much of history is dark and downright scary some of that is captured in history books between
sections of heroes and descriptions of what life was like for our ancestors
but much is kept secret or simply glossed over
number five
there are many famous men and women from the past whose tombs have been forgotten from
alexander the great to cleopatra of egypt it's a reminder that no matter a person's importance
time will wash away most things but in the case of dante alighieri it was politics rather than
time that has left his remains without a home for most of his afterlife so far
dante was a poet born in florence in 1265. he's most famous today for his work the inferno
which was one part of a trilogy called the divine comedy set to the backdrop of a trip to hell
dante used his story to condemn certain religious and political figures these included the pope
as well as political figures from his home state of florence it's unsurprising then that dante did
not exactly get along with these people and had himself exiled from florence in the early 1300s
years later he would be offered a chance to return but he would not agree with the conditions
and instead settled in ravenna ravenna welcomed dante and when he passed away from natural causes
in 1321 an extravagant funeral was held his body was placed in a marble sarcophagus at the church
known today as the basilica of san francisco an epitaph was later written describing florence as
an unloving mother but over the years public opinion on dante in florence changed despite
his criticisms of the city over the following generations his fame would lead to florence
being proud to call him one of its sons and authorities requested the return of his remains
ravana refused and eventually the new pope who was related to florence's ruling family ordered
the body to be returned ravenna let florence take the sarcophagus but it was soon discovered
dante's remains were not inside the bones of the famous poet were now hidden in a wooden chest in
the church but florence couldn't reveal the truth without admitting that they had opened the tomb
for a while dante's remains were deemed lost after they'd been hidden during the napoleonic wars
only to be rediscovered during construction work in 1865.
a student noticed the label dantes osa on the box which indicated the complete skeleton found inside
was indeed the famous poet the remains were put on public display for a time
although they were briefly buried during world war ii finally in december of 1945 they
were laid to rest in a mausoleum in ravana where dante presumably remains to this day
number four
the cuban missile crisis is one of the most significant events to occur in the second half
of the 20th century given the amount of espionage and counterintelligence that defined the cold war
it's not surprising that much of the story of the crisis is left out of history books in particular
the us government was keen to keep quiet just how big a role it played in kicking
off the crisis despite what john f kennedy claimed as he campaigned for his election
the us had a much larger nuclear arsenal than its cold war enemy and in 1961
more than 100 were deployed in turkey as close to the soviet union as they could be
these weapons weren't of much use as a deterrent and seemed to be obviously intended for a first
strike to anyone who knew they were there even u.s senators were asking what their
own government's response would be like if the soviet union attempted something similar
such as a deployment in cuba once the missile crisis kicked off kennedy himself said either
absent-mindedly or sarcastically that the soviet actions in cuba was like if the u.s suddenly began
to put a major number of missiles in turkey he described that sort of action as dangerous
when the crisis began many observers from the rest of the world believed america was escalating the
situation far more than it needed to and it seemed like nuclear war was imminent in fact
if a handful of coincidences had gone differently it's very likely the cold war would have gone hot
as the executive committee of the national security council observed early on in the crisis
the missiles in cuba didn't change much they were not a military danger but a political one
the kennedy administration had committed to being tough on cuba and one of the biggest concerns was
what these missiles would do to america's image in the soviet union's eyes and the eyes of america's
own allies the biggest secret came at the end of the crisis in how the u.s convinced the soviets
to leave cuba for decades after the crisis it was well known that the us's willingness to back down
and the threat of military action convinced the soviet union the weapons in cuba weren't
worth the risk in actuality kennedy had struck a secret deal with the soviets
agreeing to remove the missiles from turkey if the deal ever got leaked it would be off
the president's brother hand-delivered the letter outlining the agreement to the ambassador himself
and refused to take the ussr's letter formally agreeing to the arrangement
as it would risk ruining his career eventually the documents related to the event were declassified
though the pentagon still redacted any mention of turkey from its files on the subject
but the myths surrounding the u.s resolve in the cuban missile crisis
and its relative innocence and causing the crisis is still commonly believed
number three
for those outside of the united kingdom coventry is probably not a place that they're familiar with
and even for most inside the uk it's not particularly special
but it was in the skies over the west midlands city that british morale during the second
world war was first shaken and it may have been something the government could have prevented
coventry at the time was a relatively small city but was dense with factories dotted
between medieval architecture and had expanded rapidly to house those working at the factories
before the war cars had been the main output but ward time manufacturing switched to weapons
and other things that would help the effort naturally it became a target for german air raids
but unlike london the city was much less prepared for an attack
november 14th 1940 started out like any other day by the next morning 568 people would have
lost their lives and a state of panic had gripped much of the city it was the heaviest bombardment
that had been set up up until that point in the war and the most intense but nowhere else
in the country would come close to the societal collapse and hysteria that was seen in coventry
rumors of people buried under collapsing buildings being fed through tubes circulated there were
stories about perfectly civil people who formed a violent mob an anthropologist visiting the city
the following day claimed to see women attacking firefighters and said there was more hysteria
