doctors.

The group "Aria" has a song called "Will and Reason", few people know that this is the motto of the Nazis in fascist Italy.

A Frenchman from the town of Landes - Sylvain Dornon made his way from Paris to Moscow, moving on stilts. Having set off on March 12, 1891, covering 60 kilometers every day, the brave Frenchman reached Moscow in less than 2 months.

The capital of Japan, Tokyo, is currently the largest city in the world with a population of 37.5 million people.

Rokossovsky is a marshal of the USSR and Poland at the same time.

Despite the popular belief that the transfer of Alaska to the United States of America was carried out by Catherine II, the Russian Empress has nothing to do with this historic deal.

Military weakness is considered one of the main reasons for this event. Russian Empire which became evident during the Crimean War.

The decision to sell Alaska was made during a special meeting that took place in St. Petersburg on December 16, 1866. It was attended by all the top leadership of the country.

The decision was taken unanimously.

Some time later, the Russian envoy in the US capital, Baron Eduard Andreyevich Stekl, suggested that the American government buy Alaska from the Republic of Ingushetia. The proposal was approved.

And in 1867, for 7.2 million gold, Alaska came under the jurisdiction of the United States of America.

In 1502–1506 Leonardo da Vinci painted his most significant work - the portrait of Mona Lisa, the wife of Messer Francesco del Giocondo. Many years later, the picture received a simpler name - "La Gioconda".

girls in Ancient Greece got married at the age of 15. For men, the average age for marriage was a more respectable period - 30 - 35 years. The bride's father himself chose a husband for his daughter and gave money or things as a dowry.

Interpretation of events. Witnesses and eyewitnesses of extraordinary phenomena come up with mysterious theories and assumptions that are not supported by any serious facts.

And the secret here is that most people like to believe in something mysterious. How can one not recall the famous phrase: "I know that this is so, and please do not fool me with your facts." Today we will look at well-known misconceptions and myths that have not been tested for strength. This article will appeal not only to history buffs, but also to those who like interesting stories from life.

Fox sisters

In the spring of 1848, strange things began to happen in the bedroom of two sisters, Maggie and Kate Fox. According to the girls, who were 14 and 11 years old, they heard strange sounds several times a month. It seemed to them that a certain ghost of a man wanted to get in touch with them. The increasing number of cases of this mystical phenomenon quickly became known to the entire northern part of New York.


Having received millions of support from their fans, and then followers, the Fox sisters played a key role in the formation and development of spiritualism. When the girls grew up, they continued to conduct séances, only with more complex tricks. One day, the eldest of the sisters Maggie could not stand it, and publicly confessed to a deliberate hoax.

She explained that initially the whole story seemed like a simple childish prank. After all, the sounds made by the “ghost” were actually just clicks of the joints of the toes. Who would have thought that such fun would turn into a popular and rather large movement around the world.

The Amityville Horror

This story is known to many fans of horror films, and the expression "The Amityville Horror" has long become a household word. In 1974, Ronald Defoe, who was 23 years old, personally shot his parents, as well as four brothers and sisters. He committed the crime while the family members were sleeping peacefully in their beds.


Defoe himself explained his act by the fact that a certain voice ordered him to kill his relatives. When Ronald was checked by doctors, they recognized him as completely sane. A year later, the Lutz couple with three children settled in this house. A month after the move, various inexplicable things began to happen in the house.

As a result, various mediums and priests frequented them, who unanimously repeated that “otherworldly forces” really live in the house. As it turned out later, they were all in cahoots. They collaborated with an American writer who, in order to maintain this hoax, provided them with generous financial support.

Alien autopsy

In 1995, a sensational report appeared on the Fox television channel, which told about the autopsy of an alien found at the crash site of a UFO. As it turned out, in fact, the whole story was falsified. However, this did not stop the channel from getting huge ratings. The author of the report of one of the most famous alien hoaxes was Ray Santili and his colleagues.


As soon as the film fell into the hands of professionals, they immediately revealed a large number of “blunders” and historical discrepancies there. This whole hoax was more like cheap fiction than reality. As a result, in 2006, Ray Santili himself publicly confessed to the forgery.

Photograph of the Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness monster is familiar to most people because this expression is used as something unknown and very scary. There was a sensational story about a monster living in Loch Ness, relatively recently. So, in the 30s of the XX century, a sensational photograph appeared, which depicted a certain creature, better known as "Nessie".

The picture was taken by Dr. Kenneth Wilson. The blurred photo showed the neck and head of the "monster". It was later revealed that it was just a stuffed monster attached to the hull of a children's submarine. This well-known hoax was carried out by a certain hunter with his son. Surprisingly, she turned out to be very tenacious.

Time Traveler

In the 70s of the last century, a story about a time traveler named Rudolf Fentz was very popular in America. This is one of the most famous hoaxes, echoes of which can still be found today in various public social networks. The myth claimed that allegedly in 1950, Mr. Fentz suddenly appeared on one of the New York streets, straight from 1876. Unfortunately, due to his confusion, the “traveler” fell under the wheels of a car and died. In fact, all the characters and events of this hoax were borrowed from a little-known story by Jack Finney.

