True or False - Weird History Tidbits Part II

Jules Verne did not receive acclaim for his works when they were published. Science fiction was considered genre content, unworthy of accolade. Zola himself was nominated for the first two Nobel Prizes for literature, not Verne. Incidentally, Zola publicly criticized Verne’s writing, but Verne’s snub from the Académie Française was not really Zola’s doing because he wasn’t president.

This is entirely untrue. Ugyen was the first king, but he died in 1926. Assam was from the 1800s and was not a prime minister. Bhutan, of course, never had an archery duel between its king and prime minister in the 1940s.

Disneyland would be pressured to get rid of its “no homosexual fast dancing” rule by 1985. However, the park claimed that it only allowed same-gendered dancing because some young people were too nervous to dance with a member of the opposite sex. Homosexual slow dancing remained banned until it lost a second lawsuit. The thumbnail is of "Gay Day" at Disney World in 2007, but perhaps the company did not suddenly become progressive in a couple decades.

There was no lion or animal fighting event involved in Alexander’s assassination. Animal fighting was probably considered a low class activity, so royals wouldn’t partake.

According to the few records from the event, the workers were proud that they accomplished something so outlandish for the sake of their queen.

Crush was fired as soon as news of the tragedy broke. Surprisingly, the news didn’t seem to blame the organizers at all, and he was quickly rehired. The locomotive company, Katy Railroad, got loads of free publicity as they’d hoped for.

Further doubts about a Soviet preemptive strike arose when it was considered that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was visiting the UN’s headquarters in New York at the time.

There is no evidence that Khomeini enjoyed milkshakes or had milk factories built.

Yes, Stephen VI had the previous pope dug up and asked questions of it in a courtroom. Stephen VI was imprisoned by Formosus supporters and strangled to death in prison. Formosus was reinstated as a historical pope by the following pope.

Hughes also ordered shoes with cardboard soles. Canadian soldiers had a horrendous number of trench foot cases. In another scandal, the soldiers of Canada's premier training camp mutinied at how badly organized the camp was and sought out Hughes to hang him. Prime Minister Borden actually had to leave Ottawa and talk to the unruly mob of soldiers to calm them down. He was finally removed from the post when he gave an interview where he insulted the prime minister and blamed him for the hiccups the Canadian Expeditionary Force had faced.

None of this is true.

This farmer character is fabricated. Stalin was struck by a phaeton, though.

Sadly, Taishō suffered meningitis as an infant and suffered brain damage. While quite talented at learning languages and on horseback, he was unable to go beyond middle school education. His family claim he was merely making sure that the speech was properly rolled up in the canister, since he suffered from poor manual dexterity.

While Caligula likely had people killed for entertainment at many festivals, this event is fabricated.

This was the Strasbourg Dancing Plague of 1518. Most historians doubt the claims that up to 400 people died. If anyone died, it was probably only several.

None of this is true. Gish died in 1993, aged 99.