Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - What is the most useless historical fact you know?

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The founder of the Girl Scouts in America went deaf when a grain of rice entered her ear drum. The rice was being thrown at her wedding.

that thing with Catherine the Great and the horse. King John died after eating too many lampreys Edward II's gruesome death "ich bin ein berliner" means " i am a doughnut" The diet of worms Richard the Lionheart never set foot in England France had a king called Peppin the Bald another called Charles the Fat The fairytale castles in Bavaria were built by King Ludwig the Stupid There are only two towns not covered in the domesday book, they were going to be the second volume but they never got around to it (Winchester and London). Only the Queen is allowed to eat swans. Portugal is Britains oldest ally Scotland is still at war with Russia Morris dancing comes from spain and many many more David (who has a degree in this stuff)

In 445 A.D., Pope St. Leo I excommunicated a church deacon for wearing shorts in St. Peter's.

Agincourt hero Henry V died of dysentery.

At some point in the high Middle Ages there were 3 popes. Anyone remember the years?

1300's when the papacy moved to Avignon. US

Luckily, I majored in Political Science, so my head is full of useless knowledge. The only building on the Historic Register of National Place not on US soil is in Morocco. Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb (oops, wrong thread!)

The cross-shaped cloak worn by musketeers and king's guards in the reign of Luis XIII and early reign of Luis XIV is called a mandillion.

In the mid-1990's the Italian government briefly considered selling the naming rights to the Colosseum to the Coca-Cola Company.

Tom Cruise was going to be a priest. and he says he is not gay. Lol.......this was the ONLY thing I could think of :O)

Henry the VIII had a special armor extension made for his "member". It is displayed at the Tower of London.

What is? the member or the armor:O)

The word "politics" comes from the ancient Greek Poli-meaning "many" and tics-meaning "blood sucking creatures"

Lois, Those are called "cod pieces" and they were considered stylish. US

Richard Lionheart’s name was given to him posthumously by Sir Walther Scott in the 19th Century. His real nickname was less flattering, and descriptive of his wishy-washy character. Does anyone know what it is? It totally escapes me now.

I thought a cod piece was for fish and chips!! Seriously though, it is part of the armor itself.

Da Vinci (and the others) was probably “gay” only by today’s standards. Bi-sexuality was a fact of life both in ancient Greece and Rome and at various other times including renaissance Italy. By this criteria probably 90% or more of Roman and Greek men were “gay.” Julius Caesar no doubt had sex with subordinate males while on campaign, but based on what we know about his marriage and his affairs (including Cleopatra) he most certainly wasn’t “gay.” Most soldiers in those times frequently had sex with younger men and boys simply because they were better suited to travel with an army on long treks than were women. When the opportunity to have sex with women arose however, the men and boys were quickly forgotten. Alexander the Great WAS gay, in that he had a particular male lover, a contemporary, whom he preferred over all others.

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 ft 8 1/2 in (1.44 m). That's an exceedingly odd number. Why is that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English ex patriots. Why did the English build 'em like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did *they* use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools as they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. OK! Why did the wagons use that wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the spacing of the ruts. So who built these old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of breaking their wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made by or for Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing (ruts again). Thus we have the answer to the original question. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 ft 8 1/2 in derives from the original military specification (MilSpec) for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. MisSpecs (and bureaucracies) live forever

So was Hadrian, his story is especially interesting, he became obsessed with a young male who fell or was pushed off his barge on the Nile and drowned.

Some poor schmo was named Ethelred the Unready. The Windsors are actually Hanovers but changed their name during the war. Michelangelo was left-handed