History

From all indications, both the Chinese or the Italians invented spaghetti. And it seems that many other cultures around the world invented noodles independent of outside influence as well. The popular story, of course, is that Marco Polo brought pasta back from his trips to China sometime around 1295. However, Italian records from a decade … Read more

Sorry, no, the Chinese did not invent chinese checkers. Its first form hit the gaming scene sometime during the 1880s. It was invented in Victorian England, not China, and was called halma. Not long after, the Germans rearranged the shape of the halma board into a star and sold it as Stern-Halma. A few years … Read more

Firecrackers were invented in China totally by accident. Thousands of years ago, it’s speculated, some unsuspecting peasant in China ran out of wood for his fire and decided to pull down some bamboo and use it to keep his blaze going. Surprisingly, when the fire heated the green bamboo, the air and sap inside boiled … Read more

No Canadian was harmed in the making of that oh-so-reasonable nation. With more of a polite cough than a shot heard ’round the world, Canada’s national status was granted in 1931. There was no bloodshed, just a favorable vote by the British Parliament. Maybe other countries should learn the peaceful ways of Canada.

No, Red Square in Moscow was not named in honor of the Communists. The park in downtown Moscow has had the same name since a century before the Bolshevik Revolution. But here’s the interesting thing, it got its name from a Russian word that could be translated as either “beautiful” or “red,” but time, dubious … Read more

No, Mao Zedong was a legitimate revolutionary, not a dilettante, and was born from true peasant stock. He became radicalized while reading on the job as a library clerk at the National University in Beijing. Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893 in Shaoshan, Hunan province China, and was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist … Read more

Mao Zedong’s Long March when the Red Army retreated was longer than you’d want to walk, most likely. Especially while being bombarded by Chiang Kai-shek’s air force. The Long March was a very long, slow retreat by the Chinese communist revolutionaries from southwest China to northeast China, in which they escaped encirclement and hiked 6,000 … Read more

It’s true, the dates are all wrong. On November 7, workers, soldiers, and sailors led by the Bolsheviks took over the Winter Palace, the headquarters of the provisional government, and formed a new government headed by Lenin. The Russians call it the October Revolution because to them it was still October. Although most of the … Read more

Russia didn’t switch over to the Gregorian calendar from the Julian calendar when the rest of Europe did in large part because of professional jealousy. The Gregorian calendar had been sponsored by a Roman Catholic pope. As a result, the Orthodox Russian Catholic Church dragged its feet and was reluctant to embrace it. Turkey was … Read more

It’s a little-known fact, but Woodrow Wilson did send American forces in to help the White Russians, royalists loyal to the czarist system. Along with a force of Japanese, who had long been an enemy of the Russians, American soldiers fought for two years before being forced to flee the country in 1920. Unfortunately, the … Read more

Germany smuggled the Bolshevik leaders back in, figuring it was the easiest way of getting Russia out of World War I. Even though Czar Nicholas had abdicated, the provisional government that took over continued fighting in World War I. Sowing seeds of trouble that they’d have reason to regret for decades afterward, the Germans decided … Read more

Yes, the French Revolutionary government used a ten-hour metric clock. After they won, the revolutionaries began a reign of terror in which they forced the population to convert to the horrors of metric measurement. Most people don’t know that the post-revolutionary French invented the metric system most of the world now uses for measuring weight, … Read more

When people were being executed by guillotine back then, many wondered how long the head could live for detached from the body. A scientist who had been condemned to the guillotine during the French Revolution decided to try to settle the issue once and for all. Chemist Antoine Lavoisier was one of France’s greatest scientists. … Read more

It’s a myth that Dr. Guillotin was executed by the gruesome device named after him. His connection with the death machine during the French Revolution cost him much remorse, but not his life. Dr. Joseph Guillotin was a humanitarian. He did not invent the machine that came to bear his name; he did, however, lobby … Read more

Following the death of her husband, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette plunged into deep mourning and she refused to eat or take any exercise. Before Marie Antoinette’s execution, she was paraded through the city in a wooden cart, where she was mocked and spat upon by the crowds for three hours. As she ascended the platform … Read more

According to legend, after Marie Antoinette’s beheading on 16 October 1793, the executioner lifted her severed head and slapped her face, which blushed a bright red. However, this is probably unlikely, considering how much blushing is dependent on blood moving through veins. In fact, witnesses to other beheadings described the victim’s face as immediately drained … Read more

The rabble didn’t keep great records, but it was something like 17,000 beheadings and executions that occurred during the French Revolution. Only 3000 of the executed were aristocrats and landowners, the bulk of them were peasants being punished for draft-dodging and other crimes against the revolution. Another 23,000 people died in prison or battle, their … Read more

