History Oddities 1
Achelous. The
Battle of Achelous took place in August 917 on the Achelous River near the
Bulgarian Black Sea coast. It was a
battle between Bulgarian and Byzantine forces.
The battle was perhaps the biggest and bloodiest battles of the European
Middle Ages. It was an unmitigated
military disaster for the Byzantines.
The Byzantines had an army of 62,000 men. The Bulgarians had an army of 15,000
men. The Bulgarian leader, Simeon, took
part in the battle. He had his white
horse killed at the height of the battle.
The Bulgarian cavalry easily cut down the Byzantine infantry. The remainder of the Byzantine army fled all
the way back to Constantinople, being chased by the Bulgarians. The battle marked the end of Byzantium as a
great power. A Byzantine historian wrote
that 75 years after the battle, the field of Achelous was still covered with
thousands of skeletons. [source:
Kramer, “Battle of Achelous,” thecompletepilgrim.com,
Dec 7, 2015]
Acropolis. The
Acropolis of Athens is one of the most famous ancient archaeological sites in
the world. The Acropolis of Athens, on a
limestone hill 500 feet above Athens, achieved its form in the 5th
century BC. Around 490 BC the Athenians
started building a marble temple known as the Old Parthenon, dedicated to the
city’s patron goddess, Athena. It had
replaced what was called the Bluebeard Temple, which was demolished by the
Persians. In 480 BC the Persians invaded
and destroyed the Old Parthenon.
Construction began in 447 BC of a new Parthenon, an enormous Doric-style
temple. It was completed in 438 BC. In the 6th century AD, many
temples at the Acropolis became Christian churches. The Parthenon was dedicated to the Virgin
Mary. The marble that composes the
Parthenon and other structures came from a quarry 10 miles to the northwest of
Athens. [source:
“Acropolis,” history.com, Jan 31,
2018]
Alamo. In the
1800s, Spanish military troops were stationed at their new fort “El Alamo”
after the Spanish word for cottonwood.
The fort stood in a grove of cottonwood trees. In December 1835, a group of Texan volunteer
soldiers overwhelmed the Mexican garrison and had occupied the Alamo, a former Franciscan
mission in the present-day city of San Antonio.
By February 1836, Colonel James
Bowie and Lieutenant Colonel William Tavis had taken command of Texan forces in
San Antonio. Sam Houston, the
commander-in-chief of the Texan forces argued that San Antonio should be
abandoned due to insufficient troop numbers.
Bowie and Travis, along with 200 defenders, including Davy Crockett,
decide to stay and defend the fort. On
Feb 23, 1836, 6,000 men commanded by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, began a siege
of the fort. The Texans held out for 13
days. On March 6, 1836, the Mexican
forces broke through a breach in the outer wall and overpowered the
Texans. The Mexican forces lost 1,600
men during the battle. In April 1936,
Santa Anna’s Mexican force of 1,500 men were defeated by Sam Houston and 800
Texans at San Jacinto. Santa Anna was
taken prisoner. In May 1836, Mexican troops
in San Antonio were ordered to withdraw, and to demolish the Alamo’s
fortifications. Texas was annexed in
1845. [source: “Battle of the Alamo,” history.com, Jan 12, 2021]
Alexander
the Great. Alexander II of Macedon (356 BC – 323 BC),
also known as Alexander the Great, created one of the largest empires of the
ancient world, stretching from Greece to northwester India. He was tutored by Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
from age 13 to age 16. In 15 years of
conquest, Alexander never lost a battle in over 20 battles he fought. He named over 70 cities after himself. In India, he founded and named the city of
Bucephala. Bucephala was the name of his
favorite horse, which was mortally wounded in battle. Alexander died in the palace of
Nebuchadnezzar II, in Babylon, at the age of 32. When Alexander died (perhaps poisoned), his
body was preserved in a vat of honey. [source: Jarus,
“Alexander the Great,” Live Science,
Aug 31, 2017]
Apollo
1. Apollo1 1, initially designated Apollo Saturn 204
(AS-204), was the first crewed mission of the U.S. Apollo program. It was planned to be launched on February 21,
1967 as the first low Earth orbital test of the Apollo command and service
module. On January 27, 1967, a fire
inside the capsule killed all three crew members – Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed
White, and Roger Chaffee. The fire
occurred on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy (now called Cape Canaveral). This was the first fatal accident in the
history of the U.S. space program. A
stray spark started the fire in the pure oxygen environment inside the Command
Module, and design flaws in the hatch door made it impossible to open in time
to save the astronauts. Firemen arrived
within 3 minutes of the hatch opening by spacecraft technicians. A medical board determined that the
astronauts died of carbon monoxide asphyxia.
The backup crew were Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham,
which eventually flew on Apollo 7 in October 1968. A week before the disaster, Gus Grissom
grabbed a lemon off a citrus tree in his backyard. When his wife asked what he was going to do
with it, Gus replied, “I’m going to hang it on that spacecraft,” which he did. After the accident, the pure oxygen
environment was replaced by a nitrogen-oxygen mix. Flammable items were removed. The Command Module door was redesigned so
that it would open in a few seconds when the crew needed to get out in a
hurry. [source:
Apollo 1: The Fatal Fire,” space.com,
Nov 16, 2017]
Armstrong. Neil
Alden Armstrong (1930-2012) was the first person to walk on the moon. Growing
up, he got his pilot’s license before he learned how to drive a car. He flew over 200 different types of aircraft
during his career. He stopped signing
autographs in 1993 after he found out that people were selling them on the
Internet and that most of his autographs on the Internet were forgeries. Buzz Aldrin sells his autograph for
$500. Armstrong served as vice-chair of
the Rogers Commission that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger
accident. He divorced his first wife
after 38 years of marriage. A few months
later he met his second wife at a golf tournament and was married in Ohio. In 2005, he became involved in a legal
dispute with his barber of 20 years when Armstrong found out that his barber
was selling his hair to collectors. The
barber collected $3,000 for Armstrong’s hair without his knowledge. The barber later donated the money he made
from Armstrong’s hair to charity. In
August 2012, Armstrong underwent bypass surgery in Cincinnati, but developed
complications and died 2 weeks later. He
was buried at sea on September 14, 2012.
