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Farmland Park posted:Geronimo surrendered to the US 6 months after the first motorcar was patented. Not quite the same thing but my favorite is that President John Tyler, born in 1790, has two grandsons who are still alive. http://mentalfloss.com/article/29842/president-john-tylers-grandsons-are-still-alive https://www.yahoo.com/news/blogs/sideshow/former-president-john-tyler-1790-1862-grandchildren-still-191230189.html
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Jun 29, 2016 05:31
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Just a few miles from the battle of Little Big Horn, scientists were digging up dinosaurs. They traded peacefully with Indians, even hiring them on as scouts for bones.
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Jun 29, 2016 06:12
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Thomas Jefferson told Lewis & Clark to be on the look‐out for mammoths and giant sloths.
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Jun 29, 2016 06:36
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Platystemon posted:Thomas Jefferson told Lewis & Clark to be on the look‐out for mammoths and giant sloths. Lewis and Clark getting torn apart by a giant sloth sounds like something that would happen if you made a particularly dumb move in a choose-your-own-adenture novel
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Jun 29, 2016 08:40
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Aesop Poprock posted:Lewis and Clark getting torn apart by a giant sloth sounds like something that would happen if you made a particularly dumb move in a choose-your-own-adenture novel I'm pretty sure there's a Young Adult novel where that happens.
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Jun 29, 2016 08:45
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Samuel J. Seymour was five years old when he witnessed the Lincoln assassination firsthand in 1865. In 1956, he appeared on the TV game show on I've Got A Secret at the age of 95 (the show mistakenly said he was 96). He died two months after his appearance on TV, and showed up with a swollen eye after falling in his hotel room. The host suggested he not come on the show, but Seymour insisted. Not only was he the last known witness to the Lincoln assassination, but he was a totally badass old man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RPoymt3Jx4&hd=1
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Jun 29, 2016 08:52
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My favorite approximation of history: The Romans are as old to us, as the Ancient Egyptians were to the Romans. Also, speaking of Lincoln's death, there was pretty remarkable coincidence of history: Edwin Booth saved Robert Lincoln from getting pancaked by a train a few months prior to the death of Lincoln's father. Booth was the brother of the elder Lincoln's assassin, and a fairly famous playwright on his own. In fact, up until John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln, the Booth's were a very big name in theater acting on the East Coast.
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Jun 29, 2016 09:41
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A White Guy posted:My favorite approximation of history: The Romans are as old to us, as the Ancient Egyptians were to the Romans. I read this on cracked.com, pretty sure. Doesn't change it from being a really cool fun fact. One of my faves.
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Jun 29, 2016 09:59
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A White Guy posted:My favorite approximation of history: The Romans are as old to us, as the Ancient Egyptians were to the Romans. Ralph Macchio, The Karate Kid, is now 3 years older than Pat Morita was when he played Mr. Miyagi.
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Jun 29, 2016 10:30
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The last Emperor of the United States of America died only 136 years ago.
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Jun 29, 2016 12:04
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Rip in peace, Joshua I.
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Jun 29, 2016 12:19
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Platystemon posted:Oxford University was founded before the Aztec Empire. Instant Sunrise posted:Harvard University was founded during Galileo's lifetime. Pfff 
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Jun 29, 2016 12:23
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Shaka's rise, creation of the Zulu Kingdom as a military power and brief reign was before Napoleon's rise to power and outlived Napoleonic France under Napoleon for two more decades.
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Jun 29, 2016 15:47
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Chamale posted:The Magna Carta was signed two weeks after Genghis Khan sacked Beijing. Crusaders in the Levant interpreted stories of the Persians getting hosed up by Ghenghis' son/grandson as being news that the mythical Prester John, Nestorian King of India, was coming to their aid.
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Jun 29, 2016 16:54
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The oldest city in the United States (St. Augustine, FL) was founded the year after Shakespeare was baptised. Also more fun is that it is still a younger city than over half the capital cities of South America.
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Jun 29, 2016 17:07
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Buddha (Buddhism), Confucius (Confucianism), Lao-tzu (Taoism), Mahavira (Jainism) and Zoroaster (Zoroastriamism) all lived in the 6th century BC. This is also the time that the Hebrews were recreating their religion as Rabbinic Judaism while in exile in Babylon (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). Thus the roots of most current major religions started within a century of each other. The Vedic period of Hinduism also ended about then, although I confess insufficient knowledge of the religion to put the events of that time in the same category. (Yes, this is over-simplified to an extent, but the 6th-5th centuries BC were remarkably fertile for religious thought)
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Jun 29, 2016 17:18
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William Henry Harrison holds the record for shortest term in office of any United States President, from March 4th to April 4th, 1841. The Whig Party put him up as their candidate hoping to emulate the success of Andrew Jackson's election by banking on Harrison's fame as a war hero. Problem was, Harrison wasn't exactly the healthiest dude and was rather old when he took office. He also spent a lot of time outside, and caught pneumonia and died a month into his presidency. Harrison is also the last British-born POTUS.
