- King George III was not well-liked when he ascended the throne but
became more and more popular as he grew increasingly insane.
- George IV disliked his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, so much that
when she died in 1821 at the age of 53 he refused to allow her
funeral procession through the streets of London.
- The first programmable calculator (computer) was invented in 1833
in England by Charles Babbage.
- During the French Revolution, Madame Toussaud attended beheadings
to make masks of the severed heads. She then used these to make her
famous wax figures.
- John Rushkin, in order to paint a snowstorm at sea, was actually
tied to a ship's mast while at sea during the snowstorm.
- When the Potato Famine in Ireland struck in 1845, fully 6 million
people in Britain and Ireland existed almost completely on potatoes.
- The first college for women in England, Queens College, was partly
funded by Queen Victoria's Maid of Honor, Miss Murray.
- One of London's most famous "male" doctors, Dr. James
Barry, was discovered to be a woman upon her death in 1865.
- In 1851 Paul Reuter of news agency fame actually used pigeons with
messages attached to their feet to relay his messages in places
where telegraph lines were incomplete.
- The eruption of the volcano at Krakatoa in 1883 could be heard in
Australia - over 2200 miles away.
- It is rumored that composer Peter Tchaikosvky was forced to commit
suicide by drinking cholera-tainted water because his recent success
was likely to expose his homosexuality and embarrass the Russian
Court.
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