Sources: Honestly, It’s Stranger Than That
Honestly, It’s Stranger Than That: 500 True Stories You Will Want to Check, by J. R. Veley.
Every fact in the book was checked against at least one source. They are listed here by fact number. Web pages move and vanish; where a link has died, the title of the fact is usually enough to find the source again.
1. Kings, Queens and Other Poor Decisions Facts 1–50
No. 001 The emperor who bought Rome at auction
No. 002 The Great Khan’s silver drinks fountain
No. 003 Santa Anna gave his leg a state funeral
- https://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-santa-anna
- https://lrl.texas.gov/whatsNew/client/index.cfm/2016/6/28
- https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/opinion/mochilazo-en-el-tiempo/el-desaparecido-panteon-de-santa-paula-de-la-colonia-guerrero/
- https://www.haysfreepress.com/article/15443,amputated-limb-gives-santa-anna-a-leg-up
- https://3quarksdaily.com/?p=294515
No. 004 The French king who feared he was glass
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/charles-vi-of-france-the-glass-king-psychiatry-in-history/5E29BAD20220B0C7C2DEF6A0D3395A5D
- https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/fear-and-fragility-the-glass-delusion-and-its-history
- https://www.worldhistory.org/Charles_VI_of_France/
- https://www.history.co.uk/articles/glass-act-the-delusion-that-made-charles-vi-think-he-was-made-of-glass
No. 005 Lincoln said no to the King of Siam’s elephants
- https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/lincoln-rejects-king-siams-offer-elephants
- https://emergingcivilwar.com/2022/11/07/reality-vs-myth-regarding-abraham-lincolns-war-elephants/
- https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2018/03/24/abraham-lincoln-to-king-mongkut-thanks-but-no-thanks-for-elephants/
No. 006 The boy pharaoh and the dancer from Yam
No. 007 Christian X never wore the yellow star
No. 008 The emperor who invented a general and promoted him
No. 009 The king who signed Corsica over to his creditors
No. 010 The gardener who stayed on the throne
- https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-20-chronicle-of-early-kings/
- https://livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/cm-41-fragmentary-chronicle-on-ancient-kings
- https://news.utexas.edu/2024/03/27/pity-the-substitute-king-eclipses-in-the-near-east/
No. 011 Greece’s king got six votes
- https://europeanroyalhistory.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/election-of-the-king-of-the-hellenes/
- https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/edinburgh-duke-of-3467
- https://www.greekboston.com/culture/modern-history/alfred-ernest-albert/
- https://col.rct.uk/collection/406887/prince-alfred-later-duke-of-edinburgh-1844-1900
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1862_Greek_head_of_state_referendum
No. 012 The Rolls-Royce garbage trucks that never were
No. 013 The pope who sold the papacy
No. 014 The first White House state dinner
- https://www.whitehousehistory.org/examples-of-state-dinners-throughout-history
- https://www.staradvertiser.com/?p=699955
- https://historynet.com/first-royal-visit/
- https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2024/08/have-crown-will-travel-the-circumnavigation-of-king-kalakaua/
- https://ethw.org/Milestones:Electric_Lighting_Of_The_Kingdom_of_Hawaii_1886-1888
No. 015 Caligula never made his horse consul
No. 016 Jahangir’s chain of justice
No. 017 Prussia’s regiment of giants
No. 018 Haiti’s Duke of Marmalade
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Christophe
- https://marlenedaut.com/blog/on-this-day-in-haitian-history-march-26-1811-president-henry-christophe
- https://lagazetteroyale.com/almanach-royal-dhayti-1814/
- https://news.yale.edu/2025/04/07/recalling-life-henry-christophe-haitis-first-and-last-king
- https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/news-grants/newsletter/2007/item/51-march-2007-newsletter-no-12
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54788
No. 019 Babylon’s absent king
- https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-7-nabonidus-chronicle/
- https://www.livius.org/sources/content/nabonidus-cylinder-from-sippar/
- https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/nabonidus-the-first-archaeologist/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nabonidus
No. 020 Tonga’s court jester
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Tonga
- https://matangitonga.to/print/13961
- https://matangitonga.to/print/278
- https://www.news24.com/Jester-has-the-last-laugh-20040219
- https://matangitonga.to/print/13671
- https://www.theage.com.au/news/world/tongas-court-jester-finds-a-new-role/2006/09/22/1158431902435.html
- https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/10/03/tonga.scandal/
No. 021 The throne that rose and roared
- https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.168391/2015.168391.The-Works-Of-Liudprand-Of-Cremona_djvu.txt
- https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2010/11/04/byzantine-automata-the-emperor-is-on-the-throne/
- https://www.leidenmedievalistsblog.nl/articles/robots-at-a-medieval-court-the-automata-of-tenth-century-baghdad-and-constantinople
No. 022 Potemkin’s villages were not fake
- https://wordhistories.net/2023/05/08/potemkin-village/
- https://www.straightdope.com/21343610/did-potemkin-villages-really-exist
- https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/node/5200
- https://www.gw2ru.com/history/70034-potemkin-villages-myth-exposed
- https://archive.org/details/memoirsofprincep00helbuoft
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village
No. 023 The sultan who moved Delhi
No. 024 Ludwig II’s doctors never examined him
No. 025 The emperor who needed nothing
- https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1793qianlong.asp
- https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4d8b8ce8-ae73-4daf-99ac-0321959a8645/files/m6f9bfb820c48a3faca109e1c99d2d5f5
- https://www.jhiblog.org/2022/11/09/the-image-of-the-british-state-in-the-macartney-mission-to-qing-china
- https://thechinaproject.com/2020/09/09/lord-macartney-china-and-the-convenient-lies-of-history/
No. 026 France’s twenty-minute king
No. 027 Mansa Musa’s gold in Cairo
- https://worldhistorycommons.org/al-umaris-account-mansa-musas-visit-cairo
- https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/1492/mansa_musa_visit.cfm
- https://www.worldhistory.org/Mansa_Musa_I/
- https://archive.org/details/india.history.resource.91094
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali
No. 028 Peter the Great, amateur dentist
No. 029 Crowned before he was born
No. 030 Sweden’s crown prince by freelance
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Charles_XIV.
- https://www.kungahuset.se/english/archive/speeches/2010-08-21-hm-the-kings-speech-in-connection-with-celebrations-to-mark-the-bicentenary-of-the-election-of-the-successor-to-the-swedish-throne
- https://runeberg.org/hisweden/0327.html
- https://simanaitissays.com/2018/06/26/the-mn-who-would-be-and-was-king-part-2/
- https://snl.no/Christian_August
- https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/artists/artist/13100
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Otto_M%C3%B6rner
No. 031 Hideyoshi’s golden tea room
No. 032 Canute was proving a point about the tide
No. 033 The nawab’s dog wedding
- https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.103056
- https://4thestate.co.uk/products/reigning-cats-and-dogs-a-history-of-pets-at-court-since-the-renaissance-katharine-macdonogh-9781857025958
- https://dailyo.in/arts/book-of-indian-dogs-aleph-theodore-baskaran-16231
- https://spotlight-online.de/englisch-hoeren/mahabat-khanji-lion-prince-junagadh
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Mahabat_Khanji_III
No. 034 Farinelli’s nightly concert for one
No. 035 Turkmenistan’s ban on lip-syncing
No. 036 The emperor who came back without his nose
No. 037 The pretender who turned the spit
- https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/piel-castle/history/lambert-simnel
- https://libraryireland.com/biography/LambertSimnel.php
- https://richardiii.net/faqs/richard-and-his-world/aftermath/lambert-simnel-and-the-king-from-dublin/
- https://philological.cal.bham.ac.uk/polverg/26eng.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert_Simnel
No. 038 Menelik’s electric throne
No. 039 The Ming emperor who went on strike
No. 040 Elagabalus and the deadly roses
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Elagabalus/2*.html
- https://lasthistorians.shca.ed.ac.uk/historia-augusta
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elagabalus
- https://getdailyart.com/en/18861/lawrence-alma-tadema/the-roses-of-heliogabalus
- https://news.artnet.com/art-world/roses-of-heliogabalus-alma-tadema-2673695
No. 041 Belgium’s king was declared unfit for a day and a half
- https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/p.L7LLmMlXM
- https://archsa.org/meet-the-king-of-the-belgians-whom-pope-francis-wants-to-canonize/
- https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/05/world/belgian-king-unable-to-sign-abortion-law-takes-day-off.html
- https://www.lavenir.net/actu/belgique/2023/07/30/roi-baudoin-ces-discours-et-prises-de-position-qui-ont-marque-lhistoire-de-la-belgique-WZ3WF6CW3NDZVLYFTU7QGDFPKQ/
- https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/pdf/51/0556/51K0556001.pdf
- https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2024/12/21/241221f.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Belgium
No. 042 The king of Beaver Island
- https://www.americanheritage.com/his-was-kingdom-and-power-and-glory-briefly
- https://northernmichiganhistory.com/the-king-of-beaver-island/
- https://www.michiganpublic.org/arts-culture/2016-11-23/michigan-bookmark-new-bio-reveals-the-rise-and-fall-of-michigans-mormon-king
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Strang
No. 043 The last emperor of China became a gardener
- https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/people-events/article/2115727/remembering-chinas-last-emperor-puyi-50-years-after
- https://time.com/archive/6955501/the-last-emperors-humble-occupation/
- https://www.chinaservicesinfo.com/s/202509/29/WS68da4750498e368550335ffc/starting-from-ceasing-to-be-imperial-palace-rebirth-of-the-forbidden-city.html
- https://www.history.co.uk/article/the-last-emperor
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyi
No. 044 Otto Witte was never King of Albania
No. 045 A boy king’s heart settled who he was
No. 046 A king of Siam’s toy democracy
No. 047 Bokassa’s Napoleonic coronation
No. 048 Diocletian preferred his cabbages
No. 049 Farouk’s five kings
No. 050 Emperor Norton I of San Francisco
2. The Message Got Through Facts 51–100
No. 051 The girl who went by parcel post
No. 052 The oldest customer complaint
No. 053 The magician who hacked Marconi
No. 054 Fresh fish for the Inca
No. 055 The red telephone that never existed
No. 056 A birthday party at Vindolanda
No. 057 The newspaper you listened to
No. 058 Orphans preferred
No. 059 The twins who hacked the telegraph
No. 060 Tin Can Mail
- https://um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/74785/1/JMPS32%282%29A4.pdf
- https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/69170/1/JMPS40%282%29A3.pdf
- https://matangitonga.to/print/4090
- https://www.greenefoundation.ca/news/tin-can-mail
- https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/156330-tongas-lulutai-airlines-grounded-over-maintenance-lapses
No. 061 No acid was spilled on the first telephone call
No. 062 Chinese telegrams were sent as numbers
- https://www.njstar.com/tools/telecode/jim-reeds-ctc.htm
- https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2016/04/crossed-wires/
- https://www.socsc.hku.hk/fw/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Guidelines_on_completing_the_CC_Code_and_Name_field.pdf
- https://blogs.library.columbia.edu/rbml/2019/10/09/chinese-telegraphic-codebooks-and-cryptography/
- https://permalink.kb.dk/permalink/2006/manus/340/eng/?var=
- https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/H.C.F.C._Schjellerup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_telegraph_code
No. 063 The Queen sent an email in 1976
No. 064 Henry “Box” Brown mailed himself to freedom
- https://www.nps.gov/nebe/learn/historyculture/henryboxbrown.htm
- https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/dbva/items/show/343
- https://www.classroomelectric.org/volume1/price/texts/still.html
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/this-magician-escaped-slavery-by-mailing-himself-to-freedom
No. 065 The whistled language of La Gomera
No. 066 One extra dot turned BAY into BUY
No. 067 Beacons put out for the races
- https://pbe.kcl.ac.uk/data/D48/F34.htm
- https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/medievalstudies/?p=5805
- https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/medievalstudies/2026/02/23/byzantine-beacons-part-2-history/
- https://www.worldhistory.org/Michael_III/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michael-III-Byzantine-emperor
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_beacon_system
No. 068 Winston the pigeon beat the broadband
No. 069 Bismarck’s edited telegram from Ems
- https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/forging-an-empire-bismarckian-germany-1866-1890/original-and-edited-versions-of-the-ems-dispatch-july-13-1870.pdf
