File This Under Strange But True Quiz

Answer: Shooting a wounded unarmed man

Private Henry Tandey was a decorated veteran British soldier serving in France and took part in the battle to retake the French town of Marcoing. Tandey served with the 5th Duke of Wellington Regiment and earned a Victoria Cross for "conspicuous bravery". On September 28, 1918, the German troops were in retreat and Tandey had a shot at a wounded German soldier, but would not shoot at an unarmed man.

The wounded soldier turned out to be Adolf Hitler. An earlier photograph of Tandey during the 1914 Battle of Ypres was used to create a painting by the Italian artist Fortunino Matania.

In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain traveled to Hitler's Burchesgarten home where Hitler showed Chamberlain his copy of the Matania painting, commenting, "That's the man who nearly shot me".

Answer: Macbeth

Macbeth MacFindlaech was born in 1005, the same year his grandfather (Malcolm II) became king. His father, Findlaech MacRuaridh, controlled the province of Moray as a duke (or thane). His mother Doada was the second daughter of Malcolm I, former High King of Scotland. When Malcolm II died in 1034, Macbeth's cousin Duncan I became King of Scotland. Duncan's rule combined a thirst for power with incompetence on the battlefield. He lost battles to the English Earl of Northumbria in the south, while at the same time suffered defeat in the north at the hands of the Thane of Orkney. Macbeth, sensing the weakness in Duncan, lent his considerable army to support Orkney. On August 14, 1040 Duncan was killed in battle, but not by "foul murder" as described by Shakespeare.

In September 1040 Macbeth was crowned High King of Scotland. Macbeth's defeat of Duncan was the overthrow of an unpopular king whom the people saw as a tyrant. Under Macbeth Scotland enjoyed over a decade of prosperity and peace. Ultimately English designs to increase influence in Scotland led to renewed hostilities, using the pretense of returning Duncan's son Malcolm (eventually Malcolm III) to the Scottish throne. Most of the Lords of Scotland continued to support Macbeth, but Macbeth ultimately died in battle in 1057.

Answer: Molasses

On January 15, 1919, a large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets of a Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood at an estimated 35 mph pace. The wall of molasses drowned 21 people and injured at least 150 more. At the time, molasses was a very common sweetener in the US, but was also used to make many alcoholic drinks (most notably rum and whiskey). On January 15, a gigantic tanker storing the sweet liquid ruptured, spilling almost 2.3 million gallons of the brown mixture.

The massive amount of liquid and the narrow Boston streets created a tidal wave of sweet sludge that simply drowned the unfortunates who were caught in its wake--a wake strong enough to turn over railroad cars and topple buildings.

Answer: 90%

Proving that "just say no" was not as successful a policy for eliminating drug money as the US government might have hoped, a study was done by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth which found that 90% of US banknotes contained trace amounts of the illegal drug cocaine. The findings did not mean that each bill was used to snort the drug, but rather the cocaine, which was distributed mostly as a fine powder, spread easily from bill to bill. T

This same study also tested currencies from Brazil and China, finding 80% of Brazilian bills and 20% of Chinese notes were contaminated. An even more disturbing, if less scientific, study was conducted by UK journalists which found that 92 out of a 100 baby changing tables in public restrooms also contained trace amounts of cocaine. Scientists were quick to point out that the minute amounts of the drug did not pose a health hazard.

Answer: He cut off their hands

While no one was going to nominate any of the Mughal rulers of India for employer of the year, the story of the completion of the magnificent Taj Mahal takes the mean boss route too far. After the death of his beloved third wife in 1629, the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned the construction of a lavish funeral palace named the Taj Mahal.

The huge complex in Agra, India was not completed for over twenty years until 1653. Over 20,000 workers and at least one thousand elephants worked on the project. Numerous scholars assert that when the Shah gazed upon the completed palace he rewarded the construction workers by cutting off their hands.

The Emperor reportedly did not want the workers to have the ability to craft another edifice that could rival the Taj Mahal in beauty.

Answer: United States

It is undisputed that various examples of ancient coins have been found in odd locations in both North and South America. Debate has continued as to whether these findings indicate that neither the Vikings nor Columbus were the first Europeans to "discover" the Americas.

The discovery of buried Roman coinage provides additional fuel to this intriguing mystery. Coins were unearthed from a Native American burial mound in Round Rock, Texas. The mound is dated to approximately 800 A.D. and had not been previously disturbed.

