Honourable Mentions: Hilarious History

Send us Fan Mail In 1897, Swedish explorer S.A. Andrée set out to fly a hydrogen balloon over the North Pole. Alongside Knut Frænkel and Nils Strindberg, he launched The Eagle (or the Ornen) into the freezing unknown. Less than three days later, they were fighting for their lives on shifting pack ice. ​In this episode, we examine the reasons behind the expedition, the design of the balloon, how th...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the supreme leader of the Catholic Church goes completely mad with power? You get the Cadaver Synod. Join us for the terrifying medieval courtroom drama of 897, when Pope Formosus was put on trial by Pope Stephen VI. The problem was that Formosus had been dead for 9 months!  We explore the political schemes, the gruesome trial and punishment of a corpse, and the...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a dictator's fiercest critic lives right in his backyard?  Welcome to Honourable Mentions: Hilarious History and the story of Hitler and The Feuchtwanger family. The Jews who lived as his neighbors and who were the relatives of the Nazi Party's Public Enemy Number 1. All without the Fuhrer suspecting a thing. We look at Adolf Hitler's rise to power...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever wondered who invented the football penalty kick? Meet William McCrum, the forgotten Irish goalkeeper from County Armagh who revolutionized soccer history in 1890 by proposing what critics furiously called the "death penalty" rule to stop dirty play.   ​In this episode, we dive deep into the fascinating sports history of how a wealthy linen manufacturer&apos...

Send us Fan Mail Meet Sergeant Stubby, the ultimate four-legged hero of the Great War. In this episode, we dive into the incredible true story of a stray pit bull mix who wandered onto a Yale University training camp and ended up on the front lines of World War I. ​From saving his regiment from mustard gas attacks to capturing a German spy by the seat of his pants, Stubby’s bravery earned him a li...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine waking up in the dark, cold, confused, in absolute agony and trapped inside a wooden box at the bottom of a six foot hole - you’ve just been buried alive! ​In this episode, we dive into one of history’s most chilling and enduring urban legends: the story of Margorie McCall, the Irish woman whose epitaph reads, lived once, buried twice.  After seemingly succumbing to a feve...

Send us Fan Mail Wait... What? Roland Garros wasn’t a tennis player?! 🤯  If you think the French Open is named after a legendary clay-court champion, prepare to have your mind blown. In this episode, we dive into the wild, daring, and true history of the real Roland Garros.  Before he became synonymous with the French Open Tennis Tournament, he was a fearless pioneer of early flight, a daredevil...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine surviving a Great White Shark attack, dragging your bleeding body to shore, and thinking the worst is over—only to be intercepted and mauled by a pride of lions on your way to safety.  In this episode, we unpack the jaw-dropping true story of John Doyle, an American surfer who lived through what might be the most unbelievable streak of bad luck and ultimate survival in hum...

Send us Fan Mail ​How did a young sailor from South Dakota become the ultimate "secret weapon" in the Hanoi Hilton? ​In this episode, we dive into the legendary story of Douglas Hegdahl, the U.S. Navy apprentice seaman who fell overboard and ended up a prisoner during the Vietnam War. While his captors dismissed him as the "Incredibly Stupid One," Hegdahl was actually executing...

Send us Fan Mail Did you know the man who named the very first dinosaur also tried to eat every animal in the world? Welcome to the utterly chaotic world of William Buckland—the 19th-century theologian, pioneering geologist, and the official father of paleontology. ​Long before Jurassic Park, Buckland was rewriting Earth's history. He discovered and named the Megalosaurus (the first scientifi...

Send us Fan Mail On October 27, 1962, the world almost ended. While the Cuban Missile Crisis raged on land, a terrifying showdown was happening deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. This is the incredible true story of Vasily Arkhipov, a Soviet Navy officer who single-handedly prevented the outbreak of World War III.    ​Trapped inside the suffocating, overheated Soviet submarine B-59, the crew was cut...

Send us Fan Mail In 1010 AD, a Benedictine monk strapped wings to his hands and feet and leaped from the tower of Malmesbury Abbey. He didn’t just make history; he broke both his legs and became a legend. ​Join us as we peel back the historical layers of Malmesbury Abbey, one of England’s most storied—and occasionally violent—religious sites. From its founding in the 7th century to the daring flig...

Send us Fan Mail After being stripped of his rank and tortured, Admiral Yi Sun-sin returned to a decimated navy with only 13 ships remaining. ​We break down: ​The Miracle at Myeongnyang : How Yi used the treacherous currents of the Myeongnyang Strait to defeat a Japanese fleet of over 130 ships. ​ Naval Genius : The psychology and strategy behind the world's greatest naval commander. ​ The Fi...

