Page 6 - History Facts

Pompeii is so well preserved; you can still read graffiti on its walls!

Pompeii, the thriving city that was swallowed by a volcanic eruption, is actually still very well preserved. So much so; you can still read graffiti on walls around the city. Some of it is poetic and beautiful; however, some of it was very very dirty. Check out some examples:

• From the Bar/Brothel of Innulus and Papilio: "Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men's behinds. Goodbye, wondrous femininity!"
• From Herculaneum (a bar/inn joined to the maritime baths): "Two friends were here. While they were, they had bad service in every way from a guy named Epaphroditus. They threw him out and spent 105 and half sestertii most agreeably on whores."
• From just outside the Vesuvius gate: "Defecator, may everything turn out okay so that you can leave this place."
• From the peristyle of the Tavern of Verecundus: "Restitutus says: 'Restituta, take off your tunic, please, and show us your hairy privates.'"
• From Herculaneum (a bar/inn joined to the maritime baths): "Apelles the chamberlain with Dexter, a slave of Caesar, ate here most agreeably and had a screw at the same time."

More at the source!

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A Buddhist monk self-immolated and was cremated. His heart stayed intact!

Thich Quang Duc was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk. He's most famous for burning himself to death as a protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government.

The photo of his self-immolation won the 1963 photo of the year and created a huge impact on the world stage. On June 10th, 1963, a procession of around 350 monks and nuns marched to a busy street intersection, where Thich Quang Duc completed his fatal protest.

His remains were later re-cremated during the funeral. However, his hart remained intact and did not burn. It was considered to be holy and was placed in a glass chalice and was revered.

Learn more about this fascinating subject at the source.

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A photo album with only 193 pictures showing conditions at Auschwitz was discovered by a survivor. She was in the photos!

In May 1944, a Hungarian Jewish woman Lili Jacob Meier was sent to Auschwitz along with her family and community. She was selected for labor, but almost everyone else in the group she was in were sent to the gas chambers for extermination.

Lili was imprisoned at Auschwitz for several months before being sent to several different camps and finally Dora Concentration Camp in Central Germany, where she was eventually liberated in 1945.

After regaining her health from a year of brutal conditions, Lili ventured into a former SS barrack. In there she discovered in a cupboard a photo-album of Auschwitz with pictures of her and her family on the day she arrived at the camp.

The photo-album Lili Jacob Meier discovered is now known as the Auschwitz Album, and is the one of the only known pictorial evidence of the extermination process at Auschwitz, with over 193 different photographs.

It is not known who took the photographs, all that is known is that they were likely taken from a vantage point to keep track of the rate in which prisoners entered the camp, but even these theories have not been verified. It is likely that the photos were taken over a period of several days in spring 1944, during the Nazis' extermination of Hungary's Jews.

What is fascinating that not only did Lili discover photos of herself and her family when they arrived at Auschwitz, she also discovered them in a camp more than 400 miles (640 Kilometers) away from Auschwitz, and that the pictures were very detailed in showing the extermination process at the camp, especially since the Nazis were extremely adamant about destroying all evidence of their crimes.

Lili privately kept the album for several years until in the 1960s during the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of former SS officials, in which she used them as evidence against the defendants. She then donated the Auschwitz Album to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel to teach others about the Holocaust and warn against the evil humanity can commit.

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George Washington's mom was terrified of lightning because she saw a girl get struck by it and die!

Mary Ball Washington was the mother of the first president of the United States, George Washington. According to which historian you talk to, Mary was either a wonderful woman or an unpleasant, vulgar lady. Either way, she bore one of the most important men in this country’s history, so she did something right.

One interesting thing about Mary is that she was terrified of lightning. One Sunday afternoon, Mary was hosting church guests at her house for dinner. She was pregnant with George at the time. A thunderstorm started and a bolt of lightning traveled down the chimney and struck a young girl who was at the dinner.

The electric current fused the fork and knife that the girl was holding together and she died. Mary herself was somewhat shocked by the electric force. She was also greatly disturbed by the incident. From then on, she was extremely frightened of lightning and would try to hide whenever it occurred. As years passed, her fears got worse.

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A man got on the machine gun of a burning tank and killed an entire German infantry company!

Audie Leon Murphy was one of the most famous and decorated American combat soldiers of World War II. He served in the Mediterranean and European Theater of Operations where he was presented the Medal of Honor and several other decorations for heroism in combat including decorations from France and Belgium.

Murphy, who seized the machine gun of a burning M10 tank destroyer and took on an entire company of German infantry said he did it because "They were killing my friends". He lied about his age to enlist in the military and follow his dream of becoming a soldier. He was only 19 years old when he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Murphy always maintained that the medals belonged to his entire military unit. His postwar stress caused him to sleep with a loaded gun under his pillow, looking for solace in addictive sleeping pills.

Murphy drew public attention to what would in later wars be labeled post-traumatic stress disorder. The Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital in San Antonio is named for him. In his postwar civilian life, Murphy enjoyed a two-decade career as actor. He played himself in the 1955 autobiographical To Hell and Back based on his 1949 memoir of the same name. Most of his 44 films were Westerns. He made guest appearances on celebrity television shows and starred in the television series Whispering Smith. As a song writer, he penned the successful "Shutters and Boards".

He bred quarter horses in California and Arizona, and became a regular participant in horse racing. In the last few years of his life, his film career took a downturn and he found himself plagued with money problems. But he remained aware of his role model influence and refused offers for alcohol and cigarette commercials. Murphy died in a plane crash in Virginia in 1971, just 23 days before what would have been his 46th birthday.

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