What moment in history that's hard to believe it actually happened?

1. That time Emperor Napoleon escaped from the island he was imprisoned on after his army was finally defeated, snuck back into France under the nose of King Louis XVIII and literally every royal guard and roadblock from Marseillais to Paris, then when he was actually caught just outside of Paris, he managed to persuade the soldiers (who just so happened to be former Bonapartists) to escort him into Paris where he managed to successfully cause the king to flee, on top of raising a full army to wage war against Europe AGAIN. The only time in history an emperor took back an entire country just by waving his hat.
   — beerbrewer1995


2. I already posted once, but I got another one: There were still Japanese soldiers well into the 1970s who had no idea the WW2 was over. Like, they just got left behind by the Navy and held out on isolated islands. For decades. One guy in particular spent his time feuding with the Filipino police. Everyone tried to tell him the war was over, but he thought it was a bunch of propoganda. Word eventually got back to Japan, where they had to look up his commanding officer (who had since left the military for a career as a businessman) and fly him to the Philippines. Only after receiving a direct order from his commanding officer did the guy stand down.
   — bluetroodon2


3. [The 1904 Summer Olympics Marathon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_marathon), where the winner was given a mixture of rat poison and brandy by his trainers, a Cuban postman finished in fourth despite getting food poisoning midway through the race, and a couple runners were nearly killed due to the generally poor conditions and organization/officiating of the race.
   — Hooch_Pandersnatch






4. [War of the Bucket](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Bucket) This was a war in 1325 between Bologna and Modena fought because, I shit you not, Modena stole Bologna's town bucket. Modena won and still holds the bucket today.
   — Dictator4Hire


5. President John Adams once sent an alligator to Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette had no idea what the fuck to do with it, so he gave it back.
   — yarrowsparrow


6. According to “The last battle” by Cornelius Ryan: On May 1st, 1945, the day after Adolf Hitler commited suicide, general Hans Krebs was sent under a white flag to deliver a letter to General Vasily Chuikov of the Red Army, containing surrender terms acceptable to Joseph Goebbels, then acting as Chancellor of Germany. Krebs had not announced that he was coming, taking Chuikov by surprise. At that time, he was being interviewed by two war correspondents, Konstantin Simonov and Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky, accompanied by musician Matvey Blanter(Who wrote the internationally famous “Katyusha”) When he was informed that Krebs was waiting for him outside, Chuikov, wanting to speak to Krebs as soon as possible, while making sure the meeting would seem official, quickly gave the interviewers, who were dressed in uniform, medals so that they would act as his staff. Not knowing what to do with Blanter, however, since he was dressed in civilian clothing, Chuikov hastily shoved him into a cupboard and ordered him to keep quiet, which he managed to do for the duration of the meeting. Unfortunately, the meeting came to nothing, as the Soviets would accept nothing but unconditional surrender. Once the meeting is over, just as Krebs and his men are leaving with the bad news, Blanter passes out from lack of oxygen, and falls out of the cupboard onto the floor of the room right in front of them. There was a scene in the film “Downfall” showing the events of this meeting, but the scene was removed out of worry that it would not be taken seriously, even though it really happened.
   — Sevaa_1104






7. That moment when one petty pope dug up the corpse of another dead pope just so he could de-pope him in front of a jury of his peers.
   — amm964


8. This dude, [Emperor Norton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton), was a real hoot. Declared himself emperor of the US and many just sort of went along with it - he even exchanged letters with the Queen.
   — TheSeaOfThySoul


9. [That one time a fleet of 14 dutch warships got captured by French cavalry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_the_Dutch_fleet_at_Den_Helder)
   — budderyfish






10. The Newport sex scandal. IIRC, this was shortly after WWI. There was an investigation launched to root out homosexuals in the Navy. The investigation was conducted by having undercover agents, well...have sex with men. And to report their "findings" in *very* vivid detail to the guys heading the investigation. No homo. Also, FDR was Secretary of the Navy at the time and signed off on the whole thing.
    — wezli333