All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s03e17 Odd Origins.eng

[mysterious music]

Would you believe that one of
America's greatest presidents

was a pioneer in
the wrestling ring?

[crowd cheers]

- Wrestling today is a
billion dollar spectacle,

and you've got all
these iconic moves

that have developed over time.

- But the chokeslam
traces its origins back

to a rather unexpected figure.

- Or that peregrine falcons
owe their existence

to one of the weirdest
creation stories

in the animal kingdom.

- The origin of these falcons is

a strange form of breeding,

the falcon copulation hat.

- This hat is not
worn by the falcon,

it's worn by a human being.

- How about the twisted tale
behind a popular phrase?

- If someone is accused

of speaking out
against the government,

a king or queen could order

that that person's
tongue is cut out.

- To make sure that
the message was

transmitted to the
rest of the population,

the tongue would be
fed to a royal cat.

[cat yowls]

- These are the origin
stories so strange,

they can only be
described as unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

Wars have been started

over some of the most
unimaginable things:

tea, pigs, even pastries.

But one war stands
above the rest

when it comes to its
bizarre beginnings.

- It's the early 18th century,

Spain and England are

wrestling over who will control

the vast resources of the
North American continent.

- Spain feels very
strongly that they are

100% entitled to control
of trade in the Atlantic

because they keep
telling everybody,

"We discovered America."

There is a tenuous
treaty that's developed

called the Treaty of Seville,

and as part of this treaty,

Spain is given the
privileges to board

any British ships
and inspect them.

- [Dan] Britain plays nice

until a hotheaded captain
named Robert Jenkins

sails in around 1731.

- Captain Jenkins is in charge

of an actual smuggling
ship called the Rebecca,

and the Spanish
board and investigate

the ship to seize contraband
and smuggled items.

- Instantly, there's
a lot of tension.

People start yelling.

[crowd shouts indistinctly]

There's a language barrier,

so they're yelling at
each other in languages

the other crews
cannot understand.

- In the middle of this
chaos and confusion,

one of the Spaniards
draws a sword

and wields it in such a way

[sword swooshes]

that he slices off Jenkins' ear.

Jenkins stumbles backwards.

He's gushing blood out
of the side of his head,

and the Spaniard then
castigates him by saying,

"Pick up your bloody ear
and take it back to England

as a lesson to you people
that this is what happens

when you challenge
Spanish authority."

- Jenkins does indeed
pick up his ear

and he decides, fine, we're
gonna sail back to England,

but he doesn't go
right to his superiors

and tell them what happened.

It's unclear whether
he's embarrassed or what,

but he does keep that ear.

He actually puts it in a
jar and has it preserved.

- [Dan] It might seem
like a strange keepsake,

but seven years later,

Jenkins' preserved
ear becomes the spark

Britain's been waiting for.

- The trade conflict
with Spain is

reaching a boiling point

and Jenkins is summoned
to the House of Commons

to testify about
Spanish transgressions.

- With Jenkins clutching
the jar in one hand

with his severed ear
floating around inside of it,

he relates the happenings
of that day on Rebecca

to the members of
the House of Commons,

telling the story in the
most animated way possible

and it has the desired effect
of filling them with outrage.

It is then widely reported

in the popular press
and reaches the people.

- The English decide, we
gotta teach Spain a lesson.

They are ready for
blood at this point.

So they set sail and they invade

the Port of La
Guaira in Venezuela

and thus begins the
War of Jenkins' Ear.

- This war stretches
on for nine years.

407 ships on both
sides are destroyed

and over 55,000 have
lost their lives.

England has gained nothing.

It's a little bit of a waste of
a severed ear if you ask me.

- [Dan] Of the hundreds of
thousands of people involved

in the conflict,

one person is
conspicuously absent.

- Interestingly, Jenkins
himself, a master seaman,

never fights in the
War of Jenkins' Ear.

He never fights in his own war.