terror and neurosis observed in one evening than he'd seen across the entire country in two months
how much of the violent attacks were real and how much were just horror stories remains unknown
blame was placed on the local governments for not being prepared with the proper emergency water
supplies which only added to the destruction as much of the city burned to the ground
the ruins of coventry cathedral still stand today as a testament to this but even worse than the
unpreparedness is that the uk government may have known the attack was coming that day according
to some theories the code breakers had informed prime minister winston churchill that german codes
indicated an attack on coventry even given the planned time but to send manpower and support
to coventry at that time would make it clear to germans that uk intelligence had cracked their
codes if that happened the codes would no doubt be changed and the uk would lose its advantage
churchill claimed the upcoming raid would be on london and sent reinforcements there instead
how true this theory is will likely never be known though it's one that is rarely mentioned
outside of coventry what is true is that in the aftermath of the attack the government
began to censor coverage of the event so as not to damage morale and today it's widely ignored
number two
the assassination of conrad de monferra is one of history's greatest whodunnits with some of
the most famous names of medieval europe being suspected in the crime conrad was the king of
jerusalem though he had only held the title for a matter of days before two assassins took his life
one of the assassins passed away at the scene while another was captured and tortured for
information about who had hired them the pair had been in conrad's court for months beforehand
and were members of the nizari ismaili the assassins of legend it wasn't unheard of
for them to be involved in crusader affairs and rumors of their heinous
acts often spread through christendom but it was still a shock when the captured assassin
named richard the lionheart as being involved in the scheme conrad had been a part of a political
dispute surrounding the king of jerusalem which didn't actually include the city at the time
after queen sabila passed away in 1190 her husband guy believed the crown would pass to him
however the court of jerusalem recognized sabila's younger sister isabela as the rightful heir queens
could not rule alone though and she would need a husband conrad was the favorite of the court
and of much of europe his family had connections to the holy roman emperor
the byzantine emperor and the french monarchy he was actually a cousin of the king of france
the only significant figure to support guy was richard the lionheart
however by the end of the third crusade it seemed richard had accepted conrad as king
guy had been given a consolation kingdom in cyprus and conrad was elected king then there
was the assassination richard was arrested in france on his way back from the crusade
on charges that included a number of things as well as responsibility for the passing of conrad
his mother had to give up all the money in the treasury to bring him home however he wasn't the
only suspect even though guy didn't try to take the crown after conrad's passing it was still
considered possible that he was involved another possibility was richard's nephew henry who took
the crown afterwards henry never used the title king in any official documentation and he met with
the leader of the assassins during his rule other possibilities included isabela's first husband
or even the leader of the assassins himself who may have been slighted by conrad in the
past and had played the long game before taking his life it's a little talked about scandal at
the end of the largely romanced crusade and one that will likely never get a conclusive answer
number one
the boer wars are an often overlooked conflict especially outside of south africa where they took
place taking place only a few decades before the first world war most history books will skip over
the time period entirely the dark events and even darker actions performed by the british military
go ignored despite one of the biggest perpetrators being the face of britain's world war 1 efforts
south africa at the end of the 1800s was a complicated place as well as the native
africans there were also descendants of dutch settlers the boers who had lived in the area
for generations and the british when the boers tried to set up their own independent nations
conflict with the british began in march of 1900 the supreme commander of the british forces lord
roberts offered the boers that put down their weapons in amnesty they could remain on their
farms as long as they signed an oath of neutrality a third of the boer population took the offer and
all was well for them for a few more months before the british began their most heinous acts the
remaining forces had begun attacking railway lines at first the british would retaliate by burning
down the farms and settlements nearest the railway lines but this soon turned into unprovoked attacks
the scorched earth policy left homes destroyed farms salted and livestock either confiscated or
killed to stop the boers that had put down their weapons from being convinced to rejoin the fight
they were placed in refugee camps it was supposedly for their own protection
but the barbed wire fence made it seem more like a prison families that had been left homeless and
without any way to support themselves were also sent to the camps disease ran rampant with young
children particularly susceptible in november of 1900 lord kitchener took over from roberts
the scorched earth policy wasn't getting the results he desired and with the enemy forces
still hiding in the shadows kitchener targeted the people he could get a hold of the families of
the boer fighters women and children were forcibly relocated to the concentration camps and ox wagons
food supply in the camps was already terrible but those whose families were still fighting received
even less malnutrition only made fighting the disease even harder
28 000 bowers a third of the population at the time were wiped out in the camps those in charge
wrote callous letters to one another expressing disappointment that the high rates had continued
even after those they saw as weak had perished the atrocities would likely have been worse had
in late 1902 a british welfare campaigner had not seen the horrors and reported it back to the media
at home black south africans were also rounded up into camps their farms and homes were also burned
to the ground so boer fighters couldn't get resources from them conditions at these camps
were even worse and outrage in britain over the treatment of the boers did not spread to outrage
over the treatment of black africans twenty thousand people passed away in these caps
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