So, loads of you on here are history nuts (in the nicest way) and I just know that's there's treasure trove of just weird and wonderful and useless info out there. So let's have the most bizarre stuff that although you know is indisputably true, it takes your modern brain a second to go "What the f..."
I'll start with;
Medieval Europe had no potatoes. It's such a staple of just about every menu in every country from Finland to Spain that you have to take a minute to just think about how that works.
Privacy, the medieval concept of doing everything, all the time in the presence of other humans, from shitting to getting jiggy, and in fact the idea that you'd want to be alone was looked on as a bit weird.
When dinosaurs roamed this forum, there was no grass, only ferns and trees.
Another; at some point in the early 18thC nearly everybody in the UK went from living "Down there, past the tree, next to the beehive and if you go past the bridge you've gone too far", to 11B Walpole Avenue, and almost no-one commentated on it at all.
Life expectancy in England between the 1500's and 1700's was between 30-40. So basically i would likely be dead now
*Bookmarks thread for when the last 6/7 years becomes ‘history’.
Life expectancy in England between the 1500’s and 1700’s was between 30-40. So basically i would likely be dead now
this is one of those places where averages are rubbish. If you make it to 5, life expectancy back then was into the 60s iirc - its just that a whole load of babies and toddlers die of causes that are now solved, bringing the average age right down
Life expectancy in England between the 1500’s and 1700’s was between 30-40. So basically i would likely be dead now
Isn't that just an average and affected by the very high risk of infant mortality? I'm no expert but I thought that if you survived childhood in those days you'd probably live to what we'd still consider a decent age.
Edit: what @5lab said 🙂
Whilst we rightly applaud the Suffragettes for their battle, the greatest majority of men in the trenches still didn't have a right to a voice in who their political masters were along with many others.
Int aforementioned medieval times they had LOADS of holidays. Usually saints days and that.
Wars of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster, 105000 dead.
After Henry VII (Lancaster) triumphed at Bosworth, he married Elizabeth of York and united the two houses. Did nobody think of doing this earlier?
The T-Rex was closer in history to the iPod than it was to the Triceratops.
Abraham Lincoln could have sent a Fax to a Samurai. (hypothetically)
The gap between the Wright brothers first flight, and man walking on the moon was 66 years!
When dinosaurs roamed this forum, there was no grass, only ferns and trees.
Dinosaurs were around for so long that dinosaur fossils existed at the same time as actual living dinosaurs.
Isn’t that just an average
It's sort of true and at the same time, entirely untrue. Infant death was high, but then life especially in early medieval Europe was indisputably brutal. Nearly everyone was pretty much on the edge of starvation nearly all the time. 90% of folks lived off the land and there's no real method of storing or transporting food to other parts of the county let alone to other parts of the country, especially in the winter months, so if you didn't have enough... People managed to make it to their 60's but it was still pretty rare. If starvation or disease didn't get you, war probably would
The T-Rex was closer in history to the iPod than it was to the Triceratops.
These ones just blow my mind, Cleopatra was closer to us than she was to the Sphinx.
Despite their numerous, enormous, stone structures, the Inca had no metal cutting tools, and no mortar.
These ones just blow my mind, Cleopatra was closer to us than she was to the Sphinx.
We've come a long way in a few years haven't we!
Leics County Council built the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre a mile away from the battlefield. Dig the foundations, no cannon balls, helmets, arrow heads, etc to be found...local man says it's in the fields on the other side of the road to where you're digging
Dig trenches for services, utilities, etc still no cannon balls, helmets, arrow heads, etc to be found...local man says it's in the fields on the other side of the road to where you're digging
No trace of the marsh that Shakespeare refers to (you don't get many on top of a hill in Leics)...local man says it's in the fields on the other side of the road to where you're digging. The road called the Fen Lane
We now have a "gateway" to the battlefield 🤣🤣
It is worth a visit though
The average age of the combat soldier in WW2 was twenty-six, in Vietnam he was nineteen...
Well cleopatra is coming at ya! Innit.
I think you mean n-n-n-n-n-nineteen
The story about the vicar, Eyam and the plague was not, in fact, a fact.
