The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories (22 page)

When he learned that Adolf Hitler planned to invade England, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain went to Munich, Germany, in September 1938 to stop him. He returned to England with a treaty declaring there would be “peace for our time.” Widely accused of appeasing the Nazis, he was voted out of office. A year later, when Hitler invaded Poland, World War II began.

In May and June of 1940, the British Expeditionary Force was nearly crushed by the Nazi army. What saved them was what Winston Churchill called a “miracle of deliverance.” More than three hundred thousand men were rescued from the coastal town of Dunkirk, France, and brought back across the English Channel by English civilians in every kind of boat—yachts, fishing boats, pleasure boats, even rowboats.

On July 31, 1940, it is said that English witches gathered in the New Forest, in Hampshire, and raised a monumental cone of power to stop Hitler's forces. It is also said that the well-known witch Gerald Gardner and his coven joined this grand coven. Five of Gardner's coveners died a few days later, and Gardner reported that he had been weakened by the energy.

THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

It all began in Salem, Massachusetts, in January of 1692, when two girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, began to show unusual symptoms: screaming, convulsions, and trancelike behavior. The doctor declared that their fits could only mean that the girls were under the influence of witches.

Soon many more girls throughout Salem were complaining of similar symptoms. They jumped into holes, crept under chairs, and contorted their bodies in all kinds of odd ways. Others, especially in the company of one particular minister, would make odd sounds, and some even pulled burning logs from fireplaces and threw them around the room.

People prayed. People fasted. The fits continued anyway. Fingers were pointed to the weakest and strangest of the village, such as Tituba, a slave from Barbados; Sarah Good, a beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an old bedridden woman.

But as panic grew and the fits continued, more people were accused of being witches, including the Goodwife Proctor, whose husband was a successful farmer and tavern keeper. Also accused was Martha Cory, the wife of a farmer and landowner; the governor's wife; and even Dorcas Good, a four-year-old girl!

A special court was established in Salem to hear the cases against the accused, and the trials began in June. Bridget Bishop was the first to be tried and hanged.

In the end, hundreds were accused, and 150 were imprisoned and chained to the prison walls. In all, twenty people were executed, and more perished in prison.

KILLING WITCHES

We all know that witches were burned at the stake, but it turns out that in Salem, Massachusetts, the famous witchcraft capital of New England, other methods were preferred. Twenty-five witches died in Salem: nineteen died by hanging, four died waiting in prison, and one was crushed to death using large stones.

LADY GODIVA'S RIDE

In 1040, Leonfric, earl of Mercia and lord of Coventry, laid such onerous taxes on the people that they were starving. When Lady Godiva, his wife, begged him to be merciful, he challenged her. If she would ride naked through the town, he would rescind the taxes. Godiva ordered that all windows be covered at noon and that all townspeople stay indoors. She mounted her white stallion and rode through the town, her long hair her only garment. Only one man dared to look at her; his name has come down to us as Peeping Tom. He was struck blind. It is said that his eyes shriveled into darkness at the moment he beheld Godiva's naked figure.

Godiva was not just any medieval English noblewoman. The tale of Lady Godiva is the story of a (Celtic?) goddess, possibly Epona, who road naked on a white horse while she bestowed blessings upon her people—on their houses and work, their fields and crops.

A TRULY TERRIBLE TV MOMENT

The host of a talk show in Florida, Christine Chub-bock, signed off her show on July 15, 1974, by remarking that her viewers were about to see a TV first. She then presented a gun and killed herself on camera.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States, and Dick Cheney, the forty-sixth vice president, share the same birthday: January 30.

TAKING TV TOO SERIOUSLY