PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

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Nuclear War: Nov 7, 2012; You're a pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty girl

System Metternich posted:

My castrati post made me wonder what other interesting "lasts" I could find

The Beguines were a monastic community of women which was started around 1200 in what is today Belgium and the Netherlands and quickly exploded in popularity. They weren't a canonically defined order, so the vows the members had to say had to be periodically renewed, and it was absolutely possible to return to a "normal", non-monastic life thereafter. The Beguines (and their male counterpart, the Beghards or Lollards) directly catered to men and women from the lowest classes: former prostitutes, beggars, and so on who otherwise would have a hard time entering a convent. During the 14th century, many Beguines became part of mystical movements within the church which were views by the authorities with much scepticism and later suffered from full-on persecution. You can't write a cultural or religious history especially of the 14th century without mentioning the impact of the Beguines. The last Beguine was called Marcella Pattyn and died in 2013 in Kortrijk, Belgium.

The last public execution in the US was that of Rainey Bethea who was hanged in 1936 in Kentucky after being convicted of raping and murdering a 70-year-old woman. The growd which had gathered to watch his execution was estimated at about 20,000 people.

The last woman to be (legally) executed as a witch was Anna G�ldi from Sennwald, Switzerland. G�ldi had worked as a maidservant for Johann Jakob Tschudi, one of the richest and most powerful men in Glarus. After being accused of literally spitting nails and conjuring even more nails into the milk of one of Tschudi's daughters, she finally confessed to conspiring with the Devil under torture and was sentenced to death by the sword, a sentence which was carried out immediately. Her trial and death were regarded as scandalous by people all over Europe even at the time, though, which was probably the reason why the reason for her sentence was changed to "poisoning" in the official documents. Later historians discovered that G�ldi probably had had an affair with Tschudi who wanted to remove all evidence of his infidelity.

The Etruscans were a people living in Northern Italy who greatly influenced the early history of Rome (which originally was an Etruscan colony). The last known person to be able to speak and write the language (which remains mostly undeciphered and unknown today) was the Roman emperor Claudius (died in 54 BC) who was married to an Etruscan. Claudius compiled several works about Etruscan vocabulary and grammar by personally interviewing some of the last remaning speakers of the language he could find. Sadly, all his works about the language are lost.

There are exactly two people still living who were born in the 19th century: Susannah Mushatt Jones from the US and Emma Morana from Italy. Both were born in 1899. (I know that formally speaking the year 1900 still belongs to the 19th century if we count that too, the number of still living people rises to four with Violet Brown from Jamaica and Nabi Tajima from Japan added to the list)

The last person to die from smallpox (one of the deadliest diseases throughout human history) was the British photographer Janet Parker in 1978, who had contracted it in a Birmingham medical laboratory. Smallpox is one of only two diseases (the other being rinderpest) which is officially considered to be totally eradicated.

I love this. More please, if anyone has any

# ? Jan 31, 2016 01:06

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# ? May 14, 2024 18:17

Say Nothing: Mar 5, 2013; by FactsAreUseless

RenegadeStyle1 posted:

Are you telling me Paul Bunyan wasn't really a giant?!?

To give an example of how much heights can be exaggerated - this is Siah Khan, who was unfortunate enough to suffer from both Proteus Syndrome and Gigantism. He was reported to be 11'3" (sometimes even 12') when in fact he was 7'3", a full 4' shorter.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 01:13

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

WickedHate posted:

This isn't the schadenfreude thread but oh boy do I have you covered.

Holy. That was painful and wonderful to watch.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 01:35

DavidAlltheTime: Feb 14, 2008; All David...all the TIME!

System Metternich posted:

The Beguines were a monastic community of women which was started around 1200 in what is today Belgium and the Netherlands and quickly exploded in popularity. They weren't a canonically defined order, so the vows the members had to say had to be periodically renewed, and it was absolutely possible to return to a "normal", non-monastic life thereafter. The Beguines (and their male counterpart, the Beghards or Lollards) directly catered to men and women from the lowest classes: former prostitutes, beggars, and so on who otherwise would have a hard time entering a convent. During the 14th century, many Beguines became part of mystical movements within the church which were views by the authorities with much scepticism and later suffered from full-on persecution. You can't write a cultural or religious history especially of the 14th century without mentioning the impact of the Beguines. The last Beguine was called Marcella Pattyn and died in 2013 in Kortrijk, Belgium.

