Hidden History
@recondita.bsky.social
Hidden, overlooked, forgotten, and strange parts of history. Feel free to DM or comment corrections or ideas for new posts.
In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes won a horse race at Belmont Park despite suffering a fatal heart attack mid-race. His horse, Sweet Kiss, crossed the finish line first with Hayes still in the saddle. #history
Frank Hayes (jockey) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
May 5, 2025 at 4:55 PM
In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes won a horse race at Belmont Park despite suffering a fatal heart attack mid-race. His horse, Sweet Kiss, crossed the finish line first with Hayes still in the saddle. #history
In 1954, residents of Bellingham, Washington state, reported dings in their windshields. People blamed the “pitting epidemic” on everything from vandalism to sand flea eggs and atomic bombs. Despite investigations into the cause, the best explanation remains collective delusion. #History #Seattle
Seattle windshield pitting epidemic - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 29, 2024 at 5:10 AM
The Battle of Blair Mountain was a violent conflict between strikebreakers and unionizing coal miners in West Virginia in 1921. During the battle, anti-union forces hired three biplane pilots to drop homemade bombs and poison gas on miners’ homes. All the bombs missed. #History #Union #Laborhistory
Battle of Blair Mountain - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 12, 2024 at 7:22 AM
The Battle of Blair Mountain was a violent conflict between strikebreakers and unionizing coal miners in West Virginia in 1921. During the battle, anti-union forces hired three biplane pilots to drop homemade bombs and poison gas on miners’ homes. All the bombs missed. #History #Union #Laborhistory
During the 1850s, the United States deployed camel cavalry in the American southwest. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, later the president of the Confederacy, was an advocate of the camel corps. While the Army thought highly of the experiment, it was discontinued during the Civil War. #History
United States Camel Corps - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 7, 2024 at 9:48 AM
During the 1850s, the United States deployed camel cavalry in the American southwest. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, later the president of the Confederacy, was an advocate of the camel corps. While the Army thought highly of the experiment, it was discontinued during the Civil War. #History
D. C. Stephenson was the leader of the Indiana KKK. In 1925, he was convicted of kidnapping and killing a woman named Madge Oberholtzer. He had bitten her repeatedly and she caught a staph infection. The crime precipitated a rapid decline in the klan’s popularity in the late 1920s. #History #Crime
D. C. Stephenson - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 3, 2024 at 5:57 AM
Mandaeism is a Gnostic, ethnic religion with Jewish roots whose adherents consider John the Baptist the ultimate prophet. The world’s 60k to 100k Mandaeans were concentrated in Iraq until the 2003 invasion and subsequent rise of Islamic extremism precipitated a diaspora. #religion #Mandaeism #Iraq
Mandaeism - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 30, 2024 at 6:54 AM
Mandaeism is a Gnostic, ethnic religion with Jewish roots whose adherents consider John the Baptist the ultimate prophet. The world’s 60k to 100k Mandaeans were concentrated in Iraq until the 2003 invasion and subsequent rise of Islamic extremism precipitated a diaspora. #religion #Mandaeism #Iraq
The 13th-century Spanish rabbi Moses de León claimed the foundational work of Kabbalism, the Zohar, was written by the 2nd-century rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Most modern scholars, however, believe de León, a known forger, wrote the Zohar and fabricated its provenance. #History #Kabbalah #Judaism
Zohar - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 27, 2024 at 6:24 AM
Before Russia sold Alaska to the United States, it allegedly offered the territory to another state. In 1867, Tsar Alexander II is said to have inquired whether Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein would be interested in purchasing the territory. He was not. #History #Alaska #Russia #Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein–Russia relations - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 26, 2024 at 5:42 AM
Before Russia sold Alaska to the United States, it allegedly offered the territory to another state. In 1867, Tsar Alexander II is said to have inquired whether Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein would be interested in purchasing the territory. He was not. #History #Alaska #Russia #Liechtenstein
In 1184, King Henry IV and nobles from across the Holy Roman Empire convened at Erfurt Cathedral. The floor collapsed under their combined weight and most fell into a latrine cesspit below ground. Around 60 drowned in the cesspit. Henry survived as he sat in an alcove in the wall. #history #HRE
Erfurt latrine disaster - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 24, 2024 at 11:33 PM
A baris was a type of Ancient Egyptian ship. Herodotus described how barides were made from acacia wood in his “Histories.” Modern historians were unsure whether barides actually ever existed until one was discovered off Egypt’s coast and excavated in 2003. #AncientEgypt #Egypt #Herodotus #history
Baris (ship) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 24, 2024 at 8:08 AM
A baris was a type of Ancient Egyptian ship. Herodotus described how barides were made from acacia wood in his “Histories.” Modern historians were unsure whether barides actually ever existed until one was discovered off Egypt’s coast and excavated in 2003. #AncientEgypt #Egypt #Herodotus #history
Lukeni lua Nimi was the founder of Kongo. He is traditionally credited with conquering the kingdom of Mwene, draining a lake, and building his capital there. His realm remained a sovereign kingdom from ca. 1390 to 1857 and then became a vassal of Portugal until 1914. #history #Africa #Congo
Lukeni lua Nimi - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 23, 2024 at 3:41 AM
The Talheim Death Pit is a mass grave in Germany that contains the remains of 34 people killed approximately 5,000 years ago. It is one of several mass graves dating to the same period, evidence that Neolithic Europe experienced habitual warfare, massacres, and even genocide. #history #neolithic
Talheim Death Pit - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 22, 2024 at 5:42 AM
The Talheim Death Pit is a mass grave in Germany that contains the remains of 34 people killed approximately 5,000 years ago. It is one of several mass graves dating to the same period, evidence that Neolithic Europe experienced habitual warfare, massacres, and even genocide. #history #neolithic
Reposted by Hidden History
Short piece from @themerl.bsky.social about the history of domestic cats! It's refreshingly accurate about the Middle Ages, saying cats were generally valued for utilitarian reasons (not widely reviled for religious reasons as many internet sources love to claim). merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2023/10...
