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FOLLOW ME ON YOUTUBEThe history facts they teach you in school are interesting, sure, but everyone knows that stuff.It’s the facts not many people know that makes history truly interesting!For example, did you know that the longest day in history was over 400 days long?! And did you know that Hitler helped design a vehicle that we still drive today?It makes you wonder how many things about the world’s history you actually know…Well, here we’d like to educate you on some of the lesser-known history facts that they don’t teach you at school!Prepare to be amused & amazed with this huge round-up of the top 100 craziest history facts you could ever know!Augustus Caesar was the wealthiest man to ever live in history.Nephew and heir of Julius Caesar, Roman Emperor Augustus had an estimated net worth of $.46 trillion when counting for inflation.Some say that Mansa Musa, king of Timbuktu, was the world’s wealthiest man as his wealth was apparently too great to count.However, Augustus’s staggering wealth could be measured.Alexander the Great was buried alive… accidentally.At age 32 when he died, Alexander the Great had conquered and created the largest land-based empire the world has ever seen. It stretched from the Balkans to Pakistan.In 323 BC, Alexander fell ill and, after 12 days of excruciating pain, he seemingly passed away.However, his corpse didn’t show any signs of rot or decomposition for a whole six days.Modern-day scientists believe Alexander suffered from the neurological disorder Guillain-Barré Syndrome.They believe that when he “died” he was actually just paralyzed and mentally aware. Basically, he was horrifically buried alive!The world’s most successful pirate in history was a lady.Named Ching Shih, she was a prostitute in China. This was until the Commander of the Red Flag Fleet bought and married her.But rather than just viewing her as a wife, her husband considered her his equal and she became an active pirate commander in the fleet.Ching Shih soon earned the respect of her fellow pirates. So much so that after her husband’s death she became the captain of the fleet.Under Shih’s leadership, the Red Flag Fleet consisted of over 300 warships, with a possible 1,200 more support ships. She even had a possible 40,000 – 80,000 men, women and children.They terrorized the waters around China. The Red Flag Fleet were such a fearsome band of raiders, that the Chinese government eventually pardoned Ching Shih and her entire fleet – just to get them off the high seas!In the Ancient Olympics, athletes performed naked.The athletes did this to imitate the Gods, but also to help them easily clear toxins from their skin through sweating after each attempt at a sport.In fact, the word “gymnastics” comes from the Ancient Greek words “gumnasía” (“athletic training, exercise”) and “gumnós” (“naked”).This translates as “to train naked”.Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times.Julius Caesar is probably the most iconic name associated with the Romans. Likewise, his assassination and death are also highly notorious.Due to his coup d’état of the Roman Republic and his proclamation of himself as Dictator for Life, along with his radical political views, a group of his fellow Roman senators led by his best friend Brutus assassinated him on March 15th, 44 BC.During the assassination, Caesar was stabbed at least 23 times, before finally succumbing to his wounds.He passed away with fabled words to his former best friend Brutus, allegedly being “you too, sweet child?”The Colosseum was originally clad entirely in marble.When you visit or see the Colosseum these days you’ll notice how the stone exterior appears to be covered in pockmarks all across its surface.Whilst you might assume this is just degradation of the material due to its age, it is actually because it was originally clad almost entirely in marble.The reason for the pockmarks is, after the fall of Rome, the city was looted and pillaged by the Goths. Yes that’s right, the Goths!They took all of the marble from the Colosseum, and stripped it (mostly) down to its bare stone setting.The holes in the stone are from where the iron clamps and poles attaching the marble cladding to it have been ripped out.It was named the Colosseum because it was next to a statue called the Colossus.It was originally known as the Amphitheatrum Flavium, or Flavian Amphitheatre, as it was constructed during the Flavian dynasty.Residents of Rome nicknamed it the Colosseo.This was due to the fact that it was built next to a 164-foot statue of Emperor Nero known as “the colossus of Nero”.Rasputin survived being poisoned and being shot.Grigori Rasputin was a Russian mystic and supposed holy man. He became friends with the last Russian Tsar and Tsarina.Over time, he came to influence the Russian royals much to the displeasure of many members of the Russian nobility.This, combined with his drunkenness and lechery, led to several Russian nobles forming a plot to assassinate the man.They invited him over to one of their houses, gave him cakes and wine laced with cyanide all to no effect, and then shot him in the chest.To their horror, Rasputin started to cough and they realized he was still alive!How did they fix the problem? The nobles shot Rasputin two more times – once in the head. Finally they threw his body into the frozen Malaya Nevka River.There were female Gladiators.A female gladiator was called a Gladiatrix, or Gladiatrices (plural). They were rarer than their male counterparts.Gladiatrices served the same purpose of executing criminals, fighting each other and fighting animals in Rome’s various fighting pits.The Vikings were the first people to discover America.Half a millennium before Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, Viking chief Leif Eriksson of Greenland landed on the Island of Newfoundland in the year 1,000 AD.The Vikings under Leif Eriksson settled Newfoundland as well as discovering and settling Labrador further north in Canada.You may also like these history facts about The Vikings.The Luftwaffe had a master interrogator whose tactic was being as nice as possible.Hanns Scharff was a master interrogator who was very much against physical torture and brutality.His techniques were so successful that the US military later incorporated his methods into their own interrogation schools.Scharff’s best tactics for squeezing information out of prisoners included: nature walks without guards present, baking them homemade food, cracking jokes, drinking beers and afternoon tea with German fighter aces.He even took trips to visit fellow POWs and swimming pool parties. And on some rare occasions even test flights of German fighter aircraft.In Ancient Asia, death by elephant was a popular form of execution.As elephants are very intelligent and easy to train, it proved easy enough to train them as executioners and torturers.They could be taught to slowly break bones, crush skulls, twist off limbs, or even execute people using large blades fitted to their tusks.In some parts of Asia this method of execution was still popular up to the late 19thcentury.The UK government collected postcards as intelligence for the D-Day landings.Starting in 1942, the BBC issued a public appeal for postcards and photographs of mainland Europe’s coast, from Norway to the Pyrenees.This was an intelligence-gathering exercise. Initiated by Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan, he was searching for the hardest beaches to defend.The postcards were sent to the War Office and helped form part of the decision to choose Normandy as the location for the eventual D-Day landings.When Marcus Crassus died, molten gold was poured down his throat.Marcus Licinius Crassus was known as the wealthiest man in Rome during his life.The son of a Consul of Rome, Crassus fought in Sulla’s Civil War, played a key part in defeating Spartacus and ending the Third Servile War, and formed the first Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great.A shrewd man, throughout all he did Crassus accumulated more and more wealth – and it was his thirst for wealth that would eventually lead to his downfall.Leading his troops in an ill-fated conquest of Parthia (modern-day Iran), Crassus and his forces were brutalized and bested by the Parthians time and time again.After an unsuccessful parley for peace with the Parthian leaders, Crassus was killed. The Parthians poured molten gold down his throat, as a symbol of his thirst for wealth.Some even say that his gilded head and hands were sent to the Parthian King to keep as trophies of his victory against Crassus and Rome.Germany uncover 2,000 tons of unexploded bombs every year.Over the course of WWII, the Allied armies dropped roughly 2.7 million tons of bombs over Nazi-occupied Europe. Half of that which landed on Germany.Before any construction work can begin in Germany, the ground must undergo extensive surveys to look for unexploded ordinance.Sometimes bombs are discovered naturally. One example was from 2011:45,000 people were evacuated from their homes when a drought revealed a 4,000-pound “blockbuster” bomb lying on the bed of the River Rhine in the middle of Koblenz.In Ancient Greece, wearing skirts was manly.In fact, the Ancient Greeks viewed trousers as effeminate and would mock any men who wore them.A singing birthday card has more computer power in it than the entire Allied Army of WWII.I bet Hitler, Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt would have killed to get their hands on one of those cards!The computer chip within them was so powerful by comparison that it would be inconceivable to the leaders of that time how we simply throw them away!In 1386, a pig was executed in France.There wasn’t a great detail of civil rights in the Middle Ages, and as it turns out there weren’t a great of animal rights either. So much so that they were even subject to human justice.One