00:00Some of the wolves were killed in the struggle, but the rest vanished into alleys of the city,
00:05leaving Paris in a state of fear.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the wildest historical events
00:12that would make great movies. To be clear, while some of these may be referenced on the
00:17silver screen or appeared in documentaries, none have received the full film treatment.
00:30The Battle of Castle Itter
00:33In the small village of Itter, Austria, lies a medieval castle named Schloss Itter.
00:39The castle was seized by SS Lieutenant General Oswald Pohl under orders from Heinrich Himmler
00:45on February 7, 1943. This World War II battle saw a small group of strange allies hold an Austrian
00:52castle-turned POW camp against an approaching German panzer division. The defenders included
00:58troops from an American tank battalion and French prisoners, whose members included two former
01:03French prime ministers, multiple French military commanders, and Charles de Gaulle's sister.
01:09Even more bizarre is that they were aided by German soldiers and an SS commander who had defected.
01:15The group held off the Nazi attack until Jean Barotre, a tennis star, could return with
01:21reinforcements after vaulting the fortress wall. Oh, and the XSS guy died taking a bullet for one
01:27of the ex-French prime ministers. How is this not a movie yet?
01:32Olga of Kiev's Revenge
01:34Everyone loves a good revenge story, and this one has all the makings of a bloody R-rated affair.
01:41Olga's husband Igor was murdered by the Drevlians, who then had the audacity to propose that she
01:46marry his killer, Prince Maul. To get back at them, Olga at first pretended to accept their offer.
01:52However, she actually had their messengers burned or buried alive. Olga then pretended to want to
01:58throw a wake for her late husband in the city where he died. However, she had her men massacre
02:04the drunken Drevlians at the party, before laying siege to the city and burning it down,
02:10using birds to spread the fire.
02:12Her revenge, recorded in the Primary Chronicle, has since become the stuff of legend.
02:17Since she was later named a saint, maybe they could call it Saint of Vengeance.
02:23Mansa Musa's Pilgrimage
02:25Ruling the Mali Empire in the 14th century CE, Mansa Musa, or the King of Kings, amassed a fortune
02:33that possibly made him one of the wealthiest people who ever lived.
02:37Often considered one of the wealthiest men to ever live, Mansa Musa ruled Mali in the 14th century.
02:43Between 1324 and 1325, Musa made a hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca. Musa gave generously on
02:51his way there. Maybe too much.
02:53In 1375, the Catalan Atlas map added the Mali Empire, with a drawing of an African king sitting
03:00on the golden throne in Timbuktu with a piece of gold in his hand.
03:04Although he reportedly built many mosques, Musa also gave away so much gold that he may
03:09have destabilized the economies of multiple countries. He also ran out of money, to the
03:15point where he had to borrow some of what he gave away on the return trip, even going
03:19into debt. Musa's absurd journey would make a crazy historical road movie. Plus, we need
03:25more movies about Africa.
03:27The Disappearing Village at Anjikuni Lake
03:30There were records showing that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had investigated the case
03:35again in 1931. These Mounties stated that they discovered an uninhabited settlement, but they
03:42deemed it to be either a seasonal or permanent abandonment of the site with no mysterious
03:47overtones and closed the case.
03:50In 1930, in what is now known as the Nunavut Territory in Canada, fur trapper Joe LaBelle discovered
03:56that an Inuit village near Lake Anjikuni had apparently disappeared. The villagers were nowhere
04:02to be seen, with their food and belongings still laying where they left them, suggesting they'd
04:07left suddenly. A grave had also been unearthed, and a team of sled dogs had starved to death.
04:12The incident is often connected with alien abduction theories or supernatural native legends. While
04:18many have questioned the veracity of the story, even if it is a fabrication,
04:22it would still make for a great sci-fi or horror movie.
04:25The Cadaver Synod
04:27Ecclesiastical gatherings and trials are all the rage these days,
04:32and yet one of history's most bizarre religious trials has yet to make it to the big screen.
04:36Pope Formosus, you stand accused of heresy, lying, and conspiring to be pope.
04:43What say you to those charges?
04:46Pope Stephen VI is best remembered for initiating a tribunal against one of his predecessors,
04:53Pope Formosus, after Formosus was already dead. The late pope's corpse was propped up on a throne,
05:00and a deacon was appointed to answer for him to refute the charges against him.
05:05Formosus was found guilty, had three of his fingers cut off, and he was buried again in a different
05:11grave, only to be dug up again and thrown into the river. Pope Stephen, meanwhile,
05:16was overthrown and killed in prison. Politics, courtroom drama, grave digging, this has it all.
05:24Pope Formosus was shortly restored to his papacy, and this demonizing undone anti-law was set in
05:30place that no person after death can be trialed and persecuted for what they might have done.
05:37The Cunard Liner RMS Carmania, newly converted to an armed merchant cruiser,
05:42was patrolling the South Atlantic Ocean when she encountered a baffling sight near the tiny island of
05:48Trindade. In 1914, Germany lacked warships, so they decided to arm one of their ocean liners with guns.
