Unusual historical events. The most interesting historical facts

1. in Napoleon's army, soldiers could address generals as "you".

2. In Rus', grasshoppers were called dragonflies.

3. punishment with rods was abolished in Russia only in 1903.

4. The "Hundred Years War" lasted 116 years.

5. What we call the Caribbean crisis, the Americans call the Cuban crisis, and the Cubans themselves - the October crisis.

6. The shortest war in history was the war between Great Britain and Zanzibar on August 27, 1896. It lasted exactly 38 minutes.

7. The first atomic bomb dropped on Japan was on a plane called the Enola Gay. The second is on the Bock's Car plane.

8. Under Peter I, a special department was created in Russia to receive petitions and complaints, which was called ... racketmaking.

9. On June 4, 1888, the New York State Congress passed a bill abolishing the hanging. The reason for this "humane" act was the introduction of a new method of the death penalty - the electric chair. 10. According to an agreement between the engineer Gustave Eiffel and the city authorities of Paris, in 1909 the Eiffel Tower was to be dismantled) and sold for scrap.

11. The Spanish Inquisition persecuted many groups of the population, but more than other Cathars, Marranos and Moriscos. The Cathars are followers of the Albigensian heresy, the Marranos are baptized Jews, and the Moriscos are baptized Muslims.

12. The first Japanese who came to Russia was Denbei, the son of a merchant from Osaka. His ship was nailed to the shores of Kamchatka in 1695. In 1701 he reached Moscow. Peter I appointed him to teach Japanese to several teenagers. 13. Only in 1947 in England was the position of a person who was supposed to fire a cannon fired when Napoleon Bonaparte entered England was abolished. 14. Guy de Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Gounod, Leconte de Lisle and many other cultural figures signed the famous protest against ... "Disfiguring Paris with the Eiffel Tower."

15. When the famous German physicist Albert Einstein died, his last words went with him. The nurse next to him did not understand a word of German. 16. In the Middle Ages, students were forbidden to carry knives, swords and pistols and appear on the street after 21:00, because ... this posed a great danger to the townspeople.

17. On the tombstone of the monument to Suvorov, it is written simply: "Here Lies Suvorov." 18. Between the two world wars, more than 40 different governments changed in France. 19. For the last 13 centuries, the imperial throne in Japan has been occupied by the same dynasty.

20. One of the American aircraft in Vietnam hit itself with a missile. 21. The mad Roman emperor Caligula once decided to declare war on the god of the seas - Poseidon, after which he ordered his soldiers to randomly throw their spears into the water. By the way, from the Roman "Caligula" means "little shoe". 22. Abdul Kassim Ismail - the Grand Vizier of Persia (10th century) was always near his library. Only if he went somewhere, the library "followed" him. 117 thousand book volumes were transported by four hundred camels. Moreover, books (i.e. camels) were arranged in alphabetical order.

23. Nothing is impossible now. If you want to buy a car in Guryevsk - please, if you want - in another city. But the fact remains, it needs to be registered and get license plates. So, the Berlin businessman Rudolf Duke attached the very first car number to his car. It happened in 1901. There were only three characters on his number - IA1 (IA are the initials of his young wife Johanna Anker, and the unit means that she is his first and only.

24. At the end of the evening prayer on the ships of the Russian Imperial Navy, the officer in charge of the watch commanded "cover yourself!", which meant putting on headgear, and at the same time the all-clear prayer signal was given. Such a prayer usually lasted 15 minutes. 25. In 1914, the German colonies had a population of 12 million people, and the British - almost 400 million. 26. In the entire history of temperature registration in Russia, the coldest winter was the winter of 1740

27. In the modern army, the rank of cornet corresponds to an ensign, and the rank of lieutenant corresponds to a lieutenant.

28. The Thai national anthem was written in 1902 by the Russian composer Pyotr Shchurovsky.

29. Until 1703, clean ponds in Moscow were called ... filthy ponds.

30. The first book printed in England was devoted to ... chess. 31. The population of the world in 5000 BC. e. was 5 million people.

32. In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt. 33. A list of gifts to Stalin in honor of his seventieth birthday was published in Soviet newspapers from December 1949 to March 1953.

34. Nicholas I gave his officers the choice between a guardhouse and listening to Glinka's operas as punishment. 35. Above the entrance to the Lyceum of Aristotle was the inscription: "The entrance here is open to anyone who wishes to dispel the errors of Plato."

36. The third decree after the "Decree on Peace" and the "Decree on Land" issued by the Bolsheviks was the "Decree on Spelling". 37. During the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79, in addition to the well-known city of Pompeii, the cities of Herculaneum and Stabiae also perished.

38. Fascist Germany - the "Third Reich", the Hohenzoller Empire (1870-1918) - the "Second Reich", the Holy Roman Empire - the "First Reich".

39. in the Roman army, soldiers lived in tents of 10 people. At the head of each tent was an elder, who was called ... dean. 40. A tightly tightened corset and a large number of bracelets on the hands in England during the reign of the Tudors were considered a sign of virginity.

41. FBI agents did not acquire the right to bear arms until 1934, 26 years after the founding of the FBI.

42. Until the Second World War in Japan, any touch to the emperor was considered blasphemy.

43. On February 16, 1568, the Spanish Inquisition pronounced a death sentence on all the inhabitants of the Netherlands. 44. In 1911, in China, braids were recognized as a sign of feudalism and therefore their wearing was prohibited.