Yes, Marie Antoinette did wear the Hope Diamond. It was part of France’s collection of crown jewels. After the revolution, they were looted, and the diamond disappeared. When it reappeared twenty years later, it had been cut from 67 carats down to 45 to disguise its origins. What happened to the missing piece or pieces … Read more

The Bastille in Paris, France was a prison that housed personal and political prisoners of the king and queen, and was built during the Hundred Years’ War. Voltaire and the Marquis de Sade had both been alumni. The number of people incarcerated there varied widely at any given time. On July 14, 1789, the prison … Read more

The story suggests Marie Antoinette was not sympathetic to the hungry plight of the French population. As it’s told, someone explained to Queen Marie Antoinette that the people had no bread and she replied offhandedly, “Let them eat cake.” However, a little digging suggests that Marie Antoinette was never that cold hearted or ignorant of … Read more

None of the accounts at the time identified any tune in particular. But about fifty years after the surrender of the British to the Americans at Yorktown, a legend developed that it was “a well known song” called “The World Turned Upside Down.” The title is so fitting to the situation that people assume it … Read more

The American Revolution inspired the French Revolution in more ways than you might imagine. The obvious link was that the heady concepts of freedom and equality traveled well over the ocean. The less obvious connection was that King Louis XVI actually helped finance the American rebels, figuring that any enemy of England was a friend … Read more

General George Washington had several horses, but he mostly rode “Nelson” and “Blueskin.” George Washington was also shot on two different occasions, enemy marksmen shot through his coat and hat, but fortunately, not through Washington himself. After the American Revolutionary War, George Washington served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to … Read more

Nassau Hall, the main structure of what would become Princeton University, was captured and recaptured three times during the heat of battle during the American Revolutionary War. Finally, British soldiers made their last stand there before American artillery convinced them to surrender, doing quite a bit of damage to the building and its furnishings in … Read more

Well, John Paul Jones certainly didn’t stick around on land for long, savoring his victories after the American Revolutionary War ended. That was partly because he had been a seafarin’ guy since the age of 12. That, and there was always a chance that a couple of old murder charges might surface and cause him … Read more

The British paid their mercenary Hessian soldiers from Germany about twenty-five cents a day, less than three dollars in today’s money, during the American Revolutionary War. That would be enough to buy a Grande Vanilla no foam not to hot Latte from Starbucks. As for food, they probably had to hunt, steal, beg or borrow, … Read more

The slaves who fought for the British in the American Revolutionary War were freed, yes, but not the ones who fought for the patriots. In fact, many southern slaveholders didn’t actively fight against the British for freedom because they were afraid that their slaves might get inspired to do the same thing. British recruiters in … Read more

Richard Stockton of Princeton, New Jersey changed his mind after signing of the Declaration of Independence. In fact, he had had qualms about signing the Declaration in the first place but had been swayed by the heady rhetoric at the convention. When captured by the British during the war, he signed an oath of loyalty … Read more

Quite a few Americans supported King George instead of the revolutionaries during the American Revolutionary War, actually, including many family members of the patriots. For example, Benjamin Franklin’s son William sent the authorities secret reports on the activities of his father until he was caught and jailed. Although opinion polls were not a staple of … Read more

The Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775 took place on nearby Breed’s Hill, just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War. The Americans were running out of ammunition when Colonel William Prescott ordered, “You men are all marksmen, now don’t shoot until you can see the … Read more

I’m sure the Samuel Adams Beer Company would be happy if you thought that it was founded by Samual Adams the patriot. It’s true that signer of the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams, was a brewer. However, that was long ago. The Boston Beer Company, the Samuel Adams Beer Company, which makes the beer that … Read more

Paul Revere is famous maybe because “Listen my children and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Dr. Samuel Prescott” doesn’t rhyme. Paul Revere was born on December 22, 1734 in Boston’s North End, and was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. “Paul Revere’s Ride,” the famous poem by … Read more

There was an awful lot of tea on those three ships involved in the Boston Tea Party protest. Participants and the mass of eyewitnesses on the shore describe a scene of near-silence interrupted only by the crack of hatchet on wooden crates and the splash of the crates in the water. This was because it … Read more

The Boston Tea Party protest by colonists in Boston was the result of a growing resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which was passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Historians say that on December 16, 1773, 50 to 100 ruffians disguised as “Indians,” complete with hatchets, ash-darkened skin, and war paint, … Read more

