Interesting History… Did you Know…

[Vaughan]

The world’s most successful pirate in history was a lady.

[img width=500]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/lady-pirates.webp[/img]

Named Ching Shih, she was a prostitute in China. This was until the Commander of the Red Flag Fleet bought and married her.

But rather than just viewing her as a wife, her husband considered her his equal and she became an active pirate commander in the fleet.

Ching Shih soon earned the respect of her fellow pirates. So much so that after her husband’s death she became the captain of the fleet.

Under Shih’s leadership, the Red Flag Fleet consisted of over 300 warships, with a possible 1,200 more support ships. She even had a possible 40,000 – 80,000 men, women, and children.

They terrorized the waters around China. The Red Flag Fleet was such a fearsome band of raiders, that the Chinese government eventually pardoned Ching Shih and her entire fleet – just to get them off the high seas!

[Vaughan]

In the Ancient Olympics, athletes performed naked.

The athletes did this to imitate the Gods, but also to help them easily clear toxins from their skin through sweating after each attempt at a sport.

In fact, the word “gymnastics” comes from the Ancient Greek words “gumnasía” (“athletic training, exercise”) and “gumnós” (“naked”).

This translates as “to train naked”.

[Vaughan]

Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times.

[img]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/julius-caesar-stabbed.webp[/img]

Julius Caesar is probably the most iconic name associated with the Romans. Likewise, his assassination and death are also highly notorious.

Due to his coup d’état of the Roman Republic and his proclamation of himself as Dictator for Life, along with his radical political views, a group of his fellow Roman senators led by his best friend Brutus assassinated him on March 15, 44 BC.

During the assassination, Caesar was stabbed at least 23 times, before finally succumbing to his wounds.

He passed away with fabled words to his former best friend Brutus, allegedly being “you too, sweet child?”

[Vaughan]

The Colosseum, is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy.

The Colosseum was originally clad entirely in marble.

[img width=400]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/colosseum-originally-marble.webp[/img]

When you visit or see the Colosseum these days you’ll notice how the stone exterior appears to be covered in pockmarks all across its surface.

Whilst you might assume this is just degradation of the material due to its age, it is actually because it was originally clad almost entirely in marble.

The reason for the pockmarks is, after the fall of Rome, the city was looted and pillaged by the Goths. Yes, that’s right, the Goths!

They took all of the marble from the Colosseum and stripped it (mostly) down to its bare stone setting.

The holes in the stone are from where the iron clamps and poles attaching the marble cladding to it have been ripped out.

It was named the Colosseum because it was next to a statue called the Colossus.

[img width=400]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/colossus-statue.webp[/img]

It was originally known as the Amphitheatrum Flavium, or Flavian Amphitheatre, as it was constructed during the Flavian dynasty.

Residents of Rome nicknamed it the Colosseo.

This was due to the fact that it was built next to a 164-foot statue of Emperor Nero known as “the colossus of Nero”.

[Vaughan]

There were female Gladiators.

[img]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/female-gladiators.webp[/img]

A female gladiator was called a Gladiatrix, or Gladiatrices (plural). They were rarer than their male counterparts.

Gladiatrices served the same purpose of executing criminals, fighting each other, and fighting animals in Rome’s various fighting pits.

[Vaughan]

The Vikings were the first people to discover America.

[img]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/vikings-discovered-america.webp[/img]

Half a millennium before Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, Viking chief Leif Eriksson of Greenland landed on the Island of Newfoundland in the year 1,000 AD.

The Vikings under Leif Eriksson settled Newfoundland as well as discovering and settling Labrador further north in Canada.

[Vaughan]

Vikings – even though they called Scandinavia their home, these Ancient Norse sea experts did everything from exploring, trading, colonizing, and looting.

During their time, they instilled fear in most of Europe, and even parts of the middle east.

Vikings never wore horned helmets! It’s possible that painters made up the horned helmets during the 19th Century.

The word “Viking” means “a pirate raid” in the old Norse language.

The age of the Vikings lasted for just under 300 years between 900 A.D. and 1066.

Vikings have been known to have fantastic hygiene. Archaeologists have found tweezers, razors, combs, and even ear cleaners at excavations sits. Vikings bathed at least once a week which is more frequent that other Europeans of their time.