- https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/forging-an-empire-bismarckian-germany-1866-1890/bismarck-remembers-the-evening-the-ems-dispatch-was-edited-july-13-1870.pdf
No. 070 The Post Office has no motto
- https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/pdf/mission-motto.pdf
- https://uspsblog.com/how-is-new-york-city-related-to-famous-postal-quote
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D98
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/87770/neither-snow-nor-rain-isnt-usps-motto
No. 071 Stockholm hung its telephones from one tower
No. 072 The telegraph that could not spell Quaker
No. 073 Tuvalu’s fortune in two letters
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2019/12/23/tuvalu-is-tiny-island-nation-people-its-cashing-thanks-twitch/
- https://www.tuvaluaudit.tv/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/FINALE-2019-NATIONAL-BUDGET_approved-by-Parliament_17Dec.pdf
- https://theworld.org/stories/2022/01/24/tuvalu-cashes-coveted-internet-domain-twitch-tv
- https://pina.com.fj/2022/05/02/better-dottv-deal-for-tuvalu/
- https://seasia.co/2026/07/24/tuvalu-a-sinking-country-with-one-of-the-worlds-most-valuable-internet-domains
No. 074 A mail balloon from Paris landed in Norway
No. 075 The undertaker and the operator who never was
No. 076 A letter read without being opened
No. 077 The Six Triple Eight cleared the mail
- https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/6888th.htm
- https://www.michiganpublic.org/2025-04-29/a-black-all-female-wwii-unit-got-a-congressional-medal-80-years-after-making-history
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-six-triple-eight-all-black-womens-wwii-unit-honored-with-congressional-gold-medal
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-an-all-black-womens-army-corps-unit-still-fighting-for-recognition/
- https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-117s321enr/html/BILLS-117s321enr.htm
No. 078 SOS stands for nothing
No. 079 The drums that talked in sentences
No. 080 Hello, not ahoy
No. 081 The Scottish pillar box war
- https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/the-battle-of-the-cypher/
- https://www.postcrossing.com/blog/2026/03/19/the-scottish-pillar-box-war
- https://edinphoto.org.uk/1_edin/1_edinburgh_history_-_recollections_royal_mail_pillar_boxes.htm
- https://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1953/1953_SC_396.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillar_Box_War
No. 082 Reuter’s pigeons
- https://www.thebaron.info/archives/history
- https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/happy-200th-birthday-to-paul-julius-reuter-journalism-innovator-who-founded-a-news-empire-with-pigeons/
- https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Paul_Julius_Reuter
- https://en.ara.cat/business/the-german-who-took-advantage-of-the-telegraph-and-pigeons-to-spread-information_1_5784351.html
No. 083 Missile mail
No. 084 The Atlantic cable that lasted three weeks
No. 085 Japanese addresses run by blocks, not streets
- https://www.city.osaka.lg.jp/shimin/cmsfiles/contents/0000668/668259/oskashijuukyohyoujijissikijyun.pdf
- https://www.city.kawasaki.jp/kurashi/category/16-30-11-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
- https://resources.realestate.co.jp/living/how-to-read-a-japanese-address/
- https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/796
- https://www.okamoto-kimono.com/column_en/6194
No. 086 Anthony Trollope’s pillar boxes
- https://www.postalmuseum.org/collections/highlights/letter-boxes/
- https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/green-post-boxes/
- https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/Historic%20Post%20Boxes%20in%20Jersey%20report%202014.pdf
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5978/pg5978.txt
No. 087 France’s internet before the internet
- https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1428755/minitel-1b-minitel-1b/
- https://spacemart.com/france-pulls-plug-on-internet-forerunner-minitel-999/
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/degrees-of-freedom/httpblogsscientificamericancomdegrees-of-freedom20110721france-telecom-to-shut-down-a-beloved-precursor-of-the-web/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel
No. 088 The slow news that reached Samuel Morse
No. 089 The letters to Juliet
- https://www.thelocal.it/20170630/letters-juliet-verona-secretaries-love-advice-travel-heartbreak
- https://proof.csmonitor.com/2002/0313/p07s02-woeu.html
- https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/juliet-answer/
- https://www.sundaytimes.lk/110213/Plus/plus_07.html
- https://www.julietclub.com/en/
No. 090 The Christmas Eve broadcast that left no trace
No. 091 Prague’s air-powered post ran until a flood
- https://expats.cz/czech-news/article/prague-pneumatic-post
- https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/domaci-potrubni-posta-ceka-na-sve-vzkriseni-sanci-ji-dal-soukromnik-162716
- https://www.finance.cz/clanky/361174-telefonica-prodala-potrubni-postu/
- https://www.postcrossing.com/blog/2013/02/08/pneumatic-post
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_pneumatic_post
No. 092 Alice Springs was named for a telegraph builder’s wife
- https://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/placenames/print_extract.jsp?id=22272
- https://alicespringstelegraphstation.com.au/our-history/
- https://ietarchivesblog.org/2022/07/12/iets-historical-link-with-alice-springs-and-the-overland-telegraph-line/
- https://ausemade.com.au/?p=44972
- https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/todd-sir-charles-4727
No. 093 Why a text message has 160 characters
No. 094 The bank whose bricks came by parcel post
No. 095 Sharks are not eating the internet
No. 096 Turn left where the old fig tree was
- https://crhoy.com/nacionales/medio-estadounidense-comparte-como-se-dan-las-direcciones-a-la-tica/
- https://www.nacion.com/viva/del-higueron-hacia-donde-un-documental-le-explica/B4X6DPCD4BGNVOX5DRLZ4B23UE/story/
- https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/international/2012/10/01/214489.htm
- https://ticotimes.net/2021/11/07/what-does-a-street-address-look-like-in-costa-rica
No. 097 The first airmail flight went the wrong way
No. 098 The telegraph line to Russia that went nowhere
- https://www.americanheritage.com/content/almost-russian-american-telegraph
- https://nps.gov/articles/000/russamertelegraph.htm
- https://pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=935
- https://www.michaelkluckner.com/bciw10hagwilget.html
- https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/alaska-siberia-telegraph
No. 099 The first 999 call
- https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/bt/pressreleases/the-999-service-is-80-years-old-today-2042177
- https://britishtelephones.com/andyemmerson/tel_hist_999.html
- https://www.telecomtv.com/content/bt/the-world-s-oldest-emergency-call-service-is-80-today-15772
- https://alondonmiscellany.blog/2022/06/27/which-service-do-you-require
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/history/how-london-tragedy-led-creation-911
No. 100 The internet’s first word was “LO”
3. Getting There Facts 101–150
No. 101 The balloonists who threw out their trousers
No. 102 The monk who left China illegally
No. 103 The Model T was not always black
No. 104 The first motoring death was a scientist
- https://offalyhistoryblog.com/2019/08/24/marking-the-wonderful-world-and-tragic-death-of-mary-ward-on-the-150th-anniversary-of-irelands-first-recorded-road-fatality-in-birr-in-1869/
- https://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/2024sciencewomen/women/mward
- https://www.herstory.ie/news/2020/2/11/mary-ward
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/100347-first-road-traffic-death
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-person-killed-by-a-car
No. 105 The funicular that runs on sewage
No. 106 Wan Hu never sat on rockets
No. 107 The first package tour was teetotal
No. 108 Sweden changed sides overnight
No. 109 Stanley probably never presumed
No. 110 The elephant who left the monorail
No. 111 The flying monk who forgot his tail
No. 112 The first drive across America, with a dog
No. 113 A passport for people with no country
- https://sites.miamioh.edu/havighurst/2021/05/10/ticket-to-freedom-the-nansen-passport-and-soviet-migration/
- https://www.passport-collector.com/the-nansen-passport/
- https://armenianmuseum.org/treasures-collection/nansen-passports
- https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1938/nansen-history.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nansen_passport
No. 114 Huskisson was not the first railway death
No. 115 Gagarin did not land in his spacecraft
No. 116 Roman tourists wrote on a singing statue
No. 117 Wrong Way Corrigan flew to the wrong country
No. 118 The first road trip, without asking
- https://nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/story-of-motoring/motoring-topics/international-womens-day-and-womens-history-month/bertha-benz/
- https://countrylife.co.uk/luxury/motoring/curious-questions-who-made-the-first-proper-car-journey-217103
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bertha-Benz
- https://dpma.de/dpma/veroeffentlichungen/patentefrauen/berthabenz/index.html
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/history/bertha-benz-and-first-ever-road-trip
- https://www.mercedesamgf1.com/news/a-pioneer-of-the-motor-car-the-story-of-bertha-benz
No. 119 Few pioneers met hostile Indians
No. 120 Marco Polo in reverse
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rabban-bar-Sauma
- https://mostre.museogalileo.it/framauro/en/cosmography-and-sources/missionaries-and-ambassadors/from-a-mongol-perspective-rabban-bar-sauma.html
- https://wehd.com/bios/Rabban_Bar_Sauma.html
- https://alansinger.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/5.18-bar-sauma.pdf
No. 121 Send a cow, send two calves
No. 122 Upstaged by the Titanic
No. 123 No law keeps Interstates straight for planes
- https://www.truckinginfo.com/news/interstates-as-runways-it-aint-so
- https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jun/07/viral-image/eisenhower-interstate-highway-system-airstrip-myth/
- https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/06/fact-check-us-interstate-highways-are-not-required-to-have-straight-sections.html
- https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byday/fhbd1119.htm
No. 124 Pascal invented the bus
No. 125 Burke and Wills missed by hours
No. 126 The real Professor Calculus
- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/piccard-travels-stratosphere-balloon
- https://www.history.com/articles/auguste-piccard-balloon-stratosphere
- https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/auguste-piccard/
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/670770-first-person-to-reach-the-stratosphere
- https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/on-the-trail-of-tintin-in-switzerland/3419852
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Piccard
No. 127 Guns coming in, women going out
No. 128 The Marne taxis ran their meters
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fleet-taxis-did-not-really-save-paris-germans-during-world-war-i-180952140/
- https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/what-to-visit-in-paris/history-heritage/articles/259038-ephemeride-du-6-septembre-a-paris-la-requisition-des-taxis-parisiens-les-taxis-de-la-marne
- https://www.slate.fr/story/91723/taxis-marne-moins-cher
No. 129 He swam the Panama Canal for 36 cents
No. 130 Villagers attacked the first balloon
No. 131 Men in dresses smashed the toll gates
- https://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/2023-12-01-why-men-in-19th-century-wales-dressed-as-women-to-protest-taxation
- https://www.peoplescollection.wales/content/rebecca-riots
- https://stdavids.churchinwales.org.uk/en/about-us/pobl-dewi/pobl-dewi-june-2026/twm-carnabwth-and-rebeccas-daughters/
- https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/The-Rebecca-Riots/
No. 132 Ramesses II never got a passport
- https://www.boomlive.in/world/no-evidence-of-a-passport-being-issued-to-mummy-of-pharaoh-ramesses-ii-10274
- https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-egypt/ramesses-passport-myth/
- https://www.futura-sciences.com/sante/actualites/medecine-secrets-momie-ramses-ii-plus-celebres-pharaons-egypte-ancienne-104560/
- https://revistas.uned.es/index.php/ETFII/article/view/1761
- https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/03/the-passport-of-ramesses-ii/126812
No. 133 New York’s first subway was blown by a fan
- https://www.americanheritage.com/alfred-ely-beach-and-his-wonderful-pneumatic-underground-railway
- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/technology/nyunderground/secret.html
- https://daily.jstor.org/pneumatic-subway/
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/transportation/trains/new-york-citys-other-subway
- https://www.untappedcities.com/nycs-first-subway-a-one-block-pneumatic-tunnel-below-broadway/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Pneumatic_Transit
No. 134 Winning Peking to Paris with time for a banquet
No. 135 The camel defeated the wheel
No. 136 Amelia Earhart crossed the Atlantic as baggage
- https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/?p=2880