05:57The SMS Cap Trafalgar was retrofitted to resemble the RMS Carmania, a British luxury liner. Its mission
06:06was to use its disguised appearance to harass and sink British merchant vessels, who would be none the
06:11wiser until it was too late. It was a brilliant plan. However, after a fruitless first voyage,
06:17the Cap Trafalgar finally encountered a British ship. The only problem? It was the real RMS Carmania,
06:24which had also been given armaments. The ship they had just come face to face with,
06:29the first ship of the Cap Trafalgar's top secret cubo mission, was the Carmania. The ship they were
06:36disguised as, disguised as them. The Cap Trafalgar was promptly sunk after a battle against the ship it
06:44intended to imitate. The world deserves this comedic historical naval action movie.
06:50Toronto Circus Riot
06:51How does a fight between a clown and a fireman end up reshaping Toronto's reputation alongside its
06:57police force? A fireman and a clown walking into a brothel sounds like a good setup for a joke,
07:03and we'd argue for a movie. In July 1855, a group of circus clowns and a group of volunteer
07:11firefighters got into a fight at a bordello in Toronto, Canada. The clowns won the day,
07:17but that wasn't the end. The firefighters came to the circus the next day, and burned some of the
07:23circus's wagons. More firefighters arrived, but instead of doing their jobs, they helped their
07:39comrades in their mayhem. The mayor had to call in a militia to stop the violence. Oh, and because the
07:45police failed to prosecute, most of the police force was fired. The real circus was Toronto all along.
07:53The Wolves of Paris
07:55While the exact year is somewhat debated, several accounts agree that during the early 15th century,
08:00Paris was attacked by a marauding pack of man-eating wolves during a harsh winter.
08:05The pack's leader was nicknamed Courtauld or Bobtail, and they killed several dozen people
08:10throughout that winter, leaving many in fear of leaving their homes. Courtauld and the other
08:15grey wolf packs that roamed the forests outside of Paris, instilled an overwhelming amount of fear
08:20in Parisians and foreigners. According to the stories, a group of Parisians banded together
08:25to ambush the wolves, driving them into Notre Dame, and killing them all with rocks and weapons.
08:31This has all the makings of a great horror or thriller film, with the ravenous beasts
08:35and winter setting giving it plenty of scare potential.
08:39The Man Who Rode the Thunder
08:41Survival stories have proven to be successful movies in the past, and this is a contender for
08:46the most incredible. At 6 pm on a summer night in 1959, pilot Lieutenant Colonel William Rankin's
08:53F-8 suffered an engine failure while flying at 47,000 feet at 500 knots. The failure was followed
09:01by a fire warning, then a system failure. Rankin was about to have a very bad day. William Rankin was a
09:08marine pilot. While flying a jet over a cumulonimbus cloud, his engine failed and he was forced to
09:14eject. Rankin's parachute opened early, and he spent 40 minutes after ejection being pelted by
09:21hailstones and thrown about by the storm. He suffered frostbite, extreme decompression, and bruising.
09:28He even nearly drowned in mid-air. He tried to hold his breath, but it was a very dangerous thing to do
09:34while falling at breakneck speed. But he still made it safely to the ground. Rankin wrote a book about
09:40the experience, but a movie could take his incredible story to amazing heights with the
09:45right director and effects.
09:46Hitching a ride turned out to be a tough task. Imagine a man standing on the side of the road,
09:52covered in blood, and dressed in a soaked, ripped-up flight suit. No wonder there weren't
09:56many volunteers to give him a lift. But eventually, someone picked him up and drove to a payphone,
10:02where Rankin managed to call for an ambulance.
10:201904's Disasterous Olympic Marathon. The 1904 St. Louis Olympic Marathon was a disaster.
10:28It was a story of fraud, thievery, raw eggs, rat poison, food poisoning, liquor, feral dogs,
10:35and at least three separate incidents of near death. It was the stupidest sporting event of all time.
10:42The Olympic games are usually a spectacle, but the men's marathon at the 1904 Olympics in St.
10:48Louis was a cavalcade of insane events. Firstly, the organizer, James Edward Sullivan,
10:54set up only one water station along the dusty, hot roads the competitors were running on purpose.
11:00This led to only 14 out of the 32 of them finishing. The initial first-place winner was
11:05disqualified after the discovery he'd hitchhiked part of the way. The actual winner had taken
11:11performance-enhancing drugs, which were basically rat poison. The fourth to arrive took a nap after
11:17eating rotten fruit, which he stole. And that's just scratching the surface. Give this story to
11:22someone like the Coen brothers, and let them bring this comedy of errors to life again.
11:27Is there a bizarre historical story we're nuts for forgetting? Tell us your favorites in the comments.
11:47Will her listen.
11:51Constantly?
12:06Thanks.
12:06Thanks, ma'am.
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