I would like a citation on this because this seems like the kind of sh*t tumblr makes up to go “omg white people are trash all their faves are trash smh”
As was popular in that era, dentures were made of ivory as well as other people’s teeth. Although teeth were harvested (gruesome word to use here) from dead people, it was not uncommon for poor people and slaves to seek monetary compensation for giving up their teeth (see: Les Miserables). George Washington had several sets of dentures. Indeed one set contained teeth from his slaves, but he paid them money for their teeth. In fact, Washington paid his slaves money for doing extra work outside their expected duties which would sometimes allow them to purchase their freedom. History is fun to cite to gain understanding of the world we live in, but only when done correctly. In failing to point out the monetary compensation part of teeth pulling, the OP makes it sound like Washington forcibly took the teeth of his slaves. Editorial history is dangerous.
vikings made their woman handle the finances because they thought math is witchcraft
The idea that unicorns are only able tamed and captured by virgins originated as a medieval joke. The idea was that it took a mythical creature to catch a mythical creature.
There was once an English minstrel called Roland the Farter. He was awarded lands by the king on the condition that he turn up to the court every Christmas to perform his characteristic “whistle, leap and a fart”. His children could keep the lands after his death if they learnt and performed the same trick.
There is graffiti from the Norse invaders that reads (roughly) “ I slept with Ingiborg, the most beautiful woman in the world ”
A close friend of Alexander the Great named Dioxippus, once told one of his generals, named Coragus, to stop being so up himself, Coragus took offence and challenged him to a duel in front of all of his troops unaware that Dioxippus was a champion of Pankration, Ancient Greek Wrestling. Coragus turned up with all of his weapons and armour, Dioxippus turned up naked with a club, lathered in Olive Oil. The match was over in about 5 mins and Coragus got his arse well and truly kicked.
When an army of Swedes went off to war with the Norwegians, they left all the women to manage everything, however, in the village of Smaland, right on the Southern Border, they were attacked by an opposing force of Danes. The women, led by a woman named Blenda, responded to this by inviting the invaders in, feeding them, making them comfy and basically having a massive party to get them REALLY drunk. When all the invaders all passed out, the women slaughtered them all with anything they could find, and when the men came back, the King was so impressed that he basically granted them a bunch of new rights that were previously unavailable to them. From that point on, all daughters had the right to inherit property, money and land equally with their brothers, and were allowed to wear military-style garments around town and at their weddings. They were also given the prestigious right to wear the Royal Coat of Arms on their clothing – a tradition that has lasted to this day.
The term in Chess “Checkmate” is thought to have come from the Persian term “Shah Mat” which means “The King is dead”.
Captain Benjamin Hornigold, the mentor to Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, once captured a ship just so he could steal all of the crew’s hats, because his crew had gotten drunk the night before and thrown all of theirs overboard.
Napoléon Bonaparte, the Corsican soldier who eventually became the Emperor of France following the French Revolution and Maximilien de Robespierre’s “Reign of Terror”, was terrified of cats.
It is believed that humans learned to enjoy coffee from watching goat chew the beans
Not enough people talk about the fact that Leonardo da Vinci was gay. Like, he’s literally the father of modern technology and one of the smartest human beings to ever live and I never ever learned in school that he was gay.
If all the LGBT people are as “DOOMED” as the bible thumpers think we are, hell, at least we’re in good company.
I was about to say I can’t believe I didn’t know this
and then I remembered the American education system
Yes, I can fucking believe I didn’t know this.
But yeah. Leonardo da Vinci was gay. Pass it on.
Leo painted a picture of his lover as Jesus and that’s the image we use today
Fun fact, my main man Leo was actually arrested briefly for sodomy because…well, long messy story involving the di Medicis and other powerful families of the day wanting him to basically sit down and shut up. Also he tended to have very attractive male ‘assistants’ and ‘apprentices’ who liked to draw dicks and butts in their sketchbooks, and if that doesn’t tell you some shit, I just dunno what to say.
I LEARNED RECENTLY THAT PLATO WON THE GOLD MEDAL IN THE OLYMPICS FOR WRESTLING THREE TIMES. THIS PUTS A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THINGS. I ALWAYS IMAGINED PLATO TO BE FRAIL AND MISSHAPEN BUT HE MUST HAVE BEEN FRICKEN RIPPED. I WONDER IF ARISTOTLE EVER FELT ANXIETY ABOUT GETTING PHYSICALLY (I.E. NOT JUST METAPHYSICALLY) DISMANTLED BY PLATO. PLATO WAS PROBABLY PISSED OFF BY AT LEAST A HANDFUL OF QUESTIONS ARISTOTLE ASKED HIM. ARISTOTLE WAS A LITERAL GENIUS TOO. IMAGINE PLATO LECTURING AND WRITING ON A BLACKBOARD AND ARISTOTLE THROWING A COMMENT OUT THERE ABOUT SOME COMPLEX MISSTEP IN PLATO’S LOGIC AND PLATO’S CHALK JUST SNAPS AND ARISTOTLE’S TESTICLES SUCK WAY BACK UP TO WHERE THEY DROPPED FROM, THEN PLATO IN A BLUR APPEARS BESIDE ARISTOTLE SITTING AT HIS DESK AND HE PICKS HIM UP AND SUPLEXES HIS MACEDONIAN ASS.
given the content of a lot of Plato’s conclusions I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Plato responded to a lot of reasonable criticisms with “Fight me” and that was the end of it.
