anna

To Richard the Wimp<BR>I don't think rape was even possible.

Curious

Why not Anna?

Jo

The Roman emperor, Caligula, made his horse "Incitatas" a senator.<BR><BR>Caligula means "little boots" - he used to go on campaigns with his father (Drusus, from memory). Caligula's real name was Gaius.

Peter

During the French Revolution, starting Sep 22nd 1792, the months of the year were renamed. Originally they were numbered 1 – 12, with 30 days per month, allowing for extra 5 days tagged on the end, and 6 days during the leap years. They were later given names reflecting the seasons. The year started at the Autumn Equinox. <BR><BR>Vend&eacute;miaire - vintage month <BR>Brumaire - fog month <BR>Frimaire - sleet month <BR>Niv&ocirc;se - snow month <BR>Pluvi&ocirc;se - rain month <BR>Vent&ocirc;se - wind month <BR>Germinal - seed month <BR>Flor&eacute;al - blossom month <BR>Prairial - pasture month <BR>Messidor - harvest month <BR>Thermidor - heat month <BR>Fructidor - fruit month <BR>Sansculottides - additional days<BR>

david west

William the Conqueror is called William the Bastard in his native tongue.<BR><BR>

navyflyer

Ariel Sharon's real name is Ariel Gorodisch.

Historian

David Ben-Gurion's name was Gruen. He changed it to Ben-Gurion to break with the Europan and embrace the ancient tradition of Judea and Israel.

jahoulih

Caligula's father was Germanicus, and his horse was Incitatus. How's that for useless?

Dallas

These are absolutely great, but I can "top" them all!

Karen

That Prince Charles and Princess Diana are related via Charles II.

xxx

top of the mornin' to ya!

Topper

topping

gigi

The Roman army was paid with salt, not money. That's where the word "salary" comes from.<BR><BR>In the early days of the French Revolution, during government sessions the radicals pushing for change sat on the left side of the room. The conservatives who wanted to preserve the status quo sat on the right side. That's where the terms "left wing" and "right wing" come from. They literally sat in the left and right wings.<BR><BR>I've heard a theory that the name "Scotland" comes from the Vikings, meaning "tax land". Because the Vikings pillaged so much, after a while the Scotish natives just left an annual bunch a goodies for them on the shore, to avoid getting their villages burned, etc. So once a year the Vikings would cruise past "tax land" and scope up the food and other valuables, no muss, no fuss.<BR><BR>And no historical fact is really useless, IMHO <BR><BR>

cloppety clop

RAILROAD HISTORY a.k.a. A Tale of a Horse’s Ass<BR><BR>The U.S. Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's a exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?<BR><BR> Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads. Why did English people build them 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 that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Why did the wagons use that odd 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 old wheel ruts. So who built these old rutted roads? Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions built the first long distance roads in Europe. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? Roman war chariots first made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. Specs and Bureaucracies live forever. So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horses ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war-horses. <BR><BR>Now the twist to the story... There's an interesting extension of the story about railroad gauge and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on the launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. Thiokol makes the SRBs at a factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line to the factory runs through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than a railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So a major design parameter of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined by the ancient Romans, based on the width of a horse's ass.<BR>

Kipfel

I just read this:<BR>Vienna was besieged by the Turks in 1683 - some Austrian bakers heard the Turks trying to break into the city and thwarted the attempt.<BR>The emblem on the Turkish flag is a crescent shape, so the bakers were allowed to bake crescent-shaped pastries to celebrate.<BR>Marie Antoinette, an Austrian princess, married the King of France, brought the pastries with her and now they are called croissants.

matt-tel

~<BR>Toy trivia ~ when a Slinky is uncoiled, it measures 87 feet in length.<BR>

spoon

Up to the late 1700's, everybody travelled on the left side of the road because it's the sensible option for feudal, violent societies of mostly right-handed people.<BR><BR>Jousting knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him.<BR><BR>Revolutionary France, however, overturned this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink. A change was carried out all over continental Europe by Napoleon.The reason it changed under Napoleon was because he was left handed his armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent. <BR><BR>From then on, any part of the world which was at some time part of the British Empire was thus left hand and any part colonised by the French was right hand.<BR><BR>In America, the French colonised the southern states (Louisiana for instance) and the Canadian east coast (Quebec). The Dutch colonised New York (or New Amsterdam). The Spanish and Portugese colonised the southern Americas. So The British were a minority in shaping the 'traffic'.<BR><BR>The drive-on-the-right policy was adopted by the USA, which was anxious to cast off all remaining links with its British colonial past<BR>

What

George W. Bush won the election by getting the least votes.