# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/121 "2019-08-25T17:17:24Z")
When Abraham referred to his mother, he was speaking about his step-mother, Sarah Johnston Lincoln. His bio mom Nancy Hanks Lincoln died when he was just nine years old. His step-mother took charge of the household and made it possible for the young Lincoln to have time to read and study, as he had very little formal schooling. He once wrote, “all that I am I owe to my angel mother” Sarah outlived her step-son, sad to say. ---
**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 25, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/122 "2019-08-25T22:47:41Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > When Abraham referred to his mother, he was speaking about his step-mother, Sarah Johnston Lincoln. His bio mom Nancy Hanks Lincoln died when he was just nine years old. His step-mother took charge of the household and made it possible for the young Lincoln to have time to read and study, as he had very little formal schooling. He once wrote, “all that I am I owe to my angel mother” Sarah outlived her step-son, sad to say. When informed he’d been assassinated, she said “Ah knowed they’d kill him!” ---
**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 26, 2019, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/123 "2019-08-26T04:03:22Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > When Abraham referred to his mother, he was speaking about his step-mother, Sarah Johnston Lincoln. His bio mom Nancy Hanks Lincoln died when he was just nine years old. His step-mother took charge of the household and made it possible for the young Lincoln to have time to read and study, as he had very little formal schooling. He once wrote, “all that I am I owe to my angel mother” Sarah outlived her step-son, sad to say. Tom Hanks is descended from a great-uncle, or something like that, of Nancy Hanks. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/124 "2019-08-26T09:11:10Z")
A further thing about Winston Churchill: he had a passion for exotic animals / birds, and kept a small menagerie of them at his residence. About halfway through World War II, he took a fancy to have a live duck-billed platypus brought from Australia to Britain – he had always wanted to see a live platypus; and reckoned that exhibiting the creature up and down the country, would be good for morale. The feat was attempted: sadly, the ship carrying the platypus came under enemy fire on the last leg of its voyage, and the creature died owing to the consequent stress. There are for sure, various ways in which Churchill was less than admirable; but he was undeniably, a “card”. I’ve had no success trying to give, here, a link; but Googling “Winston Churchill platypus” yields assorted “hits” with various recountings of the tale. ---
**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 26, 2019, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/125 "2019-08-26T13:55:00Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > America’s second in command at Fort Sumter when it was shelled by Confederate forces, the first shots of the Civil War, was Abner Doubleday (nicknamed “old 48 hours” by the troops), who was long credited with inventing baseball. This belief is now generally discredited, but Abner did grow up in Cooperstown, N.Y, where the baseball hall of fame is located. This deserves another surprising fact about a historical figure: in Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen has her rather tomboyish heroine enthuse about playing baseball. That’s some sixty-odd years earlier than the Civil War. j ---
**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 26, 2019, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/126 "2019-08-26T17:35:11Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > While he didn’t invent baseball (it’s been around in one form or another for a long, long time), I believe he did promote it as a form of recreation among Union troops and probably drew up a set of basic rules for the modern game. And his great-great grand nephew owned the New York Mets. ---
**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 26, 2019, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/127 "2019-08-26T21:43:40Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > This deserves another surprising fact about a historical figure: in Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen has her rather tomboyish heroine enthuse about playing baseball. That’s some sixty-odd years earlier than the Civil War. Things I learned today – I had already known that baseball is believed to have evolved from an English game called “rounders.” In reading the “[History of Baseball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_baseball#Origins)” article on Wikipedia, I see that there are also documented references to a game specifically called “baseball,” in England, as far back as 1744. (It sounds like that version of “baseball” was likely a regional variant of rounders.) ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/128 "2019-08-26T22:45:31Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > John Entwistle , bass player for the Who, was a freemason for his entire adult life. And Bob Weir, of the Grateful Dead, is a Bohemian Grove member. ---
**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 27, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/129 "2019-08-27T19:59:36Z")
The Roman Emperor Tiberius kept a stable of young boys at his villa on Capri. Known as his “minnows,” their job was to swim naked underwater and nip at his naughty bits whenever he was in the mood for a skinny dip. Ew! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/130 "2019-08-27T22:16:58Z")
