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

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Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

The word "crusade" is relatively modern. The people who participated in the crusades referred to themselves as fideles Sancti Petri (the faithful of St. Peter) or the knights of Christ.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 12:40

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# ? May 7, 2024 08:33

Vindolanda: Feb 13, 2012; It's just like him too, y'know?

Angry Salami posted:

The royal palace in Hawaii had electric lighting four years before the White House and more than a decade before Buckingham Palace. The Hawaiian king Kalakaua spent a lot of his reign traveling the world - he was the first head of state to circumnavigate the world, and the first foreign leader to meet with a Japanese emperor. On his world tour, he met Thomas Edison and saw a demonstration of electric lightbulbs, and was so impressed he made it a priority to have them installed when the palace was next renovated.

One of the earliest country houses in the UK to have electric lighting had regular small ceiling fires due to the high power and poor insulation used in the first systems. The solution was to throw a cushion at the ceiling and thereby put it out.*

Similarly, the first Royal Navy ship to have electric lighting was a wooden one, and the lights ran on basically unprotected six hundred volt systems. After a few electric shocks and fires, the system was altered.

*I think I read this in a Bill Bryson book, and given his combined tendency to make things up and repeat unsupported any story that makes aristocrats look bad....I dunno.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 13:12

ArchangeI: Jul 15, 2010

SeanBeansShako posted:

Frederick The Great won in the end, he got to play the flute all day surrounded by burly tall as hell Grenadiers. gently caress you dad indeed.

More than that, he took the Army his father had painstakingly built over an entire lifetime and threw it into battle, over and over and over again, taking horrendous casualties most of the time. Granted, he won most of the time, but I wonder if there wasn't a degree of "gently caress YOU DAD I'M GONNA KILL ALL YOUR SOLDIERS and also become a European Great Power or something, whatever" involved.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 13:34

Admiral Bosch: Apr 19, 2007; Who is Admiral Aken Bosch, and what is that old scoundrel up to?

Red Bones posted:

My personal favourite, a ten year old boy walking through a cave, the walls lit by the burning torch in his hand as a large dog keeps pace beside him, twenty-six thousand years ago.

This page doesn't want to load for me, possibly because of my crappy Chinese internet connection. Can someone copy/paste the relevant text for me? It sounds cute.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 15:33

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

ArchangeI posted:

More than that, he took the Army his father had painstakingly built over an entire lifetime and threw it into battle, over and over and over again, taking horrendous casualties most of the time. Granted, he won most of the time, but I wonder if there wasn't a degree of "gently caress YOU DAD I'M GONNA KILL ALL YOUR SOLDIERS and also become a European Great Power or something, whatever" involved.

Pretty sure he only really tried to start one war, the Seven Years' War was looming when they went into Saxony. After that he tried to increase power by modernizing rather than fighting wars.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 15:43

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

xthetenth posted:

Pretty sure he only really tried to start one war, the Seven Years' War was looming when they went into Saxony. After that he tried to increase power by modernizing rather than fighting wars.

Nah, he did more than that. When he came to power in 1740, he was hailed as one of the biggest hopes of the enlightened/"liberal" wing all over Europe, and at first he seemed to actually fulfill this role, for example when one of the first tings he did after ascending to the throne was abolishing torture. For a time people even dared to dream that he might be a fitting successor to Emperor Charles VI of Austria, who had died unexpectedly a couple months into Frederick's reign - this was doubly significant, as the Imperial Crown was traditionally linked to the Catholic Church, and even considering the possiility of a Protestant Emperor showed how many hoped were directed towards him.

This all pretty much ended when he ordered Prussian troops to march into Silesia, which was then part of the Bohemian crown and belonged to the Hapsburg Empire. Charles VI had left only one daughter, Maria Theresia, and for her he had to change the Austrian order of succession as female rulers hadn't been possible beforehand. To ascertain the other powers' recognition of a possible female successor he had negotiated the so-called "Pragmatic Sanction" of 1713 which changed the order of succession to the throne and to which pretty much all the powers of Europe had declared that they would recognise his daughter as his legitimate successor to the Austrian possessions. Only two months after Charles' death Frederick took a big fat dump on all this when he pretty much blackmailed Maria Theresia by demanding Silesia in exchange for a renewed recognition of her rule. He didn't even wait for an Austrian reply to arrive and ordered his troops into Silesia only five days later. Together with a powerful coalition of other powers who smelt blood he started a war against Austria just because he could. When the outmatched Austrian military had to surrender soon afterwards, he again gave his other allies a sudden "gently caress you" and negotiated a separate peace with Austria...