After his performance
in parliament,

he essentially disappears
from the historical record.

Some speculate that Jenkins
could just have been a blowhard,

a storyteller.

Maybe he lost his
ear in a pub brawl.

But none of that
actually matters

because it catalyzed the
British public to fight

against the hated Spanish and
wage a nine-year long war.

- An ear isn't the only
trivial thing to start a war.

Next up, how one
tiny tale sparked

an international incident.

- In the first Balkan war,

Greece and Bulgaria are allies.

They fight together
to defeat the Ottomans

and take over huge
chunks of land

in Thrace and Macedonia.

But there's a problem.

Once they have
become the victors,

then the question comes
of, okay, who gets what?

- So after overthrowing
the Ottoman Empire,

Greece and Bulgaria
get into their own war

against each other,

the Second Balkan War.

- This fighting between
Greece and Bulgaria goes on

for a long time,

right through the
First World War.

But when the war ends,

it's almost like the whole
world collectively takes

a little breather,

and for seven years there is

this very fragile sense
of peace in the region.

- [Dan] That is, until
one unlikely catalyst

crosses the line.

- On October 19th, 1925,

a Greek soldier
stationed at his post,

which is across the border
from Petrich in Bulgaria,

has this dog that's
become his buddy.

It was just a stray,

but they've clearly
kind of become family.

- The dog at one point, though,

unaware of political boundaries,

wanders away from
the guard shack

toward the Bulgarian border.

The Greek soldier comes out
and cries out after the dog

and continues calling him back

even after the dog has crossed
the border into Bulgaria,

and the Bulgarians on the other
side of the border interpret

this as an act of war,

and they open fire,

[gunfire bangs]

killing the Greek soldier.

- After hearing the shots,
other Greek soldiers run over

and they open fire
on the Bulgarians.

A Greek captain intercedes
and he tries to make peace,

but the Bulgarians

[gunshot bangs]
shoot him dead.

- In response to the incident,

the Greek prime minister,
Theodoros Pangalos, demands

that the Bulgarian government
pay a sum of $95,000

to the family of
the dead soldier.

In today's dollars, that
would amount to 1.7 million.

- [Dan] When Bulgaria refuses
to pay within 48 hours,

Greece launches a swift
and aggressive response.

[gunfire bangs]

- The Greeks pillage and
loot the town of Petrich,

and end up occupying
several villages

in the immediate vicinity of it,

thus beginning the
War of the Stray Dog.

- After days of bloodshed,

and 50, mostly Bulgarian deaths,

Bulgaria appeals to the
League of Nations for help.

The League of Nations orders
an immediate ceasefire

and orders the Greeks to leave.

When the Greek army doesn't,

the League of Nations
sends in their own troops

to forcibly remove them.

And on October 29th,

10 days after a soldier's
wayward pooch strayed

over the border,

the War of the Stray
Dog is finally over.

[crowd cheers]

- In the end, Greece
is found at fault

for invading Petrich

and the country
is ordered to pay

3 million Bulgarian levas,

which is about a
million dollars today.

- As for the dog,

let's hope he found
himself a new home,

somewhere outside of a war zone.

- Have you ever been on
a treadmill at the gym

and thought, "This is torture?"

Well, that's because this
machine you love to hate

has some punishing origins.

- In the 1800s in Britain,

the death penalty
isn't just reserved

for the highest of crimes
like murder or treason.

It's used for pretty
much anything.

If you do something wrong,

there's a solid chance
that you are going to be

executed by the state.

[crowd shouting]

By the early 1820s,

the British public
start to criticize this.

They say, you know, maybe
we shouldn't just kill

anyone for any minor infraction.

And so by 1823,

the Judgment of
Death Act comes out,

which allows judges the freedom

to not have someone executed.

- Although there are
far fewer executions,

you now have far more prisoners.

British jails are overcrowded

and the prison population is

a large cohort of bored men
with very little to do all day.

