# Historical oddities **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 23, 2018, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666 "2018-05-23T09:58:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/61 "2018-05-24T13:55:05Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Not sure if it’s an oddity, but: A person born in 1902 who died in 1970 was born before the first lighter-than-aircraft flight and died after a man walked on the moon. > [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > My grandfather (b. 1900) often remarked about this before his death in 1971. My grandfather was born in 1904, and died two days before the moon landing. Missed them both by _that_ much! ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/62 "2018-05-24T14:47:14Z")
Benz automobiles with internal combustrion engines were already on the road when the independent kingdoms of Hawaii and Madagascar were first colonized by European powers. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/63 "2018-05-24T14:55:27Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > And these two really disturb me: > > Will Smith is now older than Uncle Phil was in the “French Prince of Bel Air” pilot. > > Ralph Macchio is now older than Pat Morita was in “The Karate Kid” In two years, Wil Wheaton will be the same age that Patrick Stewart was in the _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ pilot. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/64 "2018-05-24T16:41:11Z")
Several unexpected historical figures have passed through or lived in Panama. Although the President most associated with Panama is Teddy Roosevelt, Ulysses Grant was here before he was President. [Grant crossed the isthmus in 1852](http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist9/usgrant.html) when his regiment was sent to California. Paul Gauguin is most associated with Tahiti and the South Pacific, but his first stay on a tropical island was on [Taboga in Panama](https://theculturetrip.com/central-america/panama/articles/gauguin-in-panama-a-forgotten-journey/) in 1887 when he worked on the French effort to build a canal. > [@Bayard](#): > > When the Great Pyramid was being built, there were still woolly mammoths living in the Arctic. And there were still moas running around in New Zealand and Elephant Birds in Madagascar when the Magna Carta was signed. ---
**Author:** ![Kzbre5m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kzbre5m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kzbre5m)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/65 "2018-05-24T16:48:05Z")
Alaska was acquired in 1867 by the United States from the Russian Empire on one day but on different dates: Russia didn’t convert to the Gregorian Calendar for another 51 years, in 1918. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/66 "2018-05-24T17:51:14Z")
> [@Kzbre5m](#): > > Alaska was acquired in 1867 by the United States from the Russian Empire on one day but on different dates: Russia didn’t convert to the Gregorian Calendar for another 51 years, in 1918. Which explains why the Russians arrived 12 days late to the 1908 Olympics. Wrong calendar. ---
**Author:** ![Moonchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Moonchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonchild)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/67 "2018-05-24T17:57:36Z")
The world’s oldest _still-active_ brewery, [Weinstephaner](https://www.weihenstephaner.de/en/our-brewery/), began the same year Macbeth began his rule of Scotland – 1040, ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/68 "2018-05-24T21:30:55Z")
Cincinnati is an older city than Boston. Cincy was incorporated in 1819, Boston in 1822. (What took so long for Boston to be incorporated?) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/69 "2018-05-24T21:38:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The famous painting of [Washington Crossing the Delaware](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware_by_Emanuel_Leutze%2C_MMA-NYC%2C_1851.jpg/1200px-Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware_by_Emanuel_Leutze%2C_MMA-NYC%2C_1851.jpg) depicts two future Presidents. The officer holding the flag behind George Washington is James Monroe, who was one of Washington’s aides during the war. The original painting was destroyed in a bombing raid on Germany in 1942. The one you see today is a replica. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/70 "2018-05-24T21:40:23Z")
The largest city by inhabitants in what is now the continental United States ever to have existed prior to the American Revolution was (at least according to some estimates) the pre-Columbian native American city of Cahokia, in what is now Illinois. > **[Cahokia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia#Rise_and_peak_(13th_century))** > > The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site /kəˈhoʊkiə/ (11 MS 2) is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed c. 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville. The park covers 2,200 acres (890 ha), or about 3.5 square miles (9 km2), and contains about 80 manmade mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. At its apex around 1100 CE, the city Cahok... It was, again according to estimates, surpassed in population by Philadelphia in the 1780s. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/71 "2018-05-24T21:49:13Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ve reflected frequently that this was the case with both my grandmothers. (My grandfathers both died before 1970) When Neil Armstrong stepped out of that capsule I was watching with my maternal grandparents. Grandpa was born in October of 1900, and lived to see people walking on the moon. Grandma didn’t quite make it, she was born one year to the day after the flight at Kitty Hawk. But she lived to vote in 22 presidential elections, voting from 1928 to 2012, and was just short of her 108th birthday when she died. Talk about seeing a lot of change! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/72 "2018-05-24T23:24:28Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > Cincinnati is an older city than Boston. > > Cincy was incorporated in 1819, Boston in 1822. Sante Fe, New Mexico is older than both. It was founded in 1610. (Boston was founded in 1630.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/73 "2018-05-24T23:38:43Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > (What took so long for Boston to be incorporated?) Reading the Wikipedia article, it was a town until then. It was only in that year that it was incorporated as a city. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/74 "2018-05-25T00:19:07Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > And I think most people who are interested in historical trivia know this, but just in case anyone doesn’t: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day: the 50th anniversary of July 4, 1776. Adams was considerably older than Jefferson – he was the longest-lived ex-president until late 2001. Our last four presidents have birthdays that fall within 11 weeks of each other, three of them having been born in the same year. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/75 "2018-05-25T00:24:42Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Not sure if it’s an oddity, but: A person born in 1902 who died in 1970 was born before the first lighter-than-aircraft flight and died after a man walked on the moon. For someone my age it’s rare to have a grandfather as old as mine. He was born in 1882 and died in 1976 when I was 9. He was born before the first automobile and was an adult before cars became common. He never believed the moon landings were real but we gave him a pass because he had lived through everything. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/76 "2018-05-25T00:25:32Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Reading the Wikipedia article, it was a town until then. It was only in that year that it was incorporated as a city. Bean Town? ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/77 "2018-05-25T00:30:31Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Adams was considerably older than Jefferson – he was the longest-lived ex-president until late 2001. > > Our last four presidents have birthdays that fall within 11 weeks of each other, three of them having been born in the same year. And three of the four (Bush Sr.\*, Clinton, and Obama) are left-handed! _Bush, Sr., played 1st base for Yale_\* while in college. Although a lefty, he batted right. Quite unusual. The only other person I can think of who matches this is Rickey Henderson. \*\*As a 1st baseman at Yale, [Bush met Babe Ruth](https://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/06/babe-ruth-met-future-president-george-h-w-bush-in-1948) in a ceremony to receive a manuscript of the Babe’s biography. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/78 "2018-05-25T00:37:23Z")
No American President has been an only child. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/79 "2018-05-25T00:38:28Z")
The Espionage Act of 1917 had some weird consequences. A film maker was arrested for making a movie that put our allies, Great Britain, in a bad light. This resulted in a court case with a [most unfortunate title](https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/07/30/us-v-spirit-76), _United States v. Spirit of '76_. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666/80 "2018-05-25T02:55:07Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > The original painting was destroyed in a bombing raid on Germany in 1942. The one you see today is a replica. What was it doing in Germany? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-oddities/814666.md?page=5)