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Statistics for True or False - Weird History Tidbits Part II

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  • This quiz has been taken 8 times
  • The average score is 8 of 16

Answer Stats

QuestionAnswer% Correct
French author Jules Verne won the first 4 Nobel prizes for literature. Envious French author Émile Zola, president of the prestigious arts foundation Académie Française, labelled Verne as “Faux Français” for seeking international recognition instead of promoting domestic arts. To this day, Verne’s works are unrecognized by the Académie because of his "Faux Français" status.False
75%
William Crush organized “The Crash at Crush” in Texas in 1896. Two old trains crashed into each other at full speed. Over 40,000 people attended the event. Predictably, the boilers exploded on impact and rained steel shrapnel on the crowd, killing two and injuring scores.True
75%
Ex-Pope Formosus (816-896) was put on trial in 897, accused of perjury and of illegally becoming pope. Pope Stephen VI led the trial against the exhumed corpse. The corpse didn’t defend itself and was found guilty. It was weighted and thrown into the Tiber River as punishment.True
75%
Silent film star Lilian Gish needed to perform a dangerous stunt on horseback for a train robber scene, so crew tied her to the saddle. During the scene, a prop gun spooked the horse, and it bolted into the California badlands. The horse and Gish were never seen again.False
63%
Sam Hughes was Minister of Militia of Canada when WWI broke out. Probably a war profiteer, Hughes and his "friendly" secretary developed a “shield shovel”, which was basically a shovel with a large hole in the blade that could fit a rifle barrel. It wasn’t thick enough to stop a bullet, and having a hole made it unsuitable for digging. Hughes still ordered 25,000 for Canada’s soldiers and made a hefty profit.True
63%
In 1518, in the Alsace region of France, a woman began uncontrollably dancing one day. In a case of probably mass hysteria, the dancing became contagious, and lasted for days. People danced for days, and, according to some sources, up to 400 people died from exhaustion.True
63%
Robert Behtiashvili was a farmer from the town of Gori, Georgia. Police records also suggest he was a reckless drunk when he was a young adult. His wife's diary accounts that he once drunkenly ran his phaeton (carriage) into a twelve-year old named Ioseb dze Jughashvili, hospitalizing him and causing permanent nerve damage in the boy's hand. That boy, of course, would later be known as Joseph Stalin. Robert disappeared in the 1930s, as did the police report of the accident.False
50%
In 1960, a NORAD radar dish in Thule, Greenland, detected missile launches en masse from the Soviets. NORAD sprang to high alert and NATO started early preparations for nuclear war. The radar alarm turned out to be caused by a fairly bright moonrise.True
50%
Ugyen Wangchuck was the first King of Bhutan. In 1946, Ugyen signed the Treaty of Punakha with Britain to establish Bhutanese internal sovereignty but British control over external relations. Prime Minister Assam Doohar, wanting closer ties to India’s independence movement, challenged King Ugyen to a duel. By law, the leader of parliament could challenge the king to "death archery" for "egregious disrespect of parliament." Both men died, and Bhutan changed policy direction and became independent in 1949.False
38%
One of the reasons Harry Houdini left Budapest, Austria-Hungary, is because of harassment from the Habsburg's crown prince, Rudolph Joseph. Rudy saw a Houdini show, and, much to Houdini’s dismay, the prince believed the two were destined to be bosom buddies. He even had his royal guards stalk the performer. Houdini called his emigration to America “one of his greatest escapes”.False
38%
Disneyland ejected two gay teens for “homosexual fast dancing” at the Tomorrowland dance floor in 1980, in accordance with park policy. Upon losing a discrimination lawsuit, the park amended its policy to allow only those two specific teenagers to dance together, “no other homosexuals”. The park’s lawyer stubbornly stated, “If two (other) men show up tomorrow night to dance, Disneyland won’t let them on the dance floor.”True
38%
Mansa Musa of Mali travelled 2,700 miles on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. Travelling through the Sahara with an entourage as high as 60,000, Musa’s wife lamented that she could not take her nightly swim. Musa had his men construct a swimming pool in the middle of the Sahara and then fill it with water from the caravan’s provisions. It was packed up the next day.True
38%
Japan’s Emperor Taishō suffered what were called neurological problems. At the 1913 meeting of Japan’s legislature, he rolled up his speech in a cylinder and looked through it like it was a spyglass. He looked around the room at legislators with his makeshift spyglass. Japanese media openly ridiculed the childish action.True
38%
Bear-baiting and other animal fighting events were popular in late-19th century Russia. Tsar Alexander II enjoyed the shows, even purchasing a lion from the Brussels Zoo in 1881. Alexander II planned a lion-baiting event at the military training complex Mikhailovsky Manège. Unfortunately for Alexander, assassins blew him up on the way to the much-publicized event.False
25%
Ayatollah Khomeini had several dairy farms inspected and an ice cream plant constructed months after assuming the role of supreme leader of Iran. This was to ensure the ice cream used to make his daily milkshake were halal.False
25%
Caligula was a cruel and eccentric Roman emperor. Over 8 days of 39 CE Parentalia celebrations, Caligula had dozens of teenage boys catapulted into the Tiber. Any who survived received a silver denarius. Accounts vary on how many died and survived, but there were at least a handful of gruesome deaths.False
13%

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