You've heard of the great French conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte, right?
Did you know that one of his biggest defeats was at the paws of bunnies? A rabbit hunt went terribly wrong for the emperor, when 3,000 rabbits were released from cages and promptly attacked Napoleon and his men. Apparently, the fuzzy creatures felt no fear when faced with humans and their guns. Rabbits climbed up the men's legs and coats, and the attack only stopped when the hunting party fled in their carriages.
History is filled with funny and unexpected stories! That's why Redditor u/Bluebird_azuite asked people to share... "What is a crazy historical event that sounds fake but is actually true?"
50. 3 in 1...
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Mexico had 3 presidents in one day
Old guy goes out of office
New guy comes in
Guy says to new guy "Leave this office"
New guy says "Ok"
Other guy gets in
New guy had the shortest president with being president for less than an hour. newgamerdude
49. Erasmus of Rotterdam
Erasmus of Rotterdam, one of the most respected theologians of his age, announced that he was going to do a new translation of the Bible from the original Aramaic and Greek texts. Everyone, right up to the Pope, was cheering him on until he started working on the First Epistle of John. Then he noticed that, hey, guys, you know that verse about God being three in one, the primary textual support for the doctrine of the Trinity? It's kind of not there in the original.
There was a short embarrassed pause, and then some very frantic letters sent around Europe, and then suddenly some monks popped up and said oh, sorry, did we forget to mention? We have this totally authentic and not at all hastily forged original text of the First Epistle of John which, look, totally has the bit about the Trinity in it.
The debate about the authenticity of the Johannine Comma is.... probably not completely settled.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannine_Comma BillybobThistleton
48. Finding Fidel.Â
The CIA tried to kill Fidel Castro hundreds of times and failed. Some of their plans would have put Wile E. Coyote to shame - exploding cigars, poisoned cigars, poison in his diving suit, a poisoned ballpoint pen. Also, they tried to place his radio studio with LSD and once tried to use thallium salts to make his beard fall out. bookwing812
47. Knives Away!
Robert Liston was a surgeon in the 1800s. He once performed a surgery with a 300 percent mortality rate.
The patient needed a leg amputation. During the operation Robert sliced off 2 fingers of his assistant. They both died of gangrene. An observing doctor had his coat sliced by mistake and he got scared and had a heart attack. TheLightningCount1
46. XL for Life....
In the Cold War the Americans planned to drop XL condoms labeled "medium" on communist territory to make them think Americans were anatomically superior. SirFox06
45. Hey Arnold.Â
When America and Britain almost got into an armed conflict over a pig.
Its even crazier when you read the details. It looks like Hey Arnold! did do an episode based around the event, so yes, I had never heard of this show before though. SentientPotatoSalad
44. Cup Runneth Over....
Two countries went to war following a World Cup match between their teams. kookycandies
This was El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. The actual cause of war was the government of Honduras violently expelling Salvadoran peasants who had settled on Honduran estates. PaloAltoTerraformers
43.  holy bejesus....
MKUltra kind of scares the holy bejesus out of me. Most of the FOIA documents procured through the courts have been published and you can freely read them online or buy a book of actual photos of the documents to read directly. Many of them are redacted to holy hell, but the stuff they didn't redact is monstrous beyond belief... what unholy mess is under all that black ink?!
And the programs reach is vast. It got out of control a number of times. One time these guys participated in an MKUltra test at a research hospital and, long story short, smuggled out some acid and literally started the psychedelic movement. That movement was indirectly responsible for John Lennon's success as a musician, AND his murder! It's responsible for the unibomber and Ken Kesey. They dosed major American cities and performed heinous tests on people who couldn't defend themselves in hospitals and psych wards.
None of this crap would play as fiction in a story book, yet it was real life. They were ultimately seeking a mind control substance/methodology and, what really creeps me out is how long it went on. The US government and various branches of the US military have done studies on all kinds of voodoo throughout the years... UFOs, remote viewing, psychic phenomenon. You name it. Most of those projects were cancelled relatively quickly.
MKUltra went on for decades, and there's no direct proof that the tests ever stopped! This tacitly suggests that, if they didn't find an actual mind control method, they at least found proof of concept enough that they kept funding the program for a long time in pursuit of it.
I wonder what they really found. Cats-Ate-My-Pizza
41. Ski Patrol Issues...
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Aimo Koivunen. He was a Finnish soldier in WWII. While out on a ski patrol with his fellow soldiers, they were attacked by Soviet forces, but managed to escape. Koivunen was also the sole carrier of the team's Pervitin, a methamphetamine meant to keep soldiers awake. He took all the pills from a bottle, and boy did he wake up.