...only to ignore this peace again shortly afterwards when it looked like Austria might actually win its war against the other powers. This time he invaded Bohemia, but retreated once it became apparent that the Austrians wouldn't be beaten that easily there.

And ten years after that, he started the Seven Years' War when he had Saxony invaded without any declaration of war. Frederick had always tried to play his wars up to a hly war of Protestants against the dastardly Austrian Catholics, but when his troops laid the Saxon countryside to waste and he had Dresden shot to pieces with his artillery, this support pretty much evaporated as well.

IMO Frederick was in many respects a great king, but he was an absolute warmonger as well who didn't give a poo poo about all the dead his politics caused. He only gave a poo poo about the enfranchisement for Catholics and Jew when it was convenient, and the same went for freedom of the press as well. He even had one reporter who had been consistently criticising him be beaten up by paid thugs :psyduck:

Two centuries of Protestant and Borussophile hagiographic historiography have made him into much more than he really was: a power-tripping rear end in a top hat with some good ideas.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 16:42

Carlos Lantana: Oct 2, 2003; I'm really sorry, your avatar is giving me a boner and while that is perfectly OK and I don't want to kink shame anyone, its making me feel really weird getting a boner in a Trump thread.

Sincerely,

Jailbrekr

Nixon took heroic amounts of Dilantin to try and stabilize his moods and beat his wife, Pat, like a dusty carpet

# ? Nov 14, 2015 17:06

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

A photograph of Disneyland:

Yes that is riot police on Main Street. What happened at Disneyland to cause this police response that looks like Mickey Mouse had been toppled in a coup d'etat?

In 1970 Disneyland was invaded by Yippies.

quote:

"Now, what exactly is a Yippie?" you ask. A Yippie is/was a member of the Youth International Party, which was this theatrically inclined offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movement of the 1960s. Founded by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin in December 1967, the Youth International Party was always looking for new ways to mock the establishment and doing deliberately silly things like insisting that a pig ("Pigasus the Immortal") was the Yippies' candidate of choice in the hotly contested presidential race of 1968.

And given that the Youth International Party was always on the lookout for very public venues where they could then stage pieces of political theatre, when word got out in the late spring of 1970 that Disneyland had just relaxed its dress code for guests (meaning that teenagers with long hair and dressed in hippy garb were no longer automatically turned away at the turnstiles), the Happiest Place on Earth became a very tempting target for Hoffman and Rubin.

Which is why, in late June and early July, a flyer began making the rounds in countercultural circles about the Yippie convention that was going to be held at Disneyland on Aug. 6. This day-long "International Yippie Pow-Wow" was loaded with deliberately theatrical events, like a Black Panther's hot breakfast at Aunt Jemima's Pancake House, not to mention a Women's-Liberation-inspired moment when the female Yippies were to have gathered in Fantasyland to liberate Minnie Mouse.

quote:

But what the Yippies failed to take into account was that it had barely been a year since Sharon Tate and four others had been brutally murdered in Tate's Benedict Canyon home. And because the trial of Charles Manson and his associates had just gotten underway in June, Southern California wasn't exactly the most welcoming place during the summer of 1970, especially if you were a young adult with long hair who dressed in hippie-style clothes.

Add to this the fact that Disney Company execs remembered all too well what had happened back in August 1968, when 10,000 demonstrators had traveled to Chicago in hopes of capturing some of the media's attention during the Democratic National Convention. The ensuing riots, during which Chicago policemen and members of the Illinois National Guard had been seen on live national television beating protestors in the street, had given that city a huge black eye, not to mention a PR headache that continued well into 1969, with the media circus that surrounded the Chicago Seven Conspiracy trial.

