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

I did not understand "puzzlement". I did not know that it was a song until I googled it.

 

Oh well, the John Harvard statue in Harvard was actually not him. In 1884, Daniel Chester French created the famous statue, and Sherman Hoar sat as a model for the head of John Harvard. No one knew what John Harvard looked alike. He was also not the founder of Harvard as stated by the engravings oin the statue. The college was renamed because he was the first major benefactor to the University.

 

After the Pope disbanded the Templars in 1312, it was said that the Templars escaped to Scotland. It was also said that some of them left Scotland in 1398 and reached modern day Nova Scotia, Canada, a 100 years before Colombus discovered the New World. They encountered the Mi'kmaq people.

One of the proofs were the similiarity of the Templar Battle flag and the Mi'kmaq Nation.

 

Usually, when you used the word "Down" to describe something, it usually meant something is physically or metaphorically lower. So, I always thought "Down Syndrome" is a term that is degrading. However, I just found out that it was named after Dr John Landon Down who was the Physican to discover the disability.

 

In the early 1800s, the colonial population in Australia was predominantly male, made up of convicts, soldiers, and agricultural workers. Recognising the need for more single women in Australia, the Emigration Commission began advertising for women in search of employment, marriage, or a new life. Initially, ships were chartered for the exclusive use of single women but later the Emigration Commission provided single women with assisted passage on standard government emigrant ships. Eligibility criteria varied, but the Commission usually only accepted single women aged between 18 and 35 who could prove their physical and moral soundness.


"To all single women—no place but Australia or Tasmania. From what we learn, nearly 5,000 women will be sent out in the course of this year to the Australian Colonies! It will the happiest, perhaps the only happy incident in their lives. They will obtain service, high wages—and husbands as soon as they please. The male population in Sydney is four to one. There could be no better matrimonial speculation, therefore, for ladies in want of husbands, then to ship themselves off for this part of the world."
Newry Telegraph - Friday 27 April 1832

Between the years of 1833 and 1837, a total of fourteen ships sponsored by the London Emigration Committee departed from England and Ireland as part of a scheme to send female emigrants to Sydney, Hobart and Launceston Australia where young women of good character were said to be in high demand.

The women were offered good paying jobs before they departed. However, most of them were not well received in Sydney society. With some of the women being plucked from the workhouses and slums of London, more than a few were considered to be of bad character and were seen to take up with the lowest class of Sydney residents, some turning to prostitution to earn their living.

 

Coria is a town near Sevilla, Spain.


Early in the 17th century, daimyō Date Masamune of Sendai sent a delegation led by Hasekura Tsunenaga (1571–1622) and Franciscan friar Luis Sotelo to Europe. In 1613, Hasekura and the delegates visited the Spanish court of King Philip III and the Vatican. An embassy was established and six samurai stayed in Croia, Spain. Approximately 650 of Coria's 24,000 residents, as reported in 2003, use the surname Japón (originally Hasekura de Japón), identifying them as the descendants of the first Japanese official envoy to Spain.

Most of the Japanese returned to Japan in 1617 after Japan banned Christianity. Around that time, the surname of Japón appeared in Spain. Franciscan friar Luis Sotelo also returned to Japan. He was burned at stake in 1624 and later gained sainthood.

So, a Spanish town with so many Japanese descendants is called Coria. I believed Korea in Spanish is Corea.