Showing posts with label Historical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Historical. Show all posts

Saturday, June 27, 2026

What are 10 historical facts that would confuse anyone?

 

  • Queen Elizabeth II and Marilyn Monroe were both born in 1926. They met only once when they were thirty years old.
  • The University of Oxford is older than the Aztec Empire: it was founded in 1096, three centuries before the Aztec Empire (1428).
  • Harriet the tortoise lived for 176 years and was long believed to be one of the three brought back by Darwin from the Galapagos in 1853.
  • Van Gogh painted "Starry Night" in the same year the Eiffel Tower was constructed, which is 1889.
  • The Colosseum was completed in 80 AD, around the same time the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were written.
  • Charlie Chaplin died in 1977, the same year Apple Computer was founded.
  • In 1868, you could take the London Underground to witness the last public execution in the UK.
  • George Washington died in 1799. The first dinosaur fossils were discovered in 1824. Washington never knew dinosaurs existed.
  • In 1940, the first prisoners arrived at Auschwitz. Simultaneously, the first McDonald's restaurant was opened.
  • Woolly mammoths were still alive while the Egyptians were building the pyramids (around 2660 BC).

Saturday, June 6, 2026

What historical facts mess with your perception of time?

 

  • Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler were born in the same year, namely 1889.

In fact, their births were only four days apart, Charlie Chaplin on April 16 and Adolf Hitler on April 20.

  • Static electricity was discovered by Thales in 600 BC, before Siddhartha Gautama (Gautama Buddha) was born in 563 BC or 480 BC.
  • Construction of the Eiffel Tower began in 1887 and was completed 26 months later in 1889.

Meanwhile in Japan in 1889, the new Nintendo Game company was founded.

Source: Sanny's

Thursday, June 4, 2026

What are some rare historical photographs that are so unusual you wouldn't believe they exist?

 Historical photographs remind us of what life was like back then. The world we see today has changed dramatically.

Let's take a look at a few examples.

  1. Control room of German submarine UB-110

2. The opening of the Statue of Liberty's head in 1885.

3. A circus hippo pulling a cart, 1924.

4. Annette Kellerman advocated for women's right to wear tight-fitting one-piece swimsuits in 1907. She was arrested for indecent conduct.

5. Old Stockholm Telephone Tower, 1887.

6. Baby cages were used to ensure that children living in apartments could get enough sunlight and fresh air (circa 1937).

7. An Austrian boy receives new shoes during World War II.

8. A diagram illustrating the British class system.

9. "Wait for me, Papa," by Claude P. Detloff, New Westminster, Canada, October 1, 1940.

10. Around 1920, a young actor, Jackie Lucas, is trying to retrieve a ball that has fallen into a river with his golf club when a dog grabs his golf jacket.

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

What historical fact blows your mind?

 In 1965 the CIA lost something in the Himalayas that is still a threat to 600 million people.

China successfully conducted its first nuclear test in 1964, this caused serious concerns in both the US and India. Facing a common threat, the two countries decided it would be wise to spy on the Chinese from the heights of the Himalayas.

To do this they decided to plant a nuclear powered listening device on top of the second highest peak in India, Nanda Devi.

The device was called SNAP-19C, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator containing 5kgs of weapons grade plutonium. The plan was to conduct surveillance over the Tibetan Plateau and operate for decades with zero maintenance.

A joint team of American and Indian climbers was assembled and the mission went ahead. Everything was going well until they reached 7500 meters, just 300 meters from the summit, when a blizzard struck. To save their lives they had to retreat, leaving the generator anchored to an ice shelf. The plan was to retrieve it in spring.

But when they returned, an avalanche had already swallowed everything. Multiple recovery missions were launched but nothing was ever found.

60 years later, that 5kgs of weapons grade plutonium remains buried beneath the glaciers which are the source of River Ganga. The device is still missing, still radioactive and nobody is looking for it.

Friday, May 15, 2026

Do you know 10 fun historical facts?

 

  1. Bob Marley was buried with his guitar, a soccer ball, a bible, a ring (a gift from an Ethiopian prince) and a stash of marijuana.
  2. During his four films Rambo would have killed 370 people.
  3. The word school derives from the ancient Greek skole which means rest, fun.
  4. Originally, Coca Cola was green.
  5. The word "cemetery" comes from the Greek koimetirion, which means "place to sleep".
  6. During the Civil War, when troops returned to camps after a battle, the number of fallen soldiers was written on a blackboard. If there had been no losses, it was written "0 killed", hence the expression OK in the sense of "all good".
  7. The Vikings never wore horned helmets.
  8. Before the nineteenth century, shoes were not divided into right and left.
  9. Venice is often called "The Bridge Capital of Europe" but it has only 398 bridges, while Amsterdam has 1280 and Hamburg has 2400.
  10. In 1987, American Airlines saved $40,000 simply by removing an olive from each of the salads it served in first class.

What are some amazing historical photos?

 Traied best not to repeat photos.

1)This is bombed London in 1940. A little girl is sitting in the ruins of a building with her dolly.

Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is returned to the Louvre after WWII

Back in 1956, a PanAm plane was needed to to transport a 5 MB hard drive.

Human-size chess game with actual soldiers in St. Petersburg, Russia (1924).

The 1937 “walking machine” tested wear on shoes (1937).

Arnold Schwarzenegger on the day he received his American citizenship

Testing bullet proof vest 1923. Because this is how they tested things back in the days - on humans

Elephants know how to have fun. Just ask Queenie, the first one to water surf (circa 1950)

Gandhi visits London

Police chasing skinny dippers.

Albert Einstein on the porch of your furry slippers. Even geniuses like cute stuff!

Shakira posts a TBT picture of her younger self for the International Women's Day

A woman uses an exercise bike (left) on the Titanic

The last known Tasmanian Tiger (now extinct) photographed in 1933

The Falling Man is a photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew of a man falling from the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 9:41:15 a.m. during the September 11 attacks

Here are cameramen shooting and recording the lion roar for the MGM logo.

Steven Spielberg jokes his cult movie Jaws (Jaws) filming

Carl Akeley posed with the leopard he killed with his bare hands after it attacked him, 1896

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

What are some interesting historical facts that most people don't know?

 1. In 1991, a young Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were seen chatting together.

2. The cockpit of the famous Millennium Falcon spaceship. A scene from the filming of "Star Wars".

3. One of the original McDonald's restaurants. Photographed in 1948.

4. Singer Sting, rapper Tupac, and Madonna chatting together at a drinking party.

5. You might not believe it, but this is the city of Brasília. Construction began in 1960, and it is now the capital of Brazil.

6. The last photograph of the Titanic before it sank. April 1912.

7. The wedding of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda.

The man in the trench coat and hat in the background is Hitler, serving as the groom's best man.

8. A commemorative photograph of Walt Disney and his brother Roy at the founding of Disney Studios. Their mother and wives are also in the picture.

9. The Porsche 911 assembly line in Stuttgart, Germany. Photographed in 1970.

10. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. pulls up a crucifix that white supremacists had burned in front of his Atlanta home. His son stands beside him. Photographed in 1960.