You used to be able to smoke everywhere. It was perfectly normal for someone to light up in a restaurant where people were eating; in the cinema; on the Tube(!); top deck of a double-decker bus... all in my lifetime (perhaps aside from the Tube, I don't know), I remember routinely getting home after a night out with my clothes reeking of other people's smoke. It seems absolutely unfathomable now.
The gap between the Wright brothers first flight, and man walking on the moon was 66 years!
It's quite a long way, too. You could line up all the other solar system planets between us and the moon.
The earth was flat in medieval times,that's why there was no potatoes because they all rolled off the edge.
When cars came along, one of the ways that they were promoted and caught on was the idea that cities wouldn't just smell of horse-shit all the time. Plus there wouldn't need to be dairy herds in the centre of town, and that you'd not have to continually walk around the corpses of dead animals in the gutter.
That went well, obviously
My grandfather was ten by the time Chief Sitting Bull died (1890)
The shit they used to do to people as torture/punishment/entertainment - like the Judas Cradle, the Pear Of Anguish and worse. Insane
Forks were banned in England for a bit, as the church thought they were blasphemous. You've already got eating utensils, your hands, anything else is just pomposity and vanity, and against God's will. (obviously)
Inset your own Whiteadder joke here...
The American Bison killings.
From 60 million to 300
I see your Bison, and raise you the Passenger Pigeon
3 billion to nowt
These ones just blow my mind, Cleopatra was closer to us than she was to the Sphinx.
and she wasn't Egyptian, she was Greek.
Int aforementioned medieval times they had LOADS of holidays. Usually saints days and that.
Hence the name: Holy Day. 🙂
My grandfather was ten by the time Chief Sitting Bull died (1890)
I recently watched a YouTube of a restored 1929! film interviewing two Civil War veterans on a July 4th celebration day. they were in their 90's by then but otherwise seemed as sharp as tacks
You used to be able to smoke everywhere. It was perfectly normal for someone to light up in a restaurant where people were eating; in the cinema; on the Tube(!); top deck of a double-decker bus… all in my lifetime (perhaps aside from the Tube, I don’t know), I remember routinely getting home after a night out with my clothes reeking of other people’s smoke. It seems absolutely unfathomable now.
So much this. And aeroplanes too – Rows 1-25 would be 'No Smoking' but the people in Row 26 could quite happily puff away all over the poor sods in the rows in front.
Rome went from a population of over 2 million to 25,000 ish in not much more than a hundred years.
Oh yeah, just how few people there were. London in the 14thC had about 80,000 people in it - about the population of Bedford., and about 4 million in the entire country. The place was empty.
So much this. And aeroplanes too – Rows 1-25 would be ‘No Smoking’ but the people in Row 26 could quite happily puff away all over the poor sods in the rows in front.
When I was at university (late 90's), they used to hold film nights in the Student Union and one of the marketing tactics they used was that you could smoke in there! Imagine that as a positive marketing point now!
(most cinemas were smoke-free by then even though the smoking ban didn't come in fully until 2007).
Sharks are older than trees
Cleopatra was closer to us than she was to the Sphinx
Chronologically or geographically.
I see your Bison, and raise you the Passenger Pigeon
3 billion to nowt
I blame Dick Dastardly
The Siberian Traps were formed by volcanic action that lasted for 2 million years and resulted in lakes of lava that formed an area of 7 million square kilometers.
Worldwide temperatures rose. The seas were filled with carbon dioxide which removed oxygen and made them acidic. Most biological life did not cope or adapt. 70% of land species disappeared, 81% of marine species died out. This was the Permian-Triassic extinction.
I recently watched a YouTube of a restored 1929! film interviewing two Civil War veterans
The last person receiving a American civil war pension died in 2020.
Something which is also weird is how stereotypes of countries change eg back in medieval times the English were seen as touchy feely and the Italians not so much.
More up-to date one: CPR technique (mouth to mouth and chest compressions) was invented in the 1960's. before that, it was pump the arms back and forth, or y'now, do nothing.
