Historical Fun

Fun Facts About Winston Churchill 1.   Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born on the 30th November 1874  in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough. 2.   Winston Churchill is best known as the war time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the World War 2. 3. Churchill had many honours bestowed upon him during his lifetime, including a knighthood in 1953. He was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, granted a State Funeral, something usually reserved only for the Monarch, and voted Greatest Briton of All Time in a poll of more than a million voters. 4. He was also the first person to be awarded an Honorary Citizen of the United States of America. And, to top it all, Did You Know: Winston Churchill was an amateur bricklayer. 5. Churchill was pretty good at seeing into the future. He predicted he would die on the same day as his father. And he did. Winston Churchill died on 24th January 1965 (a...

1. St George is the Patron Saint of England and today is St George's Day. The national day is celebrated every year on the 23rd April, which is the anniversary of his death in 303. George became England's patron saint in 1348 when Edward III adopted him as the principal Patron of the new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Garter. Before this date, the Patron Saint of England was Edward the Confessor. He pointed the gun at me and told me to tell him my sins. "Yes, I like One Direction." Edward spat in my face. "You make me sick." 2. Although St George is the patron saint of England, he isn't English. And never stepped foot on English soil. George was a Roman born in AD270ish in Cappadocia, now Eastern Turkey. When he was 17 years old, he joined the Roman army and became famous amongst the ranks for his bravery. And seriously embellished stories. He would gather the centurions around the camp fire and tell the story of him as a small boy bei...

Part one of 5 Fun Facts About Evil Emperors is about Caracalla, one of the worst most evil emperors you'll ever come across. This guy was not just bad, but total Whacko-Jacko-Someone-Didn't-Eat-Their-Greens-As-A-Kid evil. 1. Caracalla was Emperor between the 16th September 198 and the 8th April 217. He was the eldest son of Septimius Severus, who was most famous for killing Dumbledore in an elaborate plan that shocked the Potter world to its core. Caracalla had spent most of his youth and early adult life learning to cope with his father's betrayal of Harry Potter's mentor, and so he managed his anger by perfecting the evil art of puppy-kicking. This meant, when he finally became Emperor, he had all the training required to be an evil git. 1b. Caracalla started his reign as he meant to go on - miffed at having to rule jointly with his father. Co-Emperor doesn't have the same ring to it as Emperor. But he ha...

5 Historical Facts That Aren't Facts - Part Two It's surprising how many myths and legends become known as fact, and how many of the facts were just made up hundreds of years after the event. Sometimes because of the Chinese Whispers syndrome, and, as more often is the case, someone just wanted to make the story more interesting and fun.  Yesterday's post covered five of them , and below are another five historical "facts" that simply aren't true. 1. Lady Godiva rode through the streets of Coventry naked on horseback. The myth goes, Lady Godiva wanted her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to abolish taxes. He basically said sure, if you ride bare back, and bare everything else, through the streets of Coventry, bare completely nekkid. So she did. And he kept to his word and abolished the taxes. The townsfolk rejoiced. And then rejoiced again when they found out about the tax relief. Unfortunately, not true. The basic story didn't appear until a few hundred y...

5 Historical Facts That Aren't Facts 1. Walt Disney's body was cryogenically frozen in the hope of being brought back to life in the future. Yeah, that'd be crazy. Even for Walt Disney. Unfortunately it isn't true. Records show he was cremated in 1966. Then abducted by aliens and is now living on their home world telling them stories of 7ft genetically engineered mice that can talk.   2. Albert Einstein failed maths at school. This is probably a myth told to stupid kids to make them feel better. It's not true in the slightest. Einstein was a genius. Even at school. He himself responded to this rumour and, after kicking the guy in the nuts, he replied, "I never failed mathematics." He then kicked the guy in the nuts again and went on, "Before I was 15, I had mastered differential and integral calculus and the ninja art of nut-kicking. I just don't own a comb." 3. George Washington had wooden teeth. The first ever President of ...

Saturday 11th April - 1960 Reports are just coming in that Jeremy Clarkson has just been born. He sped out of his mother at over 90 miles an hour before performing a handbrake turn and proclaiming his mother's womb the warmest and most comfortable womb ... in the worrrrld. A few minutes later he found out they weren't going to serve him any hot food and promptly punched the midwife in the face. Click here for 5 Fun Facts About Top Gear Sunday 12th April - 1945 The American President is dead. It has just been announced that the second most famous Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has died at the age of 63. He was only 3 months into his 4th term of office as President and has been replaced by the Vice-President, Harry Truman. Franklin D. Roosevelt has consistently been rated in the top 3 of American Presidents, along with President Martin Sheen, who had a seven year term in the West Wing of the White House, and Morgan Fr...

FUN FACTS ABOUT STAR WARS   Fun Fact Number 1: Star Wars is an epic space opera created by George-I-Ruined-Star-Wars-With-The-Prequels-Lucas.   There have been six films so far, the three original ones: Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: The Return Of The Jedi.   And also the three prequels, number one, two and three. Yes, they have names, but whatever. Still trying to eradicate Jar Jar frigging Binks from my memory.   The story of Star Wars is a simple one, really.   A farm boy finds out he has secret magical powers the day he held aloft his magical sword and said, "BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL."   Oh, wait a minute. That's He-Man.   They should so make a decent movie of that show.   Star Wars: A young farm boy finds two droids, they escape, his Aunt and Uncle get killed, he gets groomed by a strange old man in a cloak, learns how to use the Force, and goes on an adventure...