Tirades, meltdowns, outbursts; call them what you like. The fact is that none of us can honestly say we’ve never once lost our cool. It happens to everyone, and unfortunately for these people, it happened when either a camera or tape machine were rolling. So I invite you to sit back quietly in your chair and enjoy listening to 10 people totally flying off the handle. WARNING: the clips herein contain language that may offend.

Dennis Green was the usually level-headed coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2004 to 2006. However, he revealed quite a different side to the press after an embarrassing loss to the Chicago Bears in which they blew a 20-point lead in less than 20 minutes. The incident was later mocked in a well-known commercial for Coors Light.

At a press conference for his film “A History of Violence”, Ed Harris kills the laughter in the room by demonstrating his own concept of violence. The footage has been cropped, so there is seemingly no explanation for his sudden change of character.

This clip was taken from the 1965 documentary “Don’t Look Back”. A casual party in Dylan’s hotel room turns ugly when someone comes to the door inquiring about glass that has been thrown into the street. At first the rock icon seems out of line, but then you come to find that he’s really just concerned that someone might get hurt.

Tensions were certainly high on the set of the film “I Heart Huckabees” as seen in this clip. Actress Lily Tomlin and director David O. Russell had been at odds from the first day of shooting. Keep your eye on Jason Schwartzman sitting in the chair. He doesn’t even flinch as props go flying right over him!

Popstar, actress, trendsetter, and apparently, animal. Björk’s primal instincts got the best of her while at the Bangkok International Airport when she assaulted this reporter like a mother bear protecting its young. Björk later apologized for the incident.

Sometimes the best outbursts are the ones from people who you could never imagine losing their cool. As is the case with Casey Kasem and the late Snuggles.

Before he had his own show, Bill O’Reilly was an anchor for Inside Edition, and had a decent head of hair to boot. His behind-the-scenes temper tantrum has been widely circulated since the inception of YouTube, becoming a favorite of liberals and conservatives alike.

Buddy Rich’s reputation for being a hot head almost eclipses his work as a celebrated jazz drummer, thanks to a series of tapes secretly recorded by his band. These tapes, which feature explosive tirades of Rich horribly insulting and actually threatening members of his band, eventually fell into the hands of comedians like Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. Based on the absurdity of some of Rich’s “florid, inspired rants of pure rage”, certain lines were lifted right out of the tapes and used in dialogue for the Seinfeld show.

Speaking of Seinfeld, here is an man who ruined his entire reputation/career in a matter of 3 minutes at a comedy club back in November of 2006. Unlike most on this list, there’s nothing funny about this clip, just shocking footage.

Once the golden boy of Hollywood, poor Orson Welles was eventually reduced to narrating commercials for a line of TV dinners late in his life. Welles’ career might have plummeted, but his ego never did. In this most infamous clip of them all, Welles is recording his voice-over to a screen showing the corresponding video footage.

This clip comes from the Pinky & Brain show featured on Animaniacs (the 7th Most Popular ’90s Cartoon). Seeing as how the character of Brain was partially based on Orson Welles himself, it makes sense that the writers would feature a show with Brain doing a word-for-word parody of the Frozen Peas recording.

Most people will die under pretty mundane circumstances. But throughout history, there have been several unlucky individuals whose deaths can be described as more than simply noteworthy. While many have died heroic deaths over the centuries, this list is dedicated to those who died in amusing, ironic, and sometimes simply stupid ways.

Related: 10 Unfortunate Deaths Caused By Food

10 Matthew Webb

Professional swimmer Webb rose to fame by being the first man to swim the English Channel in 1875. After competing in several races and exhibitions in both the UK and USA, in 1882, Webb announced that he intended to swim across the rapids at the base of Niagara Falls.

Those who referred to the challenge as suicidal turned out not to be wrong. On July 24, 1883, wearing the same red trunks he wore when he completed the Channel swim, he jumped out of the side of a small ferryboat that he had rowed to mid-stream. Sadly, shortly after this, he was sucked into a whirlpool, and four days later, his body was found. His autopsy concluded that the large weight of the water temporarily paralyzed him, stopping him from breathing or using his limbs. Despite becoming a national icon for his achievements in swimming, his legacy stands in biting off more than he could chew with his final, near-impossible feat.^[1]

9 Pausanias

No one screams brutality more than the Spartans. But their logic and strategies may be something to question. While best known for their attempt to defeat the Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae with a notoriously small number of soldiers, one Spartan general puts even this flawed thought process to shame.

