12688. History Facts

English hatmakers used to soften the straw they plaited into hats by spitting on it.

12689. History Facts

In the 1800s, there were several cases of people being buried when not really dead. Terrible stories about opened coffins with scratch marks on the inside, and corpses with fingernails worn away by trying to escape, led to cautious people being buried with a system of warning bells fitted in the coffin which they could ring if they woke up.

12690. History Facts

During witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts, USA, in 1692, 25 people were condemned to death on the flimsy evidence of a group of hysterical girls.

12691. History Facts

King Kokodo of the Congo ruled for three years after his death. His body was wheeled around in a box during this part of his reign…

12692. History Facts

Leather used to be cured with a mixture of dog and chicken faeces smeared on it for many months. The fat and rotting meat scraps were scraped off with a knife.

12693. History Facts

It is said that the cursed mummy of Egyptian princess Amen-Ra was on board the Titanic when it sank in 1912, killing 1,500 people.The mummy was being sent from the British Museum to the USA; only the lid of the mummy's coffin is still in the British Museum.

12694. History Facts

Bald Romans used to make a paste of mashed up flies and spread it over their heads in the belief that it would make their hair regrow. It didn't…

12695. History Facts

Ivan the Terrible of Russia punished a bishop by having him stitched into the skin of a dead bear and releasing a pack of hounds to hunt and kill him.

12696. History Facts

Instead of a hollow pumpkin with a candle inside, Celtic people are said to have used real human heads cut from defeated enemies to keep away ghosts and ghouls in the autumn.

12697. History Facts

Chimney sweeps used to have three baths a year – one in the spring, one in the autumn and one for Christmas.The rest of the time, they were covered in soot.

12698. History Facts

In the past, European women sometimes wore a tube filled with sticky tree sap around their necks or on animal fur.These were supposed to attract and trap any fleas on their bodies.

12699. History Facts

The earliest cosmetic surgery was practised by doctors in India who made fake noses for criminals who had their noses cut off as a punishment for their crimes.

12700. History Facts

If sheep grazed on pastures full of clover, shepherds sometimes had to puncture the stomachs of sheep with a sharp knife to release all the gases that built up inside them.

12701. History Facts

In the old days, a ‘whipping boy' used to sit next to a royal prince in lessons. If the prince made a mistake, or did something wrong, the whipping boy was punished instead of the prince.

12702. History Facts

In the Middle Ages a royal farter was employed to jump around farting in front of the king to amuse him.

12703. History Facts

In Africa, it was common to bend back springy saplings and tie them beneath the ears of someone about to be beheaded, so that the person's last sensation would be of their head flying through the air.

12704. History Facts

Until 1868, criminals could be transported from England – sent to Australia for seven or fourteen years – for even petty crimes. The youngest victim was a boy of nine, transported for stealing.

12705. History Facts

King Henry VIII of England, employed the death penalty more than any other English king in history.

12706. History Facts

A punishment used in China in the old days was for a prisoner to be kept in an iron cage with his head sticking out the top.The cage was too tall to sit in, and too short to stand up. Some prisoners were left to starve to death inside.

12707. History Facts

A common test for the guilt of a person accused of witchcraft was to throw them in a pond. If they floated, they were guilty and were executed. If they sank, they were innocent – but probably drowned.

Animal Facts
Some leeches only suck the blood from dead animals.      .. More >>