Pope Gregory VII declared all popes saints, but that fell away not long after Gregory VII died. Pope Stephen V (VI), during the late 800s, self-servingly ruled an even higher papal honor: “The popes, like Jesus, are conceived by their mothers through the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. All popes are a certain species of … Read more

Well, never underestimate “progress.” The city has filled in so much of what was once the harbor that the actual site of the Boston Tea Party is now well on solid ground. The historical plaque that marks the site of the Boston Tea Party is sheepishly mounted along a freeway service road several hundred yards … Read more

So far there have been 16 Pope Gregorys in the Papacy, but only one has credit for the Gregorian chant. The first one, Pope St. Gregory the Great, served from 590-604; the last, from 1831-1846. It was the earliest Gregory to whom the Catholics attribute the chanting. However, he didn’t really invent it. It’s just … Read more

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia’s List of Popes, there have been several occasions where there was no pope in the Papacy. Usually this was for some political reason, namely infighting among the church bishops themselves, or struggles between the Roman government and the church. Take, for example, the papal election of 1241. Pope Gregory IX … Read more

All the Pope Stephens have two numbers by them because Stephen II from 752 A.D. died four days after taking office, but before he could be officially consecrated. Because of this, he was left off the official pope charts until 800 years later when church historians decided he belonged there after all. Unfortunately, this caused … Read more

Ah, yes, the Cadaver Synod, an interesting story. During the latter part of the ninth century, Pope Formosus made a number of enemies in the various palace intrigues that surrounded the popes of the time. After his death, one of his enemies was elected, Pope Stephen VI (VII). He had really tried to put the … Read more

Pope Benedict IX, known prior to his post as Theophylactus, and afterward as the Boy Pope, was only about 18 years old when his father essentially bought him the papal seat in 1032. The problem with kids is that they never appreciate what’s been given to them: He sold the papacy to his uncle in … Read more

A man named Ugolino became Pope Gregory IX at, reportedly, 86 years old in 1227. However, some historians set his birth date as only “before 1170”; others say “around 1145.” Before his papal appointment, he had a long career as a deeply devoted theologian, diplomat, and lawyer and was said to be close friends with … Read more

The cardinals are commanded to act in complete secrecy when a new pope is elected, and it is taken very seriously. If any of them blab, not only are they threatened with losing their position but also with excommunication from the church. Traditionally, the pope always had to be elected by a two-thirds majority, but … Read more

The rules for voting for a new pope after his death are that cardinals over 80 are not allowed to vote. Only 120 cardinals are allowed to vote at one time; and no cardinal under 80 can be excluded from voting. As a practical result, a pope is not allowed to appoint more than 120 … Read more

Saint Lucy is the patron saint of the blind. Saint Lucy, also known as Saint Lucia, was a wealthy Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint by Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Christians. As history tells it, she was a Roman governor who had her eyes put out because of her Christian faith. Keep your … Read more

In 1988, carbon dating established that the Shroud of Turin was made sometime between 1260 and 1380 A.D. This also confirms the first church comment on the matter that was made in 1389 A.D. When the shroud was first displayed by a nobleman, the Bishop of Troyes condemned it as a forgery that had been … Read more

Polygamy has been officially against Mormon teachings since 1890, when then church president Wilford Woodruff spoke out against the practice. Since that time, small Mormon church groups have continued to spring up, still actively professing the original polygamous teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. More recently, Polygamy has been popularized in the media with … Read more

Although it’s an intriguing common bit of anti-Mormon propaganda, it’s patently untrue. The Mormon Church did not consummate marriages at the temple during the marriage ceremony. As with all temple rites, the church holds forth that marriage rites are “sacred, not secret.” This was true in the early days of the Mormon Church and in … Read more

Brigham Young, settler of the western United States, became the Mormon leader after church founder Joseph Smith was lynched in 1844. He fervently preached that “plural” marriages were the key to a happy and healthy home. Over the course of his life, Young had 55 wives, some of whom were indeed happy. Brigham Young was … Read more

That’s an interesting result of the historic Mennonite/Amish decision that only mature adults should be allowed to become members. For older teens, too old to be ordered around like kids but too immature to commit to membership, there is a peculiar Amish, letting-off-steam institution called rumschpringes or “time out.” The teens are encouraged to go … Read more

The Pennsylvania Dutch came from Germany, actually. It was one of those funny language misunderstandings. When asked what nationality they were, the new settlers said “Deutsch.” Americans were never very good with languages. And although it was a misunderstanding, the name stuck. Many Pennsylvania Dutch are descendants of refugees from the Palatinate of the German … Read more