Pausanias, who became the regent general after the death of his uncle King Leonidas in the above-mentioned battle, gained a reputation of being a tyrant and was quickly charged with conspiring with Persia against the Greeks. Despite twice being found innocent of treason, as rumors spread, eventually, it got to the point where Spartan authorities sent forces to arrest him. Pausanias thought that he could outsmart rather than outrun them. He fled to a temple of Athena, thinking that they wouldn’t attack him in a place so sacred. In that respect, he was right. Instead of entering the temple, the Spartans simply sealed up the entrance with Pausanias inside. According to legend, he was only removed once he was on the verge of death, having been starved. He died as soon as he was released.^[2]

8 Gruffydd ap Llywelyn

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn didn’t exactly get dealt the best cards in life. Born the bastard child of Llywelyn the Great and his mistress, Gruffydd should have been entitled to anything any legitimate son would according to Welsh law. Unfortunately, because his father wanted to form an alliance with the English, Llywelyn agreed that when he married the King’s daughter that Gruffydd would be disinherited in favor of any of their future sons. Gruffydd was then put into the custody of King John.

This was only the first of three imprisonments Gruffydd had to endure. In 1223, years after being released from the English, Llywelyn feared that Gruffydd would dispute the inheritance of his first “legitimate” son Dafydd. Consequently, Gruffydd was held captive until 1234. His third and final capture was by Dafydd himself, who simply didn’t trust his brother and imprisoned both him and his son. It’s fair to say that by this point, Gruffydd was fed up. On Saint David’s Day in 1244, Gruffydd attempted to escape. Apparently, he did this by making a rope of sheets and attempting to climb down from his tower prison. Unsurprisingly, the rope broke, and he fell to his death.^[3]

7 Draco

Draco is possibly the most notorious Greek lawmaker and ruler. Famous for his strict laws and brutal punishments, most crimes resulted in punishment by death. Although he was a ruthless leader, Draco was seemingly very popular. After his reign, though, he was exiled from Athens by its citizens. He spent the remainder of his life on the island of Aegina.

Despite being responsible for countless executions, his own death was rather comedic. According to several Greek historians, Draco died around 600 BC in the Aeginetan theatre. He supposedly took a standing ovation at the end of a speech. In a display of approval, the audience threw hats and other clothing at him—an odd but somewhat common occurrence in Ancient Greece. So many cloaks and hats were thrown over him that he ended up suffocating to death.^[4]

6 Arthur Aston

Sir Arthur Aston was a Royalist general during the British Civil War. Shortly after becoming Governor of Oxford, on September 19, 1644, Aston was thrown from his horse and broke his leg. He developed gangrene and required amputation. The whole procedure was a success, and he continued on with a wooden prosthesis.

After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Aston was left defending either Drogheda or Tredagh with 3,000 men against Cromwell’s army. This ultimately failed, and only about 30 people escaped. In a twisted state of cruel irony, Aston was beaten to death with his own wooden leg.^[5]

5 Heraclitus

The death of Greek philosopher Heraclitus is without a doubt the most disgusting on the list. A famous and inspiring ancient philosopher, he influenced the likes of Plato and Aristotle. According to Diogenes Laertius, Heraclitus died in 745 BC, and the circumstances were nothing short of unusual.

Heraclitus developed dropsy, a condition that causes swelling due to fluid retention. He believed that if he stayed somewhere hot, the excess water would evaporate. Consequently, he buried himself in cow dung, but (shockingly!) this did not work. According to Laertius, Heraclitus was “unable to tear off the dung” and subsequently died.^[6]

4 Clement Vallandigham

If ever there was a case that screamed irony, it’s the death of Clement Vallandigham. In Ohio in 1871, the lawyer was defending Thomas McGehan for the murder of Thomas Myers. A barroom brawl broke out the previous Christmas Eve, where it was known that Meyers and McGehan had a known disliking for each other.