ANOTHER FUN PLATO FACT
People think of Plato as kind of feeble because we think of philosophers that way, but some historians believe that we have conclusive evidence that he wasn’t
and it’s been staring us in the face the whole time.
Because Plato’s real name wasn’t Plato - it was Aristocles.
So some historians believe that ‘Plato’ was a nickname, bestowed upon him by his buddies. And do you know what Plato roughly translates to when you flip it out of greek? Broad. As in, broad shouldered.
This guy’s been going around with a name that literally means ‘Buff McWrestleton’ and we still think of him as a feeble old guy (probs. because Aristotle wanted us to…)
All sorts of tools have been found in pre-Christian women’s graves. The only major craft which seems to have been restricted to men only was Blacksmithing. […]
Here are a few examples of jobs done by women in the medieval period: brewer, laundress, barrel and crate maker, soap boiler, candle maker, book binder, doll painter, butcher, keeper of town keys, tax collector, shepherd, musician, rope maker, banker, money lender, inn keeper, spice seller, pie seller, woad trader, wine merchant, steel merchant, copper importer, currency exchanger, pawn shop owner, lake and river fisherwoman, baker, oil presser, builder, mason, plasterer, cartwright, wood turner, clay and lime worker, glazier, ore miner, silver miner, book illuminator, scribe, teacher, office manager, clerk, court assessor, customs officer, porter, tower guard, prison caretaker, surgeon and midwife. […]
There are records of women traders in 1205 in Genoa, Italy. In fact, 21% of people involved in trade contracts there in the 13th Century were women. Women also provided 14% of capital in seafaring ventures at the time. Even earlier, in the 12th Century, there are records of women traders in Georgia, Eastern Europe. Paris tax registers for 1292, 1300, 1313 list lots of craftswomen, many of whom were in different trades to their husbands. […]
Girls might be educated at home, with private tutor, or at a Convent. There were also schools within towns. In some cases girls were excluded from these, or only allowed to enter elementary schools. In other cases they were allowed to enter secondary schools and obtain a much broader education, including Latin and other languages. Some schools were mixed, others were single sex. Town Councils and the Church had some control over schools and over the appointment of teachers. In 1388, a Jewish woman, Sarah of Gorlitz, donated a property to be used as a school for Jewish children.
Outside of the Guilds, women might be employed as unskilled labourers in vineyards, on building sites and so on. Many more women than men were employed because they could be paid less for doing the same work. In Wurzburg, 1428-1449, for example, there are records of 323 female building site workers, paid 7.7 pfennings a day, and 13 male building site workers, paid 11.6 pfennings a day. In general, it seems that a wide range of professions were open to medieval women, although they were also subject to a variety of restrictions.
Some people who’ve been following me for a while probably have picked up that I love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Although all the political mechanisms behind his assassination are fascinating as well, especially because, y’know, it led to world war 1, the actual assassination story is my favorite. (Because it was so hilariously botched)
You guys probably already know it but GUESS WHAT I’M TELLING IT AGAIN. (Im not gonna source though ‘cause I’m lazy sorry)
So, ahem. Story time. Gather round, children.
There’s this dude named Franz and he was heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne back in 1914. So he went to inspect some imperial troops in Boznia and Herzegovina, which were provinces of Austria-Hungary. This pissed off a bunch of Serbian nationalists, who thought the territories should be part of the Serbian nation.
But I don’t really care about that. What’s important was that Franz and his wife were in Sarajevo and a terrorist group called the Black Hand decided to off him.
So Franz and his wife are touring around this city in an open-topped car, doing their whole royal wave thing. The Black Hand actually sent six assassins after the Ferdinands, just to make absolutely sure they died. The first guy actually chickened out so he’s not really important. The second assassin comes up all “Yeah i’m gonna kill these guys” so he throws a grenade at the car and it BOUNCES OFF and although it injures some people nearby, the Ferdinands are completely fine. So the dude’s like “oh shit” so he takes a cyanide pill and throws himself into a river so he won’t be taken by the authorities.
Unfortunately for him, though, the cyanide pill was expired and the river was six inches deep so the police just pulled him out and took him off to jail. All the other assassins kinda just gave up and wandered off. One of the assassins, Gavrilo Princip, was like “well screw this, i’m hungry” so he left to get a sandwich.
He was in the middle of ordering said sandwich when he heard the sound of a car stalling behind him. Turns out the Ferdinand’s drivers had gotten messed up by the crowds and accidentally took a wrong turn and then stalled RIGHT NEXT TO PRINCIP. So of course Princip was like “what a crazy random happenstance” and shot them both and started world war one.
So yeah, that’s my favorite assassination story because it’s great.
BUT DID HE GET HIS SANDWICH
Tumblr user pipistrellus asking the real important questions.
(To answer your question, probably not, because he was quickly apprehended and died of tuberculosis in prison a couple months later…)
BRINGING THIS BACK BECAUSE GUESS WHO WAS ASSASSINATED 101 YEARS AGO TODAY
just remember that the reason your born is because your parents are straight.
just remember that Alan Turing, father of modern computer science, was gay & is a big part of the reason you can sit here and make shitty homophobic posts
