Dr. Luke Blackburn was a respected medical doctor and philanthropist until he allegedly attempted to create a yellow fever outbreak targeting Northern civilians and soldiers during the Civil War. Despite widespread outrage at the time, he later won a landslide victory to become the governor of Kentucky. Blackburn was a native Kentuckian who began working…
Category: Weird History
Cold War Files: The Men Who Stare At Tripping Cats
“In laboratory experiments, a normal cat displays the normal hunter instinct toward a mouse,” a narrator explains in a droning monotone. Donned in a stereotypical white lab coat, the scientist locks the feline in a box and sprays it with lysergic acid diethylamide. A hallucinogenic drug better known as LSD. “After 45 seconds, the effects…
Cold War Files: 10 Sinister Groups Behind the Cold War’s Craziest Conspiracy
In 1972, a fascist named Vincenzo Vinciguerra detonated a car bomb in the Italian town of Peteano. As Vinciguerra had planned, the attack was initially blamed on left-wing extremists. Years later, Vinciguerra explained his motives: “Our movement is pledged to target . . . ordinary people, to create conditions of anarchy. The resulting state of fear will mobilize public…
Obscure World War II History: The Failed Japanese Coup of 1945
A last-ditch attempt to overthrow the Japanese government at the end of World War II was a bloody embarrassment Open Road Media sponsored this post. By August 1945 more than two million Japanese soldiers, sailors and aviators had died in eight years of war stretching from China and Southeast Asia to halfway across the Pacific….
Military History: The Four Worst War Crimes Imaginable
These horrific war crimes reveal a humanity that isn’t good or bad, but absolutely sadistic. Human nature is an amorphous thing: Optimists and pessimists can look at the same human history and present diametrically opposed assessments of the human spirit. The optimist will point to acts of selflessness and historical displays of a collective will…
Vietnam War History: Trying to Find Viet-Cong Tunnels with Witching Rods?
The Military Has Been Known to Try Almost Anything Once, Regardless of it’s Effectiveness For more than five centuries, farmers, treasure hunters and others have applied a pseudoscientific practice known as “dowsing” to find water, caves, graves and more. During the Vietnam War, American troops tried using the method to divine the location of…
Military History: 10 of the Most Insane Military Disguises That Worked
Modern militaries use relatively standard camouflage patterns and netting to try to hide themselves from prying forces, but not all camouflage and disguise is so boring. Some military disguises that actually worked were outlandish and ridiculous. 10. Israeli Commandos Fooled Sentries By Cross-Dressing In 1973, Israel launched Operation Spring of Youth as part of a…
U.S Naval Military History: The First Submarine Ever Built
The Connecticut River Museum in Essex holds a fully-functional replica of the “Turtle,” the first American submarine ever built. Little-known fact: the first submarine and underwater time bomb were created during the American Revolution–before electricity, and before Jules Verne. It was 100% human-operated (no engines just hand cranks and foot pedals) and used phosphorescent moss as…
World War Two History: The Amazing Story of Wojtek, The Polish Soldier Bear
After being released from a Siberian labor camp during the Nazi invasion of Russia in 1942, the 22nd Polish Supply Brigade began a long trek south toward Persia. Along the way, they bought an orphaned bear. In the spring of 1942 following the release of Polish prisoners and deportees in the labour camps in Siberia,…
Cold War Files: Some Obscure Cold War History (In Comics)
The World’s Highest War … in Comics ‘Siachen: The Cold War’ depicts a pointless conflict In 1984, India and Pakistan went to war over the Siachen Glacier. A 2003 ceasefire halted most of the fighting, but troops from both sides are still facing off and losing more soldiers every year to the climate, altitude and…