Many people know the unsinkable Molly Brown. A passenger on the Titanic who survived the sinking and encouraged the lifeboats to go back and save the people in the water. She was only on one sinking ship, the very unsinkable if you ask me. Now the true unsinkable from the survivors of the RMS Titanic was Violet Constance Jessop.

Before Violet was even on the RMS Titanic she was on another cruise ship called the RMS Olympic. When the ship collided with a warship the ship was damaged but there were no casualties and the ship made it back to port safely.

In 1912 Teddy Roosevelt, of the most strange Presidents in American along with Andrew Jackson, Gave a speech. Teddy was known for his long speeches lasting 40 or more pages. When Teddy rose to give his speech he asked everyone to quiet down. His next line was:

“I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot.”

Teddy proceeded to pull out a 50 page speech from his coat pocket. Going though every page was a bullet hole. Teddy then expressed regret over not being able to give the full speech as the bullet was now inside of him. Teddy that gave a 90 minute speech. The whole time his staff looked on from the side of the stage in worry and begged him to stop. Some even positioned themselves to catch him if he fell. Teddy finished his speech and only then allowed himself to be taken to the hospital.

It’s not even that Teddy had been shot while giving the speech. When he arrived at the venue he had been shot and a doctor was called. Teddy felt the whole in his chest and instead of going to the hospital his forced himself to cough three times and looked at his hand. After seeing that he hadn’t coughed up blood (a sign that the bullet had pierced his lung) he demanded that he give the speech.

Newspapers praised him saying he was a battery of energy. While looking at the x-rays the doctors said that if the speech had no slowed the bullet down it would have hit him in the heart and killed him. Had it not  been for his eye glass and the 50 page speech he had not been killed. So maybe next time you go a little over the word count on something, it’s not such a bad thing.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD

When most people think of Saints they think of  of hands clasped together looking at the sky in awe at the wonder of god, being killed in the name of Christendom, and surrounded by peace and love. Now throw that all out the window and lets talk about Saint Olga of Kiev.

Olga was married to Igor and had a son named Sviatoslav. Together they ruled Kiev and Rus. One of the tribes who payed tribute, the Drevlians, decided they no longer wanted to pay tribute and so Igor had to go and convince them to pay. Instead of paying they took two trees, pulled them together, tied Igor to the trees, and let the trees go ripping him in half. After the death Igor reached Olga’s ears she was furious as she and Igor had loved each other since childhood.

The Drevlians then sent match makers to Olga and asked Olga to marry their prince, Prince Mal. Olga said come back the next day and my people will carry you to me. The next morning when the Drevlians came to shore and demanded they be carried in their boat to Olga they picked them, put them in a pit, and buried them alive.

Prince Mal was unaware of this and Olga sent him a letter asking for him to send her is best men to escort her. Prince Mal then sent her his men. When then men came they were dirty and she sent them to a bath house. When the men went inside she barricaded the door and lit it on fire. Anyone who escaped she had her guards slay.

Prince Mal DID NOT HEAR ABOUT THIS. She then set out for her “future husband”. When she got to the capital she insisted that she have a proper funeral feast for her husband. While the Drevlians drank Olga and her men did not. They killed almost 5,000 men that night.

Olga then toured the Drevlians territory collecting all the tribute they still owed her over the years. When she came to the city of Iskorosten they refused to pay her. For a year they laid siege to the city for a year after a year she proposed peace. Her conditions were three pigeons and three sparrows from each house. She tied sulfur to their feet and sent them back to city since they would go back to their nests on the straw roof of the homes of which they came. Yeah it burned down the whole city. All the citizens where killed or enslaved.

They made this lady a Saint once she converted. She is the Saint of Widows and Converts. After her murder spree a few thousand people other foreign rulers tried to marry her. She converted in 957AD. The Byzantine Emperor attempted to marry but she managed to find a way out of that. I guess when she asked him to send his best men he didn’t fall for it.