He got separated from his group, captured by Soviets again, escaped again, injured himself on a landmine, and subsisted entirely off of nuts, berries, and a bird he not only caught with his bare hands, but ate raw, too. By the time he was found and rescued, he weighed like 90 pounds and had a heart rate of 200 BPM. First recorded case of a soldier overdosing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimo_Koivunen valiantAcquaintance
40. Mythic War.Â
Caligula, Roman emperor, declared war on Poseidon. He had his army march towards the beach where the soldiers proceeded to stab the water and throw their spears into the ocean. FullRequirements
39. ​Project Azorian....
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Project Azorian....
Wrecked Soviet nuclear submarine in Pacific? CIA's on the scene! Oh, you know that aviation nut Howard Hughes? Let's have him construct a ginormous ship built for secretly lifting said submarine 16000ft below with a giant claw then transport it back to states! Great plan guys let's roll!
This was $4.7 billion to only retrieve half of the sub (it broke apart during the lift), and without any nukes nor encryption equipment. Still a mission success though. Another_Adventure
38. Uncle Tales.Â
My uncle told me about this battle in which the winning commander sent the losing commander a letter saying for him to surrender. The losing commander sent back a letter that just said nuts on it. It inspired the losing army so much that they won the war. I don't know if this is real but I really hope it is. HomerCultLeader
You're thinking of Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe in WWII at The Battle of the Bulge.
Wikipedia has a briefer account:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe#%22NUTS!%22 mobyhead1
37. Voyage 1904....
The voyage of the Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron, 1904.
During the Russo-Japanese war, the Russians sent a fleet on a 18000 mile journey from the Baltic to Japan. The trip can be summed by as: "and then things got worse."
Untrained crew, incompetent officers, mistaking English fishing boats for Japanese torpedo boats and attacking, friendly fire incidents, attacking civilian vessels from 3 other European powers, re-coaling in the middle of the ocean, acquiring exotic animals from Madagascar, the Kamchatka, reinforcements being obsolete vessels, and much more all happened.
Drachinifel describes it better than I possibly could hope to. MakutaKojol
36. Happy Holidays.
Giphy
The Christmas truce was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of the First World War around Christmas 1914. The truce occurred during the relatively early period of the war. Bishop68
35. Plus 1...
Liechtenstein sending 80 men to invade Italy only for them to come back with 81. StickBreightley
Italy wasn't in this story at all. This was during an HRE-internal war, where Liechtenstein said forget it, we're staying neutral and sent those 80 people to guard their Austrian border.
Nobody cared about bringing troops even close to Liechtenstein though, and those border guards made friends with a lone Italian civilian who walked by, so they took him along when they went back home. curiosityLynx
34. Melted Pain.Â
During WW2, the Allies bombed Dresden, Germany with so many incendiary bombs that it created a firestorm that literally pulled people down the street.
An allied POW that was being held there was tasked to clean up the bodies and had to open the bomb shelter in the center of the city and said that the remains of the bodies were essentially a green and brown gelatin. The city center of the firestorm was so hot that it melted the people.
https://www.rferl.org/a/the-dresden-bombing-seventy-five-years-on/30432338.html Mcdaddybigballs602
33. Best Wishes...
Hitler flew to Finland to congratulate Mannerheim on his birthday.
And his speech between them is a rare recording where he isn't putting up his leader act. SinisterCheese
Also interesting, Finland and Germany were allies against Russia but Finland did not participate in the Holocaust and actively worked to get Jewish refugees and protect them. Freezebread
32. Be Gone Hex!
Giphy
Pope Gregory IX declared war on cats. sandipk96
It is believed by some scholars that the war on cats which out lived the pope himself, resulted in the surge in the rat population that was later responsible for the black plague. chainmailler2001
31. Taffy 3....
The Battle Off Samar.
Taffy 3, a group of around a dozen small American escort carriers, destroyers, and escort destroyers, found themselves under attack by the Center Force, around two dozen of the most powerful warships in the Japanese Navy including battleships (particularly the Yamato), cruisers, and destroyers.
Thanks to the incredible bravery and determination of every ship involved, and poor intelligence on the part of the Japanese forces, they inflicted heavy casualties on the vastly superior force and got them to retreat. That's a pretty basic summary of things. TheSorge
30. Kalavrita
The story of the town of Kalavrita, Greece. One day the Nazis invaded, they lured all the women and in children into a church in town and locked the doors. They marched all the men to the top of the hill put guns to their heads and forced them to watch as they set the church on fire.