such case happened in Falaise, France, where a pig attacked a child’s face who went on to later die from their wounds.The pig was arrested, kept in prison, and then sent to court where it stood trial for murder, was found guilty, and then executed by hanging!Cleopatra’s reign was closer to the moon landings than the Great Pyramid being built.This is one of those facts that gives you some impression of just how expansive the life of the Egyptian Empire truly was.Cleopatra reigned from 51 BC to 30 BC, roughly 2,500 years after the Great Pyramid of Giza was built (between roughly 2580 BC – 2560 BC), and roughly 2,000 years before the first lunar landings in 1969.Shrapnel is named after its inventor.British Army Officer Henry Shrapnel was the first person to invent an anti-personnel shell that could transport a large number of bullets to its target before releasing them.This was all at a far greater distance than current rifle fire at the time.Since 1945, all British tanks are equipped with tea-making facilities.Before this time, British tank crews had to exit their armored vehicles when they wanted to make a quick coffee.On the road to Caen in 1944, a German Tiger tanked ambushed and destroyed a parked column of almost thirty armored British vehicles in 15 minutes whilst the crew were having an impromptu tea break.This made the British high command realize if tank crews could make a brew on the go, then they wouldn’t be susceptible to being caught with their pants down and their kettles out by the enemy.So after this, the next British-designed battle tank, the Centurion, came with a boiler fitted to the interior powered by the tank’s electric circuits so the crew would never be short of a lovely warm cup of tea!During World War I, the French built a “fake Paris”.Complete with a replica Champs-Elysées and Gard Du Nord, this “fake Paris” was built by the French towards the end of WWI. It was built as a means of throwing off German bomber and fighter pilots flying over French skies.It also even had a fake railway that lit up at certain points to provide the illusion from above of a train moving along the tracks!The Eastern Roman Empire’s weapon called Greek Fire was used in ship-mounted flamethrowers.The secret of how to make Greek Fire was lost with the fall of the Roman Empire.This weapon so unique and deadly due to the fact that throwing water onto it would only feed the fire. It was almost gelatinous in texture and would stick to things.It was mostly used in naval warfare, as the large flamethrowers needed for its projectile use could be better accommodated by ships rather than infantry.The Greek Fire would easily demolish a fleet of wood and canvas ships floating on water.An ancient text called the Voynich Manuscript still baffles scientists.Hand-written in an unknown language, the Voynich Manuscript has been carbon-dated to roughly 1404 – 1438.Some of the pages are missing, and some of them are foldable pull-out pages, while most pages have illustrations.Hundreds of cryptographers and master codebreakers have tried to decipher it over the years with none succeeding to grasp its meaning or origin.A Japanese fighter pilot once dropped wreaths over the ocean to commemorate the dead from both sides.During a sea battle in Pacific Ocean during December 1940, two Royal Navy ships, the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse were sunk by Japanese fighters.The following day, Japanese Flight Lieutenant Haruki Iki flew to the location of the battle and dropped two wreaths over the seas.One to commemorate the pilots of the Japanese Naval Air Force, who died. The other for the sailors of the British Navy, who fought so valiantly to defend their ships.4% of the Normandy beaches is made up of shrapnel from the D-Day Landings.More than 5,000 tons of bombs were dropped by the Allies on the Axis powers as part of the prelude to the Normandy landings.Scientists have studied the sand on the beaches of Normandy and they’ve found microscopic bits of smoothed down shrapnel from the landings.They estimate that, within 150 years, the beach will have fully lost any remaining shrapnel to rust and erosion.The saying “fly off the handle” originates from the 1800s.It’s a saying that refers to cheap axe-heads flying off their handles when swung backwards before a chop.“Fox Tossing” was once a popular sport.Popular with Europe’s aristocracy during the 17thand 18thcentury, fox tossing would involve a person – or a couple – throwing a fox as far and as high as they could!Turkeys were once worshiped as Gods.The Mayan people believed turkeys were the vessels of the Gods, and honored them with worship.They were even domesticated to have roles in religious rites!Captain Morgan was a real guy.He was also a real captain, too!The face of the much-loved rum brand was a Welsh privateer who fought against the Spanish alongside the English in the Caribbean.His full name was Sir Henry Morgan, and was knighted by King Charles II.Captain Morgan died in 1688 in Jamaica as a very wealthy man.Genghis Khan was tolerant of all religions.Back then, the world was a very intolerant place. More often than not, conquering warlords and emperors weren’t open to religions other than their own.Genghis Khan was very different from other conquerors though in many different ways.One was his interest in learning philosophical and moral lessons from other religions.Despite being a Tengrist, he often consulted with Buddhist monks, Muslims, Christian missionaries, and Taoist monks.Thomas Edison didn’t invent most of the stuff he patented.It’s fair to say that Edison was one of the world’s most notorious intellectual property thieves.Of the 1,093 things he smashed a patent on, he stole near enough most of them off real geniuses like Nikola Tesla, Wilhelm Rontgen and Joseph Swan – the latter of whom originally invented the lightbulb!Albert Einstein turned down the presidency of Israel.Einstein wasn’t a citizen of Israel. However he was Jewish. The German-born physicist was offered the post, but turned it down in 1952, saying:“I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions.”If you’re enjoying these history facts so far, you may also like these facts about Albert Einstein.Roman Emperor Caligula made one of his favorite horses a senator.If you didn’t know anything about Caligula, then this is a pretty good way to get the impression.He was infamous for his brutality and madness. Caligula fed criminals to animals and had conversations with the moon.He loved his horse – called Incitatus – so much that he gave him a marble stall, an ivory manger, a jeweled collar and even a house!Caligula made his horse a senator and allegedly planned to make him Consul before his assassination.Pope Gregory IX declared war on cats.He declared cats to be agents of devil worshippers. Not all cats though, it was black moggies in particular.The Pope declared that they should be exterminated.The Leaning Tower of Pisa was never straight.Known worldwide for its four degrees lean, this freestanding bell tower was constructed in the 12thcentury.When construction on the second story started, due to the unstable ground it was built on, the tower started to lean.After this, the lean only increased as the construction process went on, and it went on to become more iconic than the tower itself!During the Great Depression, people made clothes out of food sacks.People used flour bags, potato sacks, anything made out of burlap really.Because of this, food distributors started to make their sacks more colorful to help people remain a little bit fashionable.Lord Byron kept a bear in his college dorm.The famous Romantic-period poet was peeved when he found out that Trinity College, Cambridge, didn’t allow dogs on campus.So, to rebel against the man’s draconian rules he decided to bring a tame bear with him to campus.Whilst the college’s authorities tried to protest, he won his case as the rules didn’t explicitly state you couldn’t bring a bear to campus.To parade his victory and gloat to the powers that be, Byron often took his bear for walks around campus on a lead!Iceland has the world’s oldest parliament in history.Called the Althing, it was established in 930 and has stayed as the acting parliament of Iceland since then.Since the end of WWI, over 1,000 people have died from leftover unexploded bombs.During the Great War, an estimated 200 pounds of explosives was fired per square foot of territory on the Western front.However, not all of these shells exploded.Every year since the end of the war something called an “iron harvest” takes place.This is the annual “harvest” or unearthing of unexploded WWI bombs. As well as grenades, artillery shells, and other explosives which occurs mainly during the spring planting and autumn harvest in the fields that were once the Great War’s arena.Since 1919, over 1,000 civilians and ordnance collectors have died from explosions caused by these in France and Belgium.46 BC was 445 days long and is the longest year in human history.Nicknamed the annus confusionis, or “year of confusion”, this year had two extra leap months inserted by Julius Caesar.This was in order to make his newly-formed Julian Calendar match up with the seasonal year.This calendar is a variation of which is still used in most places across the world today100 million years ago, the Sahara Desert was inhabited by galloping crocodiles.Back then, the Sahara Desert was a lush plain full of life – and also full of predators.In 2009, fossil hunters found the remains of crocodiles.These remains had large land-going legs that were capable of galloping across the land at breakneck speeds.They could easily snap up unlucky dinosaurs in their jaws!During the Victorian period, it was normal to photograph relatives after they died.People would dress their newly-deceased relatives in their best clothing, and then put them in lifelike poses and photograph them.They did this to preserve one last image of their dead loved one in a strange form of commemoration.One man survived both the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and then later Nagasaki.Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a 29-year-old Naval Engineer on a three-month business trip to Hiroshima. On August the 6th1945, the Enola Gay dropped its atomic payload on the city.Yamaguchi was less than 2 miles from ground zero and was thrown into a potato patch.He survived the blast and was able to make a perilous journey through the devastated city to the railway station.Here, on August the 7th, he boarded a train on an overnight ride to his hometown of Nagasaki.On the morning of August 9th, he was with some colleagues in an office building when another boom split the sound barrier. A flash of white light filled the sky.Yamaguchi emerged from the wreckage with only minor injuries on top of his current injuries. He had survived two nuclear blasts in two days.The shortest war in history lasted 38 minutes.Fought between Britain and Zanzibar, and known as the Anglo-Zanzibar War, this war occurred on August the 27th, 1896.It was all over the ascension of the next Sultan in Zanzibar and resulted in a British victory.Before the 19thcentury, dentures were made from dead soldiers’ teeth.Dentistry in 1815 wasn’t exactly as… “intricate” as it is today. In fact, it was downright savage!After the Battle of Waterloo, dentists flocked to the battlefield to scavenge teeth from the tens of thousands of dead soldiers.They then took their bounty to their dental workshops are crafted them into dentures for toothless rich people.Tug of War used to be an Olympic sport.It was part of the Olympic schedule between 1900 and 1920, and occurred at 5 different Summer Olympic Games.The nation to win the most medals in this was Britain with 5 (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze), then the USA with 3 (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze), while Sweden had one gold medal, France and the Netherlands had one silver medal, and Belgium won a bronze medal.People were buried alive so often, that bells were attached to their coffins.Due to medicine not being so great, comatose people were sometimes mistakenly buried alive.In order to counteract these potential blunders, people were buried with little bells above ground. These bells were attached to a string, which went into the coffin.If the person was buried alive, and later woke up they would tug on the string that would ring the bell above ground.Someone would hear it and then dig the person out of their premature resting place.The term “saved by the bell” does not originate from people being buried alive.Because of bells attached to coffins back in the day, people wrongly assume that the term “saved by the bell” comes from people being saved by these coffin bells.However, the term actually comes from boxing.It comes from being saved from a knockout or countdown by the ring of a bell, which signals the end of the current round.George Washington didn’t have wooden teeth.It’s often said that George Washington had wooden teeth.However this is as false as the dentures he actually wore.George had luxury dentures that were made out of gold, lead, and ivory, as well as being a mixture of animal and human teeth!During a Roman Triumph, soldiers sang lewd songs about their commander to amuse the crowds.A Roman Triumph was a sort of parade. During this, a Roman General who had conquered new territory for Rome marched through the streets with his troops. They showed off the spoils of war in front of huge crowds of partygoing spectators.There were many customs that occurred during a Triumph. One of which was for the returning Roman soldiers to sing crude and banter-like chants about their commanders, to the amusement of the crowds.One that survived history is from Julius Caesar’s Gallic Triumph. His soldiers sang something like: “Romans hide away your wives, the bald adulterer is here. We drank away your gold in Gaul, and now we’ve come to borrow more!”Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs used their slaves as fly catchers.They would lather their slaves in honey, which would serve a dual purpose of attracting any flies to their slaves rather than themselves, as well as trapping and killing the flies.In Ancient Rome, urine was used as mouthwash.This is because urine contains a very high ammonia content, and ammonia is one of the most powerful and readily available natural cleaners on this planet!In the Victorian era, men with moustaches used special cups.As a Brit, this is probably my favorite history fact on this list!Pragmatically called “moustache cups”, these specially-made mugs had guards on them which prevented a man’s moustache from dipping into their warm cup of tea!The earliest ever lottery was during the Chinese Han Dynasty between 205 – 187 BC.Although it’s not exactly known what the prizes were, it’s believed that Chinese citizens of this era could draw keno slips (in the way one draws straws) for a nominal fee.This lottery was created to help fund major government projects, including the construction of the Great Wall of China.The Roman lottery’s prizes were known and were damn savage at times.Created by Emperor Augustus Caesar for the same reason, to fund government projects such as repair works, the Roman lottery came with prizes that were objects usually varied in value.Pretty tame, right? Well, one Roman Emperor’s lottery prizes weren’t so friendly at all.Elagabalus, who reigned between 218 & 222 AD (and we’ll come back to that whole “4-year reign” tidbit shortly) was known for his cruel running of the lottery.At first, his lottery was pretty brilliant and had prizes such as slaves or houses.However, not long into his reign, he started having lottery tickets catapulted into crowds of gathered plebs.Oh, did I forget to mention that he also catapulted live freaking venomous snakes into the crowd along with the lottery tickets?!What about the fact that, not after long, the prizes tended to be things like dead animals, death sentences. Even goddamn wasps and bees.So, going to back to his short reign, it should come as no surprise that he made for a pretty nasty emperor and was assassinated after four years at the age of 18!Spartans were so rich that nobody had to work.Ancient Sparta, during its Classical Age, was an immensely wealthy country. Mainly due to their conquest and domination of a neighboring race named the Helots.When a Spartan boy reached adulthood and became a man, the Spartan state awarded him with an allotment of public farmland. They also rewarded him with a constituent of Helot slaves to work it.This basically turned every Spartan citizen into a wealthy member of the conventional upper class. So they didn’t have to work for a living.Still, private property existed, which is important because…Spartan women owned most of the land and wealth in Sparta.Spartan inheritance law was crazy progressive compared to the rest of Ancient Greek inheritance law.When a Spartan man died, his public state-given farmland went back to the state. However, his private land would go to his wife.A lot of husbands died young in Sparta due to their militaristic culture, and when they did their widows would often grow their inheritance over the course of their life before their own deaths.Upon their deaths, their land would pass equally to both their male and female children.So, a young woman who married a wealthy man would most likely inherit his fortune young. Then inherit their mother’s fortune and grow their own, becoming super ultra-rich.They would then pass that on to their children and on and on creating a crazy snowball inheritance effect.The University of Oxford is older than the Aztec Empire.Mind-boggling as though it may seem, the University of Oxford first opened its doors to students all the way back in 1096.It became a fully-fledged university with student housing and a specific curriculum by 1249.By comparison, the Aztec Empire is said to have originated with the founding of the city of Tenochtitlán at Lake Texcoco by the Mexica which occurred in the year 1325.The World War II army of the US is the is the biggest army in history.Due in part to the surge of wartime patriotism, and in part because of conscription, the US Army numbered 12,000,000 soldiers by the end of the war in 1945.By 1943, the German military had reached 11,000,000 soldiers.By the end of the war, the Soviet Union’s army (as formidable as it was) also reached 11 million soldiers.Only 6 people died in the Great Fire of London.The great fire of 1666 apparently traces its way to a baker’s over, and caused massive damage across the city of London.However, despite destroying over 13,500 houses and displacing 80,000 people, it only claimed the lives of 6 unlucky Londoners.Count Dracula was inspired by a real person.When Bram Stoker released his iconic horror classic in 1897, it was hailed as “the most blood-curdling novel of the paralyzed century” and terrified audiences worldwide.However, the titular Count was based on none other than history’s own Vlad the Impaler.As the ruling monarch of Wallachia, a Romanian region of Transylvania, Vlad soon made a fearsome reputation for himself by killing and impaling the still-twitching bodies of his enemies on long sticks which he planted outside his castle and all around his lands.After Vlad’s eventual death at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the history of his descendants is murky, which is what inspired Bram Stoker’s character of Count Dracula.The most prolific female serial killer was a Hungarian Countess.Named Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, she was born on August 7th, 1560.She was accused of torturing and killing over 650 young women. Most the women were between the ages of 10 and 14.Her cruelty was limitless. She regularly bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youthful