Random Historical Facts

[slooroo]

Nice . I think I'd read that Aristotle was Alexander's mentor, but I didn't know about the edition of Homer's works!

Not to sound too psychoanalytic but I think once you understand Alexander's obsession with The Iliad and his worries that his father would have a legacy impossible to follow up you start to understand the mind of Alexander a bit. Alexander wanted to be an eternal legend like Achilles and the man got it.

[Kyng]

Yes, he certainly did !

Next up: Roh Tae-woo, who became the first democratically-elected president of South Korea in 1988, was born 'No Tae-woo'. He changed his family name from 'No' to 'Roh' to avoid the negative connotations of the word 'No' in English.

[slooroo]

Supposedly Scipio Africanus had a meeting with Hannibal and asked him who he thought were the greatest generals of all time. Hannibal placed Alexander the Great as the best which Scipio was fine with, then he ranked Pyrrhus of Epirus in second then himself as third. Apparently this annoyed Scipio who believed Hannibal should've ranked him higher.

[JHG]

Ancient Sparta actually spent more time suppressing slave revolts than waging war against other city states.

[slooroo]

People tend to criticize John Adams for using the Sedition Act but as President Thomas Jefferson did the same thing in a roundabout way. Jefferson avoided using the Act directly (since he criticized Adams for it) but instead had his political lackeys in the states prosecute various newspapers that criticized him.

[Kyng]

When Queen Elizabeth II had her coronation, Sir Winston Churchill (born 1874) was Prime Minister.

When she died, the Prime Minister was Liz Truss (born 1975).

So, her first and last Prime Ministers were born 101 years apart.

[JHG]

Singapore was nicknamed Gibraltar of the East.

[slooroo]

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were practically best friends on top of being political allies. They also shared a bit of an obsession with health concerns to the point of obsession. Jefferson was rather notorious for having very strict ideas on diet (he was a borderline vegetarian, he ate some meat but only a tiny amount he believed was necessary), exercise (at least two hours a day and some of that time should be dedicated to walking), sleeping habits (always five to eight hours in a semi-reclined position with at least a half hour of "moral reading" before sleep), and a refusal to smoke and a maximum of only four glasses of alcohol a day. Meanwhile Madison was known for being practically paranoid that he'll get sick, believing he needed to go home often to breathe cleaner air closer to the mountains as well as avoid going into lowlands in Virginia as much as possible (which influenced his decision to go to Princeton over College of William & Mary like most Virginians.) Both were also known to being prone to a variety of physical and mental health issues throughout their life which may influence their health obsessions.

[Kyng]

Here's one I just realised.

Jimmy Carter was born closer to the inconclusive 1824 US Presidential Election (in which John Quincy Adams ultimately prevailed over Andrew Jackson, to become the 6th President of the United States) than to the present day.

I don't know whether that says more about how the US is still a relatively 'young' country, or how old Jimmy Carter is !

[slooroo]

Only five people were wounded on the American side from the Battle of Trenton (two died but from the cold weather, nothing to do with the fighting). One of these five was President James Monroe who nearly died from the experience but made it through.