fact
America’s tipping culture came from Europe in the 1850s, but it was so unpopular that it was made illegal in 6 states, and the anti-tipping movement spread back to Europe, decimating tipping in Europe to what it is today. Meanwhile the opposite happened in America, tipping was gradually accepted.
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A bridge in Ireland that was designed to swing open for ships couldn’t be opened for four years because someone lost the remote control.
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In 1926 a U.S. Marine was crowned King of the Haitian island of Gonâve, the first and only American to become a ruling monarch. His reign ended when the Marines transferred him to his next duty station.
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Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss immigrant in America, co-founded the famous car company and later sold off his stake in his company. After failed business ventures and the 1929 crash, the impoverished Chevrolet then got work as a simple mechanic at his own namesake company and died penniless.
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During the Golden Age of Piracy, many pirates set up social safety net programs such as disability payments for injuries sustained while at sea, as well as life insurance to be paid to a pirate’s family if they died.
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In 2013 the Vatican had to pull 6000 papal medals from sale because the inscription said “Lesus“ instead of “Jesus”.
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Dr. Werner Forssmann fed a catheter into an artery in his arm and on into his heart without knowing what the consequences would be. He then made an X-ray as proof. This procedure eventually revolutionised heart surgery. In 1956 he was awarded with the Nobel Price for Physiology or Medicine.
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During WWII, the US provided training and equipment for a Vietnamese group called the Viet Minh that was resisting Japanese occupation. The Viet Minh became the foundation of the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong that the US fought during the Vietnam War.
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Families are full of all kinds of secrets and surprising moments, and it’s important that we keep them in the family.
But sometimes, in the anonymity of a Reddit thread, some of the truth comes out.
“What are some weird or interesting facts about your families?”
“I placed my newborn for adoption (open adoption, chose the family myself). A few years later my sister got pregnant and placed her newborn with the same family.”
“So the children are growing up as siblings and are cousins by blood. (This was over 20 years ago.)” – ihateknickknacks
“Not that unheard of but my husband likes to tell people about when he first met my family. He went with me to visit one side (my Mother’s family) for Thanksgiving and met many of my Uncles, Aunts, and cousins.”
“The next day, we were going to have Thanksgiving on my other side (my Father’s family). When we walked in the door that next day, he stopped and his eyes got really wide, and he loudly whispered, “These are the same people,’ and I went, ‘Yeah, I know… surprise!’”
“My mother’s brother married my father’s sister and my mother’s other sister married my father’s first cousin.”
“And then if that isn’t confusing enough, my Grandmother and Grandfather were first cousins when they got married. (legal as he was adopted as a teenager).”
“My Grandmother said she did this so she never had to change her last name and she was the only girl short enough for him. My Grandfather was only 5 ft 2 inches and my Grandmother was 5 ft. Both came from Canada. Out of their 8 children, including two sons, the tallest is one of my aunts at 5 ft. 4 in. Luckily my mother (5 ft) married my dad who was 6ft 2 inch so we at least have some height in our family.” – Tbjkbe
“We recently found out that I have at least 5 half-siblings because my parents decided it would be nice (and financially beneficial) for my dad to make some donations around the time I was born.” – BananaMantis
“My great grandfather got in a fight with his sister when he was 12, said ‘F**k this,’ asked for work on a boat as a cabin boy, got on a ship, and left England.”
“He never went back. We have no idea if that side of the family even knows he survived, but I kind of want to go to the English town and tell my distantly extended family, ‘So you know that little kid in your family history who just sort of disappeared? Well, he lived! Surprise!’”
“Another great grandfather stole a cannon from China (which my grandfather blew up accidentally with my dad nearby), then left his future descendants a letter, telling us, ‘If you still have this last name and go to this part of China, don’t mention your name. They might still be pretty p**sed off that I stole their cannon.’”
“A few generations back, a dude got kicked out of Norway for getting his maid and his sister pregnant. When he got to the US, he then befriended another guy from Scandinavia and stole his wife.”