. In 2014, Neil Armstrong’s
family received $6 million in a secret wrongful-death settlement. His second wife, Carol, did not receive any
of this money. [source: Gohd, “Neil
Armstrong’s Family Received $6 Million in a Secret Wrongful-Death Settlement:
Report,” space.com, July 24, 2019]
Aztec
Empire. The
Aztec Empire was founded during the Middle Ages. The Aztec Empire began as an alliance of
three city-states in the Valley of Mexico in 1428. The
empire lasted until 1521, when Hernan Cortes and his Spanish conquistadores
destroyed it. The word ‘Aztec’ would not
have been used by the people themselves.
Aztec refers to the people of Aztlan, the ancestral home of the Aztecs,
thought to be in northern Mexico of the southwestern United States. There were over 200 deities or gods that the
Aztecs worshipped. Their religion
practiced human sacrifice. The Aztecs
lacked metallurgy for warfare. Their
weapons were based on volcanic glass called obsidian. Their main city, Tenochtitlan, which
flourished between 1325 and 1521, had over 200,000 people by the early 16th
century. Only Paris and Constantinople
were bigger cities at the time. [source:
Jarus, “Tenochtitlan: History of the Aztec Capital,” Live Science, June 15, 2017]
Balboa. Vasco
Balboa (1475-1519) was the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean. He founded the first permanent European
settlement in the mainland of the Americas.
In September 1510, he founded a settlement in present-day Columbia,
South America. In 1513, he crossed the
Isthmus of Panama and sighted the Pacific Ocean while standing on a peak. He called the Pacific Mar del Sur (South
Sea). In 1519, he was arrested by
Francisco Pizarro for trying to create a separate government in the South
Sea. In January 1519, he was condemned
to death and beheaded in Panama for trumped up charges of rebellion and high
treason. It took 3 whacks of the axe to
behead Balboa. His head was on display
in public for several days. The final
location of Balboa’s remains is unknown.
[source:
“Vasco Nunez de Balboa,” biography.com,
Aug 19, 2019]
Bastille. When the
Bastille, a royal fort in Paris that has been converted to a prison, was
stormed on July 14, 1789, only 7 prisoners were found inside and released. The French revolutionaries stormed the
Bastille in search of guns and 250 barrels of gunpowder. They were not interested in the
prisoners. From 1659 onwards, the
Bastille functioned as a state penitentiary.
By 1789, 5,279 prisoners had passed through its gates. When the Bastille was stormed, its governor
or commander, Bernard-Rene de Launay, was dragged outside and killed by the
crowd. 6 soldiers inside the Bastille
were killed. The heads of the guards
were cut off, stuck on long poles, and marched through the streets. The valuable gunpowder and guns were seized. Of the 7 prisoners, 4 were convicted forgers
who quickly disappeared into the Paris streets, one was imprisoned for sexual
misdemeanors, and 2 were mentally ill and later reincarcerated in an
asylum. The Marquis de Sade – from whom
the term “sadist” is derived – was in the Bastille, but removed a month earlier
after falsely shouting out the window that the prisoners inside were being
massacred. By November 1789, the most of
the fortress had been taken apart and destroyed. [source: Leemage, “Bastille Day,” history.com, July 2, 2019]
Berlin
bombing. During World War
II, the Berlin Zoo was hit be Allied bombs for the first time on September 8,
1941. In November 1943, Allied bombing
on the zoo killed 30% of the zoo population on the first day. On the second day of bombing, the Berlin
aquarium building was completely destroyed by a direct hit, killing 8,000
specimens. Only 91 of the 3,715 animals
survived the bombings in Berlin during World War II. 7 of its 8 elephants died. The survivor, Siam, exhibited signs of
psychological trauma until his death in 1947.
The zoo remained open until April 22, 1945, when it finally closed its
gates to the public after the Red Army stormed the city. On March 18, 1945, the biggest wartime
bombing raid on Berlin occurred. It involved
1,329 Allied bombers and 733 fighters.
They were opposed by 70 German fighters.
This included 30 German jets, which shot down 7 B-17 bombers in just 8
minutes. [source:
Bamford, “Bombing Berlin: The Biggest Wartime Raid on Hitler’s Capital,” World War II Museum, March 14, 2020]
Bhola
cyclone. The 1970 Bhola cyclone struck East Pakistan
(now Bangladesh) in November 1970. It
remains the deadliest storm ever recorded.
It killed more than 500,000 people.
Its highest winds were 140 mph.
It brought a 35-foot storm surge to a country where 35% of the area is
less than 20 feet above sea level. About
85% of homes in the area were destroyed.
