Freakish Twists Of Fate That Changed History Forever

In 1949, the Chinese Civil War had finally come to an end. Mao Zedong's soldiers had defeated General Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops, and now the Communists were running China. With nowhere else to go, the Nationalists fled to Taiwan, an island that China acquired in 1945. Of course, the Communists wouldn't let them go that easily, and they immediately began planning an invasion. However, the assault would be a bit tricky, as the Chinese would first have to sail across the Taiwan Strait. But there weren't a lot of ports on the island, so the Communists couldn't dock their ships. Forced to get creative, the Chinese planned to load their troops into wooden junks, sail across the strait, and once they got close enough, all the soldiers would jump overboard and swim to the island.

But before they could launch their aquatic assault, the Communists would need a few swimming lessons. So thousands of troops began practicing their breaststroke in streams and irrigation canals in southwest China. Unfortunately for them, those rivers and ditches were crawling with a nasty parasite called Schistosoma japonicum: the "blood fluke." These worms infect people by passing through the skin and making themselves at home in human blood vessels. The flukes then lay lots of eggs, which are then passed through human waste. Naturally, if your veins and organs are crawling with worms, you're going to get sick. Soon, between 30,000-50,000 Communist troops were battling severe cramps, fever, diarrhea, and death.

Obviously, the Chinese had to cancel their invasion. But before they could reschedule their attack, the Korean War broke out, and American warships parked themselves in the Taiwan Strait, ruining the Communists' plans. Thanks to those parasites, Taiwan is still around today.

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