That, in a nutshell, was the nightmare that Mouse House managers feared would come true with this Yippie convention that was supposed to be held at Disneyland on Aug. 6. They worried that some sort of ugly incident would happen inside their theme park on that date and, worse yet, that this confrontation between the establishment and the counterculture would be caught on camera and forever ruin Disneyland's reputation for being the Happiest Place on Earth.

So in the weeks leading up to the "International Yippie Pow-Wow," there were dozens of meetings among Disneyland managers. Because no one knew how many kids would actually be coming out to Anaheim on Aug. 6 to take part in this event, they prepared for the worst. Anticipating that thousands of would-be protestors would descend on the theme park that morning, a special command and communications center was set up backstage. Cast members were warned that if they came across some sort of incident while were working in the park that day, they weren't to take matters into their own hands. Rather, they were to take advantage of special radio codes, which Disney had created just to deal with the Yippie threat, to call for backup.

And speaking of backup, just to make sure that they had the manpower and muscle necessary to actually stop a riot should the unthinkable happen, Disneyland officials reached out to the Anaheim and Fullerton police forces, who then sent a combined force of 150 officers in full riot gear to that theme park. These policemen arrived in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 6 and then assembled in the backstage area between Main Street, U.S.A. and Tomorrowland, out of sight of the general public.

Given that you had to pay admission to get into the park, not many Yippies actually came inside and those who did...

quote:

were pulled aside and discreetly told the rules of the day, which were basically, "If you're here to have a good time, you're more than welcome to visit Disneyland, but if you're here to cause trouble, you're eventually going to be asked to leave the park."

And that -- in the beginning, anyway -- is how Disneyland handled the International Yippie Pow-Wow: managers continually scurried around the park, going up to individual groups of long-haired kids and asking them to "please be cool," to be respectful of all the other guests who'd come out to the park that day with their families, to not ruin these other people's fun with their Yippie activities.

And for most of the day, this approach worked. The now-middle-aged Yippies who actually took part in 1970's Pow-Wow talk about how amusing (yet annoying) it was to continually be shadowed by these soft-spoken, very polite, tie-wearing executives as they moved through the theme park. Disneyland managers alternated between whispering into their walkie-talkies and periodically walking up to groups and asking, "Now you guys are going to behave, right? Please don't ruin things for all our other guests."

And despite the promises of the initial flyer for this event, no Black Panthers ever showed up for breakfast at Aunt Jemima's Pancake House, nor did any Women's Lib types attempt to liberate Minnie Mouse in Fantasyland. And speaking of no-shows, perhaps the biggest disappointment of the day was that Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin failed to make the scene, which then left the Yippies who had actually bought admission to Disneyland that day without a de facto leader of their in-theme-park protest. As a result, no one knew where or when it was, exactly, that they were now supposed to stick it to the Man -- or, in this case, the Mouse.

How did that go?

quote:

Mind you, there were those in the group who did make a genuine effort to get something controversial going over the course of the day. Take, for example, the 30 or so Yippies who tried to commandeer Captain Hook's pirate ship by climbing up into its rigging. But given that this boat was actually a building (The Chicken of the Sea restaurant, to be precise), the fact that there were teenagers up on the second floor chanting about Ho Chi Mihn didn't actually stop any tourists from ordering tuna sandwiches down on the first floor.

Hmmm... well then what?

quote:

So at 5 p.m., a handful of Yippie convention participants boarded a raft for Tom Sawyer's Island and then "invaded" Fort Wilderness. Their goal was to scandalize the guests who were already on the Island by pulling down the Stars and Stripes and replacing it with their Yippie flag. They also tried to get a reaction out of the tourists floating by on the Mark Twain riverboat and the Mike Fink keelboats by chanting slogans like "free Charles Manson" and "legalize marijuana," while openly smoking pot.

The only problem with this plan was... well, to be blunt, Tom Sawyer's Island is separated from the rest of Disneyland by a pretty wide body of water, the Rivers of America. Furthermore, Fort Wilderness is located in a fairly isolated corner of that Island. So rather than offending thousands of Disneyland guests with this seemingly bold piece of political theater (and, more importantly, generating millions of dollars' worth of free publicity for the Youth International Party), the Yippies had, at best, mildly annoyed a couple dozen tourists.

