What are some little bits of historical trivia that surprised you when you first learned about them? I'm thinking along the lines of historical facts that most people are not aware of.

Here are 3 from me,


1. Winston Churchill's mother was American.


2. The "thumbs down" gesture by the Roman Emperor during a gladiatorial game did NOT mean "kill".

When the emperor wanted the gladiator to die, he would put his thumb straight out to the side, symbolizing a sword. Studies of Roman artwork suggest that the "thumbs up" gesture was actually an affirmation to proceed with the kill.

3. Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died hours apart on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. July 4th, 1826.

Jefferson and Adams lived only a mile or 2 apart at the time of their deaths. Jefferson died on the morning of the fourth and Adams last words, not knowing Jefferson had died earlier in the day, were "Thomas Jefferson still survives."


Jefferson designed his neighbor Adams house, and made the doorway facing his own house (Monticello) just short enough that each time Adams used that door he was forced to bow to Jefferson's home.

John Adams was 5"7 so that must have been a mighty low door!

I've been in the house, it is!

Mmmmm....

Actually now that I think of it the house near Monticello designed by Jefferson and owned by another POTUS was "Ash lawn", James Monroe' house, not John Adams.

We "commonwealth types" were well aware of this. Winston was staunchly British but recognized the greatness of America and loved his mother's country. If you read his books this comes out very clearly

I can't think of any off the top of my head but I found this...

After Pope Gregory IX associated cats with devil worship, cats throughout Europe were exterminated in droves.

Which led to this...

This sudden lack of cats led to the spread of disease because infected rats ran free. The most devastating of these diseases, the Bubonic Plague, killed 100 million people.

Cats-1
Humans-0

Just goes to show what happens when superstition overrules science/logic.

Too bad he didn't associate rats with devil worship, would've been far more efficient.



The Jedi Master

My understanding of the thumbs up/down thing is that the spectators, not emperor, would point down to mean "stick the sword on the ground" and thumb to the side, to the throat, meaning "kill the guy".

Who knows, there must be a gazillion different stories about it, and probably Romans did different things in different times. The Roman empire lasted a very long time.

Oh, Speaking of Romas and the circus:

The famous phrase "Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant", sometimes translating Caesar to actual Caesar, as in Julius Caesar, was never said to him. There were no circus Julius Caesar's time.

That could have led to the great cockroach infestation of the dark ages and the extinction of owls. Dysentery would had been the "plague".

Plus "Mickey Cat" does not have the same ring to it.

Shoulda just burned everything (and everyone) that had fleas. Those were the devil worship disease carriers.

Here's one I thought was interesting - Christopher Columbus never set foot in North America.

Off the top of my head so subject to corrections. Everyone here knows my memory is bad.

1. Satellites were launched by the U.S. to detect gamma ray burst and spy on Russian nuclear tests. When they detected gamma ray bursts coming from space they thought they were witnessing interstellar war.

2. The famous Fermat's Theorem (proved recently) had a side note on the margin with Fermat stating, "I have a proof for this which unfortunately the margin is too small to contain". Also, Fermat was a hobby mathematician who would, in his spare time write theorems to challenge his peers.

3. Galois, (Galois Theory) died in a duel over a woman at a young age.

#%&*$#, I hate math and all I'm coming up with are stupid math history...

4. A Pope in the middle ages was a notorious rapist (too lazy to look up the name).

5. Samurai swords were tested on real bodies and sometimes their effectiveness would be rated on how many bodies a sword was able to cut through in one swing.

6. Ghazan Khan suffered a nose bleed after receiving news that the they were defeated by the Mamluks. (Battle of Marj al-Saffar googled this one up)

7. Saladin did not massacre the Christians in Jerusalem after conquering it which was in stark contrast to what the crusaders did earlier.

oooh columbus
8. When Columbus landed in Haiti, the natives were very friendly to them. The natives were used to travelers passing by so Columbus and his entourage were welcomed very well. They repaid this kindness by taking them as slaves with Columbus giving native women as gifts to his men.

another one I don't know if this fits the thread but I just recalled it...
9. Against those that proposed that Joan of Arc was raped during captivity: her virginity was never included in the trial (which doesn't make sense if she was violated) also, if she was assaulted, rumors of it would've spread among the men (bragging rights) but no documents or accounts ever indicated this.

Last few ones
10. George CAntor supposedly suffered a nervous breakdown trying to deal with Bertrand Russell's paradox. Apparently, the paradox was already known within the inner circles of the academe but they were trying to contain it until a solution was found. Russell apparently wasn't aware of this "secrecy".

11. The calculus by Newton and Leibniz originally had the concept of infinitesimals as actual "entities". This was deemed illogical by (can't remember the name) and the concept of limits were formed.

I believe that the Caribbean islands are considered to be part of North America. So since Columbus set foot on islands such as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic wouldn't that count?

Sorry, maybe I should have said, "North American Mainland."

Here's where I heard he went, which I wasn't sure was really North America:

What Columbus "discovered" was the Bahamas archipelago and then the island later named Hispaniola, now split into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. On his subsequent voyages he went farther south, to Central and South America. He never got close to what is now called the United States.

Are you implying that "America" is just North America/USA?

After the discovery, the new World was briefly named Columbia, until Amerigo Vespucci created the first maps that demonstrated that the South American continent, and therefore, all that was attached to it, was not part of Asia. After that, Europeans started calling all the New World "America" since he "discovered" that fact.

Whenever I say 'MURICA I'm not referring to Bolivia

Just to make sure I didn't say something incorrectly, can you point to something I posted that implied that? All I said was, he never set foot in North America, and as far as I can tell, that doesn't mean that "America" is only North America/USA. In fact, I would say it was the opposite - if I was trying to say the USA/North America is just America, I wouldn't have put in the word "North" and would have just said "America."

I think that's why we now have the general term "The Americas" which includes North, Central and South America.

It avoids any confusion.