They had to watch the women and children burn alive. Then they shot the men. They say the blood flowed down the hill like a river. They have the most beautiful underground Memorial of hanging incense for each life lost. It really gets to you. FuzzyBoop
29. No Touching.
Giphy
The "glass delusion" where in medieval times, people of royal status would flip out one day and avoid touching anything because they believed they were made of glass of their insides were made of glass. King Charles VI was a good example of this. cxrte4
28. Watch.Â
You know that massacre scene in Tulsa from 'Watchmen'?
27. Beyond the Pail.Â
The Bucket War. ArenVaal
In case anyone didn't know the war was not started over a bucket, but rather the bucket was taken later on in the war.
Still crazy piece of history though! SentientPotatoSalad
26. 3 more times....
The third defenestration of Prague. The act of throwing someone out a window - and the fact that it happened in Prague 3 major times. thirteenorphans
And the two guys who were thrown in the 3rd defenestration both survived - they landed in dung/hay. FatherDromos
25. From the Air.Â
Berlin air drop - who would have thought real people and real governments could do something so inspiring. wanderingfoody
It was honestly just a combination of spite and having bombers and their crews laying around that are starting to become obsolete. DasFrebier
24. BOOM!
Giphy
The Baby Boom in France 1985
The German rock band The Scorpions released the power ballad "Still Loving You" in 1984. The song became so popular in France that it caused a baby boom measured by the government.
Not that long ago but one of the facts that never fail to make me laugh just thinking about it. Mooncat05
23. Tyre.
The Siege of Tyre. Alexander the Great seemed to have been bested by the Tyrians (lol hahaha GOT yeah yeah) because they had control of the surrounding ocean and ports via an island fortress that had proven inpenetrable because it was rather difficult to siege a fortress in those days, but it was worse when the fort encompassed an entire island, all the way to the ends of the beach. Rather than give up, Alexander simply went balls to the wall and built a causeway to the island, which was then sacked and 8000 people were killed, the remainder sold as slaves, as was the style of the day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tyre_(332_BC)
Second one was the Warwolf, the largest castle ever. Built by Kind Edward the 1st. It took 3 months to build, and the inhabitants of a castle that was being sieged with it surrendered. Edward said "LOL... NOPE HYUCK!" and finished it and leveled the castle with the siege engine.
Even before construction could be completed, Scottish soldiers offered surrender, fearing the weapon's potential to destroy the entire castle. Edward sent the truce party back inside the castle, declaring, "You do not deserve any grace, but must surrender to my will."[1] Edward decided to carry on with the siege and witness the destructive power of the weapon. The Warwolf could reportedly accurately hurl rocks weighing as much as three hundred pounds (140 kg) from distance of 200 meters and level a large section of the curtain wall[2].
22. Typhooned.
Giphy
Mongols attempted to invade and conquer japan, but their forces were decimated by a typhoon. Twice. First in 1274, then again in 1281. The mongols lost up to 40k men, and 900 boats. SolarisIX
21. Bill & Jeff Who?
That one super-wealthy Muslim who wrecked the economies of several countries as he traveled to Mecca for Hajj. uniquecannon
He was so charitable and gave such handouts that he demolished economies of countries that he visited.
To this day, the wealthiest man of all time. His wealth is considered to stupidly huge that it puts Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates to shame, combined. An estimate is that his wealth exceeded $400 billion dollars. Phtpnk
20. Last One Standing....
Giphy
Battle of Stamford Bridge
In short: One sole viking beserker held off an entire army of Englishmen while the rest of the vikings could retreat. TweedyCap
19. The Tortoise..Â
Yi Sun-Sin. Korean admiral. He was trained as a general, but became an admiral and destroyed a bunch of invading Japanese navies. For a period, the only part of Korea that was not under the occupation of the Japanese was his base of operations.
Turtle ships were basically primitive ironclads invented over 300 years before the Monitor and Merrimack, the first true ironclads. BZZBBZ
18. Good-bye boys.
The Halifax Explosion. When I first heard of it in Super Troopers 2, it sounded so outlandish I didn't bother googling it. Quest_Virginia
His name was Vince Coleman. He telegraphed: "Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys." About 300 people who were on that train were saved by his sacrifice. twenty_seven_owls
17. Not the Whiskey!!!
Giphy
The Dublin whiskey fire.
