History Facts They Didn’t Teach You At School

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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.

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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.

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Only 6 people died in the Great Fire of London.

The great fire of 1666 apparently traces its way to a baker’s oven, 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.

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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.

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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.

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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”.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

[01dragonslayer]

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?