Historical Fun

26 Fun Facts About Canada Happy Canada Day to Canadians around the world. Today is Canada day, previously called Dominion Day, which has nothing to do with the Federation's victory over the Dominion during Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Canada Day celebrates the anniversary of the Constitution Act of 1867 (which was originally called the British North American Act), uniting the three colonies of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswich, into a single Dominion within the British Empire, thereafter known and called Canada.  Fun Fact #1. It was renamed as Canada Day in 1982. Fun Fact #2. In 1980, "O Canada" was made the official National anthem of Canada. Fun Fact #3. Did You Know these people are actually Canadians: Jim Carrey, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, Michael J. Fox, Dan Ackroyd, Mike Myers, and William Shatner are all Canadians. Fun Fact #4: Kiefer Sutherland might be a Canadian as well. Perhaps, maybe, yeah he is,...

HISTORICAL FUN FACTS - MAY 27th On This Day in History in 1199 King John of England was crowned King John of England. Yep, the hated brother of Richard I of England, otherwise known as Richard the Lionheart, you know those two from Robin Hood Price of Thieves, finally became the King. Finally. He was never meant to be King of England. John Lackland, yes that was his name, was the youngest of the five sons of his father, King Henry II of England. As the youngest, he was way down the line of succession. But after all his older big bros did go kaput, he found himself wearing the big-boy pants. However, the pull-ups didn't help him in the last few days of his reign. Should have stuck to the diapers. King John ruled until 1216 when he faced a problem-with-me-poopa and died of dysentery

Quick History Facts for November 21st On This Day In History in 164 BC, Judas Maccabeus restored the Temple in Jerusalem and is now commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.   On This Day in 1877, Thomas Edison announced he had invented the phonograph, a magical machine that captured the souls of the living. Or, at least, their voices. Burn the witch.   On This Day in History in 1922, Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia took the oath of office to become the first female senator in the United States of America.

HISTORICAL FUN FACTS NOVEMBER 20th.   On This Day In History in 1407, John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis of Valois , Duke of Orleans, agreed a truce.   Unfortunately, John the Fearless was also John the utter-git. He had Louis of Valois assassinated three days later. Yep, what-a-git.   The two Dukes were in a state of war with each other up until the truce was signed. Both were trying to fill a void left by the King of France, Charles VI of France, who was ever so slightly whacko-nutso-bonkers.   Louis of Valois, who was not only the Duke of Orleans, but also the younger brother of the King of France, was minding his own business in Paris when 15 assassins leapt on him as he was trying to mount his horse.   We are assuming he was trying get on the horse to ride it, rather than anything else. But, with Louis of Valois, you never know. He was a dirty little sicko, by all accounts. Or at least by the account of John t...

HISTORICAL FUN: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, NOVEMBER 7th On This Day In History in 1728, Captain James Cook was born.   Not the famous captain of the Starship Enterprise on a five year voyage to hook up with strange, new aliens. That was Kirk.   Captain James Cook was a British Captain in the Royal Navy. Britannia rules the waves.   He made loads of voyages, more than 7, which makes him better than Sinbad. He preferred limes rather than Spinach, which makes him slightly different to Popeye the Sailor Man, who lived in a caravan.   Captain Cook was famous for answering the age old question of what do you do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning.   It isn't what you'd think. You should not put him in a long-boat and make him bail her. Nor, put him in the guardroom till he gets sober. Nope, just whip the crap out of him with a cat-o'-nine-tails.   Captain Cook was the first recorded European to make contact with the East coast ...

HISTORICAL FACTS for NOVEMBER 5th On This Day In History in 1605, Guy Fawkes was arrested for the part he played in the infamous Gunpowder Plot.   Remember, remember the fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot.   In the early hours of the 5th of November, 1605, Guy Fawkes was discovered in the tunnels beneath the Houses of Parliament with dozens of barrels of gunpowder.   His plan was simple: Blow up Parliament and kill King James I of England.   Unknown to Guy Fawkes, the Palace of Westminster, the Houses of Parliament, and the tunnels beneath the buildings had been undergoing a rigorous search.   There had been a warning. A warning of a catastrophe and plot of such treason that was unrivalled in the entire history of England. Each room, each corridor, each nook and cranny were searched. Each stairwell and each tunnel were scoured. ...

