20 Trendsetting Moments From History That Aged Quirkily

History is a vast tapestry of moments that have shaped the world we live in today. From fashion fads to technological breakthroughs, these trendsetting moments often leave an indelible mark on society.

#1 Before Pumpkins, The Irish Carved Jack-O’-Lanterns From Turnips And Potatoes

Image source: gotweird

The jack-o’-lantern tradition dates back centuries, when people in Ireland decorated turnips, beets, and potatoes to frighten away a mythical character named Stingy Jack. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, home of the pumpkin, and the popular fruit became an integral part of Halloween. According to the folktale, Stingy Jack was having a drink with the Devil but didn’t want to pay for his drink. To fix this problem, he persuaded Satan to transform into a coin that Jack could use. However, Jack decided to put the coin in his pocket, next to a silver cross. This silver cross prevented the Devil from changing back. Jack made a deal that the Devil would not bother him for a year and is not allowed to take his soul if Jack dies. A year later, Jack meets the Devil again. Jack convinced the Devil to climb a tree and pick fruit. Whilst the Devil was up in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the bark of the tree so the Devil could not come down. Jack then made another deal, which stated that the Devil could not bother him for 10 years. Jack died a while after this. He was going to go to Heaven but God did not want him there, so he was to be sent to hell. However, the Devil was not allowed to claim his soul and didn’t want him anyway, and so he was forced to wander the Earth. The Devil gave him a lump of burning coal, which Jack put into a hollowed-out turnip. The Irish people who saw him would refer to him as “Jack of the lantern”, which was eventually shortened to “Jack O’Lantern”. People in Ireland and Scotland would start carving faces into turnips and potatoes, to frighten Stingy Jack away and repel other wicked spirits. Immigrants from the British Isles who came to the United States of America bought the story with them. Except they started using pumpkins instead of turnips and potatoes, hence why carved pumpkins are called Jack O’Lanterns.

#2 The “Kiss Of Death” By Bruna Kazinoti, 1988

Image source: gotweird

#3 Two Wax Department Store Mannequins Melt During A Heat Wave In London, 1929, Allegedly. They Also Live In Your Closet And Spy On You When You’re Asleep

Image source: gotweird

#4 Daguerreotype Portrait Of Blind Person From The Mid-19th Century

Image source: gotweird

#5 Nathan Hahn Was Arrested In 1940 For Wearing Female Clothing And Refused To Wear The Male Clothing Presented To Him By Detective Holt

Image source: gotweird

#6 Leaving A Bad Review In The 1920s

Image source: gotweird

#7 Zardoz (1974) Is Quite Possibly The Weirdest Film Ever Made

Image source: gotweird

As 1970s as prog rock, fondue and woodchip wallpaper, and mad as a lift full of wolves, it’s a film full of intriguing ideas, pretentious chatter and incongruous images. Set in the year 2293 on a post-apocalyptic Earth, Zardoz is a science fiction film written, produced and directed by John Boorman. The film starring Sean Connery as Zed, who dressed in a scarlet mankini, his plaited ponytail flowing in the breeze, escapes the thrall of the Eternals and smashes their regime with sex and death.

#8 “Because Of Him,” Lem Billings Once Said Of President Kennedy, “I Was Never Lonely.” John Kennedy And Lem Billings Met In 1933 At Choate Rosemary Hall, The Teenagers Worked Together On Their Class’s Yearbook, And Billings Became Sexually Attracted To The Handsome Young Kennedy

Image source: gotweird

Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper. A startled Kennedy responded to the note by saying, “Please don’t write to me on toilet paper anymore. I’m not that kind of boy.” Although Joe Kennedy, the family patriarch, was reportedly suspicious of Billings’ close relationship with his son, the Kennedy family welcomed Billings into their exclusive family circle. Lem Billings would later confide in friends that his relationship with Kennedy was sexual, to a point, and “included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end.” Their arrangement, Quirk says, “enabled Jack to sustain his self-delusion that straight men who received oral sex from other males were really only straights looking for sexual release,” and, “Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer.” According to Billings’ biographer David Pitts, “Once JFK decided that Billings was his best friend – like it or leave, everybody in the family sort of fell in line with that. The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well.” In her memoir, Times To Remember, published eleven years after JFK’s assassination in Dallas in 1963, matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote that Billings had “remained Jack’s lifelong close friend, confidant, sharer in old memories and new experiences…He has really been part of ‘our family’ since that first time he showed up at our house as one of ‘Jack’s surprises.’” JFK even gave him his own room at The White House. Jackie was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with Billings and that he often spent the night at the White House. After Kennedy’s assassination, Billings was devastated. Biographer Sally Bedell Smith referred to Billings as “probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.”

