Say Nothing posted:

Cumslut1895 posted:

probably already removed from wikipedia

Red Bones posted:

In the 1690s Scotland attempted to get in on the colonialism business by trying to make a land route across Panama. This involved a huge chunk of Scotland's national wealth, because very few international backers were keen on the project, so the Scottish public contributed a lot of the funds in small donations. The plan was a complete failure, bankrupted large chunks of Scotland (it took away roughly 25% of Scotland's net wealth iirc) and was a significant factor in the country forming a union with England a few years later.

Red Bones posted:

In the 1690s Scotland attempted to get in on the colonialism business by trying to make a land route across Panama. This involved a huge chunk of Scotland's national wealth, because very few international backers were keen on the project, so the Scottish public contributed a lot of the funds in small donations. The plan was a complete failure, bankrupted large chunks of Scotland (it took away roughly 25% of Scotland's net wealth iirc) and was a significant factor in the country forming a union with England a few years later.

System Metternich posted:

What is today Venezuela belonged for a while to a German banking family, the Welsers. Instead of properly governing the country, their agents only concerned themselves with looking for the fabled city of El Dorado instead, leading to Emperor Charles V. revoking their licence in 1546 after 16 years of Welser "rule". Maybe I'll be doing an effortpost about that next, because it's a pretty fascinating story.

Red Bones posted:

In the 1690s Scotland attempted to get in on the colonialism business by trying to make a land route across Panama. This involved a huge chunk of Scotland's national wealth, because very few international backers were keen on the project, so the Scottish public contributed a lot of the funds in small donations. The plan was a complete failure, bankrupted large chunks of Scotland (it took away roughly 25% of Scotland's net wealth iirc) and was a significant factor in the country forming a union with England a few years later.

BrigadierSensible posted:

Melbourne was originally going to be called Batmania, after John Batman.

This would have lead to awesomely named football teams such as the Batmania Demons, Batmania Heart, (now Batmania City), and the currently defunct basketball team East Batmania Spectres.

cash crab posted:

Happy Armistice Day, everyone!

During the Imperial War Conference in the First World War, Canada briefly tried to gain control of Maine and Alaska because we didn't understand the idea that we were trying to seize enemy territory.

SeanBeansShako posted:

That is a hilariously small kill count, even against birds with that much ammuntion just wasted.

BravestOfTheLamps posted:

The Colosseum was inhabited during the Middle Ages.

BravestOfTheLamps posted:

The Colosseum was inhabited during the Middle Ages.

The word "nepotism" comes from the practices of Popes naming nephews (nepos in latin) as cardinals. The practice was so well-established that the Cardinal Nephew was an official position for a century.

There is a fragmentary trial document from Renaissance Italy. It is a testimony of the household assassin of an Archbishop and his abbot son, concerning a murder of a peasant that they allegedly ordered. This is an utterly unremarkable case for the era.

Nebakenezzer posted:

Can...you provide a bit more detail

Medieval Medic posted:

Gille de Rais, a notable companion of Joan of Arc, was a child murdering serial killer.

Tsaedje posted:

Also those "nephews" were mostly the various popes' bastard sons

Vindolanda posted:

Not only inhabited, but like many ancient structures it was used as a fortress by important families. There are relief panels from the outside bearing the marks of musket balls etc., and it was also used as a manufactory.

Along the theme of Ancient Rome, until the fascist period the Tiber would flood every now and again, filling the forum and low areas with silt. Because this built up after the decline of the western empire, many monuments are significantly better preserved at 20 feet above the present (and ancient) ground level. Some arches have been really knocked about by the axle bosses of early medieval carts.

Frostwerks posted:

Not just that but it is exceedingly likely that medieval Bologna looked preeeetttyyy close to this back in the day:





Maybe not as many but there were unquestionably scores of them and it's because they're good vantage points and projectile platforms and Italians do everything as a family including fight with other families.

Samovar posted:

I can see why they didn't put THAT city in Assassin's Creed 2.

Frostwerks posted:

Not just that but it is exceedingly likely that medieval Bologna looked preeeetttyyy close to this back in the day:





Maybe not as many but there were unquestionably scores of them and it's because they're good vantage points and projectile platforms and Italians do everything as a family including fight with other families.

BravestOfTheLamps posted:

There is a fragmentary trial document from Renaissance Italy. It is a testimony of the household assassin of an Archbishop and his abbot son, concerning a murder of a peasant that they allegedly ordered. This is an utterly unremarkable case for the era.

RC and Moon Pie posted:

President John Tyler (1790-1862), a man who held the office from 1841-45, has two living grandsons.

As of last check. Couldn't find any evidence that they had died since the last news sources earlier this year.

Trin Tragula posted:

Napoleon Bonaparte's Imperial Guard regularly went into battle while singing a jolly little song about onions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE70jrhOrjk

Loosely translated: "We love onions fried with oil, let's charge, the onions change us into a lion, let's charge, but no onion for those Austrian bastards, let's charge." The Grenadiers of the Old Guard, the elite of the elite, were also granted the special privilege to bitch and moan as they pleased about the vagaries of military life, and so became known as "the grumblers", or les Grognards.

EX250 Type R posted:

Mark Twain had his railings at his house in Hartford CT unusually low so he would feel taller. He also used a balcony off his office when unwanted visitors came by to avoid lying/deceit. He would go on to the balcony while his housekeeper would meet the guest and inform them that Mr. Clements was not available as he had just stepped out.

Nostalgia4Butts posted:

He also would sleep with his head at the foot of his bed because he had a very nice headboard and thought it was a waste to not look at it as he was going to sleep

The house is very cool to go through, growing up in CT we visited it for school field trips a bunch.

BravestOfTheLamps posted:

The Colosseum was inhabited during the Middle Ages.

The word "nepotism" comes from the practices of Popes naming nephews (nepos in latin) as cardinals. The practice was so well-established that the Cardinal Nephew was an official position for a century.

There is a fragmentary trial document from Renaissance Italy. It is a testimony of the household assassin of an Archbishop and his abbot son, concerning a murder of a peasant that they allegedly ordered. This is an utterly unremarkable case for the era.

syscall girl posted:

So he was a Connecticut Yankee

House Louse posted:

That does actually seem pretty weird because why would an archbishop and an abbot conspire to murder a peasant?


I think until a couple of years ago there were still a few Confederate widows about - women who had, while very young, married old men for their pensions. Assuming the soldiers were born in 1845, living until 1930-ish doesn't impossible (age 85), and if the wives were born about 1910 they'd be 105 now. I'm being pretty generous with those figures but iirc that's roughly how the sums worked out.