45. The first party card of the CPSU belonged to Lenin, the second to Brezhnev (the third to Suslov, and the fourth to Kosygin.

46. The American Physical Education League, the first naturist organization in the United States, was founded on December 4, 1929. 47. In 213 BC. e. Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huangdi ordered to burn all the books available in the country.

48. In Madagascar in 1610, King Ralambo created the state of Imerin, which means "As far as the eye sees."

49. The first Russian saints were Boris and Gleb, canonized in 1072.

50. one of the punishments for criminals in ancient India was ... mutilation of the ears.

51. Of the 266 people who occupied the papal throne, 33 died a violent death.

52. In Rus', the original was a stick used to beat a witness, seeking the truth. 53. In normal weather, the Romans wore a tunic, and when the cold came, several tunics.

54. in ancient Rome, a group of slaves belonging to one person was called ... a surname. 55. The Roman emperor Nero married a man - one of his slaves named skorus.

56. Until 1361, in England, legal proceedings were conducted exclusively in French. 57. Having accepted the surrender, the Soviet Union did not sign peace with Germany, that is, it remained at war with Germany. The war with Germany was ended on January 21, 1955 by the adoption of a corresponding decision by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Nevertheless, May 9 is considered the day of victory - the day the act of unconditional surrender of Germany was signed.

58. The eruption of the Mexican volcano Paricutin lasted 9 years (from 1943 to 1952. During this time, the cone of the volcano rose to 2774 meters. 59. To date, archaeologists have discovered on the territory associated with ancient Troy, traces of nine fortresses - settlements that existed in different era.

1. Albert Einstein could have been president. In 1952 he was offered the post of the second President of Israel, but he refused.

2. Kim Jong Il was a good composer and throughout his life the Korean leader composed 6 operas.

3. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has always been leaning. In 1173, a team building the Leaning Tower of Pisa noticed that the base was warped. Construction was halted for almost 100 years, but the structure was never straight.

4. Arabic numerals were not invented by Arabs, but by Indian mathematicians.

5. Before the invention of alarm clocks, there was a profession that consisted of waking other people up in the morning. So, for example, a person had to shoot dried peas at other people's windows to wake them up for work.

See also: The biggest mistakes in history

6. Grigory Rasputin survived many assassination attempts in one day. They tried to poison him, shoot him and stab him, but he managed to survive. In the end, Rasputin died in a cold river.

7. The shortest war in history lasted less than an hour. The Anglo-Zanzibar War lasted 38 minutes.

8. The longest war in history took place between the Netherlands and the Scilly archipelago. The war lasted 335 years from 1651 to 1989 with no casualties on either side.

By the 20th century, humanity had reached unprecedented heights: we had discovered electricity, conquered the heavens and the depths of the sea, learned how to heal many diseases, quickly transmit messages over great distances, even space and nuclear energy had conquered us. However, along with these achievements, the 20th century can be called the peak of the madness of the human race, when, with their reckless behavior, people practically brought themselves to the brink of annihilation in two world wars ...
Almost 80% of Soviet men born in 1923 died in the Great Patriotic War.

Ivan Burylov, who wrote the word "comedy" on the ballot paper, received 8 years in the camps, 1949.

Husband is Protestant, wife is Catholic. The community did not allow them to be buried in the same cemetery. Holland, 1888

The creator of the popular cartoon "Shrek" William Steig copied his character from the professional wrestler Maurice Tiye

In 1859, 24 rabbits were released into the wild in Australia. For 6 years, their number has increased to 6,000,000 individuals ...

Note by Yuri Gagarin, written after the flight around the Earth.

King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland George V and his brother - Emperor of All Russia Nicholas II.
The first photograph on Earth.

The diameter of Soviet cigarettes is 7.62 mm, like the cartridge caliber. There is a widespread myth that all production was set up so that after 2 hours it was ready for the release of cartridges.

Afghanistan 1973 and 2016.
"Give me 5 years and you won't recognize Germany." - A. Hitler

John Rockefeller dreamed of earning $100,000 and living to be 100 years old. And he earned $192 billion and died at 97. Not all dreams come true.
Terry Savchuk - the face of a hockey goaltender, when the mask was not yet a mandatory attribute, 1966.
Mortgage - definition in the Soviet dictionary.
Women's Minister Angela Merkel and Chancellor Kohl. 1991 And then 10 years later she fired him.

Stalin's son Yakov Dzhugashvili in German captivity, 1941. Later he was killed in a prison camp - his father refused to exchange him for captured German generals.

Public execution on the guillotine, France, 1939.

Australia in the middle of the 20th century. Very soon the USSR will send Gagarin into space.
A hotel manager pours acid into a pool filled with blacks, 1964. USA.
The Auschwitz concentration camp is the same furnace in which people were burned.

In 1938, Stalin offered the pilot Valery Chkalov to head the NKVD. However, Chkalov refused.

In the 5th century BC. The Spartan commander Pausanias betrayed his homeland to the Persians. The betrayal was discovered, and the court decided to execute the traitor. Pausanias hid in the temple of the goddess Athena, knowing that killing on the temple grounds was considered sacrilege. However, the Spartans still found a way out: they immured Pausanias in the temple.

