# Surprising info you found out about an historical figure? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 19, 2019, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861 "2019-08-19T02:39:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/41 "2019-08-19T22:13:20Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > Sojourner Truth’s first language was Dutch. Squanto, the Native American who helped the Pilgrims per childhood stories, spoke fluent English because he had previous lived for some time in England. Also in the Lindbergh thing: Bruno Hauptmann’s widow never believed he did it and wore her wedding ring until she died. She also didn’t know his name was actually Bruno and not Richard, which was what she always called him. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/42 "2019-08-20T01:51:34Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Florence Nightingale was named after the city she was born in, while her parents were on a three-year honeymoon. So was her older sister, though since this would have led to her being “Naples Nightingale” she ended up as “Parthenope”. Parthenope Nightingale? That’s a name that’s destined for… Well, I don’t know, exactly, but definitely _something_. Also, kudos to her folks for taking a three-year honeymoon. That’s the way to live. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/43 "2019-08-20T02:06:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He’s rather the definition of a “jingo imperialist”. The word “jingo” comes from one of his imperialistic poems. This is not correct. It was a song, not a poem, and it was written by G. W. Hunt. And the word Jingo as a minced oath predates the song. > **[Jingoism | Etymology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism#Etymology)** > > The chorus of a song by the songwriter G. W. Hunt, popularized by the singer G. H. MacDermott – which was commonly sung in British pubs and music halls around the time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 – gave birth to the term. The lyrics included this chorus: ---
**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:** [August 20, 2019, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/44 "2019-08-20T02:07:46Z")
We tend to infantilize Hellen Keller, remembering her solely as a child in the late 1800s (I was reminded of her by the reference to Mark Twain upthread, who she befriended), but she lived until 1968. Also, she was an outspoken socialist. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/45 "2019-08-20T02:19:09Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Rudyard Kipling, who I had always taken to be a kind of dusty old Empire poster boy (Orwell called him a “jingo imperialist”) was a serious technology buff. In 1902 he installed a hydroelectric generator in the grounds of Bateman’s, his East Sussex home, and ran the household lighting off it. > > j Kipling also wrote about technology. There’s a collection out entitled _The Science Fiction Stories of Rudyard Kipling_ > **[The Science Fiction Stories of Rudyard Kipling: Rudyard Kipling, John Brunner:...](https://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Stories-Rudyard-Kipling/dp/0806515082)** > > The Science Fiction Stories of Rudyard Kipling \[Rudyard Kipling, John Brunner\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Science Fiction Stories of Rudyard Kipling ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/46 "2019-08-20T02:23:28Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > We tend to infantilize Hellen Keller, remembering her solely as a child in the late 1800s (I was reminded of her by the reference to Mark Twain upthread, who she befriended), but she lived until 1968. > > Also, she was an outspoken socialist. James Loewen, in his book **Lies My Teacher Told Me** , goes into this at considerable length. Helen Keller lived until I was almost a teenager. She still showed up in the news occasionally when I was a kid. Her first autobiography, written and published when she was still very young, is justly famous and still read. But she wrote two more installments of her autobiography later in life that don’t get read as much, probably because of her politics. Don’t write her off because she was a Socialist (and a Communist, at least for a while). She wrote significantly about blindness and social justice – the way the poor and disadvantaged are more likely to become blind because of inadequate safety measures or poor health care, and are more likely to suffer when blind because of their lack of resources. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/47 "2019-08-20T02:29:08Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Squanto, the Native American who helped the Pilgrims per childhood stories, spoke fluent English because he had previous lived for some time in England. > > . Squanto’s story is really amazing. He may have crossed the Atlantic more than twice, lived in Spain for a time, and was involved After the Mayflower days in the politics around King Phillip’s War. > **[Squanto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squanto)** > > Tisquantum (/tɪsˈkwɒntəm/; c. 1585 (±10 years?) – November 30, 1622 O.S.), more commonly known as Squanto (/ˈskwɒntoʊ/), was a member of the Wampanoag Patuxet tribe best known for being an early liaison between the Native American population in Southern New England and the Mayflower Pilgrims who made their settlement at the site of Tisquantum's former summer village, now Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Patuxet tribe had lived on the western coast of Cape Cod Bay, but an epidemic infection wiped t... “Squanto” , or “Tisquantum”, as also given, was probably not his birth name. See the above, or books about him. ---
