In 1981, British cartoonist Simon Bond published 101 Uses for a Dead Cat, a collection of darkly comic drawings showing dead cats used as pencil sharpeners, wine holders, and boat anchors. Promoted with the tagline, “What do you do with a dead cat?”, the book gained immediate attention.

In 1940, soldiers from the Royal Artillery Coastal Defence Battery at Shornemead Fort near Gravesend were rehearsing a Christmas charity show—in full drag—when a coastal alert interrupted their performance. Still in makeup, dresses, and bonnets, they ran to man anti-aircraft guns.

In 1972, construction workers digging in York, England, unearthed an unusual object beneath a future Lloyds Bank branch. What they found wasn’t treasure—at least not the usual kind. It was a 20-centimeter-long, 5-centimeter-wide human coprolite, later confirmed to be over 1,000 years old.

In 1949, boys at the Fernald State School in Massachusetts were offered a chance to join a “Science Club.” Members got Red Sox tickets, Mickey Mouse watches, and extra breakfasts.

In 1927, Liberia held general elections that produced one of the most improbable vote counts in world history. Charles D. B. King, the incumbent president and leader of the True Whig Party, was declared the winner with 229,527 votes—despite only 19,000 registered voters in the country.

Clinging to a sheer cliff face 75 meters above the floor of Jinxia Gorge, the Hanging Temple near Mount Heng in Shanxi Province was constructed in 491 AD. Built by a monk named Liaoran during the Northern Wei dynasty, it appears to float in mid-air, supported by 27 oak beams embedded in the rock. Hidden iron supports add further strength.

On October 23, 1943, about 1,700 Polish Jews arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, believing they were being sent to Switzerland in a prisoner exchange. Among them was Franceska Mann, a renowned Polish-Jewish ballerina from Warsaw.

On the beaches of Qingdao in eastern China, a striking new look began turning heads in the early 2000s. Locals weren’t showing more skin—they were covering it completely. Enter the facekini: a full-face covering designed to shield beachgoers from the sun, jellyfish, and algae.

In 2004, undercover agents from the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office set out to expose Trinity Southern University, a Dallas-based diploma mill. To do so, they submitted an application for Colby Nolan—a six-year-old house cat—claiming he had job experience and a 3.5 GPA.

Magawa, a Southern giant pouched rat, was trained not to chase cheese, but to save lives. Born in Tanzania in 2013, he became the most successful landmine-detecting rat in history, uncovering explosives in Cambodian soil for five years before retiring to a quiet life in 2021.