What's your favorite "History is Stranger than Fiction" moment from world history?

[Gawdzilla]

H. H. Holmes, a real life movie monster seems to have inspired a movie genre.

Funny that Jack the Ripper takes center stage when it comes to the 19th century. Holmes, operating only a decade later, is hardly ever mentioned. Although he was much more prolific and certainly much more sophisticated. Hell, he designed a whole hotel with the sole purpose of murder and disposal of victims in mind.

Just to inspire movies like "Hostel".

[Pat Mustard]

Franz Ferdinand's assassination. He survived several attempts on his life during the motorcade, but his chauffeur made a wrong turn on the way to the Archduke's next engagement, and that was down a dead-end alley. It just so happened that Gavril Princip, one of the plotters, was walking down this alley, dejected because he'd missed any chance to make his attempt during the motorcade, when he realized that his target had just realized their mistake and were trying to turn around. He took his opportunity and made his kill.

The spark that lit Europe ablaze would not have happens had it not been for a wrong turn and a random encounter.

And do you know why the driver took a wrong turn? It was because as a result of a bomb attack from one of Gavrilo's confederates on the drive to the city hall, Franz Ferdinand and his aides decided to change the return route as a security precaution. But nobody told any of the drivers about this, the first car took the original route, and the second, with the royal couple, followed behind.

[abaris]

Franz Ferdinand's assassination. He survived several attempts on his life during the motorcade, but his chauffeur made a wrong turn on the way to the Archduke's next engagement, and that was down a dead-end alley. It just so happened that Gavril Princip, one of the plotters, was walking down this alley, dejected because he'd missed any chance to make his attempt during the motorcade, when he realized that his target had just realized their mistake and were trying to turn around. He took his opportunity and made his kill.

The spark that lit Europe ablaze would not have happens had it not been for a wrong turn and a random encounter.

Doesn't make it any less strange, but it wasn't a dead end. It was just the original route. Nobody had bothered to inform the driver of a change, after the first attempt. Princip just stood where he expected the Motorcade according to the plan. Strange comes in when it really turned up there. And not only that. It came to stand right before his nose, since the driver started to reverse.

And they didn't even change the route because of security concerns, but because the archduke wanted to visit the ones being injured in the first attempt in the hospital. If they hadn't changed it at all, things would have been more difficult for Princip, since then he would have had to deal with a moving target. Princip wasn't such a good shot, since it took him three bullets to hit his mark anyway.

The car's still at the museum of military history in Vienna. You can see the bullet holes in it's side.



The story gets even stranger, since that same car is tied to all kinds of conspiracy stories. Such as killing everyone who ever owned it. Easily debunked bullshit, since it didn't drive another mile since that day in 1914. The owner gave it to the emperor, who in turn donated it to the museum. Where it survived two world wars, which is a story in it's own right.

Franz Ferdinand's uniform and even the sofa where he breathed his last, survived too.

[Eclipse]

Franz Ferdinand's assassination. He survived several attempts on his life during the motorcade, but his chauffeur made a wrong turn on the way to the Archduke's next engagement, and that was down a dead-end alley. It just so happened that Gavril Princip, one of the plotters, was walking down this alley, dejected because he'd missed any chance to make his attempt during the motorcade, when he realized that his target had just realized their mistake and were trying to turn around. He took his opportunity and made his kill.

The spark that lit Europe ablaze would not have happens had it not been for a wrong turn and a random encounter.

Iv'e often argued that young, 19 yr old Gavrilo Princip had a bigger influence on the 20th century than any other human who lived for at least part of that century.

The chain of events those shots set off is quite amazing and sill impacts on the world today.

[scoobysnack]

Einstein's letter to FDR on starting development of nukes sat on FDR's desk for several (many?) days and was finally acted upon December 6, 1941.


What, if anything, might have become of that letter had it sat one more day and then was engulfed in the tempest of the Pearl Harbor attack ?

