No matter how big a history-buff you are, you may have missed out these facts!
History lovers would vouch for the fact that they love knowing weird, random historical facts. The curiosity behind the things that seem to be unknown is hard to quench. We have 10 such historical facts here which you may have missed out on.
You almost didn’t need an alarm clock till the '70s
Were people to good back then to have an alarm clock? Well, not really! There were people you could hire to have them knock on your door or windows to wake you up in time for work. People employed in this profession were called knocker-uppers. Neat huh!
Egyptians weren’t the only ones who learnt mummification
Yes, this age old civilization may have made history buffs curious with their mummification techniques, but Buddhist monks also practiced this mechanism. Somewhere between 11th and 19th century, Buddhist monks learnt the process of mummification and practiced it around the same period.
Charlie Chaplin went as Charlie Chaplin
In a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest, Charlie Chaplin went ahead and participated. But, guess what happened? He didn’t win the first place, second or even third. He secured the 20th position in the competition.
Memories of those that passed
In the Victorian era there was a common practice of creating memories of loved ones who had passed away, which would be considered a culture shock today. People in those days, took pictures of their beloved in lifelike positions to keep them as a memory.
There was a trial against tomatoes
This commonly used fruit was known to be poisonous to some till the 17th century. In 1820 Robert Johnson ate a basket full of this red fruit to bust the myth. He did so in a public place in New Jersey, to prove his point.
The civil war in America started in a man’s farm and ended in the parlor he owned
Wilmer McLean is the name, of the man who had a farm in Manassas, Virginia, where the civil war started on July 21, 1861. Although McLean fled, his parlor was the venue where Union General Ulysses S. Grant chose for the surrender on April 9, 1865.
There was a fake disease to save the Jews
Syndrome K, if you have heard of it, was a terrifying disease that was said to have spread through Nazi occupied Rome in 1943. But around 60 years later, various Italian doctors accepted the fact that this was all made up story, to save the Italian Jews.
