Historical Facts

This is a thread for historical facts, so go ahead and post your blurbs!
If you have questions, feel free to ask that as well!
I'm sure there's a historian around willing to answer!

FUN FACT: Cleopatra was the only pharaoh to print her face on commoner coins so all the people,
not just nobles, knew what she looked like.

This one is a little creepy, so if you are faint of heart, or don't like gory details, I would not advise not reading the red font....


When Mary Queen of Scots was accused of Treason by her relative Elizabeth the First {I can't remember how exactly they were related} Mary spent quite a long time in a large Tower, awaiting her day of Execution. {again, can't remember how long XP}

When that day finally came, Mary was led out, and she knelt down, ready to have her head chopped off. As custom, she forgave the executioner, which, should you read on, you will find out was a good thing to do...

His first swing missed target, and the blade sliced into her back. She was still alive through all this, and supposedly said "Oh Lord", as the second swing failed to cut clean through her neck, she again, remained alive, until the third swing finally, brought her death. Then, when the executioner picked up her head by her hair, her head slipped away, as he had only grabbed her wig. Her real hair had fallen out while she was in the tower.


They say that the tears that fell from Mary's face as she died, created a purple flower, that was named in her honor And I would need to hunt down the book I read this in to remember the name, but it was a History book, volume 3. very bloody book....

not so fun fact: it always trips me the fuck out that zeus tricked/shamed hera into marrying him; also the amount of people zeus impregnated and/or seduced as an animal. the guy was messed up, and it's kind of funny how the more you learn about greek mythology, the more that becomes clear.

^^ and Zeus and Hera were siblings!! Perseus was conceived via goose rape. Zeus had some issues man. That's why Hera was like I DON'T NEED U I CAN DO IT MYSELF and Hephaestus happened then Zeus was like LOL NOOB and Athena happened.

tbh everyone in classic mythology was a prissy bitch that enjoyed screwin' around. Except for Artemis and Hestia n such but they had their own problems too lmaoo

One of my favorite fun facts is abt the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare", an actual organisation that happened under Churchill's administration that used covert sabotage, propaganda, and infiltration methods to dismantle whatever country/organisation/operation they were sent into. They did a lot of cool things during the war (sabotage in the African theatre was a big one), they had a lot of really cool spy gadgets, and they didn't care who they employed; homosexuals, women, criminals, etc. But my favorite part is something else.

So one part of it took place before 1941, where Churchill was tryna sneakily convince American isolationists to join in the war effort. This was because during this time Nazi Germany was beginning to ramp up and Churchill was gettin' mighty nervous because Britain didn't have the resources to fend off that sort of attack. So what Churchill did is he gathered a bunch of people trained in the arts -writers, playwrights, actors, musicians- and exploited their already existent skillset and training them in subterfuge and the like, before sending them to America to worm their way into influential social circles, lavish parties, and convince Americans to fight the war.

I'm talking about people like Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming, and Sir William Stephenson. And a big part is they would literally find the wives of famous isolationists, have sex with them, and then have these isolationists' wives go and convince their husbands that joining the war would be a good thing. Roald Dahl (yes, children's book author, balding, that Roald Dahl) was once screwing around so much with the wife of the CEO of TIME (at the time ;o) that he sent back a letter to MI6 saying, "I'm all f***ed out; that goddamned woman has screwed me from one end of the room to the other".

He was also apparently a huge snacc, because he was known as "one of the biggest c*cksmen in America" and people said "I think he slept with everybody on the east and west coasts that [was worth] more than $50,000 a year".

Which... Honestly, what a g.

Anyways! This all sound familiar? The spying, the infiltration, cool spy gadgets and screwing beautiful women? It should; Ian Fleming went on to write James Bond, basing it off of this Ministry and Sir William Stephenson specifically.

I have another fact about a man who received medals of honor from both Nazi Germany and Britain through roleplaying, a story about the "lobotomobile", a traveling van driven by a man who invented the icepick lobotomy, and also a story abt Plato the wrestler (who is indeed the Plato you're thinking of); which do y'all wanna hear? I live to serve. cx Honestly, give me a time period or a genre and I prolly have something for you. xP

also thank you for making this thread... finally a place for me to vomit the litany of fun facts in my head