- [Dan] Meanwhile, around
the same time in 1818,

a civil engineer named
William Cubitt invents

a device to help farmers grind
grain called the tread wheel.

- Farm laborers line up in
a row and walk in unison,

thus turning the cylinder,

which is attached to a
shaft, then grinds meal.

There's one problem
with the tread wheel,

which is that it's
very labor intensive.

You need a lot of men to operate
over a very long period of time.

It's not very cost effective.

- [Dan] But William Cubitt has

a clever solution for
the labor shortage,

and it comes with a
captive workforce.

- Cubitt goes to

the Society for the Improvement
of Prison Discipline

and pitches this as
a device to improve

the lives of all the inmates

in these overcrowded prisons

because they can learn
the habits of industry,

and he calls it the
penal tread wheel.

- [Dan] Prison officials
fall in love with the idea,

and start putting
them in penitentiaries

all around London.

- By 1824, you've got

54 penal treadmills in
prisons all across Britain,

three in Wales.

Some of them are
used to grind grain,

but others just for
the pure punishment.

This is the very
definition of hard labor.

You'll have about 20 prisoners

and they will walk anywhere
from six to 10 hours,

walking the equivalent of
halfway up Mount Everest.

We're talking about a
little over 16,000 feet.

- It causes
exhaustion, rheumatism.

There are also grave accidents,

sometimes badly constructed
tread wheels collapse,

causing serious injury,

even death.

- In addition to the physical
torture of this device,

it's also
psychologically damaging.

Inmates are not
allowed to say a word

to anyone next to them.

All they can do for
those 10 hours is

stare at a wall and walk.

- [Dan] Over time, however,
the treadmill runs its course.

- Finally, the Prisons
Act of 1898 puts a stop

to the penal treadmill,

saying it's too
cruel, it's inhumane.

No one's getting better

because they're forced
to walk miles on end.

And a few years later,

all penal treadmills are
gone from the entire country.

- [Dan] But the
torture device makes

a surprising comeback thanks
to a clever reimagining.

- A man by the name of
William Edward Staub figures

that the treadmill
might actually be

something that could be
pretty good exercise.

And so in 1960, he
develops and introduces

the first ever
commercial treadmill.

Now, we can't say for certain

that William Staub looked
at the penal treadmill

and used that as
his inspiration,

but a lot of the mechanics are

pretty similar to
that penal treadmill.

- If the treadmill was
built to keep you moving,

this next move is
designed to stop you cold.

[crowd cheers]

- Wrestling today is a
billion-dollar spectacle.

You've got stadiums that
are packed to the rafters

with tens of thousands
of spectators

all watching to see
what crazy moves

these performers are gonna
be doing in the ring.

And one that has become

probably the most
iconic is the chokeslam.

[body thuds]

- Some people contend
that it traces its origins

back to a rather
unexpected figure,

the great emancipator
himself, Abraham Lincoln.

- [Dan] Long before
he was president,

Lincoln was just a
kid trying to survive

and learning to fight back.

- Abe Lincoln is born in a
one-room cabin in Kentucky.

Abe's mother dies when he's
young ,of milk sickness.

His father is a brutal
man, frequently beats him.

He grows into a
gangly, lanky young man

with a high, squeaky voice,

and it seems everywhere he goes,

he is an easy
target for bullies.

- But he's fighting
in the streets

and this slowly
but surely develops

an ability we wouldn't
suspect of our late president.

- [Dan] By his early 20s,
the once-scrawny boy

has grown into a
6'4" powerhouse.

- Abe leaves home, relocates
to New Salem, Illinois,

and becomes friendly with a
local man named William Berry.

Berry is a town drunk,

but he also wants to open a bar.

They form a partnership
and they open

Berry and Lincoln's.

The bar is a rough
establishment.

Abe has to both
tend bar and serve

as bouncer, getting
rid of rowdy drunks.

