Stupid Things You Didn’t Know About™ History: 101 Paradoxical, Hilarious, Cute or Plain Weird Events from around the World

This is the book your history teacher warned you about. The subtitle: 101 Paradoxical, Hilarious, Cute or Plain Weird Events from around the World, aptly describes the collection of anecdotes. Each comprises three paragraphs, with illustrations, all fastidiously researched by the authors and based on primary sources and the work of historians. One anecdote leads stream-of-consciousness-like to another, around the world to all continents except Antarctica.

Indeed, history is like a black hole; once you get sucked in, you can't get out. This book serves as a portal, the event horizon into the black hole that is history. Many of the mostly uncovered, fact-checked events would satisfy even the most discriminating historian and perhaps even Clio, the muse of history, herself. The book includes challenges to the Vatican, BBC and the Trump organization, to name a few, with facts from ancient times to the twentieth century. Trivialists will love it!

The authors, Eileen Travers and Ton Koster, are stellar researches and writers, coming from backgrounds in investigative reporting and book publishing. They have a collective 30 years of experience working at the United Nations as master summarizers, encapsulating in daily press releases the goings on of its 193 Member States. Together, through their company ClioClusters LLC, they know how to find obscure facts, research and spin information.