No, not all of the Pennsylvania Dutch were Amish. There were also Mennonites, Lutherans, and some other denominations who had heard about Pennsylvania’s tradition of religious freedom. By 1790, people of German descent made up about a third of the state’s population. Most of the original Pennsylvania Dutch are the descendants of Germanic peoples who … Read more

Before the Amish were Amish, there were Mennonites, founded in the 1530s by a Roman Catholic priest named Menno Simons. The Mennonites believed that the Reformation hadn’t gone far enough, and so they created their own churches based on the simplicity of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. As pacifist non-nationalists, they refused to swear oaths, … Read more

Well, funny thing about that. Roger Williams’ body was eaten by an apple tree that was close by, and we’re not kidding. Centuries after his death, the Rhode Island Historical Society wanted to bury Williams in a better resting place. However, when they dug up his grave, they discovered that Williams was gone, bones and … Read more

America’s tradition of freedom of religion has existed for a relatively short period of time. Some would claim that it still hasn’t arrived, but that might be overstating things a bit. Although freedom of religion was guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, court rulings held that it applied only to the federal government, leaving state … Read more

William Penn, was one of the early settlers in America who was actually pretty good about such things, and believed in freedom of religion. He was a member of the Society of Friends, they were called Quakers by their enemies, and the name eventually stuck. The Quakers had been severely persecuted in Europe, and Penn … Read more

The Puritans were English-speaking Protestants and the grim followers of Oliver Cromwell, who had gained control of England in 1649 after a bloody civil war. They got their name from their enemies who taunted them about wanting to “purify” both the Church of England and society. They were also sometimes called “Roundheads” because they cut … Read more

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s other big act in 1492 was exiling all 200,000 Jews who lived in Spain under the threat of death. The expulsion of Jews was part of a much larger religious “cleansing” that the two had begun 12 years earlier, when they had likewise driven the Muslims out of Spain. As … Read more

The Plymouth Colony Pilgrims got their name long after they had all died and moved on to the next new world. For two centuries, the relatively obscure little colonists had been simply called “Founders” or “Forefathers.” This changed in 1854 when a publisher got his hands on the journal of William Bradford. Bradford had been … Read more

The 300,000 cat mummies discovered in the Ancient Egyptian cemetery in Beni Hassan were dug up with tractors and sold for $18.43 a ton to an English fertilizer company. The site is located in the region known as Middle Egypt, and was primarily used during the Middle Kingdom, spanning the 21st to 17th centuries B.C. … Read more

In America, no cats were harmed in the making of the Salem witch trials. Perhaps the Salem town elders learned a lesson from the witch hunts of Europe, in which hundreds of thousands of cats were killed for being in league with the devil. As a result, the devil got his due: Rats suddenly had … Read more

Almost everyone agrees that the Mafia started as a shadow organization in Sicily. What’s amazing is that historians can’t seem to agree on what the name means. Most historians also can’t tell us whether it started in the ninth century, the 18th century, or somewhere in between. The Mafia is also known as “Cosa Nostra” … Read more

The ancient Egyptians had more than 2,000 gods. The greatest of these was the sun god, Ra. According to the Egyptians’ creation story, the ocean was all that existed in the beginning. Then from the water came an egg, some versions say a flower. Ra emerged from it, eventually drying the lands, and in Egypt’s … Read more

Good question. Here’s what our biblical consultants say about how the Israelites crossed the Red Sea in a night while running from the Egyptians. “Red Sea” was apparently a translation error from the days when scholars were rendering the Bible into English for King James I. The original Hebrew called it a “sea of reeds,” … Read more

If you’re an avid cat person, the answer to why the ancient Egyptians worshiped cats of course is self-evident: Because cats are divine. Egyptians literally believed that to be true, to the point that if a household cat died, its owners would shave their eyebrows in mourning and lovingly transport the cat carcass to one … Read more

Considering both the church/state and God/mammon issues, it’s not surprising that some people have objected to the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins. In 1996, the Freedom from Religion Foundation sued to have the slogan removed from United States money. A federal judge ruled against them, arguing somewhat illogically that ” ‘In God … Read more

Since the idea is so simple, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, most religions and philosophies have some variation of the Golden Rule. However, the earliest known rendition came from Confucius (551-479 B.C.): “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.” In other words, don’t screw … Read more

The phrase “In God We Trust” first appeared on U.S. coins during the Civil War. The idea came from a letter that Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase got from an influential Pennsylvania minister named Reverend M. R. Watkinson. “You are probably Christian,” Watkinson wrote. “One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean … Read more

Vice President Martin Van Buren always had a pair of pistols beside him when he presided over the Senate. Martin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782 and was the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. Buren was also the first president to be born an American citizen.