CPR technique (mouth to mouth and chest compressions) was invented in the 1960’s
And on that note
The distinctive face of Resusci Anne (the dummy used for practice) was based on L'Inconnue de la Seine (English: The unknown woman of Seine), the death mask of an unidentified young woman reputedly drowned in the River Seine around the late 1880s.[2][4]
My mum used to tell me (so it must be true), that when her granny was young she knew an old man who's dad had watched Bonnie Prince Charlie march his army through Falkirk on his way to victory at the battle of Falkirk Muir in the 1740's.
I always though it a bit crazy, that something historical like that can be brought to within so few generations.
I see your Bison
and raise you 50million+ Native Americans.
Wars of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster, 105000 dead.
After Henry VII (Lancaster) triumphed at Bosworth, he married Elizabeth of York and united the two houses. Did nobody think of doing this earlier?
Can't we get Bozza to boff Ursula von der Leyen and perhaps all this Brexit stuff could be consigned to history......or Truss and Sefcovic
Once in the dark ages, the UK was a key member of the European Union helping to draft much of the policy for the single market and customs union
Can’t we get Bozza to boff Ursula von der Leyen and perhaps all this Brexit stuff could be consigned to history
Go on Ursula, take one for the team!
🤢
Belgium was the first country to achieve a life expectancy of 40. That was achieved in 1800.
Glad someone mentioned smoking. I’m 45 and when I was at Uni you could smoke most places. Not shops or cinemas but pretty much everywhere else.
You pretty much knew you’d have to wash your clothes after going into a pub for anything more than a brief visit. Most workplaces had smoking rooms.
It seems like a completely different age now, i don’t think I would have started smoking if I was a teen now compared to the 80’s and early 90’s. It’s even slightly unusual to pass someone on the street smoking too.
Not all the Catholic population of Northern Ireland had the right to vote until the early 1970's.
My teenage libido.
My teenage lido
My teenage Ludo
Another; at some point in the early 18thC nearly everybody in the UK went from living “Down there, past the tree, next to the beehive and if you go past the bridge you’ve gone too far”, to 11B Walpole Avenue, and almost no-one commentated on it at all.
I think the forum was down for maintenance that day....
The 10th US president, John Tyler, (born 1790, when George Washington was the OG POTUS), still has a living grandchild.
After Henry VII (Lancaster) triumphed at Bosworth, he married Elizabeth of York and united the two houses. Did nobody think of doing this earlier?
I'm envisaging someone trying to fix this in a time machine in a Blackadder style and it all kicking off again because someone's slept with someone's sister.
Not all the Catholic population of Northern Ireland had the right to vote until the early 1970’s.
This is slightly misleading. In general elections they had the same rights as everyone else, but for council elections voting was limited to one vote per household. By restricting the housing available to the catholic population, the Unionist authorities were, in effect, able to reduce the number of Catholic votes, to allow them to stay in power. It's called gerrymandering.
The T-Rex was closer in history to the iPod than it was to the Triceratops
This one isn’t actually true.
That the world population has doubled since I was born in 1973.
Incredible, and scary.
It’s called gerrymandering.
Call it what they like, not everyone could vote for their elected official's.
Wars of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster,
...... had nothing to do with any fancied traditional rivalry between the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, which have a red rose and a white rose respectively as their emblem.
Henry fought under a dragon banner and richard under a boar banner, the roses malarkey came along afterwards
EDIT: wrong thread
on the Tube(!)
When I first moved to that there London you could smoke on the tube but only in the 2nd and 2nd last carriage...if it was really busy you sometimes ended up in one of those cos they were the only ones with space.
The "Groom of the Stool" was the most sought after political appointment to the king as whilst wiping his arse you could chat business with no-one else interfering. This was an active office until 1901!
The T-Rex was closer in history to the iPod than it was to the Triceratops
This one isn’t actually true
Stegosaurus, rather than triceratops is the correct mind blower innit
Henry fought under a dragon banner and richard under a boar banner, the roses malarkey came along afterwards
@52.6242973,-1.4017933,3a,15y,108.84h,95.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sWB_xqxl4JKmmN7aLnJOUhA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192">Street view of the road names shows the front line.
