by Bill McLain
There were 186,000 African Americans in the Union Army; many died as heroes.
Is it true that a former king of England had blue urine? (Does blue urine make you go crazy?)
It’s almost true, but the color’s a shade off. The king’s urine was actually a deep purple. The king was George III, who ruled England and Ireland from 1760 to 1820. Experts believe that he suffered from porphyria, a hereditary disease that causes an overproduction of porphyrins, the reddish components of the portion of the red blood cell that carries oxygen through the body. Overproduction of porphyrins can cause the skin to turn red or blister in sunlight, can stain teeth to a reddish brown, and can cause the urine to vary in color from light pink to deep purple, depending on the severity of the disease and how long a person has had it.
Porphyria was just one of the king’s problems. George III was also known as “Mad King George.” Although some may have called him mad because he was arrogant, belligerent, and often irrational, history refers to him as mad because he was pronounced insane in 1811 and remained so the rest of his life, with only occasional lapses into reality. Some authorities believe that porphyria caused his madness, while others believe he was suffering from mental illness in addition to his physical afflictions. He was the first and only British king to lose his sanity.
Mad King George issued the Stamp Act, which permitted colonists in the Americas to be taxed without being represented in Parliament. This act was one of the factors precipitating the American Revolution, and led to George’s being known as “the king who lost the American Colonies.”
Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo during the reign of King George III but the king never knew it. By 1815 he was completely insane and the Prince of Wales (the future George IV) reigned over England.
History will always remember George III as Mad King George.
FACTOIDS
Many royal families have suffered maladies often brought about by intermarriage intended to “keep the royal lineage pure.”
Members of the Hapsburg family of Spain often suffered from hemophilia, a condition in which even a small cut would cause uncontrolled bleeding. Many male descendants of England’s Queen Victoria also suffered from hemophilia.
Charles II of Spain, also a member of the Hapsburg line, was known as “Charles the Mad.”
“Mad King Ludwig” of Bavaria was a great admirer of Richard Wagner, the German composer. King Ludwig had a passion for building castles in the Bavarian mountains. His most famous castle, Neuschwanstein, was a fairytale castle perched on a rocky crag and decorated with scenes from Wagner’s operas.
DID YOU KNOW?
In one case a disease of the royal family indirectly caused the downfall of an empire. Alexis, the only son of Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, was a hemophiliac and the only heir to the Russian throne.
In 1908, Alexis started bleeding uncontrollably and the royal family summoned Rasputin, a self-proclaimed holy man with a reputation for miraculous cures. Rasputin somehow managed to stop the boy’s bleeding. His mother, Alexandra, believed that God had sent this holy man to protect her son.
With Alexandra believing in his holy powers, Rasputin steadily gained more influence over the royal family. When the czar left to command the Russian armies fighting Germany during World War I, the running of the country was left to Alexandra or, as most believed, to Rasputin.
In 1916 a group of aristocrats, fearing Rasputin’s growing power and influence over the czarina, decided to assassinate Rasputin and return control to the czar. They fed him poisoned cake, poisoned wine, and shot him at point-blank range. Rasputin did not die. He was then shot twice more, bludgeoned, kicked in the temples, wrapped with heavy chains, and thrown into an icy river. A later autopsy indicated that Rasputin was still alive when thrown into the river.
The conspirators did not take into account the fact that the Russian people saw Rasputin as a “man of the people.” Within three months of Rasputin’s death, the Bolshevik revolution brought down the Russian monarchy.
Who were the Knights Templar? (Did they find the Ark of the Covenant?)
The Knights Templar might be called soldier-monks. In 1118, almost twenty years after the First Crusade ended and the Holy City of Jerusalem was reclaimed for Christianity, nine knights from France came to Jerusalem and asked the king of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, for permission to form a new order. The purpose of the order was to keep the roads and highways safe for the incredible number of pilgrims making the perilous journey from Europe to Jerusalem. The crusaders had few strongholds in the Holy Land and traveling pilgrims were in danger of attack by roving bands of Muslims.
The king was so impressed with the devoted knights that he gave them an entire wing of his palace for their quarters. Because the wing was built on the foundations of the ancient Temple of Solomon, the knights became known as the “Poor Fellow Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon,” soon shortened to the “Knights Templar.”
The knights vowed to live a monastic life and took oaths of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the same oaths taken by monks. No new knights joined the order for nine years until Pope Honorius recognized the order in 1128. Within two years, 300 knights had joined the order.
Many believed that the Knights Templar formed the order primarily to find the Ark of the Covenant and the gold rumored to have been buried beneath the temple by the Jewish people when the Romans put down a rebellion in A.D. 70.
Within two centuries of their founding, the Knights Templar had become so powerful that no one could defy them except the Pope. Because of their vast wealth and military power, they set up a network of storehouses and transported bullion to and from the Holy Land and Europe. They basically invented banking as we know it today.