#9 A V-Shaped Bed Invented In 1932, Supporting The Body Perfectly At Every Point And Thus Promotes Better Rest

Image source: gotweird

When unused the bed is straight like every other bed. However, one pull on a chain at the side of the bed immediately changes it to a V-shape. Another advantage claimed for the bed is that the covers are held substantially away from the person, thereby allowing the free circulation of air to the body.

#10 The Cast Of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” 1976

Image source: gotweird

#11 Anne Francis Wearing Aviary Earrings With Real Budgies In ‘Forbidden Planet’ (1956)

Image source: gotweird

#12 Gang Of Teen Girls, Estonia, 1930

Image source: gotweird

This photo was given to Kaisa Kaer by her grandmother Aino, the girl on the far right in the second row, lighting her ciggie on another ciggie. “She was about 15 when this picture was taken and these are her friends,” Kaisa said. “However, I have no more specific info on who they are. They used to do amateur theatre, and as far as I know, this picture was taken when they were messing around with a production or some such. My grandmother never smoked but she did have a wicked sense of humor, which was all the more striking because it stood in such a contrast with her very poised and polished appearance (among other things, she left me a pair of lace gloves).” Kaisa said her grandmother married a pharmacist, her grandfather Nikolai. They lived and worked in a small town in Estonia during the Second World War and a German officer, who was billeted at their house, got along so well with them that when the Soviets started advancing, he asked them to go to his family home in Germany (somewhere near Frankfurt) to get away from the war. “My grandparents refused and well,” she added, “my grandfather was deported to Siberia, was released with Khrushchev’s amnesty and returned home, but died only four years later because his health had been ruined.” “The most distinct memory I have of my grandmother is going to visit her with my parents and brother, and we sitting around her kitchen table, playing Mahjong for hours on an intricate set which my grandfather had made by himself.” Aino passed away in 2009.

#13 Italian Actress Marisa Allasio Surrounded By Young Priests, 1957

Image source: gotweird

#14 Francesca Woodman (April 3, 1958 – January 19, 1981) Is Best Known For Photographing Herself

Image source: gotweird

But her pictures are not self-portraits in the traditional sense. She is often nude or semi-nude and usually seen half hidden or obscured – sometimes by furniture, sometimes by slow exposures that blur her figure into a ghostly presence. These beautiful and yet unsettling images seem fleeting but also suggest a sense of timelessness.

#15 Couple Cuddling While Sitting In A Hole As Others Enjoy The Beach On The 4th Of July In Santa Monica, California, 1950. (Photographed By Ralph Crane)

Image source: gotweird

#16 Self-Defense Glove For Ladies In London, Ca. 1850

Image source: gotweird

#17 People Used To Go To Record Stores And Listen To Records In A “Listening Booth”… Quite An Event

Image source: gotweird

At His Master’s Voice (HMV), customers could buy records and record players, but also listen to the latest songs. In the 1950s, HMV introduced special sound-isolating booths where customers could sample new sounds without having to wear headphones. They also had enough room to squeeze in a close friend or two.

#18 A Concept Design For Car Safety Belts From The 1960s

Image source: gotweird

#19 This Is Not A Painting! The Photograph Was Taken In 1911 By Francis James Mortimer (1874–1944), A Pioneer Of Pictorial Photography

Image source: gotweird

The sea his favorite subject, he captured the shipwreck Arden Craig, a three-masted wheat ship that slammed into rocks in nine feet of water after the captain became disoriented in a heavy fog. An article from The Barrier Miner (New South Wales). Tue 10 Jan 1911 reads: “The wheat ship, Arden Craig, from Melbourne, which foundered in a fog at the Scilly Isles, off the English coast, called at Queenstown, and was ordered to proceed to Calais. Distress guns fired from the ship were heard at Bishop Lighthouse, and led” to tho launching” of the St. Mark and St. Agnes lifeboats. The fog lifted, for half an hour, and afterwards the ship struck. The watchers on the Scilly Isles saw tho Arden Craig drifting, with its foreyard aback. An hour later it rolled to port and foundered. A sensation was created ashore until the boats were seen alongside. Captain Dunning, of the Arden Craig, states that he thought he was 20 miles south off the Scilly Isles, when he was really only three miles away. When the ship came off the rocks there was nine feet of water in the hold. It was ubandoned, as it was impossible to save it.” The Arden Craig was a British cargo ship built in 1886. She was used to transport wheat from Melbourne, Australia to ports o the coast the United Kingdom. Her captain was Thomas Dunning. It was 277.7 feet long and 40 feet wide. Her draft when loaded was 24.9 feet. She weighed 2,153 tons. She was built by Russell & Co. of Port Glasgow on the Clyde river in Scotland. The Arden Craig was propelled by 149 square yards of sail on three masts. Her hull was iron/steel.

#20 A Dog Dressed In A Suit With A Kitten In It’s Lap, Ca 1950s

Image source: gotweird