In 1875 a whiskey distillery caught fire and some 5000 barrels spilled into the streets. The flow was reportedly only 6 inches deep but claimed the lives of 13 people, from alcohol poisoning. rowenstraker
16. Herath.Â
The story of Herath.
For a period in the 18th century, Kashmir was ruled by the Afghans who were persecuting the local population, slaughtering them and genociding them, the works. One of the things they did was to mess with their religious festivals.
Shivratri is the biggest festival of the kashmiri Hindus, and this governor Jabar Khan didn't like all this idol worship. It's celebrated in February by the end of winter, and it always was below freezing then. The tradition was to make the official idol from ice and snow.
So the dude decides let's ban it in February and make them hold it in July, the hottest month, let's see how they get their idol.
And on that designated day in July, it actually snowed hard, amazing everyone, and they got their idol.
I'm not sure of this part, but it was called herath since then, which means astonishment/amazement. (There's other etymologies of Herath as well). sensitiveinfomax
15. Invasion.Â
French soldiers defending Germany from invasion by German soldiers.
It happened sometime around 1944, when French Waffen SS troops were defending East Prussia, or the area nearby, against the oncoming Red Army. The USSR had created a small unit of communist German soldiers, mainly for propaganda purposes. I remember reading about it, but I can't remember the source, and I am unsure if they ever engaged in direct combat with one another, but it highlights how strange parts of WWII were at times. ChipmunkPouch
14. Hail!
Giphy
It is not really a singular event, but the year 46BC was the longest Year in history, with roughly 90 extra days in the pre-Julian roman calendar :)) All thanks to Julius Caesar.
13. The Bats....
During WWII, The US military had the idea of tying small incendiaries to bats and dropping them on Japanese cities. The idea was that the bats would fly into structures which at the time used a lot of paper and wood and "detonate" causing many fires.
During one test some of the bats got loose and burned down the testing range. The bats were also put into forced hibernation and a problem arose where when they were dropped instead of flying around sometimes they didn't quite wake up and just dropped like rocks.
The bats were never deployed in actual combat. Igor_J
12. Poor Dumbo...
September 13, 1916
An elephant was hanged as a public execution in retaliation for killing its "trainer."
Can be found by searching for "Mary (elephant)" in Wikipedia. SmurfMan94
11. AJ got this!
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A would be assassin tried 2 shoot Andrew Jackson with 2 different pistols. Both misfired and Jackson beat the the guy with his walking stick. Igor_J
10. People danced til they dropped
Giphy
"The Dancing Plague of 1518
It happened in Strasbourg, Alsace where it's thought that 50 to 400 people were dancing for days on end without rest.
John Waller, an American medical historian thought this was the work of some sort of mass hysteria or psychogenic disorder. These only happen in cases of extreme stress."
9. The worst (or best) marathon ever
"The 1904 Olympic Marathon in St. Louis.
32 athletes took part, but only 14 were able to finish - there was only one water station in the entire 26-mile course. The 'winner' was later disqualified because they found out he drove half the race in his car. The new winner (the guy who came in second) had to be carried over the finish line by his trainers because they'd been dosing him the whole time with a strange mixture of strychnine, brandy, and egg whites.
Several people almost died of internal injuries. Multiple runners stole things from passerby. Most people in the race weren't even Olympic-level athletes, just amateur runners, many of whom didn't even have to run a full marathon to qualify."
7. The world was at Pepsi's mercy
Giphy
"Pepsi Co. was briefly the worlds 6th largest military power."
Wasn't it because the soviets paid Pepsi for their product in trade with a bunch of military vessels?"
6. Why sewer systems matter
"The Great Stink of London in 1858.
One summer the heat dried up the River Thames (where all the human waste went) and an unbearable smell pervaded throughout the entire city. All Parliament representatives were eventually coerced out of their homes outside of London to convene and solve the issue. Much to the citizens' glee, Parliament was held in their building on the bank of the River Thames, resulting in one of the fastest Parliament decisions ever made to reform the London sewer system."
5. Machine guns were nothing against the emus
"The Great Emu War of Australia (1932).
The emus won."
4. Yet Michigan still kind of won here
"Michigan and Ohio had a protracted dispute over Toledo. Militias were deployed, tensions rose, and it nearly exploded into war. After the president sent representatives to help mediate the situation Michigan ultimately ceded their claim on Toledo which was seen as a loss. As compensation Michigan received all of the Upper Peninsula which in the long run had a far greater positive impact."