There was a failure of the relief efforts by the national government. This conflict widened into the Indo-Pakistan
War of 1971, which concluded with the creation of Bangladesh. This was the first time that a natural
disaster helped to trigger a civil war. [source: Dolce
& Donegan,“The Deadliest Tropical Cyclone on Record Killed 300,000 People,”
The Weather Channel, May 1, 2019]
Bhopal
gas leak. On December 2, 1984 a toxic gas leak at the
Union Carbide insecticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed 3,787 people
instantly. It is considered to be the
world’s worst industrial disaster. At
least 45 tons of highly toxic gas was released within an hour. Over 600,000 people were exposed to a cyanide
gas cloud. Over 16,000 people died and
over 550,000 people were injured. When
the disaster happened, there was no production at the plant because there was a
surplus of Carbaryl insecticide on the market, and the product was not selling
very well. The cause of the disaster
still remains unknown. Union
Carbide maintained that water entered a
tank through an act of sabotage. This
caused a chemical reaction which resulted in the buildup of carbon
dioxide. This increased the temperature
inside the tank containing Methyl isocyanide.
The pressure triggered valves to open, releasing the poisonous gas. Others say that routine pipe maintenance caused
a backflow of water into the tank. Union
Carbide paid $470 million to settle litigation.
The government of India asked for $3.3 billion. The site was left unclean until 1998. To this day, Union Carbide, now owned by Dow
Chemical, has not paid any money to the 470,000 people who were affected. [source: Withnall, “Bhopal gas leak,” Independent (UK), Feb 14, 2019]
Black
Death. The Black Death, also known as the Plague,
spread throughout Europe between October 1347, and 1352. It all started when 12 ships from the Black
Sea docked in Sicily. Most of the
sailors on the ships were dead. The
survivors were seriously ill and covered in black boils that oozed blood and
pus. The bubonic plague was caused by
fleas on rats and killed as many as 60% of the population in Europe. As many as 475 million people died in Eurasia
and North Africa. The Black Death was
the second plague pandemic recorded, after the Plague of Justinian from 542 AD
to 546 AD. After the Black Death, it
took 200 years for Europe’s population to recover to its previous level. The Black Death was caused by a bacillus
called Yersina pestis, which wasn’t discovered until the end of the 19
century. I was through fleas bites and
rat bites that the plague was transmitted.
During the Black Death, many people believed that this was some sort of
divine punishment. People wanted to
purge their communities of heretics. A
massacre began as thousands of Jews were killed in 1348 and 1349. Jews then fled to sparsely populated regions
of Eastern Europe to get away from the rampaging mobs in the cities. [source: “Black Death,” history.com, March 30, 2020]
Boston
Tea Party. The Boston Tea
Party was a political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston,
Massachusetts on December 16, 1773. The
target was the Tea Act of May 19, 1773.
What’s odd is that the British actually lowered tea taxes, not raised
them. Before the Tea Act, tea was sold
for 3 shillings a pound. With the Tea
Act, it was now selling for 2 shillings a pound. The Boston Tea Party was not a protest
against high taxes. If fact, it was
sparked by a tax cut, not a tax hike.
Colonists were more than willing to pay taxes, they just didn’t want to
pay taxes imposed by Parliament. [source:
Thorndike, “Four Things You Should Know About the Boston Tea Party,” taxhistory.org, April 8, 2010]
Brahe. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a well-known
Danish astronomer who made the most accurate celestial observations of his
time. He is considered to be the founder
of modern observational astronomy. He
was the first to have discovered the fact that comets are further from the
earth than the moon is. He founded one
of Denmark’s earliest paper mills. He
lost his nose in a sword duel, and had an artificial nose made of brass (not
silver). As a boy of two years of age,
Tycho Brahe was kidnapped by his uncle and aunt, who were childless. Tycho was raised by his uncle and aunt as if
he were their son. He probably died of a
burst bladder after attending a banquet in Prague and failing to relieve
himself after several hours due to proper etiquette. A later investigation thought he died of
mercury poisoning. It was speculated
that he had been intentionally poisoned by either his assistant or his
cousin. His body was exhumed twice, in
1901 and 2010. The latest conclusion was
that he likely died of a bladder infection.
Traces of mercury were found in his body, but not enough to kill
him. [sources: Redd, “Tycho Brahe
Biography,” space.com, Sep 13, 2017 and Gannon, “Tycho Brahe Died From
Pee, Not Poison, Live Science, Nov
16, 2012]
Cabot. John
Cabot (1450-1498?) discovered the coast of North America in 1497. He was an Italian explorer under the
commission of the English king, King Henry VII.
Cabot’s first voyage in 1496 was a failure. He left Bristol, England with one ship, with
no planning. He faced a shortage of
water, rebellious sailors, and bad weather.
His second voyage in 1497 is the only voyage to make it to North
America. No one knows where he landed,
most likely Newfoundland. He claimed
land in Canada for England. His third
and final voyage in May 1498 had 5 ships and 200 men. One of the ships had been caught in a storm
and been forced to land in Ireland. None
of the other ships or John Cabot was ever seen again. John Cabot’s son, Sebastian, became an
explorer in his own right. [source:
“John Cabot,” biography.com, Jul 9,
2019]
Caligula. Caligula (12
AD to 41 AD), also known as the Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus,
was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 to 41 AD. He was born into the first ruling family of
the Roman Empire. He was known for his
feats of waste and carnage during his 4-year reign. He tried to make one of his horses,
Incitatus, a senator, but was assassinated before he could do so. He was the first Roman emperor to be
assassinated. He was given the nickname
“Caligula” meaning “little soldier’s boot.”
Hs parents dressed him in a miniature uniform when he was a child. When he became emperor, he constructed a
2-mile floating bridge from hundreds of Roman ships just so that he could spend
two days galloping back and forth across it.
