During the Battle of Bladensburg, two American militias mistook each other for the British and opened fire—on themselves. Chaos ensued. The British captured Washington, DC shortly after.
Because people hated it Parisians thought it was ugly and temporary. It was almost scrapped—until it proved useful as a radio tower during WWI. Utility saved art.
In 897 CE, Pope Stephen VI had his predecessor exhumed, dressed in papal robes, and literally put on trial. The corpse was found guilty and thrown in the Tiber River. It was called the 'Cadaver Synod'.
What happened was, he planned a rabbit hunt and the rabbits fought back. Napoleon's men released hundreds of rabbits for a celebratory hunt—but they swarmed Napoleon instead of running. Turns out they were tame and thought he brought lunch.
In 1932, Australia declared war on the giant birds, and lost. When farmers in Western Australia were overrun by emus the government sent soldiers armed with machine guns. The emus outran the bullets, the soldiers ran out of ammo, and the emus basically won.
In 1518, in Strasbourg, hundreds of people literally danced in the streets—some to death. It may have been stress-induced hysteria, but no one’s totally sure what caused it.
They surgically implanted listening devices in a cat to eavesdrop on the Soviets. The cat wandered into the street, got hit by a taxi, and the mission was canceled. Cost: $20 million.
It had to be removed for profanity. Old Hickory's pet parrot was taught to swear—and let loose a stream of curses so vile at his funeral that clergy had to escort it out.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima… then Nagasaki. He was injured in the Hiroshima blast, returned home to Nagasaki—just in time for the second bomb. He survived both and lived until 93.