Some very strange medical anomalies have happened. Few, however, have happened to animals. But, today’s case involves one of the most famous events of this happening, so much so that there’s an entire day dedicated to it!

Mike (1945-1947) was a Wyandotte chicken who lived on a farm in Fruita, Colorado. September 10, 1945 would be his last day of life, as he’d be beheaded and served for dinner. Lloyd Oslen, the owner of the farm, sent his wife out to choose a chicken. Mike was chosen, and when he was returned, Lloyd got an axe, swung it,

–CHOP–

and cut off Mike’s head.

But the insane part is that Mike was still alive! Mike could walk and preen about, and Lloyd was probably met with confusion as to how Mike survived. But he decided that money was better than musing, so he took Mike on a sideshow and achieved national fame. He wasn’t Mike the Chicken anymore– he was Mike the Headless Chicken!

He was featured in Life and Time magazine. The public could see him at the low, low price of 25 cents ($4 in 2024). Lloyd earned $4,500 each month ($63,400 in 2024), and Mike’s net worth was valued to be at 26.3 billion dollars (just kidding! It was $10,000, which is $140,800 in 2024).

Tragedy^{[citation needed]} struck the nation on March 17, 1947. That night, at a motel in Phoenix, Mike choked on his own mucus. The Olsons were not able to get the materials to save him, and so, he died there. The next month, a mass funeral was held for Mike, with over 2 million attendees. He currently lays in state at the Colorado State Capitol (Just kidding again! But the death sentences are true).

Kidding or not, Mike’s legacy was large. His hometown of Fruita holds an annual Mike the Headless Chicken Day, with events like egg tossing and a 5K run. There is a comedy punk rock band named the Radioactive Chicken Heads, and in 2008, they came out with a song about Mike. It is what he would’ve wanted, after all!

But I can’t end here without addressing the obvious:

How did Mike survive?

When Lloyd chopped off Mike’s head, even though he cut off the brain, the brain stem remained intact, which controlled stuff like breathing and heart beating, much like humans’ brain stems. He didn’t bleed out because of a very well-timed blood clot. I lied in the title; Mike did have to be fed through a syringe, and his owner could not get the syringe to give him some water, causing his death.

That was the story of Mike the Headless chicken. A bio about a chicken whose strange bodily malfunction propelled him to national fame, made March 17 National Mike the Headless Chicken Memorial Day, and had his own monument constructed on the National Mall, right next to Lincoln’s (kidding yet again! You need to stop falling for that!)