Pineapples were such a status symbol in 18th century England that you could rent one for the evening to take to a party.
25
Napoleon Bonaparte thought torture should be abolished because the information obtained from it is worthless.
25
During the Black Plague, it was thought that bad smells were the cause of the plague. "Plague Doctors" therefore wore masks with long beak-like noses stuffed with flowers or smoke to hide the smells.
19
A man named Heraclitus had an illness that made his body swell up with water. To try to sweat it off, he buried himself in a steaming pile of animal poo, but then overheated and died of dehydration.
18
In 1956, the IBM 350 hard disk drive had 3.75 MB of storage, weighed over 2000 lbs, had to be moved around with forklifts, and was delivered via large cargo airplanes.
11
In 1700s, the deer skin was a common medium of exchange between the trading settlers and the native Red Indians in America. This is how a buck became a slang for a dollar.
28
There are pictures of Knights fighting Snails in old Medieval manuscripts - and nobody knows why.
23