Interesting thing is the Manhattan project to first use nukes supposedly according to the club was at Bohemian Grove was agreed upon. This is a strange place. They have a three story owl where they perform mock sacrifices to in July. If you want to know history stranger than fiction, this would be a place to start where US presidents and other US elite meet in the summers of norther california.




Here's what Richard Nixon said about the place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN2GS3b8cyU

[Cato]

Donald Trump earning POTUS delegates.

[rexbeccarox]

Franz Ferdinand's assassination. He survived several attempts on his life during the motorcade, but his chauffeur made a wrong turn on the way to the Archduke's next engagement, and that was down a dead-end alley. It just so happened that Gavril Princip, one of the plotters, was walking down this alley, dejected because he'd missed any chance to make his attempt during the motorcade, when he realized that his target had just realized their mistake and were trying to turn around. He took his opportunity and made his kill.

The spark that lit Europe ablaze would not have happens had it not been for a wrong turn and a random encounter.

Doesn't make it any less strange, but it wasn't a dead end. It was just the original route. Nobody had bothered to inform the driver of a change, after the first attempt. Princip just stood where he expected the Motorcade according to the plan. Strange comes in when it really turned up there. And not only that. It came to stand right before his nose, since the driver started to reverse.

And they didn't even change the route because of security concerns, but because the archduke wanted to visit the ones being injured in the first attempt in the hospital. If they hadn't changed it at all, things would have been more difficult for Princip, since then he would have had to deal with a moving target. Princip wasn't such a good shot, since it took him three bullets to hit his mark anyway.

The car's still at the museum of military history in Vienna. You can see the bullet holes in it's side.



The story gets even stranger, since that same car is tied to all kinds of conspiracy stories. Such as killing everyone who ever owned it. Easily debunked bullshit, since it didn't drive another mile since that day in 1914. The owner gave it to the emperor, who in turn donated it to the museum. Where it survived two world wars, which is a story in it's own right.

Franz Ferdinand's uniform and even the sofa where he breathed his last, survived too.

I've been to a lot of museums, but this is one of my favorites. I remember spending hours poring over everything.

[vorlon13]

Here's an 'inverse' one that no one seems to remember, despite it's import:


Southern Airways flight 49 hijacking


Excerpt from Wiki article:

. . . At one point, the hijackers threatened to fly the plane into a nuclear research reactor, the High Flux Isotope Reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory . . .



This hijacking occurred in 1972

[Pat Mustard]

Einstein's letter to FDR on starting development of nukes sat on FDR's desk for several (many?) days and was finally acted upon December 6, 1941.


What, if anything, might have become of that letter had it sat one more day and then was engulfed in the tempest of the Pearl Harbor attack ?

Interesting thing is the Manhattan project to first use nukes supposedly according to the club was at Bohemian Grove was agreed upon. This is a strange place. They have a three story owl where they perform mock sacrifices to in July. If you want to know history stranger than fiction, this would be a place to start where US presidents and other US elite meet in the summers of norther california.




Here's what Richard Nixon said about the place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN2GS3b8cyU

Scoob, here in the history section the idea is to discuss events that happened debate the evidence for events that may have happened, and talk about their consequences.

Injecting your made up bullshit serves none of these purpuses.

[abaris]

This is about the criminalist, who first used the term Serial Killer.

Hardly anyone will know the name Ernst Gennat. But apart from being called the Buddha of Berlin, because he was incredibly fat, he was probably the leading homicide expert in the world of the first three decades of the 20th century. He also made it to the silver screen. If you've seen the Fritz Lang film "M", the Fritz Lohmann character is an hommage to him. He also was kind of a society darling, always mentioned in the tabloids along with the stars when some party or event took place.

Apart from being the first one to set a up a specialised homicide unit, he also was first in insisting that nothing is touched at a scene of crime before the experts arrived. He put great stock into forensics and even planned and realized a car to collect evidence at the scene. 94 percent of homicides during his time have been solved. The term serial killer first came up when he wrote an article on the infamous murderer Peter Kürten, whom he rightfully considered to be one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_K%C3%BCrten

That's him at work. You can easily see why he was called Buddha.