Curious Events in HistoryDid you know there once was a craze for consuming a powdered mummy as a cure for any ailment? That Peter the Great put a tax on beards? History needn’t be as boring as school textbooks have led you to believe! These 40 strange but true stories prove that scattered between the famous milestones are tiny gems of incredible information just waiting to be discovered. Find out all about the 38-minute war and the time when Niagara Falls stopped falling. Learn which U.S. president was shot—and died not from the bullet wound, but from his doctors’ bungled efforts to save him. Forgotten, weird, and bizarre facts; unusual firsts and lasts, and a few unpalatable truths assure this illustrated collection will tickle the fancy of readers young and old. |
Contents
Introduction | 7 |
The Battle of Kadesh and the Pharaohs Big White | 8 |
OII The Unfortunate Death of Draco | 11 |
Caligula Mourns the Death of His Sister | 14 |
The Origin of Valentines | 18 |
Powdered Egyptian Mummies | 22 |
The First Kamikaze | 25 |
The Farcical Funeral of William the Conqueror | 27 |
The Trial of the | 40 |
A Moveable Feast? | 43 |
Tulipmania Undermines the Dutch Economy | 46 |
The Double Burial of Sir Walter Raleigh | 49 |
The First Submarine Invented 400 Years | 52 |
Manhattan Island Sold for TwentyFour Dollars | 55 |
The Murderer from the Mayflower | 60 |
Czar Peter the Greats Tax on Beards | 63 |
030 Neros Painted Grotto Inspires the Renaissance | 30 |
The PigRump SpikeOrgan of Louis XI | 33 |
036 Edward IVs Magic Vision | 36 |
Britains TwelveDay Sleep | 66 |
The Hat That Caused a Riot | 69 |
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African bees American animals Archduke army Assassination ASSISTANT TREASURERS FRACTIONAL attack Battle of Kadesh Battle of Tanga became bees Bentham Black Hand Group Borglum Brinkley British calendar Caligula carve celebrate CENTS century church cocaine Constrained Writing copycat suicides CURIOUS EVENTS Dave death DESIGNATED DEPOSITARIES UNITED died discovered doctors Draco Drebbel Drusilla Edward Egyptian Emperor England EVENTS IN HISTORY executed Falls famous feast fire fleet flew fractional currency Franz Ferdinand Gadsby German goat-gland Golden House grapefruit GRAPEFRUIT TREE H-Day harbor Hittites Jakobs Japanese John Billington Josef Jakobs Khaled killed King land later Lee's Lincoln London Mayflower Medical Mongol mummy named palace Pearse Peter pharaoh postage stamps QURMENDI Raleigh Ramesses Ramesses II Ramesses's River Roman Rome Saint Valentine September shaddock shot Stone Mountain submarine Tanga Thanksgiving thousands tion took traffic TREASURERS FRACTIONAL FIVE troops tulips U.S. President Valentine's Day walked World Wright brothers young Zanzibar