This might not be a fact
The F-14 Tomcat is older today, than Spitfires were when the 1st Top Gun was released.
I work in a hospital microbiology lab. When I started in 2001, there were a couple of guys worked there who had been there since it opened in the sixties. They could smoke in the lab, had ash trays on the bench! This would be next to open cultures of, amongst other things, salmonella and TB 🤣
They also used to culture TB in eggs and have live animals (mice and gerbils) for virology.
Stegosaurus, rather than triceratops is the correct mind blower innit
Yeah, fair enough, I couldn't quite remember and took a bit of a punt 😉
Life expectancy in England between the 1500’s and 1700’s was between 30-40. So basically i would likely be dead now
Perhaps the expertise on this site might help me with a random question that popped into my head a while ago related to this. ^
What is/was the average mortality age for everyone that has ever lived? And how much older am I than it at 53?
(I'm not going to get an answer on this but am assuming that the average age is less than mine, and quite like the idea that I might be regarded as ancient already by historical standards with all the wisdom that represents. 😀 )
The gap between the Wright brothers first flight, and man walking on the moon was 66 years!
Patrick Moore thought he was the only person to meet both, iirc.
I recently watched a YouTube of a restored 1929! film interviewing two Civil War veterans on a July 4th celebration day. they were in their 90’s by then but otherwise seemed as sharp as tacks
The last ACW veteran died in 1956. And as mentioned above, the last widow of a ACW veteran died in 2020!
The bands I listened to at university (Pixies, Nirvana, Jesus & Mary Chain, Orb, Aphex Twin etc) were closer to the Beatles than to current day music.
Most workplaces had smoking rooms.
My second workplace was a polytechnic, there was no specific smoking rooms or areas. I used to have to go in my bosses office for 1-to-1 meetings while he puffed away, smoke filling the room.
Funny how they still have the 'no smoking' lights on aeroplanes. Think they could use the space for something more useful.
Stegosaurus, rather than triceratops is the correct mind blower innit
Either that or it was a reference to Mark Bolan.
99% of gargoyles look like Bob Todd.
The bands I listened to at university (Pixies, Nirvana, Jesus & Mary Chain, Orb, Aphex Twin etc) were closer to the Beatles than to current day music.
There was only 25 years between the first ever rock n roll song and the Sex Pistols (if you agree that Rocket 88 was the first rock n roll song).
The orbital spaceflight of Yuri Gagarin on the 12th April 1961 technically did not qualify for the Guinness Record because the rules stipulated that the spacecraft must safely launch and land with the occupant inside.
We now know that after re-entry, Gagarin's Vostok capsule ejected it's occupant at an altitude of 7,000m and that Gagarin landed via parachute some distance away from his spacecraft.
Nearly everyone was pretty much on the edge of starvation nearly all the time.
Not sure this is true for medieval times. I have read lots of people debunking this. They had means to store food over the winter. The big problem was (as it is now in much of the developing world) that if the harvest were to fail, there wasn't enough and there'd be famines. This was every 30-40 years or something. But when there wasn't famine, there was enough.
During the industrial revolution it got worse because people were dependent on working and being able to pay cash for things that had to be transported into the city, rather than being part of a community that fed itself. And that work depended on external factors like markets. No market = no money = no food. Or, a greedy boss = not enough money = not enough food. In medieval times in the countryside, you were part of the harvest, most likely, so you'd be given your share before any surplus was sold.
potatoes
https://patient.info/news-and-features/nightshade-allergy-aubergine-potatoes-peppers-tomatoes
The geological age of the earth compressed to a timescale we can understand - one year
The Earth and the rest of the solar system is formed on New Year's Day.
It wouldn't be until late November that we saw the first animals with hard parts (fnarr!)
The first tetrapods appeared on land on the first day of December
The dinosaurs died out in a mass extinction that occurred on Boxing Day
Human beings appeared at about 11.35pm on New Year's Eve
Stonehenge was built about thirty seconds before midnight
The industrial revolution was a second ago
.....and in that second, we've managed to **** it all up to the point of no return.