Crop Circles

In the late 70s, mysterious crop drawings began to appear in the south of Great Britain. Immediately, rumors began to circulate that the authors of these mysterious patterns were aliens. However, in 1991, David Chorley and his friend Douglas Bauer admitted that they were the authors of these ornaments.

Fijian mermaid

In the 19th century, this phrase was used to refer to various well-known exhibits at street exhibitions. They were deliberately passed off as mummified Fijian mermaids.


And such stuffed animals were made as follows: the body from an immature monkey was connected to the tail of some big fish and then simply covered with papier-mâché. I must say that the hoax was primitive, but quite well-known and popular.

Witch of Salem

In the English city of Salem, in the 17th century, there was a real panic. And it all started with the fact that the daughter and niece of the clergyman Samuel Parria were stricken with a mysterious illness.


This disease made the girls emit hysterical cries and convulsions. As you know, at that time people fanatically believed in demonism, because of which the case received a great response. As a result of the witch hunt, there were sensational trials, and about 20 women died. Another 200 people were imprisoned. Later it turned out that all this was the usual collusion of girls who simply imitated the "symptoms" of their relatives.

An interesting fact is that similar things were also practiced in Russia. Women who behaved as if possessed by demons were called hysterics. After the issuance of the royal decree, in order to whip the hysterics with rods and deprive them of their rights in every possible way, those who like to shout and behave inappropriately significantly decreased. Here it must be said that certain psychiatric diseases with such symptoms do exist. But these are units. And history clearly demonstrates that the hysteria that appeared in one place quickly gained momentum. However, it was worth threatening the hysterics with a flogging, as immediately their “diseases” disappeared, and they instantly recovered. This is such a mental phenomenon.

Giant from Cardiff

One of the most famous and well-known hoaxes is a stone sculpture presented as the remains of a three-meter giant. The author of this hoax was the atheist George Halu, who argued with the clergyman about the giants living in ancient times. Thanks to his invention, George was able to make a decent fortune. Many people wanted to look at the "artifact" for only 50 cents.

History is a rather vast subject and it is impossible to fully study it, especially in the smallest detail.
Sometimes these seemingly insignificant details can be the most interesting part of it.
Here are a few interesting facts stories that won't be covered in class.

1. Albert Einstein could have been president. In 1952 he was offered the post of the second President of Israel, but he refused.

2. Kim Jong Il was a good composer and throughout his life the Korean leader composed 6 operas.

3. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has always been leaning. In 1173, a team building the Leaning Tower of Pisa noticed that the base was warped. Construction was halted for almost 100 years, but the structure was never straight.

4. Arabic numerals were not invented by Arabs, but by Indian mathematicians.

5. Before the invention of alarm clocks, there was a profession that consisted of waking other people up in the morning. So, for example, a person had to shoot dried peas at other people's windows to wake them up for work.

6. Grigory Rasputin survived many assassination attempts in one day. They tried to poison him, shoot him and stab him, but he managed to survive. In the end, Rasputin died in a cold river.

7. The shortest war in history lasted less than an hour. The Anglo-Zanzibar War lasted 38 minutes.

8. The longest war in history took place between the Netherlands and the Scilly archipelago. The war lasted 335 years from 1651 to 1989 and suffered no casualties.
People, stories and facts

9. This amazing species, known as the "Majestic Argentine Bird", whose wingspan reached 7 meters, is the largest flying bird in history. She lived about 6 million years ago in the open plains of Argentina and in the Andes. The bird is a relative of modern vultures and storks, and its feathers reached the size of a samurai sword.

10. Using sonar, the researchers found two strange pyramids at a depth of 1.8 km. Scientists have determined that they are made of a kind of thick glass and reach enormous sizes (larger than the pyramids of Cheops in Egypt).

11. These two men with the same name were sentenced to the same prison and look very similar. However, they have never met, are not related, and are the reason why fingerprints began to be used in the judicial system.

12. Footbinding is an ancient Chinese tradition where girls tied their toes to their feet. The idea was that the smaller the foot, the more beautiful and feminine the girl was considered.

13. The mummies of Guanajuato are considered the strangest and most frightening mummies. Their twisted faces make one believe that they were buried alive.

14. Heroin was once used as a substitute for morphine and was used to relieve coughs in children.

15. Joseph Stalin may have been the inventor of Photoshop. After the death or disappearance of some people, photos with him were edited.

16. Latest analyzes DNA confirmed that the parents of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen were brother and sister. This explains many of his illnesses and defects.

17. The Icelandic Parliament is considered to be the oldest functioning parliament in the world. It was founded in 930.
Unexplained and mysterious facts of history

18. For many years, miners in South Africa dug up mysterious balls with a diameter of about 2.5 cm with three parallel grooves. The stone from which they are made belongs to the Precambrian period, that is, their age is about 2.8 billion years.

19. It is believed that Catholic saints do not decay. The oldest of the "non-decaying" is Caecilia of Rome, who was martyred in 177 AD. Her body remains virtually the same as it was 1,700 years ago when it was discovered.

20. Encryption from Chaborough in the UK is one of the mysteries that have not yet been solved. If you look closely, you can see the inscription in the form of letters on the monument: DOUOSVAVVM. No one knows who carved this inscription, but many believe it is the key to finding the Holy Grail.