- https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/about/history/pioneers/amelia_earhart.pdf
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-great-welsh-amelia-earhart-controversy
- https://www.welshcountry.co.uk/amelia-earhart/
- https://digitalfilmarchive.net/media/amelia-earhart-landing-in-derry-117
No. 137 Hitler did not build the first autobahn
No. 138 Sorry, the train left 20 seconds early
- https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/16/564558279/after-tokyo-commuter-train-leaves-20-seconds-early-company-apologizes
- https://www.tokyoweekender.com/2017/11/apology-issued-train-leaves-20-seconds-early/
- https://www.thejakartapost.com/travel/2018/05/17/japan-train-departs-25-seconds-early-company-apologizes-for-truly-inexcusable-mistake
No. 139 Their film was developed 33 years later
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/balloonists-disappear-north-pole-photographs
- https://onthisdateinphotography.com/2017/09/04/september-4-latent/
- https://www.modernamuseet.se/en/stockholm/exhibitions/treasures-from-viton/
- https://primusequipment.com/en/blogs/blog/33-years-in-the-ice
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Strindberg
No. 140 A man with a red flag walked ahead
- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/41-42/77/enacted
- https://www.worcesterpeopleandplaces.org.uk/news/687/146/Early-Restrictions-on-Mechanical-Vehicles.html
- https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/november-1993/71/red-flag
- https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Walter_Arnold
- https://vccofgb.co.uk/london-to-brighton/
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/history/law/ridiculous-uk-traffic-laws-yore
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_flag_traffic_laws
No. 141 Round the world on a sponsor’s name
No. 142 The world’s first airline flew zeppelins
No. 143 Shackleton never placed that advert
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/shackleton-probably-never-took-out-an-ad-seeking-men-for-a-hazardous-journey-5552379/
- https://markhorrell.com/blog/2012/safe-return-doubtful-was-shackletons-advert-apocryphal
- https://www.dundeeheritagetrust.co.uk/story/female-crew-discovery/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition
No. 144 Cyclists paved America’s roads before cars
No. 145 First to fly, first to die
- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/first-cross-channel-flight
- https://explorersweb.com/great-explorers-jean-francois-pilatre-de-rozier/
- https://www.aerosteles.net/stelefr-wimereux-ballon
- https://cfe.cameronballoons.co.uk/portfolio/breitling-orbiter-3
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-manned-flight
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Pil%C3%A2tre_de_Rozier
No. 146 The man who walked around the world
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-a-minnesota-man-walked-around-the-world-traversing-13-countries-and-14450-miles-in-four-years-180985172/
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-circumnavigation-by-walking
- https://mspmag.com/arts-and-culture/the-man-who-walked-around-the-world/
- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-5/american-circumnavigates-the-globe-on-foot
No. 147 Jaywalking was a motor-industry campaign
No. 148 The first car crash is a story
- https://fbhvc.co.uk/news/article/2-6-february-2022-retromobile-a-magnificent-time-machine
- https://octane-magazine.com/articles/features/cugnot-fardier-a-vapeur-replica-the-first-self-propelled-vehicle
- https://www.themotormuseuminminiature.co.uk/inv-nicolas-cugnot.php
- https://www.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/fardier-vapeur
- https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/nicolas-joseph-cugnot/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas-Joseph_Cugnot
No. 149 Lindbergh was not first across the Atlantic
- https://www.cam.ac.uk/node/205902
- https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/the-first-non-stop-transatlantic-flight-by-alcock-and-brown-in-1919/
- https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/ryan-nyp-spirit-st-louis-charles-lindbergh/nasm_A19280021000
- https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4450
No. 150 The waiting list for the Moon
- https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/were-you-member-%E2%80%9Cfirst-moon-flights%E2%80%9D-club
- https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/card-club-pan-am-first-moon-flights/nasm_A20180010000
- https://www.neh.gov/article/long-spacex-pan-am-was-booking-flights-moon
- https://ingeniumcanada.org/channel/articles/the-moon-is-one-of-the-most-relaxing-resorts-in-the-universe-call-us-today-for-a
4. Doctor’s Orders Facts 151–200
No. 151 The tonsil lottery
No. 152 Cases not to be treated
- https://sae.saw-leipzig.de/en/documents/papyrus-edwin-smith
- https://boneandjoint.org.uk/Article/10.1302/2048-0105.22.360124
- https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~duchan/new_history/ancient_history/edwin_smith_papyrus.html
- https://cme30.eu/ancient-egyptian-medicine-part-ii-surgery/
- https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/a-treatment-that-has-stood-the-test-of-time-for-over-three-and-a-half-millennia/
No. 153 The king’s healing hand
No. 154 The countess who never had the fever
No. 155 The viruses Georgia never gave up
No. 156 The emperor’s doctor and the electric ray
No. 157 The family secret in the attic
No. 158 Meat hung across Baghdad
No. 159 Premature babies at Coney Island
No. 160 Drinking gold to stay young
- https://hekint.org/2021/06/01/diane-de-poitiers-a-case-of-mammary-narcissism/
- https://www.npr.org/transcripts/121600083
- https://www.utmb.edu/mdnews/podcast/episode/when-gold-doesn't-glitter
- https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/121569
- https://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b5311
- https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2010/05/31/Bones-of-kings-mistress-restored-to-grave/16721275319353/
- https://scienceblogs.com/speakeasyscience/2010/04/23/a-golden-fairy-tale
No. 161 Banana wine and a caesarean in Bunyoro
No. 162 “First, do no harm” is not in the Oath
No. 163 The teething syrup the AMA called a baby killer
No. 164 The bronze man who leaked when you hit the spot
No. 165 Pinel did not strike off the chains
No. 166 The doctor who prescribed the seaside
- https://www.history.com/articles/sea-cure-beach-resort
- https://1min.brightonmuseums.org.uk/one-minute-wonders/richard-russell/
- https://queensparkbooks.org.uk/discover-brighton/?p=584
- https://www.rct.uk/collection/stories/brighton-pavilion-the-making-of-a-pleasure-palace
- https://wellcomecollection.org/works/wc2q4jg8
No. 167 The surgeon’s hands at stake in Babylon
No. 168 The Nobel Prize for giving patients malaria
No. 169 Venice treacle, made in public
No. 170 The pump handle came off too late
No. 171 Translating an anatomy book nobody could read
- https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/299ef34b-1b54-42bb-a4a9-4eec3e234d47/content
- https://www.med.nagoya-u.ac.jp/medlib/history_en/archive/print/1774kaitai.html
- https://www.morethantokyo.com/?p=7201
- https://ndl.go.jp/nichiran/e/s2/s2_2.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugita_Genpaku
No. 172 More doctors smoke Camels, after a free carton
No. 173 The town that takes in patients
No. 174 Washington’s last bleeding
No. 175 A hospital that paid its patients to leave
No. 176 Mother Hutton was an advertisement
- https://barber.org.uk/reclaiming-the-foxglove-2/
- https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/william-withering-1741-1799-a-biographical-sketch-of-a-birmingham-lunatic/
- https://hekint.org/2017/01/27/william-withering-and-the-foxglove/
- https://heart.bmj.com/content/54/3/256.full.pdf
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC481892/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Hutton
No. 177 The undertaker who invented dieting
No. 178 Sleeping in the healing god’s temple
- https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/en/edizioni/riviste/axon/2017/2/guarigioni-di-asclepio-a-epidauro/
- https://edizionicafoscari.it/media/pdf/article/axon/2017/2/art-10.14277-2532-6848-Axon-1-2-17-08.pdf
- https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1867-0508-117
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7081739/
No. 179 Penicillin saved from the urine
- https://theconversation.com/guns-not-roses-heres-the-true-story-of-penicillins-first-patient-178463
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/how-world-war-ii-put-penicillin-into-every-pharmacy
- https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/backfromthedead/exhibition/consumption/
- https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/backfromthedead/exhibition/penicillin-culture-and-specimen/index.html
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2012/12/18/when-you-swallow-a-grenade/
- https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/107966/1/ADC-penicillins-280516_clean%20copy_accepted.pdf
No. 180 The plague doctor’s beak came late
No. 181 An Indian nose operation reached London by magazine
- https://history.rcp.ac.uk/blog/singular-operation-history-indian-rhinoplastic-surgical-technique
- https://www.bl.uk/stories/blogs/posts/britains-first-nose-job
- https://hekint.org/2019/05/07/of-honors-lost-and-honor-regained-indian-origin-of-plastic-surgery/
- https://rcp.adlibhosting.com/Details/museum/8934
No. 182 Women campaigned for twilight sleep
No. 183 The worm in the tooth
No. 184 Twenty-two boys carry a vaccine
No. 185 No snake in the snake oil
- https://www.wamc.org/2013-08-26/a-history-of-snake-oil-salesmen
- https://www.independentpharmacist.co.uk/beware-of-snakes
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/snake-oil-salesmen-knew-something/
- https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/fun-fact-what-was-snake-oil-used-to-treat-in-the-american-west-in-the-19th-century
No. 186 Lamb’s blood and a murder trial
No. 187 Caesar was not born that way
No. 188 The pope’s coca wine
No. 189 The doctor who named himself
No. 190 A lecture that pulled teeth
No. 191 The Aztec herbal that went home
No. 192 The Navy’s useless lime juice
- https://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic38-2-148.pdf
- https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-george-strong-nares
- https://www.freezeframe.ac.uk/resources/expeditions/arctic/british-arctic-expedition-1875-6/british-arctic-expedition-1875-6
- https://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm
No. 193 Homesickness was a disease
No. 194 Teething powders and pink disease
No. 195 When the boiling oil ran out
No. 196 Chloroform by royal appointment
No. 197 The wrong snakes on the badge
No. 198 Darwin takes the water cure
No. 199 Forty-two million leeches in a year
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/0DDEC3DE8F6EF5400F178EDDEE49F25E/S0030605300017142a.pdf/why-we-need-to-save-the-medicinal-leech.pdf
- https://jameslindlibrary.org/articles/pierre-charles-alexandre-louis-and-the-evaluation-of-bloodletting/
- https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K040187
- https://www.healthday.com/health-news/alternative-medicine/it-s-official-leeches-are-medical-applications-519818.html
5. It Doesn’t Add Up Facts 201–250
No. 201 The door that fooled the professors
- https://academicweb.nd.edu/~rwilliam/stats1/appendices/Monty-NYTimes.pdf
- https://www.usu.edu/math/schneit/StatsHistory/ProbabilityPrompts/MontyHall
- https://3quarksdaily.com/?p=16804
- https://behavioralscientist.org/steven-pinker-rationality-why-you-should-always-switch-the-monty-hall-problem-finally-explained/
No. 202 The abbey floor that dates doomsday
No. 203 In ancient China, red meant positive
No. 204 Lebanon’s last census was taken in 1932
No. 205 Gauss and the hundred numbers
No. 206 The stock index that lost by chopping
No. 207 The haberdasher who counted the dead
No. 208 Sumo wrestlers on seven and seven
No. 209 The pope accused of devilish numerals
No. 210 2.4 million wrong answers
- https://pdixon.stat.iastate.edu/stat587/resources/president-landon-and-the-1936-literary-digest-poll-were-automobile-and-telephone-owners-to-blame.pdf
- https://about.proquest.com/en/blog/2016/That-Time-the-Literary-Digest-Poll-Got-1936-Election-Wrong/
- https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,882981,00.html
No. 211 Seven hundred digits of pi, wrong after 527
- https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Shanks/
- https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Pi_through_the_ages/
- https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/shanks-william
- https://www.imj-prg.fr/~michel.waldschmidt/articles/pdf/PiAngers07032008.pdf
No. 212 Casanova sold the French crown a lottery
No. 213 The average airman did not exist
No. 214 Florence’s bankers banned the new numerals
- https://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/25apr08_-_mathematics_of_currency_and_exchange_-_norman_biggs_0.pdf
- https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/27613
- https://yorku.ca/bwall/math1700/bw-notes/math1700-11-renaissancemath.pdf
- https://www.cut-the-knot.org/books/Reviews/DevlinsFibonacci.shtml
No. 215 Disraeli never damned statistics
No. 216 Death by horse kick, predicted
No. 217 Census night in a parliament cupboard
- https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-studies-women-parliament/ewd/1911-census-form/
