Imagine flummox stuck in outer space for 10 calendar month .
I am a huge lover of history, to the point that my friends and family find me actively annoying. (Don’t ask me about theNapoleonmovie.) Of course, I love the big battles, key events, yadda yadda yadda… but what Ireallylove are the weird, juicy, funky facts that really make things messy, dramatic, and fun. I’m always compiling them; so, without further ado, here are six history facts I found that I needed to share with you in November.
1.Starting off with one of my favorite facts ever: the reason we have the Renaissance. You guys know Cicero, right? Roman statesman, philosopher, writer… the original multi-hyphenate. Well, the reason we have so many of his writings — some of the most famous Latin writingsever —isbecause of a guy named Petrarch, a 14th-century Italian scholar and poet. In 1345, Petrarchrediscovered copies of Cicero’s lost writings.
Petrarch’s discovery led toa total reigniting of interest in Europefor the history of the classical world, which contemporary Europeans had come to view as…well, ancient history. (You know, those dark ages, before Christianity!) In the academic circles Florence, Cicero (and other Roman andGreekwriters) totally took off, and thus was born the beginning of what we now call the Renaissance.
2.You probably remember the events of theApollo 13mission from somewhere in the recesses of your fourth-grade memory (or from your memory of watching the movie). If youdon’tknow about it, here are the facts: In 1970,the Apollo 13 mission was launchedfrom Florida with the intention of landing on the moon. But on day three of the mission, the spacecraft’s oxygen tanksexploded, leaving the three astronauts on the craft with only the oxygen in the lunar module for the four days it took them to get back to earth. Thefun factcomes in with one of the engineers who helped save the astronauts: Judith Love Cohen.
Cohen was an aerospace engineer who helped create the Abort-Guidance System, which brought the astronauts home safely. When in labor with her fourth child,Judith stopped by work before going to the hospital and grabbed a printout of the problem she was working on. Later that day, she called her boss, andaccording to USC, “told him that she had solved the problem. And…oh, yes, the baby was born, too.” That baby, you ask? Is none other thanJack Black.
3.Speaking of astronauts — or cosmonauts, as it were — I recently learned about Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, whobecame strandedaboard the Mir space station during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Also, side fact: Krikalevflewon the first joint US/Russian space shuttle mission! In later years, heperiodically returned from Russia to Houstonto work with NASA on supporting further joint ventures.
4.In a 2019 excavation in London, British archaeologists at the Museum of London Archaeologyuncovered a Roman stylus.Now, those are common; but this one has an inscription, which translates, colloquially, to “I went to Rome and all I got you was this pen!”
5.One of the most fraudulent elections of all time was in Liberia in 1927, when presidential candidate Charles D. B. King (great name)received 240,000 votes. The number of Liberians who could vote in 1927, you ask? …15,000. He’s kind of a king for that, NGL (no pun intended). Just a very admirable level of delusion.
6.And, finally: Japan has Vikings, but they’re not what you think.
