Inspired by Soup threads, just random often lesser known people and events from history
Operation Nemesis was a clandestine group of Armenians plotting revenge assassinations on Turks and Azerbaijani officials who were crucial figures in the Armenian genocide during WW1. From 1920-22 they assassinated 7 officials including the prime minister of Azerbaijan, minister of the interior of Turkey, minister of Turkish Navy, and Turkish grand vizier, all without state support. Eat your heart out Mossad.
Folke Bernadotte was a Swedish diplomat who helped facilitate the release of over 30,000 concentration camp prisoners in WW2. He even recieved a surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler who went behind Hitler’s back in the late stages of the war. Post war he became the UN mediator in Palestine which would be the first UN mediation in history. This ultimately led to his demise when in 1948 he was assassinated by radical Zionists from the Stern Gang who feared his peace proposal would be disastrous to the creation of a Jewish state.
During WW2 when American forces were island hopping their way to Japan they setup bases on islands that were still very primitive and had not seen vast amounts of modern Western goods. Bringing in cargo and supplies in such quantities led some of the islanders to create a new religion blending these cargo carriers with an ancient volcano God they believed in. After the withdrawal of American forces some of the locals made landing strips and wooden control towers and even model aircraft made from wood and straw in hopes that John from America would return with more cargo. They have a parade on February 15th every year where they sport red white and blue colors
Read this or watch the documentary of about the best story I ever heard.
American soldiers shot down in Borneo and captured but the head shrinking tribe who occupied the country. The soldiers were held in a place that had shrunken heads hanging all over the walls. I can only imagine the fear they were experiencing. The Airmen and the Headhunters | About the Episode | Secrets of the Dead | PBS.
These days we tend to think the sky is falling just about anytime the gov’t does anything. Freezing assets from those taking part in the trucker rally was terrible, but imagine having the company you work for literally control your life. For coal miners in the 19th and 20th centuries this was reality.
Being a coal miner in those days meant you you often lived in a company owned town where everything was deducted from your paycheck leaving you little to nothing and without the ability to leave.The coal operators would also hire their own private security to ensure everyone was kept in line.
Workers turned to the union and tried to bargain with the coal operators for better working conditions but the operators rejected this. The workers went on strike and were subsequently evicted from the town, having to move their families to a tent settlement the union had leased.
For months the strike went on and the coal operators tried bringing in replacement workers which led to frequent confrontation. The national guard came in and provided passage for the replacement workers. With the coal mines operational and the state running out of money to pay for the national guard they recalled all but one unit that stayed in the area and the coal operator’s henchmen formed a new unit and were given NG uniforms.
Things came to a head on April 20 1914 and security surrounding the colony opened fire. The miners and security fought throughout the day but the security having superior firepower prevailed. Estimates vary on the death toll from around 20 killed up to around 60, mostly women and children.
Following the massacre union workers from all over southern Colorado took to arms and went after the coal mines killing guards and setting fire to buildings. This went on for 10 days until the president called in the federal troops, disarming both sides.
The end result was the coal operators getting their way and none of the workers requests achieved
Lyudmila Pavlochenko was a Soviet sniper during WW2. She fought in the battles of Odessa and Sevastopol in 1941-42. During this time span she had 309 confirmed kills, including 36 enemy snipers. Injured by a mortar shell she was pulled from the front to recover in June 1942 but commie authorities determined to use her as a propaganda tool instead of going back to the front line after Sevastopol fell in early July. Along with other Soviets, she went on a tour through the United States, Canada, and Great Britain on a mission to get the allies to open up a second front against Germany. While stateside she visited the White House and befriended the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
She was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union award and made it onto a couple stamps for her efforts. After the war she lived a quieter life and returned to school to become a historian. Mrs Roosevelt even visited her in Moscow in 1957. She died of a stroke in 1974.
Born around 104AD in modern day Portugal, Diocles was the highest paid athlete in history. A chariot racer with a career that spanned 24yrs and 4,257 races, the hard charging Diocles earned 35,863,120 sesterces in prize money, equivalent to around $15bn USD today. That blows any modern athlete out of the water, and it’s not even close. How much was that really worth back then? He could have paid all the regular soldiers of the Roman military at it’s Zenith, for 2 1/2 months. Or he could have paid for all the bread in Rome for a year. Instead he retired at 42, when most charioteers didn’t make it out of their 20’s alive, bought a lot of land in the Italian countryside and lived a quiet life with his family.
I hate to be that guy but a lot of those stories were frauds, namely the Pogue, Ogle, and Meyer inventions. Then I looked at the other videos the guy makes and it’s a bit too out there for me. Still a very interesting topic though. If you ever listen to Graham Hancock or Randall Carlson(they’ve been on jre and other podcasts a bunch) they have a buddy who’s also inventing some out of this world stuff. Looked into it a bit and the guys patent is oddly similar to an existing one from an 80’s fraudster that was never successful with the invention. I’m waiting for the day the day though. Thorium reactors might be a big energy solver if they can get them figured out
Interesting thing, electric cars have actually been around almost as long as cars have. There were plans to have them on a grid same as buses used to run on but oil and gas won out. I could actually do one on Rudolph Diesel, pretty interesting story there as well.