A six-year-old Theodore Roosevelt is captured in a [photo of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession](https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2010/11/09/teddy-roosevelt-and-abraham-lincoln-in-the-same-photo/) through the streets of New York City. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/131 "2019-08-28T01:39:34Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > 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. “Parthenope Nightingale” sounds like the pseudonym of a Victorian pornographer. ---
**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 28, 2019, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/132 "2019-08-28T02:51:47Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > A six-year-old Theodore Roosevelt is captured in a [photo of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession](https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2010/11/09/teddy-roosevelt-and-abraham-lincoln-in-the-same-photo/) through the streets of New York City. TR (called “Teedie” by his family when he was young) was a very sickly kid. His image as a robust outdoorsman is legitimate, but it derived from a conscious choice to make up for the fact that much of his youth was spent inside in bed. As an asthmatic in an era before effective treatment, young Roosevelt had a hard time breathing. One of the treatments was to give him a big cigar to smoke, for…reasons. Imagine an asthmatic, weezing 8 year old trying to smoke a stogie! ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/133 "2019-08-28T03:09:42Z")
Theodore’s first wife and his mother died on the same day, eleven hours apart from each other, in the same house. I can’t imagine the pain he went through. ---
**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 28, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/134 "2019-08-28T03:27:33Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Theodore’s first wife and his mother died on the same day, eleven hours apart from each other, in the same house. I can’t imagine the pain he went through. It was Valentines Day. ---
**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 28, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/135 "2019-08-28T17:25:13Z")
Theodore Roosevelt did not immediately run for a second term in his own right because he’d pledged earlier that he wouldn’t (he had acceded to the presidency through the death of William McKinley). He soon realized this was a huge mistake, and his dissatisfaction with the Taft administration led him to form a third party and run again in 1912. This split the Republican vote and gave the election to Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt would almost certainly have been the Republican candidate in 1920 (and won in a landslide) had he not died in his sleep on 6 January 1919. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/136 "2019-08-28T19:29:30Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Theodore Roosevelt did not immediately run for a second term in his own right because he’d pledged earlier that he wouldn’t (he had acceded to the presidency through the death of William McKinley). He soon realized this was a huge mistake, and his dissatisfaction with the Taft administration led him to form a third party and run again in 1912. This split the Republican vote and gave the election to Woodrow Wilson. > > Roosevelt would almost certainly have been the Republican candidate in 1920 (and won in a landslide) had he not died in his sleep on 6 January 1919. Roosevelt’s running in 1912 relegated poor President Taft to a third place finish in the election, the only president to suffer such an ignominy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/137 "2019-08-28T19:41:49Z")
I think Americans will know this (but let me know if it’s news to you), but I was surprised to discover that the maiden name of Eleanor Roosevelt was… Roosevelt. She was a niece of Theodore. ---
**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 28, 2019, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/138 "2019-08-28T20:30:10Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Roosevelt’s running in 1912 relegated poor President Taft to a third place finish in the election, the only president to suffer such an ignominy. Taft was delighted when he was appointed Chief Justice of the United States, and later said he couldn’t even remember when he was President. He was the only man ever to have held both offices. He was also the first US President to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Taft was such a stickler for protocol that when someone suggested he issue a statement offering his condolences upon the sinking of the _Titanic_, he replied “Is there a precedent for it?” ---
**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 28, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/139 "2019-08-28T20:33:47Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > I think Americans will know this (but let me know if it’s news to you), but I was surprised to discover that the maiden name of Eleanor Roosevelt was… Roosevelt. She was a niece of Theodore. Theodore was an uncle to Franklin too. Franklin and Eleanor were kissin’ cousins. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861/140 "2019-08-28T20:46:33Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Theodore was an uncle to Franklin too. Franklin and Eleanor were kissin’ cousins. Franklin was not a nephew of Theodore, but much more distantly related. Franklin and Eleanor were[fifth cousins once removed.](https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/q-and-a/q6.cfm) Eleanor was a member of the Oyster Bay branch of the family, and Franklin of the Hyde Park Roosevelts. Their common ancestor, Claes Martenszen van Rosenvelt, died in 1742. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-info-you-found-out-about-an-historical-figure/838861.md?page=8)