looks.After facing accusations from many people, smallfolk and nobles alike, she was detained. However she did not face trial due to her family’s aristocratic high-standing.Instead, she was privately imprisoned in a windowless room for four years until she died in 1614.For 12 years during the French Revolutionary Period, France had a whole new calendar.Not just that, but they also had a whole new timekeeping system too!Between 1793 and 1805, the ruling French government used the French Republican Calendar to remove all religious and royalist ties to the old calendar.It was also part of a wider effort decimalize France in terms of time, currency and metrication.The French Republican Calendar had 10-hour days, with 100 minutes to an hour, and 100 seconds to a minute.Whilst this crazy calendar did have 12 months, each one of these months was 30 days. They were all given new names that reflected a meaning for each season.For example one in winter was named Nivôse, which is Latin for “snow”.Genghis Khan created one the first international postal systems.One of the reasons the great Khan’s Mongol army were so lethal is because of their fluid and flexible makeup, as well as their vast communication capabilities.One of his earliest decrees as Khan was to establish a mounted courier service called the “Yam”.The “Yam” grew into a military postal service spanning across multiple borders, complete with a network of post houses and waystations across the whole of his Empire.During WWII, the British & Soviets launched a joint invasion of neutral Iran.What could both the Brits and Ruskies want with this Middle-Eastern neutral country, you ask? C’mon, don’t be that guy.It’s Iran for crying out loud.They wanted all of that oil – that sweet, sweet oil – and they got it!By invading the country in 1941 during Operation Countenance, they were jointly able to secure the Iranian oilfields, as well as a secure supply line for the Allied forces.One in 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan.The Mongolian Emperor was known for siring many, many children – at least 11!Scientists conducted a study in 2003 which showed that one in 200 men share a Y chromosome with the conqueror.This may not sound like a lot, but you should consider that there are roughly 3.7 billion men on the planet.That makes a total of around 19 million men ancestors of the Great Khan!Russia ran out of vodka celebrating the end of World War II.If you ask somebody to name things that are quintessentially Russian, they’ll probably say winter, communism and, of course, vodka.It should come as no surprise that, after being punched almost all the way to Moscow by the Nazis then fighting their way back to Berlin, the Russians were pretty elated when they heard the news of the Third Reich’s fall.Jubilation and street parties engulfed the Soviet Union, lasting for days and days – even non-drinkers saw this as cause enough to join in with the revelry.That is until all of the nation’s vodka reserves ran out. A mere 22 hours after the partying started.Now started the nationwide hangover…There were “dance marathons” during the Great Depression.It wasn’t exactly a means of keeping the American spirit up through the darkest financial crisis in its history, either.These human endurance contests served as a way of giving broke married couples a roof over their head and food to eat for a few days.The dance partners would take turns sleeping while the other propped them up and continued dancing with them.The Circus Maximum in Rome is still the largest capacity sports arena ever built.It was used for the execution of prisoners like Christian and Jewish people, part of the Roman Triumph, along with chariot racing.Historians believe the Circus Maximum could hold between 150,000 – 250,000 people at any given time.This means that it could hold more spectators than the Rungrado May Day Stadium in North Korea – the world’s largest capacity stadium – which can hold roughly 114,000 people.The fastest surgeon ever ended up causing a 300% mortality rate.Before anesthesia, speed was essential when performing surgery to minimize pain to the patient, and also to ensure they didn’t have as much chance to writhe about during surgery.Surgeon Robert Liston was considered “the fastest knife in the West”. He was a pioneer in speed-surgery.One time, when performing a battlefield amputation in front of a group of spectators, Liston cut through his patient’s leg so quickly that he accidentally cut the fingers off his assistant.One man who witnessed the surgery was also caught by the doctor’s knife. Upon feeling it tug on his coat and seeing blood splash on him, he collapsed and died of a heart attack.Then, to make matters worse, Liston’s patient and his assistant died of blood poisoning from their joint-amputation.This made Liston the only surgeon ever to have performed a surgery with a 300% mortality rate!Adolf Hitler’s nephew fought against the Nazis in World War II.Born to the Führer’s half-brother Alois Hitler Jr. and his Irish wife Bridget Dowling in Liverpool, England, William Patrick Hitler (later William Patrick Stuart-Houston) moved from the UK to Germany, but later in life moved to the US.During the Second World War, he was drafted into the United States Navy where he served as a Hospital Corpsman throughout the war until 1947.He was wounded in action and was awarded with the Purple Heart, and went on to gain American citizenship.Charles Darwin invented his own wheeled office chair.Why? Because the man was a genius, that’s why.Although office chairs that were wheeled were already in production, they were not comfortable or in any way as ergonomic as what we have nowadays.So, Darwin did something radical with his luxury armchair.The man was a renowned workaholic, and when he wasn’t collecting specimens or eating them, he was sat down studying them and making notes.He found that, in his study or lab area, he would have to go through the rigmarole of walking about the office from bench to bench, desk to desk.So, to maximize his productivity and save him some valuable study time, he decided to attach wheels to his luxurious armchair.Bonus history fact: Did you know that Charles Darwin ate one of every animal species he discovered?The first official Medals of Honor were awarded during the American Civil War.They were awarded to Union soldiers who participated in the Great Locomotive Chase of 1862.Volunteers of the Union Army, led by James J. Andrews, snuck in deep behind Confederate lines, commandeered an armored train and took it northward towards Tennessee, wreaking havoc on their Confederate foes along the way.Hollywood moved from New York to Los Angeles to escape Edison’s patents.Hollywood is globally recognized as the movie capital of the world. Yet it wasn’t always so.The movie industry was originally based in New York in the 1800s, which was close to New Jersey – and New Jersey was where patent-master Thomas Edison was based.Edison had patents on over 1,000 different things, including most of the technology needed to make high-end movies, and boy did he flex on them patents.In short, if you wanted to be in the movie business, you basically had to go through Edison.So the “independent” film-makers chose an alternate option to fighting Edison: fleeing Edison. And that’s what they did!They moved to California, to an area of the country where the judges weren’t as friendly to Edison and his patents, and where the wheels of copyright law would take longer to roll over them.Shakespeare originated the “yo momma” joke.Shakespeare gave the English language a plethora of slick new words, some fairly excellent poetry including the perfected form of the sonnet, as well as a load of plays which are mostly the bane of high-school English students.Something else he also gave us was the “yo momma” joke.In his play Titus Andronicus, one of the characters, Chiron, exclaims “Thou has undone our mother” to which another character, Aaron, replies “Villain, I have done thy mother.”Shots fired.The Dutch-Scilly War lasted 335 years and had no battles or deaths.Spanning between 1651 – 1986, the war was a by-product of the English Civil War and the decision of the Dutch to side with the Parliamentarians over the Royalists.The Royalists had raided a few Dutch shipping vessels in revenge before fleeing to the Isles of Scilly.The Dutch turned up, demanding reparations from the Royalists and, when they didn’t pay up, declared war.But they decided to call it a day and go home pretty sharpish as they realized the Royalists didn’t have a penny to their names.Only thing is they never declared peace with the Isles and just completely forgot they were at war.Then, roughly 3 centuries later, historian Roy Duncan stumbled upon a footnote in Scilly about the war.He invited the Dutch Ambassador for Great Britain to Scilly, where a peace treaty was negotiated and signed, bringing the war to an end after 335 years and no bitter bloodshed.During World War II, Americans called hamburgers “liberty steaks”.This was due to the fact that “hamburger” sounded a little bit too German!Also, during World War I, sauerkraut was re-dubbed “liberty cabbage”.The 7.62mm rifle bullet was created 129 years ago.Even if you’re not a gun nut, you’ve probably heard someone refer to this type of ammunition before. It’s the ammunition AK47 assault rifles use.Therefore it should come as no surprise that it was developed by the Russian Empire in 1891.Originally designed for the Mosin-Nagant bolt-action rifle, this round is still in-use today.It’s one of the most common types of firearm ammunition in history.In 1710, Native American leaders travelled to Britain to visit the Queen.Almost 100 years before the (in)famous Lewis and Clark Expedition, the four Mohawk Kings from one the Iroquois Confederacy’s Five Nations and the Algonquian peoples were treated with high honor as diplomats.Transported through the streets of London in Royal