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

Discussion in 'History' started by Excape Goat, Jan 2, 2006.

  1. Excape Goat

    Excape Goat Member+

    Mar 18, 1999
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Most history buffs knows that Queen Victoria is the ancestor of most of the Royal Families in Europe.

    See here:
    https://www.townandcountrymag.com/s...545/queen-victoria-descendants-on-the-throne/

    In actuality, most of Royal Families of Europe are descendants of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. He is the grandfather of both Queen Victoria and her husband Albert, making him the ancestor of all of Queen Victoria's descendants. That is the current monarch in Sweden, Spain, Norway and Denmark. The deposed monarchs of Yugoslavia, Germany, Romania and Greece were also her descendants.

    One of Queen Victoria's granddaughter was Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Tsar Nicholas II. Of course, all of her children were great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

    In the article above, it also pointed out that Phillippe of Belgium is not a descendant of Queen Victoria. However, he is related to Queen Victoria through King Leopold I of Belgium who was the uncle of both Queen Victoria and Albert. King Leopold I of Belgium happened to be the youngest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Phillippe of Belgium, of course, was a direct descendant of him.

    Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld also had another son named Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He is the father of Ferdinand II of Portugal and the grandfather of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. Both monarchies are no longer in power. Tsar Simeon II who was the last Tsari of Bulgaria was elected Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2001.

    So Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld "owned" two more royal houses in Europe than Queen Victoria.
     
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  2. Excape Goat

    Excape Goat Member+

    Mar 18, 1999
    Club:
    Real Madrid
  3. Excape Goat

    Excape Goat Member+

    Mar 18, 1999
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    This was a 1940 movie starring Ronald Reagan as a young George Custer. The story depicted Custer alongside J. E. B. Stuart trying to capture the abolitionist John Brown. I have no idea of the plot. The trailer was interesting. It suggested Robert E Lee, James Longstreet and George Pickett involving this part in history. The trailer called them heros that "makes America great".

     
  4. taosjohn

    taosjohn Member+

    Dec 23, 2004
    taos,nm
    Well, Lee and Stuart were definitely in on the capture of Brown, and Stonewall Jackson commanded the security detail at his execution; I've no idea where Longstreet or Pickett was at the time, and Custer was still at West Point finishing 34th out of a class of 34...

    Incidentally, pursuant to the back and forths about whether contemporaries percieved the US or their state as their nation: Brown was charged with and convicted of treason to Virginia, not the US-- even though he had never been a citizen or resident of Virginia.
     
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  5. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    I wish you'd stop posting all these historical corrections. You've trashed everything I'd learned from 12 yrs of schoolin. :(
     
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  6. song219

    song219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 5, 2004
    La Norte
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Vanuatu
    You got that much. 'Litist.
     
  7. taosjohn

    taosjohn Member+

    Dec 23, 2004
    taos,nm
    On further review I actually do know-- Pickett was fighting the pig war in the San Juan Islands, and I just realized Longstreet was the Longstreet who was paymaster in Albuquerque and quite unhappy to find his state had seceded
     
  8. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    What do you mean? Albuquerque is in New Mexico, which didn't vote for president until 1912. It wasn't a state during the Civil Ware.
     
  9. song219

    song219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 5, 2004
    La Norte
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Vanuatu
    I'm assuming the state he was from not the territory he was stationed in.
     
  10. taosjohn

    taosjohn Member+

    Dec 23, 2004
    taos,nm
    And yet a significant Civil War battle was fought here-- Glorieta Pass. Life is messy.

    Longstreet was paymaster for US Army troops stationed in New Mexico Territory. Union General and future presidential candidate Winfield Scott Hancock commanded them at one point. Union General Lew Wallace was an important political figure here, and later Governor.

    "Everybody's gotta be somewheres," and they were here...
     