This has no connection I could tease out from the West Indian dance style/rhythm of the same name. How disappointing.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 03:15

You Are A Werewolf: Apr 26, 2010; Black Gold!

WickedHate posted:

This isn't the schadenfreude thread but oh boy do I have you covered.

Don't forget Sylvia Browne:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKyzBe0CA2Q

Also predicted that she would die at 88, but whoops, it was 77 instead.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 04:33

RC and Moon Pie: May 5, 2011

System Metternich posted:

Castrati were extremely popular in European music throughout the Early Modern Era, especially when it came to Italian opera. Historians estimate that at its peak in the 1720s and 30s more than 4000 boys were castrated - per year. This practice only declined in popularity from the late 18th century on. The last role explicitly written for a castrato was in a 1824 opera. In 1861, the newly unified Kingdom of Italy forbade castration. The practice lingered on in the Vatican, but even there no new castrati could be hired by papal decree from 1878 on. Alessandro Moreschi, he last papal castrato (and probably the very last altogether) continued to sing in Rome until 1914. He's also the only one who was recorded:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6U8VZ6riNk

Don't be too surprised when he sounds rather bad in your ears: he was already past his prime when the recordings were made in 1904, and while some say that he just wasn't very good, other scholars point to contemporary listening habits and expectations being substantially different from back then.

The quality of the recording and pitch of his voice reminded me of those terrifying recordings made for Edison dolls.

System Metternich posted:

The Etruscans were a people living in Northern Italy who greatly influenced the early history of Rome (which originally was an Etruscan colony). The last known person to be able to speak and write the language (which remains mostly undeciphered and unknown today) was the Roman emperor Claudius (died in 54 BC) who was married to an Etruscan. Claudius compiled several works about Etruscan vocabulary and grammar by personally interviewing some of the last remaning speakers of the language he could find. Sadly, all his works about the language are lost.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 05:04

System Metternich: Feb 28, 2010; But what did he mean by that?

Oops! Yeah, AD, sorry. I also forgot to say just when G�ldi was killed: it was in 1782 - at the same time the Enlightenment was in full swing someone thought it to be a good idea to kill his lover by accusing her of witchcraft.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 10:00

WickedHate: Aug 1, 2013; by Lowtax

System Metternich posted:

I also forgot to say just when G�ldi was killed: it was in 1782 - at the same time the Enlightenment was in full swing someone thought it to be a good idea to kill his lover by accusing her of witchcraft.

Well, it worked, didn't it?

# ? Jan 31, 2016 10:10

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

System Metternich posted:

The Witchcraft Acts only made it illegal for any person to claim to possess magical powers, though

That doesn't really make it less stupid though.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 17:34

A Fancy 400 lbs: Jul 24, 2008

DavidAlltheTime posted:

This has no connection I could tease out from the West Indian dance style/rhythm of the same name. How disappointing.

Etymonline says that they're related linguistically through the chain:
Beguine -> Beghard -> beggaert -> b�guin -> beguine

# ? Jan 31, 2016 18:41

1: Feb 28, 2007; 1️⃣
Just another number.

System Metternich posted:

There are exactly two people still living who were born in the 19th century: Susannah Mushatt Jones from the US and Emma Morana from Italy. Both were born in 1899. (I know that formally speaking the year 1900 still belongs to the 19th century if we count that too, the number of still living people rises to four with Violet Brown from Jamaica and Nabi Tajima from Japan added to the list)

It strikes me as a neat coincidence that the upper limit of human age is just about 1,000,000 hours (just shy of 114 years and two months). The first person verified as passing that mark was Matthew Beard in 1985; even with generally increasing life expectancies there are still less than ten living people (a little more than one billionth of the population of the planet) confirmed as having joined the million-hours-plus club..

# ? Jan 31, 2016 19:04

Teriyaki Koinku: Nov 25, 2008; Bread! Bread! Bread!

Bread! BREAD! BREAD!

Hogge Wild posted:

He's not. And he's also not a racist and he doesn't absolve Western countries from the things they have done, some goons just don't like him because he's popular. Everything he wrote isn't true, but Guns, Germs and Steel isn't some modern day Mein Kampf.

