In 1976, USA launched Operation Paul Bunyan1 to cut down a tree located in the Korean Demilitarized Zone because it was blocking the view of an area. They sent in tanks, Special Forces, various other vehicles, Tae Kwon Do experts, soldiers with M-16s, grenade launchers, mines, helicopters, artillery, etc., all to cut down a tree. – Source
General J. Sedgwick’s last words during the American Civil War were “they couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance,” before being shot under the left eye that killed him. – Source
One of the funniest incidents to happen during the 14th century was the great schism of the Catholic Church. A bunch of cardinals walked into Rome to elect a new pope, and an angry mob declared it will kill all of them if they didn’t elect an Italian pope instead of a French one. They elected an Italian pope, returned back to France, and elected a French pope to be the new pope. Now there were two popes at the same time, each saying the other one was a phony, splitting up Europe into two religious groups, each ready to use religion as their excuse to annihilate the other. The Catholic Church’s solution was to elect another pope, only for absolutely no one to stand behind him. So now there were three popes, all of them saying the other was illegitimate and all of their followers were going to hell. Finally, the Catholic Church got rid of all the popes, and elected a new one, and this time they made sure no angry mobs were there. – Source
In 1618, some Catholics and Protestants were settled religious disputes in Prague, when a Protestant threw a Catholic out of a third story window. The Catholic claimed that “The Hand of God” saved him, while the protestants claimed that God mocked them cause they survived by letting them fall into a carriage of horse crap. It started a large war/conflict. – Source
In the 1300s, some fellows from Modena stole a bucket from Bologna (both in Italy), resulting in a great deal of humiliation for the Bolognese. They declared war, had a battle with around 2,000 casualties (split between both sides), and failed to reclaim the bucket – Source
