Bizarre Historical Facts They Didn't Teach You in School

Bizarre Historical Facts

In Ancient Rome, women would purposely drink turpentine to make their urine smell like roses—but the reason why is more deranged than you might think. Find out that, and more with these bizarre historical facts they didn't teach you in school.

 1. Whoops…

During WWII, the Russians trained dogs to run under German tanks with bombs strapped to their backs.

Unfortunately, the tanks the dogs were trained to run under were Russian, so they ended up running under the Russian tanks and blowing them up instead.

2. Rebel Party

When the Russian Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and stormed the Winter Palace in 1917, their revolution was halted for a few days because the Bolsheviks got ridiculously drunk in the Winter Palace after finding the wine stores.

3. Thanks, Robert

Robert E. Lee’s Virginia estate, named Arlington House, was confiscated by the Union and turned into a cemetery during the war. The idea—supported by Lincoln--was that if Lee should ever return, he would “

have to look at these graves and see the carnage that he had created.”

In 1877, George Washington Custis Lee sued the federal government for confiscating Arlington illegally, and the Supreme Court awarded the estate back to him. What did Robert’s son do with an estate littered with dead bodies?

He sold it back to the federal government for $150,000.

Union Soldiers at Arlington House.

4. Immovable Object

Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson got his nickname during the first battle of Bull Run. Soldiers stated he stood “like a stone wall” in the midst of battle. He was accidentally shot and killed by his own men.