Because the Knights Templar were feared as warriors and envied for their wealth and power, it became clear that it would be only a matter of time until their enemies destroyed them.
In 1307 King Philip IV of France had all of the Knights Templar in France arrested and then pressured Pope Clement V, also a Frenchman, to have the Knights Templar in all countries arrested.
The arrested knights were accused of many heinous crimes, including heresy, and were tortured or executed. In 1314 Jacques de Molay, the last grand master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake.
FACTOIDS
In spite of handling massive amounts of funds, the Knights Templar were scrupulously honest. Any type of fraud or theft was punishable by death.
At its height the order of the Knights Templar had up to 20,000 members, but only about 2,000 were actual knights.
Some scholars believe that the famed Shroud of Turin is actually the image of the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay.
Although many dispute the theory that Freemasonry grew out of the order of the Knights Templar, most agree that it was influenced by the Knights Templar. A good example is the modern Demolay organization (named after Jacques de Molay) for young men, which is part of Freemasonry.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1894 a group of British Army officers set out to map the vaults below the ruins of Herod’s Temple. They discovered centuries-old tunnels, many of which were vaulted with keystone arches (the Knights Templar were known for their proficiency as architects and masons). They also found a Templar sword, a spur, part of a lance, and a small Templar cross, artifacts that had been discarded 740 years before.
Did the Knights Templar find the most holy treasure of all, the Ark of the Covenant? If they did, where is it today?
Whether it still exists today or not, the search for the lost Ark of the Covenant is still discussed in today’s movies, books, and historical works.
More questions? Try these websites.
ANY DAY IN HISTORY
http://www.scopesys.com/anyday/
Simply select a month and day and click on Show Events to find out everything that occurred on that day throughout history. Listed first are famous birthdays, from centuries past to the pr
esent time, followed by a list of famous people who died on that date in this century. Finally, you’ll see a list of events for that day throughout history.
For example, if you select August 17, you’ll see hundreds of events such as:
Davy Crockett was born in 1786
Vivian Vance, who played Ethel Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” died at age 72
Pope Leo II was selected in 682
Robert Fulton’s steamboat made its first trip on the Hudson River in 1807
WORLD HISTORY
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/gateway/index.html
This is an excellent site with well-organized links to just about anything you’d like to know about history. I suggest starting at World History Archives and then selecting the region you are interested in.
SEE WHAT HAPPENED IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
http://www.erols.com/mwhite28/20centry.htm#How
This site is full of fascinating information. For example, if you select the top 100 this and thats of the twentieth century, you’ll find a number of lists such as the top news stories of the century, the 100 best novels, the 100 best films, and the 100 best songs.
If you select Europe in 1900, you’ll see a map of Europe indicating the national religion of each country. Clicking on the Cities icon beneath the map will show you major cities at the beginning of the century; clicking on the Government icon will show you the types of government in each country; and clicking on the War icon will show you major wars and fatalities.
ANECDOTE: PUSHING A VAN AROUND AN ISLAND
Diego Garcia is a small horseshoe-shaped island in the Indian Ocean that was once a coconut plantation. Today, a major portion of the 7-square mile island is taken up by a runway large enough for the space shuttle to land in an emergency. It is a British-owned island but has a U.S. naval base on it.
I received an e-mail from Dave Burdges, who is the manager of the Navy Federal Credit Union. The credit union had an old van that suffered from a faulty transmission. It ran fine as long as it was driven forward. However, to drive in reverse was impossible. Dave and his co-workers had to get out of the van and push it. They were tired of pushing the van all over the island. After writing to the manufacturer’s dealerships throughout the United States and not receiving any help, Dave was desperate and asked if I could help.
Dave included the model year and serial number of the van in his message. I called a number of dealers in the United States and gave them the van’s serial number. The dealers just gasped and informed me that there was no way they could help. It turns out that the van had been built in Japan.
There seemed to be a problem with the information about the van so I asked Dave to verify it. Dave’s friend Jim Flaherty put the van on a rack but could not find a single additional tag or label. However, Jim persisted and eventually found some old records and sent me the updated information.
I then asked where they had purchased the van. Dave told me they had bought it in the Philippines. This made things more difficult. I had to try and find a transmission for a 12-year-old van that was built in Japan, purchased in the Philippines, and then shipped to a tiny remote island in the Indian Ocean.
It took some time but I finally found a dealer in Manila in the Philippines who was willing to help. He sold Dave a used transmission for under $300.
When the transmission finally arrived on the island, they had no trouble installing it. It worked perfectly. The last I heard, Dave and his co-workers were happily driving around the island both forward and backward.
Holidays
Why are eggs associated with the Easter bunny? (Don’t chickens lay eggs?)
In the spring, most cultures have festivals to celebrate fertility and new life. Rabbits are known for producing a great deal of young, particularly in the spring. Bird eggs are also laid in great numbers in the spring. In many cultures, rabbits, eggs, and spring, the time that new life is born, are symbols of fertility.
