History is not always grim, dreary, and serious. For those who bother to look, history has no shortage of bizarre and often hilarious details. Take the time Napoleon Bonaparte was attacked – and forced to retreat – by bunny rabbits. Or the time the Nazis set out to breed super cows. Unsurprisingly, they turned out to be aggressive and murderous. Following are thirty things about those and other bizarre moments from history.
30. English Parents Used Napoleon to Scare Their Children Into Obedience
Napoleon Bonaparte was not as murderous as Hitler or Genghis Khan, but in his day, he was feared and loathed by his foes just as much as contemporaries feared the Fuhrer and the great Mongol conqueror. As he roamed Europe at the head of his armies, gobbling up countries as if they were popcorn at a movie theater, Napoleon was scary enough to serve as a boogeyman. Indeed, English parents used to scare their children into obedience with “Boney the Bogeyman”.
Napoleon, who was often belittled in newspapers read by adults as “Little Boney” in a bid to belittle him and play down his threat, was portrayed as a larger-than-life figure to England’s young. He was depicted as a giant ogre who would take away naughty children and eat them for breakfast. “If you don’t behave, Boney will come for you” was usually quite effective in getting rambunctious kids to pipe down. It is thus surprising that the scary Boney was once attacked – and forced to retreat – by bunny rabbits.