The Did you know thread. Uselss, but Fascinating historical facts and stories)

"Count Wampyr" was the orignal name that Bram Stoker was going to use for the title charactor later known as "Dracula".

Lessons from Failed Cold War Spy Mission in China - Associated Press

The origins of Hannibal's elphants had always been a mystery in history. African elephants are believed to be untamable. So where did Hannibal get his elephants? Some believed these elephants were North African Elephant(now exhinct), but they were small.


Hannibal's favourite elephant was named Surus or "the Syrian". The Seleucids in Syria are known to use Asian elephants. Some belived that Hannibal's elephants were Asian.

clip of Mussolini speaking in English; he could speak several languages

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTXhez2mNmM"]YouTube- (Very Rare!) Mussolini's Speech - in English! (1929 Fox Movietone Newsreel)[/ame]

Francis Tumblety, one of the Jack the Ripper suspects, was arrested for complicity in the Abraham Lincoln assassination in 1865, but was released without charge after three weeks in prison. He was a suspect becuase he lived in London at time of one of the murders and he was known for his hatred of women and prostitutes.

I do not know how he was connected with the Abraham Lincoln assassination.

Who was the last person to sign?

what ever happened to the movie?

Mexicana just filed for bankruptcy.

A lot of people know about tghis one. U.S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant. Congressman Thomas L. Hamer mistakenly nominated him as "Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio." to West Point. Thus, he became Ulysses S. Grant while in West Point. "S" stands for just the letter "S".


Jefferson Davis served three terms on the senate, but he never served full term in any of the three terms. Of course, he did not served his entire term as President of the Confederate States of America. So he had never served a full term in any elective office.

As of 2007, Tennessee had 32 dedicated historical markers linked to Nathan Bedford Forrest, more than are dedicated to the three former Presidents associated with the state: Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson

So Palin's already got him beat!

Tipu Sultan Beach, a fishing village in the Malappuram district of the Indian state of Kerala was renamed Saddam Beach after former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, in an act of solidarity during the 1991 Gulf War.

Bruce Lee's maternal grandfather was the brother of Sir Robert Ho Tung, the richest man in Hong Kong. In fact, Sir Robert was the first Chinese tycoon in Hong Kong.

Ho Kom-tong(Bruce lee's grandfather and Sir Robert's brother) was a prominent businessman and philanthropist. He received an OBE from the British government in 1928. He was also a classmate and a sponsor of Dr Sun Yat-sen. In fact, the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum in Hong kong was the former residence of Ho Kom-tong'. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bought the mansion in 1960 and used it as their headquarter until around the year 2000. The building became the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum. I wondered how many Mormons realized that their headquarter was the family home of Bruce Lee's grandfather.


Information on Ho Tung:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Tung

Queen Elizabeth Becomes UK's Second-Longest Reigning Monarch - Reuters

Samoa to Skip Friday and Switch Time Zones - N.Y. Times

Mystery of Incident That Inspired 'The Birds' Solved? - USA Today

It's the other way round. The murders took place in 1888-91. Interesting that he was somehow linked to the Lincoln assassination though. He also had a collection of wombs preseved in jars of alcohol, something Extreme Makeover House Edition should consider (well it would be considered extreme).

He was in St Louis using "Dr Blackburn" as an alias (he was more or less a con man and constantly in trouble for one scam or another.) Unfortunately for him, there was a real "Dr Blackburn" who had a reputation as some sort of Copperhead plotter, and was sought as a "usual suspect" when Lincoln was shot. The authorities in St Louis detained him until they determined he was not that Blackburn.

Whether they figured out that he wasn't any Blackburn at all I do not know...

I didn't know that. So he was a bit of a conman whose fake name got him pulled in for shooting Lincoln, then he later went to London and finally returned to America doing the same sort of crap he did before.

1. Children's author and WW2 fighter pilot Roald Dahl, was also a spy who allegedly banged the wives of US Senators to gain information about US politics and how to get them more involved in the war.

2. Christopher Columbus may have been half Polish, and even the son of the exiled Polish king.

3. The Reichstag fire was started by Nazis who brought a load of flammable chemicals down a secret underground corridor linking the Reichstag to the Reichstag President's house. The President of the Reichstag at the time was Herman Goering.

4. Hitler was never elected Chancellor of Germany. He was appointed by President Hindenberg.

5. Count Mirabeau, a key figure in the early part of the French Revolution was famous for writing books that combined political philosophy with hard core erotic fiction.

The Pacific Ocean was named by Maggellan. After having had bad weather crossing through South America on his voyage across the globe, when reaching upon the the Pacific Ocean (happened to be calm on that day), cried out "Mar Pacifico" which in Portuguese means "Peaceful Sea".

German Soldiers Preserved in World War I Shelter Discovered After Nearly 100 Years - The Telegraph

During negotiations of the Munich Agreement of 1938, Adolf Hitler and the then British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden (who later became PM in the 1950's) talked about World War 1. They soon realised they were actually facing each other in the trenches at one point of the war.

There is a photo of the main square of Munich taken at the public announcement of what became World War 1. Amongst the crowd, more or less in the centre of the picture is Adolf Hitler.

A teenage Maximillian Robespierre delivered a speech marking King Louis XVI's coronation in the presence of the king.

James Morehead, World War II Flying Ace, Dies at 95 - N.Y. Times