He would make senators run for miles in front of his chariot. He had several senators killed. He would drink valuable pearls dissolved in
vinegar. He would dress up in strange
clothing, wear women’s shoes, and wear wigs and lavish accessories. He appeared in public, dressed as various
gods such as Hercules, Mercury, Venus, and Apollo. He had the heads removed from various statues
of gods located across Rome and replace them with a likeness of his own head. While at a sporting event, he was stabbed 30
times, along with his wife and daughter, by officers of the Praetorian Guard
(bodyguards of the emperors). After his
death, the Senate immediately ordered the destruction of his statues. [source: “Caligula,” biography.com, April 6, 2020]
Calvin. John Calvin
(1509-1564) was a French theologian and reformer in Geneva during the
Protestant Reformation. He was
considered Martin Luther’s successor as the preeminent Protestant
theologian. Under Calvin’s government in
Geneva, in the first 5 years of his rule, he had 58 people executed and exiled
76 for their religious beliefs. Calvin
denounced his opponents and had them tortured and burned at the stake or
beheaded. Calvin prohibited any type of
art other than music without instruments.
He prohibited dancing. Calvin had
Michael Servetus, a brilliant Spanish scientist and discoverer of pulmonary
circulation, burned alive because Servetus did not believe in the Trinity. Calvin preached over 2,000 sermons. He preached twice on Sunday and almost every
weekday. His sermons lasted more than an
hour and he never used notes. Under his
guidance, a Geneva Bible was released in 1560.
It was an English translation and the first Bible with theological notes
in the margins. He helped create
Presbyterianism in Scotland, the Puritan Movement in England, and the Reformed
Church in the Netherlands. He was buried
in an unmarked grave in Geneva. [source: “John
Calvin,” biography.com, Aug 13, 2019
and Lawson, “Theologian for the Ages: John Calvin,” ligonier.org, Oct 26, 2018]
Capone. Al Capone (1899-1947) was a Brooklyn-born American
gangster during Prohibition. His
nickname was “Scarface,” which he hated.
His crime gang brought in as much as $100 million annually. In 1926,
Capone took over a criminal network in Chicago.
He made most of his money through bootlegging, followed by gambling,
prostitution, racketeering, and other illicit activities. He donated to many charities in Chicago and
sponsored soup kitchens during the Great Depression. In 1929, Capone was widely assumed to have
been responsible for ordering the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. This was the murder of 7 members and
associates of Chicago’s North Side Gang.
The 7 men were hit by 90 bullets.
Capone was convicted for 11 years of tax evasion, but not murder, even
though he ordered hits on a multitude of his enemies. He was among the earliest federal prisoners
at Alcatraz. He was released in 1939 due
to poor health and underwent several months of treatment for syphilis. In 1942, Capone was one of the first American
patients treated by the new drug, penicillin.
He died of a stroke in Palm Island, Florida in 1947. [source: Curran, “How ‘Scarface’ Al
Capone Became the Original Gangster,” howstuffworks.com,
Feb 14, 2020]
Castle
Itter. The Battle of Castle Itter was fought in the
village of Itter, Austria on May 5, 1945.
It was a small fortification in Austria used
by the Nazi SS and the Gestapo as a prison for high profile detainees. The prisoners included two former French
prime ministers, several generals, Charles DeGaulle’s sister, and a tennis star
(Jean Borotra). The battle was dubbed
the strangest battle of World War II.
The battle was fought 5 days after Adolf Hitler had committed suicide,
and only 2 days before Germany surrendered.
To prisoners escaped on bicycles to find help. One reached an American force and one reached
a German major, Josef Gangl. Gangl had
become opposed to the Nazi SS, but only had 20 soldiers. He took a big white flag and met up with the
closest American unit, led by Captain Jack Lee, with 14 soldiers. Both agreed to lead a rescue mission to the
castle and fight the Nazi SS. The SS
troops blew up an American Sherman tank in front of the castle, but were unable
to storm the castle. An American Infantry
Regiment showed up just in time. The
German-American troops suffered only one casualty. Major Gangl was shot by a sniper while
protecting one of the prime ministers.
The German-American forces took 100 SS troops as prisoners. It was the only battle where Americans and
Germans fought alongside each other against the Nazi SS troops to free
prominent French prisoners of war. [source:
Redd, “The Battle For Castle Itter: When Americans and Nazis Fought
Side-By-Side,” allthatsinteresting.com,
Dec 18, 2017]
Charlemagne.
Charlemagne (748 – 814) was King of the Franks, King of the Lombards,
and Emperor of the Romans. He was the
first recognized emperor to rule from western Europe since the fall of the
Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. He was
illiterate, but he believed strongly in education and enabling all his people
to be able to read and write. He is
nicknamed the “Father of Europe” as the founding father of both the French and
German Monarchies. In 800, Charlemagne arrives
in Rome a few weeks before Christmas at the request of the pope. On Christmas Day, Pope Leo II crowned
Charlemagne emperor and ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. This surprised Charlemagne, who was not expecting
this. Charlemagne created the first
common currency since the Roman era. He
divided a pound of pure silver into 240 pieces.
This method was so successful that France kept a basic version of it
until the French Revolution. In 782 AD,
he was at war with the Saxons in today’s northwest Germany. In one of his battles, he ordered the
execution of 4,500 Saxons. After that,
under his rule, any members of the pagan Germanic tribe who did not convert to
Christianity were put to death. [source:
“Charlemagne,” history.com, June 6,
2019]
Charles
VI.
Charles VI (1368-1422), also known as Charles the Mad and Charles the
Beloved, was King of France for 42 years, from 1380 to 1422). He was 11 years old when he was crowned king. He had 12 children. He suffered from mental illness and
schizophrenia. Doctors tried to cure him
by drilling small holes in his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain. When that failed officials from the Catholic
Church performed an exorcism on the king, but that didn’t work either. He went on a military expedition with his
troops. After emerging from a forest and
hearing a noise, he rushed forward with his sword drawn striking his own
soldiers who he thought were the enemy,
His troops had to pull him off his horse to restrain them, but the king
already killed knight and several other men.