Thankfully, we have Newt Gingrich on the case for that! :v:

In Defense of Belgian Education in the Colonial Congo

# ? Jan 31, 2016 19:30

Mans: Sep 14, 2011; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Alhazred posted:

At age eight Sun Yaoting was castrated by his father so that he could serve the Chinese emperor as an eunuch. Eight months later the emperor was deposed.

quote:

He was castrated at the age of eight by his father[1] with a single swoop of a razor, mere months before the final emperor was deposed.[2][3][4]

Yikes.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 23:04

FreudianSlippers: Apr 12, 2010; Shooting and Fucking
are the same thing!

DavidAlltheTime posted:

Now I have to add 'Straighten Coolidge's tie' to my list of Time Machine goals.

I've seen quite a few pictures of people from the 20s with crooked ties. Maybe it was in fashion.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 23:30

Accordion Man: Nov 7, 2012; Buglord

Aesop Poprock posted:

Not exactly an unstoppable force of charisma was he

Coolidge was actually pretty media savvy and was the first President to use radio extensively. It's because of this that the American people were endeared to him despite him being a pretty mediocre president.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 23:36

FreudianSlippers: Apr 12, 2010; Shooting and Fucking
are the same thing!

Abraham Lincoln had a very high pitched voice sometimes described as sounding like a tea kettle. He was also possibly gay making him the second gay president after James Buchanan.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 23:45

Mekchu: Apr 10, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Not sure if this was mentioned already, but I find this to be kind of a neat trivia question.

Bugs Bunny is the only cartoon character in history to hold a US Military Rank at Master Sergeant for the short "Super-Rabbit" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Rabbit) during World War II.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 23:48

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

FreudianSlippers posted:

Abraham Lincoln had a very high pitched voice sometimes described as sounding like a tea kettle. He was also possibly gay making him the second gay president after James Buchanan.

Thomas Jefferson had severe nerd voice and was almost certainly on the spectrum.

# ? Jan 31, 2016 23:50

Say Nothing: Mar 5, 2013; by FactsAreUseless

Many people think Lincoln had Marfan's Syndrome due to his height and long-limbed appearance.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/1354040/was_lincoln_already_dying_when_he_got_shot/

# ? Feb 1, 2016 00:38

Johnny Aztec: Jan 30, 2005; by Hand Knit

syscall girl posted:

Thomas Jefferson had severe nerd voice and was almost certainly on the spectrum.

If more autists were like Jefferson, then it'd be cool. Instead, we get bronies, and memes. We get 20-something ~~men~~ boys opening up cereal shops!

# ? Feb 1, 2016 00:51

xthetenth: Dec 30, 2012; Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

Johnny Aztec posted:

If more autists were like Jefferson, then it'd be cool. Instead, we get bronies, and memes. We get 20-something ~~men~~ boys opening up cereal shops!

I'd like to see as few slavers running around as possible.

# ? Feb 1, 2016 01:45

rodbeard: Jul 21, 2005

Johnny Aztec posted:

If more autists were like Jefferson, then it'd be cool. Instead, we get bronies, and memes. We get 20-something ~~men~~ boys opening up cereal shops!

them being more like a rapist would be cooler?

# ? Feb 1, 2016 01:46

hawowanlawow: Jul 27, 2009

I hope you guys didn't trip over yourselves jumping in that fast

# ? Feb 1, 2016 02:07

verbal enema: May 23, 2009; onlymarfans.com

Say Nothing posted:

Many people think Lincoln had Marfan's Syndrome due to his height and long-limbed appearance.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/1354040/was_lincoln_already_dying_when_he_got_shot/

I have Marfan's and dude is was just a tall lanky cat

people with Marfan's have a certain facial structure to them

# ? Feb 1, 2016 02:33

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

FreudianSlippers posted:

Abraham Lincoln had a very high pitched voice sometimes described as sounding like a tea kettle. He was also possibly gay making him the second gay president after James Buchanan.

Lincoln was probably not gay. None of his contemporaries thought so, and the only biographer who thinks so is a gay author who wants to sell books

# ? Feb 1, 2016 02:47

goose willis: Jun 14, 2015; Get ready for teh wacky laughz0r!

