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Snow Buries New England
1. On February 27, 1717, a chain of huge snowstorms started in New England. One week later, 95% of the deer population had died, and many one-story houses were entirely covered.
2. At his war crimes sentencing, Hermann Göring, one of Hitler's leading officers, asked to be shot like a soldier rather than hanged like an ordinary man. The court rejected that request, and he then killed himself using a potassium cyanide capsule hidden inside a fountain pen.
3. In 2014, a comet passed extremely close to Mars, at a distance nearly one-third that of the Earth-Moon gap. This event heated Mars' upper atmosphere and measurably slowed the orbits of several Mars orbiters.
4. During World War II, King Christian X of Denmark was among the few leaders of an occupied nation who did not leave for exile for his own protection. He rode through Copenhagen every day without escort to show that he was unafraid.
5. Grizzly bears were so feared and respected by Native Americans that hunting them required a company of 4 to 10 warriors and was done with the same preparation and ceremoniality as intertribal warfare.
Patton's Controversial War Conduct
6. In World War II, General George S. Patton was removed from command after two separate episodes in which he struck shell-shocked soldiers in a field hospital. Reports of his conduct provoked a major public uproar in the United States. General Dwight D. Eisenhower directed Patton to apologize to the men he had struck. Eisenhower then reassigned him to assist in commanding a 'phantom' decoy formation outfitted with inflatable tanks.
7. A man named Kalyanasundaram in India took on odd part-time jobs so he could donate all his savings and his regular income to people in need every month for 30 years; after he retired as a librarian he even donated his pension.
8. Jake Perry has owned two successive holders of the record for the oldest domestic cat ever. Creme Puff reached 38 years of age, the equivalent of 165 human years. One third of Perry's cats have lived past 30.
9. During WWI, more than 600 German soldiers burned to death at Fort Douaumont after someone attempted to warm coffee with flamethrower fuel, which caused a fire that spread to the ammunition.
10. During the Cold War, Russia secretly produced maps of the Canadian Arctic so detailed that other ships still use them instead of official charts.