“It’s funny because part of the family laughs about this, and part refuses to admit it ever happened even though we have proof it did.” – Vonozar
“My great grandmothers maiden name was Messerschmidt. rumor has it that a relative designed the Messerschmidt planes in Germany during the first world war. There’s no way to prove it though.”
“And on the other side of the family, My great-great grandfather’s name was James Potter.” – shroomie19
“My great uncle was in the car with JFK when he was assassinated.” – Sterling_-_Archer
“My grandfather was the first Black aerospace engineer in the United States.” – cycloneju51
“My great grandparents both worked for Thomas Edison, which is how they met. That great-grandmother is super bada**, too… she came to the States when she was 15 and didn’t speak English, just as the German Depression was getting bad.”
“She had to teach herself English and raise enough money to bring her starving family over from Germany to join her here. She lost all her savings in the US stock market crash and had to start all over, but she did it!”
“Okay, I talked to my mom and I was mistaken. Only my great-grandmother worked for him originally, and she met my great-grandfather while in NYC with Edison and his second wife.”
“She went out with a friend who was also German, who brought her out with a group of German friends, which is where she met my great-grandfather. After they were married, he too went to work for Edison, and that’s where I got the story mixed up. I’m sorry for the error!”
“Also, a commenter asked how they thought of him, since Edison was known as kind of a jerk. I copied my reply from another comment here:”
“So I asked my mom, and she said that her grandmother never felt he liked her very much. She was maid to him and his second wife toward the end of his life.”
“When she brought him meals or came in to tidy up, he wouldn’t speak to her and wouldn’t even make eye contact.”
“He was able to be up and walking around the grounds and conversing with others though, and he always wondered if it was because of her station, or because she was German.” – joey1115
“We only die in March. Dogs, grandparents, uncles, we all die in March.” – AnarchyBea
“I had an ancestor who lied about his age to join up with the Union Army in the American Civil War in 1861. He fought in most of its bloodiest battles: Antietam, Shiloh, and Gettysburg to name a few.”
“He survived all of those to come home to the family farm at the end of the war, where he promptly died of a fever he had picked up in camp.” – captainthomas
“My grandad was poisoning my nan’s tea with rat poison for ages. She was documenting it and told the police, they did a huge bust on him and arrested him in front of all their kids (inc. my mum).”
“In court, he admitted to it, he agreed to all the charges, he did the deed. Eventually, the judge, flummoxed, asked ‘… But why?’”
“And his answer was, ‘Because we agreed to it.’”
“Apparently, they had made an agreement to use rat poison to home-treat her deep vein thrombosis (this brand was basically a blood thinner so the rats couldn’t clot when they got injured, and they both distrust doctors). This woman is crazy and I fully believe my grandad’s side.”
“The case got thrown out of court.” – Howlingz
While some secrets are hard for us to accept, especially when they relate to our families, many of the truths in our families are what helped form our families into what they are, from the family tree itself to important involvement in history.
Despite hard evidence the earth is NOT flat, many naysayers, known as “flat earthers” insist our planet is not at all spherical, whatsoever.
And if they could, they would go to the ends of the earth to prove it. But none ever have, because, well, they’ll wind up right where they started in their quest to prove their ridiculous point.
But among those who proclaim our planet is as flat as a stale slice of flatbread, some have come to their senses.
So how did these people manage to undo what they were so convinced of was not possible?
Strangers online revealed how they saw the light or made flat earthers accept reality when Redditor jbarms asked:
“Former Flat Earthers. What made you come round?”
“I talked to a flat-earther about my job working for a company that tracks ship locations, routes, and speeds by satellite. We also had ways of monitoring carbon emissions based on fuel consumption and known weather conditions.”
“None of this would work at all if the earth was flat. Not a jot of it.”
“I could only explain the most basic concepts, but it was enough for him to understand and realise that I was right and that he’d been convinced by someone who had no practical experience of the spherical nature of the Earth.”
“I think that’s what really did it – my experience was really tangible. This happens then this happens then we measure this etc etc… no theory, just practice.”