From rats to laps: cat domestication and the role of the farm - The Museum of English Rural Life
What role did the farm play in the domestication of cats? And why are cats stereotyped as enjoying milk? Find out in our latest blog.
merl.reading.ac.uk
November 21, 2024 at 6:29 PM
Short piece from @themerl.bsky.social about the history of domestic cats! It's refreshingly accurate about the Middle Ages, saying cats were generally valued for utilitarian reasons (not widely reviled for religious reasons as many internet sources love to claim). merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2023/10...
Palmares was a community of escaped enslaved people and fugitives that established an elective monarchy in a remote region of Brazil from 1605 to 1694. Its society was influenced by African sociopolitical models. After many failed attempts, the Portuguese eventually conquered it. #history #Brazil
Palmares (quilombo) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 21, 2024 at 5:38 PM
Porphyrios was a whale that terrorized Byzantine ships in the Sea of Marmara for over fifty years in the 6th century. It was killed by an angry mob after it beached itself. The name Porphyrios might mean something like “purple boy” (on account of the whale’s color). #history #Byzantium #whale
Porphyrios (whale) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 21, 2024 at 7:15 AM
Porphyrios was a whale that terrorized Byzantine ships in the Sea of Marmara for over fifty years in the 6th century. It was killed by an angry mob after it beached itself. The name Porphyrios might mean something like “purple boy” (on account of the whale’s color). #history #Byzantium #whale
Nicola de la Haie was unusual for 12th-century England: she was a woman, a sheriff, and the constable of Lincoln Castle, which she successfully defended against two sieges. She owned much land in Lincolnshire, retiring to one such estate in the last years of her life. #history #medieval
Nicola de la Haie - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 21, 2024 at 12:32 AM
Monacht-Apé was a Yazoo (a people indigenous to what is now Mississippi) who may have made the first recorded round-trip continental journey in the early 1700s. Lewis and Clark brought an English translation of Monacht-Apé’s memoir as a travel guide on their own transcontinental expedition in 1804.
Moncacht-Apé - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 20, 2024 at 8:05 PM
Monacht-Apé was a Yazoo (a people indigenous to what is now Mississippi) who may have made the first recorded round-trip continental journey in the early 1700s. Lewis and Clark brought an English translation of Monacht-Apé’s memoir as a travel guide on their own transcontinental expedition in 1804.
The Purépecha Empire was the second largest in 16th-century Mesoamerica after the Aztec. The Purépecha language and culture were unrelated to others in the region. After the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan, the Purépecha surrendered peacefully. #history #aztec #mesoamerica #colonialism #Mexico
Purépecha Empire - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 20, 2024 at 4:06 PM
The Purépecha Empire was the second largest in 16th-century Mesoamerica after the Aztec. The Purépecha language and culture were unrelated to others in the region. After the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan, the Purépecha surrendered peacefully. #history #aztec #mesoamerica #colonialism #Mexico
Doxorubicin is a chemotherapy drug nicknamed “red devil” and “red death” on account of its ruby-red color and toxic side effects. It was first synthesized using bacteria discovered in the soil around an Italian castle. #history #medicine #doxorubicin #biotech
Doxorubicin - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 20, 2024 at 2:40 AM
Doxorubicin is a chemotherapy drug nicknamed “red devil” and “red death” on account of its ruby-red color and toxic side effects. It was first synthesized using bacteria discovered in the soil around an Italian castle. #history #medicine #doxorubicin #biotech
The U.S. briefly forgot how to manufacture fogbank, a material used in some nuclear warheads. Attempts to reverse engineer the recipe were at first unsuccessful because the lab was too clean. Fogbank requires impurities. #history #coldwar #nukes #engineering #trivia
Fogbank - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 20, 2024 at 2:21 AM
The U.S. briefly forgot how to manufacture fogbank, a material used in some nuclear warheads. Attempts to reverse engineer the recipe were at first unsuccessful because the lab was too clean. Fogbank requires impurities. #history #coldwar #nukes #engineering #trivia