Send us Fan Mail Long before the legendary Turtle Ships and the Imjin War, Admiral Yi Sun-sin was just a young man struggling to pass the Joseon military service examinations. In this episode, we explore the early career of Yi Sun-sin, from a devastating horse-riding accident during his finals to his brutal early deployments fighting Jurchen marauders on the Northern Frontier. Discover the origin...

Send us Fan Mail In 1672, deep in the village of Kringa, Istria, a man died... and then things got weird. For 16 years, Jure Grando terrorized his widow and the townspeople, leading to the first official vampire record in European history. In this special crossover event, the history buffs from Honourable Mentions: Hilarious History, team up with the supernatural sleuths from Boo Foons Mystery Inv...

Send us Fan Mail In 1932, a headline in the Wall Street Journal shocked the world: "The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off." This is the gruesome and tragic true story of Eben Byers, a wealthy industrialist, socialite, and golf champion who became the most famous victim of radium poisoning. ​In this episode, we peel back the lead-lined curtain on the Radithor craze—the &quot...

Send us Fan Mail Meet Mary Fields—better known as Stagecoach Mary—the first African American woman to work for the U.S. Postal Service, and arguably the toughest person in 1890s Montana. ​Standing 6 feet tall, packing a revolver under her apron, and never turning down a saloon fight, Mary didn't just deliver the mail; she survived wolf attacks, bandits, and sub-zero blizzards to ensure the jo...

Send us Fan Mail In 1962, a Greek immigrant named Sam Panopoulos decided to crack open a can of pineapple at the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario. He wasn't trying to start a global food war; he was just bored. ​In this episode, we dive into the sticky, sweet, and salty history of how a simple experiment in the kitchen of a small restaurant in a small Canadian town, created the most p...

Send us Fan Mail ​ Why is a rugby ball oval? The answer begins with a Victorian tragedy, a massive pile of pig organs, and an inventor the sports world completely forgot. ​In this episode, we unearth the bizarre and heartbreaking history of Richard Lindon —the 19th-century English cordwainer (shoemaker) who quite literally shaped modern sports. Long before billion-dollar stadiums and synthetic gea...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine spending your early twenties rejected by the army for being too short, only to end your life as a literal giant. This is the unbelievable, tragic, and medically baffling true story of Adam Rainer—the only person in recorded history to be diagnosed with both dwarfism and gigantism. ​In this episode, we dive deep into the medical anomaly that stunned the 20th century. How do...

Send us Fan Mail ​Welcome to an extraordinary story of compassion and kindness amidst the horrors of the Second World War. Maharaja Jam Sahib Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar —an Indian royal leader whose genorosity of spirit reshaped the lives of more than 1,000 Polish refugee children .  At the height of the war, when borders were closing and hope was scarce, the Jam Sahib opened up his...

Send us Fan Mail WWII survival, the immigrant experience, and the power of adoption. In this deeply moving episode of Honourable Mentions, we welcome our first-ever guest, Rafal, to share the extraordinary life story of his stepfather, Walter. ​In 1939, fifteen-year-old Walter’s world in Poland shattered when Nazi soldiers dragged his father away. Decades later, after surviving the horrors of Worl...

Send us Fan Mail  Manfred von Richthofen’s red triplane skimmed the Somme, and a living legend closed in for another kill. But, down below, Sergeant Cedric Bassett Popkin on a Vickers machine gun is waiting for his moment. Once friendly aircraft had cleared his line of fire, Cedric squeezed his trigger and what happened next reshaped world history. We chart Richthofen’s path from young cavalry cad...

Send us Fan Mail On August 22, 1914, just outside Mons, Belgium, a 20-year-old British cavalryman took a deep breath, steadied his aim and pulled his trigger, changing history forever. Meet Edward Thomas, the Drummer of the 4th Dragoon Guards who fired the very first shot of World War 1 on the Western Front.   ​In this episode, we dive into the chaotic opening days of the Great War. We trace how a...

Send us Fan Mail ​For the 13th episode of Honourable Mentions: Hilarious History, we're visiting the surreal, terrifying, wickedly funny but ultimately tragic true story of Roy Sullivan, the Virginia park ranger known to history as the "Human Lightning Conductor" and the "Spark Ranger." ​From 1942 to 1977, lightning didn't just find Roy—it seemed to hunt him down. We...