Realizing that their "takeover" of Fort Wilderness had proven to be something of a dud, the Yippies now decided to return to Main Street, U.S.A. They figured that if they protested in front of the in-park branch of the Bank of America (which, at that time, was located toward the very front of that theme park), that might finally get a rise out of some of the staid Southern California suburbanites who were visiting Disneyland that day.

But even this piece of political theater didn't go quite according to plan. As the Yippies began chanting "Give me an 'F,' give me a 'U,'" the 700 guests who were standing in Town Square around this same time spontaneously began singing "God Bless America."

Tension rose as one of the kids climbed a turn-of-the-century light pole and then tried to hang the Yippie flag from there. One of the tourists in Town Square immediately reached up and tore this banner down. This then escalated into a shoving match between that guest and the Yippie.

Sensing that this situation was about to spin out of control, Disneyland managers felt that they now had no choice but to shut the Yippies down. "That's it," Dick Nunis, the Vice President of Operations, said. "No more mass marching. No more demonstrating. No more singing. You're no longer welcome here. You need to leave the park."

And when members of the Youth International Party tried to call Nunis' bluff by turning and heading back up Main Street, U.S.A. toward Sleeping Beauty Castle, that's when the riot police came marching out from backstage.

quote:

Guests in other parts of the theme park that night had similar sorts of rude awakenings. One tourist described floating back out into the sunlight after riding through "It's a Small World," having been caught up in this attraction's happy-happy message of "there is just one moon and one golden sun, and a smile means friendship to everyone," only to then discover a police helicopter hovering over Fantasyland, as the officer onboard used this helicopter's PA system to urge all Disneyland guests to move to the nearest exit.

It took a solid two hours to clear everyone out of the theme park that night. And even then, once the gates had been locked, Disneyland security still discovered six Yippies who had hidden themselves away while the place was being closed, in hopes of being able to do some additional mischief once all of the employees had gone home for the day.

quote:

Disneyland did experience some minor property damage over the course of the day, most of it caused by Yippies who, after they were forced to leave the theme park, vented their frustration by tearing up the flowerbeds that were located just outside the park's turnstiles and then throwing the flowers at the policemen who were now lining Disneyland's perimeter fence.

But beyond that, instead of walking away from this incident with a Chicago-sized black eye, Disneyland officials actually found themselves being praised for the way that they handled the events of Aug. 6, 1970. Because they'd mostly taken a hands-off, keep-things-cool approach to handling the Yippie convention, Mouse House executives had managed to keep this particular powder keg from exploding for most of that day. And then, when the Yippies had seemed determined to move things to the next level, Disneyland officials had quickly defused what could have been a genuinely dangerous situation, by making a sudden and deliberate show of force (i.e., by bringing those hundreds of riot police out from backstage).

Of course, what's kind of ironic about this whole situation is that were you to talk with 90 percent of the Southern California teens who came out to Disneyland on Aug. 6, 1970 to take part in the International Yippie Pow-Wow, you'll find that they weren't there because they believed fervently in the causes of the Youth International Party, but rather because they were just bored teenagers who were looking for something different to do on a hot summer day. These kids made a special trip out to Disneyland on Aug. 6 with the hope that they might get to see something happen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-hill/yippies-disneyland_b_917731.html

# ? Nov 14, 2015 18:23

SeanBeansShako: Nov 20, 2009; Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.

System Metternich posted:

Two centuries of Protestant and Borussophile hagiographic historiography have made him into much more than he really was: a power-tripping rear end in a top hat with some good ideas.

You can pretty much say the same about most of histories more liberal leaning non elected leaders with this statement. Kind of amusing that Napoleon beats old Frederick on both counts of war mongering and the occasional good deed thrown about to not make him look like a total rear end.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 18:32

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

SeanBeansShako posted:

You can pretty much say the same about most of histories more liberal leaning non elected leaders with this statement. Kind of amusing that Napoleon beats old Frederick on both counts of war mongering and the occasional good deed thrown about to not make him look like a total rear end.