- https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/no-vote-no-census-the-1911-suffrage-census-protests/
- https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/exhibitions/women-suffrage/emily-wilding-davison.html
- https://historyofparliament.com/2013/06/13/emily-wilding-davison/
- https://londonremembers.com/subjects/25591
- https://spectator.co.uk/article/tony-benn-feminist
- https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-studies-women-parliament/ewd/tony-benn-plaque/
- https://map.mappingwomenssuffrage.org.uk/items/show/155
No. 218 How to lie with smoking statistics
No. 219 Fibonacci was never called Fibonacci
No. 220 The man who bought almost every ticket
No. 221 Galton tested whether prayer works
No. 222 Ten thousand steps was a sales slogan
- https://mcgill.ca/oss/article/health/10000-steps-myth-or-fact
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/10000-steps-a-day-or-fewer-2019071117305
- https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/06/for-older-women-just-7500-steps-a-day-lowers-mortality
- https://doaj.org/article/c3639c468b4348958202e52793ab979d
- https://www.yamasa-tokei.co.jp/
- https://www.popsci.com/story/health/10000-steps-evidence-study/
No. 223 The stolen secret of the cubic
No. 224 The bogus odds used against Dreyfus
No. 225 The waitress and the general’s birthday
No. 226 Pi on a professor’s tombstone
No. 227 Venice’s number 53
- https://archivio.unita.news/assets/main/2005/06/12/page_010.pdf
- https://documenti.camera.it/_dati/leg14/lavori/stenografici/sed554/pdfbtind.pdf
- https://www.9colonne.it/396446/six-years-ago-the-historical-draw-took-place-at-the-italian-lottery-number-53-returned-after-257-competitions-the-longest-wait-ever
- https://www.quotidiano.net/cronaca/lotto-53-ritardatario-37b1ba08
- https://documenti.camera.it/_dati/leg14/lavori/stenografici/sed577/pdfbt11.pdf
No. 228 Wolfskehl’s prize and the suicide legend
No. 229 The lady with the statistics
- https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2020/general-news/nightingale-2020-the-bicentenary-our-first-female/
- https://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/lady-with-the-diagram
- https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/news/12116-the-healing-power-of-data--florence-nightingale's-true-legacy
- https://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2024-06/History_of_Statistics_Department.pdf
No. 230 BMI was meant for populations
No. 231 The hot hand comes back
No. 232 Letters about an unfinished game
No. 233 The Jedi outnumbered the Sikhs
- http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=297
- https://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/census2001maps/
- https://www.theregister.com/2003/02/14/jedis_reach_the_stars/
- https://data.london.gov.uk/download/28529895-318a-4126-941c-508307fd1413/3ddccb1e-ce99-43d8-861a-9fbfe54d2680/DMAG%2520Briefing%25202003-09%25202001%2520Census%2520Key%2520Statistics%2520Ethnicity%252C%2520religion%2520and%2520country%2520of%2520birth%2520no%2520maps.pdf
No. 234 Wald’s bombers and the missing holes
No. 235 The dirty first pages
No. 236 The mathematician who never existed
No. 237 The first veto was arithmetic
No. 238 The Parthenon ignores the golden ratio
- https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/devlin_05_07.html
- https://people.math.carleton.ca/~rhfischl/PUBLICATIONS/zeising.html
- https://goldenratioinart.artinterp.org/omeka/neatline/show/the-parthenon
- https://www.sciencealert.com/mathematicians-argue-that-the-golden-ratio-is-not-the-formula-for-beauty
No. 239 The dull taxi number
No. 240 The draft lottery was not random
No. 241 The lady who could taste the milk going in first
No. 242 A third of a pound looked smaller than a quarter
No. 243 Lazzarini’s needle found pi a little too well
No. 244 Guinness’s secret statistician called himself Student
No. 245 Einstein never praised compound interest
No. 246 The embezzler whose numbers were too random
No. 247 A million random digits, bound and sold
No. 248 Convicted by multiplication
No. 249 Praise, blame and flight school
No. 250 Counting German tanks by their serial numbers
6. Built to Last, Built to Fall Facts 251–300
No. 251 Citicorp’s secret night repairs
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/05/29/the-fifty-nine-story-crisis
- https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/structural-integrity/
- https://builtworlds.com/news/listen-how-a-curious-student-prevented-an-engineering-catastrophe/
- https://ktvz.com/entertainment/cnn-style/2025/08/15/this-new-york-skyscraper-had-a-1-in-16-chance-of-collapse-only-one-man-knew/
- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/citicorp.html
No. 252 Ethiopia’s churches carved downward
No. 253 The Colossus never straddled the harbor
No. 254 The hotel raised with guests inside
No. 255 The earthquake that lengthened a bridge
- https://www.jb-honshi.co.jp/english/bridgeworld/bridge.html
- https://trid.trb.org/View/732893
- https://www.roadsbridges.com/akashi-kaikyo-bridge
- https://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/opening-worlds-largest-suspension-bridge
- https://www.adnkronos.com/the-longest-suspension-bridge-in-the-world-1915canakkale-opens-18-months-ahead-of-schedule_2FTzzvM8ZFSrAgsOYNGsQt
No. 256 The Taj builders kept their hands
No. 257 Cologne’s plan in an inn attic
No. 258 Stonehenge’s stone from Scotland
- https://aber.ac.uk/en/news/archive/2024/08/title-274690-en.html
- https://sciencenews.org/article/stonehenge-altar-stone-scotland-roots
- https://ktvz.com/cnn-other/2024/09/13/a-key-piece-of-stonehenge-likely-came-from-scotland-the-search-for-its-origins-is-intensifying/
- https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/aug/stonehenge-altar-stone-came-scotland-not-wales
No. 259 Merer’s logbook for the pyramid
- https://archaeology.org/issues/116-1401/features/1584-wadi-el-jarf-port-papyrus-khufu-cheops
- https://aeraweb.org/?p=6379
- https://the-past.com/review/books/the-red-sea-scrolls-how-ancient-papyri-reveal-the-secrets-of-the-pyramids-2/
- https://roger-pearse.com/weblog/2017/09
- https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n08/robert-cioffi/in-gold-and-lapis-lazuli
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_Merer
No. 260 The wobbly bridge closed in two days
No. 261 The iron ring was not the bridge
No. 262 China’s 1,400-year-old stone bridge
No. 263 Sagrada Família’s late building permit
- https://www.catalannews.com/life-style/item/sagrada-familia-finally-gets-building-permit-134-years-since-applying
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/la-sagrada-familia-receives-building-permit-137-years-after-construction-began-180972390/
- https://www.designboom.com/architecture/gaudi-sagrada-familia-building-permit-after-137-years-06-10-2019/
- https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2026-02/basilica-sagrada-familia-cross-completed-tower-of-jesus-christ.html
- https://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/pope-leo-xiv-popemobil-barcelona-june-10-2026
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_municipalities_of_Barcelona
No. 264 Inca walls outlasted the Spanish
- https://webarchive.unesco.org/web/20151214153535/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0006/000662/066222eo.pdf
- https://vistasgallery.ace.fordham.edu/items/show/1750
- https://eos.org/articles/written-in-stone-inca-buildings-remember-ancient-earthquakes
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_and_Convent_of_Santo_Domingo,_Cusco
No. 265 Liberty was meant for Suez
- https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric-auguste-bartholdi.htm
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/statue-liberty-was-originally-muslim-woman-180957377/
- https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/198605/the.new.colossus.htm
- https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the-statue-of-libertys-egyptian-origins/
No. 266 The Parthenon was a powder store
No. 267 The Forbidden City’s 9,999 rooms
- https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674d3041544f33457a6333566d54/share_amp.html
- https://english.visitbeijing.com.cn/article/47ONSsZxsLa
- https://www.chinaservicesinfo.com/s/201812/21/WS5c9f02a5498e079e6801c22d/more-room-to-breathe-as-the-forbidden-city-thins-the-crowds.html
- https://www.ourchinastory.com/en/amp/16029
- https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/439/
No. 268 The wife who built Brooklyn Bridge
- https://www.history.com/articles/brooklyn-bridge-emily-roebling
- https://www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage/notable-civil-engineers/emily-warren-roebling
- https://savingplaces.org/stories/emily-warren-roebling-cornerstone-construction-brooklyn-bridge
- https://www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2013/04/18/emily-warren-roebling
- https://mappingnyc.mcny.org/o/mcny/post/35fbabd1-596c-4ddf-bcf6-84f3a3558b93
No. 269 Two teams met under a mountain
No. 270 Hitler’s test block in Berlin
- https://www.berlin.de/ba-tempelhof-schoeneberg/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2026/pressemitteilung.1657095.php
- https://www.ingenieur.de/technik/fachbereiche/bau/schwerbelastungskoerper-wo-hitlers-groessenwahn-im-boden-versank/
- https://www.visitberlin.de/de/schwerbelastungskoerper
- https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/616-the-nazi-block/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerbelastungsk%C3%B6rper
No. 271 The mosque its town replasters every year
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/13/world/mali-thousands-replaster-great-mosque-djenne-under-threat-conflict
- https://www.arabnews.com/node/2604511/world
- https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/116/
- https://us.gestalten.com/blogs/journal/an-ancient-mud-mosque-annually-restored
- https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2018/saving-the-great-mosque-of-djenne/
No. 272 The London tower that melted a Jaguar
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23930675
- https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0903/Skyscraper-melting-cars-How-a-London-building-is-creating-a-flaming-death-ray
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/it-hotter-anywhere-ive-ever-been-london-skyscraper-melts-cars-flna8C11066086
- https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/walkie-scorchie-sun-shade-goes-up-this-month
- https://www.foxnews.com/auto/the-skyscraper-that-melted-a-car-wins-award-for-uks-worst-new-building
No. 273 Ivan did not blind St Basil’s architect
No. 274 Roman concrete heals its own cracks
No. 275 The bridge the river walked away from
- https://apnews.com/75cbf7e4ea38d19a6e9ff03aa321dbb8
- https://www.jica.go.jp/english/our_work/evaluation/tech_and_grant/program/country/pdf/2002_honduras_e.pdf
- https://www.ad-hzm.co.jp/english/works/global/0209.php
- https://www.elheraldo.hn/honduras/cierran-puente-ingreso-choluteca-realizan-evacuaciones-crecida-rio-EF22724033
- https://www.infobae.com/america/mundo/2025/11/27/el-puente-de-choluteca-la-obra-que-vencio-al-huracan-mitch-pero-perdio-su-rio/
No. 276 Wren’s pay held back until St Paul’s was done
No. 277 Twin towers, rival builders
- https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/1996/06/22/19960622027001
- https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/business/korea-rises-to-skyscraper-superstar/11740180
- https://news.samsungcnt.com/en/features/engineering-construction/2017-05-bridging-the-sky-samsung-ct-pioneering-the-future-of-the-skybridge/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronas_Towers
No. 278 Great Zimbabwe and the archaeologists Rhodesia drove out
- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/mysteries-of-great-zimbabwe/
- https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/364/
- https://resolve.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/15E527FDFF38A0BB003FB0D804EC76D5/S0003598X00068976a.pdf/editorial.pdf
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/DAB8326B5F79A9535A27E489E652A50F/S0003598X00058191a.pdf/editorial.pdf
- https://assets.cambridge.org/97811070/21709/excerpt/9781107021709_excerpt.pdf
No. 279 Firemen cooled the Gateway Arch to finish it
No. 280 The lighthouse architect’s hidden name
- https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg0062/tlg053/perseus-eng3/61-63
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/17A1*.html
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D36%3Achapter%3D18
- https://cts.perseids.org/read/pdlrefwk/viaf88890045/003/perseus-eng1/S.sostratus_18
- https://www.tovima.com/vima-history/the-lighthouse-that-once-ruled-the-seas-and-vanished/
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/lighthouse-of-Alexandria
- https://archaeology.org/news/2015/05/05/150505-alexandria-lighthouse-replica/
No. 281 The engineer who rolled churches on rails
- https://orthochristian.com/99477.html
- https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/ap-top-news/2019/01/06/romanian-engineer-who-rescued-churches-from-destruction-dies
- https://thehub.rferl.org/a/romania-bucharest-architecture/29942381.html
- https://rri.ro/en/features-and-reports/rri-encyclopaedia/eugeniu-iordachescu-id169160.html
- https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/1840340-4932932-1875wz/index.html
No. 282 Modernism did not die at 3:32 p.m.