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Jun 29, 2016 17:58
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It's a little more complicated than that. Harrison gave the longest presidential inaugural speech in history, topping out at 8,445 words (and that was his reduced version), taking him almost 3.5 hours to deliver. Additionally, he gave his speech outside on a fairly cold winter morning, without a hat, overcoat, or gloves. Perhaps not surprisingly, he came down with a cold that progressed to pneumonia and died only 32 days later.
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Jun 29, 2016 20:11
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Arcsquad12 posted:William Henry Harrison holds the record for shortest term in office of any United States President, from March 4th to April 4th, 1841. The Whig Party put him up as their candidate hoping to emulate the success of Andrew Jackson's election by banking on Harrison's fame as a war hero. Problem was, Harrison wasn't exactly the healthiest dude and was rather old when he took office. He also spent a lot of time outside, and caught pneumonia and died a month into his presidency. Daniel Webster was offered the position of VP, but declined, perceiving it as a dead‐end position. He did it again with Zachary Taylor, the second president to die in office. Man didn’t know how to take a hint.
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Jun 29, 2016 20:24
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A White Guy posted:It's a little more complicated than that. Harrison gave the longest presidential inaugural speech in history, topping out at 8,445 words (and that was his reduced version), taking him almost 3.5 hours to deliver. Additionally, he gave his speech outside on a fairly cold winter morning, without a hat, overcoat, or gloves.
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Jun 29, 2016 23:09
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Dracula and Frankenstein are often seen as being a bit connected, probably only because of the Universial monster movies, but Frankenstein came out 79 years before Dracula. That's about the same time as passed between the sinking of the Titanic and the fall of the Soviet Union. Also Mary Shelley was 18 years old when she came up with the story. She, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and his doctor John Polidori were traveling around Europe in 1816, the year without a summer, and got stuck inside during one of the many storms and decided to pass the time by having a ghost story contest. Mary would eventually develop her story into Frankenstein and Polidori built on Byron's story and created the first work of vampire fiction, the one that transformed the image of the vampire from being a bloated, red skinned Slavic revenant with a constant hard-on tormenting it's family members and neighbors into a suave nobleman with pale skin that seduces his victims. FreudianSlippers has a new favorite as of 01:59 on Jun 30, 2016 |
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Jun 30, 2016 01:13
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Mary Shelley's mother was famous early feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft. I always used to get them switched around in my head, and when I realized they were mother and daughter I felt a lot better about it.
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Jun 30, 2016 01:52
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I made a PYF Noble thread.
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Jun 30, 2016 12:40
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Has anyone in this thread heard of the novella "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan"? The first half of this novella features an ocean liner called the Titan. It's described as the largest craft afloat and is called practically unsinkable. It has triple screw propellers, is around 800 feet long, has a passenger capacity of 3,000 but not enough lifeboats for everyone on board. It then strikes an iceberg on it's starboard side 400 miles off Newfoundland while sailing between New York and London around midnight in the month of April and sinks. All sounds familiar right? Well, the thing is, this was written in 1898, 14 years before the Titanic. The ship hadn't even been conceived at the time of the publishing. It was republished after the Titanic disaster with some changes made to the ship's description, particularly the gross tonnage, but it's still one of those really weird bits of curiosity out there.
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Jun 30, 2016 12:59
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Hogge Wild posted:I made a PYF Noble thread. Have fun with the mega post explaining French nobles of the 18th century!
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Jun 30, 2016 16:44
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zedprime posted:While it gets bonus points for being more interesting, being old and sick in general was the bigger contributor. Dude was probably going to croak to pneumonia whether he gave a speech or not. "Not surprisingly he caught a cold" is some old wives tale poo poo. I listened to a podcast episode about his campaign, which I know isn't the most reputable source of information, but there's some fun facts I remember from it: Harrison's campaign marked the first presidential campaign in the US in which the presidential candidate actually appeared on the campaign trail in person. Until that point, it was seen as beneath a presidential candidate to campaign for the job - being nominated for, and taking on the role of, U.S. President was supposed to be kind of a moral responsibility you took upon yourself if other people nominated you for the position, and campaigning for it (or putting your own name forward) made you look power-hungry. Harrison started giving speeches on the campaign trail to disprove accusations from the opposing Democratic Party that he was too old and infirm to be president. This is perhaps why he chose to give such a long inauguration speech. The democrats also asserted that since he was so old, he should probably retire to a log cabin with some hard cider instead of running for president, which kind of backfired on them because it made him a candidate for all the working-class Americans who did live in log cabins and drank hard cider. This was despite the fact that Harrison was from a family of wealthy plantation owners. There were even parades with actual log cabins being pulled down the street by horses, with cider being served out of them. What an exciting election.
