History Of The Steel

The Vikings practiced Norse Paganism, the head of their gods was Odin and Thor.

It was thought by the Vikings that if they die in battle that Odin could choose them to bring to Valhalla – their version of Heaven where only the legendary Norse heroes go.

The main word used in Japanese historical documents to describe ninjas was Shinobi or Shinobi-no-mono.

The word itself predates ninjas themselves and more or less means to steal away or hide, with mono meaning “person.”

The word ninja comes from how the Japanese kanji characters were read in Chinese and were not used until much later in the 21st century.

The Ancient Egyptians were cat crazy.

The Ancient Egyptians believed that animals were incarnations of the gods so it was popular to keep animals as pets. If you were caught killing or injuring a cat in Ancient Egypt the penalties were high, usually resulting in death.

Ninjas often fought side-by-side with samurai...

The questionable practices of ninjas were looked down upon by true samurai, who respected honor above all else.

At the same time, there was always dirty work to be done, so samurai were happy that someone else was prepared to do it.

In fact, it wasn’t that uncommon for samurai to directly hire ninjas to do jobs that would otherwise bring the samurai dishonor.

The World War II army of the US is the biggest army in history.
Due in part to the surge of wartime patriotism, and in part because of conscription, the US Army numbered 12,000,000 soldiers by the end of the war in 1945.

By 1943, the German military had reached 11,000,000 soldiers.

The role of Gandalf was offered to Sean Connery, but he didn’t understand the script after reading it and turned it down.

The Vikings are notorious for their impressive boat building skills for their time. They invented the keel, as well as central spines down the underside of the boat to make the vessel more stable.

Lord of The Rings fact;

More than 2,000 weapons and 10,000 arrows were created for the filming of the LotR trilogy.

Vikings who would go into battle in a trance-like state of rage were called berserkers. It was said that they often wore bear or wolf skins into battle.

Vikings have been known to have fantastic hygiene!

Archaeologists have found tweezers, razors, combs, and even ear cleaners at excavations sits. Vikings bathed at least once a week which is more frequent that other Europeans of their time.

American Myths: Cowboys wore cowboy hats !

Have you ever seen a photo of an actual cowboy—not actors like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, we mean real cowboys like Butch Cassidy, Wyatt Earp, Bill Doolin, or Billy the Kid —when they're wearing cowboy hats? Probably never. Real cowboys from the American frontier, both the good guys and the bad guys, had no interest in those big, bulky Stetsons that everyone associates with them. The most popular headgear among 19th century gunslingers was a bowler, sometimes called a derby.

Germany uncovers 2,000 tons of unexploded bombs every year.

Over the course of WWII, the Allied armies dropped roughly 2.7 million tons of bombs over Nazi-occupied Europe. Half of that landed on Germany.

Before any construction work can begin in Germany, the ground must undergo extensive surveys to look for unexploded ordinance.

Sometimes bombs are discovered naturally. One example was from 2011:

45,000 people were evacuated from their homes when a drought revealed a 4,000-pound “blockbuster” bomb lying on the bed of the River Rhine in the middle of Koblenz.

Abraham Lincoln Was Also a Licensed Bartender!

Besides being a wrestling champ, Lincoln was also a licensed bartender. In 1833, the 16th president opened up a bar called Berry and Lincoln with his friend William F. Berry in New Salem, Illinois. The shop was eventually closed when Berry, an alcoholic, consumed most of the shop's supply.

Napoleon Was Once Attacked By a Horde of Bunnies !

Once upon a time, the famous conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte was attacked by…bunnies. The emperor had requested that a rabbit hunt be arranged for himself and his men. His chief of staff set it up and had men round up reportedly 3,000 rabbits for the occasion. When the rabbits were released from their cages, the hunt was ready to go. At least that was the plan! But the bunnies charged toward Bonaparte and his men in a viscous and unstoppable onslaught.

What is the oldest sword in the world?

Arslantepe swords are considered the oldest type of sword in the world. The Saint Lazarus Island sword turned out to be made of arsenical bronze, an alloy frequently used before the widespread diffusion of bronze.

Captain Morgan was a real guy!

He was also a real captain, too!
The face of the much-loved rum brand was a Welsh privateer who fought against the Spanish alongside the English in the Caribbean.
His full name was Sir Henry Morgan and was knighted by King Charles II.
Captain Morgan died in 1688 in Jamaica as a very wealthy man.

One man survived both the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and then later Nagasaki!

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a 29-year-old Naval Engineer on a three-month business trip to Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped its atomic payload on the city.

Yamaguchi was less than 2 miles from ground zero and was thrown into a potato patch.

He survived the blast and was able to make a perilous journey through the devastated city to the railway station.
Here, on August 7th, he boarded a train on an overnight ride to his hometown of Nagasaki.
On the morning of August 9th, he was with some colleagues in an office building when another boom split the sound barrier. A flash of white light filled the sky.
Yamaguchi emerged from the wreckage with only minor injuries on top of his current injuries. He had survived two nuclear blasts in two days.

In 1710, Native American leaders traveled to Britain to visit the Queen.

Almost 100 years before the (in)famous Lewis and Clark Expedition, the four Mohawk Kings from one of the Iroquois Confederacy’s Five Nations and the Algonquian peoples were treated with high honor as diplomats.

Transported through the streets of London in Royal Carriages, they were personally met by Queen Anne at the Court of St. James Palace.

They weren’t even called ninjas!

The main word used in Japanese historical documents to describe ninjas was Shinobi or Shinobi-no-mono. The word itself predates ninjas themselves and more or less means to steal away or hide, with mono meaning “person.”

The word ninja comes from how the Japanese kanji characters were read in Chinese and were not used until much later in the 21st century.

