Page 123 - History Facts

The Korean word for “mortal enemy” and “head of state” are homophones!

In South Korea, the words are exactly the same 원수, pronounced wonsu. Not surprisingly, there is a slight difference in the pronunciation in North Korea, otherwise people might be calling Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il enemy. 

The pronunciation for enemy in North Korea is wonssu, written 원쑤. That slight variance in the second character is the difference between a bad insult and a title for a leader. Korean is written with spaces between words, unlike Chinese and Japanese. It also uses many of the same punctuation marks as western languages do. 

Korean is written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet, which was promoted by Sejong the Great in 1446. Before then, Chinese characters were used. Since the Korean War, huge differences in pronunciation have developed between the Korean of North Korea and the Korean spoke by people living in South Korea. Even the spelling between the two has varied greatly. Clearly, linguistics are influenced greatly by history and even by the needs of a society or government. 

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There’s a superstition that if the ravens of the Tower of London are removed or leave, Britain will fall.

According to typical mythology, you’d think that the presence of ravens would imply some sort of bad fortune, rather than the absence of them. But in Britain the presence of ravens is believed to protect the Crown and the Tower. A superstition holds that “If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it.” 

There are many legends regarding the origin of the ravens. For example, some say that they were attracted by the smell of the corpses of the Crown’s executed enemies. But the official story is that wild ravens were common throughout Britain and the Tower was just within their normal range. 

They were exterminated from much of their traditional range and remained at the Tower in captivity and with official support. Historians have said that the “Tower’s raven mythology is likely to be a Victorian flight of fancy” (not sure if pun is intended or not).

It can also be theorized that the mythology is meant to imply the importance of the Crown more than the ravens. 

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William Calcraft, a 19th century British hangman, was so incompetent that he often had to hang from the legs of the executed or climb on their shoulders to complete the execution.

His services were in high demand during his time as an executioner, but many thought he was incompetent because he used the “short drop” method of hanging, which caused victims to die by strangulation instead of a snapped neck. 

In the “short drop” method, the drop was really only 3 feet. Often, the condemned took several minutes to die, so Calcraft tried to break their necks or pull on their legs. It’s thought that he may have just been trying to entertain the crowds, which sometimes grew higher than 30,000 people. 

It’s been estimated that throughout his 45 year career, he hanged 450 people. Because the job didn’t pay too well, he often sold pieces of the rope previously used for hangings. In one case, an execution lasted much longer than three or four minutes. 

Calcraft executed three men known as the Manchester Martyrs. The first died instantly due to a snapped neck, while the other two struggled after. Calcraft grabbed the legs of one of the men, Michael Larkin, to kill him.

The Catholic priest in attendance refused to allow him to do the same to the third man, Michael O’Brien. The priest held O’Brien’s hands in prayer for forty-five minutes before he died. 

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A Chinese fishing town ousted communist leaders.

They controlled the town in 2011. Local officials in the city of Wukan angered the townspeople by selling off their land to real estate agents. Having lost their land, and not been given any say the people started a rebellion against the Communist party and officials.

It was not long before the Communist party members and policemen had fled the scene and the 20,000 townspeople had control of the village. Officials tried to stop the rebellion by offering to let 13 townspeople be mediators to try and arrange an agreement between the officials and the townspeople.

This attempt at a slight compromise was mostly unsuccessful, and police ended up arrested five of the mediators. They made an attempt to reclaim the city, but failed. One of the arrested mediators was Xue Jinbo, who was 43. Officially, Xue Jinbo died of cardiac arrest, but few in the town believe that was actually the case.

They suspect, perhaps with good reason, that Xue Jinbo’s death was the fault of the police. The police refused to return the body to the family. In an attempt to win back the city, police set up a blockade around Wukan preventing any food from getting in.

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There were WW2 battles fought in Alaska!

Well, I suppose when they say World War, they really do mean the entire world. The Aleutian Island Campaign was a conflict for the Aleutian Islands, which were a part of the Alaska Territory. 

A small Japanese force managed to take over the islands of Attu and Kiska but the extreme remoteness and weather of both islands made it hard to hold on to them. It took nearly a year for a larger US force to eject them.

As you can guess by the presence of its story on this site, the conflict is also known as the “Forgotten Battle.” It was overshadowed by the simultaneous Guadalcanal Campaign. There are two major theories in respect to the intent of the Japanese. 

Some historians believe that the attacks were diversions to draw out the US Pacific Fleet from Pearl Harbour, while others have argued that that the invasion was meant to protect the northern flank of the Japanese empire. 

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