All theater in pre-Aeschylean ancient Greece was a "one-man theatre": one person played all the roles. Aeschylus introduced a second actor, and Sophocles a third.

Alexander the Great was very handsome, but two things spoiled the matter: short stature - only one and a half meters and the habit of tilting his head to the right and looking, as it were, into the distance.

Modern ophthalmologists tend to believe that the king suffered from a rare pathology of vision called "Brown's syndrome." In Pompeii, where there were barely 20 thousand inhabitants, seven brothels were discovered during excavations, some of them simultaneously served as taverns, others as barbers.

In the Middle Ages, beds in noble houses were necessarily supplied with a canopy on four columns. The fact is that there were no glasses in the windows of that time, and therefore cruel drafts were walking in the bedrooms.

Railroad tracks in Europe were laid on cart tracks left over from the time of the ancient Romans. The distance between the wheels of Roman carts was standard: two horse backs.

The Danish king Niels, who ruled in the 12th century (1104-1134), had the smallest army ever in the world. It consisted of ... 7 people - his personal assistants. With this army, Nils ruled Denmark for 30 years, and at that time Denmark also included part of Sweden and Norway, as well as some parts of Northern Germany.

Nicholas II had only the military rank of colonel. Napoleon overslept the battle of Waterloo. He was tormented by hemorrhoids, which were treated with enemas with painkillers that caused severe drowsiness. Bonaparte fell asleep before the fight, and no one dared to wake him up until the most critical moment.

The place and role of historical facts in the process of cognition is determined by the fact that only on the basis of these "bricks" can one put forward hypotheses and build theories. There is no single definition of historical fact. The following interpretations of the term "historical fact" are most common:

it is an objective event or phenomenon of the past;
these are traces of the past, i.e. images that are captured in historical documents.

Many scientists (A.P. Pronshtein, I.N. Danilevsky, M.A. Varshavchik) singled out three categories of historical facts: objectively existing facts of reality, located in certain spatio-temporal limits and having materiality (historical events, phenomena and processes as such). facts reflected in the sources, information about the event; "scientific facts" obtained and described by the historian.

In the interpretation of M.A. Barga the concept of "historical fact" has several meanings. First, a historical fact, as a fragment of historical reality, having "chronological completeness and ontological inexhaustibility". Second, "source message"; thirdly, the "scientific-historical fact" - in its "cognitive incompleteness, in content variability, cumulativeness, the ability to endless enrichment and development" along with the development of "historical science" itself.

A scientific historical fact is a historical fact that has become the object of activity of a scientist historian; the result of an inference based on traces left by the past. These facts are always subjective, they reflect the position of the scientist, the level of his qualifications and education. The academic subject most often presents scientific and historical facts that are described, systematized and explained. Any historical fact can contain the general, universal, individual. Taking into account this specificity, three groups of facts are conditionally distinguished in the methodology of teaching history: a fact - an event - characterizing the unique, inimitable; fact - phenomenon - reflecting the typical, general; fact - processes - defining the universal. These facts have undergone logical processing and are presented in logical forms: representations (images) contain a characteristic of the external side in the form of a description; concepts, ideas, theories that characterize the essence and provide an explanation of the historical past. Facts-processes are presented by description, explanation, evaluation.

Every year in May, Mother's Day is celebrated all over the world. On this day, congratulations and gifts are given to mothers and pregnant women. Motherhood is an amazing state, but even women themselves do not know some facts about it:

The word "mama" in all languages sounds about the same: Russian, Chinese and Spanish children call their mother "mama", English and German - "mum". And the secret is simple: the children themselves came up with this word. One of the first syllables that a child pronounces is “ma”, and he determined the name of the most important person in the life of each of us.
A woman carries a child for nine months, he is born, the umbilical cord is cut, but his connection with his mother does not end there. During pregnancy, mother and baby exchange cells through the placenta, and these cells in a woman's body sometimes remain for a very long time.
Pregnancy causes changes in a woman's brain.
A child's successful personal life depends on how close his relationship with his mother was. Scientists believe that it is the mother who instills in the child the ability to love and feel, which helps him build a happy relationship with the opposite sex.
Mothers feel if something happened to the child, even if the latter is already an adult, accomplished person.
Children know the voice of their mother, not yet born into the world. Scientists have conducted a number of studies, as a result of which it was revealed that the child in the womb responds to the voice of the mother and does not react at all to extraneous voices.

History is rich in interesting facts, many of which are little known. So, a little digression into history.

Tobacco enema. This picture shows the "tobacco enema" procedure, which was very popular in Western Europe in the 18th and early 19th century. Like tobacco smoking, the idea of blowing tobacco smoke through the anus for medicinal purposes was adopted by Europeans from the North American Indians.

One of the weight units of antiquity was scruple, approximately equal to 1.14 grams. It was mainly used to measure the weight of silver coins. Later, scruple was used in the pharmaceutical system of measures. Today it is not used, but is preserved in the word "scrupulousness", which means extreme accuracy and accuracy in small things.

Fifty years ago, English referee Ken Aston was driving home reflecting on some of the problems of international communication. He
stopped at a traffic light and then it dawned on him - this is how yellow and red cards appeared in world football.