I know, but good ol' Frederick irks me somewhat special, probably because I'm a Catholic historian from Germany. The denominational divide in Germany still runs deep in some areas, and I never said I was free from biases :v:

# ? Nov 14, 2015 18:35

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

Napoleon was definitely the best Napoleon though. Napoleon II didn't really get a chance to do anything and Napoleon XIV was decent fun but sort of one note. Napoleon III was poo poo.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 19:28

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

The series suffered from pretty bad sequelitis but I'm hoping they can put together a reboot soon

# ? Nov 14, 2015 19:45

Disinterested: Jun 29, 2011; You look like you're still raking it in. Still killing 'em?

You left out Napoleon's useless brother

# ? Nov 14, 2015 19:51

Comrade Koba: Jul 2, 2007

goose fleet posted:

The series suffered from pretty bad sequelitis but I'm hoping they can put together a reboot soon

Napoleon: Genisys :hist101:

# ? Nov 14, 2015 21:12

Admiral Bosch: Apr 19, 2007; Who is Admiral Aken Bosch, and what is that old scoundrel up to?

Zero One posted:

A photograph of Disneyland:

Disney yippie whimsy

Abbie Hoffman is one of my favorite characters from 60s counterculture so thank you for posting this. Never heard about it before.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 21:26

Silmarildur: Jan 30, 2005; Thats what I'm Tolkien about.

System Metternich posted:

...

the earliest known group photograph shot in the outside dates from 1843 (Association of Hamburg artists), and there is no known photograph from Alt�tting this early besides from that one.

...

If anyone missed this early photo it is pretty amazing. It's not just for the time warp factor, it's a really interesting photograph. These two guys were my favorites of the many interesting characters. Steves Wozniak and Jobs on a steampunk time travel adventure?

# ? Nov 14, 2015 21:50

Carbon dioxide: Oct 9, 2012

Louis Napoleon, king of Holland, is considered somewhat of a cool guy by the Dutch people.

While his brother wanted EMPIRE, he cared a lot more about giving his subjects a good life, and went against his brother's commands to do so. He visited the sick (without caring about the risk of getting sick himself). He gave money and rights to religious minorities. He created a bunch of cultural institutions that last till this day, such as the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and the Rijksmuseum.

But he's best known for trying to learn the Dutch language and failing. He supposedly said "Iek ben de konijn van 'Olland" instead of "Ik ben de koning van Holland" (I'm the bunny of Holland, instead of I'm the king of Holland).

# ? Nov 14, 2015 22:14

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

Silmarildur posted:

If anyone missed this early photo it is pretty amazing. It's not just for the time warp factor, it's a really interesting photograph. These two guys were my favorites of the many interesting characters. Steves Wozniak and Jobs on a steampunk time travel adventure?

Then you might also enjoy this photo, which was taken later the same day I believe. I wholeheartedly concur with your assessment, btw :v:

# ? Nov 14, 2015 22:29

SeanBeansShako: Nov 20, 2009; Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.

Comrade Koba posted:

Napoleon: Genisys

We joke about it, but there is still a living descendent of Napoleon who's quite young but he's not really that into politics.

# ? Nov 15, 2015 02:02

tacodaemon: Nov 27, 2006

Ren� Auberjonois (you know, Odo from Star Trek) is the great-great-great-grandson of Napoleon's little sister Caroline

# ? Nov 15, 2015 02:07

trickybiscuits: Jan 13, 2008; yospos

Red Bones posted:

My personal favourite, a ten year old boy walking through a cave, the walls lit by the burning torch in his hand as a large dog keeps pace beside him, twenty-six thousand years ago.

Werner Herzog, who I won't shut up about, made a film about Chauvet Cave in which these footprints appear. Very worth watching.

BlueDiablo posted:

And depending on who you ask, he killed so many people that the average temperature of the Earth dropped a few degrees.

He was responsible for the end of the High Middle Ages warm period in Europe? Monster.

# ? Nov 15, 2015 05:32

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

trickybiscuits posted:

Werner Herzog, who I won't shut up about, made a film about Chauvet Cave in which these footprints appear. Very worth watching.

He was responsible for the end of the High Middle Ages warm period in Europe? Monster.

That was a volcano though?

He was both a real piece of work and kind of impressive at the same time.