HISTORICAL FUN FACTS for OCTOBER 21st On This Day in 1879, Thomas Edison invented the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb.   The incandescent light bulb is an electric light with a filament heated to a high temperature by passing an electric current through it. This results in visible light.   Did You Know: Thomas Edison had a thing for experimenting on trains.   When Edison was 12-years-old, started to lose his hearing. He didn't go completely deaf, but he wasn't far off. He did say, he preferred not being able to hear, as it made it easier to concentrate on his experiments.   But it was one of his experiments when he was 12 that resulted in his hearing problems.   Legend has it, Edison was smacked in his ears by a train conductor after he started a fire in a boxcar after one of his experiments went wrong.   Edison saved a young boy from a being killed by a runaway train.   Edison was 14-years-old at th...

Fun History Facts for October 17th   On This Day In History in 1346, King David II of Scotland is captured by the English during the Battle of Neville's Cross.   Neville wasn't just cross, he was utterly fuming when he found out. It royally peeved King David as well. Even more so when the English dogs imprisoned him in the Tower of London for the next eleven years.   King David-The-Second-Haggis-Almost-Killed-Me was the oldest son of the infamous Robert the Bruce. He was also the only one of Robert's children to survive. And Robert had eleven of them. Although only three were actually legitimate.   Fun Fact: Robert The Bruce had the stamina of a Scot who ate nothing but haggis and deep fried mars bars.   King David-The-Second-Wife-Will-Be-The-One became King of Scotland on the 7th of June, 1329, at the age of five-years-old, upon the death of his father, Robert-Not-The-First-To-Hate-The-English. ...

History Fact - September 2nd   On This Day In History in 1666, London suffered the start of a four day intense heat wave. It became known as the Great Fire of London.   The fire started in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane and spread throughout the city, destroying over 13,000 houses, almost 90 churches, and the world famous St Paul's Cathedral. Even though half the city was destroyed, only 6 people died.   Fun Fact: Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, lived in a house directly in the path of the fire. Yet, instead of making sure his diary was safe, he buried his parmesan cheese in his back garden to protect it from the fire.

HISTORY FACTS - August 31st On This Day In History, 31st of August, 1422, King Henry V of England , the second king from the House of Lancaster, died of Something-Wrong-With-Me-Poops and That-Curry-Has-Some-Serious-Consequences.   This left his son, Henry VI, free to claim the throne. He demanded all bow down to him as supreme ruler of the milky-milky-sucky-nipple people.   What?   Henry VI was only 9-months-old when he became king.   On This day, 31st of August 1803, Lewis and Clark began their most famous of expeditions to the west when they left Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.   It would take the entire journey, and more than a few coincidences, before Lewis found out that Clark had a secret identity. The glasses were a perfect disguise.   31st August, 1888, Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. Although never proved, the common consensus is that she was killed by a secret society of aliens who had been living in London for the last t...

HISTORY FACT - AUGUST 29th ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 29th of AUGUST.   29th August, 1350, an English fleet under the command of Edward III , and his son, the Black Prince, who wasn't black, defeated a Castilian fleet at the Battle of Winchelsea.   The Castilian fleet was under the command of a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem, and no one else can help, and you can find him, maybe you can hire, Don Carlos de la Cerda.   29th August, 1475, the Kingdoms of England and France signed the Treaty of Picquigny , stating there would be an everlasting peace for both kingdoms. Which lasted about five minutes. 29th August, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII, who wasn't entirely innocent , as he approved the hunting and execution of a whole bunch of witches, became Pope.   Are you a witch?   Yes.   BURN YOU WITHCY WITCH WHO DOES WITCHY THINGS.   Did You Know: When a new Pope is elected, all the Cardinals have to take a ...

HISTORY FACTS July 30th   On This Day In History, July 30th 1963 , Lisa Kudrow, who could really use some friends, was born. She became famous as an actress on a semi-popular sitcom where she developed a fetish for smelly cats.   But, did you know, Lisa Kudrow was originally cast as Roz Doyle in the even more popular show Frasier, opposite Kelsey Grammer. Things went wrong, very wrong. In fact, she was terrible. During filming of the pilot episode, the part was re-cast in favour of the Roz we all loved, Peri Gilpin.   It all worked out in the end for Lisa, who was cast to play Phoebe in Friends a few years later. She knew she'd be back.   On This Day In History, July 30th 1947 , everyone's favourite psycho-cyborg-kindergarten-teacher, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was born.   He had a successful career as a bodybuilder but really wanted to be an actor. To this day, he still struggles with the actual "acting" part. Nonethele...

