Fish from the Sky? 45 Bizarre Historical Facts That Sound Like Fiction

If someone told you it once rained fish, you'd likely roll your eyes. But history proves that fact is often stranger than fiction. From biological rainfalls to war-hero horses, the timeline of human existence is littered with anomalies that seem too absurd to be true. These bizarre historical facts sounds like fiction but are verified by records and scientific analysis.

Reports of raining frogs, rats, and fish date back to early civilizations. While it's not "rain" in the traditional sense, meteorologists point to tornadic waterspouts as the culprit. These intense vortices can act like giant vacuums, sucking up schools of fish or ponds full of frogs and depositing them miles away. In 1873, Kansas City experienced a frog shower, and on June 16, 1882, Dubuque, Iowa, saw frogs fall encapsulated in hail, suggesting they were lifted high enough into the atmosphere to freeze.

War history provides some of the most surreal entries. Take Staff Sgt. Reckless, a Mongolian racehorse recruited by the US Marine Corps during the Korean War. She made 51 solo supply trips under fire and was eventually promoted to Sergeant. Then there's the case of Juan Pujol Garcia, a double agent who managed a completely fictional spy network for the Germans during WWII. He fed them such plausible nonsense that they awarded him the Iron Cross, while he was secretly helping the Allies win the war.

• In 1932, the Australian Army went to war against emus—and lost.
• The Hundred Years' War actually lasted 116 years.
• Mexico once had a president who served for only 45 minutes.
• The gap between the first flight (1903) and the moon landing (1969) was only 66 years.