Wait! That Actually Happened?
Daniel P. Douglas
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Recent Episodes
S2026E2 Podcast - The Football War of 1969
In June 1969, El Salvador and Honduras played three World Cup qualifying matches that spiraled into riots, a national martyr, and ultimately a real shooting war. The underlying causes were decades of…
S2026E1 Podcast - The Cadaver Synod
In January 897, Pope Stephen VI ordered the corpse of his predecessor Pope Formosus dug up from its tomb, dressed in papal robes, and propped up on a throne to stand trial for crimes including…
S2025E14 Podcast - The Caga Tió
Since the 1600s, families in Catalonia, Spain have gathered around a small wooden log with a painted smiley face and a red hat every Christmas Eve. They’ve spent the past two weeks “feeding” it…
S2025E13 Podcast - The War of Jenkins’ Ear
In 1731, Spanish coast guards boarded British Captain Robert Jenkins’ ship, tortured him, and sliced off his ear before telling him to “take it to your king.” Jenkins did something even better. He…
S2025E12 Podcast - The Radium Girls of the 1920s
In the 1920s, hundreds of young American women were hired to paint watch dials with radium paint that made them glow in the dark. Their employers told them it was completely safe, even encouraged…
S2025E11 Podcast - The Tulip Mania of 1637
In this episode of “Wait, That Actually Happened?” we explore Tulip Mania, the world’s first recorded financial bubble that gripped Holland from 1633 to 1637. During the Dutch Golden Age, tulip bulbs…
S2025E9 Podcast - The Bal des Ardents, or “Ball of the Burning Men”
This Party Was Fire!On January 28, 1393, King Charles VI of France and five nobles dressed as “wild men” for a masquerade, covering themselves in pitch (tar) and flax to look hairy and savage, then…
S2025E9 Podcast - The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic
On January 30th, 1962, three girls at a mission school in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) started giggling and couldn’t stop, triggering one of history’s strangest epidemics that would last 18 months and…
S2025E8 Podcast - The 1904 Olympic Marathon
When the Olympics Decided Water Was Bad and Poison Was GoodThe 1904 Olympic Marathon in St. Louis remains the most catastrophic Olympic event ever held, when organizer James E. Sullivan deliberately…
S2025E7 Podcast - Victorian Fern Fever
When Ladies Fought in the Mud for PlantsIn the 1850s, Victorian Britain experienced “Pteridomania” or Fern Fever, when the entire nation became obsessed with collecting ferns to the point of…
S2025E6 Podcast - Emperor Norton I
When San Francisco Crowned Its Own KingIn 1859, a broke businessman named Joshua Norton declared himself Emperor of the United States, and amazingly, the entire city of San Francisco just went with…
S2025E5 Podcast - The Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876
On March 3, 1876, chunks of fresh red meat fell from a clear Kentucky sky for several minutes, covering an area the size of a football field around Mrs. Allen Crouch's farm in Bath County. The meat…
S2025E4 Podcast - The War of the Oaken Bucket
Yes, you read that correctly.In 1325, medieval Italy witnessed one of history's most ridiculous wars when Modena stole a wooden bucket from Bologna's city well. What should have been a minor prank…
S2025E3 Podcast - The London Beer Flood of 1814
On October 17, 1814, a 22-foot-tall vat containing 135,000 gallons of beer exploded at London's Horse Shoe Brewery, triggering a catastrophic chain reaction that released 388,000 gallons of porter…
S2025E2 Podcast - The Dancing Plague of 1518
In July 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing in the streets of Strasbourg and couldn't stop. Within days, dozens had joined her in this compulsive, uncontrollable dancing; within a month,…
S2025E1 Podcast - The Great Emu War
In 1932, farmers faced an invasion of 20,000 emus devastating their wheat crops in Western Australia. Their solution? Call in the military with machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. What…
Frequently Asked Questions
Wait! That Actually Happened? has published 16 episodes since August 2025, covering topics in Documentary, History.
Wait! That Actually Happened? is currently highly active with new episodes monthly. Average episode length is 12m.
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