Parliament had to soak their curtains in chloride of lime in 1858 just to survive a crisis known as the Great Stink, which happened when human waste in the river boiled under the summer sun.

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Parliament had to soak their curtains in chloride of lime in 1858 just to survive a crisis known as the Great Stink, which happened when human waste in the river boiled under the summer sun. For centuries, Londoners dumped untreated sewage directly into the Thames, assuming the water would magically whisk their problems away. Instead, a massive heatwave literally cooked centuries of feces, creating an odor so violently offensive that lawmakers could not physically remain inside the government buildings. Only after being personally suffocated by the smell of their constituents' collective bowel movements did the politicians finally approve funding for a modern sewer system, proving that nothing motivates government action quite like the immediate threat of inhaling raw sewage