Page 144 - History Facts

Beavers used to be the size of BEARS!

Castoroides, also known as the Giant Beaver, existed during the Pleistocene in North America. They grew up to 8 feet tall and weighed between 130-220 pounds, making them the size of a black bear. 

It’s unknown whether their feet were webbed and if they had a tail like the modern beaver since the soft tissue has decayed. The incisors of the Giant Beaver were 5.9 inches long. Their teeth structure was much different than the modern beaver, though. Modern day beavers have teeth that look like chisels that are good for gnawing on wood. Giant beaver teeth were bigger and broader.

The oldest fossils found are about 1.4 million years old, and scientists estimate that the beaver went extinct about 10,000 years ago, at the same time other large North American species like mastodons and mammoths also went extinct. Although it’s likely that humans had something to do with their extinction, there is no evidence of humans hunting giant beavers.

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The women of Liberia ended a 14-year civil war with a sex strike!

Leymah Gbowee, a social worker, led the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace movement in response to the 14 year long Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. The WLMA forced a meeting with the Liberian President Charles Taylor and made him promise to attend peace talks in Ghana. 

The movement started with thousands of women getting together to pray and sing in a fish market. They did this daily for months. Thousands more women organized and their efforts and staged nonviolent silent protests and sit-ins. They also went on a sex strike and threatened a curse. 

Needless to say, the strike was a phenomenal success. They were able to bring about the peace they wanted. The women became a strong political force and eventually even elected the first woman head of state for the country!

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Maori monarchs are buried in unmarked graves just like their subjects.

In 2006, the Maori Queen’s death attracted a mass to mourners to her burial. Judging from the number of people who attended her funeral, it is easy to see that she was important and revered. Yet, her grave gives no indication of that; it is unmarked and ordinary just like everyone else’s.

Morphine was used from the late 1800s to the 1930s as a main ingredient in children’s medicine.

Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup was marketed to mothers as the essential aid to child-rearing. This syrup was supposed to help soothe babies’ pain and discomfort while teething. Ever heard someone say, rub some whiskey on the babies’ gums? 

Well Winslow’s Syrup took things to a whole other level. Every bottle contained one grain of morphine (65 mg) per fluid ounce. The syrup was effective at quieting infants. In fact, it was too effective. Babies started dying because of the morphine overdose and the “soothing syrup” became known as “baby killers.” 

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Fleas have killed more people than wars!

Talk about pests. Fleas are parasitic, meaning they usually live on other creatures without killing them. In fact they need their host’s heart pumping, so that they can suck their blood.  But this doesn’t mean that fleas are harmless.  In fact, they have been one of the deadliest things for humans in history.

Pulex irritans is the scientific name for the Human Flea but even dog or cat fleas prefer human blood. Fleas can carry many diseases; the most serious being Yersinia pestis or plague (known in the Middle Ages as the Black Plague). They can transmit this directly or through rats and other rodents. 

The ease with which fleas transmit diseases is what’s made them so deadly. During the Middle Ages when man brought rats containing the Yersinia pestis virus to Europe from Africa. This is what sparked the Black Plague, which claimed more lives than all the wars in human history. 

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