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Understanding history often means categorizing or quantifying it. Sometimes we establish something as a historical “first” or historical “last.” Other times, we label people, places, or periods as the “worst” because, well, they’re kind of awful. But finding the “most” of something can also put history into perspective - strange world records right out of the Guinness book that offer surprising insight into the past. Some of these “mosts” are genuine testaments to human strength, endurance, creativity, and spirit, while others, are not so much.
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Understanding history often means categorizing or quantifying it
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Sometimes we establish something as a historical first or historical last. Other times we label people, places, or periods as the worst because, well, they're kind of awful
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But finding the most of something can also put history into perspective
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Strange world records right out of the Guinness Book that offer surprising insight into the past
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Some of these mosts are genuine testaments to human strength, endurance, creativity, and spirit
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while others are not so much. So, today we're taking a look at some historical mosts that will make your jaw drop
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Let's investigate. Roy Sullivan worked as a U.S. National Park Ranger in Virginia
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and was struck by lightning at least seven times, which is at least six times too many
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Sullivan was first hit by lightning in 1942 as he ran away from a fire lookout tower that had just
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been struck. Subsequent strikes in 1969, 1970, 1972, and 1973 took place while Sullivan was in
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his truck, his yard, at work, and in a car, respectively. Lightning truly had no respect
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for poor Roy. The remaining strikes occurred in 1976 when he was out in a storm and in 1977
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when he was out fishing. This lightning strike vendetta may have kick-started when Sullivan
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was a child helping his father cut wheat and allegedly got struck by a bolt while swinging
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his scythe, but because he couldn't quite prove it, he never added it to his official total
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Hats off to you, Ranger Sullivan, albeit a slightly singed hat. During the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1939 to 1940
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Under-Sergeant Simo Haoha had 505 confirmed sniper kills, although the number could be as high as 542
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Haoha earned the nickname the White Death, spent days in sub-zero temperatures targeting Russian combatants
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and used an iron sight instead of a scope because the sniper felt that shooting with a scope seemed to be slow, and it took time
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Plus, the reflection could potentially make him visible to the enemy. In other words, he was no scoping it decades before call of duty
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On March 6, 1940, Howe Ha was shot in the face by a Soviet sniper and went into a coma
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only to regain consciousness the day the conflict ended. A newspaper had already printed news about his death
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to which he sent a Mark Twain-esque letter saying those rumors were greatly exaggerated
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Russian peasant Fyodor Vasiliev and his first wife, Valentina Vasiliev, had 69 children from
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27 different births. Mrs. Vasiliev reportedly birthed 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets
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and four groups of quadruplets from 1725 to 1765 This might seem completely unbelievable and despite evidence presented by contemporary records some researchers still don buy it For example Dame Marie Clay
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yes, researchers can become dames, opined in her book Quadruplets and Higher Multiple Births
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that the investigation of the Vasilievs' claims was done so sloppily that we're unlikely to ever
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know whether they were true. At the very least, we hope Ms. Vasilieva had the 18th century Russian
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equivalent of an epidural, a jug of vodka, and a straw. Since children's author Ruald Dahl's
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passing in 1990, his estate has earned $513 million, ousting the previous record holder
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the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Although, unlike Jackson, nobody from the Dahl estate
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has purchased The Elephant Man's Bones. Yet, Dahl wrote 49 books during his lifetime
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including many beloved stories like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda
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and several of them were published posthumously. Adaptations of his works onto small and large screens
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which require purchasing the rights and show no signs of ending, have contributed heavily
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to Dahl's continued accumulation of wealth. Guess his family found one of those golden tickets
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Russian cosmonaut Ole Kononenko has spent a record 1,111 days in space
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just a hair over three years, breaking fellow cosmonaut Gennady Padulka's previous record of 878 days
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Kononenko achieved this interstellar achievement over five missions to the International Space Station, some of which lasted over a year
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For his work, he has received all kinds of honors, including two medals from NASA and a designation as a hero
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not just from Russia, but from his home country of Turkmenistan. Hopefully, they also gave him some time to catch up on all his shows
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Famed animator, producer, theme park founder, and mouse father, Walt Disney earned 59 Academy Award nominations
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the first of which came for the short subject cartoon Flowers and Trees in 1932
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And he won that one to boot. Disney went on to win 22 competitive Oscars during his career
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famously including one large statue and seven smaller ones for his first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
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When you add up all his wins, special awards, and honors, Disney personally has received 32 Academy Awards
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Where the heck did he put all of them? Oh, maybe that's why he built the Epcot Dome
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Swimmer Michael Phelps of the USA became the winningest Olympian in history
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after taking home one silver and five gold medals during the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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That brought his total up to 28 medals, 23 gold, three silver, and two bronze