Rape and murder are still bad but it was impressive.

# ? Nov 15, 2015 05:37

Frostwerks: Sep 24, 2007; by Lowtax

SeanBeansShako posted:

Frederick The Great won in the end, he got to play the flute all day surrounded by burly tall as hell Grenadiers. gently caress you dad indeed.

Was FtG the guy who had the mother of all comebacks, at least w/r/t conflicts on the continent in his era? Like snatching victory from the jaws of defeat despite being completely hosed on paper?

trickybiscuits posted:

Werner Herzog, who I won't shut up about, made a film about Chauvet Cave in which these footprints appear. Very worth watching.

He was responsible for the end of the High Middle Ages warm period in Europe? Monster.

I haven't seen it but there was an NPR or PRI talkshow that had Werner Herzog, Cormac McCarthy and some physicist on all at the same time and it was amazing. They also discuss this movie and this particular cave as well as the 3d effects and poo poo.

# ? Nov 15, 2015 07:22

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

Frostwerks posted:

Was FtG the guy who had the mother of all comebacks, at least w/r/t conflicts on the continent in his era? Like snatching victory from the jaws of defeat despite being completely hosed on paper?

Yeah, but it wasn't really because of his own merits. For like the longest time during the seven years' war it looked really bad for Prussia, especially after the battle of kolsdorf where Frederick almost died himself and where his army had been utterly routed. The allies could have marched on Berlin afterwards, but spent the time with internal bickering instead and didn't get to an agreement on how to proceed in time. The second stroke of luck happened in 1762 when czar Elizabeth died unexpectedly and was succeeded by Peter iii - a massive Frederick fanboy who then not only ended the war on his behalf but instead even signed an alliance treaty with Prussia instead, turning Russian troops on their former allies. This event is often titled as the “miracle of the house Brandenburg“, even though this name originally came from a letter by Frederick written after Kolsdorf in which he made fun of the inability of his enemies to use his weakness and end the war

# ? Nov 15, 2015 08:53

Bonapartisan: May 20, 2004; Emperor of France
Creator of the Code Napoleon
Conqueror of the Ziggy Piggy

Disinterested posted:

You left out Napoleon's useless brother

You need to be more specific. Do you mean Joseph, failed King of Spain? Or perhaps Louis, failed King of Holland? Or maybe Jerome who gave up his American wife (Betsy Patterson) for the Kingdom of Westphalia? Or do you mean Lucien, the traitorous brother who helped bring in the Consulate (President of the Council of Five Hundred) and later turned has back on everything, but hey dude got named Prince of Canino by Pius VII!

Or maybe we could refer to one of the brothers-in-law? Elisa's worthless husband Felix Baciocchi, Prince of Lucca? Maybe One of Pauline's husbands? Leclerc who died in Haiti to Toussant L'Overtures remaining forces, oh no wait it was yellow fever. Or Camillo Borghese Prince of Sulmona who was just generally ineffectual. Or, there's Caroline's husband Murat, King of Naples who tried to save his own skin and abandoned Napoleon at the end?

Losers. All of them.

I'd post more with links, but I'm on my phone, doing this from memory I may have spelled some of those kingdoms wrong.

# ? Nov 15, 2015 10:04

Whybird: Aug 2, 2009; Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar; Nap Ghost

Have we done the Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV?

In 1676, Mehmed sent a letter to the Zaporozhians calling upon them to surrender:

Sultan Mehmed IV posted:

Sultan Mehmed IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks:

As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God Himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians - I command you, the Zaporogian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.

--Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV

The Cossacks wrote back:

Drunken Russians posted:

Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!

O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are you, that can't slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil excretes, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a bitch, make subjects of Christian sons; we've no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, gently caress your mother.

You Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-fucker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw your own mother!

So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!

- Koshovyi Otaman Ivan Sirko, with the whole Zaporozhian Host.