- One night at the bar,

there's a promoter and
he sees Lincoln wrestling

some of these rough and
tumble kind of guys,

and he tells him,
"You know what?

I really think that
you would make a splash

on the wrestling scene."

- [Dan] And just like that,

Abraham Lincoln, the
professional wrestler, is born.

- Abe's bouncing
around Illinois,

making a name for himself.

- Over the course of a decade,

Abe Lincoln wrestles
in 300 matches

and only loses a single bout.

- [Dan] Key to his
near-perfect record,

a signature finishing
move first seen in 1831.

- In New Salem, you
have a local gang called

the Clary's Grove Boys,

and they're hearing about
Abe Lincoln talking smack

and saying that, you know,
he's the toughest fighter

in the frontier and stuff.

And so the gang's leader,

a guy by the name
of Jack Armstrong,

who is a wrestler
in his own right,

decides, "I'm gonna challenge
this tall drink of water."

- A large crowd forms
around the ring,

and at first, Abe and Jack,
they're just circling around,

both hesitant to
make the first move,

but pretty soon, it's on.

And Abe starts dominating.

[wrestlers grunt]

- But it's not enough for
Abe to just win the match.

He wants to send a message.

Lincoln takes his
hand and he wraps it

around the throat of Jack
Armstrong, strangling him,

and then Lincoln
proceeds to lift

Armstrong off of the
ground and then slam.

- [Dan] A crowd-pleasing move

that cements
Lincoln's reputation

not just as a fighter,

but as a leader in the making.

- Many historians believe

that Abe's presence in
the ring helped launch

his political career.

When Lincoln is running for
Illinois Senate in 1858,

national news begins reporting
on his wrestling career

and it reflects well on him.

He is a fighter.

He is scrappy.

He has what it takes
as a politician.

- In 1992, the rail
splitter himself earns

a postmortem career
high by being inducted

into the National
Wrestling Hall of Fame.

- Some origin stories
begin with a problem,

others with a wild idea.

This one blends both,

and it all hinges on one
unforgettable act of teamwork.

- For decades, the falcon has
been a huge status symbol,

and in fact, it becomes the
national bird for Saudi Arabia,

Qatar, and the United
Arab Emirates.

- If you're a wealthy prince,

or a sheik, or from
a prominent family,

you're likely gonna
own one or two falcons.

They even have beauty
contests for these falcons.

I mean, they're looking
for features like who has

the thickest ankles,
the best feathers,

the most golden hue.

- The US white gyrfalcon are

arguably considered the most
coveted falcons on Earth.

A purebred can go for an
insane amount of money.

- In 2001, an auction showcases

a pure white gyrfalcon

that goes for over
a million dollars.

In fact, as unbelievable
as it sounds,

in 2017, a falconer buys out

an entire plane to
transport his 80 falcons,

giving each one their own seat.

- [Dan] But getting your hands
on one of these exclusive birds

isn't as simple
as it used to be.

- The origin of these
immaculate falcons

are all thanks to a
strange form of breeding,

the falcon copulation hat.

- This hat is not
worn by the falcon.

It's worn by a human being.

The falconer puts on the
falcon copulation hat,

walks around the
falcon's chambers

rocking his or her head,

imitating the call
of the female falcon.

[falcon calls]

And somehow, that excites

the male falcon.

- When the falcon appears ready,

the breeder turns
his back to the male

and the male flies down
onto the copulation hat

and attempts to mate with it.

The dimples in the hat
catch the valuable semen,

and the breeder then uses a
syringe to extract every drop.

One tube of semen is
enough to fertilize

several falcon eggs.

- [Dan] A month later, a bird
fit for a prince is born.

It does make you wonder though,

why the funny hat?

- In the 1940s,

biologists and
conservationists notice

steep declines in peregrine
falcon populations.

The culprit is the
popular insecticide, DDT.

