Two scientists declared war over dinosaur bones. Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope used dynamite sabotage. They destroyed fossil sites to block each other. Spies infiltrated rival excavation teams regularly. The feud lasted 15 years destroying evidence.
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Dark HistoryMar 26, 2026
The Bone Wars of the 1870s saw rival paleontologists dynamiting fossil sites to prevent competitors from finding dinosaurs
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More strange facts ✦
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The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 killed 21 people when a tank containing 2.3 million gallons burst in Boston
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The Dancing Plague of 1518 saw hundreds of people dance themselves to death in Strasbourg over several months
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Dark History
The London Bridge that was sold to Arizona in 1968 was actually the wrong bridge - the buyer thought he was getting Tower Bridge
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Dark History
In 1518, hundreds of people in Strasbourg danced themselves to death in a plague that lasted for months, with some dancing for days without stopping.
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Unbelievable Records
The longest hiccupping fit lasted 68 years, with Charles Osborne hiccupping every 1.5 seconds from 1922 until 1990.
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Space
Mercury's Time Warp
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Psychology
The Scent of Stone
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Psychology
The Ghost in Your Pocket
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Unbelievable Records
The world record for most toilet seats broken by someone's head in one minute is 46, set by Kevin Shelley in 2007
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Bizarre Human Behavior
In Finland, mobile phone throwing is an official sport with world championships and prizes for distance and accuracy
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Science Gone Wrong
In 1962, a failed NASA rocket launch accidentally created the largest man-made light show visible from 1,000 miles away
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Science Gone Wrong
In 1958, the US Army accidentally irradiated an entire town in Tennessee while testing nuclear weapons effects on vegetables