The Ottoman train T.E. Lawrence ambushed in 1917 still lying in the Arabian desert 107yrs on. pic.twitter.com/4SNwBCGykq

— Michael Warburton (@TheMonologist) December 4, 2024

nortex97 said:

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The Ottoman train T.E. Lawrence ambushed in 1917 still lying in the Arabian desert 107yrs on. pic.twitter.com/4SNwBCGykq

— Michael Warburton (@TheMonologist) December 4, 2024

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Wow. I would have expected the desert to have covered that train up by now.

Tanker123 said:

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Vietnam War widow goes to Vietnam to see where her young husband died. They were able to find the enemy soldier who saw the helicopter shot and crash to include the last moments of the crew. Hattie Ford

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Haven't we debunked this before?

jkag89 said:

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The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

After Sam Houston resigned as Tennessee's governor, he returned to live with the Cherokees, with whom he had lived as a youth. In 1832, while Houston was a member of an Indian delegation to Washington, Ohio Congressman William Stanbery, on the floor of the House, said some slanderous things about him. Houston sent a note challenging Stanbery to a duel. It wasn't Houston's first duel: on Sept. 22, 1826, Sam had wounded General William White, a fellow veteran of the Battle of New Orleans, in a duel. Stanbery refused to answer but started carrying pistols when he went out.

Almost two weeks after the original insult, Houston was going to his hotel one evening when he encountered Stanbery on Pennsylvania Avenue. Houston attacked Stanbery with his hickory cane. Stanbery drew one pistol, aimed, and pulled the trigger, but the pistol did not fire.

Stanbery filed a complaint with the Speaker. The House voted to arrest Houston since the offensive statement had been made in that chamber and Congressmen were supposed to be immune from statements made there. Houston's only punishment could be a reprimand and withdrawal of his privilege, as a former Congressman, of coming onto the floor of the House.

Houston appeared the next day and was given 48 hours to prepare his defense. The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day is that his attorney was none other than Francis Scott Key. That's right, THE Francis Scott Key, the man who, 18 years earlier, had written the Star Spangled Banner.

The trial began on April 19. Stanbery showed the bumps on his head, and Houston's cane was put into evidence. Key's defense was that the words that so inflamed Houston were not spoken in the House; he did not hear those, but those printed in the newspaper. It was a rather unsatisfactory position since the newspaper account was a direct quote of Stanbery's speech in the House.

The trial lasted for a month and attracted a great deal of attention. President Jackson was displeased by the actions of his young friend, Houston, but said a few such chastisements would teach congressmen to maintain civil tongues.

The House found Houston guilty, but the attempt to deprive him of the privileges of the House was defeated by James K. Polk and other Jacksonians.

In the District of Columbia courts, Houston was charged with the crime of assault, and a fine of 500 dollars was imposed. A year later, Houston was advised, "Get that remitted by the Old Chief (Andrew Jackson)." After another year, Houston wrote Jackson about the fine. By virtue of his pardoning power, the President granted a remission, and Houston never had to pay it.

Historians sometimes think about what might have happened had one minor thing in any given narrative changed. I often wonder how Texas history might have been different had Stanbery's flintlock pistol not misfired in 1832. For one thing, there would be no Houston, Texas. For all we know, Houston might have been named Waco or Dallas or Toledo.

Here's the only likeness of William Stanbery about which I know.

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The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

After Sam Houston resigned as Tennessee's governor, he returned to live with the Cherokees, with whom he had lived as a youth. In 1832, while Houston was a member of an Indian delegation to Washington, Ohio Congressman William Stanbery, on the… pic.twitter.com/EyJjK2Elkj

— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) December 6, 2024

Sam had such a wonderfully colorful bio that it almost comes across as a Tall Tale which is perfectly fitting for one of Texas' Founding Fathers.

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The other piece of that story which I partially recall from reading Haley's excellent biography of Sam is that he and Key got slack-jawed drunk the night before the big trial and Houston ended up having to do most of the "defending", which went on for some time. He was apparently quite good at it despite his intensely hungover state.

General Sam was definitely a different breed of cat. Men like him made our country what it is today.

Tanker123 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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Tanker123 said:

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Vietnam War widow goes to Vietnam to see where her young husband died. They were able to find the enemy soldier who saw the helicopter shot and crash to include the last moments of the crew. Hattie Ford

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Haven't we debunked this before?

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Then provide evidence it did not happen.

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Ah, the old prove a negative!

Please stop spamming this thread

Congrats on at least the third time you quit TexAgs

Go ahead and ban me mods. I really dont care. lol

[Done. -Staff]

Not sure what his problem is but I think he has some mental health issues.

Green2Maroon said:

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Not sure what his problem is but I think he has some mental health issues.

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It's Barnes. Or someone just like him.

It's not Barnes. His name is known, but no one has publicly doxxed him, as far as I know.

Hope he finds peace.

I guess I missed some excitement here. Wow.

Anyway, Elagabalus, named for a Syrian sun God, was a real weirdo of an emperor. He was coronated at the age of 14 and had his chariot pulled by naked women whom he flogged. He was so out of control his own grandmother had the Praetorian guard execute him (apparently with his mother).

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Today, Elagabalus's legacy is a difficult one. It's hard to parse fact from fiction, especially when it comes to theories surrounding his gender. Was he a mad ruler, or was he persecuted for being himself?