Carriages, they were personally met by Queen Anne at the Court of St. James Palace.They also visited the Tower of London and St. Paul’s Cathedral. I wonder if they got given “I <3 London” t-shirts too…In medieval England, the word “ask” was pronounced “axe”.So I suppose you could say it makes sense that’s how they’d say it in Futurama if that’s how they said it in the past, right?This pronunciation of the word was even featured in the first English translation of the Bible: “Axe and it shall be given.”In 18thcentury England, pineapples were a status symbol.Despite the fact that they didn’t make it over to England until the 1600s, by the 1700s owning pineapples had become a huge craze.Those rich enough to own a pineapple would carry them around to signify their personal wealth and high-class status.Near enough everything from clothing to houseware was decorated with the exotic fruit.And for those who weren’t rich enough to buy their own pineapples and become a part of this fad, they could rent a pineapple out to tout around in public and look the part for the day!The first known artworks date back to roughly 100,000 years ago.It is believed to have begun with the Homo Sapiens during the Upper Paleolithic era.The oldest known artworks were found in what is now France.The Ancient Egyptians used slabs of stone as pillows.In Ancient Egypt, the head was considered to be the seat of spiritual life and had to be cared after.So therefore, when getting into bed, the Egyptians would place their heads on a stone with a curve in it.They were also engraved with images of the Gods and placed under the heads of the dead to ward away bad spirits.Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, didn’t have a funeral or headstone.The Enola Gay is a plane that will live on in history until the end of man.As the plane to drop the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, it is both a sign of oppression and freedom.The pilot of this plane was one Paul Tibbets who, being close to death in his old age, decided he didn’t want a funeral or a headstone as he worried it would become a place for protesting nuclear armament.Instead, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the English Channel.Adolf Hitler helped design the Volkswagen Beetle.That’s right, the fella who gave a big thumbs up to the Holocaust also invented Herbie.Nothing from your childhood is safe from Nazis.Between Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche, the iconic and globally-loved Beetle was designed as part of a Hitler-revived German initiative to create “the people’s car” – an affordable and practical car that everyone could own.In fact, the car manufacturer’s name “Volkswagen” translates to English as “People’s car”.Winston Churchill had a Doctor’s note to drink an “indefinite” amount of alcohol in Prohibition America.Other than defiant hand gestures, iconic speeches, cigars and dapper hats, Winston Churchill is also renowned for his love of alcohol. Whiskey in particular.In 1931, Churchill was involved in a car accident which left him with chest pain, as well as having bouts of depression to contend with.Because of this, he was granted a Doctor’s note in 1932 for his time in the United States This allowed him drink an “indefinite” amount of alcohol for his duration of time in the Prohibition-era United States.In Ancient Greece, they believed redheads became vampires after death.This was partly due to the fact that redheaded people are very pale skinned and sensitive to sunlight… unlike the bronze Mediterranean Greeks.As well as the fact that a fair bit of vampire folklore existed within Greek mythology.America’s National School Lunch Program of 1946 was due to WWII.America had just come out of a huge, resource-depleting war. So why on Earth would they be handing out free food for school kids?After all, it’s no secret that food rationing in Britain continued until 9 years after the war.This is due to the fact that, the government realized by giving the children free meals, they would have a healthier draft pool if they ever needed it again.Abraham Lincoln was a wrestling champion.Before becoming America’s 16thPresident, Abraham Lincoln was an avid wrestler. He only lost one fight out of 300.The guillotine was invented to create “equality in execution”.The guillotine is an image that is fairly synonymous with France and the French Revolution.Until it’s advent and widespread use, the regular methods of execution in France were rather savage. Punishment like being drawn and quartered were common.The idea to use the guillotine as the main method of execution was part of the movement for equality in France that spurred on the revolution.This created an equality in death and execution for citizens from all backgrounds.The Soviet Union tried to snuff out the memory of Genghis Khan.During the Soviet-era rule of the late 20thcentury, simply mentioning the great conqueror’s name was a crime against the USSR.The Soviets removed his story from school textbooks and outlawed pilgrimages to his birthplace of Khentii.After Mongolia gained their independence in the early 1990s, he was restored to his rightful place as a national hero of Mongolia.He appeared in the art and popular culture, as well as on Mongolian currency.Ferrets, dogs and monkeys were the most popular pets in the Roman Empire.Rather than having cats to hunt down vermin like mice and rats, the Romans used ferrets.They also used dogs as sentries and guards, whilst they used monkeys for entertainment……Because monkeys are funny.Tablecloths were originally designed to be used as one big, communal napkin.Children wiping their mouths on tablecloths is a bug-bear of many a nagging mother the whole world around.However, that was their original use!Guests were meant to wipe off their hands and faces on a tablecloth after a messy feast.To not do this would be considered bad table manners!A Chernobyl firefighter was exposed to so much radiation, it changed his eye color.Vladimir Pravik was one of the first firefighters to reach Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26th, 1986.His job there was to contain the flames spewing from the building.During his shift dousing the highly-radioactive flames of the burning reactor core, he was exposed to a shockingly lethal dose of radiation.It was so deadly that it changed his eye color from brown to blue.Like the majority of the first responders to the Chernobyl disaster, Vladimir died 15 days later from severe radiation poisoning.Still enjoying these history facts? We hope so! You may also like to know how the Chernobyl disaster effected the U.K.Before Julius Caesar invaded Britain, many Romans didn’t believe it existed.Julius Caesar was the first ever Roman to invade Britain. He did it twice in the years 55 and 54 BC.Up until this point, there were many divided opinions on Britain within the Roman Empire.Some believed Britain to be just the foot of another huge northern continent. Others thought it was a place full of unbelievable riches, whilst most thought it just didn’t exist.Caesar’s first invasion of Britain was, in a militaristic sense, a resounding blunder.Yet, due to the mythical nature of Britain, his invasion of the country was a huge PR success. It made him legendary in the eyes of many Romans.Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian.She was part of the Ptolemy dynasty, who were derived from one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Ptolemy.Her ancestors ruled over Egypt from the city of Alexandria. Named after… you guessed it, Alexander the Great.Bonus fact about the Ptolemy dynasty: All male members of this dynasty were called Ptolemy. It makes learning about them really confusing.Cleopatra was the first member of her dynasty to speak Ancient Egyptian.Ancient Egyptian is considered one of the most difficult languages to master in history.Well, Cleopatra was able to master it.Along with 8 other languages including: Ancient Greek, Ancient Iranian, Ancient Parthian, Syriac, Ethiopian, Troglodytae, Hebrew and Arabic.Alexander the Great named over 70 cities after himself.That might sound a touch egocentric on the face of it…But let’s not forget that Alexander the Great conquered over 2 million square miles of the Earth’s surface. And he did this all before he was 30 years old.So yeah, over 70 cities might be a little excessive.But, if you’re a boy wonder with the world literally knelt at your feet, why not go a little crazy. Am I right?!It’s believed that roughly 97% of history has been lost over time.I can’t really think of a more appropriate fact to end this article on really. Mainly because the chances are, you’ll only remember 3% of these history facts when you tell your friends later.History’s documentation is so subjective, not to mention all the lost historical accounts of the world. So it’s no surprise that what we know of our history is just a snapshot of the whole thing.Written accounts of history only started roughly 6,000 years ago. And modern humans first appeared around 200,000 years ago.This 194,000-year gap is, in itself, huge.However, considering all the historical writings lost over the years when written history did exist, it makes the mind wonder…That’s the end of these 100 fun history facts!We hope you learned something new that school didn’t teach you about history!What was you favorite fact about history on this list? Or is there one we should really know? Tell us in the comments below!