The night following the prosecution’s argument, the lawyer conducted his own experiment with a pistol to establish the quantity of residue left by a gunshot at point-blank range. He was also given Myer’s gun as evidence, ready for examination. Vallandigham argued that, in the rush of the brawl, Myers had accidentally shot himself. During his demonstration—which happened in his hotel room in front of a witness—Vallandigham put a pistol in his pocket as Myers had, turned it toward himself, and pulled the trigger. What he hadn’t realized was that instead of using Myers’s unloaded gun, he had actually grabbed his own pistol, which still had bullets in it. Vallandigham accidentally shot and killed himself while trying to demonstrate that Myers had accidentally shot and killed himself.^[7]

3 Sigurd the Mighty

There’s still plenty of questions surrounding Vikings among historians, but the reputation they have left among the general public is that of legendary groups of strong, brutal warriors constantly heading into battle. The death of Sigurd the Mighty could only ever happen to a Viking.

Sigurd was Earl of Orkney and, having formed an alliance with Thorstein the Red, began conquering parts of Scotland. This was the likely cause of a feud he had with a local magnate in Moray named Maelbrigte. After a battle between the two and their men, Maelbrigte was killed, and Sigurd attached the head of his enemy to his saddle. This gruesome symbol of victory was the demise of Sigurd, as he scratched his leg on the teeth of the corpse’s head as he rode his horse north. Rather anticlimactically, Sigurd the Mighty died of an infection caused by that scratch.^[8]

2 Bobby Leach

Yet another man vs. Niagara Falls story. Bobby Leach was already an established stuntman when he decided to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1911. He planned to be the second person and first man to do so—and at the age of 53. The first, of course, was Annie Edson Taylor in 1901, who afterward discouraged anyone else from attempting it.

Surprisingly, “Old Bobby” was successful! He did come out of it with a broken jaw and two broken kneecaps but told reporters that he was happy he’d achieved “the greatest ambition of his life.”’ With a life devoted to stunts and attempting a series of life-threatening performances, you may wonder what crazy story surrounded Leach’s death? In 1926 while in New Zealand, he slipped on an orange peel, and his broken leg developed gangrene. He passed away only a couple of days later. Not quite the wild ending to a rollercoaster life you expected.^[9]

1 Franz Reichelt

Like most of those mentioned on this list, Reichelt had plenty of confidence in himself. An inventor and tailor, Reichelt created the parachute suit.

In February 1912, Reichelt tested the parachute suit by jumping off the Eiffel Tower. While authorities agreed for the suit to be tested using a mannequin, Reichelt decided to test his invention himself. Despite having police officers surrounding him, no one attempted to stop him. There was a cameraman on the first floor where Reichelt started and another on the ground with others who came to see the event. The suit was a complete failure. It didn’t slow the fall down, let alone allow him to fly, and there was nothing that could prevent his death at this point.^[10]

According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N.), natural disasters are now occurring three times more often than they were in the 1970s and 1980s, also increasing in scale and intensity. This means they are wreaking a disproportionately large amount of havoc and destruction in the least developed and low- to middle-income countries, where people are least able to cope.

What happens when we combine Mother Nature’s propensity for reminding us who’s really in charge every now and again with the massive increase in the use of security cameras, dash cams, and camera phones around the globe? We get to experience—now more than ever—what it is like to really confront one of these disasters for ourselves (from the safety of our own homes, of course!). So here is a list of 10 home videos that recorded deadly natural disasters.

Related: 10 Myths Humans Have Used To Explain Natural Disasters

10 Earthquake—Luzon, The Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago in southeast Asia that regularly experiences volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, typhoons, and all the terrible things that generally accompany them, such as tsunamis, flooding, and landslides. Given its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is subjected to over 2,000 earthquakes every single year. Since 1951, they have claimed more than 4,800 lives without even counting the tsunamis that often follow them.

This video has no audio but shows a group of friends enjoying some free time in a local swimming pool when a magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes their home of Luzon. The group struggles to evacuate the churning water as the tremors roll through, clearly shaking the trees and structures in the background before eventually subsiding after about a minute.

This was only a small rumble compared to some of the more destructive quakes the Filipino people have had to weather over the years, but the waves created in the pool really highlight how violently the ground moved. Unfortunately, eighteen people lost their lives in the quake, although everybody in this video escaped unharmed.^[1]

9 Volcano—Whakaari, New Zealand

Whakaari, also known as White Island, is a privately owned islet located off of the northeastern coast of New Zealand. It had been a popular tourist attraction for many years, despite being New Zealand’s most active volcano, before disaster struck in December 2019.

An increase in seismological activity had been recorded in the weeks leading up to the event. Still, no official warnings were issued, so two separate tour groups visited the island by boat that afternoon. Just after the first group completed their tour and their boat was leaving the island, Whakaari exploded, spewing a massive plume of rocks, steam, and burning gas across the island and 12,000 feet up into the air.