The best thing about this story is the painting done by Ilya Repin of the scene:

GUYS GUYS I'VE GOT ONE CALL HIM THE CRICK IN OUR DICK

# ? Nov 15, 2015 11:24

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

Not taking sides but that was a thing of beauty

# ? Nov 15, 2015 11:33

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

System Metternich posted:

Yeah, but it wasn't really because of his own merits. For like the longest time during the seven years' war it looked really bad for Prussia, especially after the battle of kolsdorf where Frederick almost died himself and where his army had been utterly routed. The allies could have marched on Berlin afterwards, but spent the time with internal bickering instead and didn't get to an agreement on how to proceed in time. The second stroke of luck happened in 1762 when czar Elizabeth died unexpectedly and was succeeded by Peter iii - a massive Frederick fanboy who then not only ended the war on his behalf but instead even signed an alliance treaty with Prussia instead, turning Russian troops on their former allies. This event is often titled as the “miracle of the house Brandenburg“, even though this name originally came from a letter by Frederick written after Kolsdorf in which he made fun of the inability of his enemies to use his weakness and end the war

On the other hand would a less capable state have been in a position for those mistakes and flukes to matter?

# ? Nov 15, 2015 16:54

Samovar: Jun 4, 2011; I'm 😤 not a 🦸🏻‍♂️hero...🧜🏻

Whybird posted:

The best thing about this story is the painting done by Ilya Repin of the scene:

GUYS GUYS I'VE GOT ONE CALL HIM THE CRICK IN OUR DICK

It's the little smirk on the scribe's face that does it for me. Repin did a number of paintings of Russian history. They were pretty much all fantastic.

# ? Nov 15, 2015 20:07

Raygereio: Nov 12, 2012

Bonapartisan posted:

Louis, failed King of Holland?

Louis is generally remembered favorably in the Netherlands. He seemed to take his duties as King seriously. There were two disaster during his reign (a ship with gunpowder blew up in Leiden and there was a flooding) where he helped with relief efforts, which got him a lot of goodwill.
His main problem was that he didn't act like Napoleon's puppet and actually took care of his people. For example he refused to institute a draft, so he failed to deliver the amount of troops from the Netherlands Napoleon demanded. And he turned a blind eye to smugglers doing trade with the British, because blocking all trade would gently caress over the Dutch economy.
Napoleon eventually got fed up with Louis and used a British invasion into Louis' lands (which was actually quickly repelled) as an excuse to replace him.

Raygereio has a new favorite as of 20:33 on Nov 15, 2015

# ? Nov 15, 2015 20:30

Disinterested: Jun 29, 2011; You look like you're still raking it in. Still killing 'em?

Bonapartisan posted:

You need to be more specific. Do you mean Joseph, failed King of Spain? Or perhaps Louis, failed King of Holland? Or maybe Jerome who gave up his American wife (Betsy Patterson) for the Kingdom of Westphalia? Or do you mean Lucien, the traitorous brother who helped bring in the Consulate (President of the Council of Five Hundred) and later turned has back on everything, but hey dude got named Prince of Canino by Pius VII!

Or maybe we could refer to one of the brothers-in-law? Elisa's worthless husband Felix Baciocchi, Prince of Lucca? Maybe One of Pauline's husbands? Leclerc who died in Haiti to Toussant L'Overtures remaining forces, oh no wait it was yellow fever. Or Camillo Borghese Prince of Sulmona who was just generally ineffectual. Or, there's Caroline's husband Murat, King of Naples who tried to save his own skin and abandoned Napoleon at the end?

Losers. All of them.

I'd post more with links, but I'm on my phone, doing this from memory I may have spelled some of those kingdoms wrong.

I was going for Joseph but this is a good name post combination.

# ? Nov 15, 2015 22:13

Comrade Koba: Jul 2, 2007

Samovar posted:

It's the little smirk on the scribe's face that does it for me. Repin did a number of paintings of Russian history. They were pretty much all fantastic.

Can't post Repin without this:

Ivan the Terrible and his son, November 16th 1581

# ? Nov 15, 2015 22:45

Magnus Manfist: Mar 10, 2013

Samovar posted:

It's the little smirk on the scribe's face that does it for me. Repin did a number of paintings of Russian history. They were pretty much all fantastic.

I can just see that fat Santa-looking dude cutting in yelling "and gently caress your mother!" over and over again

# ? Nov 15, 2015 22:56

Alkydere: Jun 7, 2010; Capitol: A building or complex of buildings in which any legislature meets.
Capital: A city designated as a legislative seat by the government or some other authority, often the city in which the government is located; otherwise the most important city within a country or a subdivision of it.