3. Peter Sellers and his weird goals
"Peter Sellers (Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther films) once had eight heart attacks over the course of three hours, after inhaling amyl nitrites in search of 'the ultimate orgasm.'
This forced him to withdraw from the movie he was filming at the time, a comedy called Kiss Me, Stupid. The movie's director was dismissive, remarking 'You have to have a heart before you can have an attack.'"
2. Two queens meet
"When the Pirate Queen Grae O'Malley visited Queen Elizabeth I of England and didn't bow to her. Everyone in Elizabeth's court were shocked but Elizabeth was like, 'Dude, she's the only one on my level. STFU and go get us some wine.' And then they had a nice, long chat."
1. This perfect sentence
"In 1918, California drafted children into a war on squirrels"
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What could possibly go wrong?
It turns out there are so many variables that can contribute to making the bride and groom's celebration a major matrimonial miss.
Curious to hear examples of weddings gone wrong, Redditor lolf**kno asked:
"Those who have been to a ruined wedding, what happened?"
Dramatic brawls and speeches plagued these weddings.
Catty Attendees And Booze
"Very beautiful wedding in a huge barn at this apple orchard. They must have spent a ton of money on the decorations and catering because it looked like something out of a magazine. The ceremony was great, the flower girl did her thing, the vows got everyone choked up. Everything seemed to be going well. Not even 15 minutes into the reception the mothers of the bride and groom getting into a full out brawl, hair pulling, red wine being thrown. Their sons jump in to defend their honor, chairs start being throw, tables are flipped, parents are grabbing children and running for their lives."
"​The bride and groom are horrified and leave immediately and head back their honeymoon suite. My fiancé and I left after this as well but we heard from some other friends that most people ended up staying and getting wasted at the open bar on the bride and groom's dime. Apparently, the fight started because one of the groom's sister complimented the bride's grandmother's dress. The bride's mom thought she was being sarcastic and called her a b*tch, then the drama ensued. Mind you they had all been pregaming the wedding pretty hard."
– AdmiralWackbar
Playing For The Drunk Uncle
"I played a wedding where as we started playing the set, everyone ran outside and nobody was to be seen for the rest of the night."
"I originally assumed it was because nobody liked us but the bride came in afterwards and said there was a huge fight involving multiple members of both families and everyone basically went home upset, injured or in a police van."
"We couldn't stop playing since we were payed and it was our job, and the only person watching was the drunk uncle dancing on his own asking for requests we didn't know."
– TornApartByLisa
Maid Of Honor Speech Goes Off The Rails
"Was a guest of friend of the bride, did not know anyone attending. Very expensive over the top place, several hundred guests of this very Italian wedding. Maid of honor grabs mic at the cocktail hour begins her speech, rambling, drunk. Quickly devolves to stating the recently deceased mother of the bride was against this wedding and that's basically what killed her. Plus Vinny will never give up sex workers. She is tackled by several people and dragged away."
"The happy couple is separated and divorced within a year."
– Rocky1268
This is what happens when bad luck crashes weddings.
Tumbling Into The Sunset
"I work at a golf course with a lot of history behind it. We do wedding venues inside the clubhouse and the actual ceremony is held outside by the historic water fountain and large pond."
"First problem was the weather. I live in the high desert and it was very warm. A solid 90 degrees that day and it was also pretty windy. So everyone's outside, no umbrellas, no ezups."
"The next problem, and probably the worst, was the golf cart incident. The bride and groom wanted to 'ride into the sunset' on one of our golf carts. Drive around a little bit on the golf course. To be fair, it is beautiful on the course during sunset. However the cart had somehow gotten a nail in the tire, tire went flat, battery on the cart went crazy and the cart ended up freaking out. It came to an complete stop from 15mph to zero. The wheels and mechanisms locked up, almost seizing. Both the bride and groom (fairly overweight mind you) both fell out and rolled over a few times. They were totally okay, just a few bruises and perhaps a bruised ego or two. So retrieving that cart was fun."
"And last but not least, the power inside the clubhouse went out to do the high winds. There was no after party available. Only the cake was cut, hardly any food was given out. Yeah, not a great day to cover for someone on your day off."
– Itsallover_
Foggy Memory
"I was not born yet, but my parents rented the observation deck on the Hancock building in Boston for their reception. Tallest building in the city, beautiful view. My dad pored over historic weather charts to figure out what day was statistically most likely to be nice out. Day of the wedding comes and of course, thick fog unlike anything they'd ever seen before. Couldn't see a thing out the windows of the room they had picked specifically for the view."