The video, recorded by Allessandro Kauffmann, shows the tour boat he is traveling on returning to the island immediately after the eruption to try to help any survivors. Official rescue efforts were delayed because of the risk of further eruptions, but three heroic helicopter pilots launched their own rescue efforts, only to later be charged by the New Zealand health and safety authority, WorkSafe.

Unfortunately, a total of 47 people were stuck on the island when the superheated gas enveloped them, 22 of whom lost their lives. Many survivors suffered life-changing injuries as a result of their burns.^[2]

8 Tsunami—Indonesia

Indonesia, like its neighbor, the Philippines, can be considered pretty unlucky geographically. It consists of over 17,500 islands—most uninhabited, though—which are home to 120 active volcanoes. Also located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, it is regularly subjected to earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, and soil liquefaction. In late 2018, the Indonesian people would experience all of these cataclysmic possibilities within a two-month period.

At 6 pm on the 28th of September, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Palu on Sulawesi Island, causing a huge underwater landslide that, in turn, triggered a tsunami. As early warning systems malfunctioned, people were completely unprepared when a 23-foot high wave smashed into the city of Palu. At the same time the wave hit, soil liquefaction occurred over vast areas, swallowing entire buildings whole. In total, more than 2,000 people died in this disaster with more than 4,200 injured. Some news reports included home video footage.

Then, just two months later, on December 22, the Anak Krakatau volcano erupted, which caused another landslide as the southwest flank collapsed into the sea. This massive displacement of water created a tsunami in the Sundra Strait that was also not picked up by early warning systems. At 8:30 pm local time, the tsunami crashed into the shores of western Java and southern Sumatra.

This home video was shot at a seaside concert in western Java. Popular local group Seventeen were performing to over 200 people, mostly families, when the wave struck them from behind. While the singer survived the terrifying ordeal, in later interviews, he claimed he wished that he had died too. He lost all of his bandmates and his wife in this tragic event that took more than 400 lives.^[3]

7 Flood—Henan, China

The term “once in a lifetime weather event” is being thrown around a lot these days, especially when it comes to flooding in areas that may have seen little in the way of disasters in recent years, such as New York or Germany. In July 2021, the flooding in Henan Province, China, though, really can be considered once in a lifetime. The provincial capital of Zhengzhou received an entire year’s worth of rainfall in three days, and as you might expect, the entire city was submerged.

This was a terrifying event for everyone living in the province, but those who faced the most immediate danger were the people who found themselves trapped underground in the city’s metro system as water levels began to rise rapidly up to their necks. In total, 14 people lost their lives in the city’s subway, and many more are thought to have died throughout the province as videos emerged of people being washed away all over the city.

This video shows passengers stuck in a train carriage with the doors closed as brown water quickly rises all around them. Fortunately, they were eventually able to evacuate to safety, although many others were not so lucky that day.^[4]

6 Wildfire—Manavgat, Turkey

Today, Americans are so used to experiencing wildfires in the summer that news of them happening in other countries really doesn’t garner much attention. However, the huge increase in the number of wildfires across the planet over the last few years has meant that people have begun to recognize that this isn’t just an issue in California.

Australia, Brazil, Turkey, Greece, Algeria, Italy, India, Russia, and Cyprus all had millions of acres of land reduced to smoldering ash due to huge forest fires over the last few years. This video comes from Turkey as some restaurant workers are trying to return home following a food delivery to firefighters tackling blazes in the Manavgat countryside. The hellish landscape of blazing forest seems to close in around them until they have nowhere to go and are forced to turn back. Fortunately, they were able to escape the flames unharmed, but many were not so lucky, with at least eight fatalities and hundreds injured across the country.^[5]

5 Hurricane—Florida, USA

Hurricane Michael struck Florida on October 10, 2018, and meteorologists soon realized that they were dealing with one of the biggest category 5 storms to ever make landfall in the eastern United States. Overall, it caused $25 billion in damages and was directly responsible for the deaths of 16 people. Still, despite all this mayhem and destruction, one plucky Callaway resident decided he would make a home movie documenting the damage caused to his community in this incredible video.