Count Potemkin offered Catherine II to write out convicts from the English government for the development of the Black Sea steppes. The queen was seriously carried away by this idea, but she was not destined to come true, and English convicts were sent to Australia.

Caesar's resourcefulness. During the invasion of Africa, the army of Julius Caesar suffered from failure from the very beginning. Severe storms scattered the ships in the Mediterranean, and Caesar arrived on the African shores with only one legion. Leaving the ship, the commander stumbled and fell face down, which was a good sign to return back for his superstitious soldiers. However, Caesar did not lose his head and, grabbing handfuls of sand, exclaimed: “I hold you in my hands, Africa!”. Later, he triumphantly conquered Egypt with his army.

The Russian scientist Vasily Petrov, who was the first in the world to describe the phenomenon of an electric arc in 1802, did not spare himself when conducting experiments. At that time, there were no such devices as an ammeter or voltmeter, and Petrov checked the quality of the batteries by feeling the electric current in his fingers. And in order to feel very weak currents, the scientist specially cut off the top layer of skin from the fingertips.

At the actor who played Superman, the children tried to shoot to test his invulnerability. American actor George Reeves became famous for playing the title role in the television series The Adventures of Superman in the 1950s. One day, a boy approached Reeves holding a charged father's Luger in his hands - he intended to test Superman's superhuman abilities. George narrowly escaped death by persuading the boy to give him the weapon. The actor was saved by the fact that the boy believed that a bullet could bounce off Superman and hit someone else.

In the 1950s and 1960s, American aircraft often violated Chinese airspace for the purpose of reconnaissance. The Chinese authorities recorded every violation and each time sent a "warning" to the United States through diplomatic channels, although no real action followed, and such warnings were counted by the hundreds. This policy has given rise to the expression "the last Chinese warning", meaning threats without consequences.

Berdashi. In almost all Indians of North America, there were so-called berdashi, or people with two souls, who were referred to as the third sex. Berdashi men often performed only female functions - they cooked, were engaged in agriculture, and the Berdashi women took part in hunting. Because of the special status of the berdash, men who had sex with them were not considered homosexuals, but the berdash themselves were not allowed to build relationships with each other. In some tribes, they were assigned a cult status, since it was believed that they were closer to the world of spirits and gods than ordinary people, so berdashi often became shamans or healers.

In Sparta, after the death of the king, two institutions were closed for 10 days - the court and the market. When the Persian king Xerxes learned about this custom, he declared that such a custom would not be possible in Persia, since it would deprive his subjects of two favorite activities.

In 1913, 19-year-old student Terry Williams created mascara by mixing soot with petroleum jelly. His discovery was first used by a sister named Mabel, after whom the first and most popular mascara in the history of cosmetics is named.

Previously, a monument to Minin and Pozharsky stood in the center of Red Square. When the Mausoleum was built, the monument pointed to it. One night, someone wrote on the monument "Look, prince, what scum, it started up in the walls of the Kremlin!" After this incident, the monument was moved.

We offer a fascinating selection of historical facts about Russia and Russian people. Informative and interesting:

The origin of the name of our country is unknown

Since ancient times, our country has been called Rus, but it is not known for certain where this name came from. But it is known how "Rus" turned into "Russia" - this happened thanks to the Byzantines, who pronounced the word "Rus" in their own way.

After the collapse of Rus', its individual regions began to be called Little Rus', White Rus' and Great Rus', or Little Russia, Belarus and Great Russia. It was believed that only all these parts together make up Russia. But after the revolution of 1917 and the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, Little Russia began to be called Ukraine, and Great Russia - Russia.

In Rus', grasshoppers were called dragonflies.

A long time ago, in the time of Rus', grasshoppers were indeed called dragonflies, but this name does not in any way directly refer to the flying insect dragonfly, the grasshopper got the name "dragonfly" because of the sounds it made, which sounded like a chirp or click.

Foreign invaders only once managed to conquer Russia

Many tried to conquer Russia, and these attempts repeatedly failed. Only the Mongols were able to conquer Rus', and this happened in the 13th century. The reason for this was that Rus' at that time was divided into many principalities, and the Russian princes could not unite and jointly repel the conquerors. Since then and to this day, it is the stupidity and greed of the rulers, internal conflicts that have been and remain the main source of problems for our country.

Corporal punishment in Russia

On August 11, according to the old style (24 according to the new one), 1904, corporal punishment for peasants and underage artisans was abolished in the Russian Empire. This was the last social group for which various types of physical influence were still used. A little earlier, in June of the same year, corporal punishment was abolished in the navy and army.

Corporal punishment fell into three broad categories:

1) mutilating (mutilating) - depriving a person of any part of the body or damaging it (blindness, cutting out the tongue, cutting off an arm, leg or fingers, cutting off ears, nose or lips, castration);

2) painful - causing physical suffering by beating with various tools (whips, whips, batogs (sticks), gauntlets, rods, cats, molts);

3) shameful (disgraceful) - the most important is the disgrace of the punished (for example, putting up at the pillory, branding, imposing shackles, shaving the head).