No. 283 Delhi’s iron pillar that will not rust
No. 284 The cathedral that kept falling down
No. 285 The horseman who opened the bridge early
No. 286 Who really saved the Ponte Vecchio
- https://www.thelocal.it/20160525/did-a-nazi-official-save-florences-ponte-vecchio-from-destruction-gerhard-wolf-second-world-war-italy
- https://smarthistory.org/ponte-vecchio-florence/
- https://oralhistory.itatti.harvard.edu/1944_readmore
- https://www.historytoday.com/archive/hitler-and-mussolini-meet-rome
- https://www.historyhit.com/the-detonation-of-the-bridges-of-florence-and-german-atrocities-in-wartime-italy-during-world-war-two/
No. 287 The world’s biggest pyramid is a hill
- https://antharky.ucalgary.ca/mccafferty/cholula/the-great-pyramid
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/83651-largest-monument-ever-constructed
- https://lugares.inah.gob.mx/en/node/5519
- https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/destinos/cual-es-la-ciudad-mas-antigua-de-mexico-y-cuales-son-sus-atractivos/
No. 288 The Channel Tunnel of 1881
No. 289 Eiffel did not build Maputo’s Iron House
- https://www.routard.com/fr/guide/afrique/mozambique/province-de-maputo/maputo/maison-de-fer
- https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/mundo/casa-de-ferro-de-maputo-procura-nova-vida-a-chegar-aos-135-anos_n1744674
- https://livinginperu.com/who-built-la-marina-lighthouse-in-miraflores
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_de_Ferro
No. 290 Stalin’s palace became a swimming pool
No. 291 The dam that survived its own flood
No. 292 The Dutch boy and the dike never happened
- https://www.dutchgenealogy.nl/why-the-little-dutch-boy-never-put-his-finger-in-the-dike
- https://www.flevolandsgeheugen.nl/page/13235/the-story-of-hans-brinker
- https://open-science.unesco.org/records/crfdf-wkz91
- https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/book-description/how-mary-mapes-dodge-came-to-write-hans-brinker-or-the-silver-skates/
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/764/pg764.txt
- https://map.haerlem.nl/uploads/1082.pdf
No. 293 Lincoln outgrew the Great Pyramid
No. 294 The minaret Genghis Khan spared
No. 295 Florence’s dome with no wooden frame
No. 296 The canal its builder never saw
- https://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/construction-languedoc-canal
- https://dailygeekshow.com/lexploit-dingenierie-du-canal-du-midi-masque-la-ruine-tragique-de-son-fondateur-mort-juste-avant-linauguration/
- https://lindahall.org/pierre-paul-riquet
- https://thegoodlifefrance.com/the-history-of-the-canal-du-midi/
- https://francetoday.com/learn/history/history-canal-du-midi/
No. 297 Chinese walls held with sticky rice
No. 298 He knew it was London Bridge
No. 299 Utzon never saw his opera house
- https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/our-story/utzon-departs-the-house
- https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/our-story/sydney-opera-house-facts.html
- https://www.thelocal.dk/20231020/why-sydney-opera-houses-danish-architect-was-not-present-at-1973-opening
- https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/visit/our-venues/utzon-room
- https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/our-story/conserving-and-celebrating-our-heritage
No. 300 Tacoma Narrows was not resonance
7. What Time Is It? Facts 301–350
No. 301 Samoa lived one day twice and skipped another
No. 302 Rome’s borrowed sundial told Sicilian time
No. 303 Nobody rioted for the eleven lost days
No. 304 The Soviet five-day week split up families
No. 305 Galileo’s lamp came too late
- https://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/itineraries/place/CathedralOfSantaMaria.html
- https://sigecweb.beniculturali.it/sigec/item/print/ICCD2774765
- https://museogalileo.it/en/galileo/life.html
- https://linux.studenti.polito.it/static_resources/liberliber/biblioteca/v/viviani/racconto_istorico_della_vita_di_galileo/pdf/raccon_p.pdf
No. 306 Bali’s silent New Year shuts the airport
- https://bali.antaranews.com/berita/401062/24-hour-operational-suspension-during-nyepi-at-bali-airport
- https://rri.co.id/en/national/2267474/government-adjusts-transportation-operations-ahead-of-nyepi-day-in-bali
- https://rri.co.id/nasional/2272200/inilah-empat-pantangan-catur-brata-penyepian-di-hari-nyepi
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/3/17/bali-observes-day-of-silence-amid-complaints-over-internet-cut
- https://whatsnewindonesia.com/bali/feature/will-internet-still-be-accessible-bali-during-nyepi-2026
- https://inet.detik.com/law-and-policy/d-8406277/nyepi-2026-di-bali-komdigi-imbau-matikan-internet-seluler-selama-24-jam
No. 307 The Day of Two Noons
No. 308 The saint who died between dates
- https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/teresa-of-jesus-avila-saint
- https://www.catholic.com/qa/is-it-true-that-10-days-were-lost-to-the-world-after-teresa-of-avila-died
- https://carmelitequotes.blog/2022/10/03/teresa-death4ocd/
- https://www.aciprensa.com/recursos/ultimos-anos-3518/
- https://www.jurist.org/thisday/2009/10/15/gregorian-calendar-implemented
No. 309 China’s lost clock tower
- https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/songdynasty-module/tech-experiment.html
- https://www.sinoptic.ch/histoire/figures/franz-stadlin/horloge-armillaire-a-eau-de-kaifeng/
- https://www.nmns.edu.tw/en/exhibitions/galleries/human-cultures-hall/water-powered/
- https://incois.gov.in/Tutor/science+society/lectures/illustrations/lecture15/clock.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Song
No. 310 Franklin’s daylight-saving joke
No. 311 Ethiopia’s millennium arrived seven years late
No. 312 The Aztec fire relit every 52 years
No. 313 France took Greenwich time without naming Greenwich
- https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/118749
- http://www.europastar.com/the-watch-files/the-mysteries-of-time/1004114229-how-france-adopted-greenwich-mean-time-and-still.html
- https://promenade.imcce.fr/fr/pages5/502.html
- https://www.herodote.net/9_mars_1911-evenement-19110309.php
- https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2020-June/029108.html
No. 314 A stopped watch and the Kipton train wreck
- https://remarkableohio.org/marker/24-47-great-kipton-train-wreck/
- https://conneautohio.us/newspapers_railroad.htm
- https://www.ballwatch.com/global/1/company/history.html
- https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_852417
- https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/railroad-pocket-watch.html
- https://www.clockguy.com/SiteRelated/SiteReferencePages/BallWatchHistory.html
No. 315 Sweden’s thirtieth of February
No. 316 Kofi Annan’s first name means Friday
- https://www.un.org/sg/en/former-sg/kofi-annan
- https://teachingafrica.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1308/2024/01/L5-Akan-Naming-Tradition.docx.pdf
- https://teachingafrica.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1308/2024/01/Whats-In-A-Name__-Names-Game-Activities-Based-on-Ghanaian-Weekday-Names.pdf
- https://njas.fi/njas/article/download/24/16/38
- https://www.kofiannanfoundation.org/kofi-annan/a-tribute-to-kofi-annan-from-his-family/
- https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/kofi-annan-who-redefined-the-u-n-dies-at-80-how-new-york-times-reported-it.html
No. 317 Augustus did not steal a day from February
- https://videnskab.dk/kultur-samfund/hvorfor-har-februar-kun-28-dage/
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_Romana/calendar/romancalendar.html
- https://roger-pearse.com/weblog/2014/05/01/caesars-reform-of-the-calendar-some-ancient-sources
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/55327/why-are-there-only-28-days-february
No. 318 Japan’s hours stretched and shrank with the seasons
- https://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/collections/traditional_Japanese_clock/
- https://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/knowledge/relation_16/
- https://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/knowledge/relation_17/
- https://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/collections/traditional_Japanese_clock/collect001/
- https://www.nippon.com/en/guide-to-japan/gu900321/
No. 319 Bristol’s clock with two minute hands
No. 320 One clock for the whole of China
- https://www.timeanddate.com/time/china/one-time-zone.html
- https://qz.com/144230/why-chinas-single-time-zone-is-a-problem
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/9/conflict-over-the-clock-china-among-countries-where-time-is-political
- https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/china/urumqi
- https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2009-October/040902.html
No. 321 The builder who campaigned for summer time
- https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/spring-forward-fall-back-the-changing-of-the-clocks-and-ww1
- https://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/ref/Willett.html
- https://blackfenpastandpresent.com/2019/03/31/william-willett-1856-1915-builder-and-inventor-of-daylight-saving/
- https://sundialsoc.org.uk/wp_bridol/pages/S0/S0511.html
- https://www.altonherald.com/news/clocks-to-go-forward-for-british-summer-time-thanks-to-efforts-of-19th-century-farnham-man-188113
- https://shortlist.com/news/when-do-the-clocks-go-back-autumn-2016-chris-martin
No. 322 Omar Khayyam’s calendar
No. 323 Russia’s Olympians and the calendar
No. 324 The caliph’s clock for Charlemagne
No. 325 Kiribati bends the date line
No. 326 Christ born a few years “Before Christ”
No. 327 The tax that named a clock
No. 328 Saved from execution by an earthquake
No. 329 Arizona’s time doughnut
- https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/the-us-is-springing-forward-to-daylight-saving-for-navajo-and-hopi-tribes-its-a-time-of-confusion/5210242/
- https://journalaz.com/2015/01/21/take-time-to-decide-if-changing-time-is-worth-the-effort
- https://timeanddate.com/time/us/arizona-no-dst.html
- https://jeddito.navajochapters.org/
No. 330 A king and a queen with two Easters
No. 331 North Korea’s own half hour
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/8/7/n-korea-winds-back-its-clocks-to-make-pyongyang-time
- https://fortune.com/2015/08/07/north-korea-time-zone
- https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/politics/20180430/north-korea-to-return-to-same-time-zone-as-south-korea-on-may-5
- https://www.wvxu.org/post/north-korea-agrees-sync-time-south-korea-symbolic-move-unify-nations
No. 332 Prague’s clockmaker was not blinded
No. 333 The month Japan cut to two days
No. 334 Florence’s backwards clock
- https://duomo.firenze.it/en/discover/cathedral/9065/
- https://duomo.firenze.it/en/opera-magazine/post/11558/the-clock-painted-by-paolo-uccello-for-the-cathedral-of-florence
- https://www.watchcollectinglifestyle.com/home/news-officine-panerai-restores-paolo-uccellos-clock-at-the-duomo-in-florence
- https://robbreport.com.my/style/watches/tuscan-roots/
- https://italoamericano.org/ora-italica/
No. 335 The calendar of turnips and manure
- https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/the-republican-calendar/
- https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/french/frcalendar.html
- https://www.worldhistory.org/French_Republican_Calendar/
- https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/dossiers-thematiques/le-coup-detat-des-18-et-19-brumaire-de-lan-viii-9-et-10-novembre-1799
No. 336 Harrison never won the prize
- https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/harrisons-clocks-longitude-problem
- https://www.lindahall.org/john-harrison/
- https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2020/01/17/valuing-john-harrisons-work-how-much-is-that-20000-longitude-reward-worth-today/
- https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8448183/marine-timekeeper-known-as-h5-by-john-harrison-and-son-1770
No. 337 Creation began on a Saturday evening
- https://ncse.ngo/seven-myths-about-ussher
- https://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/pogge.1/Ast161/Unit5/ussher.html
- https://famous-trials.com/scopesmonkey/2102-ussher
- https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1984/03/how-accurate-is-biblical-chronology
- https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/james-ussher
No. 338 The Ottoman year that disappeared
No. 339 Big Ben runs on pennies
- https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/big-ben/facts-figures/great-clock-facts/
- https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/big-ben/building-clock-tower/constructing-the-most-accurate-clock-in-the-world/
- https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/roundtheclock-keeping-big-ben-ticking