In 1393, he could not remember his name and did not know he was
king. He did not know who his wife
was. In 1394, he published an ordinance
that expelled all Jews from France. In
1395, he claimed he was Saint George. In
1405, he refused to bathe or changes his clothes for 5 months. One time he believed he was a wolf made out
of glass. He would chase people around
his French castle and howled at them. He
did not let anyone touch him because he thought he would shatter. He even had iron rods sewn into his clothes
to keep himself from breaking. [source: Seigel,
“42 Unhinged Facts About Charles VI, the Mad King of France,” factinate.com]
Chernobyl.
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident
that occurred on April 26, 1986. The
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine exploded during a routine maintenance
check. It is considered the worst
nuclear disaster in history. Operators
turned off vital control systems which caused the reactor to reach dangerously
unstable and low-power levels. An excess
of steam was created by the reduction of the cooling water. This caused an enormous power surge that the
operators could not shut down, resulting in an explosion that killed 2 plant
workers. A large amount of energy
vaporized superheated cooling water and ruptured the reactor core. This resulted in an open-air reactor core
fire that released radioactive contamination for 10 days. It took 250 firefighters to put out the
fires, and 28 died from exposure to radioactive material. 14 more died from radiation-induced cancer
deaths over the next few years. Over
335,000 people were evacuated around the power plant. A 19-mile-wide “exclusion zone” will not be
habitable for at least 3,000 years. [source:
Blakemore, “Chernobyl disaster facts and information,” National Geographic, May 17, 2019]
Circus
Maximus.
The Circus Maximus in Rome,
largely dedicated to chariot racing, was the largest stadium in the ancient
world. It was first constructed in the 6th
century BC. It could hold crowds up to
250,000 people, according to Pliny the Elder.
It most likely never held more that 150,000 people. It was over 2,000 feet in length and almost
400 feet wide. During chariot racing,
there were usually 7 laps per race. In
31 BC, a fire burned down most of the wooden bleachers. The Circus was also used for Roman Games,
gladiator fights, and public executions.
Women were allowed in the Circus Maximus, but not in the Coliseum. Pompey once organized a contest between a
group of gladiators and 20 elephants at the Circus. The last known chariot races were in 549
AD. [source: Cartwright, “Circus
Maximus,” Ancient History Encyclopedia,
May 16, 2018]
Codex Vaticanus.
The Codex Vaticanus is regarded as the oldest extant copy of the
bible. It is believed to be among the
oldest copies of the Greek Bible in existence.
It was written around 350 AD. It
is currently conserved in the Vatican Library.
The Codex Vaticanus consists of 617 leaves (71 leaves have been lost)
written on vellum. The Old Testament is
made up of 474 leaves while the New Testament is made up of 142 leaves. Each leaf measures 10.8 inches on each side. There a no capital letters in the codex. There are no separation of words and
virtually no punctuation. Punctuation
such as accents was added by a later hand.
No one knows where it was written.
Scholars attribute it to Rome, Asia Minor, or Alexandria. It appears to be written by 3 different
scribes. The Codex came from
Constantinople to the Vatican after the Council of Florence in 1445. The Vatican Library was founded by Pope
Nicholas V in 1448. The Codex was added
to the Vatican Library catalog in 1481, described as the three-column vellum
Bible. [source: “The Codex Vaticanus,”
Vatican.com, May 18, 2018]
Colosseum. The
Colosseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, was unveiled in 80 AD. It is the largest amphitheatre ever built and
could hold 80,000 spectators. When it
was built, it included drinking fountains and latrines. It measured 620 feet by 513 feet. It was high as 150 feet. It had 80 arched entrances. There was no entry fee (but did not allow
women to enter) and free food was sometimes served. Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503) leased the
Colosseum as a quarry. In 1744, Pope Benedict
XIV prohibited any further removal of masonry from the Colosseum and
consecrated it in memory of the Christian martyrs who had lost their lives
there. [source: Cartwright, “Colosseum.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, May 29, 2018]
Colossi
of Memnon. The twin Colossi Egyptian statues in Luxor, Egypt,
depict Pharaoh Amenhotep III who ruled more than 3,400 years ago. They once stood outside of his lost mortuary
temple, which was once the most lavish temple in all of Egypt. The wind caused it to begin to sing at
sunrise! The warm wind passing through the cracks at dawn caused the statue to
emanate an eerie wail to echo from the cracked colossus’s chasm. By 20 BC,
tourists from around the Greco-Roman world were trekking across the desert to
witness the sunrise acoustic spectacle. Scholars including Pausanias, Publius,
and Strabo recounted tales of the statue’s strange sound ringing through the
morning air. (Modern scientists believe early morning heat caused dew trapped
within the statue’s crack to evaporate, creating a series of vibrations that
echoed through the thin desert air.) Sadly, the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus
caused the singing to stop when he tried to repair the statue! [source: “Colossi of Memnon,” Atlas Obscura, Oct 4, 2019]
Columbus. Christopher
Columbus (1451-1506) was turned away by England, Portugal, and France before he
sought funding from the Spaniards. One
of Columbus’s crewmen first spotted land on October 12, 1492. The Spanish Crown offered a lifetime pension
for the first person to see land in the New World. Upon hearing the news, however, Columbus
oddly stated that he actually spotted land earlier, but chose not to tell
anyone. Columbus sighted and landed on
one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador. When they returned back to Spain, Columbus
collected the pension himself, depriving his crewman of his proper reward. Towards the end of his life, Columbus tried
to sue the Spanish government claiming the government owed him 10% of the
profits taken from the Spanish colonies.