"Worked out well though, they were happily married for nearly 30 years before cancer took my dad's life a few years ago."
"There's one other funny anecdote from that wedding: The wedding was held in Kings Chapel, which is an incredibly historic church here in downtown Boston that's somewhat of a major tourist attraction. To close that on a weekend afternoon for a wedding, it turns out, was not very expensive. The tourists waiting outside to see the church didn't know that, though, and someone started the rumor that my parents were incredibly wealthy, maybe even Kennedys. As a result, there were tons of people taking photos of them when they left the ceremony. Not sure if any of them ever figured out that my parents were most certainly not rich or famous."
– mimicthefrench
Morbid Surprise
"I was best man at my sister in laws wedding (stepped in for the brother of the groom, that's another story entirely)."
"For a whole year of planning all the bride (SIL) wanted was a dove release while they said handwritten vows to each other. Very small, non denominational (most of the family are atheist anyway) wedding."
"Day arrives (early summer) and something is off with the bird handlers. They show up a bit late and are sourcing help from the wedding party to get everything in line. When the time comes to say their vows I help the handler carry the chest with the doves in it over to what is to be the altar where the bride and groom are standing."
"Vows are just about wrapping up and the handler gives ME the signal to open the chest. I open it and see 20-30 DEAD DOVES IN THE CRATE!!!! I immediately close it to try and limit who knows what happened. Too late. The look of horror on the bride's was all that was needed. We spent the next few hours trying to cheer everyone up but by the end of the reception the entire wedding party had organized and filed animal cruelty complaints on the handler. It was all anyone could focus on."
Tragic losses unfortunately befell leading up to or at a couple's nuptials.
The Wedding Guest Who Left Too Soon
"When I was 6 or 7 I went to a cousin's wedding. Everything was fabulous for little me, so much sugar everywhere, basically heaven. The reception was in a big community center that was reserved for the occasion. Went to the girls' bathroom, passing by the men's room to see my uncle on the floor. Went back to the main room to tell my dad my uncle was looking weird. Well, uncle had a stroke and had died."
"The bride spent the rest of the afternoon crying, and everyone except close family left."
"Bright side is the mariage is still going strong 20 years later, despite what happened that day."
– DecadentOrange
A Terminal Diagnosis
"Leading up to my friends wedding his father had been battling cancer after a terminal diagnosis. And it was touch and go whether he would be well enough to attend the wedding, in the end he was too unwell to attend despite wishing that he could."
"Just as we got to the wedding reception my friend was informed that his father had just passed away. It was devastating."
– boatson25
Wedding Crashers
"Happened to my classmate. He is successful middle level manager, divorced, about 35yo or so. Found a girl of his dreams but from a provincial poor town. The girl insisted to have the wedding in her town to show off her 'success.' The wedding is crashed by her old friends including male friends who are not that sophisticated and have some tense feelings towards the successful groom from the city. Somebody starts a fight in the middle of wedding, groom is trying to stop it and got stabbed in the back. Died right there. And he was my classmate."
– anarchyinuk
​An Unfortunate Trespassing
"The wedding was at a state park that's famous for its giant gorge/waterfall. I don't know whose idea this was, but someone suggested a photo overlooking this gorge and everybody was game. The wedding party went around a stone security barrier and the maid of honor literally fell off the cliff to her death. It was like 500+ feet."
– SingzJazz
With a lot riding on a wedding to go off without a hitch, the mounting pressure is one where something is surely to buckle.
And because wedding guests are usually inebriated and high on the buzz of celebration, they throw caution to the wind and make some choices they wouldn't make under normal circumstances.
People's ill-advised actions can have regretful consequences, but no one expects death to be an outcome.
Fortunately, the weddings I've attended or heard about from friends were not as catastrophic as the anecdotes mentioned above.
While the Redditors' stories are sorrowful, it gives me a sense of relief these devastating examples are rare occurrences.
Have we met? That is an actual question I asked a gift giver once. (Who shall rename nameless) Football tickets. FOOTBALL TICKETS?! Who? What? I can't.
Looks Familiar
Broad City Wow GIF by Comedy CentralGiphy"My own scarf. Yes, that's right, my mother went into my room took my only scarf, wrapped it and gave it to me like it was a new scarf."
Devastation!