HISTORY FACT: July 25th, 1547, Henry II of France is crowned King of France.   Interesting Fact about King Henry II of France: He died on June 30th, 1559, after receiving a fatal wound in a jousting tournament.   Henry was actually doing pretty well in the opening rounds. Things went wrong when he came up against a fellow jouster called Gabriel de Montgomery.   Not taking into account that he was fighting the King, Gabriel went full pelt at Henry, his lance broke and a splinter sliced through the King's eye.   The wound became infected and the eye burst with puss and blood splattered everyone within twenty feet. Several people laughed, one took a video and uploaded it to #FailArmy , one knight fainted, two more vomited over a puppy, and King Henry died.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY MARCH 20th On this day in history in 1616, after 13 years, Sir Walter Raleigh was freed from his prison in the Tower of London.   Sir Walter Raleigh was the one-time favourite of Queen Elizabeth-I-Am-Ginger-It's-Not-A-Wig. Although they did have their rocky patches in an on-off and off-on and almost Off-With-His-Head relationship.   In March 1603, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Queen of Virgins were best of buds. Raleigh was in the good books of the monarch and stood to profit from her generosity.   Then, on the 23rd of March, she kicked the bucket.   As Sir Walter Raleigh said, "Oh, carp-on-a-stick."   Elizabeth the first's successor, King James-Just-Got-An-Upgrade, took a disliking to Sir Walter Raleigh. Probably due in no small part to a clash of personalities. King James, although 1st of England, had been King James VI of Scotland.   A suave, dashing, charismatic English knight of the Rea...

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY MARCH 18th   On this day in history in 978, Edward the Martyr, 15-year-old King of England, was assassinated.   Edward the Martyr was the son of Edward the Peaceful and half-brother of Ethelred the Unready, in a time where people liked to insert verbs, nouns and adjectives after their names.   Edward the Martyr, or Eddie M. as he was known to the local rapping community, had a brief reign as King of England, of only three years.   It all came to an end after Eminem murdered the King, not at the insistence of Ethelred the Unready, who wasn't prepared to kill, as some believe, but at the goading of Ethelred's mother, who was a right evil witch, and wanted the Unready son of hers to be King.   The exact circumstances of Edward's death are uncertain. There are numerous versions and blame is placed on various people.   What is known for absolute certainty, is that he was killed by...

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 8th MARCH On This Day in 1702, Queen Anne became Queen of England after the death of William III, or William of Orange, or William-Of-The-Evil-Fruit.   Queen Anne started out as Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, then became Queen of Great Britain when the Kingdoms were officially united. She left no direct heirs, and, as such, was the last monarch of the House of Stewart.   Anne was the sister of Mary II, who was the wife of Not-The-First-William-Who-Invaded-England.   William-The-Third-Orange-Almost-Killed-Me had invaded England in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. It was an almost bloodless coup when James II took a holiday in France, which led Parliament to declare he had abdicated.   This was the second time someone called William invaded England to claim the throne. Must be something in the name.   If you know someone called William, better watch out for him. He's probably contemplating con...

On This Day In History for the 7th of March   On This Day, March 7th, 189, Publius Septimius Geta was born.   Geta was a Roman Emperor, if only for a short time. He ruled briefly with his father, Septimus Severus, who was the nemesis of Harry Potter, and his brother, Caracalla, who was a really evil git.   When Geta's father died in 211, the intention was to have the two loving brothers, Geta and Caracalla rule the Empire together.   But, it turns out, the two weren't loving brothers. In fact, they had a love/hate relationship. As in, they loved to hate each other.   The sibling rivalry started when they were just boys. They often got into fights with each other, fights which needed the intervention of their mother.   The two would then be sent to the naughty step until they calmed down.   Geta was always quite jealous of his older brother. He believed Caracalla got all the attention, and all the really cool toys at Christm...

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - FEBRUARY 27th   On This Day in 380, Emperor Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica , co-signed by co-emperors, Gratian and Valentinian II. What's better than one Emperor? Three Emperors. The same applies to cake.   The Edict of Thessalonica declared all Roman citizens convert to Trinitarian Christianity.   Theodosius, also known as Theodosius the Great, or Cute-Squirrel-Lips by his Praetorian Guard, was born on the 11th of January, 347.   Theodosius became Emperor of the entire Roman Empire in 379 AD, the last Emperor to rule over the whole thing.   Theodosius-Cute-Squirrel-Lips had a serious problem with the Goths during his reign and set about trying to eradicate them. Perhaps they reminded him of his own moody teenage years.   Unfortunately, his reputation took a serious hit, along with his gonads, a war injury he would never recover from, as he wasn't successful in destroying them. Or the other ...