6 In 1995, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his wife Aline Chrétien were surprised by a knife-wielding intruder in their home. Mrs. Chrétien was the first to spot the intruder and promptly called the police after locking their bedroom door. The intruder, a young schizophrenic named André Dallaire, later apologized to the couple for the incident. 

On the night of 5 November 1995, a knife-wielding intruder named André Dallaire broke into 24 Sussex Drive, the Canadian Prime Minister’s official residence. The Prime Minister at the time was Jean Chrétien, and it was his wife Aline Chrétien who discovered Dallaire.

She heard someone walking around the house and went to check it out. When she saw someone in front of her, she quickly closed back the door to the bedroom and locked the second door as well. 

Next, she alerted the police who had failed to spot Dallaire entering the property, thinking that the noise around the fence had been from animals. In the next six to ten minutes, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived at the scene and arrested Dallaire.

He was then found guilty of attempting to kill the Prime Minister but was not found criminally responsible since he was a schizophrenic. Later, after having undergone treatments, he publicly apologized for the incident. (1, 2)

7 The Polish army once adopted a bear named Wojtek who went on to become a World War II hero. When it turned out that soldiers could not carry any pets or animal mascots with them to battle, Wojtek was given the rank of private in the 22nd Artillery Transport Company. The bear would help the army move crates of ammunition and could also drink beer and smoke cigarettes. 

Wojtek was a Syrian brown bear adopted by the Polish army who soon became a World War II hero. Polish soldiers would feed him milk, fruit, honey, and beer, and sometimes even give him cigarettes to smoke (or eat). By the 1940s, Wojtek had become an important member of the Polish Army and would often sleep with the soldiers during cold nights. 

In 1944, when Polish troops were reassigned to fight alongside the British, they were forbidden from bringing along pets or animal mascots. In retaliation, they promoted Wojtek to the rank of private in the 22nd Artillery Transport Company. 

During the Battle of Monte Cassino, Wojtek was credited for helping move boxes of ammunition, a feat for which he was promoted to the rank of corporal. After the war, Wojtek was sent to live in the Edinburgh Zoo where he remained until his death in 1963. (1, 2)

8 Juan Pujol Garcia was a self-made double-agent who won medals from both the Nazis and the British government. He fed false information to the Nazis about D-Day, allowing the Allies to successfully carry out their invasion. Garcia is also said to have created a number of fictional spies for the Nazis and collected money from them for their upkeep.

Juan Pujol Garcia, also known as “Agent Garbo,” was a self-made double-agent during World War II. Garcia is the only man in history to have received both the Iron Cross from the Nazis and the MBE from the British government.

When the war broke out, he had first approached the British government and volunteered to be a spy. However, he did not have a background in espionage and could not speak English. As a result, his application was rejected. 

He then posed as a Spanish diplomat to London who was sympathetic to the Nazi cause and joined the German ranks as a spy. He fed them many fake stories about his team of spies, his life in London, and the British troops that they quickly fell for.

When the British realized how valuable Garcia was to their cause, they decided to use him to feed wrong information to the Nazis about D-Day. In this way, Garcia played a major role in helping the Allies win. (1, 2)

9 In 1184, the German King Henry VI held a court in the Petersburg Citadel in Erfurt. On 26 July, from the combined weight of the gathered nobles, the wooden floor collapsed and most of the nobles fell into the latrine pit below the ground floor. That day, about 60 of them died from drowning in liquid excrement.

The Erfurt latrine disaster occurred on 26 July 1184, when the German King Henry VI decided to hold court in Petersburg Citadel in Erfurt.

This meeting had been called to discuss some land disputes between various landgraves, counts, and archbishops. The parties who had gathered were wearing rich and heavy clothing, including chain mail, which was too much for the wooden floor to support.

As a result, the floor quickly collapsed and the nobles fell into a latrine pit below the ground floor. That day, about 60 political figures, such as Count Heinrich I of Schwarzburg, died by drowning in liquid excrement.

Landgrave Ludwig III, Archbishop Konrad I, and King Henry VI were among the ones who survived because they had moved away to a corner to talk. This was quite fortuitous because a few years later, King Henry VI would go on to become the Holy Roman Emperor. (1, 2)

10 Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small French village that fell to the Nazis during World War II. However, despite the Nazi occupancy, this village played an instrumental role in saving many Jewish lives by taking them in and hiding them. About 2,500 Jewish people were saved this way, and the Nazis had no clue the entire time.

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small French village that has a history of helping religious and political refugees as far back as the 17th century. Keeping with this tradition, when Jewish people were being persecuted by the Nazis, the residents of this village continued to quietly hide and rescue them. 

In the 1940s, the village came under Nazi rule when France was forced to surrender to them. At this time, Nazi officials were known to patrol the area looking for any Jewish people to arrest and take away. Nevertheless, the villagers of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, led by their pastor, André Trocmé, continued their efforts to save as many lives as possible, even obtaining fake identification papers for the people in hiding.

It is believed that they helped save about 2,500 to 3,000 Jewish people. Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center later gave them the “Righteous Among the Nations” title for this brave feat. (1, 2)