It accumulates in food chains

so that predators at the top,

like peregrine falcons,

get a lot of it in their diet.

The DDT weakens the structure
of the shells of their eggs,

so that simply the weight of
the female sitting on her eggs

is enough to crush them
and kill the babies

long before they have
a chance to hatch.

- [Dan] By the 1970s,
the peregrine falcon is

on the verge of extinction

when a falconer named
Lester Boyd invents

the copulation hat.

- The only way to
save these falcons is

to breed them in captivity.

But a peregrine falcon isn't
naturally going to want

to mate with a hat.

So Boyd uses a technique
called sexual imprinting,

where from a very young age,

the falcons are
trained to associate

the hat with mating.

- And it works.

The population of peregrines
begins to grow again

as birds are bred in captivity

and released back
out into the wild.

The copulation hat
opens up the possibility

for controlled breeding,

not only of peregrines,

but of other falcon species,

especially in the Middle East.

[falcon calls]

- Sometimes preserving
a species means

putting on a funny hat.

Other times, it means
rewriting the rules of biology.

- For decades,
scientists believed

there was no way that you
could clone anything as complex

as a mammal.

But in 1986 in Scotland,

scientist Ian Wilmut
and his crew decide

they're going to
try it with a sheep.

- Ian and his team attempt
this technique known

as somatic cell
nuclear transfer.

The idea is, you take the
nucleus from an adult cell

and transfer it
into an egg cell.

Inside the nucleus is the DNA

and the DNA has the code
that builds the entire sheep.

So if you take the code
and put it in a new egg,

you're making a copy
of that original sheep.

[sheep baas]

- For 10 years, they performed

the same technique
over and over again,

but the scientists fail more
often than they succeed.

After 277 tries,

only 29 of the embryos
survived more than six days.

- [Dan] Finally, on the
morning of July 5th, 1996,

Ian Wilmut wakes up to the
news he has been waiting for.

- A baby lamb that is a
clone of an adult lamb

has successfully been born,

and they give it the name 6LL3.

- Well, that doesn't
stay for very long.

The stockman who's helping them,

he decides, you know, you
should name this Dolly,

after Dolly Parton.

- [Dan] Dolly opens
up the floodgates.

Soon, scientists are cloning
everything from pigs to horses,

but one animal is more
stubborn than the rest.

- Dogs constantly prove
impossible to clone,

partly because the
eggs are released

at a much less mature
stage than other mammals.

- Finally, in 2005,

a Korean scientist named Woo
Suk Hwang cracks the code.

Someone on the team figures out

that there's another
way to harvest the eggs.

If they harvest them
from the fallopian tubes,

then they're gonna
be much more mature,

and now they're viable.

- [Dan] After more than 100
attempts, one finally survives.

- They name him Snuppy,

which is a combination
of the letters SNU,

for Seoul National University,

and the word puppy.

- It's pretty amazing

and Snuppy goes on to live
a really full dog life,

dying just 13 days
after his 10th birthday.

And his legacy lives on.

Snuppy's DNA is used to create

10 more clones in 2008,

and four more in 2017.

- Amid the chaos of World War I,

a trend quietly took hold in
bedrooms all across Britain

and it changed how we
dressed for sleep forever.

- In the 21st century, we
are very accustomed to seeing

people in their pajamas.

They have become
a leisure garment.

People will wear pajamas when
they're out walking their dog,

when they go to get
their hair done,

anytime they wanna
be comfortable.

But in the early 1900s,

it was not common to
see people in pajamas

because in the Western world,

nobody was wearing them.

- Both men and women are
wearing either night shirts

or nightgowns down to
their ankles to go to bed.

It is unheard of for a
woman to go to bed in pants.

- [Dan] But when bombs
start falling from the sky,

the way people prepare for
bed will never be the same.

- On January 19th, 1914,

two German Zeppelins
end up dropping bombs

on Great Yarmouth
and King's Lynn

on the Eastern British coast.

