1

In an attempt to quell Filipino rebels, the CIA started grabbing rebels at night, draining their blood and leaving them out to be found. This was an attempt to trigger fear because of local vampire folklore.

2

The last prisoner of war from WWII returned home in 2000, nearly sixty years after the fighting ended. András Toma was a Hungarian soldier taken prisoner by the Red Army in 1944, who was then discovered living in a Russian psychiatric hospital in 2000.

3

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.

The Nazis had surrendered at that point, but there were some SS forces that were still fighting, so the Nazis, Americans and Australians teamed up against the SS.

4

A Serbian man sticking a bottle up his behind 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, which was a tipping point in allowing pent up nationalist feelings in Yugoslavia to boil over and subsequently explode.

5

The Battle of the Eclipse, also known as the Battle of Halys, 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.

6

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.

7

Two girls from Indonesia and Vietnam killed Kim Jong Un’s brother in Singapore by accident. Spies from North Korea made them think the whole thing was a YouTube prank video.

8

The Great Molasses Flood in Boston in 1919. An enormous storage tank of molasses burst. 21 people were killed and 150 were injured.

9

The Dave Matthews Band Chicago river incident, where his tour bus accidentally released the contents of its septic tank through a grate and onto the heads of people on a tour boat below.

10

The dancing plague of 1518. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks

11

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.

12

The escalation of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand from a manageable situation to World War 1. I'm sure everyone in the region was unable to process it.

13

The Night the Stars Fell, 1833. A meteor shower fell over the southern United States, and it was so intense 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 event was so memorable that it was used as a touchstone moment that slaves could use to estimate their age for decades. Up until 1920, people could say “I must have been eight years old the night the stars fell,” and thus historians could approximate their birth year.

14

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.

15

The Banquet of Chestnuts was a supper held at the Papal Palace in Rome, hosted by former Cardinal Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, on 31 October 1501. In it, thousands of chestnuts were scattered around the floor, and 50 “courtesans” were made to disrobe, and pick up as many as they could on their hands and knees. The winners were awarded prizes like clothes and shoes.

16

In April of 1561, a mass sighting of celestial phenomena occurred over Nuremberg. In what was essentially one of the first widely recorded UFO events, nobody knows for sure what caused it. The 1561 sky battle of Nuremberg.

17

The dropping of the first nuclear bomb.

18

Two Japanese soldiers in WWII had a contest where they both competed to see who could be the first to kill 100 people with a sword, during the Japanese invasion of China and the Nanking Massacre. Losing track of who got to 100 first, they then opted to try for 150. They were both eventually executed for war crimes.

19

A South Korean airline plane crashed because the assistant pilot was too scared of their superior to inform the main pilot that there was a problem.

20

The Pig War of 1859.

In 1859, a farmer shot 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.

After significant escalation, a couple of months later, 461 Americans with 14 cannons were opposed by five British warships mounting 70 guns and carrying 2,140 men. Eventually the British backed down.