In another case, in 1976 in a small town in Oklahoma a bronze tetradrachm coin minted in Syria around 63 A.D. bearing the Roman Emperor Nero's likeness was discovered. There are, of course, other explanations for such findings.

For example, Roman coins were used as ballast in Colonial English merchant ships, but the archaeological evidence has shown that the more we discover, the less we know about what did or did not happen in ancient times.

Answer: Priest

Josef Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis je J̌uḡasvili in what later became the Republic of Georgia. Stalin served as de facto dictator of the USSR from 1922-1952. More so than any other Soviet leader, Stalin pulled the USSR from an agrarian society to a feared and dominant nuclear power. Stalin was relentless in his push to accomplish his goals and was brutal towards all opposition. Official records calculate the death toll of Stalin's enemies at three million, but when forced deportations, deliberate (or simply uncaring) starvation and less documented executions are included, the death toll rises much higher.

This death toll might have been averted if Josef had followed the designs of his mother. At 14, Stalin applied for and (at the request of his mother) accepted a scholarship to the Tiflis Theological Seminary in Tbilisi, Georgia to become a priest in the Georgian Orthodox Church. While known initially as a dedicated student, Stalin slowly began to pull away form the seminary and became seduced into the rising socialist movement. The seminary expelled Stalin in 1899, and by 1903 Stalin had joined Nikolai Lenin and his growing Bolshevik group. The rest is unfortunate history. I think that in at least this one case the old adage was not true - the world could have used one more priest.

Answer: Brothel

The history of the land where modern-day Buckingham Palace stands is quite interesting. The royal residence of the English monarchy in London did not start out as a palace. While the land was at one time owned by William the Conqueror, it was soon transferred to others and did not return to royal hands until the 16th century when Henry VIII reacquired the area. A hundred years later, James I needed some quick cash so he sold all of the area except about four acres where he built a mulberry garden for the production of silk. The venture failed when the wrong trees were planted and the silkworms died. After the debacle with the trees, the land also passed into rental where records (in particular the 1649 "Anarchia Anglicana") referred to newly erected "brothels" at the "Mulberry Garden at S. James's".

Modern-day Buckingham Palace gets its name from John Sheffield who became the first Duke of Buckingham in 1703. He built Buckingham House and later sold the property back to King George III in 1761. George used the house for his wife, Queen Charlotte, as a birthing suite and nursery close to the royal residence at St James' Palace. The Queen's House served its purpose and 14 of George III's 15 children were born there. The house was rebuilt and greatly expanded in the 1820s by the architect John Nash for George IV and thereafter became known by its modern name of Buckingham Palace.

Answer: War

In a masterful stroke of naiveté and self-delusion, the Kellogg-Briand agreement, signed August 27, 1928, condemned "recourse to war for the solution of international controversies". The Pact grew from discussions between Aristide Briand, foreign minister of France, and the US government to create a treaty outlawing war between the two countries. Why France thought it needed a treaty with the US when the two countries had been friends for 150 years remains a mystery.

But the U.S. Secretary of State, Frank Kellogg, decided to up the ante by proposing a general pact against war. Eventually 62 nations, including France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland, and the United States, signed the Pact.

The Pact said that the member nations would "settle all conflict by peaceful means and that war was to be renounced as an instrument of national policy".

However, the optimists behind the Kellogg-Briand Pact added nothing about how the treaty would be enforced. Given that the ink wasn't dry on the treaty before Japan invaded China, Italy, and Ethiopia (not the mention the little conflict we call the Second World War), it is safe to conclude that the Kellogg-Briand Pact was a dismal failure.

In other international news there has been no progress on a treaty to ban trafficking in blood pudding or head cheese.

Answer: He painted another version to prove both were forgeries.

Han van Meegeren was an artist of some talent but was largely unappreciated. He turned instead to creating "new" masterpieces from the great Dutch masters; in other words, he became an art forger. Van Meegeren spent nearly a decade crafting a technique to create "lost" art, primarily focusing on the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. Expert art historians certified the copies as a true Vermeers, and van Meegeren went into a lucrative business producing and selling fake Vermeers. Van Meegeren's big mistake came when he sold a painting to Herman Goering.

After the war, the Goering's Vermeer was tracked to van Meegeren who was arrested as a conspirator for selling "national treasures" to the enemy. To stave off the death penalty for collaboration, van Meegeren had to admit the forgery.

At first, even that was not believed and he had to prove his claim by painting another in the presence of authorities. Van Meegeren was convicted of falsification and was sentenced to a modest punishment of one year in prison.

However van Meegeren suffered a heart attack and died before going to jail.