Deadly Zeppelin attacks
become a regular thing

in daily British life.

When these attacks occur,

typically they're heralded
by air raid sirens.

[siren wails]

These attacks often occur
in the early morning

or late at night,

and people are woken
from their beds

and have to flee to
air raid shelters.

- People don't have the
time to change clothes.

It's a panic situation and
you have to get to shelter.

So this means there
are all of these women

running around the streets of
London in their nightgowns,

which pose a couple
of different problems.

For one, these nightgowns
are ankle length.

Long gowns do not lend
themselves to ease of movement.

And for another thing,

it is not really something
that most people would want

to be seen in publicly.

- This is an age of decorum.

Women can't be seen in
this state of undress

running through the
streets of London,

able to be ogled by other
women's husbands and strangers.

- And that's when
women's magazines start

putting forth this
idea of a solution.

And that solution is
practical nightwear.

- Pajamas start to
be sold in England

as a sort of loose fitting
jacket and pant combination.

- The pajama suits a
whole litany of needs

in this wartime situation.

You can run in them,

something that you cannot do
in an ankle-length nightgown.

They have pockets
sewn into them,

so you could quickly
grab valuables

and dash out into the street.

And most importantly,
for these survivors,

you maintain a sense of dignity

as you are fleeing
for your lives.

- There is always a lot of talk

about all of the
technological advances

that often come with wartime.

So if you're listing out the
advancements that we have

thanks to World War I,

you can put in there trench
warfare, mustard gas,

and pajamas.

- A decade and a half later,

the British are going
to need something better

than a comfy pair of PJs
to get through an air raid.

[tense music]

- In 1935, there's great anxiety

among the British people,

because Hitler
has come to power.

He's re-arming
Germany in violation

of the Versailles Treaty
from World War I,

and the British know
that one key element

of Hitler's rearmament is

the building of a massive air
force called the Luftwaffe.

- Adding to the anxieties are

these intelligence
reports that suggest

that Germany is on the cusp
of developing a death ray,

an invisible beam
that can vaporize

people, buildings, maybe
even entire cities.

- It's a weapon that sounds
like science fiction,

but this is an era where even
more outlandish weapons were

actually being
tested and fielded.

So back then, it
seemed quite feasible.

- The British are stuck.

What do you do, how do
you fight a death ray?

Well, the best defense
is a good offense:

build your own death ray.

- [Dan] The British
gather some of

the most brilliant scientific
minds on the planet

and get to work.

- What would it take to create
a radiation or particle beam

that could be used to shoot
down attacking aircraft?

The idea is that
this weapon could

cook the pilot, killing him,

or could be used to detonate
a bomb onboard the aircraft.

This team spends months
running the numbers,

doing simulations,
and guess what?

They come up with nothing.

- Their experts can't
come up with a solution.

So they turn to
the general public

and they have a contest,

who can figure
out the death ray?

It's sort of like crowdsourcing
your ultimate weapon.

- [Dan] Unfortunately, British
civilians also come up short.

- In a last-ditch effort,

the British Air Ministry turns

to a celebrated and
renowned radio engineer

who works with the
BBC Radio Service,

Robert Watson-Watt.

They ask him how high of
a frequency would it take

to literally melt an
airplane out of the sky?

The laws of physics simply
say, "Not gonna happen,"

and that's because the
radio waves that you send

towards the aircraft
just bounce off.

But it's in these calculations

that Watson-Watt has a real,
genuine eureka moment.

- These radio waves that
bounce off of targets

can be picked up by antenna.

By measuring the time it takes

for the signal to return,

Watson-Watt can calculate
the relative position

of the aircraft.

So this means they
might be able to detect

invading aircraft long before
they can see or hear them.

- [Dan] Cautious but intrigued,

the Air Ministry
requests a demonstration.