In Ancient Greece, wearing skirts was manly!

In fact, the Ancient Greeks viewed trousers as effeminate and would mock any men who wore them.

Since 1945, all British tanks are equipped with tea-making facilities.

On the road to Caen in 1944, a German Tiger tanked ambushed and destroyed a parked column of almost thirty armored British vehicles in 15 minutes whilst the crew was having an impromptu tea break. So after this, the next British-designed battle tank, the Centurion, came with a boiler fitted to the interior powered by the tank’s electric circuits so the crew would never be short of a lovely warm cup of tea!

The Dutch-Scilly War lasted 335 years and had no battles or deaths.

Spanning between 1651 – 1986, the war was a by-product of the English Civil War and the decision of the Dutch to side with the Parliamentarians over the Royalists.
The Royalists had raided a few Dutch shipping vessels in revenge before fleeing to the Isles of Scilly. The Dutch turned up, demanding reparations from the Royalists and, when they didn’t pay up, declared war. But they decided to call it a day and go home pretty sharpish as they realized the Royalists didn’t have a penny to their names.

The only thing is they never declared peace with the Isles and just completely forgot they were at war.

Adolf Hi**er’s nephew fought against the N***s in World War II.

Alois Hi**er Jr. was drafted into the United States Navy where he served as a Hospital Corpsman throughout the war until 1947.
He was wounded in action and was awarded the Purple Heart, and went on to gain American citizenship.

Albert Einstein turned down the presidency of Israel.

Einstein wasn’t a citizen of Israel. However, he was Jewish. The German-born physicist was offered the post, but turned it down in 1952, saying:

“I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions.”

Hi**er, Stalin and Mussolini have all been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

But the Hi**er's nomination was cancelled. No prize was awarded in 1939 to anyone for peace.

When Marcus Crassus died, molten gold was poured down his throat!

Marcus Licinius Crassus was known as the wealthiest man in Rome during his life. After an unsuccessful parley for peace with the Parthian leaders, Crassus was defeated. The Parthians poured molten gold down his throat, as a symbol of his thirst for wealth.

It’s believed that roughly 97% of history has been lost over time.

Written accounts of history only started roughly 6,000 years ago. And modern humans first appeared around 200,000 years ago.
This 194,000-year gap is, in itself, huge.

The Soviet Union tried to s***f out the memory of Genghis Khan!

During the Soviet-era rule of the late 20th century, simply mentioning the great conqueror’s name was a crime against the USSR.
The Soviets removed his story from school textbooks and outlawed pilgrimages to his birthplace of Khentii.

In Ancient Greece, they believed redheads became vampires after death!

This was partly due to the fact that redheaded people are very pale-skinned and sensitive to sunlight unlike the bronze Mediterranean Greeks.
As well as the fact that a fair bit of vampire folklore existed within Greek mythology.

Medieval Castle Stairs always turned clockwise 🕰

A constant feature in the design of medieval castles was that staircases were built in a spiralling form and always turned clockwise. The reason for this was entirely practical, with stairs forming part of a castle’s internal defence system.

If incoming attackers were able to infiltrate a castle then the majority would struggle to use their sword arms as they ascended any staircase. Of course, this would have no impact on any soldier who wielded a sword in his left hand.

The Vikings were the first people to discover America!

Half a millennium before Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, Viking chief Leif Eriksson of Greenland landed on the Island of Newfoundland in the year 1,000 AD. The Vikings under Leif Eriksson settled Newfoundland as well as discovering and settling Labrador further north in Canada.

The world’s most successful pirate in history was a lady.

Under Ching Shih’s leadership, the Red Flag Fleet consisted of over 300 warships, with a possible 1,200 more support ships. She even had a possible 40,000 – 80,000 men, women, and children.

They terrorized the waters around China. The Red Flag Fleet was such a fearsome band of raiders, that the Chinese government eventually pardoned Ching Shih and her entire fleet just to get them off the high seas!

The Colosseum was originally clad entirely in marble.
When you visit or see the Colosseum these days you’ll notice how the stone exterior appears to be covered in pockmarks all across its surface.

Whilst you might assume this is just degradation of the material due to its age, it is actually because it was originally clad almost entirely in marble.
The reason for the pockmarks is, after the fall of Rome, the city was looted and pillaged by the Goths.

Senator Horse 🐴
Roman Emperor Gaius, also known as Caligula, made one of his favorite horses a senator. The emperor loved his horse, named Incitatus, so much that he gave him a marble stall, an ivory manger, a jeweled collar, and even a house!

Spartans were so rich that nobody had to work 💸
When a Spartan boy reached adulthood and became a man, the Spartan state awarded him with an allotment of public farmland. They also rewarded him with a constituent of Helot slaves to work it.

This basically turned every Spartan citizen into a wealthy member of the conventional upper class. So they didn’t have to work for a living.

What is the history of the shield?
The scutum is the shield normally associated with the Roman legions, and it was way effective. While the Greeks had created the phalanx (a shield wall held in place by ranks of soldiers), the Romans perfected it. The legionnaires were not only good at the phalanx, they came up with trick formations, like the testudo.

Medieval Castle-Rock of Cashel
This fortress has been the traditional site for the Kings of Munster since the Early Middle Ages. In the year 1101 Muircheartach Ua Briain, king of Cashel, gave the Rock of Cashel to the Church, and the site was soon converted into a medieval cathedral.

Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets !
Forget almost every Viking warrior costume you’ve ever seen. Sure, the pugnacious Norsemen probably sported headgear, but that whole horn-festooned helmet look? Depictions dating from the Viking age don’t show it, and the only authentic Viking helmet ever discovered is decidedly horn-free.