**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:** [August 20, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/48 "2019-08-20T02:30:43Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > He campaigned for Isolationism after a tour of Germany, where he saw the new Luftwaffe first hand and was convinced it couldn’t be defeated. Got a special decoration from Hitler and Goering, too (as did, I think, Henry Ford). > > After Pearl Harbor, however, he served with some distinction as a civilian in the Pacific, where he was addressed as “Colonel Lindbergh.” I remember reading about that trip to Germany. Indeed he did believe we would lose the war because the Germans were so far ahead in technology. He did volunteer for active duty but was turned down because of his isolationist stance before the war. He was brought in as a consultant in the Pacific to teach how to increase the range of small aircraft over long missions. Something he was obviously good at and was needed during the island hopping campaigns. As a civilian he wound up flying over 30 combat missions and shot down at least one Japanese plane. It was kept quiet until long after. > [@cochrane](#): > > The superintendent of the New Jersey state police who led the investigation into the Lindbergh kidnapping was Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., the father of General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., the leader of the armed forces during Operation Desert Storm. He didn’t just lead a famous investigation. He founded the State Police after having an Army career where he reached the rank of Brigadier General. He held badge #1 in the NJSP. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Also in the Lindbergh thing: Bruno Hauptmann’s widow never believed he did it and wore her wedding ring until she died. She also didn’t know his name was actually Bruno and not Richard, which was what she always called him. I’ve known several people who looked into the case including a State Police detective who ran the SP museum and had access to all of the original evidence. All have remained convinced that Hauptmann was guilty. He certainly didn’t act alone and most likely wasn’t in charge of the operation but he was involved. They convinced me. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/49 "2019-08-20T02:58:53Z")
The first Native American to greet the Pilgrims was [Samoset](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoset). He reportedly walked into their settlement, greeted them in English, and asked them for beer. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/50 "2019-08-20T03:22:51Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I’ve known several people who looked into the case including a State Police detective who ran the SP museum and had access to all of the original evidence. All have remained convinced that Hauptmann was guilty. He certainly didn’t act alone and most likely wasn’t in charge of the operation but he was involved. They convinced me. I agree that Hauptmann was guilty. I don’t agree that “Lindy” orchestrated it. Now, the people who claim to be the Lindbergh baby, or claimed to be Anastasia? Nope. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/51 "2019-08-20T03:27:10Z")
Adolf Hitler’s brother, Alois Hitler Junior, worked as a kitchen porter at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, where he met Irish girl Bridget Dowling. In 1910, they eloped to London, and in 1911, they had a son, William Patrick Hitler. Alois returned to Germany during World War I, abandoning his Irish-English family. In 1939, Patrick was invited to tour the United States to lecture about his famous uncle. His mother joined him in the United States. During World War II William served in the United States Navy, and became a naturalized US citizen after the war. He changed his name to William Patrick Stuart-Houston. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/52 "2019-08-20T03:53:18Z")
In 1915, George Halas, who would, a few years later, found the Chicago Bears football team, and become a key figure in the founding of the National Football League, was working for Western Electric in suburban Chicago. The company was holding a picnic for its employees in the resort town of Michigan City, Indiana (across Lake Michigan from Chicago), and had chartered a passenger ship, the SS Eastland, to ferry employees and their families to the picnic. As Western Electric employees and their families boarded the Eastland, the overloaded ship capsized at its dock on the Chicago River, and 844 passengers died. Halas had planned to attend the picnic, and would have been on the Eastland, had he not been running late that morning. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/53 "2019-08-20T04:23:31Z")
