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Showing posts from August, 2014

12 Historical Records You Won’t Believe

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America fingerprinted German nuns during World War I? People in England used to go to prison to get married on the sly? You betcha. It’s all here in black and white. Wild, Wild West Mortality schedules listed deaths that took place in the year before a census. According to the 1850 mortality schedule for Calaveras, California, the three top causes of death were dysentery, shot, and stabbed. (Bonus: What was the number 2 occupation after miner?  Gambler.) Keeping Track of Germans During WWI When the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, President Wilson authorized the registration of aliens living in the United States. This included all non-naturalized German males aged 14 and older, who were classified as enemy aliens. In April 1918, Austro-Hungarian nationals and women within the age and nationality requirements were added to the list, including American-born wives of non-naturalized Germans. (The registration requirement was rescinded in December that year.

Annie Chambers: notorious Kansas City madam

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Annie’s life threw her some fast curve balls during the frontier days when women didn’t have a lot of choices in how to support themselves. Annie had other friends that had gone and plied their trade as prostitutes and so after reviewing her present situation and taken in review of her life; it is with determination she decided she would have “a short life, but a fast and merry one.” Annie Chambers was born into the world as Leannah Loveall in Sullivan, Kentucky on June 6, 1843. Annie’s life was fraught with misfortune. Annie would be married as a young woman to William Chambers. The first child from this marriage, a son would die in the first year of his life. Annie was to go on carriage rides daily for health purposes where a second tragedy would occur. On one of Annie’s daily buggy rides she would be thrown from the wagon and go into a coma for three days. Upon awakening from her coma she was to learn that her child was stillborn and her husband was dead. It was here tha

14 Fascinating Facts From Famous Death Records

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From the king who ate himself to death to the comedian whose audience didn’t know his death wasn’t a joke, many high-profile people have left this world in unusual ways. Even many perfectly ordinary endings are fascinating because of coincidence, timing, or plain old bad luck. Here are some interesting facts about the deaths of famous people, or just famous deaths, that made news or made history. 1. “Death by digestion” claimed a royal life. In 1771, King of Sweden Adolf Frederick died of digestive problems after eating a meal of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring, champagne, and 14 servings of dessert. 2. Jane Austen died of Addison’s Disease three decades before it was discovered. Austen remains one of the most famous authors of the last 200 years. When she died in 1817, no one knew what strange disease had caused her to suffer for years. Now, many believe she succumbed to Addison’s disease, which, among other ills, causes darkening of the skin and extreme gastro

8 Truly Weird Deaths in History

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Though it may seem morbid, death fascinates us all. Whether it’s a dramatization of a murder case on television, or just a routine examination of newspaper obituaries, stories about how people died always inspire curiosity. Grigory Rasputin, Dec. 16, 1916:  The Russian mystic and confidante of the ruling Romanov family was perceived as a threat to a continued monarchy due to his uncanny ability to distract Czar Nicholas II and his wife, Empress Alexandra. There are very few confirmed facts about Rasputin’s death, but the legend around it says that a group from within the czar’s own circle took matters into their own hands. But the assassination did not go as planned. The plan was to use cyanide to poison Rasputin, but it was served in sugary petit fours, which deactivated the poison. Four gunshots later, Rasputin was still alive and the assassins finally had to drown him to achieve their goal. Alexander Litvinenko, Nov. 23, 2006:  Litvinenko was a relative unknown until h

An Irish Life. Nell McCafferty in interview

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by  Berit Haugen Keyes   Tuesday, March 1st, 2005 In the kitchen of her lovely old redbrick house, Nell McCafferty apologises for the lack of biscuits. As I sit down at the table and she makes tea, I get the feeling that this is the kind of kitchen where visitors are regularly treated to home baking. The house, the kitchen, the invitation to tea send me certain messages. Homemaker. Breadbaker. It is an interesting backdrop for a woman who is known as a cantankerous feminist, barricade stormer and some-time IRA defender. Feminism and republicanism are very much in the news at the moment. After the murder of their brother,  Robert McCartney , by IRA members, The McCartney sisters have dominated news about Ireland. Their demands that the killers be brought to justice have thrown traditional support for the IRA in Catholic communities in the North into question. McCafferty, who describes in her book how she was shunned in the past because of her “refusal to condemn a neighbour’s c

12 Stunning Civil War Facts

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The Civil War was the bloodiest war in our country’s history. It is often called “the first modern war” because of efficient and deadly weapons that became available for the first time. Just how terrible was this war that pitted brother against brother? Consider these 12 jaw-dropping facts: 1. More soldiers died in the Civil War than any other American conflict — and two-thirds of them were killed by disease. About 625,000 men died in the Civil War. That’s more Americans than died in both World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam combined. This amounted to 2 percent of the population at the time, which would be the equivalent to about 6 million Americans dying today. Battles weren’t as deadly as disease, however. Diarrhea, typhoid fever, lung inflammation, dysentery, and childhood diseases like chicken pox were the cause of 67 percent of the deaths. And if those numbers aren’t bad enough, new estimates suggest that the death total may be higher. 2. Gettysburg wasn’t the only unusually b

6 Things You Didn’t Know About Bonnie and Clyde

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1. Although Barrow and Parker claimed to be married, Parker remained legally married to her first husband, Roy Thornton.  On the day she died, she still wore his wedding ring and bore a tattoo on her knee with intertwined hearts and their names, Bonnie and Roy. 2. Bonnie and Clyde were both short.  Parker was only 4’11″ and Barrow 5’4″ at a time when average heights for women and men were about 5’3″ and 5’8″. (Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, who played Bonnie and Clyde in the famous 1967 film stood 5’7″ and 6’2″ respectively.) 3. Parker was an honor student and a poet,  and life as one of America’s most wanted didn’t stifle those interests. Shortly before her death, Parker wrote a poem called “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde,” which was published in several newspapers and immortalized their tale. 4. Parker and Barrow remained close to their families,  even on the run. In fact, it was their predictable pattern of stopping to visit family that aided the team of Texas Rangers and