"Thought I was getting a bike for my 15th birthday but my foster parents announced that they were sending me to a group home after living with them for 11 years. Devastation! That place was a wake up call. More independence then at my foster home but those kids had it really really bad, 12 year old heroine addicts, abuse... what the entire hell! I hurried up, graduated from high school at 16 and got the hell out of that place. I turned out ok, work in the legal field, live in Las Vegas. I did forgive my foster parents before they died."
The Forgotten One
"My brother and I worked for a farmer one summer, and he paid us with a used car. At the end of the next year, my brother graduated high school, so my parents paid me out for my half of the car, and that was his graduation gift. I gave them all a big discount compared to what it was worth. So like $500 for my share of a $2500 car."
"2 years later, and I needed $50 for some graduation fees, so I borrowed it from my mom until I could get to the bank. (Before mobile banking and ATMs everywhere.) Later, when my mom is telling me they invited all their friends over for a 'graduation' party, I asked if they had gotten a gift for me. "Well I gave you fifty bucks."
"I paid it back the next day, and she didn't blink. The 'graduation party' was just my parents friends, who said congratulations to me, but it wasn't really for me. A few years later, my little sister graduated, she got a car. They bought a used car for her, and our other little sister got the same when she graduated. My parents are mostly nice, and I never felt like they singled me out at birthdays or anything. Just my graduation seemed like I turned invisible."
Office Party Fail
"HR complaint from two subordinates fighting over how to throw me a surprise birthday party."
- BBoySlim
"I've never worked in an office environment, but the stories I've heard of people being required to buy a cake for the whole office and to celebrate their birthday with their coworkers would be enough to keep me in blue collar work for life, were it not for the fact that I love being active and working with my hands and could never sit at a desk all day anyway."
Basics
law school finals GIFGiphy"My Asian mom's gift was "no extra Kumon homework after school homework" so my birthday gift was that I didn't get extra homework from her."
Regifting is trash behavior. Do better. I'd rather you just say I forgot. Or... I just don't care for that much. But regifting? No.
season 4 lint roller GIF by Veep HBOUnlucky 13
"Stomach flu and my first ever period, at the same time. I think it was my 13th birthday."
- kelpself
"Omg, exact same story for me. It was my 13th birthday and my family took us kids to visit our relatives in Subsaharan Africa for the first time. I was sick, jetlagged, overheated and riding down a bumpy road in a Jeep driven by my dad in the complete darkness. We had just eaten at a restaurant where I found a giant scarab beetle in the bottom of my soup bowl. I have flashbacks to this day."
Lazy Thoughts...
"My grandparents have been gifting me (and my brother) the same set of three vice grips for almost 10 years. Collectively we have 60 vice grips. I don't know if they bought a pallet of them, or where they are coming from. GET A GRIP GRANDMA!"
"I had a friend who's father was famous for doing Christmas shopping at the last minute. One year she complained that she went downstairs on Christmas morning and found, sticking out of her stocking, a spatula. Her birthday was a few days after telling that story, so myself and her friends all decided to get together and get her spatulas for her birthday, as a gag gift."
"Well, when it was our birthdays she retaliated. Which lead to a counter-offensive. And soon a new tradition was formed. And guys, I have so many spatulas now. Everything from dollar store cheap plastic, to hand-carved spatulas, a golden spatula, and even a replica of the famous Malaysian fighting spatula."
"I've got seasonal spatulas. As in, today it's time to pack away the Christmas spatulas and bring out the heart-shaped Valentine's day ones, followed by the bunny-shaped Easter ones. We've also been passing around this clip from the Weird Al Yankovic movie UHF. "Spatula City, we sell spatulas, and that's all!"
Their ultimate whack-a-doo move...
"A pair of homemade custom pajamas. Only problem was that they weren't made yet. It was just the fabric and a promise to make them for me. I had to give the fabric back and I never got the pajamas."
"Holy cow my parents do crap like this. It's so freaking weird. Their ultimate whack-a-doo move was to give my wife and I a few acres of their property."
"Nothing legal just at our wedding they gave us a card that basically said 'have some land.' When the dust settled I asked what they thought we would do with it, they said build a home. I said ok, gonna need legal ownership for like building a house. They said sure we will get right on that. Then they decide to sell out and retire and never mentioned our wedding 'gift' again."
Gross...
Disgusted Steve Carell GIFGiphy"My grandma got me a hairbrush with a plastic horse head handle. The horse head was all chipped up and there was hair in the brush."
Bummer...
