Strange But True: Stray Dog War
By Lucie Winborne
In 1925, a war between Greece and Bulgaria started after a stray dog crossed their border.
During the 1917 siege of Jerusalem, the British, in an effort to capture the city from an entrenched Ottoman garrison, airdropped cigarettes filled with large doses of opium in the hope their opponents would be too stoned to fight. It worked.
Holland, Michigan, has 168 miles of tubing coiled underneath its streets that circulates hot water in order to melt any snow on the ground.
China’s Three Gorges Dam is so huge that it’s slowed the rotation of Earth.
Hard-rocker Ozzy Osbourne once fell asleep during a driving test and woke up to find a note on the seat that said, “You have failed.” But give him credit for persistence: After 19 attempts, he finally managed to pass the test in 2009 at the age of 60, and then purchased a Ferrari.
In Wisconsin, it’s legal for kids of any age to drink alcohol in a bar as long as they are with their legal guardian.
Dwayne Johnson’s beard in the movie “Hercules” was made of yak testicle hair.
The Aztecs regarded childbirth as a form of battle. Women who didn’t survive it were thought to rise to one of the highest heavens, the same one as for male warriors who died in battle.
In 1986 a Soviet pilot made a bet with his co-pilot that he could land his airplane blind. He curtained all the cockpit windows and crashed the plane into the landing strip, killing 70 out of his 87 passengers.
Thought for the Day: “Life is like skiing. The goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill. It’s to have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets.” — Seth Godin
© 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.