In the 1830s, a Greek prime minister tried to spread the potato in Greece but people weren't interested so he put armed guards in front of shipments of potatoes so people would think they were important. People then started stealing these potatoes so much that the crop spread to all of Greece.
29
Leonardo Da Vinci made a robotic lion in 1515 that would walk, sway, open its mouth and move its tail - it even had a compartment that opened to present flowers.
22
In Ancient Greece, small penises were desirable, and big ones were for ‘old men and barbarians’
22
The first telephone book was one page long and had only 50 names in it.
91
Traces of cocaine were found on 99% of UK bank notes in a survey in London in 2000.
142
Clocks made before 1660 had only one hand - an hour hand.
41
After Germany surrendered in WW2, people in Moscow partied until the entire city actually ran out of vodka.
66
There’s a Swedish power metal band called “Sabaton” who teach history through their music, including an album devoted to teaching about World War Two.
30