"My Godfather sent me a Birthday card each year which said, he paid 100 bucks to a bank account which I was supposed to get, when 16yo. He then got into alcohol, used all the money and died."
Oh for God sake, why even bother giving anything at all? Lint rollers, used brushes, homemade pjs... y'all ever hear of a gift card? Just put five bucks on it and call it a day. You can't hide cheap, so stop trying.
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I definitely wouldn't turn down an excursion to AREA 51. I'd like to poke around and get a sense of the place. I've never personally been up close and face to face with a "non-Earther." Not sure I'd like to be...
TV Truth
x files monkey pee GIF by The X-FilesGiphy"UFOs/Aliens are a cover for all of the secret projects that the government is working on. Actually stole that from the X files."
Birth
"How human birth parallels alien abductions:
- Babies are taken from their home (womb)
- They still developing sight, so they see bright lights and grey figures.
- They hear an "alien" language they don't understand.
- They suddenly feel cold after leaving their womb.
- They are in a surgery room being poked with tons of instruments.
Long story short: some people suggest that abductions are just people who had memories of their birth."
In the Mind
"I just don't think anyone will ever see this. But I think that UFO's are the projection of our unconscious collective mind. Everything that exists in reality, also exists, in our immaterial mind. Is it possible that the insides of our mind are also just one drop in the ocean of consciousness... and together we create the material reality were in, simply by experiencing it in a real way, inside-out through our senses."
Flyover...
"My father was an aircraft mechanic and fabricator for test and spy aircraft for the USAF. He spent 75-85 working with test aircraft. He said that when they were going to do a test, that could possibly be seen by the public, they would make a betting pool on how many UFO reports local authorities and flight towers received."
Under the Sea
sci-fi ufo GIFGiphy"I like the idea that some UFOs aren't machines. Instead they are some sort of Upper-Atmosphere Jellyfish. I found the issue of Fortean Times that had this article. Here's the cover: http://ft.gjovaag.com/q/images/a/ae/FT291.jpg"
- BigD1970
Interesting. There are some ideas we can look into. None of it proof, but possibilities. There are certainly plenty of future film ideas.
Like 2012...
"We are like that un contacted tribe and everyone agrees not to bother us."
"I've heard it explained from a channel (idk if you know what channeling is) kinda like this. First of all, we as a species tend to freak out, shoot first and ask questions later. Most humans would have a literal psychotic break. You have to believe in vibrational energy as it relates to our consciousness."
"The aliens (certain ones) are at such a higher level that it would be jarring for us to come in close contact with. We are slowly getting there but it's a process. Like 2012, end of the Mayan calendar, wasn't the end of the world it was the end of an energy cycle that we as the human race had never made it past before."
"Previous civilizations have been destroyed or destroyed themselves before they got this far. We passed a point where we are very unlike to destroy ourselves anymore. This doesn't mean we won't see some real bad hardships yet but we will keep progressing."
- falecf4
"train your eyes"
Dancing GIFGiphy"I was a firm believer in t em when I was in high school and kept googling theories and info in my spare time and during my study halls. They said their bodies were so lightweight or something that the reason why you can't see the evidence is that they disintegrate before hitting the ground."
"And then LOL it was so funny, some people would swear you could "train your eyes" to see rods... HhhahAHAHAHA. Like there were these experts. Video showed him walking around with a serious face, then pointing. And he's like, "that was one just there." "You can't see them, you have to be used to them... like me."
"I've spent many years immersed into hunting them finding them. That's why I can see them." And then one day China, who loves occult stuff, had like a lab that set up a nighttime camera to capture footage of rods at night... then realized they were normal bugs at overexposure. lol"
Lurking
"The Dark Forest theory. Basically the theory that the reason we haven't made contact is because all the other civilized life in the universe/galaxy knows not to broadcast their location. They've learned that there's something awful or predatory lurking in the dark forest of our galaxy, and that it's better if they keep to themselves."
Unknowns...
"That the universe is so vast that we haven't been discovered yet."
- neoastic
"This makes sense to me because traversing the distance to or from even our our stellar neighbors would require technology that is not known to us now or likely to be known by us anytime soon if it's even possible at all. To assume without evidence that aliens could possess this technology and have visited us does not meet my skeptical standards."
- KZED73
Back and Forth
back to the future great scott GIFGiphy"Time travel exists, and UFO sightings are actually future humans coming back to our time. That is why they are so discreet, and never openly make contact."
I hope time travel exists. Now that I'm onboard for. If aliens do exist... just come on out guys. We could probably use your help.
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