Walk through History Gets Weird.

In 1671, an Irish adventurer named Thomas Blood pulled off one of the boldest almost-robberies in British history: he tried to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

Blood disguised himself as a clergyman, befriended the elderly keeper of the Jewel House, and eventually returned with accomplices. Once inside, they attacked the keeper, grabbed the royal treasures, and tried to make a getaway.

The plan was bizarrely practical. Blood reportedly flattened St Edward’s Crown so it could fit under his cloak, while his crew carried off other pieces of the regalia. They did not get far. The guards caught them before they escaped the Tower.

Here’s where it gets truly weird: instead of being executed, Blood was brought before King Charles II, who pardoned him. Even stranger, Blood later received royal favor, possibly including land or a pension.

Somehow, the man who nearly stole the symbols of monarchy walked away with the king’s mercy.

In 1814, London was hit by one of history’s strangest industrial disasters: a flood of beer.

At the Horse Shoe Brewery near St. Giles, a huge wooden vat filled with porter suddenly burst. The rupture triggered a chain reaction, breaking more vats and unleashing a wave of beer into the surrounding neighborhood.

This was not a goofy pub mishap. The area nearby was crowded and poor, with families living in cramped basement rooms and small houses. The flood reportedly knocked down walls and rushed into homes. Eight people are generally recorded as having died in the disaster.

A court later treated the event as an accident rather than a crime, and the brewery continued operating for decades afterward.

It sounds like something invented for a tavern joke, but the London Beer Flood was real—and for the people of St. Giles, it was terrifying.

History’s weirdest disasters don’t always arrive in fire or smoke. Sometimes, they come on tap.