“A bit like showing a child a rock dropping to the ground in order to explain gravity, rather than giving them the whole theoretical shebang. Y’know?” – Administrative-Task9
“The mobius strip earthers had more compelling arguments.” – jnhummel
“Quote I got from somewhere…”
“for 5 years I believed the Earth was flat, then I turned 6” – -QED-
“I convinced a flat earther, temporarily, by asking him if it was possible for a sphere to be so large that you could not tell it was a sphere my simply being on the surface of it.”
“It took him a while, I used an analogy of a extremely long line that was so slightly curved you could not tell so by looking at a small section of it.”
“Eventually he said yes to the sphere and I told him that was how big the earth is. A few days later he reverted, most of these people aren’t mentally stable, they believe in a lot of conspiracies.”
“Corny edit, but as connoisseur of flat earth content my personal favorite is Professor Dave on YouTube. He is a underappreciated dude who just had a Science channel on YouTube and got brigaded by flat earthers for an unrelated video.”
“He made like 6 video responses in total just owning these guys but they eventually gave up. Check it out.” – McClain3000
“What I like to do is use telescopes. This telescope is strong enough to see distant stars and galaxies, yes? Okay, look out this direction across the ocean. Can you see Europe?” – HavanosArcova
“Look, it’s really easy:”
“If the Earth is flat, there would be an edge(s). And there would be a f’king Disney park at the edge, and we could bungie jump off the side and paraglide into the void etc etc.”
“Someone would be making an absolute sh*t ton of money off of it – if it existed.”
“Guess what? Nobody is doing that – adn in this world where absolutely everything is exploited for profit – if no one is making money off of it – it does.not.exist. No edge. Not flat. Get a clue.” – Gedwyn19
“I watched a documentary about flat earthers called ‘Truth behind the curve’ and my analysis from watching that these flat earthers are a group of people who found a community to be a part of.”
“It’s a shame their community is based on a lie, but I saw a bunch of people who were to be part of A community.”
“Most of the people were social awkward and whatnot, and so an opportunity to be an influential figure within the community so they double down on their flawed logic.”
“The more against you are of them, the harder they rep their flatness.” – imthatguydavid
“I was debating a flat earther in Mexico, and I asked him about how GPS worked if there were no satellites. He said that they had devices in the ground to route you.”
“I told him the Mexican government is barely able to put decent water pipes in the ground; would he really think they had the tech to put routing devices in the ground?”
“He chuckled with a thousand mile gaze.” – mzaouar
“A serious answer here.”
“The thing that made me stop was just the question ‘why would nasa lie to you.’”
“I will try replying to all of yall but will go to a study hall so ill reply later.” – The_Holy_Fork
“This a solid point, there’s no way 70,000 scientist could keep it a secret.” – needsmoreusername
“That’s the biggest reason for me to not believe so many conspiracy theories, especially major ones like a Flat Earth… We know how often things leak about everything, and suddenly a collection of 10s of thousands of people are all gonna keep this one big secret?” – JerHat
“Flat earth is absolutely sh*t tier. It not only fails on the level you described, but also: why? Why pretend the shape of the earth is different than it is? When does someone convene a high level meeting to circulate that idea?” – heseme
“I spent about a year infiltrating the flat Earth community on Instagram. I garnered a decent following with an account dedicated to flat earth travel photos (an intentionally absurd premise). In that time I learned a quite a bit about the community including how to discern the trolls from the real deal.”
“The majority of legit flat earthers are extremely distrustful of anything the government says or does. These same people are 9/11 truthers, Holocaust deniers, and anti-vaxxers and they connect these conspiracies together.”
“Many of them have also attached flat Earth theory to religion, magic, or mysticism. Before my infiltration I’d always considered conspiracies fun. Like they were the fan fiction of real life. Now they mostly make me sad.”
“For all the phony accounts like mine, there are still plenty of people out there willing to drop a couple of hundred dollars on a flat Earth convention.” – Zelph_Onandagus
“Had to travel to Japan, gave up on my beliefs in order to make a shorter trip.” – uvzla792
Based on some of the comments above, it is entirely possible to change the minds of people who have pretty much been rejected from society and found acceptance from a community with whom they shared the same flawed logic.
It may have taken some hard convincing, but eventually, they flat-out came ’round.