24 Fascinating Historical Facts You Didn't Know! | eBaum's World

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24 Fascinating Historical Facts You Didn't Know!

Some you may still wish you didn't!

By Peter Pizagalli

Published 11 years ago

Some you may still wish you didn't!

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1
At its height in 480BC the first Persian Empire covered 44 of the world's population.

2
This is the largest percentage of any empire in history. By comparison the British only had 20

3
At its peak the Roman Empire stretched for 2.51 million square miles. It was only the 19th largest empire in history

4
During medieval times animals were put on trial and sometimes sentenced to death

5
During the An Lushan rebellion in China in the mid 700s nearly 40 million people died. This was one sixth of the world's population

6
Alexander the Great is famous for a spying technique still used today. He had all his soldiers write home to their families and then intercepted the letters. Whoever didn't have something nice to say was executed.

7
During the ice age, people in the British Isles used humans skulls as cups

8
Gorgias of Epirus, a Greek teacher was born in his dead mother's coffin. The pallbearers heard him crying during the burial.

9
In ancient Egypt the servants were covered in honey so as to attract flies away from pharaoh

10
In ancient Egypt, when a ruler would die all of his servants and animals were buried alive with him

11
In ancient Rome, urine was used as mouthwash

12
In spite of the larger-than-life legends, the Pony Express only lasted 19 months April 1860 to October 1861

13
It has been calculated that in the last 3,000 years there have only been 240 years of peace in the world

14
King Goujian of Yue placed a row of convicted criminals at the front of his army. Before the battle they would all cut off their own heads to show the other army how crazy King Goujian's army was

15
Mexican General Santa Anna had a huge state funeral in honor of his amputated leg

16
Of the ten deadliest wars every fought, seven were fought in China

17
Peter the Great had his wife's lover beheaded and then forced his wife to keep the head preserved in her room.

18
The current US flag was designed by high schooler Robert Heft as part of a school project for which he recieved a B-. When his design was chosen to represent the nation his teacher changed the grade to an A

19
The last time a cavalry charge was used on the battlefield was during WWII when a Mongolian cavalry division charged a German infantry division. 2,000 Mongolian units were killed and not a single German died.

20
The Mongols would light the fat of their enemies on fire and proceed to shoot it at their other enemies

21
The US Constitution contains many spelling and grammatical errors

22
Throughout the 1800s people were buried alive so often that coffins included mechanisms to allow those people to ring a bell in the graveyard.

23
Up until the 1800s dentures were often made from the teeth of dead soldiers.

24
When in danger of being captured, Japanese samurai would cut out their intestines with their own sword

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