How the gently caress do you determine if a historical figure is gay or not

# ? Feb 1, 2016 02:50

canyoneer: Sep 13, 2005; I only have canyoneyes for you

goose fleet posted:

How the gently caress do you determine if a historical figure is gay or not

You say "historical figure was gay" and whenever someone disputes it you say "well, you can't know for sure he wasn't gay" :smuggo:

# ? Feb 1, 2016 02:54

goose willis: Jun 14, 2015; Get ready for teh wacky laughz0r!

George Washington was gay

# ? Feb 1, 2016 02:58

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

I'm not sure that's true.

# ? Feb 1, 2016 02:59

goose willis: Jun 14, 2015; Get ready for teh wacky laughz0r!

Well you can't know for sure he wasn't gay

# ? Feb 1, 2016 03:01

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Hm, fair point.

# ? Feb 1, 2016 03:02

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

goose fleet posted:

How the gently caress do you determine if a historical figure is gay or not

You try to find evidence that they had sexual relationships with persons of their own gender.

lol just kidding you make poo poo up and wait for the controversy dollarydoos to roll in.

# ? Feb 1, 2016 03:06

Slime: Jan 3, 2007

If Thomas Jefferson was born today he'd be a brony who makes really racist rants on facebook.

# ? Feb 1, 2016 03:15

goose willis: Jun 14, 2015; Get ready for teh wacky laughz0r!

# ? Feb 1, 2016 03:41

chefvinny: Apr 5, 2009

It's amazing to hear the change in the 'American' accent - all the 19th century presidents sound like various shades of FDR, whose accent always sounded like an affectation. Compare that with Eisenhower, who sounds 'modern.' One wonders how differently American English sounded from today. There are a few surviving examples, like a thick Appalachian or the Tangier Island accent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKqzxuJ5L4

# ? Feb 1, 2016 04:46

A Fancy 400 lbs: Jul 24, 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV2wRCcWJa8

William Jennings Bryan recorded a portion of his Cross of Gold speech for its 25th anniversary in 1921. It's probably nowhere near as good as the original, since he was a quarter century older and speaking for studio equipment instead of a huge crowd during a tense political convention, but it's still amazing to be able to hear him deliver it.

# ? Feb 1, 2016 05:08

Nessus: Dec 22, 2003; After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!

Unfunny Poster posted:

Not sure if this was mentioned already, but I find this to be kind of a neat trivia question.

Bugs Bunny is the only cartoon character in history to hold a US Military Rank at Master Sergeant for the short "Super-Rabbit" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Rabbit) during World War II.

uhhh

# ? Feb 1, 2016 05:11

goose willis: Jun 14, 2015; Get ready for teh wacky laughz0r!

I like how Teddy does not sound anywhere near as manly as memes make him out to be

# ? Feb 1, 2016 05:13

El Estrago Bonito: Dec 17, 2010; Scout Finch Bitch

Mans posted:

Yikes.

It's a strange yet very very Chinese thing. Pre-communist China had a borderline fetishistic obsession with a sort of clean, efficient and calculated methodology. Not going to go into the extremely lengthy reasons why, but it basically has to do with the ideals preached by many of the mainstream schools of Taoism. Something as life changing and defining as lopping off your kid's nuts would definitely have fallen under that sort of thought, that a single deft cut is more poetic and therefor a better foundation for your future as a eunuch. Singular obsessions and perfection of simple craft as art is a very ingrained thing in Chinese culture, especially pre-revolution. Kung-Fu, for example, is what we usually use to describe a school of martial arts, but in the past was often used to describe anyone who had attained a sense of enlightened mastery over their defining task. Lots of Taoist parables about, like, why the farmer who spends his entire life growing a single plant in order to make the perfect fruit is a better and cooler person than the farmer who grows lots of crops so he can sell them. If you ever want to read a tale set in a world where the moral grounding is radically different, read The Water Margin, a story in which the concept of being good at kung-fu absolving you of your sins is taken to an insane degree. There are a set of characters who are cannibal serial killers who ran an Inn and kidnapped their guests in order to devour them. But then one of them learns Kung-Fu and he's a 100% heroic guy now, despite having done literally nothing else.

# ? Feb 1, 2016 05:25

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# ? May 14, 2024 18:17

Johnny Aztec: Jan 30, 2005; by Hand Knit

goose fleet posted:

I like how Teddy does not sound anywhere near as manly as memes make him out to be

Speak Softly...and carry a BIIIIG Stick!

# ? Feb 1, 2016 05:56

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