Every time I get the great idea of rewriting fairy tales, I rediscover the reason that I haven’t done so yet: if people wanted to read those fairy tales, they could do so by turning the same sources I’d use. Why duplicate something that’s already great? Fairy tale rewrites were going to be my Monday habit again…I guess I’m already dropping that one – at least I’ll weed out the bad post ideas, right?

Did you know?:
A family lived in isolation in the Siberian woods for 40 years (until 1978). Most famously, they knew nothing of World War II.

Although World War II ended in 1945, for some it continued all the way up to 1974. A Japanese officer named Hiroo Onoda literally continued fighting the entire time in spite of attempts to convince him Japan had surrendered. Later that year, Private Teruo Nakamura became the final known hold-out to surrender after Imperial Japan’s defeat.

Mount Tambora’s super-powerful volcanic eruption in 1815 created the “year without a summer.” Not since the eruption of Hatepe in 180AD had such a powerful blast occurred; ash thrown into the atmosphere blocked out the sun well enough that in 1816 the world experienced this summerless year. Living must have been difficult that year, but the effects are felt to this day. Not only can this weather be credited with much musical creation, for Mary Shelley’s creation of Frankenstein, it also receives recognition for moving a boy Joseph Smith Jr. to New York, a location essential for him to found “the Mormon religion,” a Christian sect whose impact on the U.S. is monumental.

Last and least of all, writing about cool historical facts takes me way too long. These three paragraphs took me four hours to write, and I was focused…

Well, if you didn’t know those things, now you do. I think they’re pretty cool, if not strange. What cool facts from history do you know about?