Beißen Gedanken: Know Your History

20150528

Know Your History

There are many details to historical events, and most of them never get taught in traditional history classes. After all, even big historical figures were just human beings like you and I, and history is made of people and their actions. So take a peek behind the curtain at the real face of history with some shocking and insightful facts of history.

The pyramids were built so long ago, even King Tut of Egypt would have probably seen them as 'ancient' structures.

That said, some giant redwoods are even older than the pyramids.

Speaking of Egypt, queen Cleopatra was actually the first in her family to learn Egyptian. This after the family had ruled Egypt for centuries.

During World War II, Alaska was the only part of the United States to be under enemy control.

It's sad to say that during the last 3,000 years, the civilized world has been at peace for only 240 years, that's less than 10% of the time.

Julius Caeser's army once spent hours ready to attack its other half that split from it earlier.

There's much talk of the 'great Roman empire', but in actuality, it was only the 19th largest empire in recorded history, covering 2.5 million square miles - still pretty big, though.

During the famous battle of Stalingrad, WWII, one railway station changed between German and Russian hands 14 times in one afternoon.

In their desperation to hold off the advanced German tanks, the Soviets strapped explosives to the back of dogs and used them to blow up enemy tanks. However, sometimes the dogs got scared and came back to explode among their masters.

According to historic calculations, 21 Soviet soldiers were killed for each American soldier who died in WWII.

9 of the 11 most deadly and most blood soaked wars in the world were fought in China.

Sunglasses, invented in China, were actually not made to shade the eyes from the sun but to hide the eyes of judges so you can't see what they are feeling.

According to historians and biologists, babies born 2000 years ago were 20 times more likely to be born with a vestigial tail than today's babies.

The US president of 1841, John Taylor, still has 2 grandchildren alive today.

The last widow of a civil war soldier died 10 years ago, she was 18 when she married the 81 year old ex veteran in 1927.

When she died she was still receiving a monthly check for $70 from the Veterans Administration for a military pension earned by her late husband on the Union side of the American Civil War. The amount spanned three centuries

On the night he was to be assassinated, Martin Luther King was having a pillow fight in his motel room.

The night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, he had just created the secret service.

Forget all the rumors of Napoleon being short. He was actually taller than what was the average height at the time.

The current flag of the United States of America was designed by a 17 year old, one Robert Heft, as a school project. He got a B minus which was quickly changed to an A when the president selected his design.