Now you Know
12761. History Facts
Slaves sometimes had to fight to the death in a Roman arena.To make sure they weren't just pretending to be dead, they could be prodded with a red-hot poker and hit on the head with a huge hammer. 12762. History Facts
The Greeks played the game knucklebones with real bones from the knuckles of animals that have cloven feet – like pigs, goats and antelopes. 12763. History Facts
Theban king Mithradites (132–63 BCE) took small doses of poison regularly to develop immunity and protect himself from poisoners. When he later wanted to kill himself, the poison he took did not kill him. 12764. History Facts
Wig-makers suffered during times of plague as people thought the disease could be caught from wigs made of human hair. So many second-hand wigs were infested with fleas that they were probably right! 12765. History Facts
Inuit people used to make trousers out of the gullet – wind-pipe – of a seal or walrus, using one for each leg. 12766. History Facts
In Sparta, Greece, in 600 BCE the law required that a child born imperfect – disabled or deformed – be killed immediately. 12767. History Facts
Birching was allowed as a punishment in Britain until the 1940s. It consisted of being beaten on the bare buttocks with a bunch of twigs. 12768. History Facts
Toad-eaters were people employed by men selling medicine at fairs and markets.The toad-eater had to swallow a toad – supposed to be deadly poisonous – and then take the medicine.Their survival encouraged people to buy the medicine.They may or may not have actually swallowed the toads… 12769. History Facts
In Ancient Egypt, women kept a cone of grease on their head. During the day, it melted in the hot sun and dripped down, making their hair gleam with grease. 12770. History Facts
Victorian child chimney sweeps sometimes had to crawl through chimneys as narrow as 18 centimetres (7 inches). If they didn't go quickly enough, their bare feet were pricked with burning straws. 12771. History Facts
Mary Stuart, queen of England from 1553 to 1558, had 274 people burned at the stake just for being Protestant Christians. 12772. History Facts
In 1856, the USA passed a law saying that its citizens could claim any uninhabited island anywhere in the world if it contained large deposits of bird faeces. 12773. History Facts
In the 1990s, fashionable women in Europe who wanted to look thin wore corsets laced so tightly that their ribs were sometimes broken! 12774. History Facts
In the nineteenth century, a school headmaster in York, England, massacred his pupils and hid their bodies in cupboards. 12775. History Facts
During the Great Plague that struck England in 1665–66, boys at Eton school were punished for not smoking – smoking was thought to protect them from the disease. 12776. History Facts
Before written or computerized records helped us to keep track of criminals, many countries marked criminals with a tattoo or a branding iron – a red hot iron used to burn a pattern, letter or picture into their skin.This meant that everyone could see what they had done. 12777. History Facts
Bird faeces called guano were collected and sold from Peru, Chile and Bolivia for hundreds of years. It was used as a fertilizer for plants. 12778. History Facts
A common way of attacking a besieged castle or city in the Middle Ages was to catapult dead animals, corpses or even the heads of enemies over the walls. 12779. History Facts
The Greek emperor Draco died when he was smothered by the hats and cloaks that admirers threw over him at a party. 12780. History Facts
Pope Clement VII tried eating a death cap toadstool in 1534; it killed him. 
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