- https://www.coinnews.net/2009/11/12/royal-mint-5-crown-coin-keeps-big-ben-striking-on-time/
- https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/edmund-beckett-denison/
No. 340 The leap second’s last stand
- https://www.bipm.org/en/cgpm-2022/resolution-4
- https://www.bipm.org/en/cgpm-2026/documents
- https://www.bipm.org/documents/20126/284836054/CGPM-2026-Draft-Resolutions.pdf/2c60f609-b7ba-75b2-5ad4-94b526d182ac?version=9.0&t=1790254505444&download=true
- https://datacenter.iers.org/data/latestVersion/bulletinC.txt
- https://www.theregister.com/2012/07/02/leap_second_crashes_airlines/
- https://spectrum.ieee.org/leap-second-causes-hiccups-at-some-websites
- https://lilting.ch/en/articles/leap-second-abolition
No. 341 Shakespeare and Cervantes did not die together
No. 342 A Stone Age calendar in a Scottish field
No. 343 Saudi pay goes Gregorian
- https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/public-sector-loses-11-days-of-salary-after-calendar-switch-in-saudi-arabia-1.1903333
- https://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/ksa-switches-to-gregorian-calendar-993061
- https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/03/10/2016/Saudi-abandons-Islamic-calendar-for-govt-pay
- https://voanews.com/a/saudi-arabia-restores-perks-for-military-civil-servants/3821924.html
- https://www.okaz.com.sa/article/1604004/English/State-Employees-to-Get-Salaries-As-Per-Georgian-Calendar-King-Salman-Orders
- https://www.okaz.com.sa/economy/na/2245325
No. 344 Spain on Central European time
No. 345 Why watches in advertisements say 10:10
No. 346 The Philippines skips New Year’s Eve
No. 347 Greenwich’s one o’clock ball
No. 348 The 639-year concert
- https://www.ksat.com/entertainment/2026/08/05/this-organ-will-play-one-composition-until-2640-its-redefining-how-slowly-music-can-be-played/
- https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/ap-top-news/2026/08/05/this-organ-will-play-one-composition-until-2640-its-redefining-how-slowly-music-can-be-played
- https://www.aslsp.org/
- https://www.evangelisch.de/inhalte/257896/05-08-2026/weiterer-klangwechsel-beim-cage-orgelprojekt
No. 349 Venezuela’s half-hour revolution
- https://www.npr.org/transcripts/17067199
- https://www.theregister.com/2007/09/25/venezuelan_time_shift/
- https://voanews.com/a/venezuela-scraps-half-hour-time-difference-set-by-chavez/3288013.html
- https://theworld.org/stories/2016/07/30/venezuelans-have-set-their-clocks-ahead-half-hour-save-electricity
8. Written, Banned and Burned Facts 351–400
No. 351 The Bible that ordered adultery
No. 352 The library that kept the originals
No. 353 A novel dictated in 26 days
- https://cambridge.org/core/journals/advances-in-psychiatric-treatment/article/from-the-gambler-within-dostoyevskys-the-gambler/D7ACB14B9EAD00EB8EF65512C28EADAA
- https://www.rbth.com/history/333937-popular-legends-fyodor-dostoevsky
- https://bookforum.com/print/2804/two-new-biographies-delve-into-dostoyevsky-s-relationship-with-his-long-suffering-wife-24717
- https://theconversation.com/how-dostoevsky-overcame-his-gambling-addiction-220655
- https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F_(%D0%94%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F)
No. 354 Black Beauty and the censors’ joke
No. 355 A million printed prayers, 764
- https://jrul.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/jrul/article/view/3
- https://news.yale.edu/2023/01/24/worlds-oldest-printed-objects-join-gutenberg-bible-beinecke-display
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/62374
- https://cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-asian-studies/article/hyakumanto-darani-and-the-origins-of-printing-in-eighthcentury-japan/CFF689ABB89B176CC9355D2FE7E8DAA6
No. 356 The poet who never existed
No. 357 Kafka said burn everything
- https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0d04d68b-eb2e-47c5-a323-5f43bcf9b828/files/rg158bh85b
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/view-assortment-franz-kafkas-letters-and-drawings-online-180977909/
- https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/10/08/2016/Kafka-s-manuscripts-are-Israeli-property-court
- https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/131697
No. 358 Alexandria did not burn once
No. 359 The guest who stayed five weeks
No. 360 Cut out Beria, paste in Bering
No. 361 A book of psalms came up out of a bog
- https://source.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Conservation/Conservation-Projects/The-Faddan-More-Psalter/Discovery-and-Condition
- https://source.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Irish-Antiquities-Division-Collections/Collections-List-(1)/Early-Medieval/The-Faddan-More-Psalter/Discovery-and-Identification
- https://www.irishcentral.com/news/bog-manuscript-most-important-find-since-ardagh-chalice-102283079-237714461
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faddan_More_Psalter
No. 362 Nobody stormed the docks for Little Nell
- https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/ncs/article/28/1/57/250617/When-Found-Make-a-Note-of-Tracing-the-Source-of-a
- https://cris.iucc.ac.il/en/publications/when-found-make-a-note-of-tracing-the-source-of-a-dickensian-lege/
- https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/harris/19thBritNovel/Handouts/Dickens%20OCS.htm
- https://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/cattermole/9.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Curiosity_Shop
No. 363 Gutenberg lost his press to his backer
- https://www.gutenberg.de/en/zeit/zeitleiste_gutenberg
- https://bridwell.omeka.net/exhibits/show/schoeffer/gutenbergfustschoeffer
- https://dpul.princeton.edu/gutenberg/feature/fust-and-schoeffer-in-mainz
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Colophon_(paragraph)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Fust
No. 364 Novels read aloud to Cuba’s cigar rollers
- https://www.ecured.cu/Lector_de_tabaquería_(oficio)
- https://www.eluniversal.com.co/mundo/2021/07/02/lector-de-tabaqueria-oficio-oculto-tras-los-puros-cubanos/
- https://www.gulf-times.com/story/365060/cuban-readers-make-a-career-reading-out-loud-to-tobacco-workers/amp
- https://oncubanews.com/cuba/lectores-de-tabaqueria
- https://www.prensa-latina.cu/2024/02/29/el-misterioso-epicentro-de-las-fabricas-de-tabaco-de-cuba/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lector_(cigar_manufacture)
No. 365 The writer who won the Goncourt twice
No. 366 The scholars were probably not buried alive
No. 367 Thoreau’s library of 700 unsold books
No. 368 The friar who burned the Maya books
- https://archaeology.org/?p=53254
- https://popular-archaeology.com/article/burning-the-maya-books-the-1562-tragedy-at-mani/
- https://exhibits.lib.unc.edu/exhibits/show/maya/decipherment/sistema-pisma-drevnikh-maiia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_de_Landa
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Codex_of_Mexico
No. 369 Pepys’s decoder probably had the key all along
No. 370 The king who banned an alphabet
No. 371 Fifty thousand words without the letter e
No. 372 The Devil did not write the Codex Gigas
- https://www.kb.se/eng/the-codex-gigas/history-of-the-codex-gigas.html
- https://www.kb.se/eng/the-codex-gigas/history-of-the-codex-gigas/legends-and-anecdotes.html
- https://www.kb.se/eng/the-codex-gigas/appearance-of-the-codex-gigas/script.html
- https://www.kb.se/eng/the-codex-gigas/appearance-of-the-codex-gigas.html
No. 373 One prosecutor, two masterpieces, 1857
- https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/articles/requisitoire-de-m-lavocat-imperial-m-ernest-pinard-ministere-public-contre-m-gustave-flaubert/
- https://www.justice.gouv.fr/actualites/actualite/fleurs-du-mal-ou-loutrage-morale-publique
- https://www.livreshebdo.fr/article/mai-1949-baudelaire-libere-12
No. 374 In Romania, typewriters needed a police permit
No. 375 Hemingway never wrote the six-word story
No. 376 The fire that saved a king’s library
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/ancient-assyria-library-nineveh
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ashurbanipal
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Nineveh-ancient-city-Iraq
- https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-flood-tablet-relating-part-of-the-epic-of-gilgamesh/wQGL1dmyVmXRYA?hl=en
No. 377 Doris Lessing’s publisher turned down Doris Lessing
No. 378 Aladdin was first told in Paris, by a Syrian
No. 379 He watched his own books burn
- https://www.friedenspreis-des-deutschen-buchhandels.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bilderpool/geschichte/Textfassung_Buecherverbrennung_01.pdf
- https://www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/hintergrund-aktuell/268884/tag-des-buches-erinnerung-an-die-ns-buecherverbrennungen-vor-85-jahren/
- https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/130320-ausstellung-buecherverbrennung-254138
No. 380 The medieval book curse written in 1909
No. 381 Newton’s Principia and the book of fishes
- https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/rdf/catalog/CMO/2/73
- https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/rdf/catalog/CMO/2/63
- https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/rdf/catalog/CMO/2/60
- https://royalsociety.org/news/2012/The-fishy-blunder-that-nearly-prevented-Newtons-masterpiece-from-being-published
- https://royalsociety.org/blog/2013/06/the-horrible-history-of-fishes
No. 382 Iceland closed its schools for two old books
No. 383 Schiller’s drawer of rotten apples
No. 384 The KGB arrested a novel, ribbons and all
No. 385 The flawless Tripitaka has its flaws
- https://www.khan.co.kr/article/201102112118015
- https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/lifestyle/scholar-sheds-new-light-on-a-classic/10600848
- https://www.earticle.net/Article/A213356
- https://m.seoul.co.kr/news/2022/08/04/20220804014006
- https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/lifestyle/others/20100304/tripitaka-koreana-ural-treasure
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripitaka_Koreana
No. 386 George Washington’s overdue library books
- https://www.nysoclib.org/blog/curious-case-presidents-overdue-books
- https://www.nysoclib.org/historic-mount-vernon-returns-copy-rare-book-borrowed-george-washington-1789-new-york-society
- https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/george-washington-owes-300k-in-overdue-library-books/1902558/?amp=1
- https://www.npr.org/transcripts/127006075
No. 387 The fake sequel to Don Quixote
No. 388 Would you let your wife or servants read it
- https://daily.jstor.org/would-you-let-your-servant-read-this-book
- https://theconversation.com/the-chatterley-trial-60-years-on-a-court-case-that-secured-free-expression-in-1960s-britain-149197
- https://www.historyhit.com/culture/the-trial-of-lady-chatterleys-lover-and-how-it-changed-obscenity-laws/
- https://www.scottishlegal.com/articles/copy-of-lady-chatterley-s-lover-used-in-obscenity-trial-to-remain-in-uk
No. 389 Reading a scroll that Vesuvius burned
- https://scrollprize.org/firstletters
- https://scrollprize.org/grandprize
- https://scrollprize.org/
- https://scrollprize.org/firstscroll
- https://archaeologymag.com/2026/07/herculaneum-scroll-read-for-the-first-time/
- https://archaeologymag.com/2023/10/21-year-old-student-deciphered-herculaneum-scrolls/
- https://www.i-programmer.info/news/204-challenges/18967-secrets-of-the-herculanuem-scrolls-revealed.html
No. 390 Simenon never wrote in a glass cage
- https://www.rtbf.be/article/viva-for-life-g-simenon-avait-imagine-ecrire-un-roman-dans-une-cage-de-verre-8160144
- https://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/2007/07/30/the-engagement/
- https://www.fabula.org/actualites/documents/83118_2.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Cage_(novel)
No. 391 Carlyle’s manuscript went into the fire
No. 392 Too difficult to be dangerous
No. 393 Books and blindness together
No. 394 Lincoln probably never said it
No. 395 The ancient bard from 1760
- https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0071
- https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0076
- https://archive.org/details/reportofcommitte02high
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2064
- https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/paintings/ossians-dream-le-songe-dossian/
- https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/james-macpherson
No. 396 United States v. One Book
No. 397 The Haggadah saved twice
No. 398 Fahrenheit 451, quietly censored
No. 399 The suitcase lost in Paris
- https://cambridgeblog.org/?p=16077
- http://www.thehemingwayproject.com/2018/08/22/hadley-talks-about-the-lost-manuscripts/