The upper strata of the population were anxious about the prohibition of corporal punishment. In July 1877, the St. Petersburg mayor Trepov, in violation of the law of 1863, ordered the political prisoner Bogolyubov to be whipped with rods. The educated Bogolyubov went mad and died from such an insult, and the famous Vera Zasulich avenged him by seriously injuring Trepov. The court acquitted Zasulich.

Official Soviet pedagogy since 1917 considered corporal punishment of children unacceptable. They were banned in all types of educational institutions, but in the family they remained a common occurrence. In 1988, the journalist Filippov conducted an anonymous survey of 7,500 children from 9 to 15 years old in 15 cities of the USSR, 60% admitted that their parents used corporal punishment against them.

Cuban Missile Crisis and Black Saturday

What we call the Caribbean Crisis, the Americans call the Cuban Crisis, and the Cubans themselves call the October Crisis. But the whole world calls the most important day in the Caribbean crisis one name - "Black Saturday" (October 27, 1962) - the day when the world was closest to a global nuclear war.

Russia has repeatedly helped the United States in its formation and strengthening

If not for Russia, the United States would not have arisen at all, let alone become a superpower. During the war of independence with England, the English king repeatedly turned to Russia for help in suppressing the uprising. Russia, however, not only did not help, but also founded a league of armed neutrality, which was soon joined by other countries that traded with the United States despite the protests of England. During the American Civil War, Russia actively supported the northerners by sending squadrons to New York and San Francisco, while England and France wanted the US to disintegrate and took the side of the southerners. Finally, Russia ceded to the United States California and the Hawaiian Islands, where it had colonies, and then sold the United States and Alaska for a ridiculous price. However, in the 20th century, the United States, having become a world power, responded to Russia with black ingratitude.

The USSR could have easily won the Cold War

After the end of World War II, there were two superpowers left in the world that clashed in a global confrontation - the USA and the USSR. Despite the worst starting conditions, the USSR in the 60s pulled ahead in many respects, and many believed that it would win in the fight against the capitalists. In the 70s, the capitalist world was struck by a severe crisis provoked by rising oil prices, and the US economy was on the verge of collapse. However, the Soviet leadership not only did not take advantage of the situation, but, on the contrary, actually saved their enemy by signing disarmament agreements and agreeing to sell oil for dollars. The United States, on the contrary, relied on the collapse of the USSR and victory in the Cold War, which, in the end, they were able to achieve 20 years later, with the complicity of traitors among the Soviet leadership.

The first Japanese in Russia

The first Japanese who came to Russia was Denbei, the son of a merchant from Osaka. His ship was nailed to the shores of Kamchatka in 1695. In 1701 he reached Moscow.

In the winter of 1702, after an audience on January 8 with Peter I in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, Denbey received an order to become a translator and teacher of the Japanese language in the Artillery Order. Denbey personally told what he could to Peter I about Japan and thus gave impetus to Russian efforts to explore Kamchatka and the Kuriles and attempts to open trade with Japan.

Since 1707, Denbey lived at the palace of the prince and at one time the governor of the Siberian province, Matvey Gagarin. It is known that at the insistence of an associate of Peter I, Jacob Bruce, Denbey was baptized and took the name Gabriel Bogdanov (which blocked his way back to Japan, where Christianity was forbidden). The school of translators from Japanese founded by him operated in Moscow until 1739, after which it was transferred to Irkutsk, where it existed until 1816.

Prior to Denbey, only one Japanese is known in Russia. During the reign of Boris Godunov, a Japanese of the Christian faith visited Russia. He was a young Catholic from Manila, who, together with his spiritual mentor Nicholas Melo of the Order of St. Augustine, traveled to Rome along the route Manila - India - Persia - Russia. But the Time of Troubles turned out to be tragic for them: they were captured by foreign Catholics, and Tsar Boris Godunov exiled them to the Solovetsky Monastery. After six years of exile, he was executed as a supporter of False Dmitry I in 1611 in Nizhny Novgorod. In Russia, he was considered an Indian, not a Japanese.

Favorite commander of Catherine II

Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was a favorite of Empress Catherine. She celebrated and showered awards on the Russian Macedonian, and he happened to allow himself what was unacceptable to others, knowing in advance that Catherine would always forgive any trick or eccentricities of the great commander. Here are some interesting cases:

Once, at a court ball, Catherine decided to pay attention to Suvorov and asked him:
- What to treat dear guest? - Bless, queen, vodka! “But what will my ladies-in-waiting say when they talk to you?” “They will feel that a soldier is talking to them!”

Once, in a conversation, the empress said that she planned to send Suvorov to serve in Finland in the future. Suvorov bowed to the Empress, kissed her hand and returned home. Then he got into the mail coach and left for Vyborg, from where he sent a message to Catherine: “I am waiting, mother, for your further commands.”

It is known that Suvorov dressed very lightly even in severe frosts. Catherine II gave Suvorov a fur coat and ordered him to wear it. What to do? Suvorov began to carry the donated fur coat with him everywhere, but he kept it on his knees.

After the pacification of the Poles in 1794, Suvorov sent a messenger with a message. The “message” is the following: “Hurrah! Warsaw is ours! Catherine's response: "Hurrah! Field Marshal Suvorov! And this is at the time of lengthy reports about the capture of cities. How did you send an SMS. But, nevertheless, he failed to surpass Field Marshal Saltykov in lapidarity, who, after the battle with the Prussians at Kunersdorf during the Seven Years' War, simply sent the hat of the Prussian king found on the battlefield to St. Petersburg.