Really everything about the Reply of the Cossacks is amazing. The Sultan's demand for the Cossacks to surrender was issued after the Cossacks kicked his army's rear end. It was basically the Cossacks going "You and what Army? We just put the last one in the ground!"

Oh, and the artist worked on but never finished a more "historically accurate" version. You can see it on the wikipedia page, it still includes the scribe with the giant grin and laughing Cossack Santa.

# ? Nov 16, 2015 00:53

e X: Feb 23, 2013; cool but crude

The great thing is, stuff like that Cossacks' answer or the graffiti wall they found in Pompeii really shows that while the technology might change, human social interaction has basically been the same since forever. That gives events that happened millenia apart a real human touch.

# ? Nov 16, 2015 01:36

SeanBeansShako: Nov 20, 2009; Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.

I uh, do hope the darker aspects of humanity still gently caress off though. The Cossacks as a whole were really not a tolerant bunch.

# ? Nov 16, 2015 01:38

Bonapartisan: May 20, 2004; Emperor of France
Creator of the Code Napoleon
Conqueror of the Ziggy Piggy

Raygereio posted:

Louis is generally remembered favorably in the Netherlands. He seemed to take his duties as King seriously. There were two disaster during his reign (a ship with gunpowder blew up in Leiden and there was a flooding) where he helped with relief efforts, which got him a lot of goodwill.
His main problem was that he didn't act like Napoleon's puppet and actually took care of his people. For example he refused to institute a draft, so he failed to deliver the amount of troops from the Netherlands Napoleon demanded. And he turned a blind eye to smugglers doing trade with the British, because blocking all trade would gently caress over the Dutch economy.
Napoleon eventually got fed up with Louis and used a British invasion into Louis' lands (which was actually quickly repelled) as an excuse to replace him.

You say good, I say failed. LOOK AT MY NAME.

# ? Nov 16, 2015 02:49

Captain Fargle: Feb 16, 2011

Comrade Koba posted:

Can't post Repin without this:

Ivan the Terrible and his son, November 16th 1581

This is quite probably my favourite painting of all time. Perhaps my favourite work of art altogether. It's just astonishingly loving good. I'll consider myself a successful artist if I ever make something that has even a fraction of the power this painting has got. Those eyes.

EDIT:..and the blood soaked carpet and the motherfucking crib in the background and god it's sooooo good. I could spend the rest of my life raving about this painting.

Captain Fargle has a new favorite as of 02:56 on Nov 16, 2015

# ? Nov 16, 2015 02:53

Silmarildur: Jan 30, 2005; Thats what I'm Tolkien about.

Comrade Koba posted:

Can't post Repin without this:

Ivan the Terrible and his son, November 16th 1581

There's a great scene in the Soviet screwball comedy "Ivan Vasilievich: Back in Time" or a variety of other English names, where Ivan Grozny has come to present 1970s Moscow, and the main guy's apartment has a print of this painting on the wall. He looks at it with concern for a while, but there is no explicit explanation, because I guess this painting was so famous that everyone would have gotten the joke.

To contribute, I was reading about the British "received pronunciation" accent as I was trying to explain to a Spanish guy how there is an American regionless accent that just indicates education, or wealth or whatever. I of course had to click the link for Wilfred Pickles who apparently was used by the BBC for his strong Yorkshire accent to make it more difficult for the Germans to spoof BBC broadcasts, as they would have studied the BBC English RP accent. Someone get Nic Cage to do a remake of the Navajo code talkers movie but with this guy.

E: This has to be the most hilariously British sentence ever: "On 1955 he opened the Wilfred Pickles' School for Spastics at Tixover Grange, Rutland.[6]"

Silmarildur has a new favorite as of 18:36 on Nov 16, 2015

# ? Nov 16, 2015 18:30

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# ? May 7, 2024 08:33

Comrade Koba: Jul 2, 2007

Silmarildur posted:

Soviet screwball comedy

Now there's a term you don't see every day. :v:

# ? Nov 16, 2015 19:10

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

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