American ValuesOur American Values remain strong on several things;The absolute freedom of speech. Yes it is OK to offend people. Yes it is ok to make fun of people. Some so called liberals are trying to change that but as of right now it is still ok. And yes freedom of speech gives you a right to be racist, anti-Semitic, etc. It is your right to be an a-hole.America is a huge country formed on immigration and consequentially is very diverse what with its different races, religions and ethnicities. America has always been considered strong on 'Rugged Individualism' and 'Self Reliance' and in its gut still retains these values in the 21st century. The belief in a small government and (for now) rejection of socialism, a system for the weak and needy while capitalism is a system for the strong and competent.The American dream is what makes’ US produce companies like Apple, Tesla, Google, etc. No other country comes close to the opportunities that US has. As John Steinbeck said “Socialism never took roots in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”What Does America Look Like?I am 82 years old and been around the block a few times. I was raised in 1940s - 50s Milwaukee, then a very liberal city that was diverse and on the top of civilized accoutrements e.g.: ethnic - religious diversity, top education, good jobs, lots recreation - cultural, Music - Milwaukee Fest, infrastructure - parks, museums, libraries, health care, etc. That progressive environment existentially formed my life to this day. In between I lived in the 1950s - 1960s Jim Crow segregated conservative South and saw a very primitive, poverty stricken, violent poor man's existence exemplifying man's inhumanity to man all set up by local/state governments implementing legal and institutionalized racial - social restrictions all supported by the evangelical church who said the Bible justified a segregated society with no diversity of ideas and life styles, For some of those years, I was in the Navy and traveled the western world and saw countries struggling to recover from the destruction of WW II and appreciated the USA. But I needed social, economic and intellectual freedoms and moved to New York City where I found a completely different universe, even better than my Milwaukee growing up altruistic experiences.As a Corporate salesman for the Fortune 500 headquarter and Banking accounts, I traveled to more than 40 states in America for customer meetings, training, setting up district and regional computer installations. I think every state is different and the USA is a really large country, the third biggest in the world. New York is totally different from Laredo, Texas. The South is different from the North, West from the East. So I basically experienced culture shocks in different states. Rout 66 does exist all over the USA. It’s easy to have a road trip in America. I often traveled America by car, and I don’t remember how many nights we just parked in front of Wal-Mart and slept in the car. I felt safe and it saved me a lot of money. You can take showers in service stations and everything was simple and comfortable. There is not much traffic on highways too, so you can just enjoy the view! An 8-hour road trip is really not that long; it’s fairly common since living in such a large country twists your perception of distance. I used to think any drive taking more than an hour is basically a road trip, now I’ve realized there’s people that commute for over an hour… every single day. I’ve also gotten the opportunity to drive from NC to Montana (~40 hours) twice. The US have every landscape imaginable. Anywhere you go there is 24 x 7 shopping. You want to buy cheese, bread, jeans, rifle and a TV at 3am? You can do that. Then you can visit a fast food place on your way home. Everything is just open … all the time. Try that in Europe!From what I've observed, big cities tend to have lots of Universities, high tech, industry and immigrants. States that have big immigrant populations include: Hawaii, California, Washington, Oregon, Texas, and New York, Florida. So where are good places to live in the United Stares if you don't want the hustle of places like New York but not want to live in the middle of nowhere? Places with good schools, decent job prospects, low crime rate and not stupidly expensive? I would suggest the middle south, like Tennessee, Kentucky or Georgia.America is made up from great towns with lots of diversity, low cost of living, good jobs, not too crazy at all, plenty of outlying neighborhoods and small towns to live in that are low crime, traffic isn't horrible except on maybe 3 roads but there are ways around it, everyone gets along for the most part, we don't have all the craziness of the big cities, nobody gets too worked up about anything. The downside is the weather; hot and humid for about 6 months out of the year, chilly and rainy for 4 months. The birth of the Rust Belt was created by the loss of industries to automation and the flight of low-skill high-pay manufacturing abroad; the flight of the middle class to the suburbs; and government neglect. Many Black communities were stuck on the sinking urban ship, and (to keep the metaphor going) were already in the bottom holds of the ship to begin with.Each state has pretty and ugly parts. For example, I went on an 1100 mile road trip from Wisconsin to Florida, passing through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida. Each state is pretty and ugly. As the song says, West Virginia has pretty mountains, but a lot of the state is run down and in poor repair. There's not much zoning with the housing, so anything goes from property to property. Lots of tin roofs, rusted. There is a good deal of poverty. It's not quite South enough to be warm in the winter. Unlike other states, there really isn't a major city there (with what can be described as attractive buildings, pro sports stadiums, etc.); though maybe the college town is better.Easily one of the most depressing places on Earth, I drove through Iowa and I thought it was so boring, farmland all around. Nevada is a desert wasteland. When you drive deeper into it, especially the northern area, everything is roped off. Yes, everything. Nothing lives, no plants, animals, or anything; only miles of salt off the highway. It's all roped off, which makes me believe the government does some weird stuff there; miles of nothingness, just beige rolling hills. I felt claustrophobic; absolutely nothing redeeming out there. Las Vegas has its vague charms, but it really is a mess. Northern Nevada is an entirely different world. The Lake Tahoe area is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. New Jersey has both the ugliest sights and some of the prettier sights. The ugly side includes vast refineries. They also smell terrible but it does have the best part, the Jersey Shore.Pretty much the worst drive one might take in the US would be like starting out from San Angelo (a dreadful town) and going north, up to Amarillo and into the panhandle of Oklahoma and across the border into southwest Kansas and southeast Colorado. It's this sort of flat and dry scrub land. It looks like shit, basically. And it sucks to find yourself anywhere within this red zone. It's Satan's Vacation Land! In terms of being unappealing to the eye and sheer uninspiring views, Kansas takes top place for me. It's a boring rectangle in shape, its highways are arrow-straight and it's under populated. Oh, and it's anvil-flat. If your wife leaves you, you can spend three days watching her walk away. Ohio usually has an overcast sky. When the sun comes out people get excited. It's part of the rust belt. Industry has left and so have the young people. What are left are retired union workers who are getting their pensions cut and people who don't work. The infrastructure is crumbling. All of the roads need to be repaved but the cities don't have money because no one pays income tax because no one has income. You have a few places like Columbus and Dayton that are booming, but much of Ohio isn't a place you'd want to visit, unless you're a historical photographer. Some of the country areas are beautiful though.The AmericansSo, who are the Americans? There has been debate about this in recent times, but it still holds true. Anybody that lives in America is considered an American. Asians are Americans, Blacks are Americans, Indians are Americans, Whites are Americans, Arabs are Americans, Italians are Americans. People can retain their home culture, but they dissolve into the large American society and are considered a part of it, not strangers or outsiders.If you would believe the media, you’d think there’s a race war going on and there’s an open season on black people. This is grade-A bullshit. I’ve traveled coast to coast, right through the Deep South, and people in general get along just fine pretty much everywhere. Sure, racism is a real thing, but it is not nearly as bad as they’d like you to believe. They just like to put the cameras on the scumbags of society like the KKK, Neo-Nazi’s, BLM, and Antifa. These assholes don’t represent the population, thankfully. Remember: news media is a for-profit business. All they give a shit about is ratings, and they’ve been caught by video-bloggers plenty of times fabricating and twisting stories. They are the main reason for the bullshit that’s been going on lately.Friendships seem to be one dimensional. Most people live in bubbles. In my experience, your school friends remain your school friends. You may occasionally grab a bite to eat, but the topics of a conversation focus on school. Your sport friends remain your sport friends. Your work friends are simply your work friends and so on. Friends from one circle of life don’t automatically enter other circles or groups. Everything seems very isolated from each other. Friendships also don’t have such strong bonds. You may have some good childhood friends that you keep in touch with, but for the most part, people simply do not have a strong nucleus of friends that lasts forever. People veer to the extreme sides of things on almost everything. A good example is the way people look. There’s a lot of fat people and super-fit people in the USA, and not much in-between. Most of all, it’s an awesome place with a wide variety of people. Some of them are assholes, but most of them are great. Americans have a kind of happy excitement