Strange But True

Start here

Weird Historical Stories That Actually Happened

History was never as orderly as the textbooks made it seem.

Behind the wars, treaties, kings, and stern portraits lies a much stranger past, one filled with dead popes put on trial, emperors who taxed beards, armies sent to fight birds, bears enlisted as soldiers, cities struck by waves of beer and molasses, and governments pushed toward war by pigs, ears, buckets, and football matches.

Strange But True: Weird Historical Stories That Actually Happened explores twenty of history’s most unbelievable real events. Meet Emperor Norton, follow Napoleon into a rabbit hunt that turned against him, discover why medieval courts appointed lawyers for insects, and learn how a baboon earned the trust of railway officials by operating signals without mistakes.

Written with a cheeky sense of humor and careful attention to historical evidence, the book separates documented events from legends, exaggerations, and disputed claims. The past was not merely dramatic. It was gloriously, spectacularly strange.