Grant Hayes Uncommon History

Vernon Leadbeater's patented ABDOMINA Sole Stitcher (ASS). Leadbeater's ingenuity turned gastro-intestinal infection to good use, harnessing gut spasms to power a loom that could stitch as many as 40 boot soles per hour. The key component of the device was an antimony disc charged with heptic orthophranes. The military applications of the ABDOMINA were clearly evident, but a lucrative contract with the US Army was compromised when the Bolivian plantation whence Leadbeater sourced his orthophranes was destroyed in the Guano War (1879-83). Leadbeater was unable to obtain orthophranes of the required purity from elsewhere, and his army contract foundered amid a storm of recrimination. Leadbeater died a year later, a broken man in Hoboken NJ. 

(by the one and only Grant Hayes)

Uncommon History. Columbus' Cow.

The history of the Netherlands is the history of a maritime people thriving on a watery lowland river delta at the edge of northwestern Europe. The Netherlands is also the home of the Dutch Friesian cow, herds of which Dutch dairy farmers tended  on the verdant, tulip poxed plains. Both farmers and sailors lived completely oblivious to the significance of the peculiar, follicular, accoutrements of their bovine companions. For centuries they lived in bucolic ignorance with the key to the entire world right under their noses.
All this was to change in 1473 when an adventurous young man named Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro and Spinola Families of Genoa.
In May 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry a valuable cargo to northern Europe. He docked in Bristol, England; Galway, Ireland and  Rotterdam in 1477, where he noticed these cows being loaded onto a barge on his evening stroll. The penny dropped and the rest, they say, is history.

Turning Points In History

Few people alive today are aware of the heroic efforts of a farmer from Middlesex named Bert Hutchinson which proved to be the turning point of the Second World War. One day, Bert was wondering what he could do to help with the war effort when he decided to steal Hitler's pig. 

When news got out Mussolini thought it hilarious which made Hitler really angry. He was so mad he invaded Russia  and lost the war.