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He has so many medals he could melt them down into a suit of armor, although that might add some time to his 200 freestyle The female athlete with the most medals is Russian gymnast Larissa Latinyana From 1956 to 1964 she won nine gold five silver and four bronze medals
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And in 1998, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
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Way to stick the landing, Latinyana. Pete Rose holds several records in Major League Baseball
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including most games played at 3,562. Rose also has the most at-bats at 14,053
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most hits at 4,256, and most singles at 3,215. But despite being one of the greatest to ever play the game
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Rose will never be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. That's because he was banned from Baseball for Life in 1989
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after he was caught making bets on the sport. Rose did make several appearances at WrestleMania though
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so win some, lose some. For the sake of comparison in other sports, basketball center Robert Parrish played the most regular season NBA games at 1,611
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Football kicker Morton Anderson tops the list in the NFL at 382
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And hockey player Patrick Marleau has the most games in the NHL at 1,779
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But none of them ever had a huge gambling scandal, so they didn't make pro wrestling appearances
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The Mongol Empire is estimated to have spread from 11 million to 12 million square miles across Asia and into Europe
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beginning under the leadership of Genghis Khan, a guy who just loved conquering people
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While this is the most land held by a contiguous empire, the most land controlled by any empire in history is roughly 13.71 million square miles
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held by the vast British Empire around 1920. You may have heard the old saying, the sun never sets on the British Empire
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At the time, regardless of the time of day, the sun was always shining on some part of the world that the British controlled
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Not every record is a positive one. For example, Fabien Escalante, the former chief of Cuba's intelligence
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alleges that leader Fidel Castro survived a whopping 634 assassination attempts. the most of any person in history
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Escalante also alleges that the U.S. government was behind the attempts, with varying levels of intensity
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from the Eisenhower administration to Bill, the Saxmaster, Clinton. Regardless of how true that number is
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it's not hard to believe Escalante's claim that the U.S. made some attempts on the Cuban president's life
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because get rid of Castro was at the top of the CIA's to-do list for about 50 years
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Not one to turn down an opportunity to profit from his boss's troubles
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Escalante wrote a book detailing all of these allegations, entitled simply, 634 Ways to Kill Fidel
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Let's hope that's not an instruction manual. In 1971 Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi held what is to date the most expensive party in history in the city of Persepolis The event to celebrate the 2 anniversary of the Persian Empire
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was beyond extravagant. Hundreds of cooks and waiters prepared and served 22 tons of food and
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5,000 bottles of wine and champagne. The guest list was composed of 10 kings, 21 princes and
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princesses, nine sheiks, two sultans, a grand duke, a cardinal, 16 presidents, three prime ministers
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and four vice presidents. Evel Knievel may have also been in attendance. It was a pretty major
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party. The 5.5-hour feast included quail eggs stuffed with caviar and fresh raspberries flown
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in from France. Organizers also offered elaborate tents that were actually two-bedroom apartments
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plus servants' quarters with marble bathrooms. They set up casino and gaming tables
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and spared no expense in providing attendance and finery for guests, including 16 hair salons
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which is essentially an entire franchise. Terms of Persia. Hmm, that has a nice ring to it
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The lowest estimates for the affair's total cost were $4 million, while the highest number
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reaches more than $100 million. High-ranking politician Abdul Reza Ansari told The Iranian in 2002 that the actual amount was closer to 160 million tomans
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That's about $22 million in those days. Hope they all got a nice gift bag
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Augustus II, also called Augustus the Strong, wonder if he gave himself that nickname
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held positions as the Elector of Saxony, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Lithuania during the late 17th and early 18th centuries
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As a thrice-over ruler, Augustus decided to have enough extramarital children to field an entire peewee football league
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Described as running a luxurious wanton court with dozens of mistresses, Augustus purportedly had gross appetites that resulted in 354 children born to women who weren't his wife by the time he passed in 1733
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When Nick Cannon heard those numbers, he said, Hold my beer. Determining the exact number of people slain by a single monarch can be tricky
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As an example, Henry VIII's totals range from 57,000 to 72,000. And there's no telling how many people a given king may have offed without making any note of it
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Kings are kind of jerks that way. But even when taking such variances into consideration
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one king still rises head and shoulders above the rest as the deadliest in history
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Leopold II of Belgium. In 1885, King Leopold took control of the Congo
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and under his authority, as many as 10 million Africans lost their lives
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He exploited the resources of the region to line his pockets and enslaved millions of people to harvest rubber
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who would either be worked to death, mutilated, or slain if they didn't produce enough
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Leopold was responsible for so much atrocity that when he finally died in 1909
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crowds of onlookers booed his funeral procession