Ever wonder about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand?
Somebody throws a grenade at his car. It blows up behind him.
That’s the first incident of time travel, stopping the assassination.
Later, as he goes back, the driver realizes he’s on the same route where the grenade was thrown and they try to turn around.
The whole procession of cars stalls and a guy who just happened to be sitting there goes over and shoots the Archduke setting off the events that lead to the first World War.
Did a time traveler meddle then? Wouldn’t surprise us.
It turns out that there are quite a few historical events out there that seem stranger than fiction.
We heard about them after Redditor Heterozygoats asked the online community:
“What historical event 100% reads like a time traveler went back in time to alter history?”
“Basically, Poe writes about…”
“Edgar Allan Poe wrote about an event 40+ years in the future.”
“Basically, Poe writes about four people who are starving at sea, draw straws, and kill and eat the loser, cabin boy Richard Parker. 40 odd years later four people are adrift at sea in a lifeboat, one drinks seawater and goes into a coma.”
“When they draw straws for who will be eaten, the coma guy gets the short straw in a development that surprises no one. And so the three other men kill and eat the cabin boy. Richard Parker. Seriously.” ~ TuckerMouse
“There was a shipwreck…”
“There was a shipwreck in 1664, a shipwreck in 1785, and a shipwreck in 1820. Each had 1 survivor. Each survivor was named Hugh Wiliams.” ~ pm_me_genius
“The Fire Department and some clowns…”
“The Toronto Circus Riot of 1855.”
“The Fire Department and some clowns get into a disagreement at a whorehouse, and get into a punch-up. The clowns win, but the firemen return to the circus later and start attacking in revenge.”
“The firemen win the day but violence is stopped when the militia come in. The police do nothing, so the city fires all the police (and I mean everyone) and starts a new police force.” ~ splitdipless
“When Andrew Jackson’s assassin…”
“When Andrew Jackson’s assassin attempted to shoot him, both of his flintlock pistols misfired. Andrew Jackson had to be restrained after almost beating the assassin to death with his cane. The two flintlocks were examined after the incident and found to be in good condition.” ~TwoBearsHighFiving
“20,000 people could have died…”
“Cyanide Gas Attack Thwarted in Tokyo Subway.”
“20,000 people could have died but a worker found a burning gasbag in a toilet just before it mixed with another poisonous gas bag – just in time – and put them out. That was in Shinjuku station. I was in that station that day, and that person might have saved my life.” ~ Idkeepplaying
“It was so much happenstance…”
“Franz Ferdinand’s assassination. It was so much happenstance, shenanigans, and tomfoolery that it’s like a special achievement in a hitman game.” RigasTuring
“Survived both of the bombings…”
“Tsutomu Yamaguchi.”
“Survived both of the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reads like a satirical time-traveler story where the protagonist screws up his dates.” ~ OlympusJCook
“The number of times…”
“The number of times we DIDN’T go to nuclear war because of a false positive of a launch. Honestly, Stanislav Petrov should have statues in every country.” ~ AustinJG
“Jack Ruby clearly was sent…”
“Jack Ruby clearly was sent to kill Lee Harvey Oswald so no one would ever discover it wasn’t him who killed Kennedy.” ~ possiblyhysterical
“Fidel Castro’s assassination attempts…”
“Fidel Castro’s assassination attempts being dodged is so unrealistic (really, he dodged about 600) that it feels like a time traveler went back and foiled every single one of them.” ~ AttentionSome
“If you read up on his life…”
“If you read up on his life, you’ll find there are so many times Adolf Hitler almost died, but somehow survived, that makes me think there was/is a time traveler war going on.”
“A faction trying to kill Hitler, because it’s Hitler, and a faction preventing his death because the guy who would replace him was even worse than Hitler.” ~ Lichruler
“The Germans spent a lot of time…”
“The Germans spent a lot of time and money developing a magnetic sea mine that probably would have significantly reduced England’s ability to stay in the war, except they dropped a single one of the mines accidentally on an English beach, and also failed to arm it so none of the booby traps were active and the British basically found out straight away how it worked and we’re able to cheaply build magnetic minesweepers.” ~ pezzz4525
“It wouldn’t be surprising…”
“It wouldn’t be surprising if Nancy Wake was a time traveler. She was just too damn good at special ops against the Nazis.” ~ doublestitch
“That time in the 1700s…”
“Battle of Karansebes.”
“That time in the 1700s when the Austrian army got confused, waged a huge battle against itself within its own lines, and lost an estimated several hundred to few thousand men (and a lot of equipment and money) in the process. They then retreated.”
“The Ottomans, whom they were originally intending to fight, showed up two days later.” ~ HyvalTheEmolga
“The last known kill…”
“The last known kill by bow and arrow in combat was actually during the battle of Dunkirk, 1940. Jack Churchill landed a well-placed arrow into a German soldier’s chest.”
“He also chose to carry bagpipes and a Scottish longsword.” ~ WasteNot2532
“The Russian writer…”
“The Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to death by firing squad and just as they were preparing the groups to be shot, a messenger came with a letter from the Tsar ‘forgiving’ them and the sentence was changed to prison labor.”
“He later went on to write some of the most influential novels of all time.” ~ smokeyman992
Whoa.
History is fascinating–and full of odd incidents like these, because life is crazy.
Just think—you’ll be the star of your next dinner party as soon as you whip these facts out.
So why don’t you?
You’ll be the envy of everyone!