#weird history
LAHi Presents: Seriously Trivial
On the fifth day of the festival, which marked the new year, the Kings of Babylon were slapped hard as part of a ceremonial purification of the city. The king would enter the temple of Marduk, chief god of Babylon, and tell Marduk hadn’t done anything wrong in the past year. The high priest would then rise and slap the king as hard as he can with an open hand, hoping that he would cry from the blow, as tears were a sign that the king was telling the truth, and that Marduk approved of his rule for another year.
Sources:
(Bidmead, Julye. The Akītu festival: religious continuity and royal legitimation in Mesopotamia. Piscataway, NJ, USA, Gorgias Press, 2014..
Zvielli, Alexander. “Slapping the king on the cheek in ancient Babylon.” The Jerusalem Post | JPost.Com, 27 Sept. 2014, www.jpost.com/Opinion/Slapping-the-king-on-the-cheek-in-ancient-Babylon-376438. Accessed 1 Sept. 2017.
Poster by: Nic Calilung
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LAHi Presents: Seriously Trivial
Tulips were imported from the Ottoman Empire in 1559, and quickly became popular because of their beauty. In the beginning, prices rose because of wealthy collectors who were truly interested in the varying breeds of tulip. But soon, the growing demand attracted people who bought them up to resell them at higher prices, assuming that the price would grow higher. In 1636, however, the bubble burst, and prices ended up dropping by 90 % as the bottom of the market fell out.
Sources:
Aline Sullivan and International Herald Tribune. “8 Fat Swine for a Tulip:A Brief History of Bursts.” The New York Times. October 10, 1998. Accessed September 10, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/10/your-money/8-fat-swine-for-a-tulipa-brief-history-of-bursts.html.
Mackay, Charles. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. London: Office of the National Illustrated Library. 1852. Library of Economics and Liberty [Online] available from http://www.econlib.org/library/Mackay/macEx3.html; accessed 10 September 2017; Internet.
Sass, Erik, et al. The mental floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp through Civilization’s Best Bits. New York, Harper, 2009
Poster by: Nic Calilung
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While enjoying the waterparks of Wisconsin Dells, while not take the family to the Museum of Historic Torture Devices!
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The grave of Morris Pratt, whose school of Spiritualism is believed by some to have left the entire town of Whitewater haunted.
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The “Minnesota Iceman” was marketing as the Missing Link of human evolution found frozen in Siberia, but it was actually shot and killed in the deep woods of Wisconsin.
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Why is this partridge giving side eye? I think it’s because he read my article on the wild and humorous, unexpected and sometimes downright bizarre history of some famous carols.
https://www.allclassical.org/the-stories-of-twelve-carols-2021-edition
The Stories of Twelve Carols: 2021 Edition | All Classical Portland
Today is Flying Saucer Day, the day commemorating Kenneth Arnold’s encounter with what the media later called “flying saucers” over Mt Rainier.
To celebrate, here’s the story of the “flying saucer lady” Coral Lorenzen, who’s 1934 UFO sighting in Barron, Wisconsin prompted her to found APRO, the world’s first civilian UFO investigation group.
Read it here: Coral Lorenzen pioneered UFO research
More fun with flying saucers:
Livestock mutilation: Was Snippy killed by flying saucers?
Futuro House UFO house of the 1960s
Dundee, Wisconsin: UFO Capital of the World
Victorian hairwork mourning art, a memorial piece made with the hair of the deceased. On display at the Galloway House
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What strange search terms lead unsuspecting victims to Cult of Weird? Take a peek under the hood - with disturbing facts, dead bodies, haunted Monopoly, and Mothman’s backside.
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Anne Boleyn was recorded as taller than average… at 5′3″ (160 cm).
Elizabeth I was considered tall… at 5′4″ (162.5 cm).
Mary, Queen of Scots was FIVE FOOT ELEVEN (180 cm).
Above is an image of the Yersinia pestis bacterium. This little bacterium, which coincidentally looks like a green cheese puff is what causes Bubonic Plague. Also known as the “Black Death” the plague killed an estimated 25 million million people in Europe, Asia & the Middle East in the 14th Century.
It was commonly believe that TODAY in 1345 was the beginning of the catastrophic plague. Allegedly, according to 14th Century scholars this was due to a “triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter & Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius.” We now know the actual cause for the disease is the bacteria mentioned above being carried by fleas, traveling on rats and then jumping off onto other mammals. So, in a round about way - today is plague day!
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The Last Kamikaze
Born in 1947 Mitsuyasu Maeno was a down on his luck actor who just couldn’t seem to score a big role. He had a troubled personal life, undergoing two marriages that ended in divorce and surviving a suicide attempt. Unable to make movie stardom, he settled into a career as a porn star, playing roles in 20 films. You might remember him from such films as Tokyo Emmanuelle (1975), a film most famous for the lead actress having sex with an entire soccer team.
Maeno was also a staunch right wing ultra-nationalist, who believed in the ideals of bushido, supported the overthrow of the Japanese constitution, and wanted a return to the authoritarian and nationalistic government of Japan that existed before World War II. One of his greatest heroes was Yukio Mishima, a Japanese writer who in 1970 attempted a coup by taking the commander of a military base hostage. He forced the commander to assemble the base personnel, who he intended to win to his cause with an impassioned and rousing speech. Rather than overwhelming support, Mishima was met with laughs and jeers. In one final act to inspire the soldiers to his cause he produced a dagger and committed ritual seppuku, the traditional suicide of the samurai where the person stabs himself in the abdomen and disembowels himself. This likewise failed to garner any support, and thus the coup ended in failure.
Another of Maeno’s heroes was the politician Yoshio Kodama.
Kodama was a war criminal and yakuza gangster turned politician who often worked as a fixer for other right wing politicians and political groups. Of course, Kodama was super duper corrupt and it’s no surprise when in 1976 he was caught bribing Japanese officials on behalf of the Lockheed corporation so that Lockheed could get some good deals on selling airplanes in Japan. Kodama was also perpetually under investigation for tax fraud.
Of course I say that Kodama’s corruption was no surprise to many, but to Maeno the scandal was shocking and soul crushing. Maeno saw the scandal as a betrayal of Japanese honor and ideals, and vowed to rain divine wind on Kodama as revenge for his treason. Maeno was also an amateur pilot, who often used this skill in his many films. In fact in one film he even had sex with the actress Kumi Taguchi while simultaneously flying a plane, which I have to say … that’s a pretty impressive piloting skill! Over the span of a couple weeks he flew a plane over Kodama’s house in order to recon the area.
On March 23rd, 1976 Maeno and two friends rented two planes at Chofu Airport in Tokyo. All three were dressed in World War II Japanese pilot uniforms. Airport officials were, of course, suspicious because of this but the three men claimed they were filming a World War II movie. Before taking off, Maeno posed for a photograph with his rented Piper Cherokee airplane while in full kamikaze regalia.
Maeno and his friends flew to Kodama’s home, making a few passes before settling on a route of attack. Maeno began a dive while his friends in the other plane filmed the event. Maeno shouted over the radio “Long live the Emperor!” before crashing into the second story of Kodama’s home.
Fortunately for Kodama, he survived the kamikaze attack as he was situated in the first floor of the house, the second floor having sustained the brunt of the damage. The Japanese government was never able to make any tax fraud charges stick and he was never punished for his role in the Lockheed scandal. He died of a stroke in 1984.