Like most English words, the term “pagan” is Latin in origin. The word comes from the root word paganus, which means “peasant.” During the mass conversion of Rome to Christianity, the peasants and farmers were the last to be converted, and so the childish name-calling began. Lots of childish folks back then. Lots of childish … Read more

With the notable exception of one who was born in a manger, a disproportionate number of founders of major religions had anything but humble beginnings. The founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha, was a prince in what is now Nepal, who abandoned opulent wealth, not to mention a wife and baby, to wander as a holy man. … Read more

Literally hundreds of people and organizations were on U.S. President Richard Nixon’s “Enemies List”. The list was given to government agencies, like the IRS, with quiet presidential orders to harass the people on it. He wanted payback. Some of the more famous names on the list included movie stars, politicians, and media folks, including Carol … Read more

We don’t know yet who “Deep Throat” was. There are those who believe that Deep Throat didn’t really exist, that Bob Woodward’s crucial Watergate informant was a composite of several Washington insiders who knew the ins and outs of Richard Nixon’s White House. This is denied by Woodward. He is one of only four people … Read more

Both his wife and mother died on Valentine’s Day in 1884. He was so distraught that he retired from politics for two years.

It was during the second half of John Adams’s administration, which has become known as the Federalist Reign of Terror, that it a crime to criticize the president. Under the Alien and Sedition Acts, it became a crime to criticize the president or the government. It got so bad that his vice president, Thomas Jefferson, … Read more

President David Rice Atcheson slept through most of his term in presidency. He was president for one day, March 4, 1849. James Polk’s term ended then, but Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on a Sunday so the job went automatically to the senate president pro tern. “I slept most of that Sunday,” Atcheson … Read more

William Henry Harrison had died a month into his term on April 6, 1841 when John Tyler was told he had become president. John Tyler was found deep in a game of aggies or marbles when given the news that he was the first vice president to succeed a dead president. Two decades later, Tyler … Read more

Franklin D. Roosevelt threw the most opening-day baseballs, as he was president for more opening-day baseball seasons than any other president.

Three U.S. presidents didn’t even graduate from grade school. They were Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and Zachary Taylor.

A “score” is equal to 20. Abraham Lincoln gave his speech in 1863. We’ll let you do the math to find the famous year because if we just gave you the answer you wouldn’t learn anything.

The phrase “A house divided against itself cannot stand” originally came from the Bible. “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself shall not stand” (Matthew 12:25). Abraham Lincoln popularized the verse in his speech accepting the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate from Illinois in June of … Read more

America’s most infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr took place on July 11, 1804, in Weehawken, New Jersey. Burr and Hamilton had become political rivals when Burr won a Senate seat that had belonged to Hamilton’s father-in-law. When Burr left the vice presidency and ran an unsuccessful campaign for New York governor, he … Read more

Well, George Washington won 1000/0 of the electoral votes when his name was put up for election. Second-best was Richard Nixon in 1972, who got 520 electoral votes against George McGovern’s 17. John Hospers of the Libertarian Party also won 1. This took place less than two years before Nixon was forced to resign from … Read more

The most unpopular U.S. president in history was probably John Tyler, who took over Harrison’s presidency following his death. After Tyler vetoed key points of his own Whig Party’s program, his entire cabinet resigned, except one member. An armed mob stormed the White House and threw rocks through its windows, and members of his party … Read more

U.S. president Grover Cleveland was nicknamed “Big Steve”. He was a big man, weighing about 280 pounds, and his first name was Stephen. Grover was his middle name. He was also called “Uncle Jumbo,” presumably not by his friends.

Yes. Ulysses S. Grant’s wife, Julia Dent Grant, is also buried Grant’s Tomb. The presidential memorial in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The General Grant National Memorial was designed by architect John Duncan, and was completed in 1897. The National Park Service claims that it is the largest mausoleum in … Read more

No, Camp David was not named after the guy in the Bible who killed Goliath. Camp David is the presidential retreat that was founded by Franklin Roosevelt, who named it Shangri-La. Dwight Eisenhower renamed it in honor of his grandson, David Eisenhower. That name stuck. David’s only other claim to fame since was that he … Read more

Ronald Reagan was the first presidential candidate to be endorsed by TV Guide. TV Guide can also be remembered as the first print venue to publish the conservative Republican coalition’s “Contract With America,” which helped Newt Gingrich capture the House in the 1996 campaign.

U.S. President Grover Cleveland was twenty-eight years older than his wife Frances. She was 21, and he was 49. Cleveland was the first and only president to marry in the White House. The public went crazy over the couple. They saw her as the young gal who put the reigns on an old codger, their … Read more