fun-fucking-history

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Mickey Mouse costumes, Boston, 1943

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Speaking of El Dorado, I visited central America some years back and climbed some Mayan ruins - so here’s fun history stuff!

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Through the centuries, this passion gave rise to the enduring tale of a city of gold. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Europeans believed that somewhere in the New World there was a place of immense wealth known as El Dorado. Their searches for this treasure wasted countless lives, drove at least one man to suicide, and put another man under the executioner's ax.

"El Dorado shifted geographical locations until finally it simply meant a source of untold riches somewhere in the Americas," says Jim Griffith, a folklorist in Tucson, Arizona.

But this place of immeasurable riches hasn't been found.

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I’m sorry the real article in a minute i just love this movie

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STAGGERING beneath the yoke of oppressive taxes, the medieval residents of Coventry, England, pleaded in vain for relief. Ironically, deliverance would come from the wife of the very lord who scorned their pleas. Lady Godiva repeatedly urged her husband, Leofric, to lessen the people's tax burden, and time and again he refused. Yet she persisted, and one day in exasperation he told her he would lower taxes when she rode a horse, naked, through the streets of the town at midday. When she took him at his word and set out on her famous ride, the highborn Lady Godiva became an instant heroine to the common people of Coventry.

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Another mystery is the construction of the Loretto staircase itself. There are no central column or support beams, and it appears that all the weight is self-supported at the base. The craftsman did not use nails or glue; he only used wooden pegs to secure the steps. Additionally, there were no railings. The legend says that some of the nuns were so afraid to descend the 22 foot drop that they would crawl down on their hands and knees. There are only 33 steps, however, the staircase wraps around 360 degrees twice. The number 33 is a significant number, being the age of Jesus at his crucifixion. The Sisters were adamant that it was Joseph himself that came to their rescue. Thus, people have given the stairs the nickname, St. Joseph’s Staircase.

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The next few days will focus on Legends more than exact history. Legends are neat too, right?

I fucking love legends.

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In fact, it's believed that the real “Lone Ranger” was inspired by an African American man named Bass Reeves. Reeves had been born a slave but escaped West during the Civil War where he lived in what was then known as Indian Territory. He eventually became a Deputy U.S. Marshal, was a master of disguise, an expert marksman, had a Native American companion, and rode a silver horse. His story was not unique however.

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Onesimus told Mather about the centuries old tradition of inoculation practiced in Africa. By extracting the material from an infected person and scratching it into the skin of an uninfected person, you could deliberately introduce smallpox to the healthy individual making them immune. Considered extremely dangerous at the time, Cotton Mather convinced Dr. Zabdiel Boylston to experiment with the procedure when a smallpox epidemic hit Boston in 1721 and over 240 people were inoculated. Opposed politically, religiously and medically in the United States and abroad, public reaction to the experiment put Mather and Boylston’s lives in danger despite records indicating that only 2% of patients requesting inoculation died compared to the 15% of people not inoculated who contracted smallpox.

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Boy watching TV for the first time in an appliance store window, 1948.

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However, few have ever come close to the degree of brutality and sadism that one particular female ruler displayed. Her name was Queen Ranavalona I, and she ruthlessly ruled the island nation of Madagascar off the South African Coast for more than three decades from 1828-1861. Although she somehow escaped the notoriety other despotic rulers gained, she presents a convincing case for being the most murderous woman in history, having been responsible for millions of deaths.

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But the rituals and way of life surrounding Nepal's Living Goddess are cloaked in secrecy, and raise questions: Why are they cloistered away? Why are they retired when they reach puberty? Priest Udhav Karmacharya says it wouldn't do to have a goddess susceptible to the distractions of young men. Besides, he says, as she's no longer a child, she will be tempted to tell the secrets of the temple.

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The mummy, called La Doncella or The Maiden, is that of a teenage girl who died more than 500 years ago in a ritual sacrifice in the Andes Mountains. The girl and two other children were left on a mountaintop to succumb to the cold as offerings to the gods, according to the archaeologists who found the mummified remains in Argentina in 1999.

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Depending on which report is accurate, a curious radio message was received by numerous ships traveling along the Straits of Malacca, situated around Sumatra and Malaysia in either June 1947 or as late as February 1948. At the time, the origins of this message – an SOS – were not known. The message itself was divided into two parts, separated by Morse code that could not be deciphered. Those that received this message insisted that the transcript went:

All Officers, including the Captain, are dead. Lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead. … I die.

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cat phone

“In 1929 two Princeton researchers, Ernest Glen Wever and Charles W. Bray, removed part of a cat’s skull and most of its brain to attach one electrode to the animal’s right auditory nerve and a second electrode to another area on the cat’s body. Those electrodes were then hooked up to a vacuum tube amplifier. After amplification, the signals were sent to a telephone receiver. “ 

http://muse.jhu.edu/article/316130

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“The Anglo-Zanzibar war of 1896 is the shortest war on record lasting an exhausting 38 minutes.”

http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-Shortest-War-in-History/

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Incorruptible SAINTS!

I think this is just super fascinating- reminds me of Eva Peron!