Though Columbus lost the claim, his descendants continued to pursue the
lawsuit up to 1790 – nearly 300 years after Columbus’s first voyage. When Columbus died, his remains were first
interred at Valladolid, Spain. It then
moved to a monastery in Seville, Spain, 360 miles away. In 1542, his remains were transferred o the
Dominican Republic. In 1795, his remains
were moved to Havana. In 1898, his
remains were moved back to Spain, to the Cathedral of Seville, where they
remain today. [source: “Christopher Columbus,” history.com, Sep 3, 2019]
Cook.
James Cook (1727-1779) was one of the preeminent explorers of the 18th
century. He was the first person to
circumnavigate New Zealand. He was the
first European to set foot on both Hawaii and Australia. He provided the first accurate map of the
Pacific. Natives mistook Cook for a god
when he landed in the Hawaiian Islands in 1779.
In 1774, he charted an island called Sandy Island. This island remained on maps until 2012, when
it was discovered that an island had never existed at that particular
location. Cook started the tradition of
sailors getting tattoos when he saw warriors in New Zealand with tattoos on
their faces. In 1777, Cook gave the
British royal family a tortoise he found in Madagascar. The tortoise died in 1965 of natural causes
at the age of 188. [“James Cook,” biography.com, Feb 7, 2020]
Cortés. Hernán (Hernando) Cortés (1485-1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who led an
expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire. He marched on Cholula, the second largest
city of Mexico and a religious center of the Aztec, and killed around 30,000
people. He then burned down a portion of
the city. He then marched on
Tenochtitian to meet the Aztec king, Montezuma II. His men later killed the king. Cortés renamed the city of Tenochtitian to
Mexico City. While in Mexico, he went on
an expedition to the north and discovered Baja, California. The Gulf of California was originally named
the Sea of Cortes. In all of his bloody
battles, he and his men killed as many as 100,000 indigenous people. A smallpox epidemic killed more than 3
million Aztec. [source: Szalay, “Hernan Cortes: Conqueror of the Aztecs,” Live Science, Sep 29, 2017]
Council of Nicaea. The
First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops that convened in the
city of Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey). The
council was convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in May-June 325 AD. It was the first ecumenical (worldwide)
conference of the early Christian Church.
Constantine invited 1,800 bishops but only 318 attended. Constantine also allowed each bishop to bring
up 2 priests and 3 deacons. Pope
Sylvester I was also invited, but he did not attend. He did send two representatives. The goal was to unite the increasingly
divided church with a set of beliefs its leaders agreed on and would hold each
other accountable to. It resulted in the
first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. Constantine declared that anyone who did not
sign the creed would be exiled. Three
bishops did not sign the Creed and were exiled.
For the first time, leaders of the church would formally declare who
Jesus was in relation to God. It
established the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
The Council decided that Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday
following Passover. At the time, Eastern
churches was honoring Easter on the Passover at sundown instead of on the
Sunday following. Constantine did not
commission any Bibles at the Council of Nicaea.
[source:
“Council of Nicaea concludes,” history.com,
Aug 25, 2019]
Croesus. Croesus
(pronounced KREE-sus) (595 BC – 545 BC) was the king of Lydia (corresponding to
modern day Turkey) and considered one of the richest men in the world at the
time. In 546 BC, he was defeated by
Cyrus the Great. King Croesus was the
first person to mint gold and silver coins.
Croesus was the first foreigner to come in contact with the Greeks. He then conquered the Greeks and received
tribute from the Ionian Greeks. Croesus
funded the construction of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven
Wonders of the ancient world. It took 10
years to complete. It was 377 feet long
and 151 feet wide. It was the first
Greek temple built of marble. Its
columns were 40 feet wide. Croesus put
his signature on some of the bases of the columns. In 546 BC, he was defeated by Cyrus the Great
and taken prisoner. After the battle,
Croesus’ wife committed suicide and Croesus was dragged before Cyrus in
chains. Cyrus ordered Croesus to be
burned alive, but a sudden rain shower overhead put out the fire. Croesus was saved from burning to death but
he still was a captive. Cyrus kept him
on as a wide counselor. [source:
Lendering, “Croesus,” livius.org,
April 16, 2020]
Crusades. The
capture of Jerusalem by Muslim armies in 637 had long rankled in Europe,
cutting off Christianity from its well-springs in the Holy Land. Nevertheless,
for a long time Christian pilgrims were in fact able to make the journey to
Jerusalem, but in the 11th century the expansion of the Seljuk Turkish
sultanate threatened to prevent access to non-Muslim travelers. In 1095,
Byzantine emperor Alexius I sent envoys to the West to plead for assistance.
They found a willing listener in Pope Urban II. That November, in a field
outside the cathedral at Claremont in France, the Pope called for a military
expedition to liberate the Holy City of Jerusalem from Muslim rule. The crowd
erupted with cries of “It is the will of God”, and 30,000 crusaders, as these soldiers
became known, “took the cross” to join the military pilgrimage to the Holy
Land. The first of the armies to cross
the Balkans into Anatolia was a rag-tag assortment of peasants, some knights,
and religious zealots, all under the doubtful leadership of preacher, Peter the
Hermit. They were soon cut to pieces by the Turks. The force that followed them
was far more professional: a largely Frankish army with a strong aristocratic
component. Motivated by a mix of religious idealism, eagerness to acquire new
lands, and the simple attraction of a sanctioned fight, the crusaders skirted
Constantinople, and then beat the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan at Dorylaeum in
July, forcing the Turks to stand aside and let them march into the Holy Land.
