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12 things they didn’t tell you in History class

The French Revolution, the First and Second World Wars, the Stone Age or the Cold War -the subjects rehashed time and time again in secondary schools. But what about the lesser known, and somewhat stranger phenomena? Do you think you might have been more motivated to learn about a few of those in school? Let’s do a bit of less than conventional revision!

1/ The shortest war in history lasted 38 minutes

Exactly 38 minutes was the duration of the shortest war in history. So short that the writers of the history books didn’t see fit to include it? This war was between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar in 1896. And why was it so short? The British cannons neutralised the enemy troops in a matter of minutes, killing only one person.

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2/ Heroin was used as a cough medicine, and was marketed by Bayer Laboratories

In the 19th century, Dr. Dreiser found that heroin had similar effects to morphine and codeine. It passed the testing stage and Bayer Laboratories decided to market their new “medicine”. But in 1910, they realised that dependency had become an enormous problem…. No joke.

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3/ Spy cats infiltrated the Kremlin

Operation ‘spy cats’ was a project during the Cold War, initiated by the CIA, with the aim of spying on the Russians: using pet cats to get information from the Kremlin. Specialists implanted a microchip into the cats, as well as an antenna in their tails! The mission ended in failure and was quickly abandoned.

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4/ The treatment for ‘hysteria’ in women

In the 17th century, doctors of the era felt that an orgasm was a good way to fight against what they termed ‘hysteria’ in women. They advocated treatments such as horse riding or intimate massages delivered by a doctor. It was in 1869 that the first vibrator was created, which was an ease to the poor doctors, who were suffering from chronic tendonitis! The sex toy wasn’t invented today or yesterday…

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5/ The reputed madness of hat-makers (hatters)

Everyone knows the phrase, “as mad as a hatter”. But where did it come from? It is apparently to do with the mercury they would have used in making their felt hats… Immersed in the toxic vapours, the hat makers would become terribly anxious and suffer from violent hallucinations.

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6/ The dancing plague of 1518

In 1518, a strange plague gripped many inhabitants of Strasbourg: for a period of more than one month, they were seized with a frantic desire to dance! Many people died of exhaustion or heart attacks because of the incessant movement. The cause for this plague was never identified by doctors of the time, but today it is thought that the townsfolk ingested an excessive amount of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

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