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Jun 30, 2016 16:51
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Has there been any American presidential election that wasn't total circus?
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Jun 30, 2016 17:51
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Fish of hemp posted:Has there been any American presidential election that wasn't total circus? PYF Fun Fact: all elections everywhere and everywhen have been circuses Anybody heard about a bear named wojtek:iamafag:
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Jun 30, 2016 18:06
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During the founding period, there was serious talk of making German the official language of the United States rather than English.
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Jun 30, 2016 18:15
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Fu Hao was one of the wives of King Wu Ding of Shang in roughly 1200 B.C Why was she cool? Well, she was the foremost military leader of her day in addition to being a high priestess, unusual for her day. She defeated the Tu-Fang in a single decisive battle and went on to defeat the Yi, Qiang and Ba, a big deal. We know this from oracle bone inscriptions and her nearly intact tomb found in the 70's which contained inscribed ritual vessels and weapons of war. You should all look up the story of how the Shang dynasty was re-discovered and the story of oracle bones, amongst the coolest stories in archaeology.
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Jun 30, 2016 18:35
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Cythereal posted:During the founding period, there was serious talk of making German the official language of the United States rather than English. IIRC that was actually the Pennsylvania legislature. Lots of German immigrants there.
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Jun 30, 2016 18:37
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Yet they're called the Dutch. Weird detail, that.
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Jun 30, 2016 20:03
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Tasteful Dickpic posted:Yet they're called the Dutch. Weird detail, that. Corruption of Deutsch.
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Jun 30, 2016 20:07
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Deteriorata posted:Corruption of Deutsch. Menno Simons, the first Mennonite, was from the modern-day Netherlands, but I think that was just a coincidence.
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Jun 30, 2016 20:22
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Hadaka Apron posted:Menno Simons, the first Mennonite, was from the modern-day Netherlands, but I think that was just a coincidence. My ancestors are from the area. The homestead they built in 1729 in Lancaster County is still standing. My last name (derived from German) is more common than Smith there.
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Jun 30, 2016 20:38
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Deteriorata posted:My ancestors are from the area. The homestead they built in 1729 in Lancaster County is still standing. My last name (derived from German) is more common than Smith there. I meant that the part where the first Mennonite was Dutch was a coincidence. I live in Philly, so I know a lot about the Amish.
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Jun 30, 2016 20:43
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Deteriorata posted:IIRC that was actually the Pennsylvania legislature. Lots of German immigrants there. Yep, and Philadelphia was the initial capital. Congress seriously considered rolling with German as the official language of the country for that reason.
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Jun 30, 2016 22:17
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Cythereal posted:Yep, and Philadelphia was the initial capital. Congress seriously considered rolling with German as the official language of the country for that reason. I think this is what you're referring to. It was never about making German the official language, just translating some laws. There's been various versions floating around. The official language myth and its origin is discussed at the link. quote:Most accounts credit Franz von Löher as the source of the legend. Löher was a German visitor to America who published the book Geschichte und Zustände der Deutschen in Amerika (History and Achievements of the Germans in America) in 1847.[20] Löher seemingly placed the crucial vote only in Pennsylvania, to make German the official language of that state, not the United States as a whole. (Philadelphia was where the U.S. Congress sat at the time, but it was also the capital of Pennsylvania. To further confuse matters, Muhlenburg did serve as Speaker of the Pennsylvania House before serving in that title for the U.S. Congress.) According to Löher, the vote was tied, and Muhlenberg cast the tie-breaking vote for English. There's no record of that ever actually happening. von Löher got his stories mixed up.
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Jun 30, 2016 22:27
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Hadaka Apron posted:Menno Simons, the first Mennonite, was from the modern-day Netherlands, but I think that was just a coincidence. With American history it's easier to assume Americans said it wrong and stubbornly insisted they were right until it became new nomenclature.
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Jun 30, 2016 23:41
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A White Guy posted:It's a little more complicated than that. Harrison gave the longest presidential inaugural speech in history, topping out at 8,445 words (and that was his reduced version), taking him almost 3.5 hours to deliver. Additionally, he gave his speech outside on a fairly cold winter morning, without a hat, overcoat, or gloves. The speech being the reason for his death is a myth, he probably died after moving in to the White House because its water supply was badly contaminated with human feces. Chamale has a new favorite as of 00:11 on Jul 1, 2016 |
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Jul 1, 2016 00:09
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