1. The Great Emu War (1932)

The Australian military officially declared war on 20,000 emus destroying crops; the emus used "guilla tactics" to outmanoeuvre machine guns and technically won.

2. The Dancing Plague (1518)

Hundreds of people in Strasbourg danced uncontrollably for weeks without rest; some even died from exhaustion and strokes during the mania.

3. The Ghost Army of WWII

The US deployed a unit of artists and sound engineers who used inflatable tanks and speakers to trick the Nazis into thinking allied forces were elsewhere.

4. The Great Molasses Flood (1919)

A storage tank in Boston exploded, creating a 7-metre-high wave of molasses that moved at 56 km/h, killing 21 people and levelling buildings.

5. The 1904 Olympic Marathon

The winner hitched a ride in a car for 11 miles, the runner-up was fed rat poison as a stimulant, and another participant was chased off-course by wild dogs.

6. Project Acoustic Kitty (1960s)

The CIA spent millions of dollars surgically implanting microphones into a cat to spy on the Soviets; it was hit by a taxi on its first mission and died.

7. The Taiping Rebellion (1850)

A Chinese man named Hong Xiuquan believed he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ and started a civil war that resulted in an estimated 20 to 30 million deaths.

8. The Cadaver Synod (897 AD)

A deceased Pope (Formosus) was exhumed, dressed in papal robes, and put on trial by his successor; the corpse was found guilty, stripped, and thrown into the Tiber River.

9. The War of the Oaken Bucket (1325)

Two Italian city-states went to war over a wooden bucket stolen from a well; thousands died in the ensuing battle, and the bucket is still on display in Modena today.