Due to the Norse religion, it was believed that warriors went to incredible realms after their death, therefore burying their dead in boats was common to help reach the afterlife. In the boats, the dead were often sent off with their weapons, jewelry, and sometimes even sacrificed slaves.

[Vaughan]

In Ancient Asia, death by elephant was a popular form of execution.

[img]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/death-by-elephant.webp[/img]

As elephants are very intelligent and easy to train, it proved easy enough to train them as executioners and torturers.

They could be taught to slowly break bones, crush skulls, twist off limbs, or even execute people using large blades fitted to their tusks.

In some parts of Asia, this method of execution was still popular up to the late 19th Century.

[Vaughan]

The Luftwaffe had a master interrogator whose tactic was being as nice as possible.

[img]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/luftwaffe-fact.webp[/img]

Hanns Scharff was a master interrogator who was very much against physical torture and brutality.

His techniques were so successful that the US military later incorporated his methods into their own interrogation schools.

Scharff’s best tactics for squeezing information out of prisoners included: nature walks without guards present, baking them homemade food, cracking jokes, drinking beers, and afternoon tea with German fighter aces.

He even took trips to visit fellow POWs and swimming pool parties. And on some rare occasions even test flights of German fighter aircraft.

[Vaughan]

In 1386, a pig was executed in France.

[img]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pig-execution-france.webp[/img]

There wasn’t a great detail of civil rights in the Middle Ages, and as it turns out there weren’t a great of animal rights either. So much so that they were even subject to human justice.

One such case happened in Falaise, France, where a pig attacked a child’s face who went on to later die from their wounds.

The pig was arrested, kept in prison, and then sent to court where it stood trial for murder, was found guilty and then executed by hanging!

[Vaughan]

Shrapnel is named after its inventor.

[img width=350]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/shrapnel-name.webp[/img]

British Army Officer Henry Shrapnel was the first person to invent an anti-personnel shell that could transport a large number of bullets to its target before releasing them.

This was all at a far greater distance than the current rifle fire at the time.

[Vaughan]

Since 1945, all British tanks are equipped with tea-making facilities.

 

Before this time, British tank crews had to exit their armored vehicles when they wanted to make a quick coffee.

On the road to Caen in 1944, a German Tiger tanked ambushed and destroyed a parked column of almost thirty armored British vehicles in 15 minutes whilst the crew was having an impromptu tea break.

This made the British high command realize if tank crews could make a brew on the go, then they wouldn’t be susceptible to being caught with their pants down and their kettles out by the enemy.

So after this, the next British-designed battle tank, the Centurion, came with a boiler fitted to the interior powered by the tank’s electric circuits so the crew would never be short of a lovely warm cup of tea!

[Vaughan]

During World War I, the French built a “fake Paris”.

[img]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/wwii-fake-paris.webp[/img]

Complete with a replica Champs-Elysées and Gard Du Nord, this “fake Paris” was built by the French towards the end of WWI. It was built as a means of throwing off German bombers and fighter pilots flying over French skies.

It also even had a fake railway that lit up at certain points to provide the illusion from above of a train moving along the tracks!

[Vaughan]

An ancient text called the Voynich Manuscript still baffles scientists.

[img]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/voynich-manuscript.webp[/img]

Hand-written in an unknown language, the Voynich Manuscript has been carbon-dated to roughly 1404 – 1438.

Some of the pages are missing, and some of them are foldable pull-out pages, while most pages have illustrations.

Hundreds of cryptographers and master codebreakers have tried to decipher it over the years with none succeeding to grasp its meaning or origin.

[Vaughan]

Roman Emperor Caligula made one of his favourite horses a senator.

[img width=500]https://www.thefactsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/caligula-fact.webp[/img]

If you didn’t know anything about Caligula, then this is a pretty good way to get the impression.

He was infamous for his brutality and madness. Caligula fed criminals to animals and had conversations with the moon.

He loved his horse – called Incitatus – so much that he gave him a marble stall, an ivory manger, a jeweled collar, and even a house!

Caligula made his horse a senator and allegedly planned to make him Consul before his assassination.

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