8 A Swedish king thought coffee was poisonous, and he tried to kill a prisoner with it.

Even though coffee entered the Swedish market in the 17th century, the kings of Sweden were not fond of it. They even banned coffee and encouraged the citizens to opt for other drinks. When Gustav III became the monarch, he continued the hatred towards coffee. He believed that coffee is toxic, and people should abandon it.

Gustav even tried to perform a scientific experiment on two prisoners to understand if coffee could actually kill a person. He selected these prisoners because both were murderers and were sentenced to death. One of them had to drink coffee three times a day while the other had to drink tea in the same quantity. Gustav was counting the days to their death. He abhorred coffee so much that he thought that the coffee drinker would die sooner.

However, the assumptions of Gustav didn’t work, and the prisoners survived while the king died in an attack in 1792. (source)

9 A group of nine African American students had enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957 that resulted in Little Rock Crisis.

A  group of nine African American students, known as the “Little Rock Nine,” created history in 1957 when they enrolled in Little Rock Central High School, a school which up to that time admitted only Whites. In 1954, the Supreme Court had made a decision that public schools were utterly free from segregation. With reference to that, the admission of Little Rock Nine was like a test to see the effectiveness of this decision.

The Little Rock Nine had faced several protests and traumatized experiences, including attempts of dropping flaming papers, verbal abuse, and taunts from White students. They even had gone through counseling sessions to prepare them to be able to handle such aggressive protests. However, in September 1957, the very first month for the students at the school, protests had become so violent that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had to send 1,200 troopers to escort the nine students from the school. (1, 2)

10 Russian President Yeltsin was seen roaming in his underwear, searching for pizza.

We’ll conclude our list with one of the weirdest incidents. In September 1994, Boris Yeltsin was in the US for a meeting with Bill Clinton. However, Yeltsin was observed in Pennsylvania Avenue, in a heavily drunk condition screaming for a taxi. Strangely, he was in his underwear and was craving a pizza. He even refused to go back to Blair House, where he was staying.

Later, in 1995, it was reported that Yeltsin had severe alcohol issues. The entire time Yeltsin was the president of Russia, from 1991 to 1999, his alcoholism was a major challenge. Many of his inappropriate behaviors are still recorded on the camera. (source)