In early Anglo-Saxon times, the goddess of spring was called Eostre (sometimes she was known as Ostara). One particularly harsh winter, the wings of a bird became frozen. Eostre saved the bird by turning it into a hare. Not just any hare, but a magical hare that could lay eggs.
The Easter bunny as we know it originated in Germany in the 1500s. In fact, the first edible Easter bunnies were made in Germany during the early 1800s. They were made of pastry and sugar.
German settlers in Pennsylvania Dutch country introduced the Easter bunny, or “Oschter Haws,” to America in the 1700s. Children believed that if they were good, the Oschter Haws would lay a nest of colored eggs. Boys would use their caps and girls would use their bonnets to make a nest in the house, barn, or garden hoping to find them full of colored eggs the next day. From this simple tradition, the use of elaborate Easter baskets eventually evolved.
Eggs were originally painted with bright colors to represent the spring sunlight. They were given as gifts.
FACTOIDS
The most famous Easter eggs are the fabulously decorated pysanky from Ukraine.
In Poland, a priest blesses the Easter eggs before they are given to family and friends. Romania and other countries also have this custom.
One Easter custom is for a person to tap the end of an egg against someone else’s egg. The person who cracks the other’s egg first is guaranteed good luck.
Many Christians dye eggs red to signify the blood of the risen Christ.
Wooden eggs are used in the annual White House Easter egg roll. The eggs, which have a unique design each year, can be bought by the general public at a modest cost.
On Easter in 1722, Admiral Roggeveen discovered an island filled with huge, mysterious stone heads. He named it Easter Island.
DID YOU KNOW?
Easter is derived from three different traditions: pagan, Hebrew, and Christian.
In pagan times Eostre, the goddess of spring, was venerated in the spring, the traditional time of celebrating Easter. She also had the month of April dedicated to her. It was called “Eostur-monath.”
Many names for Easter are derived from the root pasch, which comes from the Hebrew word pesach (Passover). Passover celebrates the night in Egypt when the angel of death “passed over” the homes of the Israelites and spared their firstborn. Jewish Pesach is celebrated during Nisan, the night of the first full moon of the first month of spring.
The first Christians continued to observe Jewish festivals, but with a new slant. During the Jewish celebration of Passover, the Christians added the concept of Christ as the true Paschal lamb and the first fruits from the dead (the winter-to-spring, death-to-life theme). It eventually became the Christian Easter.
The lighting of the Paschal candle is also from the Jewish celebration of Passover. Before the candle was lit, a new fire was started to symbolize driving away the powers of darkness and death.
What is the origin and meaning of Valentine’s Day? (A mad emperor started it all.)
In A.D. 270 the mad emperor Claudius II decided that married men made poor soldiers because they did not want to leave their families to go to war. Because the Roman Empire needed soldiers, he issued a proclamation forbidding marriage. As a result, lovers secretly went to Valentine, a Christian bishop, who would marry them. When Claudius heard of this, he brought the bishop before him and attempted to convert him to Roman paganism. Valentine, in turn, unwisely tried to convert Claudius to Christianity and was sentenced to death for his impudence.
While in prison, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer. He left her a farewell love note and signed it “Your Valentine.” He was executed on February 14. Some years later the Catholic Church proclaimed him a saint. Thus we celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day, or Valentine’s Day, on February 14 and dedicate the day to lovers.
In the ancient Roman Empire, February 14 was a holiday to honor Juno, the Queen of Roman gods and goddesses. This was also the eve of the feast of Lupercalia when the names of Roman maidens were written on slips of paper and dropped
into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from a jar and the two would be partners for the festival, and often for an entire year.
The Christian Church felt this was an obscene custom and later replaced the feast of Lupercalia with Saint Valentine’s Day. Either way, the day is a symbol of love and of lovers choosing one another.
FACTOIDS
More cards are sent on Valentine’s Day than on any other holiday except Christmas.
Young men and women during the Middle Ages drew a name from a bowl to see who their valentine would be and wore the name on their sleeve for a week. This gave rise to the expression to “wear your heart on your sleeve,” meaning to openly show other people your feelings.
Teachers receive the most valentines, followed by children, mothers, wives, and sweethearts.
The oldest known Valentine’s Day card dates from 1415 when Charles, the Duke of Orleans, smuggled a love note to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. It can be seen today in the British Museum.
During Prohibition, members of mobster Al Capone’s gang disguised themselves as policemen, entered a garage run by the Bugs Moran gang, lined up their enemies against a wall, and machine-gunned them in cold blood. Because the shootout occurred on February 14, it became known as “the Saint Valentine’s Day massacre.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Symbols of Valentine’s Day include the heart, rose, lace, rings, doves, and Cupid.
In ancient times, people believed that all emotions such as love, happiness, anger, fear, jealousy, and hatred were found in the heart. In more recent times, only the emotion of love was thought to reside in the heart. Today, the heart is still a symbol of love.