- https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/the-library-of-dr-rodney-p-swantko/hemingway-ernest-the-authors-first-book-retaining
- https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/05/12/books-book-question-lost
No. 400 The Timbuktu book smugglers
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/Race-Save-Mali-Artifacts-180947965/
- https://dandc.eu/en/article/how-timbuktus-ancient-manuscripts-were-rescued-islamist-destruction-adds-myths-shrouding
- https://qantara.de/en/article/book-review-charlie-english%CA%B9s-book-smugglers-timbuktu-myths-and-heroes
- https://www.arabnews.com/node/2611513/amp
- https://www.africanews.com/amp/2025/11/19/timbuktus-ancient-manuscripts-return-home-but-security-threats-remain/
9. The Weather Did It Facts 401–450
No. 401 The forecaster who named storms after politicians
- https://keithdunstan.org/books/ratbags/6-clement-lindley-wragge
- https://austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0825.html
- https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wragge-clement-lindley-9193
- https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/inclement-wragge-pioneer-weather-forecaster
- https://theconversation.com/ive-always-wondered-how-do-cyclones-get-their-names-116885
- https://media.bom.gov.au/social/blog/875/how-do-tropical-cyclones-get-their-names
No. 402 An Alaskan volcano chilled the Roman world
No. 403 Forecasters were not allowed to say tornado
No. 404 The first divine wind may never have blown
- https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/c13705/myth-of-the-kamikaze-the-divine-winds-of-the-mongol-invasion-and-wartime-propaganda.html
- https://websites.umass.edu/woodruff/files/2018/01/23.pdf
- https://learn.bowdoin.edu/mongol-invasions/
- https://www.archives.go.jp/about/activity/international/jp_mn50/english/ch01.html
- https://kotobank.jp/word/元寇
- https://rekishinihon.com/2023/11/14/questioning-the-kamikaze-theory-%e6%96%87%e6%b0%b8%e3%81%ae%e5%bd%b9-%e3%81%b6%e3%82%93%e3%81%88%e3%81%84%e3%81%ae%e3%81%88%e3%81%8d-bunei-1274/
No. 405 The prize cattle in the Great Smog
No. 406 The island that remembered the smong
No. 407 An army walked across the sea
No. 408 Telegraphs that ran on the northern lights
- https://ajsonline.org/article/64677.pdf
- https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/that-time-demons-possessed-the-telegraph/
- https://www.futilitycloset.com/2009/04/08/charged-words/
- https://archive.org/details/sim_american-journal-of-science_1860-01_29_85
- https://www.history.com/articles/a-perfect-solar-superstorm-the-1859-carrington-event
No. 409 The rain that began a rebellion
No. 410 He wished to be there in the greatest storm
No. 411 The hottest day that never was
- https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/overturning-record-worlds-hottest-temperature/
- https://wmo.int/sites/default/files/2025-07/Table_Records_25Jul2025.pdf
- https://wmo.int/files/records-of-weather-and-climate-extremes-table
- https://www.uah.edu/news/items/uah-earth-system-science-center-researchers-question-world-record-hottest-temperature-ever-observed
- https://asu.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/world-meteorological-organization-assessment-of-the-purported-wor/
No. 412 No knights went through the ice
No. 413 San Diego’s unpaid rainmaker
No. 414 Korea’s rain gauges of 1441
- https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_12304029_001
- https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_12405008_001
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-024-03335-8
- https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2019/EGU2019-10219.pdf
- https://archive.org/details/ahistoryphysics01cajogoog
- https://archive.org/details/measuringnatural0000stra
No. 415 A cyclone that made a country
No. 416 An elephant crossed the Thames
No. 417 Pompeii’s October date is unproven
- https://www.archaeology.org/news/7076-181016-pompeii-date-inscription
- https://www.depauw.edu/stories/details/the-boulder-question-by-pedar-foss
- https://finestresullarte.info/en/news-focus/zuchtriegel-surprisingly-reopens-debate-on-pompeii-s-eruption-august-or-october
- https://nunc.ch/en/august-24-or-october-24-the-date-of-vesuvius-eruption-is-debated/
- https://pompeiisites.org/comunicati/lultimo-giorno-di-pompei-nuovo-studio/
- https://pompeiisites.org/en/comunicati/the-discovery-of-a-tortoise-from-2000-years-ago-and-her-egg/
No. 418 The jet stream, reported in Esperanto
No. 419 Winter did not beat Napoleon
- https://www.montana.edu/historybug/napoleon/typhus-russia.html
- https://www.britannica.com/event/French-invasion-of-Russia
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16323139/
- https://www.pasteur.fr/en/press-area/press-documents/study-suggests-two-unsuspected-pathogens-struck-napoleon-s-army-during-retreat-russia-1812
No. 420 France gave up a holiday
- https://www.inserm.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017-11/inserm-rapportthematique-surmortalitecaniculeaout2003-rapportetape.pdf
- https://www.christiantoday.com/news/french-protest-loss-of-pentecost-monday
- https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0606/p04s02-woeu.html
- https://www.senat.fr/leg/ppl07-245.pdf
- https://www.connexionfrance.com/a/201057
- https://www.lalibre.be/international/europe/2025/09/13/le-nouveau-premier-ministre-francais-fait-part-de-ses-premieres-intentions-jai-decide-de-retirer-la-suppression-de-deux-jours-feries-clone-QMECG3NECNBI5FLPRJ6J3EN3D4/
No. 421 Xerxes had the sea whipped
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D35
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D36
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D54
- https://classics.nsu.ru/schole/assets/files/20-2-linderborg.pdf
No. 422 D-Day's forecast came from County Mayo
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/12/21/nation/maureen-flavin-sweeney-weather-watcher-who-influenced-d-day-plans-dies-100
- https://www.thejournal.ie/maureen-sweeney-dies-aged-100-6252749-Dec2023/
- https://historynet.com/her-weather-report-delayed-d-day-by-a-day-and-ensured-its-success/
- https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/history-through-viewfinder-4
No. 423 Calcutta's 300,000 dead never died
No. 424 Icelanders hosed down a volcano
- https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1997/of97-724/edintro.html
- https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1997/of97-724/methods.html
- https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1997/of97-724/water.html
- https://geo.mtu.edu/volcanoes/boris/mirror/mirrored_html/Heimaey.html
- https://www.icelandicroots.com/post/50th-anniversary-of-eldfell-eruption-at-westman-islands
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1988/02/22/i-cooling-the-lava
No. 425 A forecast factory of 64,000
No. 426 Snow covered the swords at Sakurada Gate
- https://www.samurai-revolution.com/?p=4539
- https://resolve.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F38BA778B7A8ACA616AECB7EA44A37E2/S1557466022019246a.pdf/a-century-of-japanese-assassination-reflection-and-commemoration.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakuradamon_Incident_(1860)
No. 427 Lightning hit Brescia's gunpowder store
- http://www.quibrescia.it/cms/2007/04/20/il-fulmine-della-notte-di-santelena/
- http://www.bresciacity.it/ma-che-successe-quella-notte-del-18-agosto-1769/
- https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/philosophicaltransactions/the-acts-of-god-committee/
- https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-19-02-0108
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brescia_explosion
No. 428 The earthquake that was predicted
No. 429 Valley Forge was an ordinary winter
No. 430 Kyoto's 1,200 years of cherry blossoms
- https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/phenology/japan/LatestVersion/KyotoFullFlower7.xls
- https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/date-of-the-peak-cherry-tree-blossom-in-kyoto
- https://www.nippon.com/en/news/reu20210401KBN2BN221/
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/in-japan-a-new-steward-for-1200-years-of-cherry-blossom-data-has-been-found-sustaining-a-climate-change-research-project-180988607/
No. 431 Too proud to leave the harbor
No. 432 Seismology began with a questionnaire
No. 433 The woman who rang the BBC
- https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/learn-about/weather/case-studies/great-storm
- https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/michael-fish-on-that-weather-for-a59880/
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-19923565
- https://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/21087973.1987-storm-norfolk-womans-interest-weather-sparked-famous-michael-fish-forecast/
No. 434 The worst year to be alive
No. 435 The windshield wiper nobody wanted
No. 436 The army the desert never swallowed
- https://phys.org/news/2014-06-egyptologist-unravels-ancient-mystery.html
- https://archaeology.org/news/2014/06/25/140625-dachla-oasis-cambyses/
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2707/pg2707.txt
- https://claudemariottini.com/2009/11/12/the-lost-army-of-cambyses-not-found/
- https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna33791672
No. 437 Halsey sailed into a typhoon
No. 438 Hail before the Revolution
No. 439 FitzRoy and the first forecasts
- https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/library-and-archive/archive-hidden-treasures/robert-fitzroy
- https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/who-we-are/our-history/tragedy-and-warnings-the-origins-of-the-shipping-forecast
- https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32483678
- https://www.worldwidewords.org/ar-wea1.html
No. 440 Toba did not nearly end us
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/03/toba-supervolcano-eruption-humans-south-africa-science/
- https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v555y2018i7697d10.1038_nature25967.html
- https://news.utexas.edu/2024/03/20/surviving-a-volcanic-supereruption-may-have-facilitated-human-dispersal-out-of-africa/
- https://johnhawks.net/p/the-so-called-toba-bottleneck-didnt-happen
No. 441 Galveston jacked itself up out of the sea
- https://www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage/historic-landmarks/galveston-seawall-and-grade-raising
- https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/to-combat-rising-seas-why-not-raise-up-the-town/
- https://www.galvestonhistorycenter.org/research/general-views
- https://www.tsl.texas.gov/governors/rising/sayers-galv.html
No. 442 The Armada was wrecked in Ireland
- https://historyireland.com/spanish-armada-wrecks-on-the-irish-coast/
- https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-37452
- https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/spanish-armada-history-causes-timeline
- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-8/spanish-armada-defeated
- https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/press-releases/new-irishspanish-joint-publication-reveals-the-fascinating-story-of-captain-cu%C3%A9llar-1588-spanish-armada-shipwreck-survivor
No. 443 The sun nearly started a war
No. 444 Gas blown back at Loos
- https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/battle-loos
- https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-gas-became-a-terror-weapon-in-the-first-world-war
- https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/2012/april/the-rationale-for-and-the-deployment-of-poisonous-gas-on-the-western-front-in-the-great-war/
- https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/2015/september/haig-and-the-battle-of-loos/
- https://www.pressreader.com/uk/bbc-history-magazine/20150813/282187944933519
- https://caithness.org/caithnessfieldclub/bulletins/1981/october/greatest_soldier.htm
- https://archive.org/details/chemicalsoldiers0000rich
- https://archive.org/details/westernfront00rich
- https://archive.org/details/warinoutline191400lidd
No. 445 Rain gave us Frankenstein
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/42324/pg42324.txt
- https://blog.oup.com/2016/06/frankenstein-tambora-volcano-eruption/
- https://asleman.org/en/60_secondes/n119-la-naissance-de-frankenstein-sur-les-rives-du-leman/
- https://www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=1214
- https://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/speccoll/2012/09/21/frankensteins-cousin-the-vampyre/
No. 446 “There goes Oklahoma”
No. 447 Vesuvius destroyed a bomber group
- https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/against-natures-odds-fighting-weather-and-natural-disasters-during-wwii
- https://przystanekhistoria.pl/pa2/tematy/english-content/99486,How-the-eruption-of-Mount-Vesuvius-destroyed-American-bombers.html