After besieging it for eight months, they took Antioch in June 1098 and then
marched on the ultimate prize of Jerusalem. After another prolonged siege, the
city fell amid horrific bloodshed, as the crusaders slaughtered Muslims and Jews
alike. In 1202, Pope Innocent II set out
in the 4th crusade to recapture the Holy Land. However, along the way, he changed his mind
and took Constantinople instead. The
Children’s Crusade took place in 1212.
Thousands of children marched towards the Holy Land. Most were never seen again or sold into slavery. They never made it to their destination. The Crusades continued until the 1500s. [source: Cartwright, “Crusades,” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Oct 12,
2018]
Cuba
Missile Crisis. In October 1962, the leaders engaged in a
tense standoff over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on
Cuba. On October 27, 1962, an American
reconnaissance plane, the U-2, flying 12 miles high, was shot down over Cuba,
and its pilot, Major Rudolf Andersen (1927-196) died. Two Russian SA-2 surface-to-air missiles
(SAM) exploded near the aircraft at high attitude. The shrapnel from the explosion ripped
through the cockpit and punctured his pressure suit and helmet, causing it to
decompress at high altitude. The U-2
plunged 72,000 feet to Cuba. Major Anderson
posthumously became the first-ever recipient of the Air Force Cross, the
highest service medal shot of the Medal of Honor. Although Anderson was the only combat death,
11 men died when 3 B-47 reconnaissance bombers crashed. Seven more airmen died when a C-135
Stratolifter crashed trying to land at Guantanamo Bay bringing in
ammunition. [Klien, “How the
Death of a U.S. Air Force Pilot Prevented a Nuclear War,” history.com, Oct 28,
2019]
Cyrus
the Great. Cyrus the Great (600 BC – 530 BC) was also
known as Cyrus II of Persia, named after his grandfather. Cyrus was attacked by Astyages of the Median
Empire. Cyrus captured Astyages, spared
his life, and married his daughter.
Cyrus was the first conqueror to respect the religions of those places
he conquered. Cyrus is also credited of
returning the exiled Jews back to the Promised Land along with a commission to
rebuild their temple. The Cyrus
Cylinder is the oldest known charter of human rights. Cyrus established the first credible postal
system in the world. His postal service
had multiple stations throughout his empire which provided the messenger fresh
supplies and horses along the way. [source:
Rattini, “Who was Cyrus the Great,” National
Geographic, May 6, 2019]
da Gama. Vasco da Gama
(1460-1524) was the first European to sail from Europe to India around
Africa. His first trip to India and back
took 2 years, including 300 days at sea.
He had traveled over 24,000 miles, starting out with 4 ships, but only 2
returned. He started out with a crew of
170 men, but only 54 survived, mostly dying of scurvy. On his third voyage to India, he arrived
safely to Goa, India, but soon became ill from a mosquito bite. He died of malaria in India. His body was later taken back to Portugal for
burial there. [source: “Vasco da Gama,” biography.com,
Aug 21, 2018]
Davis. Jefferson
Davis (1808-1869) served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861
to 1865. He was a graduate of the West
Point Military Academy. He married Sarah
Knox Taylor, the daughter of his commanding officer, and the future president,
Zachary Taylor. Zachary Taylor did not
approve of the marriage and Jefferson Davis resigned from the military and
moved to Mississippi. Unfortunately,
Sarah died a few months later from malaria.
In 1846, the Mexican-American War broke out and Davis returned to the
military. Coincidentally, he once again
served under General Zachary Taylor.
Davis again resigned from the military and was appointed U.S. Senator by
the governor of Mississippi. In 1853, he
became U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. After Pierce lost the re-election, Davis once
again became Senator representing Mississippi.
On January 9, 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union, Davis resigned as a U.S. Senator. On February 9, 1861, the Confederate
Constitutional Convention in Montgomery, Alabama voted to make Davis the
President of the Confederate States. In
May 1865, Davis still wanted to fight the North, but he was captured in Georgia
and went to prison for 2 years at Fort Monroe in Virginia. He was charged with treason, but never
tried. After getting out of prison, he
ran an insurance company. The people of
Mississippi asked Davis to represent them in the U.S. Senate a third time after
the Civil War, but he was not allowed to serve and even refused to take an oath
to the Union. He was not legally a
citizen of the United States after the Civil War. [source: “Biography: Jefferson Davis,: ducksters.com and “Jefferson Davis,” history.com, Aug 21, 2018]
Demosthenes. Demosthenes
(384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek statesman
and orator of ancient Athens. For a
time, he made his living as a professional speech-writer and lawyer, writing
speeches for use in private legal suits.
He was also a commander of Greek warships. He spent long hours studying rhetoric and law
in a specially made underground study.
He trained with an actor to learn how to properly control his body
movements. He practices speaking with
pebbles in his mouth to control his lisp and shortness of breath. He would shout his speeches aloud while
running uphill. He would shave off all
the hair on one side of his head in the hope that if he made himself look
ridiculous, he would be more inclined to stay at home and concentrated on his
studies. He opposed the Macedonian king
Philip II’s expansion into all of Greece.
Alexander the Great’s successor in the region, Antipater, sent his men
to track down Demothenes, but Demosthenes took his own life to avoid being
arrested. 61 of his speeches
survive. [source:
Cartwright, “Demosthenes,” Ancient History Encyclopedia, March 14, 2016]
Dickens. Charles
Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer and social critic during the
Victorian era. He is considered the
greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
He created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters. He perfected the cliffhanger ending. Most of his novels were initially written in
weekly or monthly installments on a subscription basis or in magazines. In doing so, Dickens employed cliffhangers
from chapter to chapter to get eager readers to buy subsequent episodes. Dickens had the habit of rearranging
furniture whenever he stayed in a hotel room.