> [@mako88sb](#): > > Windows down hoping to hear any of those local drivers in time and avoid a head-on. Hardly any traffic compared to the other side though so a bit on my mind about how long it would take to get help if we broke down. It was pitch black when I was on the dirt-road section. Not even a moon. Then, all of a sudden, there was a herd of black cows crossing the road, taking their sweet-ass time. I barely avoided hitting them. I was never so glad to get back to my hotel in Kihei. ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/54 "2019-08-20T07:52:17Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > He reportedly walked into their settlement, greeted them in English, and asked them for beer. I don’t see what the big deal is, I’ve done the same thing hundreds of times! ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/55 "2019-08-20T08:54:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He’s rather the definition of a “jingo imperialist”. The word “jingo” comes from one of his imperialistic poems. Now ya got me intrigued. That certainly isn’t where the word comes from, it long predates Kipling as a “minced oath”. However, that use of it - _Uber patriotic_ - that sounds plausible; but the references I’ve found point to a music hall origin - [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_Jingo) is as good a reference as any. I took a look at (well, searched) Barrack-Room Ballads as an obvious source, but found nothing. Have you found something I haven’t? (It’s a bugger to google, as you keep coming back to the Orwell quote). While I’m here: Fanny Burney, who ought to be far better known than she is (more or less the creator of the comedy of manners; inventor of Jane Austen, if you will) [was an early mastectomy patient](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Burney#Life_in_France:_revolution_and_mastectomy) (1811) and also wrote “one of the most compelling early accounts of a mastectomy”. (This, of course, predates modern anaesthetics.) j ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/56 "2019-08-20T09:04:12Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Squanto’s story is really amazing. He may have crossed the Atlantic more than twice, lived in Spain for a time, and was involved After the Mayflower days in the politics around King Phillip’s War. > > [Squanto - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squanto) > “Squanto” , or “Tisquantum”, as also given, was probably not his birth name. See the above, or books about him. There’s a lot of stuff on Tisquantum in the (generally excellent) book [1491](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_Americas_Before_Columbus) which also goes into the complex politics of the early settler/Native American relationships. In unrelated thread contribution… Alexander the Great’s party trick was to be able to read silently. Rather uncommon at the time (in fact, remained uncommon right up to the Middle Ages) ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/57 "2019-08-20T09:04:32Z")
The Indian leader “Mahatma” Gandhi (Mahatma means great soul) was a racist, sex pervert, and a man who adamantly peddled extreme pacifism. He was widely considered a little cracked in the head. He once advised the British that “should the Nazis like to rule over Britain, you (British) shall vacate your mansions and serve the armies of the Germans, and be killed if they are pleased to kill you”. He doled out the same advise to Hindus caught up in horrific Muslim-led riots in pre-independence India that consumed tens of thousands of Hindu lives. He liked to sleep naked with young (naked) women and girls, to test his celibacy. A complete weirdo. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/58 "2019-08-20T13:57:14Z")
Roger Ebert was the one who persuaded Oprah Winfrey to sign a syndication deal with King World. Ebert predicted that she would generate 40 times as much revenue as his television show, At the Movies. The Oprah Winfrey Show would bring in double Phil Donahue’s national audience, displacing him as the number-one daytime talk show in America. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/59 "2019-08-20T16:44:57Z")
Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish author of _ **Treasure Island** _, used the proceeds from his works to relocate to the South Pacific (Samoa). He died of a stroke at the age of 44 after fetching a bottle of wine for dinner. When he came up from the cellar, he asked his wife “Does my face look alright to you?” before collapsing. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/60 "2019-08-20T16:47:19Z")
> [@mandala](#): > > Mahatma means great soul… More accurately translated as “Big Shot.” 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861.md?page=4)