about them that I find very fun and pleasant. Europeans are generally a little more stoic compared to them.Beneath the glorious and over fantasized “American Dream” is the harsh reality that Americans slog their back off to survive. On an average 35% Americans are doing more than one job, either to pay bills or to reach a level of a lifestyle that they aspire for. American Dream is not a fallacy. But Americans are really wanting to work hard to achieve it. There is a charm to America, beautiful landscapes, friendly people. But for all the stuff they talk about how great they are, seeing reality is actually really shocking! The people I met were genuine, friendly warm hearted individuals. There are a lot of hugs and kisses. In my entire life I have seen people of different sex, even the married ones hugging or kissing all across the USA.I have an International friend who traveled around the USA too with the following observations.I was raised in England, lived in India for years and now call New York City home. The diversity of people in NY is unbelievable. The whole world lives there. The first day I was here I walked the streets of New York, where 47% are foreign born from every country in the world, but everyone spoke English, not just the upper classes, academics, musicians and actors. I would go to a café, or to a bookstore, and stay there, pretending I was reading a book while listening to people talk. What a pleasure to see that English was a real language! All these racial, ethnic and religious differences between people and everyone gets along. Pakistanis and Indians in the US are friends. Palestinians and Israelis are friends. We see that common man is no different and has more problems in his life than border wars. How exuberantly friendly people are. Unfailingly upbeat and polite, Americans are really friendly . . . to almost everyone on first contact. It’s probably the “oil” needed to lubricate the tremendous social and economic dynamism in this 30 million metro city area in this continental-sized nation.I moved to Brooklyn seven months ago. What amaze me here were the people! They are smiling when we cross eyes, willing to help and have a sense of civism. I don’t want to generalize for the rest of the country but I felt the same in the south (Louisiana, Virginia, Carolina) when I was traveling there, in small towns. This is definitely refreshing, especially if you lived in Paris. My first restaurant experience in the US was a Vietnamese restaurant, where I ordered a bowl of noodle soup. When the soup arrived, I thought I was supposed to use that bowl to wash my face before eating the soup. Then the Mexican restaurant. I sat down, the waitress very quickly came over, placed a HUGE basket of tortilla chips and a bucket of salsa in front of me, and a menu. When the tacos came, I was already full. I didn’t see many averagely fit person in the US. Rather, I saw very athletic or very obese people.There were tons of fun cultural shocks I got used to and actually adopted a few, I would like to share some of the shocks I encountered. People ask you how are you even though they don’t know you at all, neither did they care how your responses are. Waiters will come to your table, asking you “how is everything” while you were eating and can barely talk with food in your mouth. No security checks entering the subway, and no mobile signals in the subway. God knows where the subway will go and when it will come during weekend and holidays. You can always find someone or the other performing in the NYC subway. It is a big stage for them to showcase their talents. Many subway performers are front runners now in American music industry. People stop their busy life and watch them perform, they show respect. It’s not for money they perform always, sometimes. It’s just for respect.It was my first day at a job and like most places we had a custom that a new employee would send an email introducing themselves. I did the same. Three hours later I was washing hands in the restroom and the janitor comes from behind and says “Hey Man, Welcome. It's your first day.” I still don't know how he knew it was my first day. I doubt he might have been in that email distribution list, but anyway he made me feel welcome. We talked for about a good 10 minutes. He told me about his kids, what they want to be when they grow up. What he wants them to be when they grow up etc. The shocking part was, while having that conversation I started wondering is he really the Janitor? I worked in India as well for a short period of time. The support staffs such as Janitors were treated so differently there - there was a class system, servants called everyone "Sir" and wore uniforms. This man had the confidence to come and talk to me so effortlessly, maybe because he had never been made to feel different. People around him never behaved as if the job he does as a janitor is in any way less than the others, who would typically be converting coffee to code. Later, I found the guy was surely popular amongst my techie colleagues. They would call him by his first name and so would he. No “Sir“ involved. Dignity of Labor, it matters here and rightfully should.Contrary to popular belief, there are almost no guns on NYC streets, neither are uniformed soldiers. The only guns I saw were in police officers’ holsters, and they were invariably small arms. European cops sometimes carry assault rifles; railway security has submachine guns. No such thing in NYC, except for, possibly, in airports. I took a road trip from NYC to my old university in Connecticut. Wow! The USA is too BIG. The day I landed in JFK Airport and my first road journey from JFK to Hartford was on I-95. The highways were so huge and the roads were filled with cars, SUVs and trucks. The way everyone behaved while driving and the way others followed rules while driving in the interstates showed an excellent example of discipline. People seem to be respecting law and order. If tourists want to cover a lot of landmarks in USA, then Northeast is the best option, as we can cover most areas with road trips. We can pretty much cover Boston, Rhode Island, NYC, Philly, Washington, D.C. I have heard my friends say that in Texas we can drive all day and still be in Texas. USA simply is too BIG and people love their cars and driving. Road trips are so common here thanks to the extensive Interstate system that made this possible.I traveled straight away to Atlanta, Georgia and points south into Alabama and Mississippi. It's a very poor White and Black region, with lots of poverty, lousy healthcare, crime and social dysfunction. It seems most people live in trailers, drop out of school, have lots of babies and have few skills. There is an over-presence of religion. Religious billboards everywhere, churches on every corner, with signs admonishing to believe or else. I can’t figure the South out! It seems they are still living their Civil War over and over again . . . always fighting what is good for them because of their animosities toward outsiders and especially what they call Yankees. IT almost seems that the Age of Enlightenment had never occurred, stuck in pre-18th Century mind sets regarding science, logic and humanism. Logical discussion seems beyond the range, almost an alien concept, of many who just tout set slogans and opinions, with no basis in observation or research for themselves. It’s mind boggling to find in a “Developed Nation.” It shows all the signs of Brainwashing. For example, in Europe many of the “uneducated poor from the sticks” (who would be called rednecks, trailer trash etc. in the U.S.) vote for left-wing parties which are known for complex social compensations of the lack of responsibility for one’s life, whereas many right-wing parties (unless they are far too nationalist) are associated with white-collar jobs, business etc. Ironically, had the U.S. poorest (but still with shelter over their heads, warm beds, running water and possibly jobs) lived in Europe, they would probably be communists. So my biggest cultural shock visiting the U.S., for a long time, was that the Southern rednecks, trailer park residents etc. are nearly uniformly right wing conservative Republicans who politically have absolutely no interest in their well being.I experienced colorism in my world travels, but never racism. But America! Wahoo … that was a different kettle of fish. I have friends of every hue, I know the lighter hued you are, the better you get treated in society, but with me and my people, your character is what really sells you. I never understood why someone’s color or the country they came from determined who they were in America. I mean people are just people . . . Aren’t they? My worst experiences were in several small Southern towns like Mobile, Biloxi and Gatlinburg. Especially Gatlinburg, where I was heavily discriminated until I opened my mouth to speak, and then they heard my accent and all was right in their but by then the damage was already done. The south is so white, and religious and pure, and perfect! The only things that will make this perfect American image even more perfect is Jesus Christ in the background with an American flag and gun on his hip! The most annoying ones with the patriotic stuff are the middle-aged white Americans who have never been outside of the US. In my country, for the most part, if we believe you’re a good person we like you, if we think you’re not, we won’t go near you … regardless of your skin tone, or financial status. Actually, except for the south, I didn't see so much racism across the country, there are a lot of open-minded Americans.From what I noticed, you can probably encounter racism to some extent in small cities in the southern states, but in big cities like New York, Washington, Dallas, people are generally quite open. I find most Americans I met in my trip are very friendly and open-minded. Almost everyone I encountered at