Either way, the fact he was a deeply controversial ruler can't be denied. That's why, in the end, his grandmother had the Praetorian Guard execute him and drag his naked body through Rome's streets before throwing his headless corpse in the River Tiber.
A terrible end for a troubled emperor.

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More:

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Abuse and torture
A self-indulgent ruler, Emperor Elagabalus took great delight in torturing his subjects, especially women. He once chained women to his chariot like horses. He then flogged them as the pulled him around his court.

Another time, he released venomous snakes into the audience of the gladiators and watched as people ran helter skelter trying to save themselves from snake bites.

Getting a dinner invitation from Elagabalus was sometimes tantamount to a death sentence. The emperor was infamous for tying his dinner guest to a water wheel and then watched them slowly and agonizingly take their last breath.

When he was not using his drowning wheel device, he would unleash wild animals, including lions, into a feast.

Roman rulers were known for their eccentricities; however, Elagabalus took his to a whole new level. As he wanted to be perceived to be as a benevolent ruler, he would sometimes toss gold and silver coins from his balcony into the crowd. He would then burst into laughter as the crowd violently fought over the money. In some cases, children and women got trampled in the process.

His thirst for the absolute depravity and the insane knew no bounds. There were rumors that the emperor handed out positions to his male courtiers based on the sizes of their genitalia.

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And I thought Nero was likely the 'worst' emperor.

More of a mind blowing teaching history fact,

Gettysburg recently held a testing weekend for potential new tour guides.

The had to pass an exam of 180 questions as well as 3 essays. If they score high enough, they move on to an interview portion. Then, they must prove their geographical knowledge as well as conduct a 2 hour mock tour.

The last time the test was offered, only 9 people out of 97 applicants earned the license to be a tour guide

I'd like to take that test just to see how I do!

During the Nazi occupation of Europe, approximately 175,000 church bells were confiscated for the non-ferrous metals needed in the war effort. The confiscation began in late 1941. Bells were removed and sent to refineries near Hamburg and stored in bell cemeteries awaiting destruction. By 1945, approximately 150,000 were melted down. Church bells were mostly brass, (1 part tin and 4 parts copper).

Some bells were saved because of their historic/art value if they were cast before 1740. Other bells avoided confiscation when parishioners buried them on their land before the bell was placed on the Nazi's inventory. After the war, attempts to return the undamaged bells to their rightful owners were made by the famous 'Monuments Men' group. Many were never returned due to being broken or lost.

Church bells waiting destruction at Hamburg harbor's bell cemetery

During WW2, Allied forces were trying to determine the amount of tanks per month the Germans were producing. Conventional intelligence was saying that the Germans were producing 1400 tanks per month. They realized that the serial numbers in the gearboxes and wheels of the panzers were all sequentially numbered. So using statistical methods, they were able to calculate that the Germans were producing around 270 tanks per month. After the war ended and records were found, it turned out that the Germans were producing 276 tanks per month.

Here's the Wikipedia article on it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_tank_problem

nortex97 said:

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The Eiffel Tower was originally intended to go to Barcelona.

💡Shocking Fact: The Eiffel Tower was originally meant for Barcelona. pic.twitter.com/saOeCJnpJ6

— OpenSkyNews (@OpenSky_News) December 14, 2024

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Believe it or not, the Eiffel Tower was originally supposed to be in Barcelona. But thinking the thing would end up looking like an eyesore, the city rejected Gustave Eiffel's plans, and he was forced to repitch the project elsewhere. Luckily, Eiffel found a home for his idea in Paris, where the Tower could serve as the main archway for the 1889 International Exposition.

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It was also only to be a temporary structure and taken down after 20 years.

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"France and Great Britain shall no longer be two nations, but one Franco-British Union. The constitution of the Union will provide for joint organs of defence, foreign, financial and economic policies. Every citizen of France will enjoy immediately citizenship of Great Britain, every British subject will become a citizen of France

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On the afternoon of 16 June 1940, a few hours before the French Government opted for capitulation, Churchill made them an offer of "indissoluble union." The declaration was drafted by Jean Monnet, Sir Arthur Salter, and Robert Vansittart, and called for a federal union with joint organs of defence, foreign, financial.

12/15/1855:

Elite cavalry regiment enters Texas

On this day in 1855, troopers of the Second United States Cavalry Regiment entered Texas for the first time. The Second, one of four new regiments approved by Congress in the spring of 1855, was organized specifically for service on the Texas frontier. The regiment left Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, in late October and rode through Missouri, part of Arkansas, and a corner of Indian Territory before crossing the Red River into Texas.

Its officers were hand-picked by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis; thus the elite regiment was known as "Jeff Davis's Own." The Second Cavalry remained in Texas until the Civil War. During its stay, companies of the regiment were involved in some forty engagements along the western and northern frontiers of Texas and along the Rio Grande, fighting Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas, and Mexican marauders.

The regiment was known for the outstanding quality of the sixteen general officers it produced in the 6.5 years of its existence. The Second supplied one-half of the full generals of the Confederate Army: Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Edmund Kirby Smith, and John Bell Hood. The Second Cavalry was Lee's last command in the United States Army.

I was born only 70 miles south of the 1876 battlefield of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Went on to serve as a tanker and then a cavalry scout in the Army. Maybe not mind-blowing but I think it's a pretty cool fact.