Quirky History facts!

[Buffy]

Up to the mid-20th century, it was illegal for a woman to wear pants in New York: the offense was "impersonating a man."

Fond of kilts on guys,
Buffy

["Kal"-ee-'for-nyah]

It snowed in the Sahara desert on February 18, 1979.

[Turtle]

Looking forward to next Halloween & a go at this!

Originally Posted by freedictionary.com

Snap-dragon (also known as Flap-dragon, Snapdragon, or Flapdragon) was a parlour game popular from about the 16th to 19th centuries. It was played during the winter, particularly on Christmas Eve. Brandy was heated and placed in a wide shallow bowl; raisins were placed in the brandy which was then set alight. Typically, lights were extinguished or dimmed to increase the eerie effect of the blue flames playing across the liquor. The aim of the game was to pluck the raisins out of the burning brandy and eat them, at the risk of being burnt. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) describes it as "a play in which they catch raisins out of burning brandy and, extinguishing them by closing the mouth, eat them". According to an eighteenth-century article in the Tatler magazine, "the wantonness of the thing was to see each other look like a demon, as we burnt ourselves, and snatched out the fruit." Snap-dragon was played in England and the United States (Blain (1912) suggests that in the United States it was played at Halloween instead), but there is insufficient evidence of the practice in Scotland, or other countries.

read more>
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/flap-dragon

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Looking forward to next Halloween & a go at this!

read more>
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/flap-dragon

You would need to be an upper middle class family to afford the brandy & the fruit.
Where beards banned?

[eric l]

Originally Posted by Freddy

The phrase, "lock, stock, and barrel" comes from the parts of the British musket, the Brown Bess.

I thought the expression came from the Harper's Ferry Arsenal, in the days of the"war between the states". According to what I learned, this was the first instance where the locks, the stocks and the barrels came from different suppliers for each item. But I can not trace back my source.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by eric l

I thought the expression came from the Harper's Ferry Arsenal, in the days of the"war between the states". According to what I learned, this was the first instance where the locks, the stocks and the barrels came from different suppliers for each item. But I can not trace back my source.

Actually, interchangeable parts came before the Civil War. Eli Whitney of MA received a pattent. The folks down at the Bunker (Breed's) Hill Monument in Charlestown, MA claim it came from the British Brown Bess musket used in the American Revolution. Several sites claim this. The first wriiten use comes from Sir Walter Scott in 1817. It could have been around some time before he used it, or Scott could have originated it.

[Michaelangelica]

The Japanese were recieving shipment(s) of uranium via the Phillipines by German U-boat as early as 1942.They were paying in gold bulion stolen from Korea and China and from their extensive heroin trafficking operations

There own A bomb programme statrted in 1930s

Current nuclear activities in Japan
Wikepedia says
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_atomic_program

Since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan is a staunch opponent of nuclear arms on all government levels. However, Japan does make extensive use of nuclear energy in nuclear reactors, generating a significant percentage of the electricity in Japan.
Japan has the third largest nuclear energy production after the U.S. and France, and plans to produce over 40% of its electricity using nuclear power by 2010. Significant amounts of Plutonium are created as a by-product of the energy production, and Japan had 4.7 tons of plutonium in December 1995. Japan has also developed the M-5 three-stage solid fuel rocket, similar in design to the U.S. LG-118A Peacekeeper ICBM.
While there are currently no known plans in Japan to produce nuclear weapons, it has been argued Japan has the technology, raw materials, and the capital to produce nuclear weapons within one year if necessary, and some analysts consider it a "de facto" nuclear state for this reason.

[Michaelangelica]

Heard on the radio today an interview with a tattoo artist
Sailors 17 18C, 19C? England (often dragooned into service) would have an image of Jesus Christ tattooed on their backs to stop them getting the lash!

and
on TV tonight the man who wrote the words for "Amazing Grace" John? Newton was disciplined in the British Navy in 19C for being disloyal and insubordinate (I think he was dragooned too).
He traded in slaves until he was about thirty. He was the Captain of many slave ships. His health declined and he retired from the sea and then became the first English C of E minister appointed who had no university degree. (He had noble patronage) He went on to write hundreds(maybe 1,000+) of hymns.He also was a/an ( important(?)) supporter and encouraged Wilberforce in his anti-slavery campaign.

Hymns were written so they could be sung to any tune.
The tune we associate with Amazing Grace now was probably a Scottish folksong but it first came to notice in Virginia(?).

Two (at least) people sang Amazing Grace as they were going down the stairs of the Twin Towers on 911,encouraged by others trapped in the stairwell.

[alexander]

The word "fuck" was originally a quite acceptable word and was recorded in the english dictionary as early as 1598. The word most likely comes from the Old German "ficken/fucken", meaning "to strike or penetrate". Unfortunately through 1800ds the word fell behind the "veil of decency" until in 1785 it was recorded in Francis George's Dictionary of Vulgar Words...

[alexander]

And i know this doesnt really belong on the history forum, but in any case, you guys are looking for good facts to know, i think sesquipidalians fit that requirement as well.

Cool words to use (at least i use them and people are like wth did you just say) :

to absquatulate - to depart
flocinaucinihilipilification - is an estimation of something as being worthless
honorificabilitudinitatibus - honorableness
licentious or lewd - going beyond customary or propper bounds
yclept - called, named, styled

there is more...