- On February 26th, 1935,
the Royal Air Force takes

an old bomber and they fly it

between two BBC radio
masts that are positioned

six miles apart.

Positioned between
these two towers sits

Robert Watson-Watt,
his assistant,

and an Air Ministry official.

They sit in front of
a cathode ray tube

with a green indicator light.

Over and over again as the
bomber passes overhead,

the green light turns on.

While this was no death ray,

these three men alone are

essentially seeing
the dawn of radar.

- This is crazy.

There can be a plane so
far away that no naked eye,

no pair of binoculars
could ever pick it up,

and yet by sending
out radio signals

and waiting for
them to come back,

you can pick it out of the sky.

It's like a comic
book superpower.

- [Dan] Four years later,
radar proves its worth,

empowering an outmatched
British Air Force to outwit

and outlast the
mightier Luftwaffe

in the Battle of Britain.

- Radar technology today is
ubiquitous on the planet.

It's used in our daily lives.

We even get speeding
tickets based off of it.

It was all due to
someone coming up

with a crazy idea to
build a death ray.

- Ironic, that what
started as a weapon

to shoot down aircraft

ends up being the greatest
advancement in airline safety.

- Choosing a best man
is a major decision.

They have important duties
like holding the rings,

making a speech that might
get the groom in trouble,

and planning a raging
bachelor party.

But the role has
strayed very far

from its original purpose.

- In 16th century
Gothic Germany,

if you're a young
man, say in your 20s,

it's time to start thinking
about taking a wife.

However, you may be in a village

where there are no available
single women for you to marry.

In these situations, the
groom-to-be will hire

a group of dudes known
as bride knights,

and go raid another village,

riding horses, carrying swords,

and from that village,
kidnap a wife.

That doesn't fly today.

We're talking 16th
century Gothic Germany.

Once the groom and his
posse of bride knights have

obtained a bride-to-be,

they take her to the
church and attempt

the marriage ceremony,

but they are subject
to counter attack.

- Just remember, this
woman does not wanna be

at this wedding.

It is a kidnapping.

So in a lot of cases,

the bride's family then
formed their own posse

to come and try and
get the bride back.

- During the ceremony,
the couple is

at their most vulnerable.

Thus, the bride knights
will stand assembled,

facing the congregation.

So if the bride's angry
brothers and cousins

burst through the door,

the bride knights
are at the ready

and the best man is the
last line of defense.

[swords clang]

In those days, the best
in best man doesn't mean

best friend.

It means he's the best
swordsman of the bride knights.

- Nowadays, the best man is

still in the same location
next to the groom,

but his job is
completely different.

He's no longer the best fighter,

and he no longer
aids in a kidnapping.

It's become a lot
more wholesome.

- 1,500 years earlier in Greece,

something else is being stolen,

only it doesn't have an expert
swordsman to protect it.

- Today, vending machines are
a $15 billion a year industry.

More than 100 million
people a day buy

anything from a bag of
chips to a cooked pizza,

even underwear.

- [Dan] But the first vending
machine on the planet,

let's just say you
better not kick it

for stealing your coins

because it might send
you straight to hell.

- In early Christianity,

purifying with holy water
against evil spirits was

called khernips,

and it's something very
important to worship.

- Outside of many
temples at the time,

it's customary to have an
urn or vessel of holy water,

which people either imbibe,

anoint themselves, or
used to wash their hands

before entering.

- However, early
Greek Christians start

thinking that the holy water is

a cure-all for all
of life's ailments.

As a result, churchgoers are
taking the holy water at will

and the church elders are
obviously a little miffed.

- [Dan] That's because
there's not an endless supply

at the time.

- In the Greek
church, holy water is

produced once a
year on January 6th

in the Feast of Epiphany.

This container of holy
water is expected to last

the entire year.

It is not meant
to be squandered.

- The potential for a
holy water drought leads

church authorities to begin
searching for solutions,

and they turn to a
very inventive figure,

known as Hero of Alexandria.