At home, he inspected his children’s rooms every morning and left notes
behind when he was not satisfied with their tidiness. Dickens came from a family with 8
children. His wife was the eldest of 10
brothers and sisters. Dickens and his
wife had 10 children of their own. He
later fell in love with Ellen Ternan, and 18-year-old actress, and separated
from his wife Catherine. Dickens
invented 247 new words in all his writing.
Dickens picked David Copperfield as his favorite novel. Despite his lack of formal education, he
edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, 5 novellas, hundreds of
short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured extensively, and campaigned
for children’s rights, education, the plight of prostitutes, and other social
reforms. When he died, he wanted to be
buried near his home at Gads Hill Place in Kent. Others wanted him buried at Poet’s Corner in
Westminster Abbey, besides Geoffrey Chaucer and Samuel Johnson. Dickens’s best friend and executor, John
Forster, organized the private funeral in Westminster Abbey. Forster also ensured that Dickens’s lover,
Ellen Ternan could discreetly attend, and that his estranged wife, Catherine,
would not. [source:
Litvack, “Charles Dickens: newly discovered documents reveal truth about his
death and burial,” The Conversation,
Feb 3, 2020]
Dien
Bien Phu. The
battle of Dien Bien Phu was fought between the French Far East Expeditionary
Corps and the Viet Minh communist revolutionaries, led by Ho Chi Minh. The battle, fought in northwestern Vietnam
near the Laos border, lasted from March 13, 1954 to May 7, 1954. The French had superior firepower and
technology, but the Viet Minh used a guerrilla campaign and launched hit and
run attacks. They were able to interdict
French supply lines and overrun isolated French garrisons. The French had over 15,700 soldiers. The Viet Minh had 50,000 combat
personnel. Over 3,420 French forces were
killed, including 2 Americans. The
Vietnamese had over 4,000 dead. France
dropped 9,000 paratroopers in the area but France assumed the guerrillas lacked
antiaircraft capabilities. However, the
surrounding hills had a large number of flak guns. So many French aircraft were shot down that
the French were forced to rely on airdrops for supply. But much of the air-dropped supply missed
their targets and landed within enemy lines, instead. The Viet Minh also employed direct artillery
using Chinese advisors. The Viet Minh
commander, general Vo Nguyen Giap, organized tens of thousands of porters into
a supply line that hauled disassembled guns over rough terrain to the hills
overlooking the French. In one French
position, over 350 French legionnaires became casualties. The French artillery commander was so
distraught at his inability to silence the well-camouflaged Viet Minh
batteries, that he went into his dugout and committed suicide with a hand
grenade. Soon, all the French outposts
were overrun. The Viet Minh captured
11,721 men. Only 3,290 survived 4 months
later. The French government ended the
war with the signing of the Geneva Accords of July 1954. This ended the French presence in
Indochina. [source: Philip, “Battle
against oblivion: the defeat that ended French colonial rule in Vietnam,” July
1, 2014]
Drake.
Francis Drake (1540-1596) was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the
globe. He started out with 5 ships in
1577 and never told his crew that he was going to sail around the world. By the time he entered the Pacific Ocean, he
had only one ship left. Is ship, the
Golden Hind, sailed 36,000 miles before returning to England in September
1580. Drake was one of the first British
slave traders. He made voyages to West
Africa to capture men and women. He also
attacked Portuguese slave ships in order to steal their human cargo of
slaves. King Phillip II of Spain offered
the equivalent of $8 million for his capture or death. In 1588, he was second-in-command during the
English victory over the Spanish Armada.
He died of dysentery on January 28, 1596 off the coast of Portobelo,
Panama. He was buried in a lead coffin
and was dressed in a full suit of armor.
His body has never been found. [source: “Sir Francis Drake,” history.com, April 17, 2020]
Dumas.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (1762-1806) was the father of Alexandre Dumas,
the author of The Three Musketeers
and the Count of Monte Cristo. Thomas-Alexandre became a famous French
general during the Revolutionary War.
His father was white French nobleman and his mother was a black slave
concubine. He was born in what is now
Haiti. At one point, his father sold the
boy for 800 French livres as a slave to get a boat ticket back to France. When his father got back to France, the
father inherited a fortune. He used some
of his money to bring back his son to France and educating him as a
gentleman. Thomas-Alexandre became a
leading swashbuckler of the period. But
as a black man, he was limited in job prospects, so he joined the French army
has a humble private. In 1791, he was
promoted to corporal and served with the French National Guard in Paris under
the Marquis de Lafayette. Two years
later, in 1793, he was promoted to brigadier general and led 10,000 men into
battle. He was the first person of color
in the French military to become a brigadier general, the first to become
divisional general, and the first to become general-in-chief of a French
army. In 1794, he was called before the
Committee of Public Safety to face charges of treason and perhaps would have
been guillotined. But he delayed his
return to Paris. He was lucky enough not
to be seen by the Committee before the Terror ended with the execution of
Robespierre in July 1794. In 1796,
General Dumas joined the Army of Italy under the orders of its
commander-in-chief, Napoleon Bonaparte.
In 1798, he was the Commander of Cavalry in the French Campaign in Egypt
under Napoleon. He fell out of favor
with Bonaparte, who was a blatant racist.
Returning the Europe, his sinking ship was forced to land in enemy
territory, where he was held captive in circumstances that inspired the Count
of Monte Cristo. He died in 1806, when
his son, Alexander, was just 4 years old.
[source:
Sack, “General Thomas Alexandre Dumas – Napoleon’s ‘Black Devil,” schhi.org,
March 25, 2019]
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