stores and restaurants were really nice. They were very warm, always asked about my day and were helpful in every way possible. Some of the best conversations I had when I was in America have been with people I randomly met on the street.But the biggest weirdness for me was the religiousness of southern people. In the UK, religion is a private thing. In the US people will talk about God, or J.C., pray in public etc. (I’ve seen it in Heathrow airport - a big group of Texans praying together before their return flight, and often wondered what would happen in Houston airport if a group of Muslims started unrolling prayer mats and reading from the Koran.) And meeting really lovely people who then casually espouse the most right-wing / racist / homophobic / sexist views.As a dark-skinned African with a very Indian-looking face, I was prepared to face racism when I was about to go to America. I traveled to more than 20 cities in the US and have never experienced any forms of discrimination at all. People are so friendly and welcoming to me. Even in places like Boston and New York where the people are known to be pressed and rude, people still say “thank you” and “sorry” a lot. Another thing that I find shocking most is the cultural diversity of the country. Foreigners like to think that the whole America is not much different from one another, but it’s actually much more diverse. The contrast between the Western and the Eastern parts of the country is very strong. They almost feel like two different countries. Though overall my biggest culture shock (or reality) of America is that it’s a very highly contrasting society and country, with huge geographic differences and that even people’s opinions varied hugely, people are not people but a black woman, white man, Asian guy, Mexican dude, white girl, black kid! And each subsection of Americans has their own stereotype assigned to them and they meet it more or less.A few days into my trip, I noticed a trend. Every time I made a cash payment with a large bill, the person at the cash register would have to stop in order to thoroughly inspect the note to ensure that it was not fake, usually using a detection pen or some other contraption. I was in Chick-fil-A buying lunch one afternoon and I handed over a 100-dollar note. There was no one behind me so I struck a conversation with the girl taking my order. I’m really sorry, I don’t have a smaller one, and you will have to run this through your detection machine. Oh don’t worry honey; I can hold it up to check the watermark and the security thread. She was really kind too; giving me all the extra sauces I wanted for my chicken nuggets. Also, Chick-fil-A is the BOMB! There are a lot of fat people in the south. It was shocking to see how many people suffered with obesity compared to the numbers you see in New York. The fast food, and in general food, culture is much more apparent with food portions being of a much bigger size, and in some cases quite cheap. Going to the cinema and seeing the portion sizes of popcorn and Coke was definitely a shock.I have said it before "Americans are very friendly." “How are you doing?” is a common generic question you are going to be asked when you go up to a counter to get your coffee or place order at McDonald or Burger King. Strangers smile at you. Even girls. And the worse thing about an introvert like me is that I am expected to smile too. Imagine a very average looking guy smiling at an attractive young lady in the streets of Delhi and Kolkata? Yeah, you end up being in Police station making promises that you won’t repeat your ill-behavior in public again. Here, you are smiled at. Such is life.In the USA, everything is huge, the space between the stores, the roads, the cars, the people. I found when driving in the Midwest the sense of endlessness to the land around me gave me vertigo. It was a really strange and discomforting feeling. It is no wonder Americans find the UK so quaint and cramped.In most American cities, you don’t see people walking on streets, all you see are cars, cars, cars! When I was in Dallas, I noticed that except in downtown area and tourist spots, you basically don’t see people walking on streets! A small city of 200k people ends up being the size of London because it’s all massively spread out, and of course there is no public transportation so you need a fucking car to get around whether you like it or not. As a result no one walks, no one is on the street, you don’t see anyone anywhere, all you see is cars and cars and people in them. How insular American culture is, they are generally oblivious to anything outside of the US. But they were intrigued and very keen to learn. I felt like the people were deliberately kept in the dark. Everything here is Real BIG! The cars, food portions, grocery quantities, supermarket like Wal-Mart, Target, CostCo etc. is massive. And people here buy stuff in bulk. How big the divide between rich and poor really is. I was shocked how many ordinary people were struggling to get by. Historic items 200 years old is considered old in the US. In England it is usual to see a church or castle nearly 1000 year’s old. The way people in America abide road rules and regulations is amazing to watch. I had very rarely seen a person skip a red signal when he is waiting to cross a road or when he is driving. The respect pedestrians get in this country is tremendous, I had seen big trucks coming to full stop just to let pedestrians cross to road even if he has a green signal to go.People here are very independent and they rely on themselves by setting strict schedules for every task at hand. When they give their time for you, it is 100% dedicated for you by clearing out rest of their tasks. This discipline is astonishing. people can be anything they want to be and work whatever they may please. Example, in India, if I see a carpenter guy working on a door, I would assume he is a carpenter all the time and he doesn't do anything else. He would be sorted into a certain social class and be given a certain level of respect and not more. In the US, the same carpenter guy could be a programming genius on a hefty scholarship plus a high paying job waiting when he graduates and yet chose to be a carpenter for one day to earn money for a concert ticket. Or the Mayor of the town could do bartending work on weekends just for fun. The janitor could be your classmate. (All true stories)Here, a job is a job and there is no such thing as low level job which is unheard of for Indians. You never know who you are talking to and all that they are capable of. Hence giving equal respect for a fellow human is established deep in their values. I have heard story of Indians treating a waiter boy bad by demanding everything in assertive tone(and not saying thank you, please, etc. which are considered polite requests). Later they came to know that the kid was the son of two professors in the university and wished had they known he was from an elite family, they might have treated him better. The point they are missing is no job is elite or degrading in the US. A job is a job. Waiter, professor, janitor, student, Mayor deserve the same respect.There aren't any class distinctions in the USA. I have seen a man wearing a suit and moving trash bags. I have witnessed high profile executives addressing the taxi driver, the Barista at coffee shop as Sir and Mam. And I know for sure that in large corporation, referring your seniors/superiors as Sir is offending. And this is shockingly divergent from a culture that I come from. This comes naturally to all Americans - they can wait in traffic lanes depending on which direction they are turning, they can wait at coffee shops till the server has finished serving the previous customer, at ticket counters, at football games . . . you name it. Despite their aggressive stances, Americans can wait like no other culture.There are two United States. There are the US of A we all know, the USA that we see in the news and the imprint the country leaves in the world’s history. That’s the West and East coast. The cities there are insane. People are techie and advanced. Cars are either European or Teslas. Society is very forward on most issues. You’ll see gay couples, people in the middle of gender transition, and so many cultures in one place your mind will get boggled. Then you go inland and detract about 200 years from the current date. Now, I am quite certain there are big cities and advanced bubbles of society inland, but most of it simply isn’t.My average day of traveling through the inland was a four-hour drive through nothing (that alone is crazy to Europeans. Four hours gets you to another country over here), then by random finding a tiny tiny “town” in the middle of a bloody desert, or bloody mountains, or bloody wilderness. There is nothing there, nothing. Tiny, ragged, sometimes even torn down houses, three massive “Pick Ups” in front of each of them. No people in sight. No shops, no businesses, no internet. This is followed by two to three more hours of drive through nothing. What exactly do those people do? Where do they go every day, how do they make money, where do they buy food?I drove through northern states where there was snow stacked up everywhere on the sides of roads. It was really cold for me. I couldn't remove my jacket for first 2 weeks at least. On the other hand, starting from the very airport, people were roaming around in T-shirts like it was middle of summer! I could not get used to it since every day I go out, covering myself and still shivering while people all around me are half naked! It's spring for them and pretty usual, rather nice weather for them. I kept having this shock throughout my whole trip of three weeks. Even though it was very cold for me, everyone everywhere greeted me with a very warm smile and tone. This of course melted my heart every time and felt very good with this method of greetings