In just 15 minutes, you can watch his entire neighborhood get shredded by 150mph winds, and at the end, you get to see a walk-through of a residential street that has been reduced to nothing more than a pile of branches and shattered roof tiles.^[6]

4 Landslide—Kachin, Myanmar

This video was recorded at an illegal jade mine in the Kachin state of northern Myanmar. Kachin state has a long history of resistance against the oppressive Tatmadaw (Burmese Army). As such, the region is in many ways free from centralized Burmese control, meaning drug production, smuggling, and illegal mining are all common in the area.

One such illegal mine was experiencing unseasonably heavy rainfall when a miner decided to pull out his phone and begin recording. The landslide he captured on video sent a wave of mud and rock rolling down the valley like a tsunami and was responsible for the deaths of more than 162 people.^[7]

3 Sinkhole—Florida, USA

The idiom “I wish the ground would swallow me up” was obviously never meant to be taken literally. After all, the idea that you could just be minding your own business, carrying on with your life, and then, in a split second, the ground could open up and swallow you whole would be downright terrifying, no matter how embarrassed you are. Sinkholes happen more often than you might think, though, and every now and again, somebody ends up inside one.

One such unfortunate person was Jeffrey Bush, a 36-year-old Florida man who had just turned in for the night when the ground below him simply collapsed and swallowed him up. He screamed out for his brother, who rushed to his aid, only to find Jeffrey and all the contents of his bedroom had crashed through the floor into a sinkhole below.

This video was made as rescue workers tried to communicate with Jeffrey using a camera and microphone on a long pole to check on his whereabouts and condition. Unfortunately, he didn’t survive, and his body could not be recovered, so the sinkhole was filled in, the house and two neighboring properties were demolished, and the whole area was fenced off. That wasn’t quite the end of the story, however, as just two years later, the sinkhole opened up again, although this time nobody was hurt.^[8]

2 Avalanche—Mount Everest base camp, Nepal

Avalanches can have a variety of causes; sometimes, snow can just gradually pile up before collapsing down the side of the hill under its own weight. Often they are created deliberately with explosions, but sometimes they can be made by other natural disasters that occur many miles away. In the case of the Everest avalanche of 2015, it was the latter, as an enormous earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck Nepal on the afternoon of April 25, 2015, killing over 9,000 people. A video shows just how strong the tremors were, hurling people back and forth as the city of Kathmandu was violently shaken by the quake.

Way up at Mount Everest base camp, the shock waves were not strong enough to hurt anyone, nor were there any buildings to collapse on top of the 2,000 people gathered there. However, minutes after the deadly earthquake struck Kathmandu valley, a huge avalanche of ice and rock came crashing down Mount Pumori, completely burying the campsite at its base.

At least 20 people died, and hundreds were injured by the falling debris. This video shows the ferocity and intensity of the icy blast created by the avalanche and just how lucky the cameraman and his friend were to survive, ducking into their tent just in time.^[9]

1 Tornado—Illinois, USA

This final video shows probably the most terrifying video of a tornado that has ever been recorded. (Please add a link in the comments if you know of any contenders!) It was filmed by 84-year-old Clem Schultz from his bedroom window after he and his wife noticed the twister forming behind their home in Illinois.

Living in an area that sees numerous tornadoes every year, the couple considered their options but decided that they were confident that the tornado would pass by their home to the west, leaving them unscathed. Assuming the power could go out at any time, Clem headed upstairs to grab a lantern when he noticed from his bedroom window that the tornado was gathering pace and growing bigger by the second. He decided to begin filming, and even when he realized that the tornado would not just pass them by, he said nothing at all as it smashed into him with a deafening roar before everything turned black and the video ended.

Somehow, Clem actually survived this incredible encounter with one of the biggest tornadoes that Illinois has ever seen. His wife was not so lucky, though, as she was one of two people killed. Many more were injured, and 24 homes were completely destroyed.^[10]

Everything has a beginning and for a lot of things they’re pretty easy to figure out. You can look at the first film by a certain director or actor, the first book by a writer, the first appearance of your favorite fictional character. It’s usually very cut and dry. That said, every so often a thing rises to popularity and then you find out later it’s a lot older than you at first imagined and the origins can be rather unexpected. 

10. The Soup Nazi was Referenced Before Seinfeld in Sleepless in Seattle

Seinfeld was known for having a lot of really quirky and interesting supporting characters who stood out as much or even more than the main cast. Some only appeared in one or two episodes but are still referenced to this day, years after the show went off the air. Arguably the most famous of all of these characters was the Soup Nazi. 