Kutuzov is not a pirate, he does not need an eye patch!

In recent years, images of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in 1812, Field Marshal His Serene Highness Prince M.I. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, with a bandage over his right eye, began to be massively replicated. The "one-eyed" Kutuzov can be seen on the covers of books and magazines, in the paintings of contemporary artists and on various souvenirs, as well as on busts and monuments.

Such images do not correspond to historical accuracy, since Kutuzov never wore eye patches. There is not a single memoir or epistolary evidence of Kutuzov's contemporaries describing a field marshal with a bandage over his right eye. Moreover, Kutuzov did not need to hide his eye under a bandage, since he saw with this eye, although not as well as with his left.

“Fate appoints Kutuzov to something great,” Masso, the chief surgeon of the Russian army, said with amazement, who examined Kutuzov’s “mortal wound” in the head in 1788 near Ochakovo. The bullet passed right through from temple to temple behind both eyes. The verdict of the doctors was unequivocal - death, but Kutuzov not only did not die, but did not even lose his sight, although his right eye was a little skewed. The surprise of doctors and the whole world that Kutuzov remained alive and after 6 months was again in the ranks was boundless, like 14 years before, when he was first "mortally wounded." In 1774, near Alushta, as well as near Ochakov, Kutuzov was wounded in the head, and the bullet passed almost in the same place. Then doctors all over Europe considered Kutuzov's recovery a miracle, and many believed that the news of the general's injury and cure was a fairy tale, because. it was impossible to survive after such a wound.

In fact, at the beginning of the XIX century. it was not customary to wear an eye patch after the wound had healed (even if the eye was completely absent). For the first time, the "one-eyed" Kutuzov appeared in 1944 in the feature film "Kutuzov". Then the bandage on Kutuzov's right eye was put on by the directors of the musical comedy film "Hussar Ballad" (1962) and the performance of the same name (1964) and ballet (1979).

The image of Kutuzov, brilliantly played by Igor Ilyinsky, gave rise to a stable legend that Kutuzov wore a patch on his injured eye. The replication of this legend in recent years has taken on such a massive character that it has begun to lead to a distortion of historical reality.

Jesters of Empress Anna Ioannovna

The niece of Peter I ruled the Russian Empire for 10 years. The stern disposition of the Russian landowner did not prevent her from having fun.

It is known that Empress Anna Ioannovna was very fond of jesters and dwarfs. There were six of them at her court. Three of them were demoted aristocrats. So, she forced princes Mikhail Golitsyn and Nikita Volkonsky, as well as Count Alexei Apraksin, to play the role of a jester. The illustrious clowns were supposed to grimace in the presence of the empress, sit on top of each other and beat with their fists until they bleed or portray brood hens and cackle. In the last year of her reign, the Empress arranged the wedding of her jesters - the 50-year-old Prince Golitsyn and the ugly Kalmyk Anna Buzheninova, who received her surname in honor of the Empress's favorite dish. Representatives of different nationalities of both sexes were discharged from all over the country to participate in wedding celebrations: Russians, Tatars, Mordvins, Chuvashs, etc. They were supposed to dress up in their national clothes and have musical instruments. It was winter. By order of Anna Ioannovna, an ice House was built on the Neva, in which everything - walls, doors, windows, furniture, utensils - was made of ice. This is where the wedding ceremony took place. Numerous candles were burning in ice candlesticks, and even the marriage bed for the "young" was arranged on an ice bed.

Peter I and guards

In winter, slingshots were placed on the Neva, so that after dark they would not let anyone into or out of the city. Once, Emperor Peter I decided to check the guards himself. He drove up to one of the sentries, pretended to be a spree merchant and asked to be let through, offering money for the pass. The sentry refused to let him through, although Peter had already reached 10 rubles, a very significant amount at that time. The sentry, seeing such stubbornness, threatened that he would be forced to shoot him.

Peter left and went to another sentry. The same one let Peter in for 2 rubles.

The next day, an order was announced for the regiment: hang the corrupt sentry, and drill the rubles he received and hang it around his neck.

Promote a conscientious sentry to corporal and welcome him with ten rubles.

Thai national anthem

The Thai national anthem was written in 1902 by the Russian composer Pyotr Shchurovsky.

Nicholas I gave his officers the choice between a guardhouse and listening to Glinka's operas as punishment.

On November 27, 1842, the first performance of M. I. Glinka's opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" took place, which brought a number of sensitive sorrows to the author. The public and high society did not like the opera, Emperor Nicholas I defiantly left after Act IV, without waiting for the end. He did not like the music of the opera so much that he ordered the offending officers of the capital to choose between the guardhouse and listening to Glinka's music as a punishment. So the emperor additionally expressed his displeasure with the composer's work. Such were the customs, alas. Thank God that Nikolai himself did not send the composer to the guardhouse.

"Thank God you are Russian"

In 1826, a “Russian contemporary” described the appearance of the sovereign, Emperor Nicholas I: “Tall, lean, had a wide chest ... a quick look, a sonorous voice, suitable for a tenor, but spoke somewhat patteringly ... Some kind of genuine severity was visible in the movements” .

