Victoria married her cousin, Prince Albert, in 1840, and over the next seventeen years, she gave birth to nine children. But childrearing wasn’t always easy for the queen. She was exhausted by her long string of pregnancies, and she didn’t always take to the babies when they were born. In her diary, she even used the word ‘disgusting’ when describing infants.
Greek mythology, Adonis was said to be the most handsome — with whom goddess Aphrodite fell in love. After Adonis’ transformation from mortal to god, he became the god of — beauty, rebirth, seasons, fertility, and youth.
Manichaeism is an extinct religion that became ancient history for everyone. Even today, not many people know about the existence of this religion and how widely followed it was during the time of its preaching.
In the 13th century, Genghis Khan killed so many peasants that the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were significantly reduced as a result. During his 21-year reign, Genghis Khan’s destructive armies were responsible for the deaths of up to 40 million people. While his intentions for the massacres were anything but pure, with nobody left to farm the lands owned by the peasants they were eventually allowed to grow back into carbon-absorbing forests. It’s estimated that 700m tonnes of carbon were wiped from the atmosphere – around the same amount of carbon dioxide generated in a year through global petrol consumption!
King Louis XIV of France must have been the stinkiest ruler in history. His throne was a makeshift toilet seat, which he used all the time — even during court sessions. To make the matter smellier, the king bathed only three times in his lifetime. To overcome the foul smell that would perhaps knock out many people at a time, Louis filled his palace with perfumed flowers. Though he didn’t bathe himself in water, he immersed his clothes in some of the best perfumes available at the time.
Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approx. 1480-1540) was a German alchemist who was born in the village of Knittlingen, Wurttemberg. He has alternatively been known by the names "Johann Sabellicus" and "Georg Faust".
In 216 BC, Hannibal crushed the Romans. Being as superstitious as they were, the Romans blamed their misfortune on their inability to please their gods.
There was a French city where, during the Middle Ages, the women had an odd habit. In the morning, married women would put a small dose of poison in the breakfast they had prepared for their husbands.
In this tragic photo, taken in 1948, four children are seen on their front stoop while their mother hides her face from the photographer in embarrassment. Lucille Chalifoux, was only 24 years old, but pregnant with her fifth child at the time. Her husband has just lost a job and the family were facing eviction from their apartment. To evade possible homelessness, the parents chose to auction off their children. All of the children were eventually bought off. Some, as rumors have spread, were forced into slavery.
During the Middle Ages, inflicting excessive pain and torture was seen as a perfectly acceptable form of punishment or interrogation. The execution styles and torture methods depended on the seriousness of the crime and the social status of the accused or the perpetrator, and there were no rules, laws, or rights for the prisoners who were faced with these kinds of punishments.
Elizabeth I became the Queen of England in 1558 and reigned for forty-five years. Though this famous queen has cropped up in many recent films and television shows, there are still many people who don’t know much about her fascinating life.
Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, earned a reputation as a femme fatale skilled in the art of poison. Through her intricate web of deceit, she allegedly orchestrated poisonings that claimed the lives of rivals and political enemies.
Narcissus was a beautiful young man who believed that no woman was beautiful enough for him.
Designed in ancient Greece, the Brazen Bull, also known as the Sicilian Bull, was a solid piece of brass with a side door that could be opened and latched. With a fire set underneath, the victim would be put inside the bull and would be slowly roasted to death. The Brazen Bull was specifically designed to amplify the screams of the victim and make them sound like the bellowing of a bull.