On the show, the Soup Nazi runs a soup restaurant with an intolerant iron fist. Customers who refuse to adhere to the rules are banished for life, hence the joke title he’s given. But the character was based on a real man named Ali Yagenah.

Yagenah ran a famous soup restaurant in Manhattan and he was known to have a temper. The man’s nickname in real life was the Soup Terrorist. As a character, he was actually referenced two years before Seinfeld in the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie Sleepless in Seattle. Though it’s brief, Ryan’s character talks about wanting to do a story on a guy in New York who makes the best soup but is also the meanest man in America. The writer of the movie, Nora Ephron, is from New York and Yagenah had been profiled in the New Yorker a few years earlier. 

9. The First F-Word Was Used in Text Back in the 1300s 

The F word is one of the most enduring words in the English language and to this day it’s still considered taboo by many, despite the fact it’s over 700 years old now. Few words have that kind of longevity when most of “polite” society has to refer to it by the first letter. 

The first written record of the f word comes to us from the year 1310 when it was transcribed as part of a court case. The previous earliest reference was much later, in 1475.  It’s also 100% not what you’d expect, either. There was a man called Roger F-bythenavele who, and this is just speculation, may have been a guy who was really bad at having sex or just someone known to be a dimwit who got saddled with a creative nickname so well known they put it in legal documents. Either way, it’s kind of amazing. 

He’s referenced 7 times in the document using that name. The case was not relevant to his name and seems to mostly be about his failure to appear for an earlier case though the nature of that isn’t mentioned. 

8. Nerd Was First Used by Dr. Seuss 

The word “nerd” is so ubiquitous these days that businesses employ it to advertise things like computer services. It rose to real prominence in everyday usage in the 1970s and likely hit its peak in the ’80s with films like Revenge of the Nerds. By that point the meaning of the word, as someone who is unattractive and socially awkward was pretty widely understood. 

Nerd didn’t evolve on schoolyards with bullies, however, it came from one of the world’s most well known authors. Dr. Seuss first coined the word back in 1950, at least as far as print usage is concerned. There it was featured in his work “If I Ran a Zoo” and in context it’s just a nonsense word that has no relation to the current meaning. 

It’s been mentioned that a 1951 Newsweek article also makes reference to teens calling each other nerds, and that the term has come to replace “drip” or “square” as an insult, so it’s likely that Suess didn’t pull the word out of the ether, but he was the first to put it to paper. 

7. Romans Used Yin Yang Symbolism Before China

The Ying Yang symbol is one that is strongly tied to east Asian culture. You can find it all throughout the Western world as a kind of pseudo-spiritual symbol used in jewelry and art that generally represents balance and harmony. The concept of what the symbol represents dates back thousands of years in China but the iconography does not. In fact, it first appeared in Rome about 700 years before it did in China.

The symbol was used in some Roman shield patterns but has nothing to do with the meaning of the yin yang or Taoism in general, as none of that would have been known to the Romans at the time. Instead, it was a case of coincidence or, less likely, someone saw the design from the Roman shields and felt it well represented the idea and adapted it to their own needs. If the symbol did have any deeper meaning for the Romans, it has since been lost to history.

6. Harry Potter Was a Character in a Fantasy Story Years Before JK Rowling’s Books

Harry Potter is one of the biggest entertainment franchises in history and the movies, including the Fantastic Beasts spinoffs, have grossed over $9 billion so far. The books have made another $7.7 billion. 

If you were to describe the story in very general and vague terms, you might say it’s a fantasy series about someone named Harry Potter who lives in a world with trolls and goblins and such. And, based on that limited description, you’d also be describing the 1986 film Troll, which vastly predates the more popular franchise. Filmmaker John Buechler would later claim he invented Harry Potter, the stories had a lot of similarities, and that JK Rowling ripped him off. He even planned to release a remake/sequel called Troll: The Rise of Harry Potter Jr., which never came to fruition after Buechler died.

Rowling and the studio behind the well known Potter films disagreed that they’d stolen anything and, if you’ve seen both you’d be hard pressed to believe the boy wizard was inspired by the ’80s B-Movie, but the fact remains it genuinely was a story about a magical world and a boy named Harry Potter, many years before the more well known version. 

5. Donald Duck’s Sister Was Created in the 30s

Disney has a stable of well known characters that date back decades but some of the originals and most iconic include Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck. Donald had his own corner of the Disney-verse featuring three nephews named Huey, Dewey, and Louie, which implied that — somewhere — Donald had a sister. 