- https://cafriseabove.org/artifact/mount-vesuvius/
- https://rischi.protezionecivile.gov.it/en/volcanic/volcanoes-italy/vesuvio
- https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/the-time-mount-vesuvius-took-out-dozens-of-us-bombers-during-wwii/
No. 448 The flood behind the Delta Works
No. 449 The first tornado forecast came true
No. 450 Proof of age: the Big Wind
- https://historyireland.com/on-this-day-33/
- https://nationalarchives.ie/?p=1179
- https://www.revenue.ie/en/rev-100/articles/oap.aspx
- https://www.irishnews.com/entertainment/irelands-longest-night-the-big-wind-of-january-1839-F2P4WXJWW5FNDH7UYYBQRA2X5M/
- https://research.ucc.ie/en/publications/the-night-of-the-big-wind-reticent-subjects-and-the-introduction/
10. Strange Ends Facts 451–500
No. 451 The philosopher still on display
No. 452 Ghana’s fish-shaped coffins
No. 453 Aeschylus and the falling tortoise
- https://livingpoets.awh.durham.ac.uk/w/index.php/Aeschylus:_A_Guide_to_Selected_Sources
- https://www.attalus.org/pliny/hn10a.html
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D14%3Asection%3D5
- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/drama-and-theater-arts/greek-tragedian-aeschylus-dies
No. 454 Dorothy Parker’s ashes in a cabinet
No. 455 Haydn’s head went missing
No. 456 Catherine the Great’s real death
- https://www.history.co.uk/articles/how-did-catherine-the-great-really-die
- https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/the-royal-women/catherine-the-great-the-later-years-part-five/
- https://www.worldhistory.org/Catherine_the_Great/
- https://emco.swansea.ac.uk/emco/person/976
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-the-Great
- https://encspb.ru/object/2804020222?lc=en
No. 457 Franklin’s two-hundred-year bequest
No. 458 Tripped over his own beard
No. 459 The queen crowned after death
- https://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/sitefiles/rev_ehum66.a.Vela%CC%81zquez_0._0.pdf
- https://revistas.fcsh.unl.pt/reap/article/download/413/351/1999
- https://www.ucm.es/data/cont/docs/621-2014-12-06-08.%20La%20iconograf%C3%ADa%20de%20San%20Bartolom%C3%A9%20en%20el%20sepulcro%20de%20D.%20Pedro%20I.pdf
- https://artsandculture.google.com/story/kwUhntqAH-0SLg
No. 460 Ho Chi Minh asked for cremation
- https://vietnamlawmagazine.vn/45-years-of-president-ho-chi-minhs-testament-4550.html
- https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/08/31/Vietnam-admits-Ho-Chi-Minh-request-for-cremation-denied/1986620539200/
- https://www.malaymail.com/news/life/2019/09/01/uncle-hos-minders-the-protectors-of-vietnams-embalmed-leader/1786276
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/6/20/vietnam-asks-for-russian-help-to-preserve-ho-chi-minh-corpse
- https://www.dark-tourism.com/index.php/568-ho-chi-minh-mausoleum
No. 461 Killed by his own conducting staff
- https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/magazine/350-years/tetralogy/death-of-the-florentine
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Baptiste-Lully
- https://earlymusicreview.com/lully-te-deum/
- https://www.wpr.org/culture/lullys-last-maneuver-0
- https://jimclifford.ca/early_encyclopedia_britannica/articles/1860/eb_8th_1860_010320.html
No. 462 John Paul Jones under a Paris laundry
No. 463 Bury me under a wine barrel
- https://www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_culture/japanese-culture/jisei-japanese-death-poems/
- https://michaelstoneteaching.com/notes-on-dying-3-death-poems/
- https://search.worldcat.org/title/Japanese-death-poems/oclc/14994467
- https://archive.org/details/japanesedeathpoe00hoff
- https://think.iafor.org/the-death-poem-and-buddhism-in-japan/
- https://www.city.shinagawa.tokyo.jp/jigyo/06/historyhp/en/pdf/tagengo_commentary_sheet/tagengo_commentary_sheet_eng/PDF_eng/eng23.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_poem
No. 464 Mozart’s pauper’s grave was not
- https://www.habsburger.net/en/chapter/mozarts-last-composition
- https://interlude.hk/debunking-the-top-5-myths-about-mozart/
- https://interlude.hk/on-this-day-5-december-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart-died/
- https://www.visitingvienna.com/footsteps/mozarts-grave/
- https://academic.oup.com/mq/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/mq/XLVI.1.12
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43413
- https://archive.org/details/grovesdictionary03grov_0
- https://archive.org/details/bakersbiographic0000slon
No. 465 Napoleon rewarded Wellington’s would-be assassin
No. 466 A king under a car park
No. 467 Caesar never said “Et tu, Brute?”
No. 468 The pianist who played Yorick
- https://shaksper.net/archive/2008/264-december/26709-real-skull-used-for-rscs-hamlet
- https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/rsc-reveals-gruesome-truth-of-tennants-skull_18643
- https://www.npr.org/2008/12/03/97735537/tchaikowskys-skull-fired-for-upstaging-actors
- https://www.birminghampost.co.uk/whats-on/film-tv/doctor-whos-david-tennant-reunited-3937488
No. 469 The monkey bite and the war
No. 470 The cemetery that imported celebrities
No. 471 Tycho Brahe was not poisoned
- https://projekter.au.dk/en/tycho-brahe/pressreleases/mercury-poisoning-ruled-out-as-cause-of-tycho-brahes-death
- https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna49857981
- https://www.medievalists.net/2012/11/tycho-brahe-was-not-killed-by-mercury-poisoning-tests-reveal/
- https://retrospectjournal.com/2021/02/21/mercury-murder-mystery-an-analysis-of-the-demise-of-tycho-brahe/
- https://atlasofscience.org/a-famous-astronomer-a-full-bladder-and-the-heavens-revealed/
No. 472 The Great Stork Derby
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/an-eccentric-tycoon-left-a-fortune-to-the-winner-of-a-baby-making-contest-the-great-stork-derby-divided-canadians-during-the-great-depression-180988575/
- https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charles-vance-millar
- https://torontohistory.substack.com/p/the-great-toronto-stork-derby
No. 473 The Towers of Silence ran short of vultures
- https://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/160401322/vanishing-vultures-a-grave-matter-for-indias-parsis
- https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/579-towers-of-silence/
- https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/1003726
- https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/vultures-return-to-mumbais-tower-of-silence-hinges-on-solving-diclofenac-challenge-bombay-parsi-punchayet
- https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/assam-vulture-release-revives-parsi-calls-to-restore-birds-at-mumbais-tower-of-silence
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/4/7/without-vultures-fate-of-parsi-sky-burials-uncertain
No. 474 Survived Niagara, undone by an orange peel
No. 475 There was no curse of Tutankhamun
No. 476 Washington outranked everyone, in 1976
No. 477 Ibsen’s last word: “On the contrary”
No. 478 Paris moved its dead underground
No. 479 A rose from Omar Khayyam’s tomb
- https://archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/letter-from-william-simpson-to-bernard-quaritch
- https://archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/letter-from-edward-clodd-to-bernard-quaritch
- https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Gaz/Boulge/
- https://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/fitzgerald.htm
- https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/246/pg246.txt
- https://jot101.com/2015/06/the-literary-cranks-of-london-omar-club/
- https://www.quaritch.com/about/our-history/
No. 480 Chopin’s heart went home
No. 481 Attila the Hun died of a nosebleed
No. 482 Shaw’s will paid for a new alphabet
- https://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/Phonetics/icphs/ICPhS1961/p4.1_688.pdf
- https://web.bc.edu/umc/atbc/at.bc.edu/slideshows/shaw/11.html
- https://collections.reading.ac.uk/special-collections/?p=9913
- https://uollb.com/blogs/uol/re-shaw-1957
- https://antiquesandartireland.com/2020/07/a-gift-to-the-gallery-that-kept-on-giving/
- https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/040-001965881
- https://sourcenationalgallery.ie/collection/calm-r22439
No. 483 Victorians did not stand their dead up
No. 484 Alexander the Great’s body was hijacked
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/18B*.html
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/17A1*.html
- https://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias1A.html
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/51*.html
No. 485 Thomas Paine’s bones went missing
No. 486 Shakespeare’s second-best bed
No. 487 Spike Milligan’s “I told you I was ill”
- https://theglobeandmail.com/arts/spike-milligan-gets-last-laugh----on-his-gravestone/article18265578
- https://iol.co.za/news/eish/2004-05-24-spike-gets-last-laugh-on-tombstone/
- https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2004/05/22/928/spike_gets_stoned
- https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-10097449.html
- https://www.phrases.org.uk/famous-last-words/spike-milligan.html
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Spike-Milligan
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spike_Milligan%27s_gravestone.jpg
No. 488 Cicero found Archimedes’s lost tomb
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14988
- https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Archimedes/
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Marcellus*.html
- https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Tomb/Cicero.OLD.html
- https://italia.it/en/sicily/siracusa/grotticelle-necropolis
- https://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Tomb/TombIllus.html
No. 489 Nobody drank Nelson’s brandy
No. 490 Ambrose Bierce vanished in Mexico
No. 491 Eva Perón’s travelling body
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eva-Peron
- https://www.newsweek.com/her-immortal-remains-175096
- https://www.elobservador.com.uy/nota/70-anos-de-la-muerte-de-evita-el-extraordinario-y-macabro-destino-del-cuerpo-de-eva-peron-202272675316
- https://www.publico.es/internacional/robo-cadaver-eva-peron-paso-cuerpo-primera-dama-peronismo.html
- https://www.marxists.org/history/argentina/montoneros/1974/corpse.htm
No. 492 Wilde’s wallpaper line was not his last
No. 493 A Nobel Prize three days late
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/nobel-prize-facts/
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2011/steinman/facts/
- https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/opening-address-2011/
- https://www.rockefeller.edu/news/1816-nobel-laureate-ralph-steinman-dies-at-68/
- https://thetech.com/2011/10/04/nobel-v131-n42
- https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/for-a-deceased-nobel-laureate-recognition-and-emotion/article4180706
No. 494 Descartes’s skull went its own way
No. 495 El Cid never rode out dead
No. 496 Choosing France’s Unknown Soldier
- https://www.citadelle-souterraine-verdun.fr/en/history/the-choice-of-the-unknown-soldier/
- https://www.connexionfrance.com/magazine/what-is-the-history-behind-pariss-tomb-of-the-unknown-soldier/104700
- https://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/fr/le-soldat-inconnu
- https://www.lobservateurdebeauvais.fr/il-a-choisi-le-soldat-inconnu-il-y-a-40-ans-auguste-thin-finissait-sa-vie-a-beauvais/
No. 497 Jefferson left the presidency off
No. 498 Arnold Bennett and the Paris tap water
No. 499 Frederick the Great’s greyhounds waited
- https://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n15/james-sheehan/prussian-chic
- https://royalcentral.co.uk/features/a-kings-grave-and-his-dogs-128646/
- https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2013/summer/monuments-men-nazi-treasures
- https://www.spsg.de/blog/article/2016/08/17/nun-will-ich-mich-ordentlich-niederlegen
- https://www.spsg.de/blog/article/2017/08/17/kartoffeln-am-grab-zum-tod-friedrichs-des-grossen-in-sanssouci-am-17-august-1786
- https://www.ksat.com/news/world/2025/07/02/generations-of-germans-believe-frederick-the-great-brought-potatoes-to-germany-its-a-myth/
- https://berlinexperiences.com/featured-experiences/visit-the-grave-of-frederick-the-great
No. 500 Home from sea
- https://digital.nls.uk/rlstevenson/requiem.html
- https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/requiem
- https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/04/29/on-epitaphic-fictions-robert-louis-stevenson-philip-larkin/
- https://cemeterytravel.com/2013/10/23/cemetery-of-the-week-113-grave-of-robert-louis-stevenson/
- https://www.motherjones.com/?p=17919
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24332