Yet another never mind from me tonight! I need sleep.
I’ve actually been to St. Pierre. It’s kind of neat, as it is very French - the culture is not Canadian at all, and is clearly different from Quebec.
The Boy Jones, who was Queen Victoria’s stalker.
Actually into the Nelson River, which, in turn, drains into Hudson Bay.
Here’s a map in Wikipedia (minus Minneapolis).
The Vikings would have had a long row to hoe to Minneapolis— 2,250 miles, according to this page that recounts three canoe trips from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay; one in 1930, the next in 2005 and the third in 2008.
Viking longboats would have made portages impossible, if the boats hadn’t been battered to pieces by rapids, rocks or ice.
They’d run into winter on the way back if it didn’t arrive on their trip south. Since by that time they’d be walking, they would have died of extreme cold and the very deep snow, if they hadn’t starved.
Even if they wintered in Minneapolis, they couldn’t have eaten at McDonald’s, because they wouldn’t have U.S. currency, and at that time, credit cards had a limit of only 50 krona.
Another history-related one that I again heard about from in A History of the World in 100 Objects. I knew (as I’m sure most of us did) that when the Spanish showed up on the doorsteps of the Aztec and the Inca, they were crazy for gold. And they did, in fact, plunder some amount of gold. But in fact what they really signficantly found was silver, primarily in the mine of Potosi in modern-day Bolivia. That one mine produced so much silver that it basically threw the entire world’s economy for a wrench. The coins produced from that silver were the famous “pieces of eight”, and they became the first global currency, but they also were minted in such huge quantities (compared to the world’s silver supply before this) that they caused global inflation, etc.
Needless to say, the treatment of the native Americans, and later on African slaves, who mined the silver, was not kind. But, and here’s the really crazy part, that mine IS STILL ACTIVE TODAY! And the workers are still treated so shabbily that there is an ongoing UNESCO investigation into conditions there.
I’m a 40-year-old jazz musician, and until last week – when I attended a lecture on the topic – I’d never heard of the “jazz diplomacy” program, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State from 1954-1968.
Oh! There is a new book out about him–fascinating! He got a lot more press when they recently discovered the body of a stalker on a little island just *yards *from Buckingham Palace.
I’d never heard of the Memorial until I started researching the area prior to accepting my assignment here. Heck, I’d only vaguely heard of the Rape of Nanking, and I’d not connected that Nanking == Nanjing. :smack:
(Let me know next time you’re in town!)
Those from the cricket playing nations would understand this better - Until a few years ago, I never realised that ‘West Indies’ wasn’t a country.
Until a few years ago I fondly thought that the border between England and Scotland followed the line of Hadrians Wall.
I didn’t realise that the English had taken over a lot of the territory north of that border.
Its doubly embarassing because I’m an Anglo Scot.
[nitpick]The Kent State shootings took place on May 4, 1970. [/nitpick]
Just so we’re clear, Hadrian’s Wall never has been the Anglo-Scottish border. There was certainly a good deal of to-ing and fro-ing over the centuries, but on the whole it was the Scots who expanded their territory, not the English (the Kingdom of Northumbria once extended northward beyond Edinburgh, for instance).
The Wall may have been the border between Roman and non-Roman Britain at one time, but even that’s not entirely certain.
I would really like to un-learn about Unit 731 now.
I’ve been semi-obsessed with that for years. As an EU citizen I wonder could I settle there.
My I can’t believe was a couple of years ago I heard of how the Choctaw raised money for Irish famine relief in the 1840s.
A large portion of my family lives/lived in Newfoundland and I found out only just a few weeks ago that it only relatively recently (1949, iirc) became a part of Canada and that it was a British dominion instead. It explains the familial fascination with the British royal family a lot. I can’t believe I never read that anywhere before.
Just came across this on Wiki:
Elizabeth of York is the only English queen to have been a daughter (of Edward IV), sister (of Edward V), niece (of Richard III), wife (of Henry VII), mother (of Henry VIII) and grandmother (on the paternal side of Mary I, Elizabeth I and Edward VI) of English monarchs.
A first season episode of The X-Files featured the Jersey Devil. That might be the show you’re thinking of.
Oh! I know one. Back before Newfoundland was part of Canada, the Blue Puttees (Royal Newfoundland Regiment), Newfoundland’s contribution to the Empire in WWI were famously nearly wiped out at the Battle of the Somme. However, they were previously also at another allied debacle - Gallipoli.
I realise that ther was the Antonine wall etc., but didn’t have in my minds eye that parts of England were north of parts of Scotland.
Just as we always think that all of Canada is north of all of the U.S.A. (excluding Alaska).
I did know however about parts of the Republic of Ireland being north of “Northern Ireland”.
Do tell! (Is there a link?)