Did You Know.....

[Warph]

....that Caligula of Rome had his father, mother and two brothers killed to become emperor. Nero had his mother and first wife killed. These two emperors were hated so much by the people that all references to them were deleted from official Roman documentation.

The first French king, Clovis II, went mad after stealing the arm of a martyr. His great-grandson, Childeric III was known as "the idiot". The mother of Louis IX complained that he was "not sound of mind". And his younger son, Robert of Clermont went mad after being hit on the head with a sledge hammer.

Charles VI, called Charles the mad, ruled France from 1380 to 1415. At stages, he believed that he was made of glass and inserted iron rods into his clothing to prevent him from breaking.

The Habsburg Kings of Spain descended from Queen Juana The Mad of Castile, who was mentally unstable. Her ancestors increased her inheritance by inbreeding. These incestuous marriages resulted in the mentally and physically handicapped King Carlos II of Spain, who had an enormous, misshapen head and a chin exaggerated to almost caricature-like proportions rendering him unable to chew and barely able to speak.

Several British kings went mad as a result of a blood disorder that causes gout and mental derangement. The most famous was Mad George III, who ruled England in the 18th Century. George was afflicted with porphyria, a maddening disease which disrupted his reign as early as 1765. Several attacks strained his grip on reality and debilitated him in the last years of his reign. Keeping it in the family, in 1776 his sister, Princess Caroline Mathilda married, at age 15, the deranged Christian VII of Denmark. George III died blind, deaf and mad at Windsor Castle on January, 29 1820.

The United States briefly enjoyed the services of a monarch, Emperor Norton I, who proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico in 1859. He had all his "state proclamations" published in San Francisco's newspapers and wrote letters that were seriously considered by Abraham Lincoln and Queen Victoria.

Sun worshiping Aztecs celebrated the inauguration of Ahuitzol in 1486 by offering the hearts of 80,000 prisoners, presumably to show that their new king could sacrifice more than any of his predecessors.



See: Many kings were just plain mad:  http://www.madmonarchs.nl/


Bonus Fact:  Emperor Of The United States  

Emperor Norton of the United States was born to John and Sarah Norton in London on February 14, 1819. His parents immigrated to South Africa when Joshua was one year old. In 1849, Joshua moved to San Francisco where he speculated in the real-estate market with his $40,000 inheritance. After considerable initial success, he lost his fortune in speculating on rice imports.

On September 17, 1859, Joshua Abraham Norton declared himself Emperor of the United States: "At the pre-emptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States."

On occasion, he would also act as "Protector of Mexico." He continued to make proclamations throughout his 21-year "reign." Newspapers of the day printed his proclamations (and even made some up which were not from Norton).

In order to pay his bills Emperor Norton issued paper notes, mostly in 50 cent, $5 and $10 denominations. Worthless at the time, today they are worth far more than the face value.

In 1869 he abolished both the Democratic and Republican parties. He also called upon the leaders of the world to join him in forming a League of Nations where disputes between nations could be resolved peacefully.

Joshua Norton died on January 8, 1888. Thirty-thousand people attended the funeral.

[Warph]

....that a year is not an arbitrary period of time, it is an astronomic reality insofar as it represents the time it takes for the earth to orbit around the sun. A good calendar therefore, needs to match this period of time. It takes 365.242 days for the earth to complete the trip. Instead of adding .242 of a day (5 hours 48 minutes and 30 seconds) to a 365-day year the leap-year system was devised. Every four years an extra day was added to the 365 days in the regular calendar thereby creating 366-day years. This system is relatively accurate, but .242 is not exactly the .250 of a day that it needs to be for the leap-day to work perfectly. Over the centuries the .008 of a day (11 minutes 30 seconds) began to accumulate.

So, what happened to the Calendar in October 1582?

The continuing accumulation caused by the inaccuracies of the Julian calendar came to an end in 1582. Pope Gregory XIII stated that 10 days in October were to be removed from the calendar. Specifically, he struck the 5th through 14th from the month which created a very bizarre October 1582. You can imagine what people's schedule's looked like during that month:


      October 1582
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
      1   2   3   4  15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

Pope Gregory XIII, whom the modern calendar is named after (Gregorian), also established a system to prevent the accumulation from developing all over again. Every four years divisible by four would continue to be a leap year, but years divisible by 100 would not, unless they are also divisible by 400. The year 2000 was one of these special years that comes once every four centuries. 2000 is divisible by 100 but also divisible by 400 and therefore it is designated as a leap year.

The new Gregorian Calendar is far superior to the inaccurate Julian Calendar that it replaced, but it still not perfect. There are still minuscule accumulations of time and in thousands of years, another correction may have to be enacted.

Perhaps the most interesting event of 1582 (aside from the calendar change), is that William Shakespeare (at age 18) got married to Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon.

[sodbuster]

"Perhaps the most interesting event of 1582 (aside from the calendar change), is that William Shakespeare (at age 18) got married to Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon."

Anne Hathaway, not to be confused with the US actress playing Catwoman. Catwoman not to be confused with our Catwoman.