"Genuine severity" ... When he commanded the troops, he never shouted. There was no need for this - the king's voice could be heard a mile away; tall grenadiers looked just like children next to him. Nikolai led an ascetic life, but if we talk about the luxury of the court, magnificent receptions, they stunned everyone, especially foreigners. This was done in order to emphasize the status of Russia, which the sovereign cared about incessantly.

General Pyotr Daragan recalled how, in the presence of Nikolai Pavlovich, he spoke French, grazing. Nikolai, suddenly making an exaggeratedly serious face, began to repeat every word after him, which brought his wife to a fit of laughter. Daragan, crimson with shame, ran out into the waiting room, where Nikolai caught up with him and, kissing him, explained: “Why are you burring? No one will take you for a Frenchman; thank God that you are Russian, and monkeying is no good.”

Good day, dear friends!

Recently, the last bells in schools died down - and the graduates took a breath: they were distracted from preparing for the unified state exam. And this is great, since periodic rest is a necessary component of any preparation. By the way, I wrote more about this in a post.

Today, I suggest that you also take a break from preparation and spend time with intellectual entertainment - acquaintance with funny historical facts. These facts will help you look at history not as a boring series of facts and events, but as entertaining stories that can motivate you to study more thoroughly this or that period of national history before the exam.

If the story has already finished the channel for you, then I also highly recommend that you read my post on how to learn history so that this teaching is more interesting and exciting.

Well, now let's move on to the most interesting: fun facts from history. I will focus on a few entertaining stories and facts, but I will draw parallels with national history. By the end of the article, you will understand why I did it :).

Let's move chronologically and start from the 13th century.

FIRST FUNNY STORY. KAMIKAZE

As you well remember, in the 13th century, Rus' was not going through the best of its time, it fought off both the Mongol-Tatars and the crusaders ... At the same time, Japan was also experiencing the aggression of the Mongol-Tatars. Japan, as well as Rus', was fragmented into different principalities, and therefore it could not withstand the onslaught of the Mongols. Meanwhile, her enslavement did not happen. Therefore?

In the event of Mongol-Tatar aggression, the western principalities of Japan would be the first to suffer. The princes of these principalities ordered a service in a Shinto temple (Shinto is Japanese paganism). And when the Mongol Khan gathered a huge fleet and sent it to enslave Japan, a storm broke out that scattered the Khan's fleet! This storm was called kami kaze (kami - deity, kaze - wind). That is why during the Second World War, Japanese pilots called themselves that, because they, like the divine wind (kamikaze), fell on the enemy fleet ...:

SECOND FUN FACT. LIFE AND MORALS OF MEDIEVAL Rus'.

There is every reason to believe that domestic violence and alcoholism are almost a tradition in Russia. Here, for example, is a quote from Domostroy Sylvester:

“Punish your son in his youth, and he will give you rest in your old age, and give beauty to your soul. Loving your son, increase his wounds - and then you will not praise him. Punish your son from youth, and you will rejoice for him in his maturity, and among ill-wishers you will be able to boast of him, and your enemies will envy you. Raise children in prohibitions and you will find peace and blessings in them.

And here is the testimony of the doctor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Samuel Collins:

“At Maslenitsa, before Great Lent, Russians indulge in all kinds of amusements with unbridledness, and in the last week of fasting there is so much, as if they were destined to drink for the last time in their lifetime. Some drink vodka, distilled four times, until the mouth flares up and the flame comes out of the throat, as from the mouth of hell (Bocca di inferno); and if they are then not allowed to drink milk, they die on the spot. .

Some, returning home drunk, fall asleep in the snow, if there is no sober comrade with them, and freeze on this cold bed. If one of the acquaintances happens to walk past and see a drunken friend on the brink of death, then he does not give him help, fearing that he will not die in his arms and fearing to be subjected to the anxiety of investigations, because the Zemsky Prikaz knows how to take a tax from any dead body coming under his department. It is a pity to see how a person is being transported on a sleigh by twelve frozen ones; some had their hands eaten by dogs, some had faces, and some were left with nothing but bare bones. Two hundred or three hundred people were brought in this way during the fast. From this you can see the pernicious consequences of drunkenness, a disease (Epidemick), which is characteristic not of Russia alone, but also of England.

“The most amazing thing is that her death was not avenged by anyone, because in Russia there is no criminal law that would prosecute the murder of a wife or a slave if the murder is committed as a punishment for a misdemeanor; but murder is a strange punishment: the purpose of punishment has never been to end life, but always to correct. Some husbands tie their wives by the hair and flog the completely naked. Such cruelties, however, are rare, and the only causes are infidelity or drunkenness. Now it seems that husbands do not treat their wives so cruelly, at least the parents try to warn them and, giving their daughters in marriage, conclude a condition. They demand from the son-in-law that he supply his wife with decent dresses, feed her with good and healthy food, do not beat her, treat her kindly and offer many other conditions somewhat similar to those rules that are prescribed in England by customs that have received the force of law.

Something needs to be done about this! Or what do you think? Unsubscribe in the comments! I am waiting!

THIRD HISTORICAL FACT: Emperor Peter the Third had two great people in his pedigree: Peter the Great and Charles 12. Irony of fate?