In 2017, the DuckTales cartoon which featured the three nephews and Donald’s uncle Scrooge McDuck got a reboot and they finally decided to give the boys a mother. She’s shown in painting in an episode and referred to as mom and then, in 2019, the character Della Duck debuts, voiced by Paget Brewster. 

But the boys did have a mother long before this; it’s just that Disney never did anything with her. The first reference to their mother, who’s name was Dumbella at the time, dates back to 1937. She made an appearance later in a Dutch comic in which the triplets are named Kwik, Kwek and Kwak, but was never seen anywhere else until the recent cartoon. 

4. The Ring of Invisibility Was First Used by Plato

Arguably the most important plot device in the Lord of the Rings books by Tolkien is the One Ring itself which is, also arguably, its own character despite not being a living being. It has an active influence over events and without it the plot cannot move forward. It’s an essential element, and it’s also very heavily borrowed from Plato. This was very much on purpose.

Tolkien would have been familiar with Plato’s Republic and the Ring of Gyges. In Plato’s tale, a shepherd receives a magical ring that makes him invisible. Using this ring he kills the king and takes over the realm. It was Plato’s point that invisibility and anonymity are essential keys to corruption and the difference between a just and an unjust person was only someone’s ability to be invisible and anonymous. Take what you will from that proposition as it relates to the internet. 

The parallels to Lord of the Rings are clear. The One Ring absolutely corrupts everyone who comes in contact with it. Only the simple, innocent Hobbits can withstand its sway long enough to get it to Mt. Doom and even then, Frodo loses himself in the critical moment. 

3. The NY Times First Mentioned Hitler Back in 1922

The history of World War II has been covered extensively and from countless angles. Many people in the aftermath, and still today, wanted to know how anything like that could have happened. And, more specifically, how could Hitler have happened. 

Stories about the atrocities committed by the Nazis and the deaths of millions of Jews were making headlines in 1942. The war itself had started just three years earlier, and Hitler became Chancellor in 1933. 

Part of the problem was what the world knew about him before things escalated to an all out world war. The New York Times wrote about Hitler for the first time in 1922. He had only been in the German political world since 1919 at that time and became the leader of the Nazi party in 1921. Outside of Germany he was still relatively unknown.

The Times piece notes Hitler was a good orator and also made a lot of anti-Semitic speeches which the author dismissed saying that “well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers.”

2. Palpatine Was Outed as the Emperor Before the Original Star Wars Film Was Even Released

The big reveal in the original Star Wars trilogy is the identity of Darth Vader. The Emperor’s identity is never really contemplated at all, he’s just the Emperor. But he never really has a name at that time, either. No one calls him Palpatine in that original trilogy and the actor, Ian McDiarmid, did have some serious makeup on to make him look creepy.

Fast forward to the prequel trilogy in the 1990s and Chancellor Palpatine is a full-fledged character played, again, by a much older Ian McDiarmid. He’s initially portrayed as good, and slowly suspicion is cast over him until finally there’s a scene in which Yoda and Mace Windu discuss the Sith master and apprentice relationship and the movie just comes out and shows you Palpatine. 

Some fans would have known ahead that Palpatine was the Emperor just because they paid attention to the actors or they even recognized the voice. But for many, this was a surprise reveal. However, the actual reveal came well before the prequel trilogy and, weirdly, before the original trilogy. Palpatine’s first appearance, and the revelation that he’s the Emperor, was months before the original Star Wars movie came out in Alan Dean Foster’s novel Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker.

1. “God Helps Those Who Help Themselves” Predates the Bible

There are a lot of sayings, proverbs and aphorisms that get quoted all the time to dispense wisdom or at least a sort of cliched version of it. The popular saying “God helps those who helps themselves” has been around for centuries and means, in general, that you have your own power and agency to do things in your own life. 

A number of people believe the saying comes from the Bible, possibly even quoting Jesus. According to one pastor, a survey of American Christians determined 68% of them believe that saying has a Biblical origin. In truth, the saying is actually much older.

You can trace “God helps those who help themselves” back to Aesop’s Fables, where you can find it in the tale called “Hercules and the Wagoner.” There it’s sometimes translated as “Heaven helps those who help themselves” and was written around 550 BC, so quite some time before Jesus may have ever uttered any similar words.