[farmgal67357]

What a getup! At least she's wearing practical shoes....(she says sarcastically)
Lisa

[sodbuster]

What a getup! At least she's wearing practical shoes....(she says sarcastically)
Lisa

Eartha Kit was the best Catwoman (In the Batman Show, not here on the forum), Julie Numar was the sexiest and my favorite on the TV show. Our Catwoman is my favorite poet and my inspiration for some of my best poetry, just don't have the inspiration now.

David

[Diane Amberg]

We need to hear some more Cat Rhymes! It's too dark around here. Did you know that?

[farmgal67357]

Eartha Kitt certainly had the best purrrrrrrr! 
Lisa

[Teresa]

Eartha Kitt certainly had the best purrrrrrrr! 
Lisa

yes she did.................. she was great.

[Warph]

....that the length from your wrist to your elbow is the same as the length of your foot.

Your heart beats 101,000 times a day. During your lifetime it will beat about 3 billion times and pump about 400 million litres (800 million pints) of blood.

It is impossible to lick your elbow. Well, for almost everyone... but a few can.

Your mouth produces 1 litre (1.8 pints) of saliva a day.

The human head contains 22 bones. More on the head and brains

On average, you breathe 23,000 times a day.

Breathing generates about 0.6g of CO2 every minute.

On average, people can hold their breath for about one minute. The world record is 21 minutes 29 seconds, by David
Merlini.

On average, you speak almost 5,000 words a day – although almost 80% of speaking is self-talk (talking to yourself).

Over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations increased by 10 cm (4 in).

In the 19th century, American men were the tallest in the world, averaging 1,71 metres (5'6″). Today, the average height for American men is 1,763 m (5 feet 9-and-half inches), compared to 1,815 m (5'10″) for Swedes, and 1,843 m (5'11″) for the Dutch, the tallest Caucasians.

The tallest nation in the world is the Watusis of Burundi: 1.98 m (6 feet 6 inches) tall.

If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you'll feel thirsty.

It is impossible to sneeze and keep one's eyes open at the same time.

55% of people yawn within 5 minutes of seeing someone else yawn.

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, suggested that a woman could enlarge her bust line by singing loudly and often.

A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water.

You'll drink about 75,000 litres (20,000 gallons) of water in your lifetime.

After a certain period of growth, hair becomes dormant. That means that it is attached to the hair follicle until replaced
by new hair.

Hair on the head grows for between two and six years before being replaced. In the case of baldness, the dormant hair was not replaced with new hair.

Men loose about 40 hairs a day. Women loose about 70 hairs a day.

In the Middle Ages the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow was called an ell.

A person remains conscious for eight seconds after being decapitated.

The first successful human sex change took place in 1950 when Danish doctor Christian Hamburger operated on New Yorker George Jorgensen, who became Christine Jorgensen.

The muscle that lets your eye blink is the fastest muscle in your body. It allows you to blink 5 times a second.

On average, you blink 15 000 times a day. Women blink twice as much as men.

A typical athlete's heart churns out 25 to 30 litres (up to 8 gallons) of blood per minute.

24 of the known 118 elements are found in your body – see What the average human body contains

We have four basic tastes plus umami. The salt and sweet taste buds are at the tip of the tongue, bitter at the base, and sour along the sides; umami is a mixture of tastes sensed along the center of the tongue.

Not all our taste buds are on our tongue; about 10% are on the palette and the cheeks.

Unless food is mixed with saliva you cannot taste it.

The liver is the largest of the body's internal organs. The skin is the body's largest organ.

On average a hiccup lasts 5 minutes.

Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.

Your middle fingernail grows the fastest.

Your finger nails grow at 1 nanometre per second (0.000 000 001 m/s). Your hair grows at 4 nanometres per second (0.000 000 004 m/s).

It takes about 3 months for the transplanted hair to start growing again.

About 13% of people are left-handed. Up from 11% in the past.

In 1900, a person could expect to live to be 47. Today, the average life expectancy for men and women in developed countries is longer than 70 years.

A newborn baby's head accounts for one-quarter of its weight.

King Henry I, who ruled in the England in the 12th century, standardized the yard as the distance from the thumb of his outstretched arm to his nose.

The bones in your body are not white – they range in color from beige to light brown. The bones you see in museums are white because they have been boiled and cleaned.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth.

Every person has a unique tongue print.

If all your DNA is stretched out, it would reach to the moon 6,000 times.

Approximately two-thirds of a person's body weight is water. Blood is 92% water. The brain is 75% water and muscles are 75% water.

The colored part of the eye is called the iris. Behind the iris is the soft, rubbery lens which focuses the light on to a layer, called the retina, in the back of the eye. The retina contains about 125 million rods and 7 million cones. The rods pick up shades of gray and help us see in dim light. The cones work best in bright light to pick up colors.

We actually do not see with our eyes – we see with our brains. The eyes basically are the cameras of the brain.

[Diane Amberg]

Babies are born with 44 head bones, many fuse later. I learned 28,  29,or even 30 bones in the head, depending on whether the lower jaw (mandible) hyoid and the 6 little ear bones are counted. Shades of long ago EMT class!