10. In 1899, man-eating lions stopped the construction of a railway in Kenya
Between March and December 1898, work on the Kenya-Uganda Railway ground to a shuddering halt. Workers, most from very poor families, simply downed tools and went home. The British Parliament even discussed the issue. The British Empire had been halted in its tracks… by two lions. The pair, known as the Maneaters of Tsavo, killed around 28 workers in 1898. After numerous attempts to kill them failed, workers began to suspect the lions were, in fact, demons, and fled. Operations resumed only when the engineer in charge of the railway bridge across the Tsavo River finally managed to kill them.