FUNNY FACT FOUR: Hitler and Lenin played chess with each other:

THE FIFTH FUNNY STORY ABOUT HOW THE EMPRESS ANNA Ioannovna Became Single.

All of you know very well that Peter the Great had a weak-minded brother, Ivan. By the way, you don’t have to laugh at this, because in order for you to be considered weak-minded in the old days, you would just have to not believe in God.

So, the weak-minded brother Peter Ivan had a daughter, who was named Anna, who then became the Russian Empress during palace coups. She was given in marriage to the Duke of Courland. Well, they celebrated the wedding there, everything is as it should be. On the way to Courland, the duke died. The official version claims that he was old and died of a heart ... A more avda-like version says that the dear one was distant, his wife was young ... well, the duke could not stand it, he overdid it, so to speak ... 🙂

This is how Anna Ioannovna became a widow ... which did not prevent her from becoming the Russian Empress.

SIXTH FUNNY STORY. VERA ZASULICH

Vera Zasulich is known for shooting the mayor of St. Petersburg, General Trepov. I shot twice, but didn't hit, or I hit where I was aiming. As a result, Yeral remained alive, and a trial was carried out over Vora, which, as you remember, became the most advanced: with the bar, the prosecutor's office and jurors. So, at the trial, the lawyer presented the case in such a way that Vera Zasulich became a victim of terrorists and she was not really to blame, he himself came 🙂

And what do you think? The jury acquitted the terrorist, who after the trial safely fled abroad. The authorities realized it, but it was already too late ...

SEVENTH FUNNY STORY

What actually started the Russo-Japanese War. Otsu Incident=>>

EIGHT FUNNY STORY: HIROO ONODA

Hiroo Onoda is a Japanese army officer who fought in World War II in the Philippines until 1974. Officially, the authorities recognized him as dead, but he did not die, but fought. He did not believe all the rumors that the war had ended back in 1945, and only when his direct general arrived in the Philippines, who gave him a task and gave the order to hand over his weapons, Onoda obeyed. Subsequently, Onoda left Japan for Brazil, hiding from excessive attention to himself. After all, he just followed orders and stood to the end. Since 1984, Hiroo Onoda has been writing his memoirs. When I read it, I'll be sure to post them.

And now you ask why he did not make himself seppuku (harahiri). In August 1945, an order was given not to do seppuku, but to stand to the last.

I think we will focus on these eight fun facts and stories. I hope they entertained you in some way. I plan a few more posts on this topic, so don't miss it! See you!

History is a rather vast subject and it is impossible to fully study it, especially in the smallest detail. Sometimes these seemingly insignificant details can be the most interesting part of it. Here are some interesting facts from history that will not be covered in class.

1. Albert Einstein could have been president. In 1952 he was offered the post of the second President of Israel, but he refused.

2. Kim Jong Il was a good composer and throughout his life the Korean leader composed 6 operas.

3. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has always been tilted. In 1173, a team building the Leaning Tower of Pisa noticed that the base was warped. Construction was halted for almost 100 years, but the structure was never straight.

4. Arabic numerals were not invented by Arabs, but by Indian mathematicians.

6. Grigory Rasputin survived many assassination attempts in one day. They tried to poison him, shoot him and stab him, but he managed to survive. In the end, Rasputin died in a cold river.

7. The shortest war in history lasted less than an hour. The Anglo-Zanzibar War lasted 38 minutes.

8. The longest war in history took place between the Netherlands and the Scilly archipelago. The war lasted 335 years from 1651 to 1989 and suffered no casualties.

9. This amazing species, known as the "Majestic Argentine Bird", with a wingspan of up to 7 meters, is the largest flying bird in history. She lived about 6 million years ago in the open plains of Argentina and in the Andes. The bird is a relative of modern vultures and storks, and its feathers reached the size of a samurai sword.

10. Using sonar, the researchers found two strange pyramids at a depth of 1.8 km. Scientists have determined that they are made of a kind of thick glass and reach enormous sizes (larger than the pyramids of Cheops in Egypt).

11. These two men with the same name were sentenced to the same prison and look very similar. However, they have never met, are not related, and are the reason why fingerprints began to be used in the judicial system.

12. Footbinding is an ancient Chinese tradition where girls had their toes tied to their feet. The idea was that the smaller the foot, the more beautiful and feminine the girl was considered.

13. The mummies of Guanajuato are considered the strangest and most frightening mummies. Their twisted faces make one believe that they were buried alive.

14. Heroin was once used as a substitute for morphine and was used to relieve coughs in children.

15. Joseph Stalin may have been the inventor of Photoshop. After the death or disappearance of some people, photos with him were edited.

16. Recent DNA tests have confirmed that the parents of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen were brother and sister. This explains many of his illnesses and defects.

17. The Icelandic Parliament is considered to be the oldest functioning parliament in the world. It was founded in 930.

18. For years, miners in South Africa have dug up mysterious balls about 2.5 cm in diameter with three parallel furrows. The stone from which they are made belongs to the Precambrian period, that is, their age is about 2.8 billion years.

19. It is believed that Catholic saints do not decay. The oldest of the "non-decaying" is Caecilia of Rome, who was martyred in 177 AD. Her body remains virtually the same as it was 1,700 years ago when it was discovered.