HISTORY IS BORING?

The study of history is a lot more fun than just memorizing dates and locations of historical events. Reading between the lines is essential.  If you’re a fan of soap operas, history has it all.  Demonic dictators, multitudinous mistresses, drugs,  and unfortunate babies. Read history and learn from the past!

In an era of very short folks (around 1550) where the average man was about 5’ 6” tall,  Mary, Queen of Scots was almost 6 feet tall.

In 1897 heroin was touted as a “wonder drug” and good for many ailments.  When it was taken off the market in 1913 hospitals were full of drug addicts.

In the year 1000 men were taller than men who lived hundreds of years later on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.

In 399 B.C. the philosopher, Socrates accused of “anti-democratic views” by the citizens of Athens was forced to commit suicide by drinking a cup of poison hemlock.

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake as a witch on the argument that her claims of direct communication with God were heretical and an act of disobedience to the Church.

Queen Anne of England (1702) during her life had 17 pregnancies that ended in stillborn babies.

The inventor, Charles Edison was said to have slept only 4 to 5 hours a night.

Many English kings have had mistresses but Charles II was insatiable. He had 13 of them.  Fortunately not all at once.

The Pre-Raphaelite painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti also wrote poetry. When his wife, Elizabeth Siddal died he was so grief stricken he buried his poems with her.  But 7 years after her death he had her coffin exhumed so he could publish the poetry.

In Victorian England many factory owners would house their employees in bizarre substandard housing,  trying to cram as many houses as possible into the space available.  Up to 100 houses would share one privy , usually a deep hole dug in one corner of the yard or just heaped up against a wall.

Adolph Hitler had a passion for witchcraft.  Not white witchcraft, the black version.

Captain James Cook, navigator and explorer, (around 1750) was not eaten by cannibals as originally assumed.  He was killed in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaiian Islands) after a dispute with the natives and his body was buried.

See you soon.

Joan