HISTORICALLY ACCURATE
FASHION FORWARD
The Aztec Indians of Mexico believed turquoise would protect them from physical harm, so warriors used these green and blue stones to decorate their battle shields.
More than 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered how to make silk from silkworm cocoons. For about 3,000 years, the Chinese kept this discovery a secret.
Because poor people could not afford real silk, they tried to make other cloth look silky. Women would beat on cotton with sticks to soften the fibers. Then they rubbed it against a big stone to make it shiny. The shiny cotton was called “chintz.” Because chintz was a cheaper copy of silk, calling something “chintzy” means it is cheap and not of good quality.
The pharaohs of ancient Egypt wore garments made with thin threads of beaten gold. Some fabrics had up to 500 gold threads per one inch of cloth.
The first wooden shoe comes from the Netherlands. The Netherlands has many seas, so people wanted a shoe that kept their feet dry while working outside. The shoes, called klompen, were cut from one single piece of wood. Today the klompen—or clogs—are the favorite souvenir for people who visit the Netherlands.
During the California gold rush of 1849, miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the extremely high costs in California during these boom years, it was deemed more feasible to send the shirts to Hawaii for servicing.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Egyptian men never became bald. The reason for this, Herodotus claimed, was that as children Egyptian males had their heads shaved, and their scalps were continually exposed to the health-giving rays of the sun.
False eyelashes were invented by the American film director D. W. Griffith while he was making his 1916 epic Intolerance. Griffith wanted actress Seena Owen to have lashes that brushed her cheeks, to make her eyes shine larger than life. A wig maker wove human hair through fine gauze, which was then gummed to Owen’s eyelids. Intolerance was critically acclaimed but flopped financially, leaving Griffith with huge debts that he might have been able to settle easily . . . had he only thought to patent the eyelashes.
In 1893, Chicago hired its first policewoman, Marie Owens. While the city was progressive in its hiring practices, Chicago’s female police officers were not allowed to wear uniforms until 1956.
When wearing a kimono, Japanese women wear socks called tabi. The big toe of the sock is separated from the rest of the toes, like a thumb on a mitten.
ANCIENT ER
The ancient Egyptians recommended mixing half an onion with beer foam as a way of warding off death.
The Chinese, in olden days, used marijuana as a remedy for dysentery.
ASSASSINATION ASSOCIATIONS
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both presidents’ wives lost children while living in the White House.
Both were shot on a Friday.
Both were shot in the head.
Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy’s secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names. Both names are composed of fifteen letters.
Lincoln was shot at the Ford theater.
Kennedy was shot in a Ford Lincoln car.
Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were both shot before their trials.
FULLY BOOKED
The first paperback book was printed by Penguin Publishing in 1935.
The first Eskimo Bible was printed in Copenhagen in 1744.
The first dictionary of American English was published on April 14, 1828, by Noah Webster.
The Indian epic poem The Mahabharata is eight times longer than The Iliad and The Odyssey combined.
WORD UP
Scientific America carried the first automobile magazine ad in 1898. The Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio, invited readers to “dispense with a horse.”
In 1956, the phrase “In God We Trust” was adopted as the national motto.
Henry Ford flatly stated that history is “bunk.”
The last words spoken from the moon were from Eugene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 mission, on December 11, 1972. “As we leave the moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”
Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas was the eight-year-old girl who, in 1897, asked the staff of the New York Sun whether Santa Claus existed. In the now-famous editorial, Francis Church assured Virginia that yes, indeed, “there is a Santa Claus.”
John Hancock was the only one of the 50 signatories of the Declaration of Independence who actually signed it on July 4.
On November 29, 1941, the program for the annual Army-Navy football game carried a picture of the battleship Arizona, captioned: “It is significant that, despite the claims of air enthusiasts, no battleship has yet been sunk by bombs.” Today you can visit the site—now a shrine—where Japanese dive bombers sank the Arizona at Pearl Harbor only nine days later.
Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other simultaneously.
DO NOT PASS GO
Escape maps, compasses, and files were inserted into Monopoly game boards and smuggled into POW camps inside Germany during World War II; real money for escapees was slipped into the packs of Monopoly money.
Values on the Monopoly game board are the same today as they were in 1935.