- Hero is this genius
mathematician,

engineer, inventor.

He's been credited with
inventing the syringe,

the first steam engine.

So if you need a machine,

he's the guy to talk to.

- Hero invents an
ingenious device,

essentially a fountain
inside of a box

that can only be activated
by a compulsory donation.

- Now that people have to pay,

they become much
more careful stewards

of this limited resource.

- You put a coin in the
urn, it hits a lever.

The weight of the coin
releases a plunger.

The perfectly measured dose of
holy water comes out a spout.

The plunger closes again,

no more holy water,

and the church gets
its much-needed tithes.

It's genius in its
simplicity today,

but for the time, it's
an engineering marvel.

- It's hard to believe
the vending machine was

created to distribute
a holy sacrament,

an incredible point to ponder

the next time you
buy a bag of chips.

- Ever wonder where

some of our most common
expressions come from?

Take the phrase, "cat
got your tongue."

Believe it or not,
the strange history

behind this saying might
leave you lost for words.

- Cats were widely
venerated in ancient Egypt.

Gods including
Sekhmet and Bastet

were in the image of cats.

The creatures were
considered holy

and cats served very
practical uses,

including keeping rats and
mice out of grain supplies.

- For the wealthy
and for Pharaohs,

it's very common to
keep cats on hand

because they're believed to be

the bringers of good
fortune and protectors.

They are so beloved
in this culture

that it is not uncommon for
people to adorn them with jewels

and dress them up as
extravagantly and finely

as any member of
the royal family.

- [Dan] Cats were not
only symbols of luxury,

they also played a crucial role

in the criminal justice system.

- In ancient Egypt, if someone
is accused of blasphemy,

of lying, of speaking out
against the government

or against established religion,

they can pay a
pretty steep price.

If those accusations are
deemed valid by the ruler,

a king or queen could order

that person's tongue is cut out.

- In some cases, to make sure

that the message was transmitted

to the rest of the population,

the tongue would be
fed to a royal cat.

[cat yowls]

Whether or not this grisly
practice is the actual

origin of the expression,
"cat got your tongue,"

it sent a pointed
and decided message

to rowdy members of the public.

- Not every cat has it so lucky.

If you were a South American
feline in the 1300s,

certain Aztec traditions
might have you on edge.

- In the Aztec religion,

animals were often
sacrificed to a higher power.

Some of the most highly prized

and valued animals
for sacrifice were

animals that were
noble and bold,

like the jaguar
or the crocodile.

But obviously, a jaguar or
a crocodile could kill you

so they're not the
easiest animals to obtain.

But there's a loophole.

- In lieu of sacrificing
actual animals,

they create the animal in
effigy, using balloons.

- [Dan] However,
they're quite different

from the ones we see
clowns making at fairs

or birthday parties today.

- Aztecs create these balloon
animal effigies using

cat bowels, AKA the
intestines of cats.

They discovered that pulling
the entrails from a dead cat,

turning them inside out,

and then cleaning them up

actually turns the intestines
into a latex-like material.

- After the cat intestines
are fully prepared,

they're cut into shape

and then sewn together
using vegetable fiber thread

to make the overall
shape of the animal

that they wish to sacrifice.

- [Dan] Cats were ideal
but not always available.

So, priests had to get creative.

- Sometimes they
would also use pigs.

But when you run out
of cats and pigs,

the next best option
are human intestines.

- So next time you're
blowing up balloons

and you're complaining
about the nasty latex taste,

imagine if you were actually
blowing up mammal bowels,

pig, cat, human, whatever.

It's nastier.

You got the good balloons.

- The truth behind
many beginnings

is stranger than fiction.

The best man who
started as a kidnapper,

a funny hat integral to
breeding prized falcons,

and a president who
first found fame

chokeslamming in
the wrestling ring.

These are the origins so odd,

they are truly unbelievable.

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