When we think of the Olympics we think of large stadiums, world wide corporation, skilled athletes, incredible organization, and it’s the place to be. The 1904 Olympics was everything but that, especially the Marathon.

1904 Olympic Marathon was a lovely chaotic event for the ages. The Olympics was overshadowed by the World Fair as the Olympics was still in it’s infancy. For this Marathon 32 athletes competed representing four different nations. Only 14 of the runners finished the race. It has rat poisoning, bad water, cheating, feral dogs, and raw eggs.

It was a dusty day in 90 degree heat. For this 26 mile run there were two water stations. One of which was well. It was dirty and got the runners sick. The favorite to win, John Lorden, who was considered the best Marathon runner in the world and was a Boston Marathon Champion, started vomiting after running two blocks and had to drop out of the race. There are few reasons why, one of which was the hot temperature.

Further into the run one runner collapsed due to the fact the runners were running on a dirt road along side cars and the cars where kicking up dust. This running has swallowed so much dust was erroring his stomach membrane.

One of the runners was chased a mile off the course, he was not a professionally athlete and was a war reactor who decided to join the marathon some reason. He finished 9th.

Felix Carvajal, a Cuban mailman, was not invited to the Olympics. He was a broke man who lost his money in scam and ran from New Orleans to St. Louis. He was running the Marathon in evening clothes and right before he started the run someone gave him a few peaches. Well he was still hungry cause while he was running he ran into an apple orchard and ate some rotten apples, he got sick. He got a stomach ache, lied down, takes a nap, gets back an finishes in fourth place.

Fred Lorz, called it quits early in the car and hoped in a car to get back to his lodgings. While 10 miles into the car ride the ride breaks down. Lorz gets out of the car and starts running again.

Thomas Hicks, who is completely dehydrated, begs his trainer for water however his trainer refuses and PROCEEDS TO GIVE HIM RAWS EGGS AND RAT POSIONING. At the 25 mile his trains give him more, oh, and also some Brandy. After a few more miles he runs out of Brandy and a bystander give his more, how kind of him :). After all of this he stumbles into the stadium he looks up and sees that officials are about to present the medal…

…To FRED LORZ

Once Thomas’s team pitched a fit they gave Thomas first place.

While many of us want an Olympics no matter the cost I think after this we can all agree: No Olympics is better than a bad Olympics.

Today when a criminal dies before seeing justice we do not put the corpse on trial for it’s crimes and we lay the corpse to rest. There might be murmurings about how the criminal unfortunately escaped justice however WE DO NOT PUT THE CORPSE ON TRIAL.

The Cadaver Synod is an infamous and strange trial. Pope Formosus had been made Pope for political reasons but the reasons for his post death trial had nothing to do with this. The accusations that were brought against his corpse were of perjury and of serving as a bishop while actually a layman. The only crime they found him guilty of were perjury and ruling over more than bishop areas at the same time. The real reason for the trail was he had angered the family that had made the current Pope, Pope Stephen VI, win the Papacy and before they could get revenge Formosus passed. However Formosus had been dead for 9 months.

Now any normal person would give up cause he’s… you know… dead. Nope Pope Stephen VI dug up his processor up and put him on trail. It is said that Stephen VI would work himself up into passionate fits of rage and mock the corpse’s silence. He had a teenage Deacon in charge of answering for the corpse, which seems rather stressful.

In the end Formosus was found guilty, to no one’s surprise and all the Papal clothes were removed from his body, three fingers were cut off, then he was buried, only for Stephen VI to order him dug up again and thrown in a river, then fished out and reburied. Stephen VI  was later strangled to death by a mob. Nothing about this trail seems completely sane and is completely bonkers.

In the century leading up to the French revolution we are told all about the little warning signs that lead up to the revolution. Louis the Sun King is someone that many people in America vaguely know of. We know about how he built Versailles which was later played apart in the French Revolution but are not told about how in the mists of Europe’s religious fervor for a moment a safe place for LGBTQ people was created under his reign. While he didn’t do it on purpose his strange competition with the church created a safe space for these people and created a very strange person: Julie d’Aubigny.