  11. Excape Goat

    Excape Goat Member+

    Mar 18, 1999
    Club:
    Real Madrid
  12. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    As my dad was born in 1892 and mom in '04 I have a few albums with similar pictures. As an Italian citizen he was drafted for WWI but was classified 5F and did not serve although I had uncles that served on both sides in both WWI and II. :coffee:
     
  13. Excape Goat

    Excape Goat Member+

    Mar 18, 1999
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    What's a 5F?


    Coincidently, I was this before I found "the Three Farmers" video. I never heard of the battles between Italian and Japanese troops in the war. It was also interesting that some Italian units fought for all three Axis powers in the war.

     
  14. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    As he was not a US citizen my dad told me he was given the option of returning to Italy. He declined and said he preferred not to serve on either side.

    MILITARY CLASSIFICATIONS

    For Draftees
    compiled by Anne Yoder, Archivist,

    Swarthmore College Peace Collection


    WORLD WAR I

    [From Selective Service Regulations, 1917 (see Subject File: Conscientious Objection/Objectors -- Government Documents)]


    V
    Exemption or discharge from draft
    ; including:

    - ordained ministers
    - students who on May 18, 1917 had been prepared for ministry in a recognized theological or divinity school
    - persons in the military or naval service of the United States (officers & enlisted men)
    - alien enemies
    - resident aliens
    - persons found to be totally & permanently physically or mentally unfit for military service
    - persons show to have been convicted of any crime designated as treason or felony, or an “infamous” crime
    - licensed pilots actually employed in the pursuit of his vocation
     
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  15. taosjohn

    taosjohn Member+

    Dec 23, 2004
    taos,nm
    Sacrifice Fly?
     
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  16. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    [​IMG]
     
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  17. song219

    song219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 5, 2004
    La Norte
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Vanuatu
    This reminds me of this Korean guy who during WW2 served in the Japanese, Soviet and German armies.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Kyoungjong
     
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  18. Excape Goat

    Excape Goat Member+

    Mar 18, 1999
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    I came across Ferdinand Habsburg a few years ago. He was an upcoming race car driver in Europe. His father Karl is the head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. I think that he is the current pretender to the throne and this race car driver is the next in line.

    Perhaps, in Europe, this driver was well-known when he first emerged because of his background. I came upon Hapsburg's jaw last week, a historical fact I already knew. I decided to google this guy again and see if he has that jaw.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Zvonimir_von_Habsburg

     
  19. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    The length of the Harvard Bridge connecting Boston and Cambridge is 364.4 smoots plus one ear! :coffee:
     
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  20. Excape Goat

    Excape Goat Member+

    Mar 18, 1999
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Since we are talking about Harvard(I did not attend nor I did consider applying there), the statue of John Harvard at Harvard Yard is not of John Harvard. In 1884, Daniel Chester French created the famous statue, and Sherman Hoar sat as a model for the head of John Harvard. Hoar later went on to serve as a member of Congress and a US district attorney. No one knew what John Harvard looked like. There are no living presentation of the man. Harvard was also not the founder of the school. He donated money to the school, and the school changed their name.
     
  21. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    Very interesting....and just so you know...there is irrefutable proof that the Earth is not flat. If it were cats would have knocked everything off by now! :ninja:
     
  22. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    Why Do Canadians Say ‘Eh’?

    There are a few major ways a Canadian could use “eh.” The first is while stating an opinion: “It’s a nice day, eh?” Another would be as an exclamation tag, which is added to a sentence in order to indicate surprise: “What a game, eh?” Or you could use it for a request or command: “Put it over here, eh?” And then there’s the odd example of using it within a criticism: “You really messed that one up, eh?” :)

    Ps...eh!
     
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  23. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    Spaghetto, confetto, and graffito are the singular forms of spaghetti, confetti, and graffiti. :coffee:
     
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  24. taosjohn

    taosjohn Member+

    Dec 23, 2004
    taos,nm
    Onliest spaghetto I ever saw was a seedy neighborhood fulla hot tubs, masseuses, and mudbaths...
     
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  25. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    Our neighborhood it was mostly old porcelain bathtubs propped on end with a religious statue stolen appropriated from Saint Basilio's! :whistling:
     

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