Racoon Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 The American Civil War battle of Antietam killed more Americans than any other major battle in history, including D-Day!! :lol::bouquet::doh: Boerseun 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaurieAG Posted July 23, 2007 Report Share Posted July 23, 2007 Dig this: When Julius Ceasar came to power in Rome, his name was just... a name. Like any other name. But he was so popular amongst the lower and middle classes for building his army and government on merit alone, that his name became synonymous with the office he bore. Afterwards, his name was bestowed on all subsequent leaders of the Roman Empire. I dig it Boerseun, One of the things that made him a popular dictator with the plebs was his reduction of the interest rate to 5 percent, non compounding! This was also probably the main reason for his demise at the hands of those who stood to lose the most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racoon Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 The fighting at Antietam was so fierce that Sept. 17, 1862, is said to have been the bloodiest single day of the war with some 23,000 dead and wounded, evenly divided between the sides. It was a Union victory only in the sense that Lee's invasion was stopped. McClellan has been blamed for not pursuing Lee with his superior forces. The scene of the battle of Antietam has been set aside as a national battlefield (est. 1890; see National Parks and Monuments, table). The battle influenced Lincoln's decisions to remove McClellan and to deliver a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Antietam Battle Map US Civil War Sharpsburg Maryland 1862 Casualties at Antietam Antietam campaign - Facts from the Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Education Battle of Antietam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted August 21, 2007 Report Share Posted August 21, 2007 It is highly likely Norwegians were in Minnesota 100 years before Columbus set sail. It's one of Minnesota's greatest mysteries. It's something that puts settlers in America well before Columbus. A Minnesota geologist thinks the controversial Kensington Runestone is the real thing and there is evidence that he says backs up the theory. The Kensington Runestone is a rock found near Alexandria a century ago. It's inscription speaking of Norwegians here in 1362. It begs the question. Were Vikings exploring our land more than 100 years before Columbus? Or is it just an elaborate hoax? read more >> wcco.com - A Minnesota Mystery: The Kensington Runestone I have heard speculation that they came to mine copper as the European supply dwindled. :pirate: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boerseun Posted August 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2007 Who'd be your candidate for the most influential person of the 20th century?(and with 'influential' I mean who had the greatest effect on the biggest number of people, good or bad) Names coming to mind would be Einstein, Ghandi, Hitler, etc. Does this sound reasonable? I suppose it does. Until you consider the impact that Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch had on the world. The unleashing of the Haber-Bosch process for extracting nitrogen out of the atmosphere have made possible industrial agriculture on a scale never before considered, thereby triggering the population explosion. Ironically, the Haber-Bosch process also considerably prolonged the First World War, resulting in the deaths of millions. Anybody else through the 20th century that can be considered on this list have had either a moral or technical impact on the world. But if not for Haber and Bosch, billions won't even be around today. Probably the majority of human beings alive today owe their existence directly to these two germans. And that, in my book, is incredibly amazing! Here's a pretty good link. And do yourself a favour and follow the other links on that page, there's plenty interesting stuff there! Monomer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric l Posted August 22, 2007 Report Share Posted August 22, 2007 ... Ironically, the Haber-Bosch process also considerably prolonged the First World War, resulting in the deaths of millions. To complete the irony : Fritz Haber got a Nobel prize for it ! Would Mr. Nobel rank higly on your list ? I mean, partly because of his invention, but also for reminding the science world of its social / humanitarion role ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted August 23, 2007 Report Share Posted August 23, 2007 History war maps Maps of War - Maps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric l Posted August 23, 2007 Report Share Posted August 23, 2007 History war maps Maps of War - Maps Wouldn't this better be a new thread rather than a "quirky history fact". Some, like Waterloo, must be easy to find on the net, but others may be just as interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jab2 Posted August 24, 2007 Report Share Posted August 24, 2007 Until you consider the impact that Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch had on the world. The unleashing of the Haber-Bosch process for extracting nitrogen out of the atmosphere have made possible industrial agriculture on a scale never before considered, thereby triggering the population explosion. Ironically, the Haber-Bosch process also considerably prolonged the First World War, resulting in the deaths of millions. Anybody else through the 20th century that can be considered on this list have had either a moral or technical impact on the world. But if not for Haber and Bosch, billions won't even be around today. Probably the majority of human beings alive today owe their existence directly to these two germans. And that, in my book, is incredibly amazing! In the late 90s during a visit to the BASF complex in Ludwigshaven, Germany, I was shown what was describes to me as the first production Haber-Bosch column. It was standing in the garden of a beautiful multi floor building, which was then used as a management/Admin cafeteria. I had a look in Google Earth and think this is it. 49° 29' 38.25 N 08° 25' 59.16 E What you see is the shadow. Only the top flange of the column is visible from the sat pic's angle. Could someone confirm? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted August 28, 2007 Report Share Posted August 28, 2007 I have forgotten how much i like history, so here are more quirky facts to enjoy ;) (or perhaps argue) Righty then, fact for Americans: The pledge as you know it today has not come around until 1954. The original pledge that by the way was written in 1892 for the Youth's Companion magazine by a Christian Socialist minister, sounded like this: "I pledge allegiance to my flag, and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!" A version that seems more acceptable, it has no mention of god, almost clean, and more acceptable then the current version that was pushed by a religious movement that wanted to impose the fear of God on people, in 1954 (the group called Knights of Columbus from NYC that has been around since the civil war...) And another note on this, the current version was made official by the president Eisenhower, yes the one who amongst other things started the white house tradition of prayer at breakfast and the one that funded the development and use of the atomic weaponry...! on a similar note to non americans: You can be legally compelled to stand up for the pledge in school, in a court ruling of the Minersville School District vs. Gobitases, who refused to stand up for the pledge, calling it idolatry; the state ruled in favor of the school district, and hence set a precedent... another quirky numbers fact: According to a paper published by the MIT Technology Review on February 21 of 2007, 72% of Americans are scientifically illiterate. In the 1990's more than 30 people were axed, hanged, burned and mobbed to death in the United States for practicing witchcraft. in 1391, the Bureau of Imperial Supplies (china) began producing 720,000 sheets of toilet paper a year, each sheet measuring two feet by three feet. For use by the Emperors. lol enjoy :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddy Posted August 29, 2007 Report Share Posted August 29, 2007 I have forgotten how much i like history, so here are more quirky facts to enjoy :hihi: (or perhaps argue) on a similar note to non americans: You can be legally compelled to stand up for the pledge in school, in a court ruling of the Minersville School District vs. Gobitases, who refused to stand up for the pledge, calling it idolatry; the state ruled in favor of the school district, and hence set a precedent...The actual title of the SCOTUS case was Minersville School District vs. Gobitis, (1940) and was overturned by West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943). Both cases only dealt with saluting the flag and reciting the Pledge by Jehovah Witnesses. Neither of the SCOTUS cases mentioned that students must stand during the pledge. However, there are several federal court cases that have ruled that state laws forcing students to stand during the Pledge are unconstitutional. Here is a link to Frazier v. Alexandre, No. 05-81142 (S.D. Fla. May 31, 2006) which so ruled. "The court also ordered PBSD to pay Cameron(Frazier) $32,500 in damages, attorneys' fees, and costs."Frazier v. Alexandre, No. 05-81142 (S.D. Fla. May 31, 2006) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted August 29, 2007 Report Share Posted August 29, 2007 on a similar note to non americans: You can be legally compelled to stand up for the pledge in school, in a court ruling of the Minersville School District vs. Gobitases, who refused to stand up for the pledge, calling it idolatry; the state ruled in favor of the school district, and hence set a precedent...It was the custom to stand for "God Save the Queen' after the war (probably proscriptive before)My Irish grandmother would never stand at theaters etc much to the embarrassment to her children."Why should I stand for her? She wouldn't stand for me" she would say Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted September 26, 2007 Report Share Posted September 26, 2007 13(*) During a railway expansion in Egypt in the 19th century, construction companies unearthed so many mummies that they used them as fuel for locomotives.20 Things You Didn't Know About... Death | Aging | DISCOVER MagazineI think, also, shiploads of cat mummies were shipped to England and used as fertiliser.The Poms love gardens! From the same Discover article:-20 It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay-qu Posted September 27, 2007 Report Share Posted September 27, 2007 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Death | Aging | DISCOVER MagazineI think, also, shiploads of cat mummies were shipped to England and used as fertiliser.The Poms love gardens! From the same Discover article:-I have always wondered how many humans have existed.. interesting I wonder how they arrived at that number. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougF Posted September 27, 2007 Report Share Posted September 27, 2007 Yes, I was wondering about that myself, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay-qu Posted September 27, 2007 Report Share Posted September 27, 2007 Im going to venture that that figure is wrong. Take this as an example, if you are to double population in each generation then the amount of people that ever lived before the current population will always equal the amount alive in the current generation. Is that reasoning enough to show that figure is out by at least an order of magnitude? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted September 27, 2007 Report Share Posted September 27, 2007 Im going to venture that that figure is wrong. Take this as an example, if you are to double population in each generation then the amount of people that ever lived before the current population will always equal the amount alive in the current generation. Is that reasoning enough to show that figure is out by at least an order of magnitude?:confused:Why not write to them and ask how they figured that out?As you know I am no mathematician.Lifespans and cultures would be important you would think rising from 20-80 YO historically,as now in our culture.It has to be an educated guess. Some visual historical Irony. Can we laugh about it yet?Obviously some can Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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