Julie was born in Versailles to a high ranking servant. Her father had been a great swordsman in youth and taught Julie the basics. When she 14 she was married to the master of the stables but soon ran off with her lover, a fencing master. She dressed in men’s clothes while traveling she also master swordsmanship while on the road. She then fell in love with a daughter of a merchant. The merchant’s daughter sent her to a convent. Julie then went to the convent and also joined. Then one evening she took a body of another dead nun, hid it in her lover’s room and lit a fire. Everyone thought the daughter of the merchant was dead and the two escaped into the country side. Once the daughter of the merchant became tried of Julie she went home. The parents then immediately took their case to court. However Julie was pardon by the king himself and was given a position at the Paris Opera, which was like Broadway at the time, where she quickly rose to be a fan favorite. She had many lovers of both genders and never hid her bisexuality.

One evening Julie went to attend a party at the palace. She dressed in men’s clothes and danced with a lady at the event who several men were courting. Things went too far when she kissed the lady and she was challenged to sword duel by three different men. She then, one at a time, defeated each of the men who challenged her. She then went back to the party. However, shortly after she then had to flee as dueling was illegal in France. She fled to Brussels where she had an affair with a German Prince before returning after a year. She then fell in love with another woman, Madame La Marquis De Florensac. When that she died Julie fell into a deep depression, quit the Opera, and joined a convent for real where she later died.

This safe space for queer people was created due to Louis’s power struggle with the Catholic church. In the effort to get more power he sponsored painters, writers, architects, and other craftsman who didn’t like the church. These people would create Anti church and pro Louis works to boost his Rep. To make things more complicated Louis brother, Philipp I, Duke of Orleans liked to cross dress as a woman and took male lovers. So if Louis started being tough on Queer people his brother would be the first to suffer. Julie d’Aubigny was one of those people who is an interesting footnote in history and she proves how far you could push this protection.

International Relations may not be seen as something that many people think is incredibly important, however almost everything we see in the news today is about international relations. From a trade war with China, what countries are banning non vaccinated people, to the Taliban taking over Afghanistan. Most of what the news picks up on are explosive events that capture your attention and make everyone quiver in their shoes at the threat of war. Many people would see these as something the age of the smart phone and instant communication has brought on. However this is not the case and international incidents have been going as far back as there has been nations. So since I love history I might as well share a few of them with you.

One international incident that almost changed American history is the Trent Affair. During the Civil war two envoys from the Confederacy, James Murray Mason and John Slidell, who hoped to make it to Europe and plead for military and monetary aid from France and England against the United States. They entered a British ship for journey and it was stopped by the United States as they knew the two were on board. Britain claimed the US had illegally stopped the vessel and demanded an apology and the release of the envoys or they would declare war. The south hoped that this would lead to the British government recognizing them as an official country and independent nation. The United States released the envoys after a few weeks but did not issue and official public apology, however no further actions were taken by the British.

One modern incident that happened earlier this year was Ryanair Flight 4978. In May while in Belarussian airspace the plane was grounded under the excuse there was a bomb threat. The government later denied that they had done this and said the plane had asked to land in Belarus. Upon landing journalist Roman Protasevich was arrested by the Belarussian police as he was on the Belarussian wanted list for organizing riots. There is no legitimate evidence that Protasevich had a hand in these riots as Protasevich knew if he did he would be arrested by the corrupt Belarussian government who notoriously censors anti government and anti corruption movements. In response to this the European Union has condemned the Belarussian Government and put a halt on all European air traffic flying in or over Belarus.

International incidents make up a bulk of our history. Most modern wars were started and justified using international incidents. While we learn about wars and battles in our history classes and through talking with others it is always important to read the prolog of international incidents and understand why that war happened.

Sources:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-24/plane-carrying-opposition-figure-diverted-to-belarus/100159524

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/trent-affair#:~:text=On%20November%208%2C%201861%2C%20Charles,Britain%20during%20the%20Civil%20War.

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